Findmypast release the 1890 US census and more

The following is from FindMyPast.

Findmypast release the 1890 US census, over 31 million England and Wales marriages, over 71,000 Irish Petty Sessions Court Registers and new additions to their collection of British Newspapers

Every Friday, thousands of new records are released on our dedicated Findmypast Friday page to explore over the weekend. This week’s new additions also include over 31 million English Marriages, over 131,000 Welsh Marriages, the final instalment of our collection of Irish Petty Session Court Registers, the 1890 US census and new additions to our collection of historic British Newspapers.

In 1921, a fire destroyed nearly all of the records and materials from the US 1890 census that were stored in the basement of the Commerce Building in Washington D.C. Almost all of the original data from the 1890 census is no longer available. About 1,000 pages and fragments survived the fire. These include some records from specific counties in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas. It is these pages and fragments that make up this collection.

The 1890 census forms provided information about every individual in the house including their name, age, gender, relationship to the head of the household, occupation, marital status, place of birth, parent’s place of birth, level of literacy, number of years spent in the US and whether or not they were a civil war veteran or widow.

Over 31 million International Genealogical Index (IGI) England Marriages 1538-1973 have been added to our collection of UK Marriage records. Spanning the 435 years between 1538 and 1975, each record consists of a transcript of the original document. Each record consists of a transcript of the original document. The amount of information contained varies although the records usually list the couple’s names, place of marriage, date of marriage and the names of the groom’s parents.

Over 131,000 International Genealogical Index (IGI) Wales, Marriages 1541-1900. Each record consists of a transcript of the original document. The amount of information contained varies although the records usually list the couple’s names, place of marriage, date of marriage and the names of the groom’s parents.

Over 710,000 records have been added to complete our collection of Irish Petty Sessions Court Registers 1828-1912. Petty Sessions handled the bulk of lesser criminal and civil legal proceedings. These were presided over by Justices of the Peace, who were unpaid and often lacked any formal legal training. Justices were usually prominent landowners or gentlemen. Justice was pronounced summarily at these courts – i.e. without a jury. Petty Sessions sat daily, weekly or monthly, depending on the volume of cases, and often saw controversial judgements. Every court had a clerk, whose job it was to record the details of each case in the registers.

Now the largest collection of Irish court & prison records available anywhere online, there over 22 million records in the collection. They include details of victims, witnesses and the accused, such as address, date in court, details of the offence, details of the verdict and the sentence.

Over 800,000 new articles have been added to our collection of British Newspapers. Two new titles have also been added, the Aberdeen Weekly Journal, County Chronicle and the Surrey Herald & Weekly Advertiser for Kent.  Substantial updates to existing titles include over 112,000 additional articles from the Sheffield Independent and over 110,000 additional articles from the Western Daily Press. The full collection now stands at over 100 million articles.