New Wiltshire records, more newspapers coming & Other News - Genealogy Notes 1-7 Apr 2017

There is nothing more exciting than finding out about new collections online. All of the major databases have free enewsletters or blogs that alert you to what's new which can be distracting. To be honest anything would take me away from the housework at the weekend.

Findmypast announced in their Friday 7 April update that there are new Scottish Roman Catholic parish records and new Wiltshire parish records online.

My great grandfather Herbert William White (on the far left in the photograph) was from Pitton & Farley in Wiltshire. I have a few lines in Wiltshire and neighbouring Hampshire that are stuck so this was welcome news.

I've discovered a few more things but one family still eludes me in the 1841 census. I know they are there but I simply can't find them in any of the transcript/indexed sites.

Not even using approximate ages and given names only. The surname is Pragnell and that can be written in lots of different ways.


Another area where I can spend lots of hours is digitised newspapers and the list of titles coming to Trove includes the following:

• Daily News (Tweed Heads, NSW: 1938-1940) ); [State Library of New South Wales Digital Excellence Program]
• The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW: 1879-1906); [State Library of New South Wales Digital Excellence Program]
• Labor Daily (NSW: 1924 - 1938); [State Library of New South Wales Digital Excellence Program]
• Millthorpe Post (1900-1901); [Millthorpe and District Historical Society]
• Tribune (Communist Party of Australia: 1955-1974); [State Library of New South Wales Digital Excellence Program and The Search Foundation]
• Moreton Mail (1886-1889); [Moreton Bay Regional Libraries]
• The Citizen (Port Adelaide, SA: Nov. 1938-May 1940); [Renewal SA]
• The Gateway (Port Adelaide, SA: 30 Aug. 1946-29 Nov. 1946); [Renewal SA]
• Port Adelaide District Pictorial (14 Mar. 1952-14 Jan. 1954); [Renewal SA]
• The Progressive Times (Largs North, SA: 16 May 1949-Feb 1951); [Renewal SA]
• Seaport News Review (21 Jan. 1954-29 Apr. 1954); [Renewal SA]
• The Evening Echo (Ballarat, VIC: 1914-1918); [State Library Victoria]
• The Star (Ballarat, VIC: 1856) [Ballarat Library]
• Hamersley News (180-1987) [State Library of Western Australia]

I'm particularly excited about the Moreton Mail and the South Australian titles. Now to be patient until they are finished. 

This coming week there are meetings of the Bribie Island Historical Society and the Bribie Island Family History Group and there will be a talk on the Susanne Godeffroy which arrived in Brisbane from Hamburg, Germany in 1865. Not one of my family ships but I always enjoy hearing about different voyages. 

There are two of my own talks coming up this month in Caloundra and Ipswich so I need to finalise those talks. To see where I am speaking over the next few months visit the Services and Events page of my website. I have started writing again for Going In-Depth, an online genealogy magazine published by The In-Depth Genealogist. I had a few months off as it is not always easy coming up with articles on a regular basis. A bit like blogging.

Trove Tuesday is a regular blog challenge and this week my piece was titled Why You Can't Find Someone because I finally found a newspaper report on my great grandfather Thomas Price's accidental death. He is the dapper gentleman on the right in the photo. 

Why did it take so long to find, given that I had a date? Because it was recorded as William Price and I wasn't searching for a William! Read the post for the whole story and how I found it.

Easter is next weekend and it will be a chance to catch up with the family and celebrate Mum's 83rd birthday. Seems like only yesterday we were planning the big 80 and now the big 85 is looming. Should be a good time. Cake and Easter eggs together!

Enjoy the coming week and try and find the time to check out all the new resources coming online. 

Until next time, happy searching.

Perpetual copyright ends & Other News - Genealogy Notes 22-31 Mar 2017

I'm busy writing this as strong winds and heavy rain swirls around us and its been like that since early this morning. And it will get worse in a couple of hours - ex cyclone Debbie has to be one of the biggest storms ever to impact so much of Queensland over the last few days. I hope everyone stays as safe as they possibly can and that damage is minimal.

Perhaps the best news ever was that on 22 March 2017 the Copyright Amendment (Disability Access and Other Measures) Bill was introduced to the Australian Parliament. The Bill will end perpetual copyright for unpublished materials and as a result millions of historical manuscripts will be freed into the public domain on 1 January 2019.

This is fantastic news - how often have we found something in manuscript or archive collections that would be wonderful to share with others but it has been almost impossible to establish copyright. All those old letters sent to government departments or shared between family and friends decades ago. 

The Australian Libraries and Copyright Committee released a statement on the tabling of the Copyright Amendment Bill - read more about Captain Cook’s Diaries Free Thanks to Copyright Bill. Remember we just have to wait now until 1 January 2019.

