New on Trove

A number of new and expanded newspaper titles have been added to Trove recently.  It is always exciting to discover new additions to the database, many courtesy of the hard work of local community groups undertaking digitization projects.

New Victorian additions to Trove include :

• Bacchus Marsh express (1919-1945), (1946-1954) [Bacchus Marsh and District Historical Society]
• Ballarat Courier (1883-1884) [Ballarat and District Genealogical Society]
• The Ballan Times/The Ballan Times and Blackwood, Blakeville and Myrniong Standard/The Ballan Times and Gordon, Egerton, Wallace, Millbrook and Blackwood Advertiser/The Ballan Times and Egerton, Gordon, Blakeville and Myrniong Standard (1890-1913, 1919-1920) [Ballan Shire Historical Society Inc]
• The Brunswick and Coburg Leader (1922–1926) [Moreland City Libraries]
• Elmore Standard (1882-1920) [Bendigo Regional Genealogical Society]
• Kyneton Guardian and Woodend and Malmsbury Chronicle (1863-1870) [State Library Victoria]
• Mildura Irrigationist/The Mildura Irrigationist and Murray River Cultural Advocate (1893, 1895-1896) [Mildura Rural City Council Library Service]
• Nagambie Times (1882–1913, 1919-1920) [Nagambie Historical Society Inc]
• Nagambie Herald and Goulburn Valley Advertiser (1873) [Nagambie Historical Society Inc]
• The Nagambie Herald and Avenel, Murchison and Goulburn Valley Advertiser (1873) [Nagambie Historical Society Inc]
• Richmond Guardian (1885; 1904-1924)
• The Tarrangower Times and Maldon District Advertiser/The Tarrangower Times and Maldon and Newstead Advertiser/The Tarrangower Times and Maldon, Newstead, Baringhup, Laancoorie and Muckleford Advertiser (1862-1894) [Maldon Museum]

 For a full list of recent additions, click here.

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 :  

• Out on a Limb
• Writers in the Family
• Ancestry Launches SideView
• Ireland Reconstructs Lost Records
• Portal of US History
• FamilySearch Wiki Hits 100,000
• NYC Vital Records Online
• Power Tools
• branchingout
• Keep or Toss? - Declutter your genealogy
• Public Access - Delve into the collections held by the U.S. National Archives
• The NARA Network
• Pomp and Circumstance - Finding school records online.
• Hometown Heroes - Pinpoint an immigrant ancestor’s Old World town of origin
• Filipino Family - Jump-start your ancestor search in the Philippines
• The Hats Have It
• Finding Publications with PERSI
• Preserving Digital Media
• Half-and Removed Relatives
• 8 Keys to Cemetery Success

#52 Ancestors - Week 33 - Service

Many families have a history of service.  To me, service is not just serving in the military, but also serving the community in other ways.  Serving in the Police, SES, firefighting and in medicine and welfare.  The events of the past few years have highlighted the important roles filled by our doctors, nurses, paramedics and ambulance crews and other hospital personnel.  Volunteering for community groups and welfare services - undertaken quietly and without expectation of reward by so many.  

Several years ago I learned that my Great Uncle David James Clark received an Order of Australian medal for his service to the community.  By searching the website Its an Honour, which explains the Australian Honours system and allows people to search their database of Honours recipients, I was able to discover more.

The website his the following citation

While I have the military records of many family members who served in the First and Second World Wars, this is the first civilian honour I have found, and highlights another form of service for me, which I need to explore.

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 : 

• ROOTSTECH 2023 will include online and in-person events
• 50 years of military history covered in new FindMyPast British Army Personnel collection
• Irish record project launches
• Battle of Britain: The People's Project
• New family garden trail at Elizabeth Gaskell House
• 1.3 billion records added to MyHeritage
• Explore your Viking origins
• Millions of homes featured on the 1901 Census now plotted on georeferenced
• From The Ashes: 1922 Irish Public Record Office Fire
• Your ancestors’ career changes
• Exploring the lives of your Welsh ancestors
• Researching ancestors in South Africa
• YOUR DNA WORKSHOP

Caring for Old Photographs

One question I am often asked is how to best store and care for old family photographs.  It is a challenge many family historians face - we become the family repository (if we are lucky) and our store of old,sometimes antique, photographs grows.

So here are the basics.

• The best place to store photographs is in a cool, dry place. Attics, sheds and basements are not good places to store your photographs.  A cardboard box in the shed or garage is just an invitation for mice to make a nest.
  
• Avoid storing photos extreme temperatures or in extremely high or low humidity. High humidity promotes mold growth and low humidity promotes brittle photos.
• Avoid storing photos in direct light - this will fade the images.
• Avoid magnetic or glue photo albums - these will discolor and ultimately destroy your photos.
  

The best storage is an archival safe box - but what does “archival safe” mean when it comes to storing your photographs? Archival safe means the photo box, album, sleeve, etc is lignin-free, acid-free, PVC-free and has a neutral pH to prevent the degradation of your photos.

Photo boxes are a popular way to store family photographs, and they are available from many camera shops and other stores. Even when you are using archival safe photo boxes, however, there are ways to further safe guard your precious photographs.

