We’re not quite at the end of the month, yet July has been a has been a BIG, BIG month for new genealogy records online, particularly with the big players in the field.  Military records, Wills, Business records, Convicts, Civil Registrations, Parish Registers, Directories, and Cemetery records … it’s all here.

So here’s a rundown of the new records that have just been added …

Ancestry.co.uk
– London Wills and Probate 1525-1858
The beginning of July saw the release of Ancestry UKs London Wills and Probate collection. As we all know wills are truly personal documents, often written by your ancestor’s own hand, and they can provide a real insight into how they lived, telling you how much money they had, what sort of possessions they owned and even which of their relatives they preferred.

Before 1858, the place where a will was proved depended not on where someone lived, but on where they owned property. As you can imagine, plenty of people lived outside London but had second houses, business premises or simply land in the city. You may well find these people’s probate records in this new collection. [PHOTO]
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1704

 – British Postal Service Appointment Books, 1737-1969
An unusual source of information, but still very important, are the British Post Office appointment books, which contains about 1.5 million names on 39,864 images, in the indexes to the Postmaster General’s minute books. They show Name, Date of appointment, and Location, which includes when they started a new position within the Post Office. Some records contain the job the worker was appointed to. The books were kept from 1831 until 1969, when they stopped being kept because of legislation and human resource procedures.
http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1933

Ancestry.com.au
– Australian Immigration Collection 1788-1923
Earlier this month Ancestry.com.au announced the launch their new Australian Immigration Collection 1788-1923, which claims to be the largest online collection of historic Australian immigration records in existence. This collection documents the names and journeys of more than 14.5 million people who travelled to Australia between 1788 and 1923 in search of a new life.
http://www.ancestry.com.au/immigration

 – New South Wales, Australia, Wives and Children of Irish Convicts, 1825-1840
This index contains lists of wives and children of convicts transported to New South Wales who, at their husband’s or father’s request, were brought to New South Wales at the government’s expense to join their spouse or parent. The index also includes female convicts whose children were transported with them. This index was compiled from musters and other New South Wales records. This index gives you the name of convict, spouse or child; the ship name; the departure year of the ship; and any remarks (which can these can include place information or even birth dates). The index includes names of some individuals who refused the request to be transported to New South Wales.
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=2377

Deceased Online
The burial and cremation records for Edinburgh, Scotland that are now online at Deceased Online comprises over 1 million records, and this on top of nearly a million burial records from the UK’s largest cemetery added in February this year. Deceased Online is constantly growing, and now has records for nearly 450 cemeteries and crematoria around the UK, and by early August they expect to add another 1.25 million burial and cremation records from the north of Scotland to South Devon.
www.deceasedonline.com

FamilySearch
The world’s largest FREE genealogy website, FamilySearch grows at an incredible rate. Here’s details of the new records that have been added online in July:
– Australia, Miscellaneous Genealogical Records 1776-1980 (4275 images)
– Austria, Upper Austria Seignorial Records 1537-1888 (116,182 images)
– Belgium Civil Registration 1795-1920 (328,045 records, 6,408,769 images)
– Czech Republic Church Books 1552-1935 (39,869 records, 302,046 images)
– England and Wales Census 1901 (34,138,362 records)
– England, Cheshire Bishop’s Transcripts 1538-1900 (2,180,763 records
– England, Cheshire Parish Registers 1538-2000 (4,140,534 records)
– England, Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire Parish Registers 1603-1910 (947,377 records, 332,814 images)
– France, Coutances Catholic Diocese 1802-1907 (269,828 records, 553,957 images)
– Germany, Pomerania Church Records 1544-1945 (140,256 images)
– Germany, Westfalen, Minden Citizen Lists 1574-1902 (14,707 records, 902 images)
– Italy, Civil Registration 1806-1940 (102,724 records, 3,844,256 images)
– Italy, Waldensian Evangelical Church Records (63,714 images)
– Poland, Roman Catholic Church Books 1600-1950 (1,002,155 records, 2,249,867 images)
– South Africa, Methodist Parish Registers 1822-1996 (18,726 images)
– Sweden, Södermanland Church Records, 1640-1860 (90,102 records)
– Wales, Probate Abstracts 1773-1780 (69,525 images)

Please note I am not meaning to offend any of my American friends by not including the details of the new collections from the Canada, the US and South American regions. There have been some enormous collections added online for the US and Mexico in particular in this past month. These have been well covered by fellow geneabloggers. But you can always find the full list of collections for these areas here.

