#52Ancestors - Week 39 - Road Trip

Planning a Family History Road Trip can be a highlight in our research calendar but they can be much more successful and less stressful if you do your homework and plan ahead.  Here are my hints for making your Road Trip successful.

Phone Ahead

When you plan visiting any record repository, library or archive, after you visit their website and check hours of operation and record availability, make a phone call before you go. There is nothing worse than arriving at a facility to find that it is closed for renovation or that records have been moved offsite and are unavailable. Remember to check catalogs where available and plan your research wish list ahead of time - this can help maximize your research time onsite, as well. 

Check the Rules

Check requirements beforehand.  Can you take your bag, phone or tablet with you or do you have to leave them in a locker outside?  Are there rules about copying?  Many libraries have computers attached to their microfilm or microfiche machines, so you can save record images to a USB flash drive. If they have a scanner, can you scan documents to the drive as well?  What costs are involved and how do you pay?  Some smaller places may require cash so make sure you have some change with you.

Map Out Places you Plan to Visit

If you're traveling to a city or town that you're not familiar with, try mapping out your research visits so that you're not wasting valuable time on the road. Plan your visits to churches, cemeteries, libraries, and archives on a route that makes sense. Check parking availability nearby too - and any costs for parking too.  Find out what places of worship and cemeteries were around when your ancestors lived in the area (historical city or county directories can be helpful for his).  Also, check with local genealogical and historical societies. They are the experts on research in that area and will know what resources are available and where the records are kept.

Take Your Tree with You

Family history research trips used to be much more cumbersome, with copies of documents, family trees and other pertinent information being carried with you on family visits and to libraries and archives. Today most of us have an online tree, with your data as close as your smart phone or tablet.  When planning your road trip check your access to your online data and make sure everything you will need is available and that your access to it is reliable.  Figure on tech failures. When planning a trip to a remote cemetery, for example, don’t assume your cell phone will have a signal. If you need a list of names bring a printout or make sure the list is stored on your phone, not in the cloud.

Have a Kit

Create a kit or a “genealogy to-go” bag that’s ready to walk out the door with you. Stock it with note books, pens and pencils, batteries, business cards, address labels, a digital voice recorder, a magnifier, sticky-notes, a small power strip, USB, etc.  Anything you might need while researching.  Don’t forget your forms - take your notebook for general notes as well as a pre-prepared sheet to record data and important source info - what you found where and when. It keeps you from forgetting anything if you have a form to fill out.  A little coin purse with change for photocopying and parking is also handy.

Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

The latest issue of Who Do You Think You Are magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines.

Inside this month's issue

• Photo colourisation The best apps for colourising black and white photos
• Reader story Jennie Long reunited two families a century after tragedy brought them together
• Irish census substitutes How to trace Irish ancestors
• Time for tea The social history of tea
• Marriage and money Alan Crosby recalls a time when love was a minor factor in upper-class engagements
  
• Plus: The best websites for researching criminal ancestors, using genealogical journals, write your family history using Biisco and more

#52Ancestors - Week 38 - New to You

There is always something new to explore in our Family History research.  New data made available.  New websites to explore.  New books to read.  New relatives discovered.  New results to incorporate into our trees.  New knowledge to add.

Recently, Ancestry updated their DNA Ethnicity Estimates, so I have again been studying the new, updated results.  I have commented before that with every ethnicity estimate, my results seem to move further from my family tree as I know it.  This time was no exception.

The table below shows how my ethnicity estimates have changes over the past few years.  According to my researched Family Tree, my father's family is 100% English back to the early 1700s and further, and is primarily from the Essex/Suffolk area. My father's parents married in England before they came out to Australia.  My mother's family is at mostly English with some Irish (a Great-Grandmother), German (Great-Great-Grandfather) and Scottish (Great-Great-Grandmother) mixed in.  Most of her lines arrived in Australia in the 1840s and 1850s, and the various nationalities intermarried out here.  This is not reflected in my ethnicity estimate.  It is worth noting that in 2018 and 2019 the Irish ethnicity actually represented Ireland and Scotland combined.

	Sep-18	Sep-19	Sep-21	Apr-22	Sep-22
England	65	78	54	45	33
Ireland	22	10	2	2	1
Scotland	0	0	33	32	38
Germanic Europe	8	3	0	0	4
Ivory Coast / Ghana	2	1	1	2	2
Sweden / Denmark	2	5	0	2	19
Norway	1	2	9	14	0
Mali	0	1	1	0	0
Wales	0	0	0	3	3

Ultimately, we need to remember that these numbers are estimates only, and can still be quite inaccurate.  More important to most who are actively researching are their cousin matches, people whom the DNA tests show are being related. I have cousin matches on all the major branches of my tree intersecting at various grandparents, great grandparents and further back - so for several generations back I am reasonably confident my tree is accurate - or as accurate as it can be.

#52 Ancestors - Week 37 - High and Low

Researching your family history can indeed be a series of highs and lows - the joys of discovery and the disappointments of finding a negative.  We all experience them each time we undertake our research.

