Genealogy Cruising again

That's it!!  I've booked my next Unlock the Past Genealogy Cruise.  Anyone who has glanced at this blog probably realises I had a great time on the 4th Unlock the Past cruise last year, and now I am booked for the 11th Unlock the Past cruise – New Zealand to Australia.  While details are still being posted, the list of speakers and topics looks great, it is another beautiful ship (see below) with lots to do and see, and you will probably hear a lot more about it between now and next year when the cruise finally sails.  If you haven't tried genealogy cruising, have a look at the Unlock the Past website and see what is coming up.

52 Weeks of Genealogy - Week 29 - Military Records

This week Shauna has chosen military records and tells us that "there are lots of records that could fall under this broad heading but I will focus on the dossiers which contains lots of different information. To start there is all the biographical information contained on the enlistment form as well as a photograph in some instances (depending on the war). Then there is information on where they are sent, if they are wounded or ill, and when they come home. Sometimes there are letters from family at home seeking information on their loved one and perhaps letters from the person after their service has ended. Some of the dossiers I have are quite big while others only have a few pages."

I have the military records for several of my ancestors, including my father and two of his brothers, my mother's eldest brother and several great-uncles.  They cover both world wars and my family was extremely lucky, with all the immediate family returning from the wars alive and relatively unharmed.  We did have a second cousin killed in WW1, but everyone else made it home (it seems not even wars kill off my family).  The only exception was my mother's middle brother who was killed after WW2 ended, and he actually wasn't a soldier - he was in the Merchant Navy and drowned in an accident in Argentina in 1947.  He was buried there in a full Catholic funeral - a bit of an error as my mother's family is very much Anglican - and my grandmother was sent a number of photographs of the service and the burial by the kindly priest who officiated.

Having heard many family stories over the years about the various war experiences of these men, and the home experiences of the women in the family (none of my female ancestors were nurses, etc), it surprises me how many of them, including my father, saw the war as a chance to travel, see a bit of the world, give the 'enemy' a black eye and all be home by Christmas.  My father was always rather disappointed he never actually made it out of Australia during his time in the Air Force.  His brother Ernest (known as Squib) sent the postcard below to their sister Nancy from Egypt.

Through the National Archives of Australia I have downloaded several family WW1 records and ordered those from WW2 -  the NAA has indexed and digitised Boer War and World War 1 dossiers, which you can search and view online for free. World War II dossiers have been indexed but will only be digitised if a family member has requested it.  Other websites include Discovering Anzacs Whichallows you to add your stories and images, and the Australian War Memorial, which has databases like the WW1 Embarkation Rolls and WW1 Red Cross files.
Thanks again Shauna for another great topic.  You can read Shauna's full blog post here.

Canberra Congress

Are you booked to attend the AFFHO Congress 2015 in Canberra this March?  Congress is only held every three years and it attracts some of the best speakers in Australasia and overseas and lots of trade exhibitors - it is a huge event. See the program here and have a look at the speakers and the variety of topics they will cover.
Finding out more about the many speakers is easy, as not only is there information included in the program, bloggers Shauna Hicks and Jill Ball have been busy interviewing speakers over the last few months.  So have a look to find out more about the speakers you will be listening to - or what you will be missing out on if you don't make it to Canberra for the Congress.

52 Weeks of Genealogy - Week 28 - Tombstones

In her 52 Weeks of Genealogy challenge Shauna has chosen Tombstones for her topic for Week 28.  She is so right when she says we all get excited if we discover a tombstone sitting over an ancestor’s grave - I know I certainly do. But she is also right when she warns us that "like all genealogical records we should check the information against other documents. There can be errors in dates, spelling of names and just because someone is on the tombstone, does this mean they are buried there?  Burial records, funeral directors records and death certificates can all confirm what is engraved on a tombstone. We should get into the habit of checking all of these resources for deaths as there may be new or slightly different information on each."

I have been lucky enough to acquire photographs of the headstones of several family members, some during personal visits and others sent by relatives or located online through sites like BillionGraves.  The quality and amount of information on them varies a lot, as does the legibility and the state of preservation of the headstone.  As you can see, the tombstone of Susette Beseler (right) has weathered over the years and now some of the text is quite hard to read.


