National Archives Digital Microfilm

[Sue Mackay]

The National Archives are hoping to phase out their aging microfilm readers, and have made some of their more popular records on microfilm available as PDF files. These are available as free (but very large) downloads here (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/digital-microfilm.asp)

The records are not indexed and must be scrolled through just as you would if you were viewing the microfilm at Kew

[Waitabit]

Nice one Sue. Thankyou, brings some things a whole lot closer.

[CanadianCousin]

As I mentioned here (http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/showthread.php/69794-Register-of-Duties-Paid-for-Apprentices?p=487629&highlight=#post487629), the Digital Microfilm collection includes all of the Board of Stamps Apprenticeship Registers (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/search-results.asp?searchtype=browserefine&query=scope%3d%22country%20registers%22%20or%20%22 index%20of%20masters%22%20or%20%22city%20%28town%2 9%22%20or%20%22indentures%22&catid=32&pagenumber=1&querytype=1&mediaarray=*) in IR/1. While the register books aren't indexed on TNA's site, Ancestry does have them indexed, and you can use their free search to check if your ancestors apprenticeships were recorded and in which year. Note that this collection only covers the period from 1710 to 1811 and does not include parish apprenticeships. Nevertheless, it's an excellent source of information for a period when few other records are available (e.g., before trade directories were widely published).

Tim

[t@nya]

The National Archives are hoping to phase out their aging microfilm readers, and have made some of their more popular records on microfilm available as PDF files. These are available as free (but very large) downloads here (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/digital-microfilm.asp)

The records are not indexed and must be scrolled through just as you would if you were viewing the microfilm at Kew

Any idea of just how big the downloads are? The one I chose to get has a size of "0" listed, which can't be right.

[Coromandel]

Any idea of just how big the downloads are?

The 'Technical requirements' blurb at the beginning says that the files are 'on average 400MB in size'. I tried to work out an approximate size per page from descriptions where both file size and number of pages are stated. There seems to be too much variation in the size of individual images to come up with an accurate answer. Some seem to be more than 2 MB per page, but others are much smaller.

Now that I have a speedier laptop and home broadband I am going to have a go at downloading PROB 10/639, 'wills proved at the royalist Prerogative Court of Canterbury in Oxford' in 1643. With 728 pages, which probably had to be scanned at pretty high resolution, I think this might be a really huge file. I'll let you know how I get on.

[t@nya]

The 'Technical requirements' blurb at the beginning says that the files are 'on average 400MB in size'. I tried to work out an approximate size per page from descriptions where both file size and number of pages are stated. There seems to be too much variation in the size of individual images to come up with an accurate answer. Some seem to be more than 2 MB per page, but others are much smaller.

Now that I have a speedier laptop and home broadband I am going to have a go at downloading PROB 10/639, 'wills proved at the royalist Prerogative Court of Canterbury in Oxford' in 1643. With 728 pages, which probably had to be scanned at pretty high resolution, I think this might be a really huge file. I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks. :)

I think I'll have to wait to download these files: I tried to download one and it was taking far too long.

[Gododdin]

Now that I have a speedier laptop and home broadband I am going to have a go at downloading PROB 10/639, 'wills proved at the royalist Prerogative Court of Canterbury in Oxford' in 1643. I'll let you know how I get on.
Thanks for being a guinea pig for everyone; look forward to hearing of your progress.
Godo

[Coromandel]

Thanks for being a guinea pig for everyone; look forward to hearing of your progress.

It was quite painless! The file was smaller than I expected (about 150 MB) and took about 3 minutes to download. My old laptop would have creaked and groaned if I'd tried to open a 728 page PDF file but no probs with the new one.

I've no shortage of material for palaeography practice now!

[Hugh Thompson]

Thanks Sue, although I didn't find anything yet in the free lot I did find a will that has put me on a different track for one of my long lost gggg's, also it's faster to download big files to your USB flash drive (nano), I use it all the time with Internet Archive books, just make sure that you have enough free space.
Hugh.

[Coromandel]

Spurred on by my success with the PROB 10 records I have been digging around in the Metropolitan Police (MEPO) records and found some very grim reading: casualty lists for civilians killed or injured in the Second World War.

For example, MEPO 4/307 consists of Central Casualty Bureau, New Scotland Yard, Casualty List nos. 1 to 46 (29 July 1940 to 30 October 1940). In the earlier lists the format is: CCB case no., name, address, age, injury (ranging from 'Abrasions' to 'Dead'), reported from (name of hospital or mortuary), D-4 ref. (list no. and case no.). Later lists give the same information but in a different format.

There are other casualty lists on other 'reels' of digital microfilm as well as indexes for 1940-1945 in MEPO 4/311.

[spison]

These are available as free (but very large) downloads here (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/digital-microfilm.asp) The records are not indexed and must be scrolled through just as you would if you were viewing the microfilm at Kew

I hope this isn't a really daft question (one where my IT son would roll his eyes), but the size of the download doesn't worry me. My 'worry' is the amount of storage space it will take. Would I store this behemoth on my hard drive and if I downloaded more than one file should I consider doing something else with them (aside from discarding them) when I'd read them.

