Australian Genealogy News

Family History Feast 2012 at State Library of Victoria

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 08:28:00 +0000

Family History Feast bookings open Monday 18 June 2012! « Family Matters | State Library of Victoria:

'via Blog this'

National Library of Australia catalogue apps for iOS and Android

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Sat, 26 May 2012 11:52:00 +0000

Mobile resources | National Library of Australia

Via the National Library of Australia Facebook page

Flickr: Archives2Share NSW

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:08:00 +0000

Flickr: Archives2Share NSW

From the group description:

"A group created by State Records NSW and run by the Archives Outside team. Have you visited our reading rooms to view original NSW State archives? Did you take photos of the records? Add your photos of documents from the official NSW State archives collection here. The idea of this new Flickr group is to help make the State’s archives more accessible."

Further information is available at the Archives Outside blog and on the Archives2Share NSW Flickr group.

via 'Blog This!'

Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) available via National Library of Australia eResources

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:56:00 +0000

The Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) is available to search via the National Library of Australia's eResources - see eResources - Resource view

National Library of Australia - Mobile Access to some eResources

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:53:00 +0000

National Library of Australia, some eResources available via mobile access
eResources - Resource view

via 'Blog This!'

State Records of NSW website gets a new look

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Fri, 11 May 2012 02:00:00 +0000

The State Records of NSW web site gets a new look
Our website had a makeover — State Records NSW

via 'Blog this'

New Australian Series of Who Do You Think You Are? Coming Soon

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:32:00 +0000

I have not posted to this Australian Genealogy News blog for a long time. To keep fresh content coming have decided when I find a piece of news I feel I would like to share with other Australian genealogists I will simply share a link via the 'Blog this' button on my Chrome browser.

Ancestry.com.au blog Who Do You Think You Are? New Australian Series Coming Soon

'via Blog this'

New Newspaper Titles added to Trove

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 04:40:00 +0000

The following are a selection of newspaper titles that have been added to the National Library of Australia's Trove since November 2010. The years covered so far for each title are limited, but ofcourse more issues will be added progressively!

Kilmore Free Press and Bourke and Dalhousie Advertiser (Victoria)
Kilmore Free Press (Victoria)
Eltham and Whittlesea Shires Advertiser and Diamond Creek Valley Advocate (Victoria)
Alexandra and Yea Standard and Yarck, Gobur, Thornton and Acheron Express (Victoria)
Alexandra and Yea Standard, Gobur, Thornton and Acheron Express (Victoria)
Alexandra and Yea Standard, Thornton, Gobur and Acheron Express ( 7 Jul. 1877) (Victoria)
Eltham and Whittlesea Shires Advertiser (Victoria)
Advertiser (Hurstbridge, Victoria)
Sunday Times (Perth, Western Australia)
The Mail (Adelaide, South Australia)
The Register (Adelaide, South Australia)
The Register News-Pictorial (Adelaide, South Australia)
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Queensland)
Rockhampton Bulletin (Queensland)
Rockhampton Bulletin and Central Queensland Advertiser (Queensland)
Morning Post (Cairns, Queensland)
The North Australian and Northern Territory Government Gazette (Darwin, NT)
Northern Standard (Darwin, NT)
North Australian (Darwin, NT)
Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW)

A full list of newspapers titles is available here. A great way to keep up-to-date with newly added titles and issues of newspapers at Trove is to subscribe to the RSS feeds. Learn more about upcoming titles here.

New Australian and New Zealand Records added to FindMyPast.com.au

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 01:21:00 +0000

A number of new record collections for Australia and New Zealand have recently been added to those available on FindMyPast.com.au.

These collections include:

New South Wales Government Gazettes for 1832,1833 and 1834.
New South Wales Police Gazettes for 1862, 1864 and 1865.
New Zealand Gazettes for 1876, 1877, 1878, 1880 and 1881.
Pugh's Almanac & Queensland Directories for 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863 and 1864.
Queensland Government Gazette for 1859-60, 1861 and 1862.
South Australian Government Gazette for 1846.
South Australian Police Gazette for 1864.
Sydney Diocesan Directories for 1881, 1886 and 1900.
Tasmanian Reports of Crime for 1861, 1862, 1863 and 1864.
Victorian Police Gazettes for 1885, 1886 and 1887.
Victorian Government Gazettes for 1851, 1852 and 1856.
Walch's Tasmanian Almanacs for 1896, 1987 and 1898.
Western Australian Post Office Directories for 1905, 1910 and 1914.
Australian Dictionary of Dates & Men
Australian Handbook 1904
Newspaper Press Directory

New Features on National Library of Australia's Trove

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:33:00 +0000

The National Library of Australia's Trove Search Portal has some new features. According to the Site News for 16 December 2010:

