WW2 Medal Recipients Online

The details of thousands of civilians who were recommended for and awarded medals for bravery in the Second World War including George Cross recipients, are now available to search for free online.

The names are taken from the records of the Treasury Committee which decided on the recipients of honours including the George Cross, the George Medal, the OBE and the MBE. The records are now held at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew. 

Adding the complete collection of about 6,500 individuals from 166 files to TNA’s online catalogue Discovery took a team of staff and volunteers two years.

Searching for each name brings up a short description of why the person was commended, what their action was, and what medal they received, if any.

Awards for agents in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret organisation that carried out espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe during the Second World War, are also included in the newly digitised collection.  

Australian Coastal Passenger Records 1852-1924

A wonderful new set of records has been made available on Ancestry.  The new dataset of Australian Coastal Passenger Records contains images of passenger registers for ships traveling between ports in Victoria, Australia, and ports in other Australian cities.

Records in this collection may include the following information:

• Name
• Age
• Gender
• Marital status
• Occupation
• Family relationship
• Nationality
• Departure port
• Departure date
• Arrival port
• Ship captain's name

Some names may be abbreviated, and children may be listed as "child with" and their parents' surnames. The registers have printed column headings with handwritten entries.

The registers were created by officials working for the government of the state of Victoria.  Laws enacted shortly after the state of Victoria was established in 1851 required ship masters to fill out register forms and submit them to customs officials before departing a port. The lists are formally called "Inward Passenger Lists (Australian Ports)" but are commonly referred to as coastal passenger lists. Beginning in 1924, documentation of interstate maritime passengers was transferred from the states to the Commonwealth.  The original documents are housed by the Public Records Office of Victoria in Melbourne.

These newly digitized records are a valuable record set for many whose ancestors did not migrate straight from A to B.  My Clark family, for example, emigrated from Bristol in England and settled in Melbourne, Victoria.  It took me several years of searching for their immigration records to discover that they actually travelled from Bristol to Launceston, Tasmania, then settled in Port Sorrel, Tasmania for several years.  At least 6 children were born in Port Sorrell or Launceston before the family moved to Victoria and settled in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda.

This new dataset will hopefully allow me to establish exactly when the family moved from Port Sorrell to St Kilda, finally solving a long standing family mystery.  Time to get searching.

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: 

• Research the women in your family tree with Who Do You Think You Are? genealogist Laura Berry 
• Find free parish records online How Online Parish Clerks are opening up records for everyone
• Guilds and freemen Find records online and in the archives
• 17th-century family Trace your roots back to the 1600s
• Research army officers Find more records about your military kin
• Cambridgeshire family history Everything you need to know to research your ancestry in the county

Photos in the News

Over the years I have blogged on numerous occasions of the successes I have had searching in old newspapers for articles about my family.  I recently had another great find.

Locating a photo of an ancestor in the newspapers makes an article even more exciting.  I recently discovered that my great uncle, Alfred Edward Pummeroy, worked for a few years as a jockey, so I headed to the newspapers to see if he was mentioned in racing news.

To my delight, not only did I find several articles about his short (and not terribly successful) racing career, but I also found a photograph of him with a couple of other jockeys.

Alfred is pictured in the centre of the three standing jockeys, and it is the only image I have of him as a young man, which makes this photo from the newspapers even more special.

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 : 

• Where would we be without them?
• ‘Stolen’ adoptee reunites with his birth family thanks to DNA
• World Heritage status for 51 Commonwealth war cemeteries and memorials
• New archives partnership releases two million Worcestershire records
• Herculaneum scrolls: A 20-year journey to read the unreadable
• How comfortable are we discussing death with family members?
• RootsTech 2024 registration is now open
• Sources, Evidence and Proof : What is proof?
• Imagine… one single family tree in the world
• The Granddad I never knew
• Friends,Associates & Neighbours
• The 1868 Bradford Election
• And more.....
  

Traces Magazine

Edition 24 of Australian histroy and genealogy magazine Traces is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines.

Inside this month's issue: 

• Heritage news
• The Hero of Waterloo Hotel, Sydney
• A history of Sydney Harbour
• Sideshow Barkers
• Acts of bravery – lives saved at sea
• Finding skeletons in the closet
• Researching Chinese-Australian family history
• How famous ancestors can grow your family tree
• Minnie Berrington’s opal dreams
• The Admiralty Islets diorama
• ‘Wait awhile’ in Western Australia
• What’s new online?
• The iconic Australian worker’s cottage

 

The Family Histories Podcast

It has been confirmed that the sixth series of The Family Histories Podcast has begun production.

Series Five concluded on 18th July 2023 with the bonus episode ‘The Rioter’ with show host Andrew Martin, which saw him unexpectedly end up in an alternate reality, where everything was the same but also a little different. In that reality, the show was hosted by Dr. Wanda Wyporska.

 

Now safely home in the correct dimension, the new series, the sixth since 2021, will once again be hosted by Andrew Martin, and will consist of 7 episodes, with 7 guests, 7 life stories, and 7 brick walls for listeners to help solve. The new series will air in late 2023.