by Lacey Cooke | 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.
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 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!
by Lacey Cooke | Apr 5, 2019 | 01 What's New, Records & databases
A brand new vital records collection is available online now for Ontario, Canada!
The Ontario Genealogical Society’s new database is available at Findmypast, along with exclusive Parish Registers for Kent, England.
Ancestry.com also has a new collection of Parish Registers for Cheshire, England.
Finally, you can explore a new index of Ohio WWI Statement of Service Cards. As a bonus, watch our special interview with the CEO and the VP of Findmypast about family trees, unique collections, and more.
Featured: Genealogical records for Ontario, Canada
The Ontario Genealogical Society has created a database of vital records, which are now available at the Genealogy Giant records website Findmypast! The Ontario Genealogical Society Provincial Index is a compilation of announcements found in Canadian publications. You may find out your ancestor’s death date, burial date and place, as well as the names of your ancestor’s parents, children, and spouse.
With every result, you will be presented with a transcript featuring the vital details found in a Canadian publication. The records mostly comprise obituaries, but you will also find birth and marriage announcements. Details might include:
- Name
- Event year
- Death year
- Periodical
- Publication year
- Publication date
- County
- Province
- Country
- Notes – this is the most valuable field. It will provide nearly the full text of the announcement as it appeared in the publication. This may provide you with details about the person’s death, burial place, next of kin, parent’s names, children’s names, and more.
Click here to explore this collection at Findmypast!
WWI Military Records
Next, we head over to FamilySearch, where a new collection of Ohio, World War I Statement of Service Cards, 1914-1919 has been added. This collection contains an index and images of statement of service cards for Marine Corps, Navy, and out of state enlistments which was provided for by an act of Congress July 11, 1919.
The records may include:
- Name
- Age at enlistment
- Race
- Home address
- Location where enlisted
- Rating (Rank)
- Service number
- Date of discharge
The image below is an example of a Marine Corps Service Card, 1917 courtesy of FamilySearch.org.
England Parish Registers
Also added this week at Findmypast are new and exclusive Parish Registers from Kent. “The new records have been created from over 3,000 handwritten registers currently held at the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone. These registers, covering hundreds parishes across the county, have been scanned and digitised in full colour to ensure the highest possible image quality.
Over 2.6 million fully indexed baptism, banns, marriage and burial records spanning more than 400 years of Kent history are now available to search online exclusively at Findmypast.”
Over at Ancestry.com, there’s a new collection of Cheshire, England, Parish Registers, 1538-1909. From the description:
“Parish records are the best source of vital record information before Civil Registration began in 1837. Both the British government and the church had an interest in record keeping, and a 1538 Act of Parliament required ministers in the Church of England to record baptisms, marriages, and burials. This database includes records with dates ranging from 1538 up until 1812, after which George Rose’s Act called for preprinted registers to be used as a way of standardizing records.
Also note that marriage records were to be kept in a separate register starting in 1754, so they may not be included in this database.”
More to learn about Findmypast.com and FamilySearch tree synchronization
In the exclusive video interview below, Tamsin Todd, CEO and Ben Bennett, Executive Vice President at Findmypast.com provide the answer to the question, “Will or does Findmypast have a family tree?”
They also talk about the new Travel & Migration records, and the Suffragette Collection.
If you have ancestors from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland don’t miss this interview by Sunny Morton, author of “Genealogy Giants – Comparing the 4 Major Genealogy Records Websites” quick reference guide.
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!
by Lisa Cooke | Jun 30, 2017 | 01 What's New, British, Canadian, Digital Archives, Findmypast, Newspaper, Photographs, Records & databases, Scottish Genealogy
New digital archives for genealogy host Canadian photos and history magazines, Oregon historical records, and Virginia newspapers. Also this week: Google Maps additions in Canada; Norfolk, England records; England and Wales criminal records; Scottish Presbyterian church records and Glasgow newspapers; and criminal records from England/Wales.
Canada: History Magazines in Digital Archive
Canada’s History Society has launched a new, mobile-responsive digital archive. Canada’s History launches with the entire run of a unique magazine: The Beaver, which explored the history of the Far North from fur-trade colonial days to modern times. “In addition to The Beaver, the archive will feature issues of Canada’s History magazine as well as Kayak: Canada’s History Magazine for Kids,” says a news article. The project was partnered by the Hudson’s Bay Company History Foundation. Its website is also worth exploring if your family history reaches into that part of the world.
