Professional Family History Research
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October to December 2009 July to September 2009 April to June 2009 Jan to Mar 2009 Oct to Dec 2008 Jul to Sept 2008	This page provide information about the latest news regarding Anzestry's services, developments in family history research, tips for tracing your family history and other interesting pieces of information about genealogy.
	21^st December 2009	The year of the census? It has been another important and exciting year for family historians, with more and more records sources being made available – either as new record releases, or as records being digitised and made available online for the first time. For people with UK ancestry, it has, in many ways, been the year of the 1911 census. The early release of the 1911 census returns for England and Wales was perhaps the highpoint of the year for researchers with ancestry in those countries at that time. Unfortunately, the legislation in Scotland means those people with Scottish ancestry have to wait a little longer to see these records as they will not be released until early January 2012. The English and Welsh records were digitised and indexed prior to release and searches of the records can now easily be undertaken online. The Irish 1911 census returns have also been available to researchers for some time but had not previously been indexed by name or digitised. However, earlier this year an online index to these records was also made available though the National Archives of Ireland website and digital images of the census returns can now be downloaded – all for free. Work is currently underway into the digitisation and indexing of the 1901 census for Ireland and this will be another enormously useful tool for family historians – all the more so because of the unfortunate destruction of the majority of the Irish 19th century censuses. Check out the 1911 census of Ireland at the National Archives website. <Return to top of page>
	28^th October 2009	Who Do You Think You Are? You may be currently be enjoying the new Australian series of Who Do You Think You Are? which is being shown on SBS on Sunday evenings at 7.30pm AEST. The series has explored the ancestry of Ron Barassi, Sigrid Thornton, Ben Mendelsohn, Christine Anu and Maggie Beer so far, with John Butler being the subject of the last episode on 1st November. Information about the show can be found at the SBS website Who Do You Think You Are? where you can also catch up on any episodes you have missed. This is the second series of the show which has focussed on Australian celebrities and given its success, no doubt another one is already being planned. <Return to top of page>
	3^rd September 2009	Van Diemen's Land Researchers with convict ancestry, especially those transported to Tasmania, will be interested in the release of a new movie, ‘Van Diemen’s Land’ on 24th September. The film follows the true story of Australia's most notorious convict, Alexander Pearce and his infamous escape into the beautiful yet brutal Tasmanian wilderness. ‘A point of no return for convicts banished from their homeland, Van Diemen's Land was a feared and dreaded penal settlement at the end of the earth. The entrance to its remote station of secondary punishment, Macquarie Harbour, was named 'Hell's Gates' by its prisoners as a reference to the gates of hell in Dante's 'Inferno' - "Abandon all hope ye who enter here" - was plastered at the Harbour's mouth as a warning to all souls sent there. In 1822, eight convicts escaped Macquarie Harbour in a fateful bid for freedom. This band of Irish, English and Scottish thieves were immediately hurled into chaos as their plan failed and they were thrust into the heart of a harsh and foreboding landscape. With little food or equipment, in a place these immigrants knew little about, they battled a merciless enemy - the unforgiving, barren land - a land where God wields an axe.’ See more details at www.vandiemensland-themovie.com <Return to top of page>
	3^rd August 2009	Family History Week 2009 National Family History Week is again upon us! A variety of lectures, talks, exhibitions and events are planned across the country between 1st August and 9th August 2009 under the umbrella organisation of the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations. To find out what is going on in your area, check out the calendar of events at www.familyhistoryweek.org.au. It is a great chance to meet up with like-minded family historians, get to know your local family history society and perhaps uncover a little more information about your own ancestry. <Return to top of page>
	22^nd May 2009	Family History Talks and Lectures Interest in family history as a hobby has probably never been so high. I regularly give talks and lectures on different aspects of the subject to family history societies and other groups and organisations and am always pleased to be asked to attend such events. If you are a member of an organisation that might be interested to hear some family history information, then please do get in touch to see whether a likely date can be arranged. The group does not have to be one already involved in family history research – I give talks explaining what family history is all about and how to get started in research to organisations and societies from outside of the genealogical world. If you are a member of a family history society, perhaps I can assist by providing a talk to your society on a particular aspect of research or group of records. The topics can always be catered to suit the requirements of the particular audience and its interest. Do give me a call or send me an email if you would like to arrange a talk. <Return to top of page>
