2016 Family History

2016 Family History is a new, free Irish genealogy education website, created by the National Archives and IrishGenealogy.ie and formally launched earlier this year. The site is aimed primarily at secondary school students, but can be used by anyone with Irish ancestors to learn how to use the many online sources now available.

The website guides you through the free online resources that now exist to help you with researching you Irish family history, with a workbook, detailed guides to the different kinds of records, case histories and targeted tasks you can undertake if you wish.

Modules include :

• Hints and tips
• Surnames
• Placenames
• Census
• Civil
• Church
• Property
• Military

British Newspaper Archive

The British Newspaper Archive has advised it will be digitizing and putting online the historic archives of Trinity Mirror, Britain’s largest newspaper group.
The digitization project will consist of over 12 million pages of historic newspaper content. It is expected to take roughly two years to complete the digitization process and put the content online.
The British Newspaper Archive currently has some 22.5 million pages of historic newspapers online and it is anticipated that this latest digitization project will increase the content held by the website by roughly 50%. It will also significantly increase the twentieth century content as the oldest newspapers held by Trinity Mirror only date back to the era of Queen Victoria.
There are some 320 newspaper titles in the Trinity Mirror archive, with the titles spread geographically throughout the country. The two most notable titles in the collection are the national papers The Daily Mirror (founded in 1903) and The Daily Telegraph (founded in 1855). Also included in the holdings of Trinity Mirror are the Birmingham Post and Mail and the Liverpool Daily Post.
Note that the British Newspaper Archive is a subscription database.  It has options that allow a pay as you go subscription, or you can choose between monthly, quarterly or annual subscriptions.  You can also register for a taste of the database, which allows you to view 3 pages for free.

Change at FamilySearch

For anyone who uses the FamilySearch database, you may have noticed a major change is coming - we are soon going to have to sign in to use the site.
Many of us who use the site regularly are already signing in - to use some of the extra features or create an online tree signing in has been necessary for a while now.  For others this is a new development.  It is worth noting that sign in requirements are minimal - name, username, a password you select, an email address or phone number in case you lose your password and need to get back into your account, a little bit of demographic data (male or female, country of residence, birthdate and whether you’re a Church member, since Church members have different needs from the website), a security captcha code to make sure you’re not a robot and your agreement to the terms and conditions and privacy policies of the website, and you’re in.  There is the facility to remember your login details on your PC or device, so overall it is a very quick process.
So why does FamilySearch require logins now?  Firstly, FamilySearch needs to be accountable to its records partners — the towns, counties/states and other repositories that made the records available for filming in the first place. Many of those records partners want to know that the data is being offered in a safe and secure online environment.  The second reason is because there’s more that can be made available on a personalized basis if you use some of the other features of the website and log in first.  You can now built a free online family tree and link in all the records you find, much as you can on Ancestry and other subscription databases.  It is worth remembering that all the wonderful content of the FamilySearch site is still free.
So take a look at all the FamilySearch site has to offer, and don't be put off by the new sign-in requirement.  They have put in a massive amount of effort in creating the site and is has a great deal to offer those if us researching our families.  And did I mention the word FREE!

Welsh tithe maps go online

Do you have Welsh ancestry?  The National Library of Wales has completed a project to make tithe maps of Wales searchable online.
The new Places of Wales website is in beta and welcomes feedback from visitors.  It makes over 300,000 records searchable online, along with accompanying apportionment documents.
Tithes were payments charged on land users. Originally, payments were made using commodities like crops, wool, milk and stock. Tithe maps were produced between 1838 and 1850 to ensure that all tithes were paid with money rather than produce.
These are the most detailed maps of their period and they cover more than 95% of Wales. The apportionments accompanying each map list the payable tithes, the names of the landowners and land occupiers, the land use, and in most cases (75%) the field names.
An almost complete set of the tithe maps for Wales is held in the National Library of Wales as part of the diocesan records of the Church in Wales, who kindly consented to them being digitised as part of the Cynefin project.  A complete set of accompanying tithe apportionments was supplied in digital form by The National Archives in London, who had digitised these documents before the start of the project.

November WDYTYA Magazine

The November issue of BBC Who Do You Think You Are magazine is out now.  Now available in digital form free to Campaspe Regional Library patrons via RB Digital.
Inside this month's issue

• How to track down your Army ancestors
  Phil Tomaselli surveys the records available on Britain's fighting units, from the 14th century to the 1950s
• Explore your archive
  Don't miss our guide to the wealth of information stored in the UK's 600-plus local archives
• Reader story
  The pupils of Wycliffe Preparatory School in Gloucestershire uncover the lives of Old Boys who died in the First World War
• Queens of industry
  John McGoldrick tells the story of the 20th-century 'industry queens' who became national celebrities
• Postal ancestors
  Susannah Coster of the Postal Museum explains how to investigate relatives who worked for the Post Office
• Plus...
  The best websites for military medals and awards; the lives of ancestors who worked as railway navvies; exploring churchwardens' accounts; and more...

South Australia Immigration Records on FamilySearch

Over 200,000 records of those who emigrated to South Australia are available in a new collection on free family history website FamilySearch.
The new collection of immigrants ship papers, dating from 1849 to 1940, contains records of the names and ages of 201,371 immigrants, many of whom were British, Irish or German, and the ships they sailed on. The collection also includes over 6,000 digital images of the papers,  allowing researchers to view more details about the immigrants, including their profession and county of origin.

Immigration record of my Beseler ancestors

Information on images varies but may include ship's name, master's name, tonnage, where bound, date, port of embarkation, names of passengers, ages, occupation, nationality, and port at which passengers have contracted to land. Original records are located in the State Records of South Australia, Adelaide.

What "I Didn't Find Anything" Really Means

When you’re researching in any resource — a book, database, microfilm or whatever — remember that “I didn’t find anything” really means “I didn’t find what I was looking for in this resource.” It doesn’t mean that your person isn’t there, it just means you didn’t find them in that particular resource with the search strategy you were using.
It is entirely possible, of course, that your person really isn’t in those records. But before you write them off completely, ask yourself if there’s something else you should be considering or another way of searching for the records you are after.
Consider the source you’re using.  Was it a database or an index? Not finding someone in an index is different than not finding them in the records themselves.  Look at the source – is it complete, or are there gaps, missing pages or years that could cover the record you are looking for.  Some records haven’t survived in complete form.  Is it transcribed?  Could there be spelling errors in the transcription – or in the original records themselves?
For those times when the record you’re looking for doesn’t exist — either your ancestor isn’t in the record or the record was destroyed — think about other records that could give you the same information.
If you’re in a database, will it search variations in spelling or do you need to do multiple searches to find both “Smith” and “Smythe”? What about Mc and Mac?
Did you put too much into your search? Some databases will try to match everything that you enter, and if you search for William Ramsey, born 1870 in Kyabram, it won’t return a record that has William Ramsey, born 1869 in Kyabram. Play with your search terms – sometimes less is more.
Consider not searching at all.  Stop searching and start browsing. You never know what you might find hidden by a spelling error or some other small difference when you browse through a set of records.