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

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, the Digital Microfilm collection includes all of the Board of Stamps Apprenticeship Registers 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

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.