New & Updated Genealogy Records Online Featuring Australia and China

by | Apr 26, 2019 | 01 What's New, Records & databases

Australian genealogy records are featured this week in new and updated collections online. Findmypast has two sets of records for Queensland and at FamilySearch, you can explore a big update to their free collection of immigrants ship papers.

Also featured this week is the launch of a new website supporting Chinese genealogy research and research services. Finally, we head to Ancestry.com for a new collection of church records for Kent, England. 

 

Featured: New & Updated Australian Genealogy Records

If you’ve got Australian ancestors, you’ll be delighted by these new and updated genealogy collections. Genealogy Giant Findmypast is known for British and Irish records, but they’ve been working hard to expand their offerings to cover other related countries including Australia. This week, they’re featuring two collections for Queensland, Australia that you will definitely want to explore!

WWI Queensland Soldier Portraits, 1914-1918

“Come face to face with your Australian military ancestor in this collection of over 24,000 photographic portraits from the First World War. Each result is provided with a link to view a portrait of your ancestor in his military uniform published in The Queenslander newspaper between 1914 and 1918. Transcripts may also reveal your ancestor’s service number and regiment.
All the portraits were taken by Talma Studios during the First World War. The studio set up a tent at a soldier’s camp at Enoggera, Queensland and photographed members of the Expeditionary Force. Uniforms were provided for every soldier. In some cases, the soldier had yet to be fitted out. This meant every soldier appeared in uniform in the portraits.
 
soldier portrait

G.N. Tullock, one of the soldiers photographed in The Queenslander Pictorial, supplement to The Queenslander, 1917.

 
The portraits were also republished alongside reports of wounded or missing soldiers. Not every soldier from Queensland was photographed, but this collection does represent almost half of the Queensland soldiers.” Click here to search these records.
 
Queensland, Hospital Registers
“Explore over 58,000 assorted Queensland hospital records from hospitals across Queensland including Brisbane, Croydon, Dalby, Mackay, and Wallagarra. These records are a wonderful genealogy resource and an essential search for anyone with Queensland ancestry.
 
The registers have been made available by the Queensland State Archives and some records have been transcribed by Judy Webster. The records include registers of patients diagnosed with consumption, admission and discharge registers, and quarantine records.” Click here to search this collection. 

There is also an updated genealogy records collection for Australia at FamilySearch this week. 

South Australia, Immigrants Ship Papers, 1849-1940
“Immigrant ships papers containing a record of births and deaths aboard, 1849-1867 and 1873-1885. Indexed records in the collection include passenger lists arriving and departing from South Australia.

Information on images varies but may include ship’s name, master’s name, tonnage, where bound, date, port of embarkation, names of passengers, ages, occupation, nationality, and port at which passengers have contracted to land.” Click here to browse this collection. 

New Chinese Genealogy Resource

A new site has launched that may help genealogists with Chinese ancestors. Beijing-based genealogy site My
China Roots recently launched in open beta, allowing users to search its proprietary database for lost roots.

From the recent press release: “Founder and CEO, Huihan Lie, was born and raised in the Netherlands with family from
Indonesia. Huihan came to China to seek out his roots and in the process discovered how challenging the journey to find one’s roots could be. After tracing his family back over 100 generations he set out to make it easier and more accessible to others as well.

‘I’m thrilled about this crucial foundation of our online platform, the first of its kind to give Overseas Chinese access to historical records and technology to connect with their roots,’ says Huihan, ‘we are now adding records by the day!’

With a simple, English language-based search using surnames and ancestral locations, users can find clan history books known as zupu. Users also receive search tips and learn about the historical context of their ancestors’ lives in China.”

While My China Roots primarily features research services, you can access the Beta search function by selecting it from the menu at the top (shown below):

New Church Records for Kent, England

Ancestry.com has a new collection for Kent, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1538-1914. Here are some of Ancestry’s tips for searching these records:

  • To narrow your search, estimate birth dates using information found in the Census and in other records.
  • Narrow your search for marriage records by looking at the age and birthplace of the first child. This information can also be found in Census Records. Start your search a year or two prior to the child’s birth and gradually widen your search back (and forward) in time until you locate the record.
  • Track your ancestor year to year in City Directories to help zero in on death dates and places. Husbands who predecease their wives will typically stop being listed after death and you’ll often find the wife in his place, listed as “widow.”
  • Court records like wills can help you estimate death dates.

