Journeys Into Genealogy Podcasts

 The Journeys into Genealogy podcast is now two years old with over 50 episodes covering a wide range of topics.  All podcasts are free and can be viewed on a variety of platforms.

Below are some of the episodes currently available, and they are always looking for suggestions of more interesting stories related to family history plus tips and hints on how to improve your research and help with problems people may be experiencing.

Genealogy Tips

• Researching theatre ancestors with Mish Holman
• Researching aristocratic ancestors with Anthony Adolph
• Heirloom Hunting with Chelsey Brown
• House Histories with Melanie Backe-Hansen
• Cemeteries and Graveyards with Celia Heritage
• Paul Chiddicks on “Dear Paul” and family history, heirlooms and more
• Scrapbooking – recording and bringing your ancestors to life with Jeanne Pope

Caring for objects

• Clothes and our ancestors with Steph Wood, exhibition curator at the V&A Museum in London
• Conserving books and photographs with Anne Bancroft, Senior Conservator at the V&A Museum in London
• Children’s toys with Will Newton, Curator at the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood (part of the V&A Museum) in London
• Hats and Millinery with Joanna Zara
• Heirloom Jewellery with Jacqui Larsson

Places and People

• Researching Italian ancestors with Julie Goucher
• A DNA story and a non-parent event (NPE) with Lezlee Liljenberg
• Maps with Chris Fleet of the National Library of Scotland
• 18th century politics and local towns with Jon Rosebank
• Researching Irish ancestors with Fiona Fitzsimons of Eneclanne.ie
• Huguenot ancestry with Simon Guerrier

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  

• Meeting the people of the past
  
• Get more from your Family History
  
• Nursing records
• Nonconformist Marriage records
• When was this photograph taken?
• What can you tell me about my relation's service during the Second World War?
• Search the 1921 Scottish census
• Food for Thought - communal kitchens of the Second World War
• And more

Trove : the Future Looks Bleak

The future of Trove, the National Library of Australia’s public digital archives, is in doubt with just six months funding left.  The library’s director general has revealed that it is facing “very, very big decisions” in the next few months.

The last tranche of funding for Trove, which receives about $5m annually from the Federal Government and has more than 20m hits each year, is set to run out in July. While there remains a possibility that Trove will be thrown a last-minute lifeline in the May budget, that will come just weeks before it could be forced to cease operations.  

According to the National Library’s modelling, Trove will need about $32m over the next four years to upgrade its digital archival system, which is aging. Introducing a paywall for users is not an option, the National Library’s director general, Marie-Louise Ayres said.

“From the very beginnings of the National Library’s work in the digital space, and we’ve been in this space now for well over 20 years, we have had one great driver – democratising access to our collections and the collections of other cultural institutions and making sure that they’re available to all Australians regardless of where they live, who they are, and their ability to pay,” she said.

“Free access to information is fundamental to libraries, and it is to us. So from our perspective, egalitarian access is what drives us and we have no interest at all in moving to an alternate model.”

Losing free, open access to the many resources Trove has to offer will be an enormous loss to students, historians, genealogists, and the many other people who regularly access the site.  Like many others, I will be eagerly awaiting news on the future of this wonderful resource.

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 : 

• FamilySearch Tops 5 Billion Historical Images
• New Y Haplogroup reports
  
• Donated: Louisville News Photos
• Dialing Up History
• 14 Organization projects you can do in a day
• Witnesses in action
  
• Scanning and reversing negatives
• Black Roots online
• Saving Heirloom Kitchenware
• 2023 Genealogy Conferences
• Using mtDNA
• Genealogy Source List
• 5 Essential Elements of a Source Citation

#52Ancestors - Week 52 - Looking Ahead

This is the last week of the 2022 #52Ancestors challenge, and I am pleased that I have kept up with the weekly topics throughout the year.  It has been a great way of revisiting various areas of my research, looking at topics from a different angle and thinking about my research in new ways.

The final theme is looking ahead, and for me this involves making plans for the year ahead, deciding where I will focus my next research efforts, looking at upcoming meetings and conferences and talks and making plans for research trips and visits to archives.

As my local community slowly recovers from the catastrophic floods of 2022 and the cleanup continues, we are all looking ahead to 2023 and hoping for a little less drama - the last few years have been scarred by Covid, floods, fires and other catastrophes, and we are all hoping for a little peace!

Genealogically, I am looking ahead to attending more meetings and conferences, hopefully in person but online if necessary, and furthering my research.  I hope to catch up with geneamates I haven't seen in person for a while and share the frustrations and successes of the last few years.

A huge thank you to everyone who has participated in the #52Ancestors challenge in 2022, and I am looking forward to participating in a similar blogging challenge next year.

#52Ancestors - Week 51 - Perseverance

For genealogists around the world, perseverance is a quality we all need to develop.  It keeps us searching for elusive records, checking through near-illegible handwritten records, following elusive trails through name changes, fudged birth dates and outright lies and deception.  Perseverance is a must.

A long running mystery for me that required perseverance to overcome, was the mystery of my great-aunt Alice May Pummeroy.  According to the Victorian Birth Index, Alice May Pummeroy was born in Carlton in 1897 to Alfred Henry Pummeroy and Eliza (Beseler).  Alice was only 3 years old when her father died of pneumonia, leaving his widow destitute with 4 young children -  Edith Margaret (who was a deaf-mute) 4, Alice May 3, Alfred Edward 2 and William Henry 4 months.  Eliza took in washing to support her family, and the local ladies benevolent society gave her 3 shillings a week in assistance.  All the other siblings can be traced through electoral rolls and other records, but Alice disappears, and for several years I searched for her in vain.

Eventually perseverance paid off.  In New Zealand, I found a record for an May Alice Pummeroy marrying David James Moorhead in 1918.  Looking in New Zealand for May Moorhead, I located several electoral roll listings before she disappeared again, reappearing in Australia as May Alice Moorhead in electoral rolls from 1950 to 1980.  David James Moorhead is recorded as dying in Victoria in 1951, age 77.  His death certificate lists him as being born in Christchurch, New Zealand.

It took further perseverance to continue the search.  There is no death notice for Alice May (or May Alice) Moorhead in the Ryerson Index or in the Victorian Death Index, nor was there a will with the PROV.  A fellow genealogist sent me another piece to the puzzle, with a death notice and cemetery record which shows May Alice Moorhead died 1st September 1989, age 92, in Salisbury North, South Australia.  She was cremated at Enfield Memorial Park, SA.

Why she chose to move from Melbourne, Victoria to South Australia I don't know - possibly she had children or friends who settled there and she moved to be closer to them.  All her siblings lived and died in Victoria - she was the one who travelled away.  This just goes to show that people can change their names, move to places you don't expect, and you just need to keep looking and broaden your search if you don't find them where you expect them.

Perseverance indeed.

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 :  

• The Family Tree Academy pictorial quiz
• Glimpses of a forgotten London community
  
• Who would be King? (or Queen)?
• Tracing Gentleman's servants
• The York Fever Hospital
• Double take : My ancestor’s alias
• IHGS: the school of Family History
• Your DNAworkshop
• A Family history treat
• An ancestor living in sin - surely not
• A big birth cover up exposed… 139 years later
• And more...