New British Railways Regional Magazines 12 June 2026
We have added a fascinating new set of British Railways regional magazines to our growing newspaper and periodical collection, giving family historians a rich new source for tracing railway ancestors and exploring everyday working life on Britain's railways.
The latest release includes more than 60 issues from British Railways regional magazines, covering the Eastern, North Eastern, Scottish, Southern, Western and London Midland regions. The titles span the late 1940s through to the early 1960s, a period of major change for Britain's rail network following nationalisation.
These publications were produced for railway staff and are rich in the small but important details that can help researchers place an ancestor within their working community. They include staff changes, appointments, transfers, promotions, retirements, long-service presentations, workplace presentations, obituaries, sporting reports, staff outings, social club news, photographs, departmental updates and stories from depots, stations and offices across the regions.
For family historians, this type of material can be especially valuable. A railway worker may appear in a retirement notice after many years of service, in a presentation report marking a move or promotion, in an obituary written by colleagues, or in a report of a cricket, football, bowls or athletics match. Others may be named in accounts of staff excursions, railway institute events, dances, charity activities or local workplace news. These mentions can add personal colour and context that may not be found in other more commonly used records such as census.
Mark Bayley, Head of Content at TheGenealogist, said: "Railway records are always popular with family historians, and these British Railways magazines add colour and context to the lives of those who worked on the railways. The staff news, retirement notices, obituaries, sports reports and social items can all help to bring a railway ancestor’s story to life. They are not just about trains and timetables. They are about people, workplaces, communities and the everyday stories of post-war Britain.
In this release is an article about the early days of the rail: "Shildon, Birthplace of the Railways. From notes by a driver of Locomotion No. I"
This new release strengthens our newspaper and periodical collection and adds further depth for those researching occupational history, local history and transport heritage. The British Railways regional magazines are available to search now on TheGenealogist.
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Historic Devon Lloyd George Domesday Survey Records Online for the First Time 15 May 2026
A remarkable snapshot of Devon life in the years before the First World War has been made available online for the first time by TheGenealogist.
The newly released Devon Lloyd George Domesday Survey opens up detailed records of homes, farms, shops, estates, inns, businesses and communities across the whole historic county. The collection includes over 352,000 people and organisations, linked to more than 2,500 square miles of historic maps.
For the first time, these Devon records can be explored online alongside detailed period mapping through TheGenealogist’s MapExplorer™. This allows users to see not only who lived or worked in a particular place, but exactly where that property stood.
The Lloyd George Domesday Survey, officially known as the 1910 Valuation Office Survey, was created after the Finance Act of 1910. It recorded land and property across England and Wales, noting owners, occupiers, property descriptions, land use and values.
More than a century later, the survey offers a vivid picture of Edwardian Devon. From Dartmoor farms and country estates to market towns, fishing villages, seaside resorts and busy urban streets, the records show the country at a moment of great social and economic change.
One of the most striking stories found in the Devon release is Hallsands, the fishing village near Start Point that was later destroyed by the sea.
The survey captures Hallsands before the devastating storm of January 1917, when high tides and easterly gales destroyed much of the old village. The records show the community as it still stood in the years before disaster struck.
Among those connected with Hallsands was Elizabeth Ann Prettejohn, remembered locally as the village’s last inhabitant. She remained in the one surviving cottage above the ruined settlement for decades, becoming a final living link with a lost Devon community.
TheGenealogist’s latest article, “Hallsands: A Village Lost to the Sea”, explores the history of the village and the story of its final resident.
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Bring Parish Records to Life with new Church Pins, Historic Images and Surname Heatmaps 30 April 2026
We've transformed the way you can explore parish records, now pinning baptisms, marriages and burials directly onto our MapExplorer™ tool.
This powerful update allows users to pinpoint the exact location of over 6,000 churches where their ancestors’ key life events took place, even when those buildings have long since disappeared.
For the first time, researchers can move beyond names and dates to uncover the precise locations behind the records, tracing ancestors to specific churches, chapels and parishes across the landscape. Whether standing, rebuilt or lost to time, these places can now be rediscovered through an intuitive, map-based experience.
Adding a rich new visual layer, we have also boosted our Image Archive with the addition of over 3,000 historic church photographs and paintings. Where available, parish records pinned on MapExplorer™ have been linked to the Image Archive, revealing what the church looked like and offering a rare opportunity to see the setting of an ancestor’s baptism, marriage or burial.
The update also introduces the ability to map search results, giving researchers a powerful new way to explore patterns in their family history. Users can visualise results as a heatmap, revealing concentrations of records across towns, villages and regions, before zooming in to explore individual entries in detail.
This is particularly valuable for surname studies and research before the census era. What may appear as scattered results in a list can quickly form clear geographical clusters when mapped, helping to uncover migration patterns, family groups and hidden connections that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Mark Bayley, Head of Online Content at TheGenealogist, said: "Family history is about more than just names on a page. With this update, you can discover exactly where your ancestors’ life events took place and, in many cases, even see the church itself. Combined with the ability to map your results and spot patterns across places and surnames, it opens up entirely new ways to understand your family’s story."
MapExplorer™ already allows users to view historical maps alongside modern mapping, helping them locate streets, villages, farms, churches and other places linked to their family tree. The addition of parish record pins, historic church imagery and mapped search results makes the tool even more powerful for uncovering the stories behind the records.
The new parish record mapping feature, heatmap visualisation and enhanced image archive are available now to TheGenealogist’s Diamond subscribers.
