Our weekly roundup of new genealogy records online includes: the 1891 NSW Australia census;Portsmouth, England electoral registers; Frankfurt, Germany deaths; Massachusetts Revolutionary War soldiers; North Carolina probate and recent U.S. obituaries.
ENGLAND ELECTORAL REGISTERS. Findmypast continues to expand its collection of electoral registers with nearly 200k transcripts from Portsmouth, England (1835-1873).
GERMANY DEATHS. Over half a million indexed records and accompanying images are at a new, free FamilySearch collection of death records for Frankfurt, Germany (1928-1978).
MASSACHUSETTS REVOLUTIONARY WAR. A new browsable collection of “index cards to muster rolls of soldiers who served in Massachusetts regiments during the Revolutionary War, 1775-1783″ is now searchable at FamilySearch. The card file comes from the Massachusetts State Archives in Boston.
NORTH CAROLINA PROBATE. More than a half million images and 25,000 indexed records have been added to a free collection of North Carolina estate records (1663-1979) at FamilySearch.
US OBITUARIES. FamilySearch has updated its collection of recent U.S. obituaries indexed from GenealogyBank newspaper images. Nearly 15 million records have been added. The index is free to search.
Thank you for sharing these new genealogy records online with your fellow genealogy buddies and society members! You’re a gem!
Every week, we dig through new genealogy records online and post the “gems” we find here. It’s a long list this week to catch up from our holiday break: which of these records may mention your ancestors?
ALASKA VITAL RECORDS. A new FamilySearch collection includes indexed images of nearly 60,000 Alaskan birth, marriage, divorce and death records dating from 1816-1959.
AUSTRALIA CIVIL REGISTRATIONS. A new browse-only collection of Tasmanian civil registrations (1839-1938) is now online at FamilySearch.org. It includes district registers, counterfoils of marriage certificates and some church records.
BRITISH IN INDIA. Findmypast has published new record collections relating to British overseas travelers, workers and expatriates. The first includes “British people who either lived, worked or travelled in India from as early as 1664 up to 1961 with an index of births, marriages, divorces and deaths compiled by the Society of Genealogists.” There are also new collections from the India Office: births and baptisms and wills and probates.
DIGITAL BOOKS. A new FREE collection of 150,000 digitized books is searchable at MyHeritage.com. Among the titles are family, local and military histories; city and county directories; school and university yearbooks and church and congregational minutes.
ENGLAND PARISH AND ELECTORAL. Significantly-updated indexes of Kent parish registers and registers of electors (both dating to the 1500s!) are now online at FamilySearch, as Lancashire parish records to 1538 and another collection of parish registers back to 1603 that include Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire.
SOUTH AFRICA CHURCH. A new collection of Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa Records (1838-1991) from Pretoria, South Africa is now browsable at FamilySearch. Christening, marriage and membership records are among them.
WALES ELECTORAL REGISTERS. Over 1.6 million indexed names from electoral registers for Glamorgan and West Glamorgan, Wales (1839-1935) are now searchable at FamilySearch.org.
Here are this week’s fabulous list of new genealogy records online. Included are records for Australia, Great Britain, United States, and the Philippines.
AUSTRALIA – REGISTER OF INMATES.The Ballarat Benevolent Society Register of Inmates for 1860-1897 is an ongoing project by Brett Weinberg. This register is a transcription and can be viewed on the Ballarat Historical Society website. The list of inmates from the Ballarat Benevolent Asylum in Victoria, Australia are in alphabetical order. The index provides details of age, birth place, parents names, residence, arrival date in Victoria and any additional remarks.
GREAT BRITAIN – MILITARY. The British Royal Navy & Royal Marines Service and Pension Records 1704-1919 are available at Findmypast. These records include the original service and pension records of those serving in the British Royal Navy and Marines. Information may include name, discharge date, death date, next of kin, and parish.
UNITED STATES – IOWA – MILITARY. Membership records of the Department of Iowa Grand Army of the Republic are now free to search on FamilySearch.org. The records are arranged by county and then by posts within each county. The records include veteran’s name, residence, occupation, date and place of birth, date and place of death, cemetery where buried, war record, dates of enlistment and discharge, names of parents, spouse, and children (if given.)
PHILIPPINES – MANILA – CIVIL REGISTRATION.The Manila Philippines Civil Registration for 1899-1984 at FamilySearch.org includes images of births, marriages, and deaths. This collection is only partially indexed at this time and currently covers birth certificates between the years of 1900 to 1980.
Free RootsMagic guides, called Magic Guides, are easy to download and share. This is just another reason why we love and recommend RootsMagic as the go-to genealogy software.
RootsMagic 7.0 can be downloaded for $29.95 by clicking here or you can try out the free version called RootsMagic Essentials.
Free Magic Guides
RootsMagic has many wonderful features you will want to try. Don’t learn by trial and error which can be frustrating. Download these free RootsMagic guides which make it easy to utilize the program to its fullest. These free guides are called Magic Guides. Each Magic Guide covers a single RootsMagic topic and includes step-by-step instructions with illustrations and tips. The guides can also be copied and distributed (but not sold) as handouts in groups when you teach others in RootsMagic classes, making them a perfect resource for genealogy societies.
