*Please note- This site search does not include the Vic. & Tas. BMD's, Lots o' Links & Worth a Look Books
|
If we help each other along,
and share all our hints here in throng;
Then one tiny thing
just maybe will bring
the clue needed not to go wrong
and share all our hints here in throng;
Then one tiny thing
just maybe will bring
the clue needed not to go wrong
New Zealand Probate Index Goes Live
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1303/S00314/new-zealand-probate-index-goes-live.htm |
Moving Forward without PAF
Downloads and support for PAF ended JULY 15, 2013 https://familysearch.org/PAF |
Metaphone Calculator
A metaphone search is a way of searching for a surname the way it is pronounced, rather than the way it is spelled. If a database offers a metaphone search, like many of the RootsWeb searches, they are a way of expanding your search to include possible transcription errors or surname spelling variations. http://www.searchforancestors.com/utility/metaphone.php |
Discussions on Signing with His/Her Mark
We would most likely assume that if someone signed a document with an X, that they were illiterate, but that may not always by the case. Some people may have been too ill to sign, have an arm/hand/shoulder complaint etc.. Others who did sign their name, may not necessarily be able to read either, they may have been taught to write their name only and paid someone else to write a letter for them etc. |
Announcement on axing the National Census
After 200 years, the census is axed: Critics accuse Government of ending ten-yearly headcount to try and hide truth about immigration http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2409436/The-census-axed -Critics-accuse-Gov |
Picture Australia
Picture Australia was launched in Sept. 2000 & at that time, was a unique, ground breaking service, having digitised images from cultural heritage collections around Australia for all Australians & also the world to view. Over the years, it has grown to two million images and has now been absorbed into Trove. Search photographs, negatives, artworks, drawings, posters, postcards & other pictures, as well as physical objects such as puzzles, instruments and clothing. http://trove.nla.gov.au/picture |
LEGACY STORIES
Preserve the Past, Enrich the Present, Inspire the Future! http://www.legacystories.org/ |
Contribute your photos to Trove!
http://trove.nla.gov.au/general/contribute/ |
Genealogical Tips
Written by Jodi Fuller http://www.wiltshire-opc.org.uk/genealogy/index.php/ interact/genealogy-tips |
Why would a Child be Baptised twice?
As early as the 7th century, if a child was in peril of dying during the delivery, the midwife was given authority by Churches, to perform emergency baptisms, as no men (Priests or Doctors) were allowed to be present during childbirth. When a child was in distress during labor & feared that it would not survive, a midwife would sometimes insert a sponge into the birth canal to baptize the child while it was still alive.These baptisms were usually later recorded in the baptismal register. If the child lived, it would have been re-baptized by the Priest to be sure that it was done properly. The priest would use the words “in case you are able to receive this baptism,” as a child was only to be baptized once.
To guard against witchcraft, the Church required midwives to be licensed by a bishop and swear an oath not to use magic when assisting women through labour.”
childbirth-in-the-middle-ages |
TOO MANY SHORTCUTS?
When you want to save the link to a website, instead of having too many shortcuts on your Desktop, just copy & paste the web address into a 'Word' document & just keep adding to it each time. It should appear in the word doc. as a 'Hyperlink' (active, blue underlined) which you can click on to go straight to the site. If it isn't active, just use 'crtl, right click' on it & it should work. |
10 COMMON SENSE RULES WHEN STARTING TO TRACE YOUR FAMILY TREE
By the late Janet Reakes, with 2 extras by Mike Harvey of NSW Rule 1 Don't try to trace your connection down from some historical figure you've been told you're related to. (Like I did...fool) Always start with yourself & work back. Interview EVERYONE in the family & see what documents & photos you can obtain or copy. Be careful with family stories, they tend to be sugar coated & sometimes connect the wrong event to the wrong person or generation. Inter-viewing Relatives is cross-referenced with Lies & Date Discrepancies!. Surprise surprise! Paternal Great Granny & Great Grandpa weren't quite the paragons of virtue that I was led to believe. Maternal Great Grandad wasn't an "English Emigrant". He won an all expenses paid trip to Australia courtesy of the Old Bailey which he repaid with 14 faithful years in Govt service! Oh, Maternal Great Granny won one too! Some favouritism shown with her...she only gave 7 years of faithful Govt service. ) Rule 2
