Title Research Group In 1965, a small group of professional genealogists and
probate researchers called themselves "Title Research". They did much of their research using
microfiche records. In 2001, Title Research started an in-house project, called "1837 online", to produce a computerised version of the birth, marriage and death register pages of the
General Register Office (GRO), and the following year began work to put this on an internet website. Another online project,
FreeBMD, had already been working on this since 1999, gradually transcribing the indexes through the efforts of volunteers and publishing searchable indexes freely on the internet.
1837online In April 2003, www.1837online.com went live on the internet. In 2007 it acquired United States–based PedigreeSoft, a web-based family tree building platform. Later in 2007 it was purchased from Title Research Group by
DC Thomson. A sister site for Australia and New Zealand was launched in May 2010 with findmypast.ie launched in the
Republic of Ireland a year later, followed by findmypast.com in the
United States and
Canada in July 2012.
New user interface In early April 2014, Findmypast changed their website interface and received subscriber complaints demanding the return of the old site. The editor of
Who Do You Think You Are magazine wrote: "Nothing annoyed people more than the feeling that they weren't being listened to". Findmypast responded, saying they now had "a system in place to analyse all of our customers' feedback and make the necessary improvements as quickly as possible". In June 2014
Family Tree magazine ran a three-page article on Findmypast's new interface. A Findmypast spokesperson stated, "The new search has fantastic potential" but "constant tweaks are being made to the site". They stated that they would extend customers' subscriptions if they were having difficulty.
Family Tree responded that it "all sounds very encouraging... [but] the technologists had perhaps won out over the genealogists". The Family Tree forum administrator stated, "After wrestling with the new website ...for nearly a month, I was on the point of giving up... [but] I can now see that there are indeed many improvements and benefits". The magazine concluded by stating that "Many of our questions remain unanswered and we are still waiting to hear what Findmypast has to say". A researcher from
Family Search reported in December 2014 that she found using the Findmypast web site had got easier.
Recent history Findmypast has billions of searchable records worldwide but, though it is possible to search their indexes for free, a payment or subscription was required to access the full data. In 2014, Findmypast, in partnership with the
Imperial War Museum, entered into a collaboration to launch the "Lives of the First World War" platform. During the
centenary period, anyone could sign up for an account, and those who paid for a subscription had the ability to add records from Findmypast's collections. In November 2015, Findmypast and the National Archives made the
1939 national identity register available online. As of 2017, the website hosted a wide variety of census, directory, historical record, church and newspaper information available from across the English-speaking world and tends to concentrate on the former British empire and the UK. On 6 January 2022, Findmypast and the National Archives made the England and Wales component of the
1921 United Kingdom census available online. The information was available on a pay-per-view basis. Unrestricted access to Premium subscribers became available from October 2022 onwards. ==Partnerships and acquisitions==