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Are you taking advantage of Findmypast's All Record Set catalog? Discover why this portal is a must-use tool on the British-based genealogy website for all serious family history researchers.
You'll find more than newspapers, the British Register, census records, and other gems. You'll discover underutilized family history nuggets from archives and libraries worldwide.
What is Locality Research?
Locality research for genealogists involves discovering geography, history, boundary changes, laws, customs, religions, and ethnic makeup of a specific place as part of a genealogy investigation.
Understanding these aspects as you investigate your family history will help you find records faster and save less time looking in the wrong place for possible answers to your research questions.
How to Access the Findmypast Card Catalog
From any page on this genealogy website site:
Click Search in the top menu bar.
Click on All Record Sets (formerly A to Z record sets).
Use the left column to filter to a country.
Type in a region.
Once you have a filtered listing of the online collections, take advantage of a unique sorting option available only on this genealogy website. The following columns can be alphabetically sorted by clicking on the column heading.
Record Set - titles of collections
Category - record collection types such as Birth, Marriage, Death, & Parish Records
Subcategory- sub-groups of the categories such as Civil Birth, Social History
After you find a possible dataset, click on the relevant link.
You will often then see a search form.
Now, you can use a name or keyword to search the database.
You can also type in a page number to browse through the collection. Tip: Type in 2 in the Page Number field to access the title page
You can now view the digitized images and search for your ancestor. Watch the video below to learn how to navigate records on this subscription-based website.
Conducting Locality Research on Findmypast
When searching All Record Sets, you should look for a record, not necessarily an ancestor by name.
To be the most successful with your genealogy research, you should conduct targeted searches for a specific place.
This video demonstrated how to explore the Findmypast Card Catalog for available records about Ontario, Canada. While I can't review all 221 related record sets as of this post, I want to highlight a few of interest that you probably didn't know existed.
This record is very similar to a city directory. For this one, the individuals are arranged alphabetically within a village, which is also arranged alphabetically.
On page 85 of this digitized book, I found an entry that says, "Mrs. Ellen Mar, widow of John, a dressmaker."
Unlike a city directory, you won't see her address. But you can't get a clue as to where Ellen was living in Brougham. The village does have a description such as "A village in the township of Pickering, county of Ontario. Distance from Whitby, the county town, and a station of the Grand Trunk railway, 12 miles, fare 50 cents: from Toronto, 27 miles. Mail Daily. Population about 300."
Notice that you have many rich details that can help you add context to a family history story that you may have. You know the distance between towns, the cost of travel by rail, and how many people live in an area.
You can also see a list of other residents that you can use to research neighbors whenever you encounter a genealogy brick wall.
Election rolls help put your ancestors in a specific place and time. You'll discover a few details to help your research:
Initials or a name abbreviation such as Chas for Charles.
Occupation.
Designations for business owners.
Designation of French-speaking persons.
On page 5 of this book, I found W.R. Woodland, a laborer in Beamsville, Ontario.
If your ancestors participated in military conflicts, there are records to locate the men in your ancestry and the conflicts they served in. In the Cameron rolls, there are few details other than a roster of who served in Capt. Cameron's company. These records were initially recorded on loose sheets of small letter paper bearing the watermark 1809. But this was extracted by the Ontario Historical Society.
However, you want to explore the collection because you could find a few interesting entries:
Abram Stoner - joined Cap Howard's Company.
John G ____ subject to convulsive fits and discharged.
Stephan & John Kaul - 2 black pens - private servants
Joseph Second - deserted
Simeon Devins - dead
Please pay attention to the footnotes at the bottom of each page. They are not consistent across pages.
Even though you're conducting locality research on a place such as Ontario, some record collections are kept at a larger geopolitical designation. The All Record Sets filters will include such collections in your results list.
If you leave the name field blank, you'll see entries with no name. You can do a no surname search or a surname and no-first-name search.
In the entry Gladys M Lambert, who arrived in Canada in 1946, you can see
The name of the ship she traveled on.
Her departure city.
She was traveling with a daughter.
Her address is in the UK.
The identity and address of the person she will visit in Canada.
Pro tip 1: Make sure you read the entire document. This one says Canadians Wives' Bureau.
Pro tip 2: Some collections have a lot of details on the transcript page. Be sure to check it out.
The collection information page offers insights into the records and relevant historical context.
Details about the ports, ships, and types of voyages are included in the collection.
The total number of people on her ship.
If you have ancestors that were part of the Oddfellows, you will love this awesome digitized resource. This collection has digitized the original two-page applications that document your ancestor's:
personal medical history - including immunizations and injuries
biographical details such as marital status, age, and places of residence
family's medical history - including causes of death and whether parents, siblings, and/or grandparents are living
physical description - including
beneficiary
On the record for Charles Shipley, his beneficiary is Emily Miller, his fiancee! If you didn't know his wife's maiden name, now you do.
How to Save Findings to Your Family Tree
Some Findmypast collections make it really easy to save your findings to your tree.
On the transcription page associated with an individual, look for a button that says Add to Tree and follow the prompts to build your family tree.
Otherwise, you'll need to copy the URL for the image you want and create a custom event on your relatives' family tree profile pages. Paste the URL as a source, and you're set.
I invite you to move beyond that home page general search forms or explore just census records. Dive into the All Record Sets feature. Narrow down the options to the locations you're researching worldwide. That is my classic cover. And see what you can find.
More Findmypast Tips and Tricks
Utilizing FindMyPast Tree-to-Tree Hints for Genealogy Research
Get Started Researching Your British Ancestors While Living In US (video)
Basics of Researching Catholic Baptism Records on Findmypast
Basics of Researching Catholic Marriage Records on Findmypast
Benefits for the 1921 Census of England & Wales Around the World (video)
Use the Findmypast Card Catalog for Locality Research in Genealogy
How to EASILY Search for Civil War Ancestors Using Findmypast (video)
Use Findmypast’s Social History Records to Explore Your Heritage