	16^th Apr 2009	Give the gift of family history Research into a family history can make a wonderful gift or present. Many people approach us wanting to surprise their spouse or relative with the results of research commissioned as a present. However, whilst this is possible, it is often better to gain the participation of the recipient in the research, as he or she may know more details about their immediate family history than the person commissioning the present. Without such details to hand when research starts, we run the risk of searching for information which the client may already be aware of. We therefore suggest that anyone wishing to commission family history research as a present uses our Research Gift Vouchers. These can be purchased and presented to the friend or relative along with the forms they need to fill in regarding the details of their parents, grandparents etc. The vouchers can then be redeemed by the recipient for research into his or her ancestry. Whether it is a special birthday, anniversary, retirement or Christmas gift, our Research Gift Vouchers make an ideal present. They can be purchased online using a credit card or through a PayPal account here. <Return to top of page>
	26^th Mar 2009	The 1911 Census The early release of some information from the 1911 census of England and Wales is a major new resource for people wishing to trace their ancestors in the early 20th century. Historically, census returns are usually closed for 100 years to protect confidentiality but the records of the 1911 census have been released early. Parts of the census concerning the physical or mental disabilities of the people have been obscured but the rest of the information is provided. The 1911 census is also the first census from which original householder returns survive, making it possible for researchers to see the actually forms completed by their ancestors on the census night of Sunday 2nd April 1911. The material is being made available online at www.1911census.co.uk, though presently not all of the English and Welsh counties are available. The census returns of Scotland for 1911 will not be available until 2012, whereas the records for Ireland have been available for some years as they were released to the public early as the majority of the 19th century records had been destroyed. A project to index the 1911 census of Ireland is currently underway. <Return to top of page>
	13^th Feb 2009	The Family History Library at Salt Lake City The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, or Mormons as they are also known, are well known for their interest in family history. Their family history organisation, the Genealogical Society of Utah, has been collecting and collating material from all over the world for over 100 years. The records filmed by the Mormons can easily be viewed through your local family history research centre and these can sometimes be an inexpensive and easy way to access material for distant countries such as Britain or Germany, for example. The Mormon’s library catalogue (available online here) will show you what material they have collected which might be of use to you when researching your family history. The library itself is situated in Salt Lake City in Utah and is the largest library of its kind in the world, being visited by nearly 2,000 researchers every day. Many family historians make the trip to Salt Lake City to visit the library and organised group visits are common. A forthcoming trip is being organised from Australia by ‘Travel by Tracey’ in August 2009. Details of the trip including dates and costs can be found by contacting Tracey at - E-mail: tracey@travelbytracey.com.au Website: www.travelbytracey.com.au <Return to top of page>
	16^th Dec 2008	Christmas Christmas is a time for rest and relaxation after a busy year. It is also one of the few times in the year when people meet up with relatives who they do not see very often in the course of the year. These larger family gatherings are therefore a great occasion on which to ask more distant family members what they know about their part of the family and what they can recall about their parents, grandparents, and possibly even great grandparents. The more details you can amass from family members, the better informed you will be when it comes to commissioning research, or starting research yourself. Our ancestors’ view of Christmas was very different to the highly commercialised version we experience today. It was one of the few holiday days in the year and was often an occasion for a family event. Baptisms, and especially marriages, on Christmas Day was far more common than would normally be imagined, as at that time there were very few opportunities when an entire family could be gathered together. During the 18th and 19th centuries, with people working a six or indeed seven day week with no holidays, a wedding on a public feast day was not unusual. <Return to top of page>
	2^nd Dec 2008	Christmas Gifts People who wish to get involved with tracing their family history have a range of excellent books and magazines at their disposal. For records relating to Australia, Nick Vine Hall's Tracing Your Family History in Australia (2002) is a very good guide to the sources available, although it does not really delve into the process of how to do research. People with UK ancestry are spoilt for choice with a range of books published by Collins and written by Anthony Adolph – Tracing Your Family History (2008), Tracing Your Irish Family History (2007) and the new Tracing Your Scottish Family History (2008). Another useful guide to a wide range of British records is Mark Herber’s Ancestral Trails (2006). Australian Family Tree Connections is Australia’s only monthly issue magazine for genealogists but many of the British magazines such as Practical Family History, Family Tree Magazine, Family History Monthly and Your Family Tree are of course popular with people with UK ancestry interests. Any of these books, or a subscription to one of the magazines, would make an ideal Christmas present to the family historian in your life. <Return to top of page>