A very useful new feature is the ability to create web feeds to alert researchers when new items based on their search terms are added to Trove. I have already created a few for some of my ancestors names. All you need to do is search for the terms you want using the simple search or advanced search. At the bottom of the search results page you will see the 'Subscribe to this web feed' link. Click that link to create a web feed for the terms you searched for. You will then be alerted via your web feed reader (e.g. Google Reader) when a new item is added to Trove which meets the search criteria you specified. You can learn more about how to use web feeds here.
You can now request to be alerted by email when an article that was "coming soon" is added to Trove. Often when you search Trove you will see that some articles that meet you search criteria are not yet available. You can now request to be alerted by email (rather than web feed) when that particular article becomes available.
The advanced search now allows researchers to limited their search results to items available at specific repositories.
A page of statistics now shows a partial list of libraries and other organisations who have contributed data to Trove.
You can now browse the Australian Women's Weekly by covers with The Australian Women's Weekly Visual Timeline.

The Australian Women's Weekly Visual Timeline

Previous changes to Trove in November which you may find useful include:

When looking at a digitised newspaper or magazine article you will now see a new selection of buttons in the top left hand corner of the screen - Print, PDF, JPG, TXT, Cite and Buy.

Several of these buttons are for features which have previously existed (Print, PDF and JPG).
The 'TXT' button gives you the ability to download Optical Character Recognition (OCR) text for articles quickly and easily. This saves the awkwardness of copying and pasting the text from the correction box. Previously, I often found I copied the line 'Fix this text' along with the article whenever I tried to copy and paste the OCR text into a word processor. This feature should be extremely useful.
The 'Cite' button is another useful feature. Click on it and you will be presented with a pop-up window giving citations for the article you are looking at formatted in various commonly used citation formats (APA, MLA, Harvard/Australia and Wikipedia formats).
The 'Buy' button presents you with the opportunity to purchase higher quality/larger sized copies of newspaper pages through the National Library of Australia Copies Direct service.
And don't forget the previously existing features - lists, tags, comments and text correction!

A great way to keep up-to-date with news from Trove is to follow @TroveAustralia on Twitter.

And on another note, Ancestry.com.au have recently released a collection of NSW gaol records in association with the State Records Office of New South Wales. The Collection is titled: New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930. Ancestry states that "This collection contains records from: Albury (1876-1929), Armidale (1894-1915), Bathurst (1874-1930), Berrima (1883-1888), Biloela (1885-1906), Broken Hill (1904-1929), Darlinghurst (1869-1914), Deniliquin (1895-1929), Dubbo (1889-1920), Goulburn (1884-1930), and Trial Bay (1892-1901)." Follow @AncestryComAu on Twitter for the latest news from Ancestry.com.au.

The third season of Australia's Who Do You Think You Are? is now playing on SBS at 7:30 pm on Sundays. The first three episodes have been very interesting and I am looking forward to seeing more.

Happy Researching!

Recent Online Records for Australian Family Historians

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 04:09:00 +0000

Some recent online records for Australian Family Historians:

Ancestry.com.au

FindMyPast.com.au

National Library of Australia - Trove

SE Australian Climate History newspaper tagging project

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:03:00 +0000

Australian family historians who use the National Library of Australia's Trove Newspaper collection may be interested in assisting with a new project to tag newspaper articles relevant to climate history in South East Australia.

It would be a fascinating way to learn about the weather conditions experienced by our ancestors!

National Library of Australia eResources

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:50:00 +0000

Have you tried the National Libary of Australia's eResources?

Any resident of Australia can apply for a National Library Users Card. This will give you online access to many valuable resources, including many relevant to genealogical research such as British and Irish Newspaper collections.

Please watch this introductory video for more information.

You may also be interested to read Shauna Hicks blog post about using library eResources.
http://www.shaunahicks.com.au/52-weeks-to-better-genealogy-challenge-6-online-databases/

Ancestry adds Sand’s directories for Sydney and New South Wales

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:40:00 +0000

Ancestry has recently added a new database relevant for Australian researchers.

Sydney and New South Wales, Sands Street Index, 1861-1930

According to Ancestry this database contains:

" a collection of the Sand’s directories for Sydney and New South Wales, Australia from 1861–1933. Available directories are for the years 1861, 1865, 1870, 1875, 1880, 1885, 1890, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930."

Parish and Township plans for Victoria digitised

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 03:46:00 +0000

I have just discovered (thanks to the State Library of Victoria's Family Matters Blog) that Parish and Township plans for Victoria from VPRS 16171 have been digitised and are accessible as PDF files online through the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) catalogue.

As an example, I searched for 'Elphinstone' within the series '16171' (see below).

Clicking 'Search' took me to the following results page (see below).

I wanted to see the plan for the Parish of Elphinstone rather than the Township of Elphinstone, so I clicked on the hyperlink below the first search result. This then presented me with the 'Sub Item Details' (see below).

Clicking on the 'pdf' link below the headline 'Download' (see the lower right hand corner of the screenshot above) opened a PDF copy of this Parish Plan within my browser using Adobe Reader.

