Embargoed until 0.01am British Summer Time on Friday 11 July 2008
FINDMYPAST.COM LAUNCHES ONLINE PARISH RECORDS COLLECTION
Online access to millions of nationwide parish baptism, marriage and burial records pre-dating the civil registration of birth, marriage and deaths
UK family history website findmypast.com today announced it is adding the parish records from over 1,000 parishes across Britain to its existing collection of online family history records, offering online access to baptism, marriage and burial records dating as far back as 1538.
From today over 15 million parish burial records and memorial inscriptions will be available to view at www.findmypast.com, with a total of 7 million baptism, marriage and probate records being made available online later this year. The parish records collection brings together in one easy-to-search central place the disparate records from local parishes, which have been collated by local family history societies since 1911, coordinated by the Federation of Family History Societies.
The registers are particularly valuable sources of information for people seeking to research their family tree back further than the civil records of birth, marriage and death, which began in 1837, and the nineteenth century censuses.
Complementing the records from the National Burial Index and the complete registration of death indexes (1837 - 2006), which are also available to view at www.findmypast.com, the parish burial registers are a valuable source of information for family historians and genealogists looking to discover details about their ancestors, such as key dates, relatives of the deceased and the place of abode.
Thanks to the cross-database search facility at findmypast.com, you will be able to search for your ancestor by surname across all the parish records on the site without needing to know where in the country they came from, helping people to delve even deeper into their ancestors' pasts.
Elaine Collins, Commercial Director at findmypast.com said: "The parish registers are a key resource for people looking to trace their family tree as far back as the early sixteenth century and will help open up new avenues of research for family historians across the country from the comfort of their own home.
"With another series of Who Do You Think You Are? due to air this year, family history is more popular than ever and the extension of historical records being made available to view online will help even more people find out more about their ancestors and family tree."
No comments:
Post a Comment