South Australian births, deaths and marriages before 1842

This week it’s like getting blood from a stone with South Australian births, death and marriages. (When only a few weeks ago, I did an article on Tasmania and wrote about the ease of finding records for family historians.)  It’s confusing, it’s frustrating and it is painstaking work. A lot …

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Tasmanian Births, Deaths and Marriages from 1803 to 1899

I have been amazed at the ease of my search for any Tasmanian records through their Names Index. At first, I thought I was being fooled by slick web pages and wondrous search filters. But I have kept on digging and have kept coming up happy. Obviously any digitalisation of …

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Ten interesting things about census in Australia

When doing genealogy, a census is a great wealth of information. However in Australia, our census hasn’t provided us with the wealth of information that other countries have. It was really a task in counting off convicts initially and making sure there was enough rations.  Then there is the fact …

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NSW Wills and Probate

I was searching for more information on my ancestor John Robinson. I knew his date of death was 1876 and he died in Balmain. However I was keen to find out what other information I might get from his will and probate information. I was very excited to see what …

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Who wants to be an Aussie?

Happy Australia Day!! On Monday my brother in law  became an Australian citizen. Another convert from dark old England, joining the lucky country. I explained to my six year old that we celebrate Australia Day to mark the landing of the first fleet  but many people have come to settle …

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Use History to pick your Melbourne Cup Winner

Tips for Melbourne Cup Barrier 11 is the luckiest barrier and barrier 18 is the unluckiest, no-one has ever won from barrier 18. On average the favourite wins the Melbourne cup every five years. (This means that in the hundred and fifty three years of the race running there have …

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