General Register Office for England and Wales Online Trial

The General Register Office for England and Wales (GRO) is trialling a new online system that enables researchers to access digital copies of civil registration records for the first time.
The trial, which began on Wednesday 9th November, currently allows users to order PDF versions of the following records:

• Births: 1837-1934 and 2007 onwards
• Deaths: 1837-1957 and 2007 onwards
• Marriages: 2011 onwards
• Civil partnerships: 2005 onwards 

The records – costing £6 each – will not be immediately viewable, but sent directly to the customer’s email address.  If you are using the GRO site for the first time you will need to complete their registration process.  Remember searching their online indexes is free.
This process is estimated to take around five working days and the trial will end on Wednesday 30 November, or when 45,000 PDFs have been ordered - so get in quickly and order those records you want and have put off because of the expense.

Recording Names - some hints

When recording your family history, here are a few tips you might find useful to keep things clear.
1. Enter Names Consistently
Whether you record names in your family tree as you would read them: first name, middle name, surname (last name); or surname first, then first name, middle name - be consistent. Pick one and stick to it, or you will end up confusing yourself - and anyone else who looks at your research.
2. Record Surnames in Uppercase
I always record last names using uppercase letters. It allows me, and other researchers to find certain surnames more easily. It can also aid researchers in deciphering exactly what they’re looking at: a surname, as opposed to a first name or middle name. For example Peter GREEN; Rosa May PIKE.
3. Remember to Input Maiden Names for Female Ancestors
You may well discover that some of your ancestors were recorded using married names, names of prior husbands, AND maiden names.  Make sure you include her maiden name in your records - it can help you uncover who her parents were, too. How you do so is up to you - either by recording all female relatives by their maiden names ie Rosa May PIKE, or by including their maiden name in parentheses, and then the surname of her husband ie Rosa May (Pike) GREEN.  Again, it is vital to be consistent.
4. Don’t Forget Nicknames
If your ancestor went by a nickname, always include it in your documentation. Don’t replace a given name with a nickname, however, even if your ancestor went by this name more commonly than their actual first name. Instead, include nicknames in quotes. For example,  Richard “Dick” Pike.  Remember you may have to search under both given name and nickname - just in case.
5. Add Alternate Names
Sometimes you will find family members who have totally alternate names, rather than nicknames. This commonly occurs if someone was adopted or changed their name on their own accord (maybe to escape a shady past). Again you could include the alternate name in parentheses,  adding “a.k.a” (also known as) to make things clear. For example: Edward FORREST (a.k.a. Frederick BEST).
6. Variant Spellings
You are also bound to stumble upon alternate names due to variant spellings (they can sometimes change over time due to phonetic spellings or from immigration). My mother's maiden name was PUMMEROY - and our family in Australia are the only ones who spell it this way.  Others use POMMEROY, POMEROY, POMROY - at one stage it even morphs into PUMFREY.  This is not just relevant to surnames either - you also get anglicised first names as well - Friedrich/Frederick BESELER.  One female ancestor of mine was born Suatus KRESST in Germany, married in England as Susetta KRESST and died in Australia as Susan (Kresst) BESELER - it took years to track her down!

What's new on Ancestry?

Title	Category	Records
UK, Burial and Cremation Index, 1838-2014	Birth, Marriage & Death, including Parish	1,610,623
Ireland, Royal Irish Constabulary Pensions, 1873-1925	Military	130,318
Canada, Certificates of Military Instruction, 1867-1932	Military	93,655
UK, Royal Air Force Muster Roll, 1918	Military	194,814
UK, British Jewry Roll of Honour, 1914-1918	Military	57,202
UK, Naval and Military Courts Martial Registers, 1806-1930	Military	838,431
Iowa, World War II Bonus Case Files for Beneficiaries, 1947-1959	Military	19,760
UK, British Army Lists, 1882-1962	Military	2,421,506
Orange Free State, South Africa, Estate Files, 1951-2006	Wills, Probates, Land, Tax & Criminal	218,266
UK, Military Deserters, 1812-1927	Military	302,802
Hawaii, Passenger Lists, 1843-1898	Immigration & Travel	165,630
Cape Province, South Africa, Estates Death Notice Index, 1834-1956	Birth, Marriage & Death, including Parish	316,197
Western Australia, Australia, Land Leases, Licences, Applications and Selected Images, 1821-1938	Wills, Probates, Land, Tax & Criminal	313,805
South Africa, Select Estates Death Notice Index, 1833-2008	Birth, Marriage & Death, including Parish	44,432
Transvaal Province, South Africa, Estates Death Notice Index, 1855-1976	Birth, Marriage & Death, including Parish	449,990
South Africa, Slaves and Free Blacks Records Index, 1658-1835	Census & Electoral Rolls	22,128
UK, British Army Recipients of the Military Medal, 1914-1920	Military	88,543
Dorset, England, Poor Law Apprenticeship Records, 1623-1898	Wills, Probates, Land, Tax & Criminal	2,739
Bavaria, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1556-1973 (in German)	Birth, Marriage & Death, including Parish	3,625,488
UK & Ireland, Medical Directories, 1845-1942	Schools, Directories & Church Histories	738,852
UK, The Midwives Roll, 1904-1959	Schools, Directories & Church Histories	398,334
UK, Medical and Dental Students Registers, 1882-1937	Schools, Directories & Church Histories	92,436
UK, Dentist Registers, 1879-1942	Schools, Directories & Church Histories	124,647
UK, Roll of the Indian Medical Service, 1615 -1930	Schools, Directories & Church Histories	8,443

