Sirius Genealogy 2.0

Sirius genealogy 2.0 is a free online community for genealogists, featuring regular news from the online genealogy world, online chat and message boards, links and much more.  Go to http://www.siriusgenealogy.com/index.cfm

Preserving Documents

Have you accumulated a number of old documents and photographs over the years?  The National Archives of Australia have plenty of advice on preserving and storing them, as well as advice on saving items damaged by fire or flood.  http://www.naa.gov.au/services/family-historians/looking-after/index.aspx
Preservation Australia is a company specializing in resources for preserving documents and photographs, from wallets and folder to tools and equipment to albums and binders.  http://www.preservationaustralia.com.au/

Irish Ancestry

A series of free eBooks has been made available in PDF format by Ancestry Ireland. The books are as follows, with direct URLs to their locations listed below each:
My Roots: tracing your Belfast ancestors (2007)
www.ancestryireland.com/fileadmin/uhf_pdfs/My_Roots_LR.pdf
The 6th Connaught Rangers: Belfast Nationalists and the Great War (2008)
www.ancestryireland.com/fileadmin/uhf_pdfs/ConnaughtRangers.pdf
In search of Sperrins Ancestors (2004)
www.ancestryireland.com/fileadmin/uhf_pdfs/SperrinsBooklet08.pdf
Belfast & Nashville (2010)
www.ancestryireland.com/fileadmin/uhf_pdfs/belfast-nashville.pdf

New Australian content on Ancestry.com

New South Wales, Australia, Registers of Coroners' Inquests, 1796-1942.
This database contains registers of coroners’ inquests for New South Wales, Australia, for the years 1796–1942. Coroners were responsible for inquiring into any unnatural or sudden deaths in their jurisdiction. They also investigated deaths when a body was unidentified, a cause of death was uncertain, or the deceased was in the care of the state. Coroners could investigate fires that caused destruction of property, as well. Magistrates could take depositions about circumstances of death in more remote areas where no coroner was available.

London Lives

A site worth visiting is London Lives 1690 to 1800 - crime, poverty and social policy in the metropolis.  This is a searchable edition of 240,000 manuscripts from 8 archives, searchable by name and date.  It also gives a thorough historical background on what life was life for eighteenth century Londoners - crime, poverty and illness ; apprenticeship, work, politics and money ; how people voted, lived and died.  Registration to the site allows access to advanced search facilities and personal workspace.  Go to www.londonlives.org/

Family History Seminar

Kyabram Regional Genealogical Society will be holding a Family History Seminar on Saturday 6th November at the Tongala Community Centre from 9.30am - 4.00pm.  Beryl O'Gorman and Jenny Carter from the Genealogical Society of Victoria will each present two sessions on various topics including Irish research.  The seminar will end with a Q&A session for help with your 'brick walls'.  Cost will be $30 with lunch, morning and afternoon tea provided.  For bookings contact Susan Hill on 0428 683 321.

The Kyabram Regional Genealogical Society is a new and growing group.  Enquiries and new members are welcome.

Workhouses

Did any of your ancestors find themselves in a workhouse?  Want to know more about the conditions and how workhouses operated?  Here are a few sites for information about and records of workhouses.
Workhouses & Institutions - www.institutions.org.uk/
Workhouse records - www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?records/records.shtml
Union Workhouse - www.judandk.force9.co.uk/workhouse.html
C19th American Poorhouses - www.poorhousehistory.com/

Trove

Trove is an online search engine developed by the National Library of Australia found at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ . At the click of a button, you can access a large and unrivalled repository of Australian material.  Content is from the National Library of Australia, the State and Territory libraries and over 1000 other libraries around Australia.  Trove also features content from other Australian collections including cultural, business and educational organisations, and major international digital collections.  Trove includes book, journals and magazine articles ; pictures and photographs ; Australian newspapers ; diaries, letters and archives ; maps ; music, sound and video ; archived websites ; and people and organisations.

New Books

New genealogy books purchased :
1.  Social networking for genealogists by Drew Smith
2.  Grow your own family tree by Alan Stewart
Now available at Campaspe Library

Family History Feast Podcasts

The podcast of the annual Family History Feast held on Monday 2 August 2010 is now available on the State Library of Victoria website.

