The Pandemic One Year In

It has now been over a year since the emergence of Covid-19 changed our world in so many ways.  While here in Australia we have certainly not seen the worst of the pandemic, it has nonetheless had a massive impact on our daily lives.  there have been lockdowns, border closures, limits on meeting numbers, business closures and stand-downs at work, and the daily stress of not knowing how long the restrictions will last.  Living in a border town, seeing police on the bridge and helping people fill out border passes at the library where I work is something I will never forget.

Genealogically speaking, the biggest impact for me has been the loss of face-to-face meetings.  How I have missed chatting face-to-face with Genea-mates and the networking and idea sharing that goes hand in hand with meetings and conferences.  Online meetings just are not the same.

Despite the down side of online meetings, however, the rise of virtual conferences has allowed me to attend inter-state and overseas meetings that I would never have been able to attend in reality.  The genealogical community has pulled together, made use of the internet like never before, and been a huge step in providing so many of us isolated at home with interest, stimulation and contact.

The list of those who have made information and resources available online during the pandemic seems almost endless.  Rootstech went completely virtual last month - not to mention also completely free.  Ancestry allowed many libraries and other institutions to allow Ancestry Library Edition to be accessed remotely by members when the normal in-house only use became impossible due to closures.  Family History Down Under, an Australian genealogy conference scheduled for later this month in Queensland, has also gone virtual, as has the Really Useful Family History Show in the UK in April.  The National Archives UK has made all their digital records free to access while they are closed.  The list goes on.

The efforts of all these groups and companies in taking their services online cannot be underestimated, and I would like to send a huge thank you to them all, those I have mentioned in this post and the many, many others.  You have helped keep us sane over the past year - kept us researching, learning, chatting and helping each other.  Well done to you all.

What's new of Trove

The newspapers listed below have recently been digitised and made available in Trove. Note that the year range listed for the item is an indication of what's currently available in Trove, and not always the full year range the item was published.

NSW Newspaper titles

• NOTA - News Of The Area (Hawks Nest & Tea Gardens, NSW) 1970-1999
• Nowra Colonist (NSW) 1899-1904
• The Telegraph and Shoalhaven Advertiser (NSW) 1879-1881
• Windsor & Richmond Gazette (NSW) 1888-1961

VIC Newspaper titles

• Box Hill Reporter (Vic) 1925-1930
• The Reporter (Box Hill, Vic) 1889-1925
• The Brunswick and Coburg Leader (Vic) 1914-1921
• Mildura Telegraph and Darling and Lower Murray Advocate (Vic) 1913-1920

WA Newspaper titles

• Dampier Herald (Kununoppin, WA ) 1928 - 1937
• Cathedral Chronicle (Geraldton, WA ) 1931 - 1954
• Corrigin Chronicle and Kunjin-Bullaring Representative (WA) 1925 - 1943
• Weekly Judge (Perth, WA) 1919-1931

Beyond 2022 : Ireland's Virtual Record Treasury

June 30th, 2022, marks the centenary of the explosion and fire at the Four Courts, Dublin, which destroyed the Public Record Office of Ireland (PROI) and, with it, centuries of Ireland’s collective memories and records.

The losses in that historic fire include records of the payment of taxes, the enactment of laws, births, marriages and deaths, wills, maps, parish registers and town records from across the island.
Beyond 2022 is an international collaboration to launch a Virtual Record Treasury for Irish history—an open-access, virtual reconstruction of the Record Treasury destroyed in 1922.

Across the globe, more than seventy repositories hold substitute materials that can replace the documents destroyed in the Four Courts blaze.  Thanks to pioneering digitization techniques, the project aims to automatically transcribe large volumes of handwritten records, allowing users to connect, group and search diverse records from archives across Ireland and the World.

