Millions of new genealogy records for Australia, the British Isles, the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Central and South America have been added to Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com, the “genealogy giants.

This week, we’ve sorted them by site, in case you’re just using one or two of them. But we do think you should know about them all! Click here for in-depth comparisons of the genealogy giants.

New genealogy records on Ancestry.com

Australia. Subscribers may search a new collection, Victoria, Australia, Asylum Records, 1853-1940. According to the description, “This collection is comprised of Asylum Records between 1853-1940 from the Public Record Office Victoria. The following information will typically be found: name of patient, age and birth place of patient, date admitted into asylum, reason they were admitted and photographs also occasionally appear.”

England. The new collection, Worcestershire, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records, 1541-1812, “is a collection of historical parish registers from Worcestershire, England…The records include baptisms/christenings, burials, marriages, tombstone inscriptions, obituaries, tax lists, wills, and other miscellaneous types of records. All of the data was converted as it was originally presented in various published registers and books.”

Another new collection, Liverpool, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1970 “contains yearly registers listing names and residences of people in Liverpool, who were eligible to vote in elections. These year-by-year registers can help place your ancestors in a particular place and possibly also reveal a bit about property they owned.”

Poland. A new index, USHMM: Poland, Jewish Holocaust Survivors Registered in Warsaw, 1945-1946, “was indexed by World Memory Project contributors from the digitized holdings of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum…This database contains more than 31,000 registration cards completed by Jewish survivors in Warsaw after the war, in order to register with the Central Committee of Polish Jews (Centralny Komitet Żydów w Polsce). While the cards themselves were compiled in Warsaw, only 15,270 individuals have Warsaw listed as their postwar residence. The original documents are held by the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland.”

New York. A new collection, New York State, Marriage Index, 1881-1967 “consists of indexes of marriages from the state of New York between the years 1881 and 1967. The collection contains only indexes to records, but the certificate number can be used to order a copy of the original certificate. Details vary, but may include names of bride or groom, marriage date, and place and certificate number.

Scotland. The new collection, Edinburgh, Scotland, Electoral Registers, 1832-1966, “contains yearly registers listing names and residences of people in Edinburgh, Scotland, who were eligible to vote in elections.” Another new collection, Fife, Scotland, School Admissions and Discharges, 1867-1916, “is a collection of School Admission and Discharges for schools in Fife, Scotland…These records are lists of children who were admitted to and discharged from schools. When education was required, children could be discharged from their schooling if they were needed to work to help support the family. The records vary by school and some are more detailed than others.”

United Kingdom. A new Ancestry.com collection, UK, Registers of Employees of the East India Company and the India Office, 1746-1939, “lists the employees, both civil and military, of the East India Company and later, the India Office. You may be able to find (where available): Name, Military Rank, Place of residence or military service, Date of death, Place of death, Date of marriage and Name of parents.”

New genealogy records on FamilySearch.org

Because there’s so much to find on FamilySearch.org (in so many different places), we recommend you consult an expert resource like the Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch by Dana McCullough.

Check out these collections—all of them free:

Australia. Over a half million indexed records have been added to the collection, Australia Cemetery Inscriptions, 1802-2005. The site describes the collection as “Cards of cemetery inscriptions from many cemeteries throughout Australia. The majority of the cemeteries are in Queensland, but there are some in New South Wales, Norfolk Island, Tasmania, and Western Australia. Some cards include information culled from local newspapers which sometimes include birth and marriage announcements.”

Austria. Nearly 200,000 digital images and nearly 300,000 indexed names have been added to Austria, Vienna Population Cards, 1850-1896. These are described as “population cards for individual residents of the city of Vienna, Austria. The cards include: name; birth date and place; marital status; old and new places of residence; and dates of arrival and departure. Frequently the names of the spouse and children are listed. Many people from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Eastern Europe passed through Vienna and may be included on these cards.”

Brazil. Nearly 100,000 indexed names have been added to Brazil, Santa Catarina, Catholic Church Records, 1714-1977. These are “baptism, marriage, and death records created by various Catholic parishes and diocese in the state of Santa Catarina. Some of these records have been indexed and are searchable as part of this collection.”

Colombia. A new collection with more than 170,000 indexed names is Colombia, Diocese of Barranquilla, Catholic Church Records, 1808-1985. These are “Catholic Church records created by parishes in the Diocese of Barranquilla, Colombia. These records include: baptisms, confirmations, marriages, marriage investigation files, deaths, and indexes. Some of these records have been indexed and are searchable as part of this collection. Additional indexed records will be published as they become available.”

