The Australian War Memorial is one of my favourite Canberra locations both for family history research and as a place to catch up with friends. During a recent visit to Poppy's café* at the Memorial I came across a group who meets there weekly to knit, crochet or create felt poppies for the sculpture garden display from 5 October to 11 November this year. The War Memorial hopes to have more than 60,000 poppies carpeting the lush grounds - one for every Australian killed in W

As a proud Victorian, Easter always makes me think of the annual Stawell Gift, Australia's pre-eminent foot race since 1878. That in turn makes me think of my pioneering Barnes family who were among Stawell's founding fathers. My 3xgreat grandfather arrived in Australia during the goldrush in the 1850s. His eldest son followed him a year or so later but it was 12 years before the rest of his large family finally joined him in Stawell from Lancashire. Last year I had one o

Level : Advanced Time : 5 mins The Tithe Maps and Apportionments are a valuable yet little used source of information about our ancestors. The Tithe Commissioners surveyed England and Wales in early Victorian times which produced some of the country's earliest large scale maps. Owners and occupiers of even the smallest piece of English and Welsh land in the 1800s were recorded in the Tithe Maps and Apportionment documents. Note: Irish and Scottish tithe records are not incl

FindMyPast has released a variety of Irish records this week. Listed below are what I think are the three most interesting and useful. 1. American Fenian Brotherhood 1864-1867 This is a fascinating series of British Foreign Office (BFO) correspondence records regarding activities of the American Fenian Brotherhood. The records include newspaper cuttings, letters, telegrams, prisoner lists and some photos. The records are searchable and include images as well as transcript

For family historians there’s nothing like the thrill of visiting an Archive and finding new information about ancestors among the often dusty and grubby old records. Time always flies when you’re in the Archives but following these 10 essential steps before you get there will not only help avoid disappointment but also maximise your reading time on-site. 1. Do your research at home before arriving at the Archives. I can’t emphasise this enough. Know what records you want

Melbourne’s oldest cemetery records have been digitised and added to the Public Records Office of Victoria (VicProv)’s online collection. The city’s first cemetery was established in 1837 on the site of the current Victoria Market in Elizabeth Street. Located on the edge of the central business district, the cemetery had a relatively short life due to its inadequate size and the regular encroachment by the adjoining market. Just 14 years after it opened the cemetery was clos

I’ve been catching up on a number of Roots Tech 2018 videos. One of the best in my opinion is the 60 minute lecture by Janice Sellers of Ancestral Discoveries titled Online Does Not Equal Free: Copyright Issues for Genealogy. Copyright is a very dry but nevertheless very important topic for genealogists. While the lecture is based on US Copyright law, it is still well worth watching because the issues are the same in all countries. Ms Sellers covers many practical examples a

FindMyPast recently released more than 4 million Catholic records from the New York, Chicago and Baltimore archdioceses. The release was part of FindMyPast’s Catholic Heritage Archive which aims to digitize the historical records of the Catholic Church not only in North America but also the UK and Ireland. The New York baptism and marriage records are transcribed indexes only at this stage. However, the Chicago records include both transcriptions and images of the parish bapt

In celebration of St Patrick’s Day this year, Ancestry.com is offering a 30% discount on its DNA test. So if you were planning on taking your first steps into the fascinating world of DNA, now is probably a good time to do it. The current discount only lasts until 18 March 2018.

Yes you can. There are many ways to do this, both online and offline. I resisted the need to sign up for a paid subscription site for many months before I finally gave in to temptation and signed up to Ancestry.com. To be fair my research went ahead in leaps and bounds after I signed up to Ancestry so it is worth checking your local library to see if they offer free access to Ancestry and FindMyPast. Apart from finding free access to the paid subscription sites, it's always w