Initially there was no index of individual entries for the period before 1984, but subsequent years had already been electronically recorded by the GRO and were fully searchable.

[5] In 2011 it became sponsor of the Society of Genealogists in their centenary year and agreed a reciprocal arrangement where each would give access to one another's online databases.

[12] In early April 2014, Findmypast changed their website interface and received subscriber complaints demanding the return of the old site.

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".

[16] 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.

[21] 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.

[22][23] On 6 January 2022, Findmypast and the National Archives made the England and Wales component of the 1921 United Kingdom census available online.

[34] Findmypast began sponsoring the UKTV channel Yesterday in July 2010, and another TV series named Find My Past, funded by findmypast.co.uk, was broadcast from October 2011.

[35] UKTV stated that it was the first example of a product placement and advertiser funded programming deal for a factual TV series in the country.