tips on genealogy

[GTB_an_Owl]

anybody got any tips on collecting genealogy information ?

geoff

[mswhin63]

I use www.ancestry.com.au (http://www.ancestry.com.au) as a method of collecting info. They don't have an Australian specific colelction only world but they do ave a UK specific which is cheaper. Most of my relatives are UK so it is easy to collect info from census information. I really like to carefully study census information because sometimes name seem different but turns out to be a relative.

The cost may look high but you get full access to information, whereas other only allow partial access and depending how much data you collect will increase much higher. I also have an account with www.genesreunited.com.au (http://www.genesreunited.com.au) but don't like the interface. Looks fancy but uses computer resources. They charge access to documents per view.

[GTB_an_Owl]

then i hope there is some free sites out there Malcolm

geoff

[stephenb]

If you need shipping manifests (passenger and crew listings), ship names, departure and destination post, try: http://www.blaxland.com/ozships/ also known as the Convictions website in genealogy circles.

[darrellx]

Geoff

Get yourself a good genealogy program to store and keep track of your information right from the start. I use one called BrothersKeeper.

If your ancestors are spreadout over a number of countries, like mine were, I enlisted the aid of a "consultant". The one I used charged by the document she produced. Provided you use them for very targetted research and documents they are not that expensive. I used one near Sydney and she was great for getting some NSW documents, then helped heaps when I then moved over to Europe.

If you can, create a small web page. I had mine hosted in the user section of my ISP at the time. (This was provided as a free service to members, but was still searchable.) Over the space of about 3 years I got 900 hits from people researching the same line. It was essentially free for all the information that exchanged hands. This ended up being one of my better collection points. And it was excellent for filling in all those annoying little gaps that you tend to have. I didn't make it very fancy, but it worked well.

Hope this helps. Good luck.
Darrell

[Karls48]

Geoff, have look on http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp (http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp). It is free Mormon website and it contains probably biggest database of genealogy records from all over the world on line. If any of your distant relative had done family tree search, it is most likely there. I have used it and found number of records of my ancestors in Europe. England and USA are well represented. As far my experience goes with this website there is no religious propaganda or spam associated with their website.
Just for the record I’m agnostic.

[mswhin63]

Depend on how committed you are in doing the tree search. I kind of enjoyed it when all these skeletons came out of the closet, and was interesting to learn of the period.

I have reached an impasse with my name directly going back to couple of decades before cencus was legislated by Henry 8th. Finding it difficult to track information at the moment. One sode of my family records were burn't in a fire so that maybe lost forever.

Cost wise, don't really care. Found the hidden costs of travelling and other methods of searching in the end cost more than sitting on my butt in front of a computer having all the documents come to me. I only require the UK search for myself as well so I pay a small cost considering.

[mswhin63]

This site got me started, but did lead me to false matches.

[GTB_an_Owl]

lots of good tips here so far folks
keep em coming

Darrell - i am using "PHPGedview" - it seems to be doing the job - only brushing the surface at the moment - entering the names i know

being in the ISP business, i do have a website set up for it as well

thanks

geoff

[Karls48]

Family roots – I never gave it much thought when I was younger. Now in my sixties and being oldest living member of our family I come to realise how irrevocably oral history of the family is disappearing with passing of each generations. The stories and legends that my grandfather told me about his father and his grandfather will be forever lost with my passing to the “Happy hunting grounds”. It is funny coincidence that Geoff posted this tread because I did started to work on our family genealogy and record what I can remember of family history about four months ago. I’m quite aware that it may not be of any interest to any of my descendants, but if one of them in the future will be interested it will be available to them.
Beside of this it is also fascinating to find some trends in past societies. It seems from historical records that promiscuity and out of wed log children were just as common in seventeen century (despite of strong religious influence) as it is today. Children mortality was shocking in those times. Generally speaking only about fifty percent of children born in seventeen century lived past of age ten. It was also usual for man to be married two to four times as his wife’s died during the childbirth.

[GTB_an_Owl]

yes - funny how your perspective of the history of past generations changes when you realise that "your next"

geoff

[AdrianF]

Try haunting the Church of Latter Day Saints, they do not expect you to join and there is no preaching but are only too willing to help. My wife has had 2 books published on her family history and most of the info came from them. They can and will order microfilm for you to look at. Marg also used a mini cassette recorder to interview family members for research purposes. Just be on the look out for info from the most unlikely of places.

