Jonathan Scott presents our exclusive preview of the online family history resources you can’t afford to miss in 2024
There’s so much to look forward to in 2024. Perhaps the biggest highlight is the Second World War Ministry of Defence service records held by The National Archives, which Ancestry is busy digitising. We know that the firm has a target of completing digitisation by 2029, but we also know that the first tranche is expected some time in 2024. Since the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings falls in June, perhaps that might be the time the company aims to release a first wave. We’re only guessing, but will keep readers updated.
There are plenty of other upcoming anniversaries as well. One of the most notable is the 200th birthday of the creation of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. It’s also 40 years since the Miners’ Strike; 50 years since ABBA won Eurovision; 70 years since the end of food rationing, Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile, and the BBC’s first daily TV news bulletin; 80 years since D-Day; and 170 years since Britain became involved in the Crimean War. Read on to find out which anniversaries are being marked by new record releases and find out what is coming online in 2024 that will help grow your family tree.
Ancestry
w ancestry.co.uk Earlier in 2023 it was announced that Ancestry had won the exclusive rights to digitise and publish more than three million Ministry of Defence service records held by The National Archives at Kew. Expect to see the first tranche coming online in 2024.
January will see pension records of postal workers, held by the Postal Museum; electoral registers from the North Yorkshire County Record Office; nonconformist registers from Hampshire; and electoral registers from Westminster.
War Diaries covering the allied invasion of Sicily, known as Operation Husky, in the Second World War are due in March, and into the spring watch out for Lancashire nonconformist registers, Teesside parish registers and Cheshire material in the summer.
Other material scheduled for the year includes Poor Law records from Gwent, Aberdeenshire court and school records, and employment records from the Irish Railway Record Society.
Anglo Italian Family History Society
w anglo-italianfhs.org.uk The group will be refreshing its website with a new generation of researcher
