Latest news

Taken from FindMyPast – Together with The National Archives, Findmypast is excited to present its Prisoners of War 1715-1945 collection. The size and the scope of these records make them a fascinating resource for genealogists. The records not only include military personnel, but also civilians, diplomats, missionaries and merchant seamen. Many of the Prisoners of War records only recorded last names and not all would have included regiments or ranks. Use the keyword search to search the records by Nationality (American, French, Russian etc), Birth place (Baltimore, Sussex, Cherbourg etc) or the names of vessels.

For the first time online, relatives and historians can search through the records of some of the most infamous POW camps of World War II. Included in this most recent collection, which spans 1939-1945, are the records for Stalag Luft III, the Nazi camp renowned for the mass escape by British and Commonwealth prisoners that inspired the film The Great Escape, and the Far East Prisoner of War camps immortalised in films such as The Railway Man.

These detailed accounts contain the names, ranks and locations of Prisoners of War, along with the length of time spent in camps, the number of survivors, details of escapees and the nationalities of prisoners. Britons represent the largest number in the collection, followed by Dutch, Americans and Australians. In addition to this type of data, the collection comprises 360,000 images, including pages from personal diaries and photographs. Many official World War II records remain classified, making this an invaluable resource enabling members of the public to research the histories of relatives and those held captive during the war.

Web site address is: http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-Records/prisoners-of-war-1715-1945

ScotlandsPeople have just announced:

We’re delighted to announce that the Valuation Rolls for 1925 have just been added to the ScotlandsPeople website.

The new records, which are FREE to search, comprise 2,103,648 indexed names and 76,512 digital images. The Rolls cover every kind of property in Scotland that was assessed in 1925 as having a rateable value, and provide a fascinating snapshot of Scotland in the aftermath of the First World War.

Web site address is: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

[Thanks to Brian Pears on Northumbria list for this].

If you had an ancestor or relative killed in WW1 who had been a student at Armstrong College, you may find him listed in this project.

Tucked away at the entrance to the Armstrong Building at Newcastle University is a war memorial recording the names of 223 men from the former Armstrong College who died in WW1. University library staff, students, local schools and others have been researching these men to produce the Armstrong WW1 Memorial Digital Memory Book.

Web site address is: http://memorial.ncl.ac.uk/

[Note that the North East War Memorials Project has a comprehensive coverage of war memorials in the north-east, and the plaque for Armstrong College is included at http://www.newmp.org.uk/detail.php?contentId=8245.]

[Thanks to Paul Hockie on Northumbria list for this].

Not sure who may have seen this. I believe it may be sponsored by the EU with a view to having a single point of access to all EU based archives. The current selection is a bit hit and miss – the UK local authority archives all begin with “W” – but someone may be lucky.

Web site address is: http://www.archivesportaleurope.net/home

Their home page reports: “You can search in 48,857,529 descriptive units linked to more than 141,000,000 digital objects from 422 institutions.”

[Thanks to Dave King on Northumbria list for this].

Anyone researching in the 1500s may be interested to know that images of the 1569 Muster of the County of Durham, which are held in the State Papers, can now be found online starting from http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT7/SP12/SP12_51/SP12_51_14_f127.htm

Note that names within Easington, Chester, and Stockton wards are organised initially according to the type of armour & weapons, and then by location, so that if looking for a particular place, expect it to occur several times across several pages. All other wards and lordships are broken down by place initially, and then by armour/weapons.

1559 muster of Newcastle, although in this case it is a summary, and does not list names. On three pages: first page, second page, third page

ScotlandsPeople have just announced that 31,000 Soldiers’ Wills have been added to their website. 26,000 of these wills were made by ordinary Scottish soldiers who died in the Great War, and there are almost 5,000 from Scots soldiers serving in all theatres during the Second World War – there are also several hundred from the Boer War and Korean War, and others from conflicts between 1857 and 1964.

Web site address is: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

The Land Registry has just released digital images of property registered under the 1862 Acts. Very few properties registered but may be of use to some members. Free of charge!

Web site address is: http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/market-trend-data/digitalarchives