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 :

• DNA FAQs Genetic genealogy expert Debbie Kennett answers your questions about DNA testing
• How to write your family history Janet Few tells you how to turn your ancestry into a book
• The history of coronations As we look forward to the coronation of Charles III, we look back on the origins of coronation traditions
• Reader story Gary Cooper's relative was the world's first professional basketball player
• Plus: Finding 20th century Merchant Navy records, tracing aristocratic and royal connections, finding 19th century property records 
• and more

Future of Trove Announced

Back in early January I posted a blog about the bleak future of Trove, with the lack of ongoing funding threatening the continuation of this wonderful free resource.

I warned that "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."

Happily, news has just been released that in its upcoming May budget, the federal government has promised $33 million over four years to the NLA.  Trove, will also be separately allocated funding of more than $9 million — a move the government said would secure the future of the service for years to come.

A statement from the National Library reads as follows :

The National Library of Australia is deeply grateful for the commitment of the Albanese Government to provide significant ongoing and indexed funding for Australia’s cultural and historical institutions. This allows the Library to focus on providing world-leading services to the Australian community from our physical building and storage facilities in Canberra, and via our digital library, Trove. The funding provides certainty and includes:

• Sustainable funding for our core operations, to further develop our collections and outreach activities and the services we provide to communities across Australia.
• Undertake critical ongoing building maintenance to:
  • continue replacing the antiquated heating, ventilation and cooling systems
  • ensure existing storerooms are watertight
  • replace leaking windows, and
  • address urgent safety and code compliance requirements.
• Extend our storage repository at Hume to store collection material (currently in rented storage that expires in 2025) with ongoing indexed funding to safely house our physical collection (which grows by approximately two kilometres every year) into the future.

This announcement comes as a great relief to all the historians and researchers who have gained so much from the continuing availability of this free online resource made available to all.

Great news indeed.

Really Useful Podcast Episode 6

The Family History Federation has now launched Season 2, Episode 6 of its series of Really Useful Podcasts. 

 

This episode is titled 'Writing your Family History'.  The website describes it : 

It can be very enjoyable to write about our family history. It is also a useful way to focus our research. In this episode our guests discuss the different ways to write up our family histories and offer some advice for doing so.

Joe is joined by Natalie Pithers, who runs the Curious Descendants Club which helps people write their family history https://genealogystories.co.uk, Mish Holman, professional genealogist who researches and writes up family histories into books https://www.familyhistorygifts.co.uk/, Paul Chiddicks, Family Tree magazine’s ‘Dear Paul’ and blogger at https://chiddicksfamilytree.com and https://oldpalaceschoolbombing.com/ and Matthew Abel, museum professional at the V&A and family historian.

Genealogy Webinar Marathon

MyHeritage and Legacy Family Tree Webinars are running their 4th annual 24-Hour Genealogy Webinar Marathon April 13-14, 2023.  The entire event is free, and you can pop in for a session or two, or stick around for the full 24 hours – it’s completely up to you. 

Sessions include :

• Solving Unknown Parentage Mysteries with MyHeritage DNA
• The Secret to Finding Your Ancestor's Stories 
• Genealogy A to Z : a Trivia Adventure
• Slow Down - Planning you Research
• To Have but No Longer to Hold : Divorce in Australia
• Australian Indexes online for Family History Research
• Different calendars in German Genealogy
• Unearthing Treasures in the Irish Registry of Deeds
• An Introduction to Investigative Genetic Genealogy
• Finding the Original Recordwhen the Idex is Unclear
• Elusive Ancestors : Never too Poor to Trace
  
• And more...

A Wedding in the News

During my binge on researching old newspapers, I recently came across a report on the wedding of my great aunt, Constance Green, to Cyril Webb in 1909.

The wedding was, but all accounts, quite a major local event in the small village where Constance's father was one of the major local landholders.

The amount of detail recorded in the local newspaper is astonishing.

There a complete list of the bridal party and a detailed description of the bride's and bridemaids' clothes.

Details of the service are included, even with the details of who had decorated the church for the occasion.

The article then goes on to cover the reception that followed the wedding at the bride's home, along with the details of the newlywed's departure for their honeymoon.

There is even a description of the bride's travelling clothes.

The festivities continued after the couple's departure with Constance's parents hosting about 60 people, including employees, the choir and church band along with family members, to a supper on the lawn behind their home.

Finally, there is the list of wedding presents.  Silver, dishes, photo frames, table cloths, the list goes on.  And on.  Every single gift the happy couple received is listed for all to see in the local paper, along with the name of the people who gave them.  Family, friends, neighbors.

Astonishing.  Now I just need to work out who all these people are and how many are related to the bride and groom.