Remember to record all women as who they are when they are born, not by their married name or known by in later life. Rule 3 Don't be a chauvinist - your father's line is only a twig, not a tree. The name you are born with falls either way of the wedding ring. Many babies born before marriage are recorded under their mother's maiden name. Remember your mother's line is more accurate than your father's. Think "Mother's baby! Father's maybe?" After all, your father's line is only as good as your mother tells you. Rule 4 Trace the easiest lines first, those who are born where they said they were born. Those that are not German if you can't sprechen zie deutsch, those that are not Irish if you want instant success. Rule 5 Don't look for a marriage date nine months before the birth of the first child. Many children were born within a few weeks, months or hours after and before the parents were married or if ever married. Rule 6 You will need to check the indexes to BDM's for the appropriate State & look up your ancestors' entries. In some States the ref. no. means cheaper certificates. Death certificates may be informative in Australia but they are the least correct. Never rely on a death certificate to be accurate. For NSW use a transcription agent rather than the NSW BDM's site for copies of certificates.... They are a lot cheaper & are typed out for ease of reading. They can also be 'cut & pasted' into your notes file in your computer program or just put in your family history files. And if they stuff up the details you have no trouble getting a replacement. Rule 7 Get organized from day one. You'll be killing a lot of trees with the paper trail you'll be gathering. Get the correct stationery or computer program to handle recording the data you will be collecting. Rule 8 Make sure you take good notes stating what you read, when you read it and whether it held any information crucial to your search. This'll save duplication of genealogy and keep you organized. Rule 9 (Mike Harvey) Check that someone hasn't already traced your family tree. You can search through a series of books called-Genealogical Research Directory (GRD).These are annual publications showing who is tracing whom. They can be found at most gen. libraries, LDS Centres & major council libraries. The Internet also provides a wealth of sites for free postings of names you are researching. Use Roots web's World Connect but remember that there is a lot of 'fantasy' there purporting to be 'factual family trees'. Same goes especially for Ancestry.com The first rule of gen. research should be applied to all data from these sources 'Accept all data,Believe none until you have checked it for veracity yourself.' Lots of ego trippers on those sites. Occasionally revise your work. Your mantra should be ..Revision..Revision..Revision. You will be surprised how often you pick up obvious clues that you missed the first time around. then kick yourself for suffering from tunnel vision. Rule 10 (Mike Harvey) Lastly, invest in TV dinners and take away, you won't have the time or inclination to cook, garden or do anything but dig up your roots. As one husband bemused, "I used to have a wife until she started genealogy." Or as my wife was heard to mutter, quite often, "He's disturbing the dead and irritating the living, again." |
Rotating Arrow on New Site Page
The little circle just beside the page loading, should rotate in a clockwise direction & your page will load as it should. If it is rotating anti-clockwise for too long, there's something wrong and the page probably isn't going to load for some reason, so don't bother waiting for it. |
PROV on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/PublicRecordOfficeVictoria/ |
Publishing Your Own Electronic Book (Ebook)
https://www.bookbaby.com/how-to-make-an-ebook Creating books from Wikipedia content. http://disinfo.com/2014/08/create-book-wikipedia-articles/ |
COMPILING A QUICK BOOK
An inexpensive way to professionally present photos and information http://www.snapfish.com.au |
WELCOME WALL
Today’s Australians are invited to pay tribute to migrant (1800's/1900's) family members and friends by having their names inscribed on the bronze-panelled wall. For each name, people can contribute a brief (150-word) story about the person being honoured to describe their journey. The name appears on the wall and their brief story is made available on a kiosk at the museum and on the Virtual Welcome Wall. www.anmm.gov.au/ww |
That Squiggly Line 'Tilde'
The tilde (~ , pronounced TILL-duh or TILL-dee and sometimes called a "twiddle" or a "squiggle") is a special character found on most keyboards and used in a wide range of IT-related applications, including mathematics, programming, file systems, directories and URL addressing. The tilde means "approximately" and in logic it means "not." http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/tilde |
Rotating multiple photos-
Drag over photos with mouse to highlight selection of photos to be rotated, right click on one of the highlighted photos & make rotation selection, windows will then rotate each photo one at a time. If photos to be rotated are not together, right click on folder background, choose 'arrange icons', then un-tick 'auto arrange', you'll then be able to drag photos anywhere, even on top of each other. Once you have the photos to be rotated overlaid on top of each other, re-highlight, right click & repeat steps above. You can leave it this way, so that's it's easier next time, or put it back the way it was, by re-ticking the auto arrange. |
ANCESTRY.COM HAS ACQUIRED FIND A GRAVE, INC
http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2013/09/30/ancestry-com-acquires-find-a-grave/ |
DOWNLOADABLE SHEETS TO RECORDS Baptisms, Marriages & Deaths, Wills etc.
http://www.wiltshire-opc.org.uk/genealogy/index.php/ component/k2/item/387-vital |
READ BETWEEN THE LINES ON BMD CERTIFICATES & CONFIRM FAMILY STORIES.
