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The Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland)  – ARA –  has signed a deal, on behalf of a large number of archives and schools,  with digital publishing experts brightsolid to publish online for the first time millions of school records from England and Wales.

This will be the first project to be undertaken under the framework of the new National Digitisation Consortium, which comprises up to 120 English and Welsh archives and schools working together to offer records for digitisation.

It is the first time such a large number of bodies will work together to digitise material – in this case their pre-1914 school registers. Once the registers have been scanned and transcribed by brightsolid, they will be made available to search online at leading family history website findmypast.co.uk, which is owned by brightsolid.

The registers span the period 1870-1914 and cover every region of England and Wales. They contain details of particular interest to the family historian, including name of the school and the pupil, their date of birth, year of admission to the school and the name of a parent or guardian. Teachers are also listed and Industrial School registers are included in the collection.

Leading family history website findmypast.co.uk has made an additional 2.5 million court records available to search online in its Irish Petty Sessions Court Registers 1828-1912 record set, which exposes the petty crimes Ireland’s residents committed and how they were punished.

The additions feature 44 new courts in 19 counties around Ireland. A further 55 courts have been supplemented with records from additional years. This brings the total Petty Sessions Court Registers on findmypast.co.uk to over 12 million records.

Notable new courts that have been added are the Limerick City Children’s Court and two courts with pre-famine records – Moynalty, Co. Meath and Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. As well as that, for the first time, seven new courts from Co. Longford have been added, bringing online over a quarter of a million new records for the county. Also well represented with totally new courts are Laois (five) and Cork (four).

Being drunk in a public place, being drunk in charge of a cart, failure to pay rent and allowing livestock to wander on the road are among some of the most common misdemeanors that our ancestors found themselves in court for.  Although most defendants got away with a fine, the variety of cases heard gives a real flavour of life in Ireland at the time.

Debra Chatfield of findmypast.co.uk said “The British public has always had very close ties with the emerald isle, so this is a fantastic new resource for those looking to understand a little more about what their ancestors did before they came to Britain and maybe even in some cases why they left Ireland in the first place!”

New courts have been added to the following counties: Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Laois, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford and Westmeath.

To find out if you have ancestors who had their day in court visit www.findmypast.co.uk

Family history website findmypast.co.uk has added over 450,000 new parish baptisms, marriages and burials covering the period 1538-2009 from areas as diverse as Northumberland, Durham, Ryedale, Sheffield, Wiltshire and Suffolk to make it easier than ever to trace your ancestors further back through history and further expanding what has now become the most comprehensive collection of England and Wales parish records online. Paul Nixon, Content Licensing Manager for findmypast.co.uk commented on the new release “This is a tremendous step for those trying to uncover their UK ancestors, and a great resource for family historians with British roots worldwide”.

Full details of what this exciting record release contains are as follows:

141,525 Suffolk Baptisms 1753-1911
244,309 Wiltshire Baptisms 1538-1867
27,420 Northumberland & Durham Burials 1587-2009
22,687 Sheffield Baptisms 1837-1968
8,181 Sheffield Marriages 1824-1991
7,113 Ryedale Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1754-1999

These records are brought to you by Suffolk family history society, Wiltshire family history society, Northumberland and Durham family history society, Sheffield family history society and Ryedale family history society as a result of the ongoing partnership of findmypast.co.uk and the Federation of Family History Societies. They are available to search online now and can be viewed with PayAsYouGo credits, a Britain Full or a World subscription.

The records are available on all findmypast sites as part of a World subscription.

Leading family history website findmypast.co.uk has added new Kent baptisms, banns, marriages & burials to their parish records collection in partnership with Kent Family History Society, making it even easier to find your local ancestors. The latest release includes records from Maidstone, Sittingbourne, Ashford & Rochester in addition to 131 smaller parishes.  They cover an extensive period of history from 1538 to 2006, allowing family historians to discover and add even more generations to their family tree.

Paul Nixon, Content Licensing Manager at findmypast.co.uk commented “These new records are a fantastic resource for anyone eager to uncover their Kentish heritage. In combination with our recent addition of East Kent and Canterbury material, findmypast.co.uk is definitely the go-to place when it comes to family history in the south east.”

The new records have joined over 40 million parish records from UK family history societies available on findmypast.co.uk in an exclusive partnership with the Federation of Family History Societies that started in 2007.

Jean Skilling of Kent Family History Society added “The Kent Family History Society (www.kfhs.org.uk) is delighted to be working in partnership with findmypast.co.uk.  We hope our indices will be of help to everyone tracing their Kentish ancestry.”

The records are available to search online now as part of findmypast.co.uk’s vast collection of parish records, and can be viewed with PayAsYouGo credits, a Britain Full subscription or a World subscription.

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