kent | Genealogy Gems

New & Updated Genealogy Records Online Featuring Australia and China

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 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!

Big Genealogy Records Updates for England & the U.S.

by Lacey Cooke | Jan 11, 2019 | 01 What's New, Records & databases

Big updates to UK records king Findmypast are new this week. Discover your ancestors in updated collections for Kent and Norfolk, along with an update to a fascinating collection for Devon, England. Also new and updated this week are US records including marriage licenses for New Jersey, Boston Pilot newspaper ads, Ohio County naturalization records, and historic Georgia newspapers.

Featured: Updates at Findmypast

Genealogy giant subscription website Findmypast has kicked off the new year with big updates to their collections for Kent and Norfolk. Findmypast is our favorite records website for finding your ancestors in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Click here to learn more about why they should be at the top of your list for your UK research.

Updates to Kent

Kent Baptisms: “Over 23,000 new records covering Anglican and Wesleyan baptisms in Dover, Gravesend, Higham, Nettlestead and Maidstone have been added to our collection of Kent parish baptisms. The new additions span the years 1736-1917.”

Kent Marriages: Explore more than “22,000 new records covering 9 Anglican parishes in Aylesford, Boxley, Higham and Nettlestead…Parish marriage registers will provide you with birth years, father’s names, occupations, and residences for both the bride and groom as well as the date and location of their marriage.”

Kent Burials: “Over 203,000 additional records covering the former Grange Road Cemetery in Gillingham, now a public open space, Fort Pitt Military Cemetery and the cemetery in Robin Hood Lane, Chatham have been added to the collection.”

Updates to Norfolk

Norfolk Baptisms: Check out the 76,000 additional records that have been added, spanning 1777 to 1990. This update covers the parishes of North Creake, Ringland, Southwood, Thornham and Worstead.

Norfolk Banns: Banns of marriage are the public announcement in a Christian parish church of a forthcoming marriage. In this update are 33,000 new Norfolk Banns covering the parishes of Rockland All Saints & St Andrew, Roughton, Snetterton and Yaxham.

Norfolk Marriages: “Over 27,000 new records covering the parishes of North Creake, Rockland All Saints & St Andrew, Snetterton, Somerleyton, Southwood, Wacton, Wells next the Sea, Westacre and Worstead. The new additions span the years 1777 to 1984 and will reveal a combination of names, dates and locations related to both the bride and groom.”

Norfolk Burials: “Search over 15,000 recent additions to our collection of Norfolk Burials covering the parishes of North Creake, Rockland All Saints & St Andrew, Southwood, Wells next the Sea and Worstead. The transcripts and images will list a combination of your ancestors’ burial dates, ages and residences at time of death, and their birth years.”

Devon Social & Institutional Records

From Findmypast: “Over 76,000 new records have been added to our collection of Devon Social & Institutional Records. Search this extraordinarily rich set of records to find paupers and vagrants, apprentices, peddlers and tradesmen. Find out if they got married, were vaccinated against smallpox or got Christmas presents while their father was fighting WW1. Explore more than two centuries of social history to find rare details of the lives of ordinary people.”

New U.S. Records & Collections

New Jersey: MyHeritage has recently added a new collection: New Jersey Marriage License Index, 1915-2016. With over 11 million records, “this collection is an index to marriage licenses filed at the New Jersey State Clerk Offices from 1915 to 2016. The index contains the given names and surnames of both the bride and the groom, the year of the license application, and the state file number. The images in this collection have been obtained through the outstanding work and efforts of Reclaim the Records.”

Boston, Massachusettes: Did any of your Irish ancestors emigrate to the United States? Search this unique collection of Boston Pilot Newspaper Information Wanted Ads from Findmypast. These ads were placed in the Boston Pilot newspaper by family members and others looking for lost friends and relatives from 1831 to 1920. From the description: “These records provide an insight into Irish immigration and reflect the tumultuous times that led to the Irish diaspora such as the Great Irish Famine and the United States Civil War.”

Ohio County: Free records website FamilySearch has added new records to their Ohio, County Naturalization Records, 1800-1977 collection. “Index and images of naturalization records from county courthouses in Ohio. The record content and available years vary by county, though most content falls between 1818 and 1954.”

Georgia: Lastly, we love this new collection from the Digital Library of Georgia. They have digitized approximately 53,930 pages of Georgia newspaper titles published prior to 1861 from microfilm held by the Georgia Newspaper Project (http://www.libs.uga.edu/gnp/). The project creates full-text searchable versions of the newspapers and presents them online for free in its Georgia Historic Newspapers database at http://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu.

Try Findmypast FREE for 14 Days

We know there are a lot of records websites out there, and each with their own subscription costs. So why not make a game plan of what you want to research and set aside dedicated time during a 14-day free trial? Findmypast offers incredible collections and resources for those seeking their ancestors in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. You can take our word for it or try it out for yourself with a free trial that you can cancel any time. Click here to get started.