To celebrate Australia Day you can enjoy free, unlimited access to Australia's most comprehensive online collection of Convict records with Ancestry.com.au until 31st January. With free access to over 2.3 million Convict and related records, including passenger lists from the First Fleet and original documents dating back to 1788, Ancestry.com.au can help you discover if there is a convict relative in your family history.

In order to view a free record image, you need to register (which is also free) or to log in.

Click here to find your convict ancestors.

From the mid 19th century, Abney Park Cemetery became the principal place of memorial for prominent London dissenters (Congregationalists, Baptists and other Non-Conformists). Before this, the burial ground at Bunhill Fields had served a similar purpose.

If you have any Non-Conformist ancestors, it's worth performing a free search of the Abney Park Cemetery online database .

Furthermore, the 3rd Edition of the National Burial Index (available on CD for approximately £30) includes 47,682 entries for Bunhill Fields between 1788 and 1853.

[Why Follow Friday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) have recently launched a new application which provides a fully searchable index to the will calendar entries for the three District Probate Registries of Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry, with the facility to view the entire will calendar entry for each successful search. The database covers the period 1858-1919 and 1922-1943. Part of 1921 has been added, with remaining entries for 1920-1921 to follow in the near future.

In addition, 93,388 digitised images of entries from the copy will books covering the period 1858-1900 have now been linked to the corresponding will calendar entries and are now available online, allowing users to view the full content of a will.

I'd been waiting for some time for access to a downloadable version of the will of my 3 x great-grandfather, Joseph Dando (1802-1870). Not only was I pleased to see this facility had finally arrived but imagine my surprise when I also discovered that it's FREE.

Search the PRONI Will Calendars here - who and what will you find?

[Why Thrifty Thursday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

If you have ancestors who lived in London at the turn of the century (that's the 20th century), then you may be interested in the London, England, Land Tax Valuations from 1910 which have just been launched by Ancestry.

This is a collection of land tax valuation rolls in the City of London taken in 1910. The Finance Act 1910 included the taxation in the increase in the value of land and in order to tax the increase the land had to be valued to begin with. These rolls are the baseline valuations of land in the different districts of London. The work was done by the District Valuation Offices of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue. It involved the compilation of field books and maps that listed all property. The Domesday Books that comprise this collection is the summary of this information.

The records contain:

• District/ward
• Residence
• Tax date
• Proprietor name
• Tenant name
• Street
• Description of property
• Yearly rent or value

John Dando, the elder, my 6 x great-grandfather, was involved in the Calvinistic Methodist movement during the 18th century Evangelical Revival. He was not only acquainted with, but offered hospitality to the famous preacher, George Whitefield, when he was staying in Dursley, Gloucestershire.

Whitefield became the Countess of Huntingdon's personal chaplain and with his assistance the Countess founded the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion, a Calvinistic movement within the Methodist Church.

Although John Dando was a hat maker, it was because of him that a group of Calvinistic Methodists moved from Stancombe to Dursley and established a Tabernacle (a type of Non-Conformist church), which was completed in about 1760.

In 1771, John wrote to Selina, The Countess of Huntingdon. The original letter is kept at The Countess of Huntingdon's Archives, The Cheshunt Foundation, Westminster College, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0AA. F1 Series No. 141.

In 2008, my parents went to Cambridge and viewed the letter. It's not known whether John Dando ever met the Countess in person but he certainly knew Whitefield.

Read more about John on his family page.

You can now search 126,967 new parish baptism and marriage records for Durham, Yorkshire, Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmorland on FindMyPast.co.uk.

The Northumberland & Durham Family History Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records, in association with the Federation of Family History Societies.

The details are as follows:

Type of records: Baptisms
Number of records: 16,383
Years covered: 1773–1959
County covered: Durham
Areas covered: St Andrew, St Helen & St Peter

Type of records: Marriages
Number of records: 110,584
Years covered: 1521–1989
County covered: Durham, Yorkshire, Cumberland, Northumberland, Westmorland
Areas covered: St Andrew, St Helen & St Peter, St Thomas, St Steven, St Paul, Cathedral, St Ignatius, All Saints, Holy Trinity, St Aidan, St Barnabas, St Catherine, St Columba, St Cuthbert, St George, St Hilda, St James, St John, St Margaret, St Mark, St Mary, St Mary-le-Bow, St Mary South Bailey, St Nicholas, St Oswald, Venerable Bede

In addition, FindMyPast.co.uk have compiled a list of 324 parishes which provide 447,108 new baptism records for Durham, Yorkshire, Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmorland which can be viewed here.

FindMyPast.co.uk have just published 154,074 new parish burial records for Warwickshire. The Birmingham and Midland Family History Society provided these records, in association with the Federation of Family History Societies.

The details are as follows:

Type of records: Burials
Number of records: 154,074
Years covered: 1883–2007
County covered: Warwickshire
Areas covered: Key Hill and Warstone Lane

Ireland 0 - 13 England. That was the score on 18th February 1882 when the England football team played Ireland for the first time and this victory remains England's largest ever win. The 1881-1882 season was the 11th season of competitive football for England but it was the Irish team's international debut and the friendly game took place at Knock Ground, Bloomfield, Belfast.

The game was also a first (and last) international appearance for Robert Stuart King, later to become Rev. Canon Robert Stuart King, who was studying at Oxford University at the time. Robert played in the half-back position and was one of seven who became the 90th players to appear for England. He played for the full 90 minutes of the game and was aged 19 years and 320 days.

If anyone has further information or pictures about the match, or about Robert himself, please contact me.

Robert Stuart King was related to me by marriage, being the husband of the daughter of my 2 x great-grandfather on my 'Dando' side. You can see Robert's family page at www.hibbitt.org.uk/familytree/fam1821.html

[Why Sports Centre Saturday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

Family Tree Section

• Added facts and detailed footnotes for Rev Canon Robert Stuart King:
  http://www.hibbitt.org.uk/familytree/fam1821.html
• Also added basic information for his and his wife, Ruby's (nee Dando), children.

One of the advantages of having your own independent family tree website is that others will often discover it when inputting a simple name search into search engines such as Google – and we all know how rewarding it is when a distant cousin gets in touch or can offer some further information. Having a tree on a commercial site alone (such as Ancestry, Genes Reunited, etc.) will often limit your audience to other users of those particular websites.

This is where GED-GEN comes into its own. What’s GED-GEN I hear you say?


 .....Read more »