• Do not over fill the photo box. Stuffing “just one more” into the box risks scratching or tearing of your photo.
• Do not under fill your photo box either. Under filling a box encourages bowing of the photographs.  Avoid this by using the correct size box or use a spacer to if needed.
• Store similar sized photos together. This prevents excessive shifting that could scratch your photographs.
• Use archival photo sleeves to further protect your oldest or damaged photographs. Sleeves come in a variety of sizes.  Place only one photo in a sleeve and use a sleeve that is slightly larger than the photograph.  You do not want the edges of your photo extending beyond the sleeve.
• Over-sized photos?  Store in an appropriately sized flat box. Archival photo boxes come in a variety of sizes.
• Remember when you are handling your photographs, make sure your work area is clean and dry and your hands are free of any lotions or oils.

Disaster plan.  Sometimes the unimaginable happens and a natural disaster destroys your precious heirlooms.  A little disaster planning can prevent the loss of all your precious photos.

• Have copies made and store them off-site.  Distribute copies among other family members for safe keeping.
• Digitize photographs and back them up in cloud storage and/or on flash drive.  Always have backups of anything precious.
• This can apply to other physical items.  Take good photos of other precious items and heirlooms.  If Great Great Grandma's vase gets broken or her brooch is lost or stolen, at least you will have good photos of them.  
• Remember to record the 'who/what/when/where/why' in as much detail as you can.  It is all very well if you know this bundle of photographs were taken during your parents honeymoon at Hall's Gap in 1968 - but do your children and grandchildren know?  Will those details be handed down to whoever inherits your photo collection?  One of my 'lockdown projects' in the last few years as been to create a contents list for each photo box I own, and to go through all my digital photos adding details to the photo title.
  

 

Searching Deeper into Ancestry

Ancestry has one of the largest databases of genealogical records available, but do you take full advantage of what the database has to offer?  Hidden amongst the bigger, shinier records like BMDs, Census and Convict records are many smaller record collections that are often overlooked.  These records often don't show up in the first few pages of results when we are researching, and so we often fail to locate them until we dive deeper, narrow our results, to go exploring areas like the card catalogue and somehow stumble across them.

For example, did you know that Ancestry includes Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers 1567-1936?  The card catalogue contains the following description of these records :

About England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1936
This collection is mainly comprised of birth, marriage, and death registers from non-conformist congregations and churches in England and Wales that were turned over to the Registrar General following the Non-Parochial Register Act of 1840 and a later request in 1857. It also includes non-parochial registers from the Church of England at St Petersburg, Chelsea and Greenwich Hospitals, and registers from burial grounds and non-denominational cemeteries. You will also find Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist birth certificates. Details found in the records will vary depending on the event and the time period.

After locating this set of records in the Ancestry Card Catalogue (the dataset includes some 5.7 million records), you can then search this set of records specifically.  By drilling down in this manner I have located a number of relevant records, and my family tree now included Methodists, Quakers and Baptists that I never knew about and had not found in my general searches. 

Similarly, I regularly browse the card catalogue to see what new record sets have been added and what smaller sets of records I have overlooked.  By drilling down in the card catalogue to look only at records for Victoria, Australia I have found several record sets I had not known were available.  These include the following :
Australia, Army Militia Service Records, 1901-1940
Australia, Royal Australian Air Force Personnel Files, 1921-1948
Victoria, Australia, Battle to Farm, 1919-1935
Victoria, Australia, Divorce Records, 1860-1940
Victoria, Australia, Coroner Inquest Deposition Files, 1840-1925
Victoria, Australia, Asylum Records, 1853-1940
Victoria, Australia, Wills and Probate Records, 1841-2009
Victoria, Australia, Cemetery Records and Headstone Transcriptions, 1844-1997

Each of these records sets, when searched individually, gave me new information about my family I had previously failed to find.  Several I had previously only located indexes - such as asylum and divorce records - so locating the full record files was particularly exciting.

So take a closer look at Ancestry, drill down through the records, and see what specific record sets are available - you never know what you might find!

#52Ancestors - Week 32 - At the Library

It is always useful to know what your local (plus State and National) library has to offer you as a family history researcher.  So make sure you are a member of your local library and head on down to see just what they have to offer you.

My local library has a number of resources on offer.  Each library branch has a significant Local History collection available.  While many of these resources cannot be borrowed, they are available to use within the library building, and relevant pages can be photocopied.

They offer free access to Ancestry Library Edition, via the library's public computers or using you own device logged in to the free library wifi.  Ancestry Library Edition allows access to all the records available through a paid worldwide subscription.  The only major difference is it does not allow you to create and update your own online family tree, and it must be used onsite (you cannot access this database from home).

My local library also has access to free online magazines.  Amongst the hundreds of titles available are Who Do You Think You Are, Family Tree US, Family Tree UK, Traces, and a number of BBC History magazines.  All can be read online anywhere in the world by logging in with your library card number and PIN, and it is available free.

The library holds various Family History talks, and the class notes from all those talks are available on the library website.  There are also a number of useful links for Family History researchers and downloadable family record sheets.  There is also this blog.

Library staff are always available to assist with accessing these resources and help you get started using them.  And it is all free.