Articles by Findmypast

Welcome to the fourth in our series of blogs about how to understand and interpret your old family photos. In this series, Jayne Shrimpton, internationally recognised dress historian, portrait specialist, photo detective and regular contributor to Family Tree, Your Family History and Family History Monthly magazines, dates and analyses different types of photographs and helps you to add context to your old family pictures.Moving on from looking at photographic formats, photographers and mount styles, we now begin to focus

Emma Jolly was overjoyed with her Findmypast discoveries. Here's her family story.My great, great grandmother, Annie Jolly (1882-1969), was London Welsh. She grew up in Stoke Newington in a family named Jones. Her father, David Jones, was a carpenter and builder in the growing northern outskirts of the late 19th-century capital. Annie's London Jones relatives centred around the Welsh enclave of Islington, where they remained long into the 20th century. During the Second World War, Annie's cousin's son, John David

Perhaps you're looking for ancestors who you know travelled to Canada but have found no trace of since? If so, there is a collection of family records that may well make your family history exploration on Findmypast a lot easier - Canadian censuses.Canadian census records are a rich resource for family history. Our collection dates from 1851 to 1931 and is similar to our UK census records. But what can they tell you?The Canadian CensusThe Lower Canada Census is the

From radar to superglue to freeze-dried coffee, we've created a top ten list of World War 2 inventions we couldn't do without in today's modern world.Did you know these items were a lasting legacy from World War 2? You'll learn more titbits like this in our history hub.1. ComputersFrom the machine this article was written on to the processing power of a smart phone, modern computing would not be what it is without the innovation of the Government Code and

Our handy address search, available across all British censuses from 1841 to 1921, is the perfect tool for discovering previous occupants of your home and for discovering their stories. It helps you to find out who was living at any particular address at the time each census was taken. Findmypast is the only family history website with this useful tool. What's more, our exclusive 1939 Register map search will reveal the property listing history of England and Wales at the outbreak of the

Else Churchill is no stranger to a parish record, having researched her own family back to the 1670s and worked extensively with 17th-century records. However, even someone with over 30 years' experience in family history can get stumped while researching that far back."Though I'd like to tell you that you can all trace your ancestors back to the beginnings of parish registers in 1538, I'm sure most of you have found that there are problems along the way," Else said.Unfortunately,

If you've got a Jones, Evans or Davies in your family tree, you'll know that rooting out Welsh ancestors is tricky, but we can help. Findmypast is home to an unrivalled collection of family records that can help you trace Welsh ancestors. Having the records to hand, however, is just part of the battle. To help you keep up with the Jones, we've put together this short guide of things to look out for when exploring your Welsh past.Welsh

In November of 1911, several members of the committee for Imperial Defence were called together and tasked with investigating the use of a new 'aeroplane' in warfare. The Royal Flying Corps was created to operate these aeroplanes, and in WW1 they were flown without parachutes, against a better-trained enemy. Many of the pilots would not come back.When going through the records of your ancestors this remembrance week, you may uncover one or two who were serving in the Royal Flying

Ronnie and Reggie Kray are two of the most infamous criminals in British history. And if ever there were proof to support the theory that habit and personality can be passed down genetically, the Krays were a near-perfect example. The Kray family had moved to the East End of London from Tower Hill in the 1800s, and once settled, each generation tended to gain notoriety in its own right, fostering associations with disorder, organised crime, body-snatching, and murder.They were

22 years ago I found a First World War group photograph with my great-grandfather in the centre (2nd row from bottom, 7th from left).He was commanding officer of 8th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment, and he is pictured surrounded by his officers in their training camp on Salisbury Plain in May 1915, not long before they headed out to the trenches in France. Spurred on by my discoveries, I resolved to find out what happened to all 46 men pictured and to trace