Family Tree US Magazine

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

Inside this month's issue : 

• Family Business - A Ford factory tour employee discovers his great-grandfather worked there, too — before Ford even made cars.
  

• First Generation - Make these three kinds of records your first stop when researching immigrant ancestors.

• On Her Majesty's Census Service - Dive into the soon-to-be-released 1921 census of England and Wales with this guide.

• Lost in the Woods - Stay on course with these 7 tips for fact-checking information you find in online family trees.

• Being of Sound Mind… - Create a “genealogy will” that outlines for your heirs what you’d like for your research after you’ve passed on.

• Picture Day • Clothing clues and good ole-fashioned research help date this school class photo.

• Immigrant Ancestor Worksheet • Track known information about the immigrants in your family.

• And more...

 

Really Useful Podcasts - Episode 4

 

The Family History Federation has now launched Episode 4 of its new series of Really Useful Podcasts.

This new episode focuses on Social Media.  The website describes it : 

"Joe is joined by Andrew Martin, family historian, author, digital archivist and host of The Family Histories Podcast, Margaret Roberts, editor of the Playing Pasts online sports history magazine and Publicity Officer for the FHS of Cheshire and Daniel Loftus, Gen-Z Genealogist and founding member of The Hidden Branch group for young family historians.

Social media can be a fantastic tool for both the individual family historian and societies to communicate and connect. We discuss the different platforms, their pros and cons and our guests offer some top tips on using them."

As a dedicated user of social media for genealogy, I have been using social media platforms Blogger and Twitter for a number of years, but there is always new information to be gained in how to best use various platforms.   This podcast helped me see new ways to get the most out of my time and resources - many thanks to the presenters.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

I have decided that this year I will again participate in the '52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks' challenge, run by the wonderful Amy Johnson Crow.  This free challenge will see participants receive a weekly prompt that they can respond to, and helps get respondents thinking and talking about their family history discoveries.

As Amy's website explains, the challenge can be responded to in any way you like.  Write a blog post, make a video, share a photo, send a message to relatives - how you interpret and react to each weekly prompt is entirely up to you.

So take a look at the challenge and decide if it is for you.  If it is, sign up for Amy's 52 Week challenge and see where it takes you.  #52Ancestors

GEDCOM Files

The GEDCOM file format was created by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, owners of FamilySearch, as a means of transferring family tree data from one genealogical website or software program to another, a wonderful tool for genealogists everywhere. 

GEDCOM is an acronym for Genealogical Data Communication.  The original GEDCOM file specification was released in 1984 and the latest version, GEDCOM 7.0, was released in 2021.  GEDCOM files use the ‘.ged’ suffix (in the same way a Word document has the suffix ‘.doc’). If someone shares a .ged file with you, then you will need to upload it to a family tree website or software to be able to read it.

Virtually all major family history software products and websites support the GEDCOM file format (I've never come across one which doesn't, but am happy to be corrected). This means that if you have your family tree stored on a website or you have created it using standard family tree building software, then you should be able to export your tree easily to upload it elsewhere.

There are limitations with GEDCOM and over the years its various versions have tried to resolve some of these.  This includes changing ideas of what constitutes a family unit (ie same-sex marriages) and the way the format is used slightly differently by different products.

It is important to be aware that not everything you may have added to your family tree will import into a new program from a GEDCOM file in exactly the way you expect.  Attached photographs and documents may not transfer well between products and it is possible to lose things like free form notes when exporting and importing.  So if you are transferring data from one place to another it is wise to check all your data appears as you would expect.

 

The Year in Review

 

A rather challenging and different year is almost over, and as I usually do at this time, I'm looking back at the genealogical highlights.  Feel free to make your own responses to each question.

1.  An elusive ancestor I found was - Not much as far as new ancestors go, this year I have concentrated on fleshing out people I already know about.

2.  A precious family photo I found was - my aunt Phyllis's 100th birthday several years ago.  I have finally printed out the photos I took and added them to my family album.

3.  An ancestor's grave I found was - My great great grandfather John Clark, buried in the same cemetery as his wife Ann, son James Nicholas and several other relatives.  The graves are not together, but cemetery records show they are there.  Now I just need to visit the cemetery in person to see his grave myself.

4.  An important record I found was - the death notices for my great grandfather James Nicholas Clark.  Not only was there a notice for him by his family, but also one from the Masonic Lodge of which he was a member.  I had no idea James was a Mason until I saw the notice in Trove.  Now I need to investigate further...

