Church of Ireland Gazette

The Church of Ireland has put online the 1914 editions of the Church of Ireland Gazette, adding to the 1913 editions already available. This weekly publication published details on funerals, obituaries, school activities and community activities in addition to church activities.
Overall the contents of the 1914 Church of Ireland Gazette provide an invaluable insight to the opinions and attitudes of members of the Church of Ireland through changing times. Written and read by lay and clerical members of the Church north and south, access via the online search engine brings to life at the touch of a button how unfolding political events in Ireland and abroad were communicated to and received by members of this significant minority community on the island one hundred years ago.
The Gazette can be searched by keyword and access is free.

Bankruptcy Records Online

Researchers can now find out whether their ancestors were put behind bars for bankruptcy following the launch of a new record set at Ancestry.com. Digitised from documents held at The National Archives, the Debtors’ Prison Registers detail over 700,000 criminals detained in Marshalsea, King’s Bench and Fleet Prisons between 1734-1862. Fully searchable by name and date, most of those held were charged with insolvency, but a number of records also relate to vagrancy and sedition.  Remember you can search these records and many more on Ancestry Library Edition free at Camapspe Regional Library.

52 Weeks of Genealogy - Week 23 - Electoral Rolls

Shauna has chosen Electoral Rolls for her topic for Week 23, and in my family research I have gained a great deal of information from researching electoral rolls, so I love having access to them.  In her blog Shauna notes that "Electoral rolls can show changes of address, change of name for women after marriage, the death of a spouse or adult children leaving home. Sometimes an elderly parent moves back in with an adult child.  In Australia we have both state and commonwealth rolls and both should be checked as sometimes people only update one and not the other or they are updated at different times.  Information gained is mostly the person’s name, occupation and address but the information at different times can indicate deaths or separations or movement interstate and so on."
I have used the Electoral Rolls to track the movements of several family members as some individuals changed address frequently.  For my father's family they have been especially useful in tracking where his parents lived, as they covered most of the state of Victoria from the time they arrived in Australia until they died.  Tracking them through the electoral rolls help me pin down exactly where each of Dad's siblings were born and to make a timelone of where Dad lived in his youth.
My only regret with the Rolls is that they just don't date back far enough - most of my mother's family arrived in Australia in the 1840's and 1850's and, of course, we don't have the wealth of Census information here in Australia that they enjoy in Britain - having older Electoral Rolls would really be helpful!
Read Shauna's full article on Electoral Rolls here.  Thanks again Shauna - I look forward to reading what subject you choose to explore next. 

52 Weeks of Genealogy - Week 22 - Family Letters

Shauna is back after a very busy August as the National Voluntary Coordinator of Family History Month, and a HUGE congratulations is in order for all her work and enthusiasm in making the Month bigger and better than last year.  There was an impressive number and variety of activities across the country and I'm sure a lot of people were delighted by the offerings.  Well done to everyone involved.

Shauna's Week 22 topis is family letters and she tells us that "with the widespread adoption of email , Facebook and other social media as a means of communicating with family members, letters and correspondence between people is becoming a rarity. As family historians however, we cherish finding long lost letters written by our ancestors or correspondence highlighting family events and containing information that we are not likely to find in official documents."

I have very little in the way of old family letters but did manage to save some correspondence from one of my great-uncles, who I wrote to in my teens when I first became interested in my family history.  G-Uncle Russell had a very individual style of writing and sometimes it took a bit of effort to decipher exactly what he meant, but I am so glad I saved his letters - and that they were not among the many things my father threw away without my knowledge during one of his 'cleaning up' sessions.

Like many others, I rarely handwrite letters today, finding e-mail so much faster and easier, but looking back over the few family letters I have, I must say it is a shame.  I do print out and save important e-mails, but it just isn't the same as a letter someone has taken the time to sit down and write by hand.  It may be harder to read but a handwritten letter is just more personal - but it is also a dying art.

Shauna tells us "this blog challenge is to stimulate my own genealogy blogging efforts in 2014 by focusing on a different kind of genealogical record each week. I wanted a challenge that reflected my own archival background as well as my own genealogy interests and there are probably lots of other records that I could have included. The challenge has an Australian focus but most of these records will be found just about anywhere in the genealogy world."  Read Shauna's article on Family Letters here.

Canberra Congress

I have just booked myself in to attend the 14th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry in Canberra next year, and what a selection of papers they have on offer again.  Once more the organisers have excelled with a varied program of speakers covering a wealth of subjects.  The Australasian Congress is generally held every 3 years, and I missed the last one in Adelaide due to the ill health of my father.  I'm really excited to be able to make it to this one, and can only regret that I still cannot be in two places at once as there are a number of concurrent talks I would love to attend.

It is not just the talks that make these conferences so wonderful - the exhibits, the mingling with other genealogy enthusiasts, the swapping ideas, resources and brick wall suggestions.  This year there is even a Librarian's Meeting the day before, so I will catch up with some colleagues as well.

The theme for the Congress is Generations Meeting Across Time, and there will be more than fifty presentations and/or workshops allowing Congress participants to hear about the newest developments in family history research, emerging issues and the latest technologies.  There will also be an extensive trade display showcasing the latest publications, products and services for the family historian.

To all those out there who will be attending also, I look forward to seeing you in Camberra next year!

Irish Archives Resource

The Irish Archives Resource portal has significantly expanded the number of collections that can be searched on the website from 360 to over 500 different collections. It covers 34 archives in Ireland. Although this website does not provide ancestral records, it does provide index searches to many of Ireland’s key repositories. By searching keywords such as an ancestor’s name, it is possible to find out what archives hold what records. This is an important resource for anyone wanting to trace their Irish ancestors. This latest expansion makes the website much more powerful. Access is free.

Old and Interesting

Old and Interesting is a website devoted to the history of everyday domestic items such as washing boards, irons, brooms and kitchen utensils. What does this have to do with genealogy? Two things: it can provide context on how your ancestors lived and it can be a useful resource when you are trying to date old images and photographs that might happen to contain household items.
The website is a wealth of information on everyday household items, how they were used, why they were used and what they looked like. As an added bonus, by looking at this website you may be able to finally figure out the purpose of that old family doohickey/heirloom.
Thanks again to Genealogy in Time for highlighting another useful resource.