Welsh Genealogy and More: New Genealogy Records Online

A new Welsh genealogy resource has been launched by the National Library of Wales! Other new genealogy records online: Canadian military bounty applications, English and Scottish newspapers, Peru civil registration, Swiss census, a WWI online exhibit, Massachusetts probate records, and Minnesota Methodist records.

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Featured: Welsh Genealogy

Article hosted at Welsh Journals Online. Click to view.

The National Library of Wales has launched Welsh Journals Online, a new website with its largest online research resource to date. It contains over 1.2 million digitized pages of over 450 Welsh journals. “Providing free remote access to a variety of Welsh and English language journals published between 1735 and 2007, the website allows users to search the content as well as browse through titles and editions,” states an article at Business News Wales. “The website also enables users to browse by year and decades and provides a link to the catalog entry for each journal.”

The collection is described as containing the nation’s “intellectual history,” valuable whether you want to learn about attitudes of the day, find old recipes, or explore popular products and fashions. According to the above article, “Welsh Journals Online is a sister-site to Welsh Newspapers Online, which was launched in 2013 and which last year received almost half a million visits.”

Canada military bounty applications

A new database at Ancestry.com contains the names of Canadian militiamen who served between 1866-71 against the Irish nationalist raids of the Fenian Brotherhood and survived long enough to apply for bounty rewards beginning in 1912. Raids took place in New Brunswick, Ontario, the Quebec border, and Manitoba; members of the Canadian Militia in Ontario, Quebec and even Nova Scotia were called up in defense. The database includes both successful and disallowed applications and some pension-related records for those who were killed or disabled while on active duty.

England newspapers

The British Newspaper Archive recently celebrated putting its 20 millionth newspaper page online! They’re running a flash sale: 20% off 1-month subscriptions until 6/20/17 with promocode BNAJUN20. New content there includes historical news coverage of:

Findmypast also recently announced 11 brand new titles and over 1.3 million new articles in its collection of historical British newspapers. New titles now available to search include Dudley Herald, Warrington Guardian, Willesden Chronicle, Goole Times, Weston Mercury, Annandale Observer and Advertiser, Bridgnorth Journal and South Shropshire Advertiser, Pateley Bridge & Nidderdale Herald, Fraserburgh Herald and Northern Counties’ Advertiser, Isle of Wight County Press and South of England Reporter, and Eastern Morning News.

Peru civil registration

Over a million indexed names have been added to FamilySearch’s existing collection of Peruvian civil registration records, which span over a century (1874-1996). According to the collection descriptions, these records include “births, marriages, deaths, indexes and other records created by civil registration offices in the department of Lima, Peru.”

Scotland newspapers

The British Newspaper Archive has added more newspaper coverage from Arbroath, Angus in eastern Scotland. Issues from 1873-1875 from the Montrose, Arbroath and Brechin Review have been added, bringing the total coverage to 1849-1919.

Swiss census records

A new collection of indexed images of the 1880 census for Fribourg, Switzerland is now searchable at the free FamilySearch.org website. According to the collection description, “Each entry includes name, birthplace, year of birth, gender, marital status, religion, occupation.”

This 1880 census entry image courtesy of the FamilySearch wiki. Click to view.

U.S.: WWI Online Exhibit

The Veterans History Project has launched a web exhibit complementing the Library of Congress’s exhibition “Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I. ” The three-part web exhibit will help tell the larger story of the war from the perspective of those who served in it,” states an announcement. “The first part is now available at loc.gov/vets/.  Part II and Part III will be available in July and September 2017.”

The Veterans History Project has on file nearly 400 personal narratives from World War I veterans. Watch some of these narratives in the video below.

U.S.: Massachusetts probate records

The New England Historic Genealogical Society has added a new database: Berkshire County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1791-1900. “Drawn from digital images and an index contributed to NEHGS by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives, this database makes available 21,143 Berkshire County probate cases filed between 1761 and 1900.” Watch this short video for tips on navigating this collection:

U.S.: Minnesota Methodists

The cover of an original Methodist membership register from the Minnesota conference archive. Registers often include members’ names, family relationship clues, baptisms, marriages and more.

Now it’s easier to locate records relating to your Methodist ancestors in Minnesota. The archive of the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church now has an online catalog of its holdings. The catalog contains about 700 items, according to a Conference press release, and continues to be updated regularly.

A Methodist conference is a regional geographic unit of government, similar to but often larger than Catholic dioceses. Each conference has an archive, to which congregations may send their original records. The online catalog has collections of photographs, archival material such as records of closed churches, and library material such as books about Methodism in Minnesota. Currently the catalog shows 42 collections of original church records, which are often the most useful for genealogists.

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We Dig These Gems: New Genealogy Records Online

We dig these gems new genealogy records onlineEach week, we dig through new genealogy records online and post the “gems” here. Should YOU be digging through any of these for your ancestors?

ENGLAND ELECTORAL REGISTERS. Findmypast.com has posted over 74,000 electoral registers from Plymouth and West Devon, England (1780-1973). These include ancestors’ residences and sometimes even their voting history!

ENGLAND VITAL RECORDS. Baptisms, marriages and burials for Kent, England are all newly available to Findmypast.com subscribers. These contain various bits of genealogical information, from birthplaces to parents’ names, wedding dates, occupations, ages at death and burial dates.

ITALY CIVIL REGISTRATIONS. Nearly 150,000 indexed names have been added to Napoli, Italy civil registration records (1809-1865) available at FamilySearch.org.

MINNESOTA INDEXES. Free to search on Ancestry.com are two new web indexes for Minnesota: Women in Industry, 1919 and an Alien Registration Index, 1918. Data for both collections comes from the Iron Range Research Center, which you’ll find a link for, too. (Click here to read more about Ancestry Web Indexes).

NORTH CAROLINA COURT. Nearly 900,000 names indexed from Supreme Court records for North Carolina (1800-1909) are now searchable for free on FamilySearch.org. Images and indexed records are being added as they are available.

RHODE ISLAND NATURALIZATIONS.  Over 136,000 names have been added to a Rhode Island naturalization index (1906-1991) at FamilySearch.org, created from a card index file.

SOUTHERN CLAIMS COMMISSION. Ancestry.com’s database for Southern Claims Commission Allowed Claims, 1871-1880, has been updated recently. Search here for claims made by ancestors who were awarded damages for personal property losses due to the Civil War.

SWEDEN CHURCH RECORDS. More than 40,000 names have been added to a church records collection of baptisms, marriages and burials for the county of Orebro, Sweden (1613-1918) at FamilySearch.org.

thanks for sharing ancestorThank you for sharing these new genealogy records online with your friends, family and fellow society members! We love it when you help us share good news.

 

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