You can find a list of all the Magic Guides available by going to the RootsMagic website and clicking on Learn at the top of the screen. Then, choose Magic Guides (handouts).
From installing to importing and everything in between, Magic Guides are a helpful addition to your using RootsMagic.
How to Get Your Free RootsMagic Guides
To download a guide to your computer, click the Download button under the title you want. Some devices are already set up to open the guide in PDF format. Other devices may require you to click Save Link As. If you are required to save the link, remember to save it somewhere you will remember. I suggest saving it to your desktop where it is easily accessible.
As an example, I downloaded the Magic Guide to Create a Shareable CD. I always enjoy sharing my new findings with the family and RootsMagic makes it so easy to do. The guide to creating a shareable CD is four pages long. It offers instructions on how to burn it now or burn it later, which is really nice in case I get distracted!
Here’s What I Learned from Free RootsMagic Guides
One thing I really love about these guides are the tips. In this guide, I learned that when creating a CD, you are making an exact copy of your database. That means all your private facts and notes that you may not want to share with the entire family, will be visible. With a few quick steps, the guide walks you through how to exclude these private facts and only share what you want to. Isn’t that great!
Share this Free Resource
If you have a friend who is new to using RootsMagic, be sure to share with them how they can use the free RootsMagic guidesto enhance their experience. Share this article on Facebook or tweet about it! After all, everyone loves good news!
Finding marriage records doesn’t have to be difficult. Let us share with you some top tips for locating those hard-to-find marriage records using the FamilySearch marriage record collections this week. Other new and updated record collections include Leicestershire county family history records and Jersey Church of England parish records.
United States – Marriage Records
Harvey Hall and Edna Selby, 1886, Cameden County, Missouri. Photo courtesy of Sunny Morton.
The following states have had their marriage records updated at FamilySearch.org:
We know you know are familiar with how to use these marriage records, but maybe you have had trouble finding the marriage records you need. Here are 3 top tips you could try when searching for marriage records on FamilySearch.org:
1. Search first by the groom’s full name and then the bride’s full name, separately. In this way, if one of them is indexed incorrectly, you may be able to find their marriage record after all.
2. Search only by last name’s and location (county and/or state).
3. Search the states around your targeted state. Sometimes, it was easier to marry in a different state due to marriage laws. Like in the case of Ohio, it was common to go to Kentucky to marry because there was no time requirement between the time of the marriage license and the wedding.
Here is a quick video tutorial showing you exactly how to use these tips!
England – Jersey Church of England Marriage Records
Ancestry.com has also added records to their collection titled Jersey, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1940. The pre-civil registrations typically include the name of the bride and groom, the date of the marriage, and the parish of origin or residence of both parties. Sometimes the occupation of the groom is included or the parentage of the couple. After 1842, the registers of the parishes are all written in a standard format and record further details including the age, status, place of residence, place of birth, occupation, name of father, and father’s occupation.
United Kingdom – Leicestershire & Rutland County – Family History Records
Findmypast has just launched the first phase of a new landmark collection for five centuries of historic records for Leicestershire and Rutland counties. Over 3.5 million records dating back to the reign of Henry VII are now available online.
This new archive spans the years 1490 to 1991 and includes beautifully scanned images of original handwritten documents. When complete, the collection will be the largest online repository of Leicestershire family history records in the world.
There is a variety of documents, including parish records of baptisms, marriages, burials, wills, and probate records dating back to 1490. Also, millions of electoral registers spanning the years 1710 to 1974.
These records cover the ancient counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. However, as some of the collections are drawn from different jurisdictions or were subject to boundary changes, some areas now beyond today’s boundaries, such as Little Bowden and Over and Netherseal, are also included.
Some famous individuals appear in the records like:
The parents of the Elephant Man, Joseph Merrick which can be found in an 1861 marriage register from the parish of Thurmaston.
More on Finding Marriage Records
To learn even more about researching marriage records for family history, listen to Lisa’s free podcast episode titled Using Marriage Records in Family History. This episode is part of a series called Family History: Genealogy Made Easy. This specific podcast is all about marriage records and how to find and utilize them for your research.
If you have not yet taken the opportunity to engage with Genealogy Gems through our free podcast, please join us. You can find the free episodes listed here.
For further in-depth tips and techniques, subscribe as a Premium Member and enjoy the Premium Podcasts just for members! There is always something more to learn in the world of genealogy and we want to share it with you.
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!
Thank you for sharing these new genealogy records online with your fellow genealogy buddies and society members! You’re a gem!
Thank you for sharing this list with your favorite genealogy gurus! We love sharing good news about new genealogy records online.
Free RootsMagic guides, called Magic Guides, are easy to download and share. This is just another reason why we love and recommend RootsMagic as the go-to genealogy software.
To learn even more about researching marriage records for family history, listen to Lisa’s free podcast episode titled