Top Tips for Beginning Genealogy

Beginning your genealogy research is challenging, so it’s important to know the top tips on how to get started.

In this video, Amie Tennant and Lisa Louise Cooke discuss where to start, strategies for interviewing family members, and what to do with that information. Here are their top tips for how to set yourself up for genealogical success:

Tip #1: Start with yourself and work backward.

Tip #2: Interview relatives closest to you.

Tip #3: Then verify that information by through records.

Tip #4: Take one generation at a time.

Even if you’re not a beginner, it can be extremely helpful to get a refresher on these core principles of good genealogy research! That’s why I recommend Lisa’s free podcast Family History: Genealogy Made Easy. This is a step-by-step series for beginning genealogists—and more experienced ones who want to brush up or learn something new. You can listen online or find it on your favorite podcast app!

Lacey Cooke

Lacey Cooke

Lacey has been working with Genealogy Gems since the company’s inception in 2007. Now, as the full-time manager of Genealogy Gems, she creates the free weekly newsletter, writes blogs, coordinates live events, and collaborates on new product development. No stranger to working with dead people, Lacey holds a degree in Forensic Anthropology, and is passionate about criminal justice and investigative techniques. She is the proud dog mom of Renly the corgi. 

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!

New Online Records this Week Include 53M+ England and Wales Electoral Registers

by | Sep 7, 2018 | 01 What's New, Records & databases | 2 comments

More than 53 million England and Wales electoral registers are now searchable at Findmypast. Also new or updated online: Swedish emigration registers and marriage records, Australian newspapers, Queensland seamen and New Zealand vital records.

England and Wales electoral registers

Genealogy giant Findmypast.com has published England & Wales Electoral Registers 1920-1932, a new collection with more than 53 million indexed electoral registers for England and Wales for the 1920s and early 1930s.

“Combined with the 1911 census and 1939 Register, today’s release means that Findmypast is now able to provide customers with unrivaled record coverage for early 20th century Britain, allowing them to trace their ancestors across a period of history that has traditionally been problematic for many researchers,” states a press release. (The 1921 census isn’t yet available to researchers; the 1931 census was lost in a fire and 1941 wasn’t taken because of the war.)

According to Findmypast, “Electoral registers are listings of all those registered to vote in a particular area. The lists were created annually to record the names of eligible voters and their reason for eligibility, such as their residence or ownership of a property. Registration for voters in England has been required since 1832 and registers were typically published annually, making electoral registers and excellent resource for tracking ancestors between the census years or for uncovering the history of your home or local area.”

This collection is the result of reprocessing an earlier collection to improve image quality and indexing accuracy, making the records much more searchable. As the press release explains, “For the very first time, the Registers can now be searched accurately by individual names in a similar way to other indexed collections currently available on the Findmypast. Searches will now also cover all of England and Wales and matching records from the registers will feed into hints for all customers with a Findmypast Family tree.”

The electoral register collection isn’t comprehensive for every place and year. Some registers don’t survive and others are still being imaged. According to the site, “holdings are modest to 1885, good from then until 1915 and modest again from 1918 to 1932. It should also be noted that during the First World War compilation of the registers was suspended and was then resumed in 1918.”

Here’s a related collection update: Genealogy giant and subscription site Ancestry.com has updated its database of the 1939 Register for England and Wales. This record set will likely continue to be updated over time, at both Ancestry.com and Findmypast (which first published it), as additional data is released from under privacy restrictions.

Sweden emigration and marriage records

Ancestry.com has published a new collection of Swedish Emigration Registers for 1869-1948. It contains nearly 1.5 million records kept by local police at major ports of embarkation for emigrants who left Sweden to live abroad. According to the collection description, these records “provide details of those who left, where they left from and their intended place of arrival. Many of the passengers traveled beyond the port of arrival, settling in other cities and countries so be sure to check the image for intended destinations to see where they may have eventually established a new home.”