The individual links are:

Joan Hunt: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/node/2716
Sandra Burt: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/node/2717
Kim Burrell: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/node/2718
Peter Gloury: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/node/2719
Philip Thiel: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/node/2721
The Don Grant lecture given by Professor Geoffrey Blainey is now live: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/node/2715

New Books

New Genealogy books purchased :
1.  How did they get here : arrivals after 1924 by Cora Num
2.  Family history for the older and wiser : find your roots with online tools by Susan Fifer.
Now available at Campaspe Library

New Australian Databases on Ancestry

Ancestry has announced new Australian content now available through Ancestry Library Edition, which can be accessed FREE using the library public access computers.

Birth Index, 1788-1922

Death Index, 1787-1985

Marriage Index, 1788-1949

Always search the "About" section of any database searched on Ancestry. The following indexes are not complete. They do not cover every state for every year indicated.

Also, Cowra Military Camps Personnel Photo Index, New South Wales, Australia, 1905-1970

Victorian Wills Online

The Victorian Wills Online is an index to Wills, Probate and Administration Records 1841-1925

You can search this list for names of people whose estates underwent the probate process in the Supreme Court of Victoria. Go to http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/indexes/index_search.asp?searchid=54

Clergy of the Church of England database

The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540-1835 (CCEd) makes available and searchable the principal records of clerical careers from over 50 archives in England and Wales with the aim of providing coverage of as many clerical lives as possible from the Reformation to the mid-nineteenth century.  The site can be found at http://www.theclergydatabase.org.uk/index.html

The CCEd’s major features include:
Records relating to the major events of clerical careers – ordination, appointments as curates, rectors and lecturers
Information about parishes, chapelries and the many secular institutions and persons with chaplains
Information about patrons, many of them women
Information about schools and schoolteachers

Genealogylinks.net

Genealogylinks.net consists of 4,500 pages of more than 50,000 Free Genealogy Links; for US, UK, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Europe, Canada, Australia & New Zealand.

This webpage has endeavoured to add sites that either have online genealogy records through which you can search for your ancestors or sites that provide helpful information to aid in your research.
Types of records you can find using Genealogylinks.net include parish registers, censuses, cemeteries, marriages, passenger lists, city directories, military records, obituaries and more.  Visit the site at http://www.genealogylinks.net/

Irish Family History Foundation

A great resource for those with Irish ancestry is the Irish Family History Foundation Online Genealogy Databases for Ireland, located at http://ifhf.brsgenealogy.com/
The Irish Family History Foundation is the co-ordinating body for a network of government approved genealogical research centres in the Republic of Ireland (Eire) and in Northern Ireland which have computerised almost 40 million Irish Ancestral records, primarily Church births (baptisms), marriages and deaths.
This site contains the largest collection of Parish records for the island of Ireland that are searchable online. Search for your ancestor across all counties and research centres or select a particular centre from the map.

Black Sheep Ancestors

The links on this site help you search for your criminal ancestors in free genealogical prison and convict records, historical court records, executions, insane asylum records and biographies of famous outlaws, criminals & pirates in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.  Go to their site at http://www.blacksheepancestors.com/

Prison Search

PrisonSearch contains links to searchable prisons sites in Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.  Check out their site at
http://www.ancestorhunt.com/international-genealogy-prison-records.htm

International Committee of the Red Cross

The International Committee of the Red Cross Archives collects, preserves and makes available for research ICRC documents dating from the organization's inception to the present day. The ICRC's historical archives comprise 6,700 linear metres of textual records and a collection of photographs, films and other audiovisual material.  Information on prisoners of war or civilians interned during earlier 20th century conflicts from the ICRC archives can be requested online at http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/archives

PROV Digitized Records & Online Indexes

This Public Records Office of Victoria list has links to all the records online through the PROV site,  including passenger lists, wills, education, Koorie heritage, building plans, prisoners, divorce, mental health and more.  Go to www.access.prov.vic.gov.au/public/PROVguides/PROVguide023/PROVguide023.jsp and look at the list of resources available.

