Thousands of brand new records and FREE newspaper pages

2-3 minute read

By Niall Cullen | August 13, 2021

New British Army records on Findmypast

With new British Army and English parish records, amazing family discoveries await this Findmypast Friday. And in case you missed it, over a million newspaper pages are now FREE to explore.

What's new this week at Findmypast? Read on for all the details.

British Army, Royal Engineers 1900-1949

We’ve completed this collection by adding over 130,000 more tracer card records. Most of them cover World War 2.

Royal Engineers, WW2

Soldiers from the Royal Engineers in Europe, 1945.

Tracer cards document a soldier's movements within and between regiments. You'll find lots of abbreviations written on the original records as you explore them. See the record set search page for an explanation of some of the most common ones.

British Army Service Records

This must-search military resource has expanded again with the arrival of over 6,000 new Chelsea Pensioners’ discharge documents.

Chelsea Pensioners discharge records

This record from 1794 lists the soldier's name, birthplace, occupation, regiment, the reason for discharge, and more. View the full record.

These discharge papers are some of the oldest records in this vast collection, helping you trace your military ancestor's life and career way back to the 18th century.

Essex Parish Records

In partnership with Waltham Forest Family History Society, we’ve released over 43,000 baptism and burial records from several Essex churches.

The new arrivals consist of baptism records from:

And burial records from:

Baptism and burial records are essential for taking your family tree back further. Discover your Essex connections in these newest additions.

Newspapers

13 new papers have joined our archives including:

Plus, we’ve added more pages to these 22 publications:

Over one million FREE newspaper pages

In case you missed the big announcement earlier this week, in partnership with the British Library, we've made over a million newspaper pages completely free to search and view.

Findmypast Fridays live

As we strive to help everyone find their family's story, millions of more free newspaper pages are set to be released over the coming years. Have you explored our free archives yet? Tag @findmypast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to share your discoveries.

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About the author

Picture of Niall Cullen - Content Marketing LeadNiall Cullen