El Salvador. Nearly 200,000 indexed names have been added to El Salvador Civil Registration, 1704-2001. According to the description, these records are “Births, marriages, deaths, indexes and other records created by civil registration offices in El Salvador.”

Peru. Nearly 275,000 indexed names have been added to Peru, Lima, Civil Registration, 1874-1996. These are “births, marriages, deaths, indexes and other records created by civil registration offices in the department of Lima, Peru.”

Russia. Over 180,000 record images have been published online in a new collection, Russia, Karelia Poll Tax Census (Revision Lists), 1782-1858. These are “images of family lists for the tax-paying population (about 95% of the population) conducted primarily in the years 1782, 1795, 1811, 1816, 1833-1834, 1850-1851, and 1857-1858. Some outlying years are included. Localities reflect the places that existed during the period of the Russian Empire since the records were created at that time.”

New genealogy records on Findmypast.com

England: Derbyshire Parish Records. “Brand new records covering the parishes of Alvaston, Boulton, Chellaston, Holbrook, Longford, Newton Solney and Wilne have been added to our collection of Derbyshire Parish records, including: 255,626 baptisms; 126,083 marriages; and 16,902 burials.…Parish records generally begin from 1538 after the Church of England mandated the keeping of parish registers in 1537. Baptisms, marriages and burials were all recorded in a single volume until 1774, when the law changed to require a separate marriage register and another one for banns (or proclamations of an intent to marry). Standardized forms for these registers appeared in 1812.”

US Catholic parish records

  • Illinois (Archdiocese of Chicago). Search over 411,000 baptismal registers, over 153,000 parish marriage records, over 37,000 parish burial records and over 1.9 million cemetery records (burial index cards, burial registers, daily burial logs, and registers of cemetery lot owners). The parish records span from the late 1800s up to 1925 and the cemetery records from 1864-1989. In baptismal records, discover the date and location of baptisms, the names of parents and family residence. Marriage records include “the couple’s marriage date, marriage location, the names of their parents and the names of any witnesses.” All have both transcripts and images of original records. The Archdiocese of Chicago was first established in 1843 and serves the Catholic population of Cook and Lake Counties in northeastern Illinois.
  • Maryland (Archdiocese of Baltimore). Subscribers may now browse “over 54,000 individual baptism, marriage, burial, communion, and confirmation registers from the Archdiocese of Baltimore in their entirety. The registers span the years from 1782 to 1918 and can provide a variety of important biographical details about your ancestor.” Click here to start browsing!
  • New York (Archdiocese of NY). “Search brand new indexes of Sacramental Registers, released in partnership with the Archdiocese of New York, of both baptisms and marriages “covering the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island in New York City, as well as the Counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester. The records date back to 1785, span more than 130 years of the region’s history and come from more than 230 parishes across the Archdiocese.

New genealogy records on MyHeritage.com

Get the most out of MyHeritage.com, a genealogy giant with a global user base and free family websites! Check out our essential (yet inexpensive) MyHeritage.com Quick Reference Guide, available in the Genealogy Gems store.

England & Wales: 1939 Register. This huge addition was announced during RootsTech 2018 last week. According to a press release, “Prepared on the eve of World War II, with 33 million searchable records, the 1939 Register is the most complete census-like collection for the population of England and Wales between 1911 and 1951….For each household member, the 1939 Register records name, gender, address, birth date, marital status, place of residence, and occupation….The 1939 Register collection is not exclusive, but other than MyHeritage, it is currently available on only one other website [Findmypast.com]. The initial collection on MyHeritage includes an index, without images.”

Canada: Canadian Obituaries, 1997-2017 is a new collection of “2 million records, documenting obituaries and memorials from the 10 Canadian provinces, spanning mostly 1997-2017. It includes the name of the deceased, the date of death, the publication source including locality information, and the text of the obituary or memorial — in English or French depending on the source. When available, a photograph of the deceased is also included.”

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About the Author: Sunny Morton

About the Author: Sunny Morton

Sunny is a Contributing Editor at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems; her voice is often heard on the Genealogy Gems Podcast and Premium Podcasts. She’s  known for her expertise on the world’s biggest family history websites (she’s the author of Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites); writing personal and family histories (she also wrote Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy); and sharing her favorite reads for the Genealogy Gems Book Club.

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