Another Swedish collection has recently been updated at Ancestry.com, too:  Sweden, Indexed Marriage Records, 1860-1947. It now contains nearly 6.7 million Swedish-language records from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sweden. Find both these collections at Ancestry.com: under Search > Catalog, enter “Sweden” as a keyword to bring up all Swedish collections. Or get a little help by clicking on the image above to read a free article on beginning Swedish genealogy research.

Ancestry.com requires a subscription for records access. To view subscription options and get signed up, click here.

Australia and New Zealand record updates

Australia newspapers. Ancestry.com has updated its collection of Australia, Newspaper Vital Notices, 1831-2001, now with more than 2.5 million records. According to the description, “this database contains birth, marriage, and death notices from three Australian Newspapers for the years 1831–2001: The Age, The Sydney Mail, and The Sydney Morning Herald.”

Queensland seamen. Look for Aussie men who went to sea in Findmypast’s collection, Queensland, Seamen 1882-1919. “From this index, you may learn the name of the ship your ancestor worked on….The 19,554 names included in this index were taken from the registers kept by the Harbours and Rivers Department….Each result includes a transcript of the original documents held by the Queensland State Archives.”

New Zealand vital records. Findmypast has added over 62,000 transcripts of baptisms, marriages & burials to its collection of New Zealand vital record indexes. “These civil registration records date back to 1848 and will provide you with all the information you need to order a copy of your ancestor’s original certificate from the NZ government website.”

Please help us spread the word!

Thanks for helping us let others know about these new England and Wales electoral registers, Swedish and Australian/New Zealand records online! Just share this article on your favorite social media site: word gets around fast when you do, and more genealogists will be able to make more discoveries for their family trees. You’re a gem!
About the Author: Sunny Morton

About the Author: Sunny Morton

Sunny is a Contributing Editor at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems; her voice is often heard on the Genealogy Gems Podcast and Premium Podcasts. She’s  known for her expertise on the world’s biggest family history websites (she’s the author of Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites); writing personal and family histories (she also wrote Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy); and sharing her favorite reads for the Genealogy Gems Book Club.

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!

British Isles Descendants Will Love these New Records Online

by | Jul 13, 2018 | 01 What's New, African-American, Australian, British, Canadian, MyHeritage, Records & databases

Millions of British Isles descendants—whether still living in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales or dispersed to the United States, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, may find their ancestors in these new online records that include medieval maps, BMD and immigration records, name changes and even medical records for British troops in WWI.

British Isles descendants: Time to explore!

New collections for across Britain

Britain name changes. TheGenealogist.co.uk has published a new database that will help researchers identify official name changes by their ancestors in Britain. According to Family Tree (UK), “The Change of Names Database covers information gathered from a number of sources including Private Acts of Parliament; Royal Licences published in the London and Dublin Gazettes; notices of changes of name published in The Times after 1861 with a few notices from other newspapers; registers of the Lord Lyon [King of Arms] where Scottish changes of name were commonly recorded; records in the office of the Ulster King at Arms and also some private information.” Click here to learn more about name change records and subscription options.

British WWI records. British Isles subscription-based Genealogy Giant Findmypast.com has added nearly 700,000 records to its collection of British Armed Forces, First World War Soldiers’ Medical Records. According to the site, “These records may allow you to discover when and where your ancestor was wounded, where they were treated how long they were held at the medical facility for treatment. Images may provide a variety of additional details such as their service history and a description of the wound.”

British Isles descendants FMP British WWI medical record

Sample image from Findmypast.com. Crown Copyright Images reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London, England.

Battle artifacts. You can now browse or search a new database of more than 2000 archaeological artifacts that have been recovered from Anzac Cove and the Gallipoli Penninsula, in the area where thousands of Turkish, Australian, New Zealander, British, French, Indian and Newfoundlander troops died as part of a campaign over control of Istanbul. According to News Australia, this artifact collection results from “the world’s most extensive battlefield archaeological study uncovered items which gave a glimpse of life on the frontline for Turkish and Anzac troops, uncovered the trenches where men fought, lived and died, and unearthed everyday items such as bottles of beer and belt buckles.”

Medieval maps. Those who can trace their family history back to medieval times (even just to a particular region) will be excited to hear that the British Library has published a collection of free online maps. According to this announcement, “The Virtual Mappa Project has been officially released as an open access publication, with an incredible collection of digitised medieval world maps from the British Library and beyond, all online, annotated and waiting to be explored.” This collection is published “in a visually navigable, text-searchable, translated format that makes their intricacies much more accessible to modern minds.” Click here to read more instructions and to start exploring this collection!