Scotland's Places is now free to search

Big news for those with Scottish ancestors -  the Government-supported website ScotlandsPlaces has removed the subscription fee from its digital collections, meaning users now have unlimited access to millions of historical documents including the following :

Historical Tax Rolls

• Carriage Tax, 1785-1798, (20 volumes)
• Cart Tax, 1785-1798, (14 volumes)
• Clock and Watch Tax, 1797-1798, (2 volumes)
• Consolidated Schedules of Assessed Taxes, 1798-1799 (32 volumes)
• Dog Tax, 1797-1798, (2 volumes)
• Farm Horse Tax, 1797-1798, (13 volumes)
• Female Servant Tax, 1785-1792, (28 volumes)
• Hearth Tax, 1691-1695, (43 volumes)
• Horse Tax, 1785-1798, (33 volumes)
• Inhabited House Tax, 1778-1798 (64 volumes)
• Land Tax, 1645-1831, (129 volumes)
• Male Servant Tax, 1777-1798, (27 volumes)
• Poll Tax, 1694-1698, (88 volumes)
• Shop Tax, 1785-1789, (8 volumes)
• Window Tax, 1748-1798, (218 volumes)

Ordnance Survey Name Books

• Aberdeenshire, 1865-1878, (91 volumes)
• Argyll, 1868-1878, (81 volumes)
• Ayrshire, 1855-1857, (64 volumes)
• Banffshire, 1867-1869, (28 volumes)
• Berwickshire, 1856-1858, (41 volumes)
• Buteshire, 1855-1864, (7 volumes)
• Caithness, 1871-1873, (15 volumes)
• Clackmannanshire, 1861-1862, (7 volumes)
• Dumfriesshire, 1848-1858, (55 volumes)
• Dunbartonshire, 1860, (18 volumes)
• East Lothian, 1853-1854, (55 volumes)
• Fife and Kinross-shire, 1853-1855, (135 volumes) 
• Forfarshire (Angus), 1857-1861, (84 volumes)
• Inverness-shire, 1876-1878, (86 volumes)
• Kincardineshire, 1863, (20 volumes)
• Kircudbrightshire, 1848-1851, (159 volumes)
• Lanarkshire, 1858-1861, (50 volumes)
• Midlothian, 1852-1853, (135 volumes)
• Morayshire, 1868-1871, (23 volumes)
• Nairnshire, 1869, (7 volumes)
• Orkney, 1878-1880, (26 volumes)
• Peeblesshire, 1856-1858, (47 volumes)
• Perthshire, 1856-1858, (79 volumes)
• Renfrewshire, 1856-1857, (21 volumes)
• Ross and Cromarty, 1848-1852, (187 volumes)
• Roxburghshire, 1858-1860, (42 volumes)
• Selkirkshire, 1858, (15 volumes)
• Shetland, 1877-1878, (26 volumes)
• Stirlingshire, ca 1864, (27 volumes)
• Sutherland, 1871-1875, (35 volumes)
• West Lothian, 1855-1859, (69 volumes)
• Wigtownshire, 1845-1849, (88 volumes)

RCAHMS Archives

• Alexander Curle diaries, 1908-1953 (14 volumes)
• Inventories, 1909-1992 (30 volumes)

Burgh registers

• Aberdeenshire Burgh Registers, 1398-1511 (8 volumes)

Official Reports

• Medical Officer of Health Reports, 1891
• Land Ownership Commission Reports, 1872-1873

Published Gazetteers and Atlases

• Hay Shennan, County and Parish Boundaries, 1892
• An Atlas of Scottish History to 1707

Hydrographic Surveys

• Bathmetrical Surveys of Scottish Lochs, 1898-1909

PROV Website Test Available

The new PROV website is now available in test (beta) form: beta.prov.vic.gov.au. The new site has been developed to provide you with a faster search and simpler navigation, making finding what you’re looking for a lot easier.

It includes:

• topic pages for our most popular collections
• common questions for new and experienced researchers
• a photographic page listing both our digitised and non-digitised collections
• a page featuring online exhibitions about Victorian state history.

At first glance the new website is much easier to use and navigate around - I even managed to find a few new pieces of information about my family, including some coronial records and wills.  I think the developers at PROV have done a great job and put effort into understanding how the public use their site.  Well done!  Have a look and tell me what you think.