Featured this week is a fantastic resource for anyone searching for Dutch ancestors! Open Archives recently celebrated reaching 200 million historical person entries and collaborates with dozens of libraries and genealogical societies to make them all available online in one place. Also featured this week is the Ireland 1911 Census, online access to the New York Death Index, and major new additions to records for Hampshire, England.
Featured: Dutch Records at OpenArchives
Recently, we received an email from a Genealogy Gems Podcast listener about a huge milestone achieved by the Open Archives website. This free site is home to the largest collection of references to persons in Dutch historical records, and they just reached 200 million historical person entries! If you are researching your ancestors in the Netherlands, this is a one-stop-shop to access the records you need, since Open Archives currently offers data from 86 organizations.
From the press release: “…dive into records of the civil registry, baptism, marriage and burial registers, notarial deeds, militia registers and personnel administrations. Prayer cards, family messages and funeral cards are also very useful for genealogical research. Archive institutions and also local history and genealogical societies manage these sources, which are increasingly being made available in digital form. Open Archives has made the person entries in these sources searchable in one place.”
Ireland 1911 Census
Following the recent addition of the 1901 Census, FamilySearch has now made available the Ireland 1911 Census. This new collection is comprised of over 4 million indexed records. Search for your Irish ancestors and this collection might reveal their name, age, occupation, relationship to the head of household, marital status, education/literacy, religion, birth country, and other information. The index is free on FamilySearch and was created by the National Archives of Ireland.
New York Death Index
At MyHeritage, you can now browse 4.7 million records in the New York State Death Index, 1880-1956. You’ll find information on place and date of death, gender, age at death and the State file number. The images in this collection have been obtained through the outstanding work and efforts of Reclaim the Records. Due to the poor original documents these images are low-quality. For deaths referenced in this index copies of original death certificates can be obtained from the New York State Department of Health for a fee.
Hampshire, England Records
British genealogy giant Findmypast has over 2 million new records now available to search online, with the majority relating to Portsmouth in Hampshire, England. These unique collections come from a wide variety of resources beyond standard vital records and could shed valuable light on your ancestors’ lives.
- Hampshire, Portsmouth, Portsea Island Rate Books: Over a million pages of poor rate books from as early as 1700 through to 1921. The books recorded the amount of rates paid at each property, ownership of the property, and its location in the parishes of Portsea and Portsmouth. With each record, you will find a transcript of the vital facts and an image of the original rate poor.
- Hampshire, Portsmouth Hospital Records: Assorted hospital records and medical journals from St James Hospital between 1878 and 1918. At that time, the hospital was known as the Portsmouth Lunatic Asylum. Includes civil registers, deaths, indexes to admissions and discharges, maintenance ledgers, patient notes, registers of discharge and transfers.
- Hampshire, Portsmouth Police Staff Records, 1908-1924: The Portsmouth Police Service was formed in January 1836 and the city had its own police force until 1967. The city’s fire brigade was also a branch of the police force when it was first formed. Review this collection for years of service, birthplace, physical descriptions, photograph portraits, and more.
- Hampshire, Portsmouth Quarter Sessions Browse: Thousands of criminal records from court Quarter Sessions. The browse search allows you to search each Session register from beginning to end. As well as the accused’s age, aliases and home parish, the records will provide you with a wide variety of details relating to their offense, trail and sentencing.
- Hampshire, Portsmouth Burials: Over 129,000 additional Portsmouth parish records. The new additions cover Portsea, Highland Road and Kingston cemeteries between the years 1831 and 1902. Transcripts will reveal a combination of the deceased’s birth year, death year, age at death, burial date, burial location, denomination, occupation, residence and relatives names.
Discover your British and Irish ancestors at Findmypast
Findmypast ranks as one of the Genealogy Giants: one of the world’s biggest and best genealogy websites. It’s a must-use site for tracing your roots in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Findmypast also offers unique resources for finding your family history in the United States, Canada, and Australia. And their expansive archive of newspapers, Catholic Heritage Archive, and access to the Periodical Source Index mean that Findmypast is well worth a visit. Explore now with a free 14-day trial!
Lacey Cooke
Lacey has been working with Genealogy Gems since the company’s inception in 2007. Now, as the full-time manager of Genealogy Gems, she creates the free weekly newsletter, writes blogs, coordinates live events, and collaborates on new product development. No stranger to working with dead people, Lacey holds a degree in Forensic Anthropology, and is passionate about criminal justice and investigative techniques. She is the proud dog mom of Renly the corgi.
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