#52Ancestors - Week 28 - Characters

 Every family has its stand-out characters, be they black sheep or lovable larrikins.  Sometimes we find out about them through family stories handed down, sometimes we see them acting out in photos, sometimes it is through newspaper reports and other records left behind.

One of my favourite family characters is my uncle Ernest Green, known to all as Squib.  Stories about his exploits abound.  In World War 2 he was stationed in Egypt and was frequently disciplined for practical jokes, drinking and going AWOL.  He was fond of telling the story of how at the end of the war he and a mate volunteered on a ship transporting soldiers home that was calling for bakers.  As they used to work for a baker they were accepted - until they were taken to the kitchens and asked to bake bread, at which point they had to admit that they just drove the horse and delivered the bread, they didn't bake it.

 
Squib was second oldest of the 10 Green siblings, and I have only one precious photo of all ten siblings together.  Somewhat blurry, it was taken on the day of their mother's funeral, and has the siblings gathered around their father.  It is not hard to work out which sibling is Squib - he is the one with the beer bottle balanced on his head!

 

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 :

• Rare 17th century embroidery acquired for the Nation
  
• 6 million Sussex parish records now on Ancestry
• 60,000 Dublin records to explore
• Dunkirk painting owned by Sir Winston Churchill goes on public display
• How to get involved helping FamilySearch index records as a volunteer
• Did your ancestor receive a Military Award ot Honour?
• 2 million UK prisoner of war records now available at FamilySearch
• Two new collections to enjoy at SoG
• The passing of Iain Swinnerton
• Family photos between the wars.
• Our land-holding Scottish ancestors
• Why study local history?
• Photogenealogy : Step 1 Gather & Back-up your Photos
• Why did he die so  young?

 

 

#52Ancestors - Week 27 - Extended Family

In researching our family history, how far along each branch do we research the extended family?  Do we research just our direct ancestors?  Our direct ancestors and their siblings?  Do we branch out into cousins and second cousins and so on?  How far into the extended family do we want or need to extend our valuable research time?

For each researcher, making a judgement call on extended family is something we all have to do.  Our research time is not unlimited, so where do we draw the line and how far down the rabbit hole are we prepared to go?

We generally focus most on those people from whom we descend. But what about their siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins? They played a role in our ancestors' lives, just like those people play a role in our own lives.  How much do  we want to research their lives.

Clearly there is a limit on how much we need to know about extended family, and how much time and effort we can put into researching them.  The bulk of my own research efforts go into my direct ancestors and their siblings.  I rarely extend my research further.  Not because I am not interested in extended family, but because my research time is limited, my family is quite large, and I have to limit the spread of my tree somehow.  However fascinating the life of my third cousin twice might be.

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 Libby eMagazines. 

Inside this month's issue

• Out of the ashes The Public Record Office of Ireland fire and the Beyond 2022 project
• 23andMe Your guide to the DNA testing company
• Reader story Barnaby Rogerson's family tree includes brewers, farmers and Civil War survivors
• Hop-picking Caroline Roope on the history of hop-picking holidays
• Manorial Documents register How to use manorial documents records
• Plus: The best websites for finding military records, how to use rate books, transforming a GEDCOM file into a website and more

#52Ancestors - Week 26 - Identity

From people who are known by nicknames to those who use their middle names, from people with the same names to those who change their names completely, sometimes proving the identity of a particular relative can be a challenge that is almost impossible.

Several of my relatives have commonly used nicknames or middle names, even in official records.  One of my uncles was always known as David - it wasn't until I went looking for his military records that I discovered he was actually named William David, but always called David by the family because his father was William.  When looking for official records, he sometimes appears under each name, and they appear to be interchangeable.  In less formal records he always appears as David.

My father's older brother Ernest was always known in the family as Squib, and in some records he is actually recorded by this nickname.  I have learned that if I cannot find him in any records by his proper name, it is a good idea to check under his nickname as well.

Another time it is challenging to establish someone's identity is when there are multiple individuals with the same name.  I've written in Week 24 - Popular name about my Irish ancestors.  In my Mulholland family four brothers all named their first son James, after their father.  One child died at 2 days old and the name was reused 18 months later.  This meant there were five children named James Mulholland, born within five years and a few miles of each other. Determining the identity of each individual is a challenge, especially when two of these men (including my direct ancestor) married women named Mary.  They create quite a tangle of records.

Finding an ancestor who changes their name completely is a much greater challenge.  We all have a few who disappear from the records completely, some reappearing years later and others who vanish, never to return.  Some do not seem to want to be found and completely disappear.  Did they die?  Emigrate?  End up in a goal or asylum?  Sometimes the individual simply cannot be found.

Establishing the identity of our ancestors is fundamental to our task as family historians - and sometimes it simply isn't that easy to do!

What's New on FamilySearch

FamilySearch expanded its free online archives in May 2022 with over 49 million new indexed family history records from 46 different countries. Over 14 million records were added for Germany (Posen, Prussia), and collections from Brazil, Canada, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States each received over a million new records.

 

Below are some of the new or expanded records available along with the number of new records added.

Australia, Albany, Inward Passenger Lists, 1873-1924	5,907
Australia, Western Australia, Fremantle, Inward Passenger Lists, 1890-1911	232,955
England, Gloucestershire Non-Conformist Church Records, 1642-1996	9,894
England, Lancashire Non-Conformist Church Records, 1647-1996	387,755
England, Middlesex Parish Registers, 1539-1988	5,236
England, Northumberland Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1920	4,611
England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991	3,035,666
England Marriages, 1538–1973	329,190
England, Lincolnshire, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1574-1885	7,344
England, Prisoners of War, 1715-1947	993,584
Germany, Prussia, Catholic and Lutheran Church Records, 1580-1974	616,410
Germany, Prussia, Posen, Catholic and Lutheran Church Records, 1430-1998	14,504,330
Germany, Saxony, Church Book Indexes, 1500-1900	14,072

Currently there are over 16 billion records searchable in the FamilySearch database, with more being added constantly, so check out what they have to offer.

Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland

Have you discovered the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland yet?  This new website described itself as "an all-island and international legacy for the Decade of Centenaries.

The Treasury re-imagines and reconstructs through digital technologies the Public Record Office of Ireland, a magnificent archive destroyed on June 30th, 1922, in the opening engagement of the Civil War. 

This is an open-access resource, freely and permanently available online to all those interested in Ireland’s deep history at home and abroad. Together with our partners across Ireland and around the world, we are democratizing access to invaluable records and illuminating seven centuries of Irish history."

In 1922, the Irish Record Treasury contained

• 100,000 square feet of archival shelving
• organised into 4,500 series of records
• accumulated over 7 centuries.
• It was destroyed in 1 afternoon.

In 2022, the Virtual Record Treasury democratizes access to

• 50 million words of searchable text spanning 7 centuries
• 2.7 million knowledge graph triples
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The reconstructed records currently available include the Medieval Exchequer of the 13th-15 Centuries, the Cromwellian Surveys of the 17th Century and the 1766 Religious Census.

So take a look at this great new resource and see what it has to offer you in your research.