Discover electoral registers, death records and much more

3-4 minute read

By Liam Boyle | October 6, 2023

With over 12 million new additions from across Britain, there are so many fascinating stories to be uncovered.

This week's release is millions-strong - with massive additions to our electoral registers, updates to our collection of Death Duty Registers and even some new 1851 Census records, there's so much for you to explore.

What’s more, there are almost 150,000 new newspaper pages, which may just help you to dig even deeper into the stories of your ancestors.

UK Electoral Registers & Companies House Directors

This week's first and largest addition sees 12,245,106 records added to our UK Electoral Registers & Companies House Directors record set, taking the collection right up to 2023.

With these new electoral registers, the collection now contains an impressive 125,717,058 records.

As with previous years, you will find information such as the person's name, address and confirmation of whether or not they are the director of a company.

Index to Death Duty Registers 1796-1903

Another big update this week sees 1,129,583 new and improved records within the Index to Death Duty Registers 1796-1903 collection.

We have improved over a million of our existing transcriptions, with refined dates to improve your search experience, particularly for those between 1889 and 1903. With these adjustments, your ancestors will be easier to find than ever before. We've also added 63,389 brand-new records for intermittent years between 1796 and 1903, so there's no better time to get stuck into this collection.

The Index to Death Duty Registers includes individuals from England and Wales who left estates that incurred an inheritance tax. They can tell you information such as their name, date of death and address, and you may even find the name and address of the administrator.

In this collection, we can find the death of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, whose proposal for a new sewage system in Central London was responsible for ending the 'Great Stink' of London in the summer of 1858.

A cartoon depicting London's unhygienic conditions, Punch Magazine, July 1858.

A distinguished civil engineer, Joseph was knighted in 1875 for his work on the sewage system. In addition to this crowning achievement, Joseph designed bridges across the capital, including those in Battersea and Putney.

This record shows that Joseph died on the 15th of March 1891, and the grant was issued in the same year.

The death of Sir Joseph Bazalgette. See this record here.

The original image attached shows E. Bazalgette as the executor - we can guess that this is Joseph's son Edward, who was born in 1848.

1851 England, Wales & Scotland Census

This week's last update sees 4,756 new records from the Yorkshire hamlet of Yapham being added to the 1851 Census. The history of Yapham can be traced back as far as the Domesday Book of 1058, where references to 'Lapun' (an early version of the village's name) are found.

With both images and transcriptions available, you can expect to find all of the usual information from these new 1851 Census records, including names, occupations, birthplaces and more.

This update comes after an eagle-eyed community member noticed that Yapham was missing from our 1851 Census collection. With over 4.700 new records from the hamlet now available to explore, we are delighted to be able to fill in this pesky gap.

If you've got roots in the East Riding of Yorkshire, you may just be able to find a familiar name or two within the 1851 Census after this week's release...

Almost 150,000 new pages to explore

As always, the new records don't stop there. We've also expanded our newspaper collection by 141,165 pages this week, with one exciting new title and updates to eight existing newspapers.

This week's new title comes from the Suffolk port town of Felixstowe. We've made 11 years of the Felixstowe Times available for you to explore, with pages from 1925 to 1936.

Reflecting the fact that Felixstowe was a popular resort town in the 20th century, the newspaper's full title was the Felixstowe Times and Visitors’ List.

Felixstowe Times.

Interestingly, the paper tended to take a break over the winter months, when tourism died down. This means that you'll typically only find editions of this title published between April and October.

In addition to this new title, we've also updated our existing collection with over 100 years worth of stories. New pages have been added to the Derry Journal, the Manchester Evening News and more.

Here's a full rundown of all that's been added this week.

New titles:

Felixstowe Times, 1925-1936

Updated titles:

Derry Journal, 1886-1890, 1925, 1943-1949, 1956-1974, 1978-1980, 1982-1988
Galway Observer, 1912-1923, 1925-1927
Manchester Evening News, 1993
Northern Daily Telegraph, 1914
Northern Echo, 1872
Skelmersdale Reporter, 1964
South Wales Daily Post, 1990
Worcester Daily Times and Journal, 1912

Have you made a surprising family history discovery? Whatever you've uncovered about your past, we'd love to hear about it. You can now get in touch and tell us directly, using this handy form.