FamilySearch

Here is a list of what's new and free on FamilySearch so far this year.

Country	Collection	Indexed Records
Australia	Australia, South Australia, School Admission Registers, 1873–1985	50,944
Austria	Austria, Carinthia, Gurk Diocese, Catholic Church Records, 1527–1986	75,102
Belgium	Belgium, East Flanders, Civil Registration, 1541–1914	2,757
Benin	Benin, Civil Registration of Deaths, 1891–2014	10
Bolivia	Bolivia Catholic Church Records, 1566–1996	419,322
Brazil	Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Civil Registration, 1829–2012	4,552,840
Brazil	Brazil, São Paulo, Immigration Cards, 1902–1980	2,120
Cape Verde	Cape Verde, Catholic Church Records, 1787–195	19,477
Chile	Chile, Cemetery Records, 1821–2015	70,261
Costa Rica	Costa Rica, Civil Registration, 1823–1975	75,296
Czech Republic	Czech Republic, Church Books, 1552–1981	1,059
Dominican Republic	Dominican Republic Civil Registration, 1801–2010	6,437
El Salvador	El Salvador Civil Registration, 1704–2001	306,119
England	England, Derbyshire, Church of England Parish Registers, 1537–1918	319
England	England, Northumberland, Parish Registers, 1538–1950	994,791
France	France, Calvados, Military Registration Cards, 1867–1921	1,388
France	France, Convict Register, 1650–1867	48,409
France	France, Haute-Garonne, Toulouse, Church Records, 1539–1793	1,151
France	France, Saône-et-Loire, Parish and Civil Registration, 1530–1892	3,064,022
France	France, Vienne, Census, 1856	372,562
France	France, Vienne, Census, 1876	304,196
France	France, Vienne, Military Draft Cards, 1867–1921	511
Germany	Germany, Baden, Archdiocese of Freiburg im Breisgau, Catholic Church Records, 1678–1930	7,397,644
Germany	Germany, Baden, Stebbach, Church Book Extracts, 1675–1951	3,457
Germany	Germany, Bavaria, Diocese of Augsburg, Catholic Church Records, 1615–1939	2,871,125
Germany	Germany, Rhineland, Diocese of Trier, Catholic Church Records, 1704–1957	34,378
Germany	Germany, Schleswig-Holstein, Kreis Steinburg, Civil Registration, 1874–1983	17,160
Hungary	Hungary Civil Registration, 1895–1980	113,787
United States	Italy, Campobasso, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1809–1918	7,900
Italy	Italy, Mantova, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1496–1906	34,729
Italy	Italy, Terni, Civil Registration, 1861–1921	123,204
Italy	Italy, Vicenza, Bassano del Grappa, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1871–1942	120,752
Netherlands	Netherlands, Noord-Holland, Civil Registration, 1811–1950	55,943
Nicaragua	Nicaragua Civil Registration, 1809–2013	35,367
Other	BillionGraves Index	173,946
Peru	Peru, Diocese of Huacho, Catholic Church Records, 1560–1952	19,808
Peru	Peru, La Libertad, Civil Registration, 1903–1998	18,924
South Africa	South Africa, Pietermaritzburg Estate Files 1846–1950	3,686
South Africa	South Africa, Cape Province, Civil Deaths, 1895–1972	330,782
South Africa	South Africa, Transvaal, Civil Death, 1869–1954	134,526
United Kingdom	Great Britain, War Office Registers, 1772–1935	3,153
United States	Delaware Vital Records, 1650–1974	126
United States	Georgia Probate Records, 1742–1990	321
United States	Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871–1920	94,757
United States	Indiana, Ripley County, Osgood, Greendale Cemetery Records, 1861–2007	4,443
United States	Maine, Tombstone Inscriptions, Surname Index, 1620–2014	129,668
United States	Maryland, Baltimore, Loudon Park Cemetery, Cemetery Records, 1853–1986	356,122
United States	Missouri, Civil Marriages, 1820–1874	785
United States	Missouri, Pre-WWII Adjutant General Enlistment Contracts, 1900–1941	83,991
United States	Montana, Cascade County Records, 1880–2009	45,437
United States	Montana, Granite County Records, 1865–2009	656,620
United States	Montana, Teton County Records, 1881–2012	348
United States	Ohio, County Naturalization Records, 1800–1977	20,709
United States	Texas, Swisher County Records, 1879–2012	72
United States	United States, Cemetery Abstracts	288,877
United States	United States, Native American, Eastern Cherokee Indian Reservation Rolls, 1848–1970	769
United States	United States, Obituaries, American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1899–2012	1,392,105
United States	United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917–1940	487,730
United States	Virginia, Lynchburg, Diuguid Funeral Home records, 1820–1971	39

WDYTYA 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 RB Digital eMagazines.

Inside this month's issue

• 
  Grow your research
  WDYTYA? genealogist Laura Berry reveals the TV show's brick wall busting family history strategies
• Are you descended from royalty?
  Anthony Adolph sorts the myths from the facts in researching royal ancestry
• We will remember them
  How to find your forebear's name on a war memorial
• Park life
  Looking forward to a springtime stroll in a public park? Sue Wilkes explains how they revolutionised our ancestors' leisure time
• Reader story
  How Lynda Giller discovered her great grandmother's scandalous affair
• Plus...
  How to find your ancestor's apprentice records; using reverse image search; the lives of laundresses; and much more...

Families in British India

Did your family spend time in India during the time of British rule?   The Families In British India Society (FIBIS) is a self-help organisation devoted to members researching their British India family history and the background against which their ancestors led their lives in India under British rule.

Their database has a number of resources available to search, and recently 15,376 names from the Times of India arrival and departure notices for 1896 have now been uploaded to the FIBIS database website. This batch comprises of 8,023 arrivals and 7,353 departures and brings the total number of arrival and departure notices transcribed by this project to 501,298.

