My A2Z 2016 theme is how to pursue an interest in family history/genealogy – I’d love you to join me on the journey. G is for GENEALOGICAL SOCIETIES In the online world within which we live and often research these days, it’s easy to think we don’t need anything more than the genealogical programs offered … More G is for Genealogical Societies & the genealogical community
F is for FAMILY Yes, family is what we’re all about, so approaching our families first seems an obvious starting point. Unfortunately, some people have no living relatives, others are “blessed” with kin who closely resemble clams. However, if you cast your net widely enough and approach extended kin as well as close kin, you … More F is for Family
E is for EDUCATION Yes, we can and should see what we can learn about our ancestors’ education, using school records, old school annuals, school administrative books and enrolment registers. Once again you can learn unexpected these about ancestral families such as their participation in school committees, their involvement in establishing a school or how … More E is for Education, Ethics & Electoral Rolls
D is for DIGITISATION I think of Digitisation as the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The Good? It’s readily accessible through personal subscription or library access, so long as you have internet access. You can be living remotely from your place of interest and yet still be able to do research (well at least … More D is for Digitisation and DNA
C is for CERTIFICATES Depending on where you live, and the timeframe in which you’re searching, certificates can be both critical and extremely useful. Australian certificates are so excellent that almost anyone else’s, except the Scots’, (from my own experience) pale into insignificance. Fully completed, our certificates can launch your family tree on to new … More C is for Certificates, Collateral Research & Census Data
B is BDMs/BMDs Births, Deaths and Marriages or BDMs are also known in other countries as BMDs which actually makes more sense, after all if we marry it’s unlikely to come after we die, rather beforehand. I mentioned in the last post that the best genealogy explores backwards from ourselves, working through the generations. This … More B is for BDMs, Blogs and Beyond the Internet
Welcome to my A to Z journey through family history. If you’ve ever been curious about your own family’s story perhaps this will tempt you to get started – or frighten you off entirely. A is for ANCESTORS The starting point about doing family history is to learn who our ancestors were, their names and … More A is for Ancestors and Archives
After much deliberation I’ve decided to once again participate in the April A to Z challenge, despite having been in the blogging doldrums for some time, largely thanks to a relocation interstate and then internet challenges. I participated in the A to Z Challenge in 2012 when I wrote about the places of importance to … More A to Z 2016: a Family History Journey
It’s all in the genes as they say (and I wrote about that here from a personal perspective). That being the case I have a fair chance of making old bones – provided I pass the next danger zone of the early 70s. I have no wish to last to 100 but quite a few … More Health inheritance
As the Irish people commemorate the centenary of the Easter Uprising this weekend it seemed an appropriate time to share a piece of family memorabilia relating to Ireland’s fight for independence and self-government. This brochure was found among my Irish-born grandfather’s possession. Published in 1921, long after he’d been in Australia, we don’t know how … More Family Memorabilia and Ireland
Family history across the seas 