Australia

Obituaries. Subscription-based Genealogy Giant Ancestry.com has updated its database, Australia and New Zealand, Obituary Index, 2004-2018, which now has more than 370,000 records. According to the collection description, this recent collection is curated through online research: “The collection contains recent obituaries from hundreds of newspapers. We work with partners to scour the Internet regularly to find new obituaries and extract the facts into our database. Where available we include the original URL link to the source information. As the internet is a changing medium, links may stop working over time.”

Queensland immigration. The tech-savvy subscription-based Genealogy Giant MyHeritage.com has published a new collection with more than 100,000 records in it: Queensland, Australia Passenger and Crew Lists, 1852-1885. According to the site, “This collection is an index to inwards passenger and crew lists arriving in Brisbane and Moreton Bay between 1852 and 1885, sourced from the Collector of Customs (Brisbane) records, held at the National Archives of Australia, Brisbane (Shipping Inwards Series J715). Many of the ships have two lists–one prepared at the time of departure (classified in this index as a “Departure” list), and another prepared upon arrival (classified in this list as an “Arrival” list). The index covers over 100,000 individuals from 485 different voyages. A few outwards lists are also included. Information provided may include name of passenger or crew member, age, marital status, occupation, name of ship, departure date and place, and arrival date and place.”

South Australia immigration. The free Genealogy Giant, FamilySearch.org, has added more than 25,000 records to Australia, South Australia, Immigrants Ship Papers, 1849-1940. According to the site, this update includes “a record of births and deaths aboard, 1849-1867 and 1873-1885. Indexed records in collection include passenger lists arriving and departing from South Australia. Information on images varies but may include ship’s name, master’s name, tonnage, where bound, date, port of embarkation, names of passengers, ages, occupation, nationality, and port at which passengers have contracted to land.”

Canada

New Brunswick births. FamilySearch has also added nearly 24,000 names to its collection, New Brunswick Late Registration of Births, 1810-1899. “These records include indexes and images of provincial returns of births, 1869-1906 and late registrations, 1810-1906. The late registrations from 1810 to 1899 are arranged by birth year and then surname. Although the index is complete, images are being added to this collection as they become available. The returns of births, 1870-1906, and the late registration documents which were original certificates and some returns, 1810-1899, are arranged alphabetically within each year.”

England

Kent births. This collection isn’t huge, but it’s new and as the record of a male midwife, it’s fairly unusual: Kent, Lydd Midwife’s Birth Register 1757-1815. The site states, “The collection contains over 2,400 records transcribed from the original register of William Waylett (1729-1815), a male midwife who practiced in Lydd and the surrounding parishes on Romney Marsh in Kent….Transcripts span the years 1757 to 1815 and will reveal a combination of your ancestor’s birth date, birth place, parent’s names and any additional notes. Notes may include details of the pregnancy, delivery, mother, or payment for services.” If you find your ancestor in these records, we hope you’ll let us know about it!

Liverpool church records. Ancestry.com has added to several separate collections of Liverpool Anglican church records so that they now total more than 4 million records. You may want to search first the multi-record type Liverpool, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1659-1812, and follow up by searching within these individual collections of Liverpool, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1917, Liverpool, England, Church of England Confirmations, 1887-1921, Liverpool, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932 and Liverpool, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1975.

Northumberland and Durham burials. Findmypast.com has added over 14,000 new records to Northumberland and Durham Memorial Inscriptions. According to the site, “The new additions cover churchyards in Birtley, Blyth, Boldon, Eighton Banks, Gosforth, Great Lumley, Penshaw, Ryhope, South Shields, Whitley Bay and Woodhorn. Each result includes a transcription of an original inscription. The amount of information listed may vary although most transcripts will include a combination of your ancestor’s burial year, birth date, death date, age at death, denomination, inscription, location, plot, stone type and any additional notes.”

Yorkshire burials. Findmypast.com has added more than 38,000 new records to its database, Yorkshire Burials. According to the site, the collection “now contains over 5.1 million records spanning more than 400 years of the county’s rich history.”