Other tombstones I have found contain the details of several people, such as the one on the left which is primarily for the Morgan family but also includes one of my Beseler clan, as well as 2 more people with the surname Foran. Given the condition of the tombstone photographed, I would also like to know exactly when it was erected, and by whom.  Certainly the date range covers quite a time period, and the stone probably dates from the time of death of the last person included - was there an older tombstone in place at some time that has now been replaced, or is this a more 'general' tombstone that commemorates several family members buried in the area over time??  Who erected this stone, and where did they obtain the information they have included on it?  I need to delve into the cemetery records for this particular tombstone to find out more - another little project for 2015 to add to my list.

It is worth noting that not all tombstones will actually date from the time the gravesite was actually used - the stones themselves could be installed at a much later date by relatives, or be replcements for older stones which have been damaged or destroyed.

My final tombstone that I will include here it that of my maternal grandmother, Gladys Pummeroy (nee Clark).  When she passed away in 1995 she was buried in Brighton Cemetery in the same plot as her father, James Nicholas Clark, who died in 1924.  Before this the grave had no tombstone at all - for over 70 years James lay in an unmarked grave - and while I am confident the information my family has included is correct (birth and death certificates, burial records etc all agree) this may not always be the case.

Thanks Shauna for another great topic - click here to read Shauna's full post on Tombstones.

52 Weeks of Genealogy - Week 27 - Census

Shauna has chosen Census Records for Week 27, and I must confess I do love England's wealth of census records, and have often railed against their loss in Australia.
In her blog Shauna says "I am sure all of us have benefited from being able to search the digitised copies of the UK census for ourselves. We can simply look up the indexed records in Ancestry or Findmypast and go straight to the correct image. But and there is always a but, not everything is straightforward or we don’t have instant access to subscription databases."  She adds that "Poor handwriting and indexing errors are an issue although we can search on given names and perhaps discover the surname that way."

I have spent quite a bit of time searching various branches of my family, and it is always fascinating to follow a family or individual through several censuses - children are born, grow up and leave home, a spouse might die and the survivor remarry, the family might move, and so on.  I also have a few gaps in the census records for my family - where were they on census night??  Hiding?  Abroad?  Or is the handwriting so illegible or the name so misspelt that thus far I simply can't track them down?

One family I have followed through the census is my Hines branch of the family tree.  In the 1841 census (right) parents James and Susan are alive and children John, Samuel, Albert and Hannah are listed with them.  Eldest daughter Susannah is not home on census night and so not listed here.

By the time of the next census in 1851, circumstances have changed for the family.  Both parents have died, and the five siblings have been split up.  The two eldest children, Susannah and John, now aged 18 and 16, are living with their maternal grandparents and are listed below as house servant and farm servant respectively.

Middle child Samuel, age 14, has been found a home with relatives, and is listed as a lodger in the house of James Prentice.  His maternal grandmother Susannah's maiden name was Prentice (she is the Susannah Woollard listed above, who took in the two eldest children), and James Prentice is her nephew.

The two youngest children, Albert, now age 12 and Hannah, age 10, have been less fortunate.  Apparently there were no relatives willing and able to take these youngest children, and they are listed in the census as paupers in the Cosford Union Workhouse.

Once again, thanks to Shauna for her 52 week challenge - she really makes me go back to my research and have a think.  The read Shauna's full blog on Census Records, please click here.

Inside History Magazine

Issue 26 Jan-Feb 2015 edition of Inside History magazine is now available. Articles include:

• How the hundreds of thousands of Wills now online can help find your family
• The overshadowed Gallipoli campaign of Australia’s submarine AE2
• Thomas Keneally’s top tips for writing history
• Ludwig Becker, Australia’s unsung explorer, artist and scientist who aided Burke and Wills on their fateful expedition
• How genetics and genealogy form our shared past
• Discovering 1840s Tasmania through the recollections of a convict diarist
• Plotting our climate’s history using the logbooks of early 20th-century voyages
• The go-getting businesswoman whose prominent Melbourne photography studios flourished through the Depression and two world wars – and captured some famous faces
• An exciting World War II oral history project underway in Perth
• The oldest clipper ship in the world, soon to open for public tours

Inside History magazine is available through most newsagents, or can be downloaded FREE by members of Campaspe Regional Library through Zinio, our e-Magazines platform.  Ask our staff for more information.