Unlock the past

Unlock the past is a partnership by Gould Genealogy & History, Archive Digital Books Australia, Family Photo Book and Shauna Hicks, this is a very new and growing site of Genealogical information, links, articles, resources and events.  Go to http://www.unlockthepast.com.au/

Find My Past free 24 hour trial

British online genealogy company, FindMyPast has announced that it has taken over the Australian operations of World Vital Records They have launched the new Australian FindMyPast.com.au website with 35 million records,including many Australian directories, government gazettes, post office directories and other publications.
When you find an item of interest you can view the full text of the original entry in PDF. They're offering a free 24 hour trial (no credit card required) with this new site. Go to http://findmypast.com.au/ to find out more.

English Jurisdictions 1851

This is part of the Familysearch site that I never knew existed.  Go to http://maps.familysearch.org/   Enter a place name to access information about parish jurisdictions, including parish register and bishop’s transcripts dates, divisions such as county, civil registration district, probate court, diocese, rural deanery, poor law union, hundred and province. You can even see a map of other parishes within a certain distance, from ¼ mile up to 15 miles.

Victorian State Conference

Coming up fast is the 7th Victorian Family History State Conference, The Border and Beyond, to be held at ClubMulwala from 28-30 May.  More information is available from VAFHO, the Victorian Association of Family History Organisations.  A great looking program has been organised - if you are attending I will see you there!

New Books available

2 new genealogy books are now available at Campaspe Regional Library.   They are :
1.  Genealogy : how to do everything by George S. Morgan
2.  Google your family tree by Daniel M. Lynch
Holds can be placed on these and other genealogy-related titles via our library website at
www.campaspe.vic.gov.au/library

The Ryerson Index

The Ryerson Index Online Database contains 2,445,558 notices from 170 different Australian newspapers.  To search the database, enter a surname, with or without one or more given name(s), a location name, and/or a year range.  Find it at http://ryersonindex.net/search.php

Victorian Government Gazette online

This online archive of historic government gazettes provides access to over 160 years of official information published in and about Victoria. It contains images of every relevant page in the Victoria Government Gazette, as well as searchable indexes for each publication and can be accessed at http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/


First published in the earliest days of the colony, the Victoria Government Gazette (1851 to 1997), plus the New South Wales Government Gazette (1936 to 1851) and the Port Phillip Government Gazette (1843-1851) documents the official notifications of government decisions and legal actions to other governments, government agencies and the general public.

Australian Wills

A new site I have been exploring this week tells how to find Australian wills, listing information state by state, and provides links to any sites where indexes or wills can be searched.  Coverage varies for each State and Territory, but relevant addresses for ordering wills are all provided.  Visit http://www.jaunay.com/wills.html to have a look.

Genealogy Classes are on again

Campaspe Library periodically offers free beginners classes in Online Genealogy Resources, holding 2 hour classes in each Branch Library.  Classes cover a range of resources, from online databases to lookup exchanges to mailing lists, and exeryone attending is given a list of all the sites covered during the class, plus more sites listed on the Library Homepage.  Anyone interested in attending a class please contact your local Branch Librarian to find out when the next class will be held.

New Magazine Subscription

Echuca Branch Library has just subscribed to the U.K. edition of Family Tree Magazine, which we hope will be helpful to our patrons.  Current issues of all our magazines are on display and can be read in the library, but are unavailable for loan - previous editions are available for 2 week loan.

Australian Military Records

Namesearch at the National Library of Australia allows you to search Australian military records and access digital copies of most Boer War and WW1 records, plus some later military records, for free.
Go to http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/recordsearch/index.aspx click on Search Now and then Namesearch.

Welsh Wills Online

I have discovered a new site - Welsh Wills Online www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=487  The National Library of Wales has digital images of pre 1858 wills online.

Ancestry

Campaspe Library subscribes to the Library Edition of Ancestry.com, which means you can search Ancestry's databases free in your local branch library! You can phone your local Branch to book a computer for free - the only cost is for printing.

Welcome

Welcome to the Campaspe Library Genealogy Blog. I will be highlighting useful internet sites, new purchases by the library, upcoming classes, and answering (as best I can) any questions about genealogy.