	10^th Nov 2008	Lest We Forget Tomorrow, 11th November 2008, sees the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War. The war ended at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month and each year at that time the world stops to remember the millions of men, women and children who died in that dreadful conflict. Remembrance Day is also a time of memorial for people killed in other conflicts since the First World War. The Commonwealth War Graves commission exists to maintain and look after the millions of war graves for British and Commonwealth soldiers spread throughout the world. Their database of casualties, available online at www.cwc.org, is a very useful research aid for anyone tracing military ancestry in the 20th century – or indeed for any casualties caused by war, as the material also includes 67,000 civilian deaths. The database can be searched by name, year of death, the force the person served in, or nationality. There are 1.7 million records covering over 23,000 cemeteries and memorials. The information found in each record will vary from person to person but usually includes, name, rank, age, service number and date of death. Additional information about parentage and birthplace may sometimes be recorded too. Details will also be provided regarding the cemetery or memorial on which that person’s name is recorded. Other information regarding the cemetery will give some background historical detail regarding the battles in the area from which resulted in its creation.					<Return to top of page>
	30^th Oct 2008	Family Historians and Calendars What does an octopus, an octogram and October all have in common? Yes, they are all related to the number eight. Eight legs, eight sides and the eighth month of the year. Now you might think that October is the tenth month of the year – it is now but that hasn’t always been the case. Until the sixteenth century, Europe used the Julian calendar in which the year started on Lady Day, 25^th March. April was the next month and so on – thereby making October the eighth month of the year. 31^st December was followed by 1^st January and the year ended on 24^th March. Therefore the days before 1^st January to 24^th March were later in the year than September or October, which is often why you will see a couple marrying on, say, 1^st May of one year and having a child baptised nine months later in the January of the same year. This can cause confusion to people not aware of how the calendar worked. The Julian calendar was slightly inaccurate though and over the course of time it had fallen out of step with the seasons. Consequently, many European countries changed over to the more accurate Gregorian calendar in the sixteenth century whereby the year starts, as we now know, on 1^st January and goes through until 31^st December. Scotland changed over to the new method in 1600 but England and Wales did not follow suit until 1752. Family historians should therefore make sure that when recording information they always use the names of the month in question rather than using its numerical form as the latter can cause confusion before the change of the calendar – is 25/02/1580 the 25^th February as we would view it, or 25^th April as people at the time would have reckoned it? Using the name of the month thereby does away with any confusion whatsoever. <Return to top of page>
	14^th Oct 2008	The Battle of Hastings and the Domesday Book 14th October 2008 sees the 942nd anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. The battle was fought on this day in 1066 between the armies of King Harold II and Duke William of Normandy. William was, of course, victorious and the result of the battle changed the course of British history entirely. William's victory also lead to one of the earliest genealogically useful documents. In order to establish the details of the resources of his new kingdom, William commissioned a survey of the country in 1085. This survey, which became known as the Domesday Book, records details of towns and villages in parishes in England, residents and holders of land, and resources such as mills. Digital copies of the original pages of the Domesday Book, together with a modern day transcription, are available at the website of The National Archives. The database of images has been indexed by personal name and place name and so it is easily possible to obtain copies of the entries relating to the place or parish where your ancestors may have lived. Of course, most people cannot trace their ancestry back to the 11th century but the Domesday Book can provide some very interesting information about the localities in which our ancestors lived in the medieval period. <Return to top of page>
	29^th Sept 2008	Christmas is coming...... It seems a little early to start thinking about Christmas but I noticed that some of the shops have already started putting up their Christmas displays. Many people like to commission research as a present for Christmas or birthdays but perhaps do not realise that family history research is a step by step research process which can take some time to do. A full stage of genealogical research can take anything from six to twelve weeks (or more) to complete depending upon how many lines of the family are being investigated, and the locations of the archives involved. Therefore, family history research is not something that can be ‘picked off the shelf’ or simply ‘printed off from the computer’ and time is an important part of the process. So if you would like to give your loved one the details of their ancestry as a Christmas present this year, then the time to act is NOW. Contact us to see how we can help you give this very special, and unique, gift. <Return to top of page>