Have a renewed look at some of your certificates, especially if it's been some time since you obtained them. Here are some things that I have since considered, maybe it might broaden your thoughts as well? 1. The Family says- Charles broke away from the family business after his 2nd marriage & was cut out of the will, when his Father died. The Certificate reveals- It seems as though no-one wanted to witness the marriage, as good old James & Annie Holt signed off as witnesses (Holt's Matrimonial Agency). Conclusion- The family didn't approve of his marriage. 2. The Family says- They didn't want Thomas to marry Catherine for some reason? The Certificate reveals- They were married married at 'Holts'. Conclusion- Catherine's family must have approved?, as George her brother was a witness along with Annie Holt. 3. The Family says- James died in 1877 at 86 years of age. The Certificate reveals- James' 1st wife died (no kids) The informant was his Grand- daughter. At first glance with an 86 yr old, she could be 40 yrs old?. Conclusion- This Grand-daughter through his 2nd marriage was only a teenager in 1877, so how accurate is a 15 yr old, as an informant? 4. The Family says- William & Elizabeth kept to themselves & didn't mix with the family. The Certificate reveals- They were married married at 'Holts'. Conclusion- William's family may or may not have approved?, or didn't care either way? or weren't in his life for some reason? Elizabeth's sister was a witness along with James Holt, so it may have been a quickie? 5. The Family- Wife and children, were all still alive, when George died at 36 years old. The Certificate reveals- Marriage 'Unknown' Children 'Unknown', where born, buried 'Unknown.' Why? Conclusion- Check for an Inquest. If the coroner was involved, then he is the informant & doesn't care much if there's any information recorded or not. Also in Castlemaine (for example) during the mid 1800's, burial information wasn't even recorded. Don't assume that if there isn't any info, that the spouse was dead. 6. The Family- Appeared to live in Carlton Victoria. The Certificate reveals- Some of the children were born in North Melbourne, for some, it just says- Madeline st., some, just Albert st. Did the family move around a lot? Conclusion- Did they actually live in North Melbourne at one time? or in Madeline street? The 'Lying-in Hospital' (now the Royal Women's) was first located in a two storey house at 41 Albert St, Eastern Hill. In 1858, the 'Lying-in Hospital' was relocated & opened in Madeline St, Nth Melbourne. MidwiferyBooks1856-1889 |
Castlemaine Cemetery was sometimes known as Campbell's Creek or Campbell's Flat. The first cemetery in Castlemaine was in Templeton Street, but was later moved to Campbells Creek in 1853. Most of the burials in this first cemetery were re-interred into the new cemetery, but the owners of the graves were given the option as to where to have the re-burials. It is believed that some did use other cemeteries. It is thought that there were earlier burials, but no full information is known of them as they were said to be in some exercise books (not located to date) or just not listed in the registers. The actual number of burials is not fully known as some of the earlier burials were not recorded as per the information on a number of the earlier death certificates in Victoria (1853 - late 1860s) where the Deputy Registers of the areas did not list the cemeteries on the death certificates, the column was left blank.
