Trove Treasures - Death and Funerals

Over the years I have found a number of fascinating articles and notices on Trove, the Australian newspaper archive created in collaboration between the National Library of Australia and hundreds of partner organisations around Australia.

Death notices, funeral notices and obituaries are among the many useful offerings in the newspaper archive, and whenever I am lucky enough to find such notices they prove a wonderful addition to my records.  Of course not everyone who died had such notices in the papers.  Families had to pay for them, and for many it was beyond their means.  It is always worth checking, however, to see what might be available.

When my great grandfather James Nicholas Clark passed away in 1924 there were two death notices inserted in the newspaper - one from his family and one from the Masonic Lodge of which he was a member.  Had it not been for this Masonic notice, I would never have known that James was a FreeMason.  It is also worth noting the spelling error - the heading of the Masonic notice has CLARG, not CLARK.  The family notice also gives me his occupation - Overseer at Brighton City Council, and both notices give his address and the cemetery in which his grave is located

The 1889 death notice of my ancestor William Pummeroy also gives some valuable information about his life.  The first of the Pummeroy family to migrate to Australia, his death notice not only names the surviving children but notes how long he has resided in the Colony.  Note the daughters are only listed by their married names - only the unmarried daughter Jessie has her first name listed.

My Great-Uncle Alfred Edward Beseler, who died in 1954, had an obituary written in his local newspaper, adding some lovely detail to his life as a local photographer.  Knowing he had an office for his photography sends me looking for building records and rate notices, and knowing his profession in the area had me scouring local newspapers for events he attended and advertising for his business.

So have a look on Trove for what the historic newspapers have for you, and see what details they can provide.  You won't always be lucky, but there may well be unexpected gems of information you can glean.

New and Updated Records on Ancestry

It is always worthwhile checking to see what new records have been added to the database at Ancestry, as well as which record categories have been updated to include new information.  This may mean there is new data waiting for me to find, so I like to check back every few months at least.  Below are some of the recent additions for the United Kingdom and Australia.

New records for the United Kingdom include :

New records for Australia include :

Really Useful Podcast

The Family History Federation has just launched 'The Really Useful Podcast', a new series of Family History podcasts set to cover a range of topics and feature expert guests. 

Episode 1 is now live and focuses on Occupations.  The website  describes it -
"In this episode of the Really Useful Podcast, Joe Saunders is joined by Mish Holman, professional genealogist who is particularly interested in theatre ancestors and census enumerators, Mike Esbester, academic historian and co-lead on the Railway Work Life and Death Project and Judith Batchelor, professional genealogist, writer and tutor at IHGS.

Work affected our ancestors and shaped their fortunes. Occupational records can be used to research your family history and give a fuller picture of their lives. Among other things our speakers touch upon the need to think about women’s work, what drew people to certain occupations and offer some top tips for researching."

FamilySearch Completes Microfilm Digitization

Today FamilySearch International announced the completion of a massive project to digitize its collection of millions of rolls of microfilm containing billions of family history records from around the world. The archive containing information on more than 11.5 billion individuals is now freely available to the public on FamilySearch.org.

"We hope that all those who contributed to this milestone in the last 80 years feel a sense of humble accomplishment today,” said Steve Rockwood, the CEO of FamilySearch International. “And we hope the millions of individuals who will discover, gather, and connect generation upon generation of their family members for years to come because of these efforts will have a deep sense of gratitude for the many unheralded contributors who made those discoveries possible."

“It's a game-changer for everybody in the world. So, instead of having to come to the library, people can start accessing these records from home,” said Becky Adamson, a research consultant at the FamilySearch Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Over 200 countries and principalities and more than 100 languages are represented in the digitized documents. Completion of the project makes it much easier for individuals to make more personal and family discoveries.

To explore FamilySearch’s free collections of indexed records and images, go to FamilySearch.org and search both “Records” and “Images”. The Images feature enables users to peruse digitized images from the microfilm collection and more. A free FamilySearch account will be required to access the service.

So take a look at the new information available on this wonderful free database and see what it can add to your family history research.

Ancestry Updates DNA Results

Ancestry has just updated their ethnicity estimates for those who have done a DNA test with them, and like me there are many who are logging in to see what changes have occurred.

For most, there will be few surprises and no really major changes.  These adjustments take into account all the recent data added to the DNA database held by Ancestry, and uses them to (hopefully) give slightly more accurate ethnicity estimates for those who have tested their DNA.  For many who have been researching their family history for a while, their ethnicity estimates will be a rough reflection of what they already know about their ancestry.

The key is to remember that these numbers are estimates only.  DNA ethnicity is by no means an exact science.  These estimates are pretty good at the continental level, distinguishing between Europe, Asia and Africa, for example, in their estimates. Once they get below the continental level, to a regional or country level, all of them start to run into issues: country boundaries have changed; entire populations have moved; people from one area have invaded and intermarried with people from another.  All this makes accurate ethnicity estimates a challenge.

For me, once again my ethnicity estimates have changed slightly,  and, once again, they seem to have shifted a little further away from what I would expect.  My Germanic heritage has now disappeared completely.  I seem to have swapped it for a totally unexpected 9% Norwegian heritage - to date I have exactly 0 Norwegian ancestors in my tree.  At the same time, 33% Scottish seems rather high for the one great great grandparent who is the basis of the only Scottish line in my ancestry, while my Irish great grandparent only shows 2%.  My English ancestry was always high, as my father's entire family comes from Essex and Suffolk for generations back, and my mother's family has significant English heritage as well, so I would probable expect a higher number than the 54% I have now.

Ultimately, we need to remember that these numbers are estimates only, and can still be quite inaccurate.  More important to most who are actively researching are their cousin matches, people whom the DNA tests show are being related.  That is what I, and many other family history researchers, are truly interested in.

Family Tree UK Magazine

The latest issue of Family Tree UK magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines.

Inside this month's issue

• What are the stories of your ancestors’ homes?
• NEWS • Rachel Bellerby reports on the latest genealogy news.
• MyHeritage acquire French genealogy company Filae
• US and Canada newspaper removed from FindMyPast
• Oldest Stonehenge family photo discovered in collection of Queen rock legend Dr Brian May
• New online tree design at MyHeritage
• 1.1M English family history records added to FamilySearch
• 3 million Ireland prison records added to FamilySearch
• Israel Genealogy Association reaches 2 million records landmark
• 1M pages of historical British newspaper free to explore online
• 300,000+ individuals added to parish records collection at TheGenealogist
• 4.7 million New Zealand records added to MyHeritage
• Discover the Freedmen’s Bureau record collection
• Four new counties added to Map Explorer at The Genealogist
• New documentary explores the photography of ordinary life
• Redemption Song : the transformative nature if Caribbean genealogy
• A House Through Time : behind the scenes
  
• How to keep your House History organised
• Dear Paul 

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 Libby eMagazines. 

Inside this month's issue 

• Experts' tips The best family history tutors in the UK share their essential advice to help you bust brick walls and grow your family tree
• Family names Harry Parkin, the editor of The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain, explains where your surname comes from
• Helping Germans How Quakers reached out to Britain's persecuted German community during the First World War
• Reader story Richard Nichols reveals how he discovered his long-lost cousins
• Best websites Where to start tracing Welsh ancestry
• Plus: Uncover Merchant Navy ancestors, the lives of governesses, how to create a timeline of your ancestor's life and much more...