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Showing posts with label Free Downloads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Downloads. Show all posts

May 11, 2020

Don't Miss Free Downloads on UK National Archives

I've been enjoying searching Discovery on the UK National Archives and enjoying the free downloads. In case you missed the announcement, while KEW is closed, signed in users can download digitized records for free.

Registered users will be able to order and download up to ten items at a time, to a maximum of 50 items over 30 days. Normally these records must be purchased so this is a wonderful thing that the Archives is doing!

So far I have found 18 wills of ancestors and have happily downloaded them all. Of course I still have to try to transcribe them but since it looks like lockdown in Ontario Canada will be going on for some time, I have the time.

I've made a list of what I have found so that I don't get confused. My mother's lines go back in Kent UK for hundreds of years so I have many ancestors to hunt for. There are more than wills available for download such as:
  • First and Second World War records, including medal index cards
  • Military records, including unit war diaries
  • Royal and Merchant Navy records, including Royal Marine service records
  • Wills from the jurisdiction of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury
  • Migration records, including aliens’ registration cards and naturalisation case papers
  • 20th century Cabinet Papers and Security Service files
  • Domesday Book
My focus has been exclusively on wills such as the ones I already found for:

1657 George Longe
1752 Roger Hooper
1816 Philip Hubbard (see my book The Hubbard Family of Kent England )
1619 John Person/Peerson
1534 Richard Best
1666 Dorothy Ferrall
1659 John Virill aka Ferrall
1593 Richard Saxby
1778 Jane Hooper
1799 Isaac Hubbard (see my book The Hubbard Family of Kent England )
1733 William Laming (See my book The Laming Family of Kent England)
1810 William Laming (See my book The Laming Family of Kent England)

plus three for my youngest son's father's ancestors in Yorkshire, two for my daughter-in-law's ancestors in Norfolk and one for my husband's ancestor in Cornwall.

I have my work cut out for me! If you have English ancestors, you may want to jump over to The National Archives UK and have some fun.

December 4, 2013

Haag Kline Company Ledger Book, Bernville Berks County Pennsylvania

Ancestors At Rest and Olive Tree Genealogy have begun a new project to digitize unique one-of-a-kind ledger books which we own. As we digitize them we will bring them online as PDF files which can be downloaded. Each set of books will be published on the Ancestors At Rest website and announced here on the Olive Tree Genealogy blog. 

The ledger books encompass many locations with North America so you should watch this space to see if one of your ancestral places appears. We have court record books, meeting minutes, store ledgers, school roster books and much much more. The years range from the late 1790s to the mid 1900s.

Below is the first set of ledger books and an example of the type of detail you might find within. The ledger starts in November 1867 and ends in March 1877 and has over 1000 names.
1870 page from the Haag Kline Company Ledger book in Bernville, Berks County, Pennsylvania. Lists account balances due from individuals
Brian has a write up about the Company at http://www.ancestorsatrest.com/genealogy_lookups/bernville_berks_county_pennsylvania_haag_ledger.shtml but to download the full book you must use the pdf file links above.  I will eventually put the pdf files on his site.

July 16, 2013

Free Download Episode 1, Season 4 of Who Do You Think You Are

Lineup of Celebs on Who Do You Think You Are New Season July 23rd
Good news! The new season of Who Do You Think You Are starts on July 23, 2013 on The Learning Channel.

 Ancestry.com has partnered with TLC to bring us the following celebrities


Christina Applegate
Kelly Clarkson
Cindy Crawford
Zooey Deschanel
Chelsea Handler
Chris O’Donnell
Jim Parsons
Trisha Yearwood

Episode 1 with Kelly Clarkson is available for download FREE on iTunes. I watched it yesterday and it's very compelling. Kelly searches for details on her Civil War ancestor Isiah Rose. What she finds moves her to tears.