Trove Maintenance Closure

An announcement has just been made regarding upcoming maintenance for Trove.

The statement by the National Library of Australia is  below :

"Trove will be unavailable from 6pm AEDT Saturday 9 December until 12pm AEDT Sunday 10 December 2023 so the National Library of Australia can undertake planned maintenance. Our enquiry service, Trove Support, will also be unavailable over this time. 

For information about impacts to other online and onsite Library services over this weekend, please see the National Library’s update. 

On 10 December you can check social media to find out when we are back online. 

Trove will also be unavailable over the weekend on 13 and 14 January 2024. Further details about this planned maintenance will be published closer to the time."

Scottish Indexes Conference

 
Are you interested in tracing your Scottish genealogy? The Scottish Indexes Conference is an opportunity to learn new research skills, discover diverse records and see how others have put these into practice. If you want to trace your Scottish family tree, this is the event for you.

This is a free event and is open to all. The conference starts at 7 am UK time and keeps going until 11 pm UK time. Each presentation is shown twice, once between 7 am and 3 pm, then again between 3 pm and 11 pm. You can come and go throughout the day. 

The conference is designed to be interactive and is best watched live, however some presentations from previous conferences are available to watch again. Visit the Past Conferences page to see what you’ve missed so far and catch up with some of the presentations. 

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: 

• Break down walls with DNA How to use DNA testing to trace missing ancestors 
• Disaster strikes Tracing your family in times of misfortune and crisis
• Reader story Gethin Matthews found three brothers' letters from the First World War
• Musicians How to find performing ancestors online
• Celebrating Your Projects Kelly Horsley explored her Romany family history
• The Highland Clearances The story of a Scottish tragedy
• And more
  

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 :  

• Gone! Just like that...
• New regions added to Ancestry DNA ethnicities
• Midlands region family history show: new for 2024
• New archive research centre to open in Lancaster
• 18th-century Map of Kent reproduced for modern-day collectors
• AGRA conference a ‘resounding success’
• Mary Rose Museum welcomes special visitors for anniversary day
• New ‘Wonderlab’ aims to draw on railway heritage to inspire future engineers
• Find My Past : master game-changing tips
• Surname clues
• A lasting mark: intergenerational trauma

National Archives of Australia Military Records

The National Archives of Australia recently announced they had digitised over 1 million World War II military records.

Army records from World War II usually include:

• attestation (enlistment) form, setting out personal details such as age, next of kin and former occupation
• service and casualty form (Form B103), giving details about units and postings, injuries and disciplinary charges
• discharge form, summarising the person's service (not included in all cases)
• head-and-shoulders photograph may be included
• other documents or correspondence sometimes included

The Archives also hold other record sets related to wartime service and defence, many of which have also been digitised and made available free on their website.

These record sets include:

• civilian service
• courts-martial
• merchant navy
• munitions workers
• soldier settlement
• veterans’ cases
• war crimes
• war gratuities
• war graves
• defence administration and policy

These are in addition to the World War I military records which have already been digitised and available on the NAA site.

World War I service records usually include:

• an attestation paper – completed on enlistment, listing next-of-kin, employment, marital status, age, place of birth and a physical description
• a service and casualty form – 'Form B103', showing movements and transfers between units, promotions and details of injuries and treatment
• military correspondence – between the Department of Defence and the soldier's next-of-kin notifying of wounds or death, awards and medals and asking questions on the whereabouts of a service member

So take a look at all these records (and MORE) that are availabe FREE through the National Archives of Australia.

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day, once known as Armistice Day, is one of our most important commemorative dates. On 11 November 1918, the guns on the Western Front fell silent, and the armistice with Germany to end the fighting on land, in the air and at sea was signed.

Each year on 11 November we pause as a nation at 11am for one minute of silence to honour all those who have suffered and lost their lives during wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.

A wonderful resource for hosts of a Remembrance Day service, or those commemorating at home, is available from the Department of Veterans Affairs.  Through their ANZAC Portal, they have a free Remembrance Day Kitbag.  It includes the order of service, music, making a speech, the Ode of Remembrance, a brief history, suggestions for a personal commemoration, guidelines to making a paper poppy, and more.

This year my home town hopes to finally have a normal Remembrance Day service, after being impacted by Covid in 2020 and 2021 followed by a major flood in 2022 which saw a number of army personnel deployed to the area to assist with sandbagging, evacuations and cleanup.

So wherever you are at 11am this 11th of November, take a minute to pause and remember those who have served to protect our freedoms.

Lest We Forget.

Family Histories Podcasts

It has been announced that series 6 of the wonderful series of The Family Histories Podcasts is now complete.  Hosted Andrew Martin, seven more genealogy-obsessed guests will share how they got hooked on researching their family history, tell us the life story of one of their most fascinating relatives, and finally share one of their own current research brick wall.  

Series 6 will feature the following quests;

• James Danter
• Jackie Depelle
• Phyllis Biffle Elmore
• Rick Glanvill
• Sven Grewel
• Clare Kirk
• Teresa Vega