British Newspaper Archive

Launching soon, the British Newspaper Archive will make millions of pages of historical newspapers available online for the first time – unlocking a treasure trove of material for historians, researchers, genealogists, students and anyone interested in when, where and how our ancestors lived and key periods of historical interest.

Highlights will include:
•Contemporary reporting of major events – vivid first-hand detail and reaction to key events including the Crimean War, the Irish famine, the Great Exhibition and the Boer War
•Family notices – a wealth of detail from sources such as births, deaths and marriages, obituaries and related announcements
•Local and regional press – supplementing national titles already available online, the Archive will feature a wide range of local and regional titles over many decades
•Fully searchable online by date, title and keywords – transforming access to material previously only available in the British Library Reading Rooms as print or microfilm

More than 1 million pages of pre-1900 newspapers will be available at launch, building to 4 million digitised pages over the next 2 years.

New to Ancestry Library Edition

Ancestry have added a number of interesting records to their database recently.
The Australian Electoral Rolls database has been updated to include years ranging from
1903 – 1980 (previously only available up to 1954).
For those with convict ancestors, you may find the following databases to be of interest.
- UK Royal Navy Medical Journals, 1817-1857
- UK Surgeon Superintendents’ Journals of Convict Ships, 1858-1867
These databases contain indexed images of medical journals kept by surgeons aboard convict ships sailing from England to Australia
And the following New South Wales records have been added
- New South Wales, Australia, Registers of Police Employment, 1847-1885
- New South Wales, Australia, Returns of the Colony, 1822-1857
Ancestry Library Edition can be accessed free of charge on any Campaspe Library computer.

Familysearch

A lot has been happening at FamilySearch recently.  They have created a new index collection of Essex parish records. This collection includes christenings, marriage and burial records. The 538,000 records in the collection span the years 1538 to 1900. FamilySearch has also managed to put online a rare collection of Russian Orthodox Church records from the province of Tver, which is just north of Moscow. The collection was acquired from the state archive and includes records of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials. The records span the period 1722 to 1918 (the end of World War I).  Also now available are some 2.3 million searchable Hungarian civil registration images. This collection includes births 1895 to 1920, marriages 1895 to 1950 and deaths 1895 to 1980.  Access to all these collections are free.

Victorian Genealogy Expo

The Victorian Genealogy Expo will be held Septemer 2 and 3 at the Geelong Arena, North Geelong.
The Expo will feature:
A major exhibition - including local and family history societies, libraries, archives, museums, product and service suppliers.
Presentations from leading experts from around Australia. There will be a $5 charge for most main talks; some others will be free.
Come along and enjoy the talks and exhibits.

Trove

Have you looked at Trove recently?  Trove is an online search engine developed by the National Library of Australia found at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ . The following are a selection of newspaper titles that have been added to the National Library of Australia's Trove since November 2010. The years covered so far for each title are limited, but ofcourse more issues will be added progressively!
Kilmore Free Press and Bourke and Dalhousie Advertiser (Victoria)
Eltham and Whittlesea Shires Advertiser and Diamond Creek Valley Advocate (Victoria)
Alexandra and Yea Standard and Yarck, Gobur, Thornton and Acheron Express (Victoria)
Advertiser (Hurstbridge, Victoria)
Sunday Times (Perth, Western Australia)
The Mail (Adelaide, South Australia)
The Register News-Pictorial (Adelaide, South Australia)
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Queensland)
Rockhampton Bulletin and Central Queensland Advertiser (Queensland)
Morning Post (Cairns, Queensland)
The North Australian and Northern Territory Government Gazette (Darwin, NT)
Northern Standard (Darwin, NT)
North Australian (Darwin, NT)
Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW)
A full list of newspapers titles is available at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/titles .

Family History Feast at SLV

The anual 2011 Family History Feast will be held at the State Library of Victoria on Monday 1 August 2011 commencing at 10am. Bookings will open via Public Record Office Victoria website on Monday 23 May (online bookings preferred) or email ask.prov@prov.vic.gov.au or telephone (03) 9348 560

Speakers inlcude:

• Indigenous Family History Research - Public Record Office Victoria
• VicHeritage at Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages - overview of current projects. Peter Gloury VicHeritage Manager, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
• Viewing of WDYTYA dvd (Shane Bourne episode) available at 12.30pm in the Theatrette.
• Conscription records - Mark Brennan, National Archives of Australia
• Australian published collections - Katie Flack, Librarian, State Library of Victoria
• Introduction to VAFHO and the Don Grant Lecture by Jenny Harkness, VAFHO President. 2011 Don Grant Lecture: Storming the barricades: the family history revolution presented by Dr Andrew Lemon.

Obituaries Australia

Obituaries Australia is a digital repository of obituaries published in newspapers, journals, magazines and bulletins. Here you will find the life stories of Australians from the earliest times to the present.  Enter a name in the Quick Search box to get started. The Advanced Search function offers the ability to search by occupation, life dates, birthplace, religion, ethnicity, author and source.  Go to http://oa.anu.edu.au/