What "I Didn't Find Anything" Really Means

When you’re researching in any resource — a book, database, microfilm or whatever — remember that “I didn’t find anything” really means “I didn’t find what I was looking for in this resource.” It doesn’t mean that your person isn’t there, it just means you didn’t find them in that particular resource with the search strategy you were using.
It is entirely possible, of course, that your person really isn’t in those records. But before you write them off completely, ask yourself if there’s something else you should be considering or another way of searching for the records you are after.
Consider the source you’re using.  Was it a database or an index? Not finding someone in an index is different than not finding them in the records themselves.  Look at the source – is it complete, or are there gaps, missing pages or years that could cover the record you are looking for.  Some records haven’t survived in complete form.  Is it transcribed?  Could there be spelling errors in the transcription – or in the original records themselves?
For those times when the record you’re looking for doesn’t exist — either your ancestor isn’t in the record or the record was destroyed — think about other records that could give you the same information.
If you’re in a database, will it search variations in spelling or do you need to do multiple searches to find both “Smith” and “Smythe”? What about Mc and Mac?
Did you put too much into your search? Some databases will try to match everything that you enter, and if you search for William Ramsey, born 1870 in Kyabram, it won’t return a record that has William Ramsey, born 1869 in Kyabram. Play with your search terms – sometimes less is more.
Consider not searching at all.  Stop searching and start browsing. You never know what you might find hidden by a spelling error or some other small difference when you browse through a set of records.

What's in a Name?

From church records to birth, marriage and death registrations, census records to electoral rolls and passenger lists to immigration and naturalization records, many of our favourite sources for family information have captured a variety of spellings, handwritings, and abbreviations.  As those historical collections have been digitized and transcribed, modern day technicians have struggled to correctly interpret and preserve an entry from long ago, and subsequently we as researchers have struggled to find them.

If there is one thing I have learnt in my years of researching my family, it is that NO surname, however simple, will EVER be recorded with the same spelling all the time.  When researching, always consider how a name may have been misspelled or incorrectly recorded.  Remember that the clerk creating the record spelled the name the way he felt like spelling it - how it sounded to him at the time.  And frequently he got it wrong.  Sometimes he got it spectacularly wrong!

Abbreviations can also complicate research - William was often abbreviated as Wm, Thomas as Thos or Tom, Patrick as Pat or Patk or Patr, Daniel as Dan or Danl or Danny, Margaret as Maggie, Elizabeth as Beth or Eliza.  When searching for an ancestor, be mindful that an exact search for a given name may unintentionally hide an ancestor from view if the original record or transcription used an abbreviation.

In addition to alternate spellings and abbreviations, another source of name variations comes from errors made during the transcription process.  As people transcribe family history records, they seek to preserve content exactly as it appears in the historical original.  Despite best efforts, errors do occur and names can be unintentionally altered.  Consider how old handwriting may be misinterpreted - both by you and by earlier transcribers or indexers. 

Some databases are quite flexible in regards to spelling variations when searching, but they will never cover every possible error and sometimes several searches are necessary to locate an elusive record.  Remember to be creative and keep digging - you never know what you might find - or how it may be spelled!

Researching others

Our ancestors did not live in a vacuum. They had extended family members, neighbours, business contacts, colleagues, friends and aquaintances. This has implications for us in two ways:

• People tend to do things in groups.
• People tend to follow predictable patterns of who they associate with.

Both of these can benefit our research. In genealogy, researching one member of a group can lead to answers about another member of the group. We can piggyback onto these “other” people to find the ones we’re really looking for.
Look at the people mentioned in wills – who were the executors and administrators of the estate?  Who were the guardians of any minors?  Remember guardians were not necessarily appointed to take care of the children – their role was to protect their legal interests. Who were the beneficiaries?  Wills do not just list surviving children, they often also give the married names of adult daughters and other information. Who witnessed a will?  All these important roles were generally not given to strangers.  How does each person fit in?
Look at godparents at a christening or baptism, not just for your direct ancestor, but for all their siblings as well.  Each child may have different godparents – again, it is not a role given to strangers.  Who are they, and why were they chosen for the role?
Unless they eloped, look at the witnesses to a marriage.  Remember to look at both the civil and church marriage records if applicable, and if a person married more than once, check both - or all - marriages.
The same applies for informants on a death certificate, even the neighbours in a census or electoral roll.  Often families lived close to one another.
What about immigration?  Many of us have a tale of migration in our family. (“Great-great-grandad came to Australia from Italy”) but great-great-grandad probably didn’t do so in isolation. Chances are he either came here with a group of people and/or he was moving to an area where he already knew people.
This doesn’t just apply to moving to a new country. Our ancestors’ migration within a country (or even within a state or county) is often part of a group migration (people moving together all at once) or a chain migration (a few people go out ahead and other people follow later). We can use this to our advantage.
In shipping records, look at where others on the same ship came from.  Look at others already settled in the place your family settled.  People from the same area may have migrated in a group or followed earlier settlers.

England and Wales GRO Online Trial

The General Register Office (GRO) is piloting another scheme allowing researchers to order birth and death records as PDFs.
From 12th October the digital records will be available to order via the GRO website for £6 each for the next three months, a cheaper alternative to ordering print certificates, which cost £9.25 each or £23.40 for priority certificates.
GRO, which has run three previous pilot PDF schemes, said the scheme would run for a minimum of three months to allow it to “assess the demand for this service over a prolonged period”.
The scheme applies to birth certificates from 1837 to 1916 and death certificates from 1837 to 1957.  Marriage certificates are not available through this trial.
The records will not be immediately viewable, but are sent directly to your email address.  If you are using the GRO site for the first time you will need to complete their registration process.  Remember searching their online indexes is free.

