Woohoo! National Archives now free to download!

[TressiliansStone]

Calling all history buffs!

The National Archives have made their digitised content free to download during lockdown!

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/digital-downloads/

Erm, tap me on the shoulder when lockdown's lifted, won't you? I'll be glued to my screen and might not notice...

Really? That's fantastic! Thanks OP.

Wow!! Thanks OP!

oh wow I hadn't seen that - that's fantastic!

I've got through 10 of my month's 50-download allowance already!

Could do with a break, though. One particular early C19th clerk in the probate office had... idiosyncratic handwriting. My eyeballs are turning inside out, and more than one will is in his hand.

Bump for anyone who still has a life and is looking for ways to waste it...

Interesting! Thanks OP

Can we use this to do family tree research?

Very, very useful supplement for family tree research, Soontobe60. You'll need to already have basic info ie names and rough dates of who you're looking for, though.

Military, nursing and other records from the wars are obviously useful. It's also interesting to just plug names in and pull the slot machine lever and see what drops out! You might get your relative popping up in contexts you'd never dreamed of!

Oooh thanks OP I'll share to my family.

So if I was wanting to have a nosey at my family tree, I can use this along with ancestry? I've often thought about it, but never got round to it.

Brilliant, thank you

Thanks op.

Are there any ww2 records on there,? I can't see any.

Thank you!

Collections covering WW2 here:

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/?research-category=online&sub-category%5B%5D=second-world-war-research

The downside is that any of the collections which Kew made available through commercial genealogy sites aren't free. You have to pay your shilling to the commercial site (which is FindMyPast for a lot of WW2 collections).

Omg fantastic , I love stuff like this
Thank you op

Wonderful! Thanks OP

Brilliant! Thanks OP – kettle's on and I'm deciding where to start first.

My grandad was in the army in ww2 . I’ve put his name in the search box but no records found, is it not always able to find stuff?

Wow, thanks for this - there are a few archives I’ve been desperately trying to look at but, y’know, poor!

A lot of WW2 personnel files haven't been released yet, I think. This is the list of collections pertaining to WW2 which you can access.

British Army casualty lists 1939-1945
Durham Home Guard 1939-1945
Looted art 1939-1961
Merchant seamen’s campaign medal records 1939-1945
Merchant shipping movement cards 1939-1945
Prisoners of war: selected records 1715-1945
Recommendations for military honours and awards 1935-1990
Royal Air Force airmen service records 1912-1939
Royal Air Force combat reports 1939-1945
Royal Air Force operations record books 1911-1963
Royal Naval Reserve personnel
Royal Naval Reserve service records 1860-1955
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve service records 1903-1922
Sir Anthony Eden’s private office papers 1935-1946
Victoria Cross registers 1856-1944
Women’s Royal Naval Service personnel

Trying to decipher a 1850 will in close italic handwriting, it seems it was also contested twice!

Yes, RunningNinja79, it will be helpful to have a subscription like Ancestry or FindMyPast running alongside.

The census and Birth/Marriage/Death records are the really important ones for getting the structure of your family tree going. These National Archive records are more likely to put flesh on the bones, or perhaps point you towards a location you hadn't suspected, eg India.

it says "Wills from the jurisdiction of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury"

What's the significance of that? Can i not get wills in general?

can I find military records for my grandfather? I know his place and date of birth, but he had a very common name (not quite "John Brown" but nearly) and I have no knowledge of his service.

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/wills-1384-1858/

These records are Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) wills in series PROB 11 made between 1384 and 12 January 1858.

These PCC wills are all registered copy wills. They are the copies of the original probates written into volumes by clerks at the church courts.

Until 12 January 1858 all wills had to be proved by the church and other courts. The PCC was the most important of these courts dealing with relatively wealthy individuals living mainly in the south of England and most of Wales....

The Prerogative Court of Canterbury covered the south of England and Wales. The Prerogative Court of York covered York, Durham, Northumberland, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Lancashire, Cheshire, Nottinghamshire and the Isle of Man.