Deniliquin is also famous for its Ute Muster
- our favourite from last visit

For those in western New South Wales or norther Victoria, or perhaps even Adelaide you might want to note that Deniliquin Genealogy Society is having another one of their famous Family History Expos on 13-15 October 2017. They have some fantastic exhibitors already lined up and some speakers over the weekend. I went to the first one back in 2012 and had a fantastic time. Just a pity that Bribie Island is so far from Deniliquin. Almost makes me wish I was back in Victoria.

The University of Tasmania is offering a unit entitled Convict Ancestors and it is covered by a full HECS scholarship, meaning that you will not incur a tuition fee or debt for study of the unit. See the home page for more information.
Have a look at the old woman on that page - her face has just so much character and you can't help thinking what stories could she tell.

I'm tempted to do some of their courses myself but I have just agreed to run an advanced family history course at the local Bribie U3A in second term. There will be dedicated subject areas for the first six weeks and then for the remaining four weeks we will look at Australia, England, Scotland and Ireland. We will look at topics that students suggest over the course. Should be good. I've attended local history courses but this will be the first time as a U3A tutor.

My blog writing has been a little haphazard of late and I have been asked to do a guest blog for Outback Family History which is one of my favourite sites. Anyone with mining ancestors who went to WA should really look at this site. With all the rain forecast, now might be a good time to start that. I have a number of families who chased the gold so I might write about them. Coming up with the catchy blog title is always the hardest part.

Although Trove Tuesday blog challenge comes around every week, somehow I always seem to miss Tuesday. Must be Island time but my aim is to at least write one a month so next Tuesday is now a yellow post it note on my desk!

It's a busy week coming up with a couple of trips to Brisbane, assuming all the roads are open again on Monday. There are two talks coming up in April which I have to prepare not to mention the U3A course. Maybe I should try and get more done over the next few very wet days, assuming we keep the power on. Stay safe everyone in SE Qld and good luck with any genealogy searching in the coming week. Until next time.

Female ancestors, NFHM 2017 & Other News - Genealogy Notes 15 - 21 Mar 2017

Dorcas White nee Trevaskis

March is Women's History Month and I was going to write a blog post on my great grandmothers. But as I started thinking about what to write, it felt very familiar. You know that feeling - I've done this before. On my website I have a page for My Families and under that all the family names I am researching. It is here that I link my blog posts to my family names to keep track of what I have written about. Searching under my grandmothers' names I couldn't find the post yet I was sure that I had done something similar at some point.

When in doubt, Google. I found it by searching for my own name and 'my grandmothers'. Obviously I forgot to put links to the post on My Families pages. What's even worse I only wrote it 12 months ago so my memory is also going! Read Women's History Month - My Four Great Grandmothers and I have added 'check blog post links' to my 'to do' list.

Recently a friend also commented that she had started doing reminder notes to herself and she is only a year older than me. We lead such busy lives with lots going on that you almost need them for everything, not just shopping lists. When I revisit a family that I haven't looked at for a while, I like to see that I have left a note about what needs to be done next. Or sometimes it is good to relook at everything. I do that all the time with Trove and last time I turned up some interesting snippets on distant cousins. Everything from car accidents to petty court appearances - not just births, deaths and marriages.

I'm happy to say that we seem to have the National Family History Month web calendar working again so it is now open for anyone to add their events for August 2017. The Genealogical Society of Queensland were first off the mark and I hope lots of other societies, libraries and archives add their events to the calendar. The major sponsors this year are Ancestry, Momento and MyHeritage as well as our Prize Sponsors and our major sponsors are also offering prizes.

Heading to Queensland State Archives tomorrow to do some research and hoping that no one asks me if I like their new website. I don't and it took ages for me to find what I wanted. There are some records relating to my great grandparents Thomas and Elizabeth Price that I really want to find - but it is correspondence in a top number system so only hope that I can track it through and that the correspondence is at the end of the search. A few other bits and pieces on microfilm to occupy me while I wait for records to be retrieved and I must remember to take some food with me this time. You can drive up to the shops for lunch but that all takes time and I try to maximise my time with the records.

My brother and I many moons ago!

Easter is fast approaching and it will be Mum's 83rd birthday. Seems like only yesterday we had the 80th birthday party and I did my Powerpoint presentation on Mum's life. It will be a chance to catch up with all of the family again so I'm thinking about putting together another slide show of early family photos as the kids (really all adults now) love seeing their parents as youngsters!

There is not much on my agenda next week now that I have sorted out NFHM so perhaps I will get to do some family history research. Time to blog a few more family stories too. Until next time, have a great geneaweek.