Deniliquin Family History Expo

I was fortunate to spend last weekend in Deniliquin at their Family History Expo, spending a lovely two days visiting the many exhibitors, picking up flyers and buying books, chatting to many stall holders and listening to a number of wonderful speakers.  Every speaker had useful information to use in my family history research, and I am still sorting through all my notes - and the big bag full of goodies I happily carried home.
For those of you who could not attend - a brief summary of the speakers.

Friday
10.00am-11.00am Jason Reeves, Acquisition Manager for Ancestry Australia and New Zealand
Jason discussed searching the Ancestry database, using both the general search and the card catalogue, including optimising wildcard searches and using the search filters.
11.15am-12.15pm Anne Burrows, State Library Victoria
Using Susannah Nicholls as a case study, Anne showcased the records available through the various SLV collections.
1.30pm-2.30pm Andrew Gildea, creator of Finders Cafe
Andrew discussed the issues of sharing our research, documents and photos online, including plagarism, unfounded claims and lack of source citation and recognition, and the solutions to these issues offered by Finders Cafe.
2.45pm-3.45pm Joy Roy, fellow of Genealogical Society of Victoria
Did your ancestors swim to Australia?  Joy explored the sources available to research our ancestors' shipping records and how to access them.
7.00pm-8.00pm Dr Tim Sherratt, University of Canberra
Tips and tricks for researching the collections available through Trove, including refining searches and building an online collection.
8.15pm-9.15pm Lt Col Neil Smith from Mostly Unsung
Neil spoke about sources for researching the military service of Australians in World War 2, moving beyond basic military dossiers to more in-depth research of unit histories and each soldier's individual experiences.

Saturday
10.00am-11.00am Jason Reeves, Acquisition Manager for Ancestry Australia and New Zealand
Jason spent time charing more tips for searching Ancestry's many databases, then covered the details of taking an Ancestry DNA test and analysing the results.
11.15am-12.15pm Dr Kate Bagnall, University of Woollongong
Kate discussed researching Chinese Australian families, including understanding Chinese names and tracing families back to China.
1.30pm-2.30pm Suzanne Voytas, family historian
Despite the growth of records available on the net, not everything is available online and not everything online is correct.
2.45-3.45 Debra Parry, Melbourne Conservation Services
Debra showed how to preserve and protect our collections, including safe handling and storage of documents, photographs, memorabilia, artwork and other items.  She also horrified us all with images of the results of incorrect handling and storage.

This was the third Family History Expo I have attended in Deniliquin, and I congratulate the Deniliquin Genealogical Society on organising a wonderful weekend.

DNA and Genealogy

I was recently reading a post by Judy Russell, the Legal Genealogist, on DNA, and how the results of a test can be misinterpreted.  I've been thinking about doing a DNA test recently, and found her blog post absolutely fascinating.  I have included a link to it above.

Judy gives two examples of how the results of a DNA test can be misinterpreted.  Firstly - identical twins.  Because the DNA of identical (NOT fraternal) twins is the same, the children of both twins will share sufficient DNA to appear as siblings, and will share enough DNA with their parent's identical twin for them to show as parents.  So if your mother is an identical twin, her identical sister will show as a parent match, and that identical sister's children, your cousins, will show as sibling matches.  Just imagine the trouble misinterpreting those results could cause!

The second example is one I never would have considered.  If the person tested has ever had a stem cell or bone marrow transplant, then the autosomal DNA will match the donor, NOT the person's biological parent.

I know a number of people who have has a DNA test with one company or another, and for most of them the experience has been a positive one and the results have been approximately as anticipated.  There have, however, been a few people I know who have been surprised - or quite rudely shocked - by their results.  One friend (who has given me permission to refer to his results) turned out to NOT be a DNA match to the man he had always thought to be his father.  This was something both his parents has been aware of, but he had not.

While 'unexpected' results to a DNA test seem fairly rare, they are always a possibility - just as when researching your family history there will sometimes be surprises, shocks and scandals.  We all need to be aware of this - and be prepared to accept that our ancestors may have been fallable, our family stories may not be 100% accurate, and that every family has the occasional black sheep.

Historic Melbourne Directories now online

The Melbourne History Workshop has completed the first phase of the Melbourne Directories project, which involves the digitisation of volumes from 1857 to 1880. PDFs of the first tranche of directories can be found on the Melbourne History Resources site. Due to size constraints, each yearly directory is broken up into multiple files.

The University of Melbourne’s Baillieu Library holds copies of Melbourne directories published first as Sands & Kenny’s directory (1857-59), then Sands, Kenny & Co.’s directory (1860-61) and finally as the Sands & McDougall’s directory.

The Melbourne directories are a comprehensive listing of city addresses and occupants organised alphabetically by streets across the city. It is augmented by alphabetical, trade and professional listings, as well as information on leading financial, government, official, ecclesiastical, legal and municipal institutions, and other miscellaneous advertisements, maps and information. The directory includes town as well as suburban listings, with coverage including Melbourne proper and, from year to year, the expanding suburbs of the greater metropolitan region.