New Zealand

Nearly a half million records already appear in New Zealand, Cemetery Transcriptions, 1840-1981, a brand new free collection you can search at FamilySearch.org. Containing indexed names and images from various places across New Zealand, the records may include the cemetery name, name of deceased, death date, age at death and names of family members.

Scotland

Ancestry.com subscribers may now search a new collection with more than 3.2 million records: Aberdeen City and Former Counties of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Electoral Registers, 1832-1976. “This database contains yearly registers listing names and residences of people in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, who were eligible to vote in elections. These year-by-year registers can help place your ancestors in a particular place and possibly also reveal some information about property they owned. Coverage for the area and timeframe is not complete, so it may be helpful to check the browse menu on the right [of the database’s search page, linked to above] for details of which volumes are included.”

British Isles descendants Aberdeen voters Ancestrycom

Sample image from electoral roll of Aberdeenshire County, 1862, images 25-26 on Ancestry.com.

 

United States

Deceased physicians. Findmypast.com has published more than 700,000 biographical card files of deceased doctors from the American Medical Association. The Deceased Physician File (AMA), 1864-1968 is a browse-only collection. The site explains, “Each record consists of a transcript that may reveal when your ancestor died, where they practiced, where they attended school, where they were living at the time of their death, details relating to their career and their cause of death.”

Indiana marriages. Findmypast.com has added nearly 80,000 records of Indiana marriages (1818-1920) to its growing (and already enormous) collection of United States Marriage records. According to the site, “The collection includes both transcripts and images of original documents that will list a combination of your ancestor’s marriage date, location, the names of both the bride and groom, their birthplaces, birth dates, ages, residence and the names of both their parents.”

Massachusetts. The Boston Public Library has curated a collection of thousands of high school yearbooks from across the state of Massachusetts and published them online for free viewing at the Internet Archive. The collection page appears to comprise 4440 volumes dating back to 1892. (We read about this new collection in this online article at CBS Boston.)

Native American census. New and free to explore on FamilySearch.org is United States, Native American, Census of the Ute Tribe, 1944. Though a small collection (only about 2500 records), it may be key to helping you trace Ute ancestors and tribal membership. According to the site, these records come from an “index and images of Indian Census Roll taken on the Uintah and Ouray reservation in northeastern Utah during the month of January 1944 by the Office of Indian Affairs….Additional records for this tribe, reservation and agency will be found at the National Archives at Denver in Record Group 75 Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.”

North Carolina. A new collection of nearly 20,000 records at FamilySearch is North Carolina, County Divorce Records, 1926-1975. The collection description states, “This collection contains an index and images to the ‘index to former husbands and maiden names of divorced women’ covering the years 1926 to 1975. The documents included are affidavits, which are titled “Notice of Intention to Resume Use of Maiden Name.”

Also new for North Carolina is the online availability of some issues of the Charlotte Post, an African American weekly newspaper founded in 1878 and now available on DigitalNC. According to this article, “The first issues that we are making available online on DigitalNC cover 1988-1990, 1993, and 1996.” However, the landing page shows online issues back to 1971.

Ohio. Nearly 168,000 records have been added to the free FamilySearch collection, Ohio, Crawford County Obituaries, 1860-2004. These records come from the obituary file at the Crawford County Genealogical Society in Galion, Ohio. (We love societies and the work they do to compile and preserve local records!)

Tennessee. More than 150,000 records have been added to the free FamilySearch collection, Tennessee Death Records, 1914-1963. This collection includes indexed images of statewide death certificates.

Washington, D.C. FamilySearch.org has added nearly 100,000 record entries to District of Columbia, Glenwood Cemetery Records, 1854-2013. According to the site, “This collection includes images of cemetery records from 1854-2013 from the Glenwood Cemetery, a historic cemetery located on Lincoln Road NE in Washington, D.C.” This collection continues to grow as more images are added.

About the Author: Sunny Morton

About the Author: Sunny Morton

Sunny is a Contributing Editor at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems; her voice is often heard on the Genealogy Gems Podcast and Premium Podcasts. She’s  known for her expertise on the world’s biggest family history websites (she’s the author of Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites); writing personal and family histories (she also wrote Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy); and sharing her favorite reads for the Genealogy Gems Book Club.

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!

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