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New Historic Maps Added to MapExplorer 17 April 2026
We've just expanded MapExplorerTM with a valuable new layer of historic maps, covering Britain in the decades after 1945.
These newly released maps include highly detailed 1:1,250 scale maps for towns and cities, and 1:2,500 large scale maps for rural areas.
Explore the streets, houses and neighbourhoods where your ancestors lived, the businesses, schools and public buildings they used and the Field boundaries and landscape features they would have known and see how areas changed dramatically after the war.
For family historians and local historians alike, these maps offer an important way to understand how Britain was reshaped in the post-war years. From bomb damage clearance and new housing estates to road widening and town centre redevelopment, they provide fresh context for the places your ancestors lived and worked.
Used alongside census records, the 1939 Register and other sources on TheGenealogist, MapExplorerTM helps you move beyond names and dates to build a richer picture of everyday life.
We look at these new maps in our article The Great Exhibitions, where you can see how these important events left a lasting impression. Click here to read the article and discover more about them.
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TheGenealogist Adds Over One Million Names in New Historic Legal Records Release 01 April 2026
TheGenealogist has added over 1,000,000 names to its growing collection of specialist records with the release of a major new set of historical legal sources.
This important addition brings together material from a wide range of court and equity records, including Chancery, Exchequer, Star Chamber, Court of Requests and Duchy of Lancaster records. These sources can help family historians uncover evidence of family relationships, debts, inheritances, property disputes, occupations and places of residence.
The newly released titles include:
- Calendar of Chancery Proceedings, Bills & Answers: 1625-1649
- Calendar of Chancery Cases During Reign of Queen Elizabeth I 1558-1603
- Exchequer Deponents: 1559-1695
- List of Proceedings in the Court of Star Chamber 1485-1558
- List of Proceedings in the Court of Requests 1509-1603
- Courts of Requests for the City of London, Southwark, Palace Court & Tower Hamlets, 1831
- Ducatus Lancastriae (Duchy of Lancaster) - Calendar to Pleadings: 1503-1603
These records open a valuable window into the disputes, petitions and everyday conflicts that brought people before the courts. They often preserve bills, answers, depositions and pleadings that can reveal details which are difficult to find elsewhere, including relationships, occupations, land ownership and even personal disagreements.
Mark Bayley, Head of Online Content at TheGenealogist, said: “This latest release adds over a million names from a remarkable range of legal records, helping researchers uncover details that would otherwise remain hidden in historic court papers. For those facing a brick wall, they offer a powerful and often overlooked source.”
This latest release further strengthens TheGenealogist’s expanding collection of specialist records for those researching English ancestry in depth.
Read more about Chancery Records and the information they contain here
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New Worcestershire Parish Records in partnership with Malvern Family History Society 11 March 2026
Our latest addition in partnership with the Malvern Family History Society brings 77,266 individuals from historic Worcestershire parish registers to our growing database, offering researchers fresh opportunities to trace ancestors across the county.
These newly available Baptism, Marriage and Burial Records cover numerous parishes across Worcestershire and neighbouring areas, providing important details that can help genealogists piece together family stories from centuries past.
This project highlights the ongoing efforts to preserve and share local records with a wider audience. By partnering with the Malvern Family History Society, TheGenealogist continues to make valuable historical material available online for family historians and researchers around the world.
Parish registers remain one of the most important sources for genealogical research in England, particularly for the period before the start of civil registration. Collections such as this allow researchers to follow family lines across centuries and discover more about the communities in which their ancestors lived.
"We’re extremely pleased to collaborate with the Malvern Family History Society on this new release," said Mark Bayley, Head of Online Content at TheGenealogist. "Local family history societies play a crucial role in preserving historical records, and partnerships like this help bring those resources to a much wider audience. These Worcestershire parish records will help family historians trace baptisms, marriages and burials across many parishes in the county."
Read the story of George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry, found within this latest release by clicking here.
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Over 1 Million records added to TheGenealogist’s National Probate Calendar 27 February 2026
Today, we released a major expansion of its fully searchable National Probate Calendar with the release of the years 1880 to 1899, extending this essential source for uncovering ancestors’ details, family relationships, and social history across late Victorian Britain.
As with earlier releases, we have transcribed every field within each entry, allowing researchers to search far beyond a name alone. Users can pinpoint the right person by filtering on spouse, occupation, place of death, residence, executor details and more, making it far easier to distinguish between people who share the same name, or where spellings vary between records.
This new addition comprises 1,097,915 searchable probate records and names 2,596,550 individuals. Alongside the deceased, the index captures executors and other named parties, which can reveal close relatives, married daughters under a new surname, in-laws, business partners, employers, employees and trusted friends who might otherwise be missed.
Probate Records frequently include an address, occupation or status, the date of death, the court where probate was granted and the value of the estate, to which TheGenealogist has added the value in today’s terms. For family historians, these details can unlock new leads, confirm identities and provide a clearer picture of an ancestor’s circumstances at the end of their life.
TheGenealogist’s Head of Content, Mark Bayley, commented: "Many researchers overlook probate records, but they can shed light on the details other records miss, often naming the people who mattered most in someone’s life. By transcribing every field, our keyword search helps you jump directly to the record you’re after, and often to a new branch of the family."
Among the individuals found within these newly released records is William Morris, one of the most notable designers of the Victorian era. Researchers can explore his entry in the probate records and learn more about his life and legacy in this accompanying article here.
To explore the new National Probate Records collection, visit TheGenealogist.co.uk/wills.
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New British Railways Regional Magazines 12 June 2026