 

52 Weeks of Genealogy - Week 26 - School Records

Shauna has chosen School Records for Week 26 of her 52 Weeks of Genealogy, which I have been following during the past year and will continue to follow in 2015.  A huge thank you goes to Shauna for creating this blog challenge - she had certainly prompted me to look more closely at some of the categories of records available and how I might use them better.
In her blog, Shauna tells us that "you can look for school admission or pupil registers and find out when ancestors went to school and where. If you have teachers in the family you can find out lots of biographical and career information on them. Finally when a new school was being established, the Education Department often did a survey of families to see which children might attend the school if it was established."
I have a few school records for my ancestors, including all my mother's school photos.  I have to admit this is not an area I have explored as thoroughly as I should - although I know a fair bit about my parents' schooling I haven't traced back further generations to find where they went to school. 
The photo below is of my father Peter Green, with older brother Les and younger sister Marjory on their way home from Bambill North Primary School, taken about 1935 or 36.  Dad would have been 9 years old, Les 11 and Marjory 7.

The children drove themselves to school from the farm where they lived and had to arrive early enough each day to care for their horse before the school day began.  For them and many other farm children, this was their only alternative to a long walk to and from school each day.
Click here to read Shauna's full blog post on School Records.

Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2014

 Jill Ball at Geniaus invited all we bloggers to look back on the year that was and reflect on the high points of our genealogy researching endeavours.  Anyone can take part in this activity by responding to the following statements/questions in a blog post. Jill asks us to write as much or as little as we want or just answer a few questions.
Once you have done so please share your post’s link in a comment on Jill’s original post or via email to Jillballau@gmail.com. Jill will then do a compilation of responses so that we can all share in and celebrate each other’s successes.  So here I go :

1.  An elusive ancestor I found was - Great Uncle Percy Pike.  I have been looking everywhere for him in England (his family all lived in Suffolk).  Why could I find no trace of him??  Because he emigrated to Canada!

2.  A precious family photo I found was - copies of some old postcards from the village in Essex where my father's father was born.

3.  An ancestor's grave I found was - Percy Pike's (see point 1).

4.  An important vital record I found was - I actually did quite well here, with a gift subscription to Essex Ancestors netting me a huge amount of Baptism, Marriage and Burial records (and exceeding my download limit TWICE in a month!).

5.  A newly found family member shared - didn't do so well here.  Second cousins twice removed - where are you all??

6.  A geneasurprise I received was - all the new information coming online.  I am constantly amazed by just how much is being transcribed, digitised, and put online.

7.   My 2014 blog post that I was particularly proud of was - all of them!!  Just keeping going was an achievement in itself.  A big thank you to those who read my blog - and who come into Echuca library to chat to me about it.

8.   My 2014 blog post that received a large number of hits or comments was - the timetable for my talks for Family History Month in August - and a huge thank you to all those who attended.  We all had a lot of fun and everyone's feedback was so positive.

9.  A new piece of software I mastered was - Windows 8.1 and all the associated changes to my computer.

10. A social media tool I enjoyed using for genealogy was - Blogger!!  But of course.....

11. A genealogy conference/seminar/webinar from which I learnt something new was - the Unlock the Past February 2014 cruise.  I am cruising again - what a great combination of genealogy conference and holiday.

12. I am proud of the presentation I gave at/to - The group at Echuca Library in Family History Month (see point 8).

13. A journal/magazine article I had published was - Not yet!

14. I taught a friend how to - attach an image to her Ancestry family tree.

15. A genealogy book that taught me something new was - Tracing your Family History on the internet by Chris Paton.

16. A great repository/archive/library I visited was - State Library of Victoria.  I don't get there as often as I'd like, so when I do I come armed with a LIST!

17. A new genealogy/history book I enjoyed was - my online subscription to Who Do You Think You Are magazine - no more waiting for it to ship from England - I receive it electronically the SAME DAY it is published over there.

18. It was exciting to finally meet - Jill Ball on the February Genealogy cruise - and everyone else I chatted to / shared a meal with / sat next to / shared stories with etc.

19. A geneadventure I enjoyed was - that cruise (really enjoyed it, you know).

20. Another positive I would like to share is - I was given a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive for Christmas (thanks Mum).  Fortunately the library is closed between Christmas and New Year.  Unfortunately I've exceeded my monthly internet download limit again...

Merry Christmas

A Merry Christmas and a happy, safe and ancestor-rich New Year to everyone out there in internet land.  2014 has been another big year in my genealogical life, and I hope it has been a productive year for you all as well.  May your 2015 be full of new records and brick wall breakthroughs.  Thank you to everyone who has been reading and commenting on this blog, your feedback online and in person helps keep me motivated and enthused.