	1^st Sept 2008	Society of Australian Genealogists' Bookfair The Society of Australian Genealogists will be holding a two day book and genealogy fair at their headquarters in Richmond Villa, Kent Street, Sydney on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th September 2008. I will be attending the fair to give research advice and there will be lots of other stall holders selling genealogical books and other resources. The SAG will also be selling some of its huge collection of second hand books. The fair coincides with the local inaugural Millers Point Festival which will make it a popular attraction. Come along and say hello! <Return to top of page>
	20^th Aug 2008	Family Stories and the Truth Family stories are often an important reason for someone wanting to know more about their ancestry. Is it true that great grandfather was the first man to ride a bicycle over the Blue Mountains? Was great great grandmother really the illegitimate child of the Duke and one of maids in the household? Stories like these abound in most family histories. Sometimes the story suggests a link to a famous ancestor – Captain James Cook, Florence Nightingale and George Stevenson appear in many family stories as direct or distant relatives. Usually most family stories will have some truth to them but it is rarely the case that they are completely correct. The telling of the story from generation to generation often sees the omission of key points and exaggeration and assumption are factors, which influence the re-telling to the next generation. When you were young enough to sit on your grandfather’s knee, he may have told you a story he first heard from his own grandfather in a similar manner – but it may have little direct relevance to the real facts. As an example, my father told me that he had been informed that at some point the family had owned a large country house and that it had been lost in a game of cards. He remembers seeing a picture hanging in his grandparents’ home of the house in question, in front of which stood two men and a couple of greyhounds. The name ‘Tom Palmer’ appeared on the collars hanging from the necks of the dogs. Many years later I discovered that rather than being the owner of the house, Tom Palmer, who had been born in 1752, was in fact a gamekeeper at Normanton Hall in Rutland. The picture, probably of Normanton Hall, undoubtedly portrayed Tom and his dogs but he was certainly not the owner, just a valued servant who was given the painting. Unfortunately, the picture has now long since disappeared but I would love to try to track it down. <Return to top of page>
	12^th Aug 2008	NSW Seniors' Discount Card Anzestry is pleased to be a business partner with NSW Seniors Card. Holders of NSW Seniors Cards, and other related interstate seniors cards, now qualify for a discount of 10% when commissioning a full stage of research. This means that a stage costs $540 instead of $600 - a saving of $60. To qualify for the discount please provide details of your card number when commissioning the research.						<Return to top of page>
	5^th Aug 2008	Learning to Read A week or two ago, I wrote about the need to consult original sources when undertaking research. Of course, one of the challenges of using original documents is the fact that the handwriting styles may be unfamiliar to our modern eyes. Having the ability to read old handwriting is therefore an essential skill to learn. Palaeography, the study and interpretation of old handwriting, is something you really cannot learn without lots of repeated practise. Like riding a bicycle, having someone tell you how it should be done, is no substitute for actually doing it yourself and learning from your mistakes. There are a variety of online resources that can help with this and possibly one of the best is the free online palaeography study aid at The National Archives website. This interactive tutorial provides plenty of theory on understanding documents and then allows you to transcribe ten example documents. You progress through a document a line at a time and the website informs you how many word you have interpreted correctly / incorrectly at each stage. Working your way through the example documents, which range in date from the 1500s to the 1800s, will give you a very good grounding in the subject. Successful genealogical research stems from logical research practice and good palaeography skills. The reading and interpretation of original documents is therefore an area that every family historian should aim to master. <Return to top of page>
	29^th Jul 2008	Family History Week The beginning of August sees the arrival of National Family History Week! A variety of lectures, talks, exhibitions and events are planned across the country between 2nd August and 19th August 2008 under the umbrella organisation of the www.familyhistoryweek.org.au. It is a great chance to meet up with like-minded people, get to know your local family history society and perhaps uncover a little more information about your own ancestry. <Return to top of page>
