FamilySearch

FamilySearch Ushers in the New Year with 119 Million New, Free Records from 33 Countries FamilySearch was extra busy during the holidays. It added 119 million new, free records online (about 64 million indexed names and 55 million browsable images). This latest round of record updates makes 1008 historic record collections online boasting 2.58 billion searchable names and 466 million digital images of historic documents.

Trove

The National Library of Australia is pleased to announce that the following newspaper titles have been added to Digitised newspapers and more on Trove:
Victoria
Oakleigh Leader (North Brighton, Vic. : 1888 - 1902)
Oakleigh Leader and District Record (Brighton, Vic. : 1887 - 1888)
Sunbury News and Bulla and Melton Advertiser (Vic. : 1892 - 1900)
The Benalla Ensign and Farmer's and Squatter's Journal (Vic. : 1869 - 1872)
The Coburg Leader (Vic. : 1890 - 1913)
The Elsternwick Leader (Brighton, Vic. : 1888)
The Elsternwick Leader and Caulfield and Balaclava Guardian (Brighton, Vic. : 1887)
The Elsternwick Leader and District Record (Brighton, Vic. : 1887 - 1888)
Elsternwick Leader and East Brighton, South Brighton, Cheltenham, Mentone, Mordialloc, Oakleigh, Sandringham, Balaclava & Caulfield Record (Vic. : 1887)
The Kerang Times (Vic. : 1889 - 1890)
The Kyabram Union and Rodney Shire Advocate (Vic. : 1894)
Healesville Guardian and Yarra Glen Advocate (Vic. : 1898)
These titles have been funded by the State Library of Victoria
Tasmania
The Observer (Hobart, Tas : 1845-1846)
New South Wales
The Leader (Liverpool, NSW : 1946-1949)
This title has been funded by the Liverpool City Library

Royal Society Historic Scientific Papers

The Royal Society has put online their historical journal archive. The archive consists of some 60,000 historical scientific papers dating back as far as 1665. This is a fun collection to browse through even if you have no ancestors who were scientists. Included in this collection is Benjamin Franklin’s famous paper on his electrical experiments with kites, geological papers written by Charles Darwin plus Sir Isaac Newton’s first published scientific paper. The archive can be searched by author, title of the paper and time period. Access is free.

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.