|
Historical Index database- Victoria
Recently, approximately one hundred and five Victorian early church records were uncovered, in New South Wales that were not on our Historical Index database. Records dated between 1803 and 1906... Read more... http://www.portphillippioneersgroup.org.au/pppg5bn.htm |
Browsing History
If you're like me and copy & paste web addresses or info into a program like 'Word', instead of saving the whole page? then the program hangs? & you'll lose your info (I try to save every time I enter something now) Don't forget that we can find the sites again by right clicking on the back arrow to show browsing history. Provided your computer isn't set to delete history when you close your browser, you can view the sites you've visited from days ago. |
1841 Census
Don't forget when looking up the 1841 census, that the ages may not be exact? Any child under 15 years will be the right age. Anyone 15 years & over, will be rounded down to the nearest 5. A 17 year old will be written as 15 A 24 year old will be written as 20 A 28 year old will be written as 25 & so on Enumerator's Instruction 1841 Census |
Cousins
Although none of us want to see cousins marrying cousins, it may very well turn up in your family tree, Kindred, Tasmania, wasn't named that for no reason, you know? One of the problems with living in the small communities of centuries gone by, was that intermarriage between first cousins or marriages involving an uncle/niece or aunt/nephew were not uncommon (unthinkable now). Cousins Marrying Cousins? Don't Duplicate People in Your Family Tree (cousins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRnwKG7iKCk Forbidden Marriage Laws of the U.K.(cousins) http://www.genetic-genealogy.co.uk/Toc115570145.html MARRIAGE BETWEEN COUSINS http://www.manyhatspublications.com/article-401.html |
Crazy family trees (from Lost Cousins Newsletter)
Ridiculous things in peoples' family trees such as people marrying before they were born. Suggestions that trees which include Henry VIII, were found to be very wrong. Everyone knows that Henry VIII had 6 wives- except, it would appear, some of the people who have posted trees on Ancestry! Looking at some of the highly questionable trees, leads to a theory why some of the more ridiculous errors may be occurring. They may be a result of Gedcom files being merged. If someone gives you access to part of their tree, don't merge it with yours, copy across the relevant people and check the data (it's unusual not to find a slip or two, and there are invariably some gaps, so it's time well spent). If you're one of these 'name collectors' with tens of thousands of names (loosely 'relatives') in your tree, the chances are, it has grown to that size by merging other peoples' trees with your own. Another source of errors seems to be the use of drop-down menus for place names. Most of us know that Queen Mary didn't die in Westminster, Jefferson, Colorado (as 32 Ancestry users assert in their public trees), or in Westminster, Worcester, Massachusetts (as a further 99 claim). Mind you, go back a generation to another Mary Tudor, Henry VIII's sister and the situation is even worse - in their public trees 264 Ancestry users show her as dying in Suffolk, Massachusetts instead of Suffolk, England. |
Sites with Videos
If you want to try something a little different when searching, click on the 'More' arrow & then on 'Videos', you will then get a search result of websites that contain videos (not youtube) on the subject you've entered If the video on the site displays 'Video is unavailable', which some will, then just copy & paste the title & most likely you'll find the same clip on youtube, or another site with the same clip. |
Words used in old Wills-
Appurtinances (appurts)- Extra rights to land (right of way or use of something) Expectaury- In the future Hereditaments (Heredits)- Anything that can be passed to your heirs Messuages- House & gardens Tenure- A type of ownership of land Tenament- Any kind of real estates that includes buildings. Testamentary charges- Expenses incurred by executors to carry out your Will |
Transcription Errors
What does an assistant Lodis Fother do? (a good friend/genealogist found this one) Don't trust everything you read. In the 1851 census Transcript, William Dixon's son Thomas, is described as being 'an assistant Lodis Fother'. What?, that's a strange one? What kind of occupation is that? It should read- 'An assistant to his Father'. It's been reported, so it may have been fixed by now? If you ever find a mistake, report it if you can, Don't leave it for somebody else, because-Somebody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody ended up doing it! |
Finding things on Ancestry
The most frustrating thing about Ancestry.com (apart from having to pay) is that you have to dig around to find the category that you want. Here's my tip for the quickest way. Search 'Card Collection' at the bottom Type what ever you're looking for, in the box. Make sure that the 'Australia' box is Unchecked (unless you want only Aust.) It should then come up with a 'relevant' selection. Click on your choice, then enter the name etc., on the the next screen.
Here are 'All' of the pages (2016) (if you want to wade through them?)
http://www.ancestry.com.au/wiki/index.php?title=Special:AllPages |
World Archives Project (Ancestry.com)
You can participate or just have a look at what is being transcribed at the moment http://community.ancestry.com.au/awap/ |
Find an Indexing Project- (Family Search)
Same as above- Participate or look at the progress (different projects of course!) https://familysearch.org/indexing/projects#/list-view Family Search- All of the Pages to Browse through (a lot!) https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Special:AllPages |
Find my Past Partners
http://www.findmypast.co.uk/content/our-partners |
REMEMBER-
Anything assumed, is most likely wrong
Nothing at all, should be left unchecked!
AND
Everything you need is NOT online
Anything assumed, is most likely wrong
Nothing at all, should be left unchecked!
AND
Everything you need is NOT online