by Tiggy Johnson Do you remember what first motivated you to start researching your family history? When I was twenty, maybe twenty-one, my grandmother showed me the contents of a special brown case, which I now know was one of a matching pair her parents brought from London when they migrated after WWI. The case was full. Photos, letters, postcards, documents, an autograph book and other exciting things. She told me stories to match some of the memorabilia … Continue reading
I have recently been transcribing some old documents – when I say ‘old’, I mean really old: some date to the 1600s. If your research has taken you back to pre-civil registration times, then it is likely you will have come across many and varied church and parish records and possibly also wills, apprenticeship indentures, land records, and so on. These early records are widespread in the UK, Scotland and Ireland, as well as in Europe. The study of old … Continue reading
Australia unfortunately has very few censuses remaining, just a few for New South Wales in the early years. Censuses were wonderful at putting people in a place at a set time. We don’t have these but we do have directories and almanacs and while they don’t list families, they can be a great tool for putting some people in a place at a time and showing their occupation. Not all people in a town will be listed although most tradesmen … Continue reading