Jane (Please don't laugh - just |shakehead )

[Chris Doran]

400Mb isn't a lot by modern standards. (When I started in "IT", 5Mb was a HUGE disk, if, indeed, you could afford a disk at all and weren't limited to the size of a reel of paper tape.) You could burn them onto CD or DVD, or maybe invest in an external hard drive, which has the advantage that you can move your life's work from one computer to another with ease.

[lizone]

A belated big thank you to Sue for starting this topic and T@nya for raising it again (how could I have missed it the first time?). I've been quietly downloading lots of useful stuff, including Army Lists from the mid-1700s and Army medical records from the 1850s - I now know what colour hair and eyes and shoe size my 3 x great grandfather had (not exactly useful, but interesting ...). Also, thanks to Coromandel for the post on the WW2 casualty lists as the reference provided was exactly the same one I could use to date an air raid.

Brilliant!

Liz

[Coromandel]

I would really encourage people to have a look at some of these freebies just to see what they're like. I have been exploring the WO 116 records, which are described thus in the TNA catalogue:


Title: Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Disability and Royal Artillery Out-Pensions, Admission Books'
Scope and content: These are registers of the award of out-pensions of the Royal Hospital Chelsea to soldiers discharged from the Regular Army or the Militia on account of disability. In each case a brief description of the pensioner is given together with age, place of birth, particulars of service and the reason for discharge.'

At Kew there are 252 volumes covering 1715-1913. Of these, the first 164 (covering 1715-1892) are available as free downloads as part of the "digital microfilm" initiative. There are three different types:
'Cavalry and Infantry', 1715-1882 (WO 116/1-24 and WO 116/26-124)
'Hanoverians', 1816-1817 (WO 116/25)
Royal Artillery, 1833-1892 (WO 116/125-164)*
*The catalogue notes that each Artillery document 'also includes entries for pensions awarded for length of service'.

I have downloaded just one of these documents so far, WO 116/136 (Royal Artillery, 1864). It was very big but worth the wait. Soldiers are listed by date of examination. There are columns with the following headings: Regiment, Rank, Name, Age, Total Service, Rate of Pension, Foreign Service [where and how long], Character, &c., Disability or cause of discharge [in two parts: 'Regimental Surgeon's Report' and 'Inspecting Medical Officer's Report, as to the Effect, &c. of the Disability'], Place of birth, Trade, Description (feet, inches, hair, eyes, complexion)

Though some of the men had completed their service, the majority were being discharged because of illness or injury or just being 'worn out'. Among the medical conditions reported were phthisis pulmonalis, chronic bronchitis, heart disease, syphilis, 'chronic headache caused by sun stroke and service in India', epilepsy, chronic dysentery, and many eye problems from myopia to cataracts and 'Loss of left eye from the entrance of sand into the eye at Gibraltar. Right eye impaired.'

There were a lot of hernias, some of unknown cause but others brought on by strenuous activity such as 'while undergoing instruction at the Gymnasium', or 'lifting up the end of his Bedstead' or (my favourite) 'from blowing his trumpet'.

Of the numerous accidents, many happened when men were off-duty. Some inevitably involved alcohol. One man had a 'fractured patella by his attempting to escape from Barracks'. Others happened when men were on duty. During the period covered by this particular volume, most of the injuries seem to have been accidental rather than inflicted by enemies. However, some were troubled by old wounds, such as Richard Manning of the Horse Brigade (31, b. St Michaels, Limerick) who had been 'Wounded at the Battle of Agra 10.10.57 by a bullet on left Tibia, received also at same time 2 sabre wounds on the head & one on the neck he is subject to periostitis'.

There were mental as well as physical problems. Among those described as suffering from 'Insanity' were 28 year old Charles McKenna (Royal Artillery Depot Brigade; 'appears to have been always eccentric and excitable since enlistment) and 22 year old Joseph Gardiner (9th Brigade, born Maidenhead; 'his Father & Brother have been in an asylum'). Another whose name I haven't copied had a 'weak intellect from long service in India'.

Some entries are very poignant:

James Hobbs (30, b. Charlton Mackrell, Somerton, Somerset), of the Horse Artillery, was examined on 12 January 1864; 'aneurism of the aorta renders him totally helpless & will be so for the short time he has to live'

John Ladams (27, b. Marden, Kent, a sawyer by trade) of 3 (or 5?) Brigade, had suffered 'Injury of the Head and Paralysis at Corfu 4/4/64 from the fall of an 18 pounder shot on the head.' The Inspecting Medical Officer described him as 'Helpless and likely to remain so'.

This volume had no index. Unless there is some other finding aid, it would be a long trawl to find a particular person unless you had a very good idea of when they were discharged. But I found it quite fascinating reading.