Zepplin Raids, Gothas and "Giants"

The aim of the "Zepplin Raids, Gothas and Giants" website is to provide information on all of the air raids, on each of the 103 dates, when German airships or aeroplanes bombed Britain during World War One. Many of these raids bombed small villages rather than major cities as aerial navigation at this time was in its infancy. 
 

This website will continue to develop over the next couple of years until it eventually tells the complete story of Britain's First Blitz.  Were any of your ancestors near where bombs fell in World War One?  Check the website to find out.  A huge thanks to site creator Ian Castle for all his work.

 

New post-1858 wills service launches online

Family historians have a new route for accessing copies of their ancestors’ wills following the creation of a new web system.
The Probate Service has launched an online wills index for England and Wales, enabling people to search for any will dating from 1858-1996 and order a digital copy via their computer.  Searchable by name within specific years, the index links to a digitised version of the National Probate Calendar, showing all matching entries from the appropriate volume.  Once the correct person has been found – indicated by details such as address and court where the will was proved – researchers can then ‘click through’ and order a digital copy at a cost of £10 each. The document will then be made available as a download, generally within 10 working days.
Launched on Thursday 11 December, the new system is to act as a replacement for the Principal Probate Registry search room at the Royal Courts of Justice, which will permanently close on Friday 19 December.
While researchers can apply for wills by post or at district probate registries, the London facility has been the only place the complete National Probate Calendar can be accessed by the public. Although scans of Calendar volumes are available through Ancestry.co.uk – used by many when filling out a postal order form – this set only covers 1858-1966.
Thanks to Who Do You Think You Are Magazine for higlighting this new resource.

Irish Records coming online

The National Library of Ireland has announced that it will give free online access to its archive of Catholic Church records, the earliest of which dates back to the 1700s and spans the 1740s to the 1880s. The records are considered the single most important source of information on Irish family history prior to the 1901 Census. They cover 1,091 parishes throughout Ireland, and consist primarily of baptismal and marriage records.

Currently, the National Library provides free access to its microfiche records at its research rooms in Kildare Street, in Dublin. However access has been hampered in recent years by high demand and increased pressure on resources.
This is great news for those of us with Irish heritage, especially if you are like me and trying to trace ancestors from the other side of the world.

Forces War Records

Forces War Records has reached a new milestone in its latest transcription project. Launching with 30,000 records in November, the website has confirmed it has since uploaded a further 20,000 records to its Military Hospitals Admissions and Discharge Registers collection. The record set offers details of soldiers who received medical treatment on the front line during the First World War.
Each entry for a patient treated by the field ambulance includes:

• Name
• Rank
• Regiment and sub unit
• Age and completed years of service
• Completed months with field force
• Date of admission
• Date of discharge
• Injury / Illness
• Any additional observations by medical practioners
• Plus details of movement back to the front or to another hospital, or in some cases the soldier's death
  
  
  

Genealogy Class Notes Online

For everyone who has attended my genealogy classes at Campaspe Regional Library, my class handouts are finally available to print from the library homepage.  Thanks to everyone who attended the sessions held during Family History Month in August - I hope you all enjoyed them as much as I did, and your feedback afterwards was wonderful.

• Ancestry
• Familysearch
• Introduction to Online Research
• Military Records Online
• National Archives of Australia
• Organising your Research
• Public Records Office of Victoria
• Trove 
• Workhouses

Echuca Cemetery recorded

Congratulations to the Echuca Moama Family History Group for their extensive work to create the Echuca Cemetery 150 Year Pictorial History. Campaspe Regional Library was presented with a copy of their register, which will be made available to researchers in out Local History collection.  Also presented with copies were the Echuca Historical Society and the Echuca Cemetery Trust.  Pictured are David from the Cemetery Trust, Anita EMFHG, Dot and Jan from the Echuca Historical Society, Jenny and Victoria from the Library and Judy from EMFHG. Well done to the Group for all your hard work, what a great resource for family/local history researchers.

Researching your Multicultural Ancestors at the SLV

The State Library of Victoria has released a new Family History research guide called Researching your multicultural ancestors.
This guide specifically focuses on researching ancestors that emigrated to Australia from countries other than the United Kingdom and lists the key resources and records available for researchers.
The SLV states that "the Researching your multicultural ancestor guide is not a definitive guide that lists specific resources for individual countries, rather it demonstrates how to start your research using resources available at the State Library of Victoria. It also provides advice on how to locate and access overseas collections and repositories."  The guide is divided into the following sections -

• Research steps
• Finding books
• Immigration, emigration & naturalisation
• Australian archives
• eResources & websites
• Newspapers
• Family history & historical societies
• Maps
• Overseas resources
• Why can’t I find them?