The FIBIS database contains a number of other resources, including bonds, cemeteries and monuments, censuses, civil service records, directories, maritime records, military records, railways, schools and orphanages, and wills and probate.  All are fee to search.

WW1 Monumenta

Retired artist Howard Wood has created WW1 Monumenta, a new website of 360-degree photo panoramas of Commonwealth First World War cemeteries in France and Belgium. It features approximately 500 cemeteries so far, with plans to add up to 450 more.

Cemeteries are listed in alphabetical order, so you simply find the mane of the cemetery you are looking for and see if there is a link to that name yet.  If there is, you can enter the cemetery and conduct a full 360 degree sweep.  Individual headstones are not photographed, but you can get the feeling of standing in the cemetery (generally a central point) and turning around for a seamless view.

While the website is clearly still in development, a huge amount of work has already been done, and the result gives you a feeling of actually standing in the cemetery taking in the views.

1828 Census of New South Wales

Great news for those researching their early Australian family history.  The New South Wales State Archives have just announced they are in the process of digitising the 1828 Census of New South Wales, which will also be included in the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register.  Below is the statement put out by the Archives.

"We are thrilled that records of the 1828 Census of NSW which we hold as part of the State Archives Collection are to be inscribed on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register. This is wonderful national and international recognition of the State Archives Collection and our work in preserving and making accessible the State’s archives.

The 1828 Census was the first official census undertaken by NSW after it was found the Governor had no authority to compel free men to come to a muster – the previous means of counting the colony’s population.

The Census covers some 36,500 inhabitants, both convict and free, and captures a social and economic picture of the Colony of NSW in November 1828, 40 years after the Colony’s establishment. It covers all settlements within the jurisdiction of the then colony of NSW including Moreton Bay and Norfolk Island.

It records such detailed information for each person (including children) as name, age, if free or convict, if born in the colony or ship and year of arrival, sentence if arrived as a convict, religion, employment, residence, district, total number of acres, acres cleared, acres cultivated, horses, horned cattle, sheep, and remarks.

The records to be inscribed on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register include:

• Alphabetical Return, 1828 (NRS 1272)
• Householders’ Returns (NRS 1273)
• District Abstracts (NRS 1274)
• Working Papers (NRS 1275)
• Colonial Secretary’s Special Bundles: 1828 Census (NRS 906)

We are in the process of digitising this material which will be made available on our website in the coming weeks.

We will also be announcing some exciting plans for the 1828 Census that will allow more people than ever before to view the documents – stay tuned!"

Like many others, I'll be keeping an eye on the Archives website and looking forward to delving into the records as they become available.

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 RB Digital eMagazines.

Inside this month's issue

• Census tips
  We reveal how you can track down your family in every census
• Transcription Tuesday
  WDYTYA? Magazine needs you! Find out how you can support our annual family history volunteer event
• Understanding your DNA results
  DNA ethnicity tests are transforming family history - but can you trust their findings?
• Sent with love
  The surprising origins of Valentine's Day cards
• Reader story
  The mystery behind a photograph of a Second World War airman
• Plus...
  How to find criminal ancestors; technical tips on scanning family photographs; tithe maps explained; and much more...

London Lives

London Lives is a website which makes available, in a fully digitised and searchable form, a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London, with a particular focus on plebeian Londoners. This resource includes over 240,000 manuscript and printed pages from eight London archives and is supplemented by fifteen datasets created by other projects and provides access to historical records containing over 3.35 million name instances.

The lives of plebeian Londoners most often intersected with institutional records when they were caught up in the criminal justice system, or sought poor relief or medical treatment. The choice of sources was designed to capture this pattern of interaction, but the website also seeks to include comprehensive archival collections.

For criminal justice, the site includes the already digitised Old Bailey Proceedings, the largest printed source detailing the lives of non-elite people ever produced. This is supplemented with the most descriptive related records about serious crime available, including all surviving examples of the:

• Ordinary's Accounts (OA): biographies of executed criminals written by the chaplain of Newgate Prison.
• Sessions Papers (PS): manuscript documents which provide additional evidence about the crimes tried at the Old Bailey and other courts, as well as documents concerning poor relief.
• Criminal Registers (CR): lists of prisoners held in Newgate Prison.
• Coroners's Inquests (IC): documents relating to deaths thought to be suspicious, but which did not result in a formal prosecution.

Official responsibility for poor relief lay with London's parishes, of which there were more than one hundred, many of which have left very rich archives. The records of three parishes have been comprehensively digitised for this project:

• St Botolph Aldgate (straddling the eastern boundary between the City of London and Middlesex)
• St Clement Danes (Westminster)
• St Dionis Backchurch (City of London)

These parishes were chosen for the quality of their records, and the extent to which they exemplify different parts of London. Each of the selected parishes had a distinctive social and occupational composition. These are supplemented with the records of three parishes with externally created datasets of settlement and workhouse records from two further parishes:

• St Martin in the Fields (Westminster)
• St Luke Chelsea (just to the west of the built up area of London)

Charity for the poor also came from the guilds and associational charities. Included are the records of one London guild, the Carpenters' Company. This was one of the less prestigious companies and included a number of plebeian members. It also distributed considerable charitable funds to its members. Also included are partial transcriptions of the registers of the Marine Society, a charity which provided training at sea for poor boys.

Medical care for the poor was provided in parochial workhouses, reflected in the parish records, and hospitals. The database contains the records of one of the royal hospitals, St Thomas's Hospital, including its detailed admissions and discharge registers.

So take a look through London Lives and see what it can tell you about the lives of your ancestors.  Even if there are few (or no) specific records for your family, they provide an invaluable insight into the social conditions and attitudes of the time.