Adrian

[GTB_an_Owl]

i think thats where the "phpgedview" program i am using came from Adrian

geoff

[Blue Skies]

My father is currently doing some research into family lines so I've been watching a bit on the sides. Unfortunately you're going to have to pay for some info, I doubt you'll get everything for free. Depends how serious you are. Also join your local genealogy society, they've been-there-done-that already and can point you in the right direction quickly as well as tell you what you can expect to have to do (and pay!).

[seanliddelow]

This has been helpful:thumbsup:

[alphamone]

I got a huge start from the queensland birth/death/marriage database.
cant remember where it is offhand, but if you have a some family that comes from there, it is a very helpful (and free) resource.

I have tracked one branch of my family back to the 1700s in a direct line, but in the village that that branch lived in, the church records show that family name dating back to at least the 1500s.

[GTB_an_Owl]

the great state of Victoria is cunning
lets you search - then wants a $1 a page to view the results
on principle alone - i will try a different way to get information from there

Canberra on the other hand, won't let you search online - unless i am missing something

geoff

[renormalised]

I've been researching my family for about 8 years now. Mainly on my mother's side as my cousin, who is a professional genealogist, is doing my father's side....although I've also done work there as well. Many of my cousins are also tracing out different lines within the family tree. Allows for some very interesting conversations!!!!:D

To start, get yourself a good genealogy program. I'd recommend a couple. PAF (Personal Ancestor Finder) is a free one from the LDS, Family Tree Maker (which I use), Legacy (which I also use), Hereditus (for Macs), MacFamilyTree (also for Macs), Roots Magic and there are a number of others.

Join a Family History Society...and not just in Australia. Especially if you have ancestors from the UK, try and join the society in the area where they came from. They'll help you heaps with looking for the information you need. They're usually not all that dear to join and I would highly recommend that you do so, if you can afford it.

Now, for the net. There are some very good sites, and there are some pretty atrocious ones as well. Some are free, but many expect some payment for their services. FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com would be good places to start, however be careful, and this goes to all sites on the net. Not all the information they provide is accurate, or even factual. There is a lot of rubbish out there....quite a few false genealogies have been floating about for a very long time. Many people seems to think that collecting names from other people and adding them to their trees, just because they all seem to point to the same ancestors, is genealogy. It isn't, it's just collecting names. It's exceptionally prevelant amongst people from the US, looking into their family's history. Elsewhere as well. I've seen trees with as many as a million names or more. No one could research that many names and connections within a lifetime of work, let alone a few years or so. You'll also see many, many genealogies (manly US based) purporting to go back to Adam and Eve, Abraham etc etc. It's all nonsense and just pseudo-academic tripe when they say it's all thoroughly researched and definitive. I'd avoid them like the plague.

Now, it's entirely possible to be able to trace your ancestry back to Edward III, Charlemagne, Alfred the Great, Lady Godiva, Robert the Bruce, William the Conqueror or any number of famous historical persons. Quite feasible and has been done...you don't have to be royalty or from the nobility. It helps though....what you need to find is what they call a "gateway" ancestor. Someone in your past who is either of note or part of a family with noble/royal connections of some kind. But with anything you do in research, try to gather as much information from primary sources as you can. That doesn't mean FamilySearch or places like that....especially once you generally get beyond about 1700. What you need to do is to familiarise yourself with census records, parochial (parish) records, probate records (wills, marriage patents/certifcates etc), court records, the various Rolls issued under royal warrant (like the Close Rolls, Patent Rolls etc), BMD records (in England and Wales from 1837 onwards, Scotland from 1855 onwards). Books on peerage like Burkes, The Complete Peerage, Debretts etc, can be of use to you if you have notable ancestors, but keep in mind they can be not so accurate themselves at times. Many genealogist and historians have written various books over the years which can also be useful, but like with everything else you need to be discriminating with the information. It's generally pretty good, but sometimes you'll see where things don't add up with what they write. You will find that you can't always rely on obtaining primary sources of information as in many cases they don't exist anymore. So you have to become part detective, part scientist, part "soothsayer"!!! at times.

Most of all, just have fun compiling your family history. And the one thing to be absolutely diligent in doing....ask the family about anything they know!!!!. Get everything down before it's too late, try to keep good notes and back things up religiously. Don't keep it all on computer and/or disk.