The SLV also advises that a Researching your ancestors from the British Isles research guide will be released later this year.
 

War Records on FamilySearch

FamilySearch has created two important new UK image collections.  The United Kingdom World War I military service records span the years from 1914 to 1920 and consist of some 43.5 million images. The United Kingdom World War I Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps records that span the years from 1917 to 1920. This collection consists of about 265,000 records. These images come from the National Archives.
FamilySearch has also created a new collection called United States World War I Draft Registration Cards 1917-1918. It consists of 24 million draft records of adult males, which according to FamilySearch “representing almost half of the male population of the United States at the time”. Given that this collection represents such a large proportion of the male population, it can be used as a proxy for census records. A typical draft card listed the full name of the person, home address, date of birth, place of birth, occupation, employer, dependants, marital status, height, build, eye color and hair color.
Records in these collections are organized by last name.  Access is free.

GenTeam

The genealogy website GenTeam has added some 400 new collections. Some highlights include citizen rolls from Bratislava, a marriage index for Vienna (starting in 1542), an index of Catholic baptisms in Vienna and Jewish indices of Prague for the years 1784 to 1804. The website currently has over 11 million records from Austria and surrounding countries. It covers most of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, as shown in the map below. The website is in English, although not all records are. Access is free upon registration. It is definitely worth checking out if you have ancestors from the region.  Thanks to Genealogy In Time for highlighting this new resource.

The website profile states that GenTeam is a non-commercial organization of genealogists and historians who produce databases on their own or as a part of a group, and who offer these databases to all researchers without any fee.  Only a simple registration is required.  The geographical centre of the databases is the present-day Austria and its neighboring lands.
Databases offered by GenTeam are not meant to replace research in original records - this must be done in the archives.

Deniliquin Genealogy Muster

Did anyone out there manage to get to the Deniliquin Genealogy Muster last week??  For those who didn't, you missed out on a great opportunity for those of us in a country area without easy access to all the city repositories and resources to meet, chat about genealogy and learn more about the resources available to us.  For only $10 entry each day (it ran on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th October) you had access to a number of exhibitor tables including several regional genealogy groups and representatives from places like PROV, State Records NSW, Charles Sturt University Regional Archives, the First Fleet Fellowship and many more.  Each table was staffed by people ready and willing to tell you about their services and resources, and I spent a great deal of both days learning about several resources I had either been completely ignorant of, or had not used to their full potential.
On each day there was also several speakers scheduled, so besides chatting to stallholders I also spent my time listening to speakers on regional repositories, Government records, military history and Irish research, to name a few.
This is the first Muster I have made it to, but I'm definitely planning on it not being the last.  Well done to the Deniliquin Genealogical Society for all their work in planning the Muster - I'll look forward to the next one.

New German records at Ancestry

 Ancestry has added some 1.7 million birth records, some 2 million marriage records and some 1.8 million death records from Berlin. These records cover the years from 1874 to 1920 (1874 to 1899 for the birth records). The collections can be searched by first name, last name and location. Since the records are in German, Ancestry suggests you make sure you use the correct German spellings.
In the city of Berlin, 13 registry offices began work when the Prussian law from March 9, 1874, the "Gesetz über die Beurkundung des Personenstandes und die Form der Eheschließung," concerning the registration of civil status and marriage went into effect on October 1, 1874.
The collection also contain the civil registers of births, marriages and deaths from cities and communities in the Teltow, Niederbarnim and Osthavelland rural districts in Brandenburg, which were later incorporated into greater Berlin starting October 1, 1920.
Ancestry can be searched free of charge in all branches of Campaspe Regional Library.

