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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Discovering Wedding Photos in your Family History

Although photography had started in 1838, it was not widely used in 1840 when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert. So fourteen years later in 1854, they dressed in their wedding clothes again and finally got their wedding picture taken.  By today’s standards, that seems crazy and I’m glad it still …

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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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How to get the most from Findmypast

Findmypast is top ranking subscription website. It offers millions of genealogy records. However it has been plagued with problems in the last year or so. In early 2014, they changed their interface and practically ruined their search facilities. In May 2014, they had to acknowledge that the site didn’t work …

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National Archives UK – Search tips

The National Archives in the UK holds around 32 million “descriptions” for records, this is between what they hold and around 2500 archives around the country. That is just the descriptions, the actual records would be an even larger number.  If you are looking for information on military, immigration, probate, …

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