If you need any help or other advice, websites to visit, even some goodies:D, give me a PM and I'll be more than happy to help:D

[mswhin63]

I agree there are some false geneology information. I am fortunate enough to be able to verify all the information and with Ancestry.com.au / co.uk ... it has been easy to find and verify the information using census records. Even some of the geneology record are so strangely written that it proved difficult to verify without looking really closely to the handwriting.

I found that our name was only by chance remains approx 200 years ago a great great ... grandmother had a child before marriage, that child was the only person in our surname left to continue in our side of the family. These are the kind of interesting things that can be found while searching.

That was all the benefit of researching properly the information but it does cost and so try not to expect anything for nothing as it doesn't really work as our found in my early days of family research.

[ving]

visit your local library and also the SLNSW has a huge section... my 2 best tips.

[Alchemy]

you seem to know a bit about this sort of stuff, if someone was adopted..... could they somehow find enough information through these things ????

[seanliddelow]

mswhin does perthlibarys have this information?

[renormalised]

You would be very lucky, Clive, to find anything too much on adoption proceedings through any of the online sites. With adoptions, as you may know, most of the particulars are usually kept secret and in any case, the person adopting out the child may not want any contact information to be forthcoming. You most likely bet would be to approach the state archives or the relevant government agency for those adoptions beyond a certain time period, say before 1960 or so. With later adoptions, you will have a hard time trying to get the information as the adopted child and the parent/parents who give their kids up are protected by law.

It can be a bit of a legal minefield.

[mswhin63]

Differnt parts of the library but not all inofmration is there. Some are in other location which is why most of my reaserch is online.

Fortunately most of my Australian side of the family is well researched already.

[seanliddelow]

My faimlys 6th generation australian so it wont be hard to research them.

[mswhin63]

In most cases Australian documentation is fairly readily available, convict ships etc. I am ninth generation on one side of my family and 8th generation on the other side. I found it realively easy to get although a lot of time needed to gather the infomration. The resources are now starting to become more readily available on the internet.

I spoke to one of the library staff told me (some time ago) they were contracting out the scanning and interpereting of old documents through a tender process. I believe that has happened and the information is becomeing ready online. The contract takes time and money spent doing this task is the reason why the service to retrieve the information costs to the consumer.

I also believe they use handwriting recognition software to determin names as I found a couple of descepencies in the scans that I have seen. It is fortunate though that the search at least with geneology.com.au allows for similar spelling/soundings. It had allowed me to look at some scans to determin the real name. This part is the most rewarding part to do and makes the whole geneolgy search a bit fun.

[seanliddelow]

Has anyone looked at the Australian newspapers digitization program?
It has papers ranging from 1803 in Sydney to national papers going up to 1955 (If it's newer they pay copyright). I searched my surname and found thousands of useful articles. It's also got family notices and shipping records with lists of passengers. In my state the papers go back to 1833 with the 1st issue of the Perth Gazette (The West Australians precursor). Other states have more coverage.

Another interesting record is old post office directories which may be available online like the above papers. In my state and perhaps other states there are police gazettes which may be available online. They go back 100 years and are useful whether they were convicted or were a police officer.

[el_draco]

This is good. I do online searches for people. Useful resource

[asterisk]

Tracing your Family History:

1. - not cheap - no-one is giving away anything of any use for nothing.

2. - I concur with Carl - a good family tree program is vital. The further back you go, the bigger they get, and it is really easy to lose track. Mine has about 2020 names at present. I use Family Tree Maker - easy to use and input large volumes of data.

3. - dates - where possible try and get them. Approximations will do until they can be traced further. One of the branchs in my Tree started using the same 2 names from one generation to another, swapping them around each generation - you try keeping track of 5 William Kerrys and 4 Kerry Williams without birthdates!

4. Local library - these are free to use (mostly), and many have a Family Tree area with access to those costly databases. (thanks for reminding me, David)

5. On-line sources - I try and get as many different people to research, and buy access for the shortest time possible when using these.

6. Join a society - access to even more data, and occasionally someone else investigating the same family. Genes Reunited is also good initially, until you become the one the other beginners always contact.

7. Lots of patience and perseverence. :)

[AdrianF]

Join things like facebook, not everyones cup'o'tea but I have found several rellies this way.

Adrian