Thousands of brand new records and FREE newspaper pages

2-3 minute read

By Niall Cullen | August 13, 2021

With new British Army and English parish records, amazing family discoveries await this Findmypast Friday. And in case you missed it, over a million newspaper pages are now FREE to explore.

What's new this week at Findmypast? Read on for all the details.

British Army, Royal Engineers 1900-1949

We’ve completed this collection by adding over 130,000 more tracer card records. Most of them cover World War 2.

Soldiers from the Royal Engineers in Europe, 1945.

Tracer cards document a soldier's movements within and between regiments. You'll find lots of abbreviations written on the original records as you explore them. See the record set search page for an explanation of some of the most common ones.

British Army Service Records

This must-search military resource has expanded again with the arrival of over 6,000 new Chelsea Pensioners’ discharge documents.

This record from 1794 lists the soldier's name, birthplace, occupation, regiment, the reason for discharge and more. View the full record.

These discharge papers are some of the oldest records in this vast collection, helping you trace your military ancestor's life and career way back to the 18th century.

Essex Parish Records

In partnership with Waltham Forest Family History Society, we’ve released over 43,000 baptism and burial records from several Essex churches.

The new arrivals consist of baptism records from:

Leytonstone, Holy Trinity, 1825-1907
Waltham Abbey, Waltham Abbey & Leyton Wesleyan Circuit, 1803-1837
Walthamstow, Marsh Street Congregational Church, 1787-1837
Walthamstow, St Peter-in-the-Forest, 1844-1916

And burial records from:

Chingford, St Peter & St Paul, 1813-1963
High Beach, Holy Innocents, 1884-1985
Leyton, St Mary the Virgin, 1813-1984
Leytonstone, St John the Baptist, 1834-1979
Waltham Abbey, Paradise Row Baptist Churchyard, 1825-1857
Waltham Abbey, Waltham Holy Cross, 1813-1878
Walthamstow, St Mary, 1813-1979
Walthamstow, St Peter-in-the-Forest, 1845-1949

Baptism and burial records are essential for taking your family tree back further. Discover your Essex connections in these newest additions.

Newspapers

13 new papers have joined our archives including:

Athletic Chat covering 1900-1901, 1903 and 1905-1909
Berthold’s Political Handkerchief covering 1831
Boxing World and Mirror of Life covering 1894-1904 and 1907-1924
Brief covering 1877-1878 and 1880-1882
British Mercury or Wednesday Evening Post covering 1806-1812, 1814, 1818-1821 and 1823-1825
Cape and Natal News covering 1858-1870 and 1879
Fonetic Nuz covering 1849
Golf covering 1891, 1894-1895, 1897 and 1899
Labour Pioneer (Cardiff) covering 1900
Pilot (London) covering 1808-1813
Representative covering 1826
Weekly Times (London) covering 1832
Whitehall Evening Post covering 1801

Plus, we’ve added more pages to these 22 publications:

Cavan Weekly News and General Advertiser from 1893
Constittion (London) from 1820-1823
Crewe Chronicle from 1888
Croydon Observer from 1863
Dundalk Herald from 1882
Hampshire Advertiser from 1923-1934
Instructor and Select Weekly Advertiser from 1809
Kilrush Herald and Kilkee Gazette from 1900
Larne Reporter and Northern Counties Advertiser from 1873
London Moderator and National Adviser from 1814 and 1820-1823
Lowestoft Journal from 1913
Manchester Daily Examiner & Times from 1872
Northern Weekly Gazette from 1911 and 1917
Pontefract Advertiser from 1874 and 1897
Saffron Walden Weekly News from 1890 and 1990-1992
Sleaford Gazette from 1888
Sligo Chronicle from 1856
Standard of Freedom from 1848-1849
Tailor & Cutter from 1889 and 1911
Weekly Free Press and Aberdeen Herald from 1891
Wisbech Chronicle, General Advertiser and Lynn News from 1888
Wooler’s British Gazette from 1820-1823

Over one million FREE newspaper pages

In case you missed the big announcement earlier this week, in partnership with the British Library, we've made over a million newspaper pages completely free to search and view.

Findmypast Fridays live

As we strive to help everyone find their family's story, millions of more free newspaper pages are set to be released over the coming years. Have you explored our free archives yet? Tag @findmypast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to share your discoveries.