FINDMYPAST.CO.UK TO PUBLISH WESTMINSTER ARCHIVE RECORDS ON THE WEB
- Project announced to increase access to 10 million baptism, marriage, burial and parish chest records dating back to 1538
- First time that images of the original parish records from Westminster will appear online
Leading UK family history website findmypast.co.uk has today announced that it has been awarded a digitisation contract by the City of Westminster Council and the Westminster Archives Centre. This significant new project will lead to the publication online for the very first time of 10 million historic records from the Archives. The records are expected to launch later this year and will become fully searchable, only at findmypast.co.uk.
Spanning the years 1538 to 1945, the records cover such London landmark churches as:
- St Anne's, Soho
- St Clement Danes
- St George's Hanover Square
- St James' Westminster
- St Margaret's Westminster
- St Martin-in-the-Fields
- St Mary-le-Strand
- St Paul's, Covent Garden
As well as baptisms, marriages and burials, the Westminster Collection includes such gems as rate books, orphan and apprentice records, vestry minutes, cemetery registers, charity documents, workhouse admission and discharge books, settlement examinations, churchwardens' accounts, bastardy and poor law records, wills, militia and watch records.
Guy Strachan, Digitisation Manager at findmypast.co.uk, said: "The City of Westminster Archives Centre is an absolute treasure trove for family and local historians, and the addition of these amazing records to findmypast.co.uk will greatly enhance the website's standing as the central resource for UK parish records."
(With thanks to Debra Chatfield)
Chris
British GENES on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES and Twitter @chrismpaton
Scotland's Greatest Story research service www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk and www.facebook.com/ScottishGenealogyResearch
Glad someone is digitising these, just a pain all the London records can't be with the same company. I volunteer at the LMA and their records are digitised by Ancestry of course. While the LMA has a basic license to view FMP, it will depend on what subscription option the Westminster records will be on, as to whether or not visitors to the LMA will be able to view them, and the reverse is probably true for visitors to Westminster Archives of course. The LMA already gets plenty of stick for not having the Westminster records on site, people from outside the capital don't realise that LONDON Metropolitan Archives doesn't mean ALL of London!
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain! :)
ReplyDeleteChris
Good News Chris - exactly churches I need. I hope the when is soon.
ReplyDeleteAnd I utterly agree with Catherine. Still the competition in becoming the "central resource for UK parish records." is of benefit to us. And although they say so its not FMP - Ancestry beats them easily on London - otherwise its still familysearch but FreeREG is coming along - I just found lots of lovely Norfolk records but only to disprove my case...