We are all familiar with the lows.  A family story is debunked by the evidence we find.  A record we are searching for proves elusive or destroyed or on closed access.  A mistake in our research invalidates an entire branch of our family tree.  We uncover stories of hardship, heartache and misfortune that make our research difficult.

The highs of family history are many.  Finding new information that furthers our family tree.  Uncovering facts that corroborate a favourite family story.  Stumbling across a record you have somehow missed in previous research.  Finding new records have become available or a new website has come online that is relevant to our family history.  Making contact with a new relative who has information to share.  An unexpected find that comes out of the blue.

One of the biggest unexpected highs I have had came while moving house a few years ago.  After months of clearing out the family home, it was moving day.  As the removalists took an old wardrobe from my parent's room to their van, several pieces of paper and cardboard were found to have fallen behind it.  A few old Christmas cards from years ago, an old poster, a calendar from 1982, several scraps of paper.  As I was gathering it all to throw in the bin, amongst the debris I discovered an old image of my father.  It dates from his time in the Air Force in WW2, is roughly A4 size and hand tinted on cardboard.  I had never seen it before.  

Considering it had been hidden behind an old wardrobe for at least 40 years, it was in surprisingly good condition.  It was dusty and dirty, had a few creases and part of the top was almost broken off, but it was nevertheless a hugely exciting find.  Had I not grabbed the papers as the wardrobe was hauled away I would never have known it existed and it would have been lost forever.

I have the original photograph that this image is taken from.  The framed black and white photo had sat on my mother's dressing table my entire life and I can recall looking at it often during my childhood.

It is only a small photo, just 10x15cm, in a white frame.  After my mother passed away I digitized this image, then placed it back in the original frame which I had carefully cleaned.  It now sits in my study along with several other family photos.

Where the colored image comes from I have no idea, and there is no one left whom I can ask.  It is currently carefully stored in an archival case and one day I hope to have it professionally cleaned and restored.  It is all the more special to me for being completely unexpected.

A family history high indeed.

Family Tree UK Magazine

The latest issue of Family Tree UK magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines.

Inside this month's issue :  

• A tragic inheritance
• Administrations - David Annal examines Letters of Administration
• What’s there? What isn’t there? -  Ireland’s new Virtual Records Treasury
• Photogenealogy - Preserving your photos
  
• The Tudors & their history
• Spotlight on -  The Friends of The National Archives
• Your DNA Workshop
• Q&A - Working out Ancestry’s Sideview
• Ggenealogy Gadgets and Apps for all Occasions
• Photo Corner - Date your unidentified picture
• Curious about my ancestor’s wartime military voyages
• Diary Dates - Discover Learning Experiences to Enjoy
  

 

Vale Queen Elizabeth II

Tributes are flowing in after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning British monarch.  For most people throughout the Commonwealth, she is the only Monarch we have ever known.  Her passing is the end of an era and she will be deeply missed by many.  Vale Elizabeth II.

 

Riding the Waves of History

The Riding the Waves of History conference is now less than 2 weeks away.  This is the 37th Annual Conference of the NSW & ACT Association of Family History Societies, and will be held online 16-18 September 2022.  The conference is hosted by the Newcastle Family History Society Inc. with Maitland & Beyond Family History Inc.

Conference speakers have been announced and are : Julie Keating, Peter Mayberry, Diane Blishen, Jeffrey Madsen, Lilian Magill, Pat Healion, Gay Hendriksen, Joy & Allan Murrin, Kerry Farmer, Samantha Ashby, Dr Janis Wilton, Carol Baxter, John Graham, Cathie Sherwood, Jill Ball, Christine Woodlands, Jason Reeve and Louise Gale.

 

The Conference Program is out now, detailing the presentations.  Registration allows you access to all presentations for a week after the conference as well.

Keep an eye on the conference website or subscribe to their newsletter to keep up with conference news, pricing, speakers topics, virtual exhibitors and more.

#52Ancestors - Week 36 - Exploration

While home isolating during a recent bout of Covid, I decided to spend a few days exploring my files, checking documents and revisiting old research.  Exploring my old research is something I need to do more, fact checking and making sure all documents are properly referenced in my family group sheets, re-reading family stories and the records and details that corroborate (or explode) them.  

I always enjoy exploring my files, revisiting old documents and reliving discoveries.  As I have been researching for a number of years, the amount of paper I have accumulated is impressive, and I may not revisit certain families for quite some time.  Delving deep into my accumulation of records is an exploration indeed.

I also spent time online exploring 'new' data available since I last researched certain branches of my family and making sure I had all the information available.  

Another exploration over the past few weeks has been my online family tree, and the hundreds of 'hints' available.  While the majority I quickly dismiss and delete, there are always a few treasures to explore and add to my research, details that either I have missed during earlier research or coming from newly available records which have only just been added.  

Family History is in itself an exploration - of our past, of the history of our ancestors and the wider history that impacted and changed their lives.  Happy exploring!