Free access to FindmyPast from June 6-10

From FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk):

Find your family heroes with free access to millions of records and newspapers on Findmypast for D-Day

•    Delve into your family’s stories with free access to records and newspapers on Findmypast between 6-10 June*
•    Discover the remarkable actions of men and women at home and overseas in the largest collection of historical newspapers online
•    Explore your ancestors’ military service and the lives they lived with records you won’t find anywhere else
•    Preserve your family’s wartime stories for the next generation in a family tree on Findmypast

*Excludes 1921 Census and Tree Search

Between 6-10 June, Family history website, Findmypast, is making millions of its family history records free to access* to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, so you can uncover and honour their stories and sacrifices.

Explore your wartime ancestor’s story with the largest collection of British and Irish newspapers online, digitised in partnership with the British Library. 

Among the pages, you might find details of bravery or moving tributes to the fallen – rich details that can help you feel closer to your ancestors. You can also uncover the wider story of D-Day as it happened in the newspaper reports or look more closely at the impact of the war on your own community. Make sure to clip, save, and share articles of interest using the new Collections feature on Findmypast.

Findmypast’s family history records can paint a vivid picture of what your ancestor was doing during wartime. They may have been a prisoner of war, helped on the home front, or worked as a Red Cross volunteer. Discover their whereabouts on the eve of war in the 1939 Register and delve into the largest collection of British Army records anywhere online, including regimental records and the British in India collection, which runs right up to 1947.

Uncover those all-important life events in the most comprehensive collection of British parish records online, and check Findmypast’s vibrant Photo Collection for a glimpse into life during wartime.

Preserve your findings with Findmypast’s online family tree builder and share their legacy with family and friends.

It’s also a perfect time to explore your own family archive for letters, diaries or photographs. Keep your ancestors’ memories alive by sharing their stories with your loved ones, and share your findings online using the hashtag #FindMyFamilyHero.

Jen Baldwin, Research Specialist at Findmypast said: "80 years on from D-Day and the stories of service and sacrifice remain extremely poignant and relevant to us today. We invite everyone to discover their own family’s wartime stories with free access to Findmypast’s records this weekend and preserve them for future generations.”

*Records on Findmypast (apart from the 1921 Census of England and Wales and Tree Search) will be free to access for all signed-in users from 10am GMT Thursday 6 June, until 10am GMT Monday 10 June 2024. 

(With thanks to Madeleine Gilbert)

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Society for One-Place Studies anniversary event - All About That Place

The Society for One Place Studies (https://www.one-place-studies.org) is holding a conference to celebrate its tenth anniversary, entitled All About That Place, between September 22nd and October 1st. The following is the blurb from the site:

Announcing “All About That Place” - the One-Place Study Challenge Event taking place 22nd September to 1st October 2023

You are invited to take part in an exciting free event guaranteed to take the genealogy world by storm! Join like-minded history lovers and discover the places your ancestors lived in, all from the comfort of your own home. Perhaps you’ll even start your own One Place Study.

We’re proud to announce, “All About That Place” a unique free challenge event celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Society for One-Place Studies, spearheaded by the Society of Genealogists, the Society for One-Place Studies, Genealogy Stories, and the British Association for Local History.

We'll be throwing open the doors on a pop-up Facebook Group and our YouTube channel to provide you with a plethora of free online bite-sized recorded talks from a wide range of speakers (all of whom have kindly donated their time in order to celebrate One Place Studies). With headline sponsors including eminent organisations like The Genealogist, Name & Place, University of Strathclyde, Pharos Tutors, The Historic Towns Trust, and Family Tree magazine, you can be sure to enjoy a truly engaging educational opportunity like no other.

This one-of-a-kind event isn’t just about idly watching, it’s specially designed to help you to take part and start diving into local history. Alongside the wide collection of talks on research tools, analytical techniques, and place history, you’ll be provided with motivating challenge instructions, created to help you to begin exploring place history. You’ll be able to download a free challenge workbook to record your learning activity and challenge progress.

Plus to celebrate your amazing progress you’ll be offered the opportunity to enter a prize draw consisting of a wide range of history goodies (such as 1-year membership to the SoG, the Curious Descendants Club, BALH, Name & Place, a discount on The Genealogist’s Diamond subscription, and 4 Historic Towns maps)!

As well as our headline sponsors, we're delighted to welcome gold sponsors; WeAre.XYZ, and The Halstead Trust, and silver sponsors; National Library of Scotland and FACHRS.

The event is free, hosted over 10 days, with over 100 short talks that will be available for about a fortnight afterwards. There’s a workbook too, aimed at helping people get underway or move ahead with a one-place study.

If you wish to contribute, or simply wish to attend and participate, you will find further details at https://subscribepage.com/allaboutthatplace/ and https://www.one-place-studies.org/celebrating-the-society-for-one-place-studies-10th-anniversary/. There's also a dedicated Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/allaboutthatplace.

(With thanks to Jane Harris)

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

10th anniversary of Legislation.gov.uk

From the National Archives (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) in England, via email, news about the tenth of anniversary of the UK's legislation website at www.legislation.gov.uk, which contains copies of historic legislation from all four countries of the UK:

This week marks 10 years since we launched Legislation.gov.uk - the official home of revised and enacted UK legislation.

Legislation.gov.uk is delivered by The National Archives and is an accessible service that is vital for anyone who is interested in current or historical UK
legislations for their research.

The service has transformed access to the statute book for millions of users and we are proud to have achieved what we set out to do - to provide clearer, faster and easier access to legislations.

Legislations from as early as 1267 for the UK and 1953 for those from the EU can be discovered at Legislation.gov.uk, while our research guides can help you understand how to make use of the service for your research.

To mark its 10th anniversary, the Head of Legislation Services, Matthew Bell, will discuss the challenges, achievements, and impact of this ground-breaking service on 13 August, 14:00. You can register for the event here (https://prod.flowapp.com/s/BvBKxYn0X2).

TNA's original newsletter can be read at https://trim.ee/Z1IPm.

For Scotland, the relevant section of the website is https://www.legislation.gov.uk/browse/scotland.

Note that for the pre-1707 period, the Records of the Parliament of Scotland site at www.rps.ac.uk is also well worth a look.

For Northern Ireland visit https://www.legislation.gov.uk/browse/ni - this also includes some acts from the Old Irish Parliament from 1495-1800.

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course starts August 31st - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is now out, also available are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.