Federation Of Family History Societies

FindMyPast partners with FamilySearch to bring more British Historical Records to a Worldwide Audience

 

UK family history website www.findmypast.com has announced the start of a new partnership with US-based FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org).

The two family history organisations have been awarded licences by The National Archives of the United Kingdom to digitise and make available both the 'Chelsea Pensioners' retired soldiers records between 1760 and 1914, and the Merchant Seamen's collection of records dating from 1835 to 1941.

Chelsea Pensioners and militia records

The three-year digitisation project will scan eight million images from the War Office's 'Royal Hospital Chelsea Soldiers' Service' documents dating from 1760 and 'Militia Attestation Papers' documents from 1870, through to 1913.

These fascinating records truly bring to life the comings and goings of pensioners in the Royal Hospital Chelsea, including each ex-serviceman's name, age, birthplace and service history, as well as details of physical appearance, conduct sheet, previous occupation, and in some cases the reason for discharge. After 1883, details of marriages and children may also appear.

Merchant Seamen records

The partnership will also digitise the Board of Trade's merchant seamen records from the periods 1835 to 1844 and 1918 to 1941. The documents will be made available online to enable people to easily search the names, dates and places of birth of ancestors who served as merchant seamen.

Fascinatingly, many of the twentieth century records include portrait photographs of the sailors as well as personal details and summaries of the voyages they served on. The records include people of many nationalities and women's service records.

Nearly a third of UK families have ancestors who served as a merchant seaman, this series of records are of huge importance to the nation's heritage and history.

Digitisation partnership

Findmypast.com will create indexes and transcriptions to enable members of the public to easily search the records online at both www.findmypast.com and www.familysearch.org, while FamilySearch will be responsible for scanning the images on site at The National Archives.

 

Maggie Loughran
Joint Administrator, Federation of Family History Societies