5.  A newly found family member shared - notes on common ancestors.  I keep basic trees on several sites - Ancestry, FamilySearch, My Heritage, etc mainly as 'cousin bait' to make contact with others researching in the same tree so we can share information - and every now and then I strike it lucky.

6.  A geneasurprise I received was - so many genealogical websites, archives and companies who made special effort to keep going during the pandemic.  From the National Archives UK making all their digital records free while in lockdown to Ancestry allowing libraries who subscribed to Ancestry Library Edition to let their patrons access the database from home, so many went out of their way to keep us all researching.

7.  A new piece of software or website I mastered was - the updated Trove website.  While I am still not convinced I like it better than the old version, spending time getting to know the ins and outs of the new site has been useful.

8. A social media tool I enjoyed using for genealogy was - Zoom.  Online meetings and get togethers have been the order of the year, with so many planned activities, conferences and meetings having to be cancelled by the pandemic.

9. A genealogy conference/seminar/webinar from which I learnt something new was - Family History Down Under.  Another conference which was held online, I have spent time during various lockdowns catching up on all the wonderful presentations, taking notes and using new knowledge and inspiration in my family history research.

10. I am proud of the presentation I gave at/to - sadly, nothing this year.

11. I taught a friend how to - use Ancestry from Home via my library's website.  Al huge thank you to Ancestry for making this possible.

12. A great repository/archive/library I visited was - the National Archives UK - online.  I've downloaded a number of wills and other digital records this year while the website so generously made them free.

13. A new genealogy/history book I enjoyed was - Six Tudor Queens - a series of six fiction books by historian Alison Weir, focusing on each of King Henry VIII's wives.

14. An achievement during lockdown was - a major cleanout and re-organisation of my family history files.  Something I have been meaning to do for a while now, I used time at home to sort all my printed and digital documents, make sure they were recorded and noted in my family history file and on my PC.  I've been pretty good at keeping things straight, but have occasionally missed printing a digital record or digitising a paper record.  A big job to get up to date.

15. Another positive I would like to share is ... The way the genealogical community has come together during the pandemic to keep going, change how we operate, go online.  So many meetings, classes and conferences were held online, meetings went virtual too, and so many resources were made temporarily available online when archives and offices closed. 

Irish Lives Remembered Issue 55

The latest issue of the free quarterly online Irish Family History magazine 'Irish Lives Remembered' is out now.   The magazine can be downloaded and read on your computer or tablet. 

Articles include: 

• 
  Fiona Fitzsimons – Jennifer Lawrence is a Galway Girl!
• Patrick Roycroft – A Blue Plaque for Mary Mulvihill: Pioneer in Science Communication in Ireland
• Eamonn P. Kelly – St Brigid: Her Cult and Relics
• Maurice Gleeson – Forensic DNA Testing vs Commercial DNA Testing – What’s the Difference?
• Brigit McCone – Ireland’s Russian Connections
• Nathan Mannion – Walter Butler of Roscrea who Fought for Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II
• Brian Mitchell – Tracing the Scots-Irish Ancestry of Abraham Hillhouse: A “How To” Guide for Genealogists
• Book Review – Ingenious Ireland: A County-by-County Exploration of Irish Mysteries and Marvels, by Mary Mulvihill (Patrick Roycroft reviews the 2019 reprint of a modern Irish classic)
• The Genealogical Publishing Company Book Excerpt – Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster and America (first published 1910; reprint of 2001) by Charles Knowles Bolton
• Book Summary – The Crosbies of Cork, Kerry, Laois and Leinster: Bards, Imposters, Landlords, Politicians, Aeronauts, Newspapers (2021) by Michael Christopher Keane 
• Book Summary – Birr Military Cemetery. A History of the Cemetery and Those Interred There (2020) by Stephen Callaghan

 

Top 100 Genealogy Blogs of 2021

The list of top Genealogy Blogs of 2021 is out, and CampaspeGenealogy is excited to be included, coming in at Number 73.

 

There are so many wonderful and informative Genealogy Blogs out there, covering a wide range of topics, sharing hint and tips, disseminating news, covering specialist topics and regions, and it is amazing how many have flourished during the trials of the last two years.

 

So take some time to browse through the list of blogs and see what our worldwide community of GeneaBloggers are talking about.