Findmypast.co.uk
– Business Index Collection 1892-1987
The Business Index Collection, published by www.findmypast.co.uk and in association with the Society of Genealogists, is available online for the first time, over 100 years after the indexes were first published in print. The Business Indexes are directories of how Britain’s business landscape shaped up between the early 1890s and 1927. They contain images and details of Britain’s shopkeepers, businessmen and women, as well as captains of industry. The records also feature a short biography, detailing the entrant’s prominence in local society, their memberships of corporations and/or clubs, the hobbies or leisure activities they enjoyed, as well as charities and other institutions that they may have been involved in. This information provides a unique insight into the individual’s character, which is extremely difficult to find elsewhere in such a comprehensive form.
http://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/business-index/

 – 19th and 20th Century Military Records
FMP UK have just release four new military sets of records. These contains over half a million records covering 100 years of the militia – the forerunner of The British Territorial Army – have just been published online. Records provide unique descriptions of what your ancestors actually looked like. These are everyday workers including butchers and bakers fighting for their country. The records provide useful detail including attestation and leaving dates, achievements made in service and soldiers’ physical appearance. And, certainly in the case of the 1861 records, the records can fill in gaps left by the census. The releases are the:
1861 Worldwide Army Index
Royal Fusiliers Collection 1863-1905
Paddington Rifles 1860-1912
Surrey Recruitment Registers 1908-1933

 – More Parish Records
FMP UK added another 290,000 new parish records going back to the 1700s. These records comprise:
Suffolk 1753-1837 (50,608 marriages)
Suffolk 1812-1905 (75,258 baptisms)
Warwickshire, Rugby 1564-1837 (1,436 marriages)
Warwickshire, Handsworth Cemetery 1909–1991 (62,252 burials)
Yorkshire, Sheffield 1558-1934 (99,611 baptisms)
http://www.findmypast.co.uk/parish-records-collection-search-start.action?redef=0&event=B

Findmypast.com.au
All is quiet from FMP Australia at this stage, with no new collections added since June.

Findmypast.ie
FMP Ireland continues to grow bit-by-bit with a few more additions to their collection over the last past month.

 – Burke’s Landed Gentry of Ireland 1899
This was the first specifically Irish edition of Burke’s Landed Gentry, and is considerably more detailed on Irish families than what had appeared in previous years in the general British series. It contains about 80,000 records, which contain detailed genealogies of all the ‘landed gentry’ in Ireland.
http://www.findmypast.ie/content/burkes_landed_gentry_launch

 – Ulster Parish Registers: Derry Cathedral 1642-1703
10,000 new BMD records have been released online to help you piece together your Irish family history. The Register of Derry Cathedral includes records of the baptisms, marriages and burials for the parish of Templemore, which included Derry City, from 1642 to 1703.
http://www.findmypast.ie/content/register_of_derry_cathedral

 – Dublin Post Office Directories
Two more excellent sources of information for those researching their Irish family history have just gone live, The Post Office Annual Directory and Calendar for 1843 and 1858. The directories are extremely rare and valuable sources of information for anyone researching their Dublin ancestors. Containing 650 and 700 pages respectively, the directories list all the government, military, religious, educational, medical, legal and police establishments in the city and county.
http://www.findmypast.ie/content/post_office_annual_directory_and_calendar

HAPPY SEARCHING! 🙂