The topic for Week 33 in Amy Coffin’s and Geneablogger’s 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History series is: Nicknames. What was your childhood nickname, and what was the meaning behind it? You can also discuss the nicknames of other family members, both past and present. Well this has to be the easiest topic in … More 52 weeks of personal genealogy & history: Week 33: Nicknames
The topic for Week 32 in Amy Coffin’s and Geneablogger’s 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History series is: Dinner Time. On a typical childhood evening, who was around the dinner table? Was the meal served by one person, or was it a free-for-all? What is dinner time like in your family today? Of course … More 52 weeks of personal genealogy & history: Week 32: Dinner Time
Buiding on yesterday’s post about using electoral rolls to determine your street’s population, I decided to enter the name and other data into a spreadsheet which could be sorted in different ways. Somewhat to my surprise I found that there is really only one family living in the street with continuous residence from World War … More Street demographics – more on electoral rolls
Findmypast Australia’s blurb tells the researcher that electoral rolls are the nearest record Australians have to census listings and hence are extremely important to local, social and family historians…. Compulsory enrolment was introduced for all federal rolls from 1911 so the 1959 should reflect the adult population (over 21 years) excluding the foreign and indigenous … More The key to learning who lived in your street: Electoral rolls on FMP and WVR
The topic for Week 31 in Amy Coffin’s and Geneablogger’s 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History series is: Grandparents’ House. Describe your grandparents’ house. Was it big or small? How long did they live there? If you do not know this information, feel free to describe the house of another family member you remember … More 52 weeks of personal genealogy and history: Week 31: Grandparents’ House: More charming than George Clooney?
Alerted by tweets from @IrishWattle @CaroleRiley and @QueenslandFHS, I investigated the link they’d provided for 160 years of Irish population data. The National Centre for Geocomputation’s (NCG) Online Atlas Portal is an absolute goldmine for family historians with ancestry in Ireland. There are two options: mapping and data relating to 2002 together with a timeline … More The Irish population haemorrhage: mapping 160 years of data
It’s likely that most Australian family historians are familiar with the National Library of Australia’s Trove site as a source for family research. It’s also been well promoted that anyone in Australia can apply for a library card with NLA which then lets you access their eResources remotely. The Times Digital Archives and 19th Century … More JSTOR @ NLA: finding the historical context for family history
Irish Famine Orphan, Bridget Gollagher or Gallagher, is my husband’s ancestor. She arrived in Port Philip on the barque Lady Kennaway in December 1848. McClaughlin’s book Barefoot and Pregnant indicates that Victorian records show she came from Donegal although the NSW Agent’s lists give her place of origin as Galway. She was hired out to … More Irish Famine Orphan: Biddy Gollagher or Gallagher on the Lady Kennaway in 1848
The Navy was in full-profile in Darwin town this long weekend. We missed the Keys to the City ceremony on Saturday but went with a daughter and small grandsons to see the HMAS Darwin on open public display yesterday. Although it was hot and at times slow, we had a great time seeing over the Australian Navy’s … More The Navy is in town: The Old and the New: HMB Endeavour and HMAS Darwin
Well those who’ve ever been to Renner Springs will find that description to be rather strange, but having said that, we saw some beautiful things when we overnighted on our way south recently. Where is Renner Springs? Well it’s about 820kms south of Darwin down the Track or Stuart Highway. Not much there except the … More The glories of Renner Springs: travelling south mid-June
Family history across the seas 