Canadian Expeditionary Force Records

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has begun the process of digitizing the personnel service files of some 640,000 Canadians who served in the army during the First World War. Known officially as the Canadian Expeditionary Force [CEF] since it was under the control of the British, a total of 424,589 Canadian soldiers served in Europe during the war.
The service files in this collection contain up to three dozen different kinds of forms. It includes such things as enlistment records (attestation papers are already online), training records, medical and dental history, hospitalizations, disciplines (if any), pay records, medal entitlements and discharge papers or notifications of death. It also lists what regiment the soldier was located in, but not necessarily where the regiment fought (for that, it is necessary to consult the unit war diaries). In total, there are some 32 million pages of records to be digitized from 640,000 personnel files. This means the average file per soldier is some 50 pages of records, making this a considerable resource. The first 76,000 files have already been digitized and put online. Regular uploads of about 5,000 new files are expected every two weeks. At the current run rate, this means it will take about 4.3 years for all the files to go online (or unfortunately about as long as it actually took to fight the First World War). The digitized records are searchable by name, regiment and rank. Access is free.

52 Weeks of Genealogy - Week 24 - Post Office Directories

Shauna has chosen Post Office Directories for her topic in Week 24.  Shauna tells us that "
Post office directories are similar to Almanacs which we looked at in Week 18. There are a number of different types of directories depending on the publisher but Sands and Wise’s are probably the two most well known. Directories are another great way to trace people but you do need to remember that not everyone is included, usually only the head of the house so women are only included if they are single or widowed. Sometimes people can be listed even after their death or they have moved elsewhere."
Like the Almanacs, I have found several useful Directories which tell me more about my family, both in Australia and overseas.  The following is the listing for Fordham, in Essex, from a 1874 Post Office Directory listing my ancestor Joseph Green of Fordham Hall.  The directory also gives me information about the village and the land around.

Read Shauna's full blog entry on Post Office Directories here.

New Australian records on Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com has added some new Australian records to their databases.

The State Records Authority of New South Wales includes 273,000 records of seamen and spans the years from 1859 to 1936. The information in each record varies. Typical information includes such things as name, age, date of birth, place of birth, vessel, vessel owner, engagement and discharge date. The collection can be searched by name, year of birth, place of birth and keyword.

The Land Grants from New South Wales collection consists of some 190,000 records spanning the years from 1788 to 1963 from various land record offices in the state. The format of each record varies by time and place but usually include the date, location of the grant, description of the land, name of the person the land was granted to, the amount paid for the grant and names of witnesses to the document. The granting of free land in New South Wales ceased in 1831. After that time, land grants were sold by public auction. This collection can be searched by name, location and keyword.

Ancestry.com can be accessed free at many public libraries, including Campaspe.  Ask at your local library for more information.

Inside Hsitory Magazine

Inside History Magazine’s issue 24 is out now, and features the following articles :

• DNA testing, covering the ABC basics of how to get tested and what you’ll learn from the results, as well as reporting on readers’ experiences.
• Find out which 50 best genealogy and history blogs made their 3rd Annual Blog Awards.
• Michelle Patient takes you through what you should consider when it comes to choosing a genealogy software program for yourself.
• Expert photographic analyser, Jayne Shrimpton tells us how hats, bonnets and berets can all give telling clues about your ancestors.
• When does genealogy meet archaeology? Go behind the scenes in Sydney’s latest archaeology digs on two colonial-era buildings.
• And how would you like to see your ancestor on the front cover of Inside History.  If you’re interested simply enter IHM competition now.

Inside History magazine is available through most newsagents, or can be downloaded FREE by members of Campaspe Regional Library through Zinio, our e-Magazines platform.  Ask our staff for more information.

Church of Ireland Gazette

The Church of Ireland has put online the 1914 editions of the Church of Ireland Gazette, adding to the 1913 editions already available. This weekly publication published details on funerals, obituaries, school activities and community activities in addition to church activities.
Overall the contents of the 1914 Church of Ireland Gazette provide an invaluable insight to the opinions and attitudes of members of the Church of Ireland through changing times. Written and read by lay and clerical members of the Church north and south, access via the online search engine brings to life at the touch of a button how unfolding political events in Ireland and abroad were communicated to and received by members of this significant minority community on the island one hundred years ago.
The Gazette can be searched by keyword and access is free.

Bankruptcy Records Online

Researchers can now find out whether their ancestors were put behind bars for bankruptcy following the launch of a new record set at Ancestry.com. Digitised from documents held at The National Archives, the Debtors’ Prison Registers detail over 700,000 criminals detained in Marshalsea, King’s Bench and Fleet Prisons between 1734-1862. Fully searchable by name and date, most of those held were charged with insolvency, but a number of records also relate to vagrancy and sedition.  Remember you can search these records and many more on Ancestry Library Edition free at Camapspe Regional Library.