The Beyond 2022 team is working to assemble a complete inventory of loss and survival of the 1922 fire. In doing so, the team has identified ten main categories of surviving or substitute sources:

• Survivors: records that survived almost unscathed because they were held in the Reading Room of the Public Record Office, not the Record Treasury itself
• Salved records: records damaged by the fire, but not completely destroyed, now in varying states of conservation
• Duplicates of original records now held in partner archives
• Facsimile images made before 1922
• Antiquarian transcripts
• Printed editions
• Certified copies
• Published calendars summarizing the contents of the records
• Unpublished calendars in manuscript form
• Legal abstracts

Ireland’s Virtual Record Treasury will gather into a single database all the information it can about these substitute sources from archives and libraries in Ireland and internationally. The entire archive will be fully searchable, with its contents ranging from basic descriptions to fully restored records ranging in date from the thirteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

This is a truly stunning project which will help ease the frustration of many researchers trying to trace lost Irish ancestors, and significantly fill the gaps in Ireland's history that the fire created.

RootsTech has Started!

For some time now I have been looking forward to this year's RootsTech, which is 100% online.  In the past, I have enjoyed watching presentations after the event, as I have not been able to travel to Salt Lake City in America for the conference itself.  This year, however, I am able to attend the online event and participate more fully.

The list of presentations is impressive, covering a wide variety of topics.  You can search the presentations several ways, including by language or by topic - Keynotes ; Connecting with family ; Finding Ancestors ; DNA ; Placves, Records and Research ; Memories - Stories, Photos and Videos ; Traditions and Heritage ; Websites, Tools and Apps ; Latter-Day Saints.  Truly there is something here for everyone.

Not all the presentations are long - some run for only a few minutes but are still well worth watching - and not all are live - quite a few have been pre-recorded.  All will be available to watch over the next few months.  There is even the facility to create yourself a playlist of all the sessions you want to watch when you have time.

There is also an Expo Hall where you can visit virtual booths by sponsors and exhibitors from around the world.  Many have links to extra information, conference specials, downloads and more. 

I have already started creating my playlist and visited a few of the booths in the Expo Hall, and I know I will be spending a significant portion of this weekend glued to my computer watching some of the excellent presentations on offer.

Happy RootsTech!

Filling in the Details

A few weeks ago I published a post about the divorce of my great grandfather James Nicholas Clark from his first wife Eliza (nee Hawley).  Until recently my only documentation of this divorce came from newspaper reports of the court proceedings and James's marriage certificate to his second wife Pricilla (nee Mulholland) which describes him as a divorcee.

Then I was exploring new records available on Ancestry and saw they had listed Victorian Divorce Records 1860-1940.

I immediately did a search of this specific record set for James Clark and came up with a listing for his divorce, complete with a link to the original documents.

Viewing the record was the bonanza - some 55 pages of statements and court proceedings and other documents.  Full details of the circumstances of the marriage and its breakdown, dates and addresses, and the final Decree Nisi that dissolved the marriage.  

These documents fill in the detail of the marriage breakdown and subsequent divorce and are a wonderful find!

What's New on Ancestry

It has been a while since I have taken the time to have a look at what new records are available on Ancestry, and thus searchable on Ancestry Library Edition.  Over  the last months, quite a number of record datasets have been added, updated or expanded, and it is well worth another look.

Recent additions for Australia include graves, obituaries, funeral and death records ; Victorian passenger lists, Air Force personnel records, Divorce records, Coroners Inquests and more. 

Recent additions to the United Kingdom records include prison records, burials at sea, pension ledgers and non-conformist records.

While any of these records may turn up during a general search, you can also click on the tab in Ancestry for New Collections to see what is available.  You can narrow down by type of record, location or year range, then click on any specific collection of records to search them specifically.

So have a look at what is new since your last visit to Ancestry that may have records for your family history.  You never know what may have just been added that will fill in more detail for your family history.

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

• 17th century research Janet Few explains how our Stuart ancestors lived, and how to trace them in the records
• One-name studies Debbie Kennett explores the many benefits to researching a single surname in depth
• Regency etiquette Take a trip back to Bridgeton-era England with Mallory James' guide to the dos and don'ts of Georgian times
• Baptism registers Paul Blake gives his expert tips on finding the earliest records of your ancestor's life
• My family hero
Helen Brooks' great aunt was a nun who died saving lives
• Plus: How to find muster rolls, understanding Freemasons' records, the lives of nail-makers and much more...