	25^th Jul 2008	Original Sources and Secondary Sources Many people, and they are usually the ones who haven’t tried it, believe that it is possible to trace your family history in a couple of hours using a variety of the genealogy websites and other online resources. There are many millions of pieces of data recorded online and some of them will undoubtedly relate to some of your ancestors. However, considering the scope and extent of sources which can be used for family history research, the vast majority of information is not online, nor ever will be, at least for a very long time. It is therefore easy to get frustrated or disillusioned if the information you need to link one generation to the next is not easily found on the web. Whilst every genealogist should make best use of easily available material, including online sources, family historians should try to get into a habit of checking the information they find against the original records or sources. For example, there are many millions of baptisms recorded online in the very helpful IGI, or International Genealogical Index, a. collection of material compiled by the Mormon Church. Any index such as this is a secondary source – it has been compiled by someone looking at the original documents, transcribing them and then entering the information into a computer before it is published. Whilst most of the information may have been transcribed correctly, it is impossible to guarantee that no mistakes have been made, entries muddled up or omitted altogether. Humans are not infallible after all. Therefore, even if you find an entry in such an index which seems to be correct for your family, you need to go back to the original sources so that you can ensure that the information has been transcribed correctly and does indeed say what the index says it says. In some cases, such as the English baptisms for the period after 1813 found in the IGI, you might find that the original source has additional information which is not recorded in the secondary source at all. This is because the compilers of the index may have been working to a standard template which did not allow for other miscellaneous information to be included. It is therefore important to differentiate between original sources, usually the historical records found in record offices and archives, and secondary sources, such as the indexes and finding aids compiled and published to help family historians. Our research is made so much easier because of the availability of the secondary sources but they should never be used to the exclusion of the original material. <Return to top of page>
	22^nd Jul 2008	How many ancestors do we have? Many people today think that they come from a small family. If your parents were both only children with no brothers and sisters, you might think that you do not have any cousins or other close relatives. However, you are almost certainly to have hundreds or thousands of more distant relatives of whom you are unaware. Each generation we trace back, the numbers of our ancestors doubles. So one person has two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, sixteen great great grandparents, thirty two great great great grandparents etc. So you can see that you do not have to go back many generations before you start findings large numbers of direct ancestors. Indeed, if you go back far enough you will, theoretically, have thousands of ancestors in each generation. Given that the span of a generation is roughly thirty years, someone born in 1970 who could trace their family history back to, say 1790 around the time of the First Fleet, would have sixty four ancestors in the direct line in that generation alone. Now each one of those ancestors may have had several brothers and sisters and, whilst some might die before getting to adulthood, many of those brothers and sisters would live long enough to marry and have several children of their own. Runs of six, eight or even ten or more children were common in the nineteenth century and each of those children could marry and have their own issue. Consequently, if you work you way down all possible family lines through the intervening generations to the present you will find that you are related to hundreds of other people who you knew nothing about. Getting in touch with distant cousins and swapping information about your family history is a great side product of researching your ancestry. <Return to top of page>
	17^th Jul 2008	Family History Software I am often asked the question as to what is the best family history software to use. I do not use such software for my professional research as one of the first things you will find is that, whatever software you use, it takes a very long time to enter in details of all the data, relationships and source references. Consequently, it is worth taking some time to find the one that suits you, as you will spend a lot of time working with it on data entry. By trying out several different programs you will eventually find one that you like using. The majority of packages provide much the same sort of facilities and options – often it is only the bells and whistles that differ from one to another. Those people with UK ancestry might like to try Family Historian as it is designed to incorporate the events and records you will encounter when researching in the UK. Other popular programs are Family Tree Maker and Legacy. Free trials of these programs are sometimes available for download from these websites or you may find a trial version on a CD supplied with one of the monthly genealogical magazines. Whichever program you use, it pays to make sure that as well as entering details of the genealogical data, you also enter the source information, document references and other details which help identify where a particular fact or date was found. Doing it like this from the start can save a tremendous amount of time in the long run, especially if your database grows to includes hundreds or thousands or ancestors and relatives. <Return to top of page>
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