Yearly Archives: 2016

Family history revealed through death certificates

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Many researchers consider it important to trace their ancestors from birth through marriage to eventual death and final resting place. My focus has been more on my ancestors’ birth, family, including parentage, and what they did during their life. As long as I have a date of death or burial, I haven’t always bought a death certificate to find out actual cause of death or sought out a final resting place; UK certificates are not as informative as Australian ones. … Continue reading

New Information on English and Welsh Indexes

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The recent announcement (4 November 2016) by the General Register Office of England and Wales of the addition to their index information will make many genealogists rub their hands with glee especially those of us with common surnames. Previously the site has been a bit clunky. We have generally gotten the index information from a variety of places (various pay sites, FreeBMD or even from microfiche or film) and entered them to order our certificates. When I have been in … Continue reading

The Wheeler Project

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One hundred years ago the world was engulfed in conflict. Men and women from every nation were conscripted or volunteered to fight when hostilities broke out in Europe in August 1914. Some 416,809 Australian men and women enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF), the main expeditionary force of the Australian Army.  By the end of the war, over 60,000 Australians had been killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.     One central Queensland woman who found … Continue reading

An Unlucky Police Constable

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 I would like to tell you a story about my paternal great grandfather who was a police constable in the far north eastern region of New South Wales from 1880 to 1916. In 1900 he fell victim to a slight misadventure which caused him some notoriety in the district. At the time, he was stationed in Casino, a small town about 30 or so miles inland from the coast. In September of that year he was escorting a prisoner from … Continue reading

Where were you when …. ?

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I’ve previously written about putting our ancestors’ lives in context so that they become more meaningful, especially when we’re writing a family history or a biography of a particular ancestor. The importance of context came home to me earlier this year when I read a book which focussed on events in a particular period. It caused me to think (yet again) about how to write up my research.   1960s montage For instance, can you remember where you were, who … Continue reading