Findmypast Friday November 30th

Findmypast is excited to bring you some of the earliest marriage records we hold with records from as early as 1115. Fifteen English counties are represented including London, Lancashire, Suffolk, Exeter, Lincoln, Yorkshire, and more. Marriage licenses will reveal your ancestor's intended spouse, father's name, and the intended marriage place. The collection consists of a mixture of more than 536,000 handwritten and typed record books from 1115 until 1906 provided by the College of Arms, Anguline Research Archives, and Gould Genealogy.

A marriage licence was obtained from the Church of England for a fee and with a sworn declaration that there were no legal impediments to the marriage. The licence waived the banns period necessary for a marriage to take place. Marriage licences were first introduced in the 14th century.

Scotland, Highland Free Church Birth & Baptism Index

Was your ancestor baptised in Scotland? Search this index of more than 30,000 baptism records from the Free Church of Scotland in Caithness, Cromarty-shire, Inverness-shire, Moray, Ross-shire, and Sutherland.

With each result, you will find a transcript of the vital facts that may include a combination of your ancestor's birth date, baptism date, location, parent's names, residence and occupation.

Leicestershire Registers & Records

Explore the history of Leicestershire with five fascinating publications including histories of the Belvoir Castle and the Belvoir Hunt, Parish Registers of Muston, a Pedigree of Henry Wood – Freeman of Leicester and a historical accounting of horse racing in the county.

The publications in this collection are presented as PDFs. The detail you will find in each one will differ depending on the topic. This collection includes:

Gloucestershire Registers & Records

Search for your English ancestors in this collection of historical Gloucestershire publications, including parish registers, a poor book, records of The Corporation of Gloucester, and more. Some of these records date back to the early 18th century.

This collection of Gloucestershire registers and records includes the following publications:

Britain, Directories & Almanacs

Over 400 additional images have been added to our collection of British Directories and Almanacs. The collection includes trade directories, county guides, almanacs and general directories spanning three centuries that may help you uncover your ancestor's address and occupation or explore the history of your home address.

Almanacs and directories are an excellent resource for anyone researching their family history and want to understand more about their ancestor's life. They provide topographical accounts of towns, social statistics and comprehensive guides of towns or cities, as well as full listings of gentry, business owners, trades people, civil servants, church leaders, school teachers and much more. Furthermore, you can explore the history of your home by searching the publications by address, where you may discover previous proprietors.

British & Irish Newspaper Update

This week we have added 153,688 new pages to our Archive. We have updated five of our existing titles, with additions to the Belfast Telegraph, cinema title The Bioscope, Norfolk based title the Eastern Daily Press and Welsh title the Western Mail.

We have one brand new title this week, the Sunday Tribune. The Sunday Tribune was a Dublin based newspaper, and you can now find 619 issues on the Archive, covering the years 1993 to 2002.

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