Image courtesy Canada’s History Society.
Canada: Photo Archive
More than 100,000 digitized photos represent the beginning of a new Canada photo archive available to subscribers of The Globe and Mail, which is celebrating its 173rd birthday this year along with the country’s 150th. According to a news article, photo topics “range from a 1901 picture of the Forester’s Arch being erected on Bay and Richmond streets for a royal visit to a Canadian astronomical discovery in the late 1990s. You can search the archive by date or Globe photographer, and there are special collections that cover different aspects of Canadian life.”
England: Norfolk Records
Subscription website Findmypast.com has added to these collections of genealogical records on Norfolk, England (see a Findmypast special offer at the bottom of this post):
- Norfolk Marriage Bonds, 1557-1915. “Browse 444 volumes of marriage bonds from four ecclesiastical courts: the Archdeaconry of Norfolk Court, the Archdeaconry of Norwich Court, the Dean & Chapter of Norwich, and the Diocese of Norwich Consistory Court.”
- Norfolk Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1901. Browse “11 registers covering various denominations including Methodist, Quaker, and Baptist in the parishes of Attleborough, Aylsham, Kenninghall, Norwich, Tasburgh, Walsingham, and Wymondham.”
- Norfolk Poor Law Union Records, 1796-1900. Browse “55 volumes covering 20 unions across Norfolk to discover whether your ancestors fell on hard times. Explore 10 different types of records, ranging from baptism and report books to relief lists and court orders.”
England and Wales: Criminal Records
Findmypast.com has finished adding a final installment to its Crimes, Prison and Punishment Collection. About 68,000 records were added that may help you “uncover ordinary and extraordinary stories of criminals, victims and law enforcers from Georgian highway robbers to Victorian murderers, Edwardian thieves, and a whole host of colorful characters in between!”
Scotland: Glasgow Newspapers
The British Newspaper Archive has added the following to its collection of Glasgow newspapers:
- Glasgow Evening Citizen: added the years 1879-1892, so the current collection now tops 20,000 pages and covers 1866-1890.
- Glasgow Evening Post: added the years 1881-1890. The total collection of over 14,000 pages and covers 1867-1890.
Scotland: Presbyterian Church Records
More than 36,000 Presbyterian church records, covering 1744 to 1855, have been added to ScotlandsPeople, a website maintained by the National Records of Scotland. “The 20,255 births and baptisms (1744–1855), 10,368 marriages and proclamations (1729–1855) and 5,422 death and burial records (1783–1855) may be especially helpful for anyone searching for a person who was born or baptized, married, or died before the introduction of statutory registration in 1855,” states an article on the site.
United States: Oregon Digital Archive
The Oregon Historical Society has just launched OHS Digital Collections, a new resource for researching Oregonians on your family tree. “This new website allows online public access to a rich variety of materials from the OHS Research Library, including items from the manuscript, photograph, film and oral history collections,” states a Hillsboro Tribune article. More content is planned for this new site, so check back periodically.
United States: Virginia Newspapers
The Virginia Newspaper Project is putting the Library of Virginia’s collection of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) newspapers on Virginia Chronicle, a free digital newspaper archive with nearly a million pages. According to an announcement, “The camp newspapers in the LVA’s collection, published from 1934 to 1941 by the young men of the CCC, were mostly distributed in camps throughout the Commonwealth, though a handful are from locales outside Virginia….[The camp newspapers] offer a vivid picture of camp life during the Depression…[and] are also packed with the names of people who were active in the CCC–you might find a mention of one of your relatives among the pages. Click here to learn more about the CCC and the newspapers they produced.”
Special offer: Through July 2, 2017, get your first month of Findmypast.com World Subscription for just $1.00! In addition to unparalleled record content for England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, Findmypast has added tons of great content to its US and Canada collections.
Bonus! Get an exclusive subscriber-only webinar, 20 Unmissable Resources for Tracing Your British and Irish Ancestors, when you sign up!
Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links. Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!