This particular plan was coloured and high resolution. I could zoom in and out and read the numbers and names related to each portion of land. It certainly is much easier than viewing the plans on microfiche!!

For further information and instructions on how to search these digitsed plans and how to use the information gleaned from them to access related Lands files at the PROV please read PROV Guide 30.

Happy Researching!

(All screenshots are from the PROV web site)

National Family History Week 30 July – 8 August 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:41:00 +0000

The first week in August (or to be more precise 30 July - 8 August 2010) is National Family History Week across Australia.

To find out more about events planned across Australia see the National Family History Week web site:

http://www.familyhistoryweek.org.au/

You can also read more about National Family History Week on the State Library of Victoria's Family Matters Blog.

Happy researching!

Australian Genealogy Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:15:00 +0000

Thanks Geneabloggers for including this blog among their newly listed blogs on 17 July.

There are now 27 Australian Genealogy Blogs listed on Geneabloggers.

Unlock the Past has another list of Australian Genealogy & History Blogs, as well as a list of Australian Genealogy & History pages on Facebook.

Unlock the Past Expo Adelaide

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:50:00 +0000

Family Historians from South Australia may be interested in the upcoming Unlock the Past Expo at the West Adelaide Function Centre, 30 and 31 July 2010. See the Unlock the Past Expo web site for further information.

Nnub - State Library of Queensland's digital noticeboard for family historians

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:42:00 +0000

I have just been having a look at the new State Library of Queensland family history digital noticeboard. According to the web site (http://slq.nnub.net/):

"The SLQ family history Nnub is a trial project providing a digital community noticeboard for family historians in Queensland. Anyone can post. You can use it from the Web or from the Nnub touchscreen in the Micrographics area on Level 3 of the State Library."

NLA Trove now has a user forum and user profiles

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:51:00 +0000

The National Library of Australia's search portal Trove now has a user forum and user profiles with social networking capabilities (including friends and groups).

New Australian Records Released on Ancestry.com.au

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:35:00 +0000

Thanks to the Anglo-Celtic Connections blog for directing me to the fact that Ancestry has just introduced some new databases of Australian records, including:

What exactly is included in these indexes? Ancestry says:

'These indexes were created by Australian registrar's offices after civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths became law in the mid 19th century.'

So, they appear to be civil registration indexes from each state and territory. However, not every state is covered for the years mentioned.

Also, keep in mind that you may be able to access this same information for free elsewhere on the web (see http://www.coraweb.com.au/bdmindex.htm), or on CD or microfiche at many libraries. However, the ability to search across the indexes of civil registration for all states and territories at the same time will be extremely useful!

State Library of Victoria - Family Matters Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 09:27:00 +0000

The State Library of Victoria have a new look web site and a new Family History Blog!

Family Matters | State Library of Vicotria

State Library of Victoria to update its web site

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 03:02:00 +0000

The State Library of Victoria web site will soon have a new look, read more about it here http://slv.vic.gov.au/about/news/latest/010610.html?rss_news

New Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 07:23:00 +0000

Please see my new blog http://ausgenjourneys.blogspot.com/

A selection of Facebook pages for Genealogists

noreply@blogger.com (Aillin O'Brien) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 06:48:00 +0000

Libraries:
State Library of South Australia
National Library of Australia
State Library of New South Wales
State Library of Victoria

Genealogical Societies:
Genealogical Society of Victoria
Society of Australian Genealogists

Museums:
Australian War Memorial
National Museum of Australia
Museum Victoria

Archives:
State Records New South Wales
National Archives of Australia
National Archives UK

Others:
Unlock the Past
Gould Genealogy
Ancestry.com
Findmypast

Do you know of any more pages relevant to Australian genealogists?
Please share them!

Australian Genealogy News

Family History Feast 2012 at State Library of Victoria

National Library of Australia catalogue apps for iOS and Android

Flickr: Archives2Share NSW

Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) available via National Library of Australia eResources

National Library of Australia - Mobile Access to some eResources

State Records of NSW website gets a new look

New Australian Series of Who Do You Think You Are? Coming Soon

New Newspaper Titles added to Trove

New Australian and New Zealand Records added to FindMyPast.com.au

New Features on National Library of Australia's Trove

Recent Online Records for Australian Family Historians

SE Australian Climate History newspaper tagging project

National Library of Australia eResources

Ancestry adds Sand’s directories for Sydney and New South Wales

Sydney and New South Wales, Sands Street Index, 1861-1930

Parish and Township plans for Victoria digitised

National Family History Week 30 July – 8 August 2010

Australian Genealogy Blogs

Unlock the Past Expo Adelaide

Nnub - State Library of Queensland's digital noticeboard for family historians

NLA Trove now has a user forum and user profiles

New Australian Records Released on Ancestry.com.au

State Library of Victoria - Family Matters Blog

State Library of Victoria to update its web site

New Blog

A selection of Facebook pages for Genealogists