No.49 (genealogy news and tips worldwide)

Old Age Pension register

Links open in new windows. If you share the tips below, the Creative Commons license requires that you acknowledge the source as http://updatesgenie.blogspot.com.

• Pension records:   For a limited time you can order copies of Old Age Pension records (1908-1909) at a discount price. See Genealogy Discounts and Freebies.


• FindMyPast discount:   New subscribers can get 10% off a 12 month World subscription, giving you access to 8 billion global records including many that are not available anywhere else (see what records are available). The discount ends at 11.59pm (GMT) Wed. 22 Mar 2017 (which is Thursday morning in Australia).


• England/Wales BDMs:   More England and Wales birth, death and marriage certificates (births 1935-2006, deaths 1958-2006, marriages 1837-2010) are available as PDFs until 40,000 PDFs have been ordered, or 4pm 12 Apr 2017, whichever is sooner. Earlier births and deaths were offered as PDFs last November, in stage 1 of the pilot scheme.


• Before you buy:   From July 1837 onwards, for marriages in England and Wales, a parish register usually has the same details as a certificate from the Register Office. I've saved money, and researched many obscure or 'possible' relatives, by downloading online images of original parish registers instead of buying certificates. See, for example, the collections for Yorkshire, Somerset and the Greater London area.


• Free webinars:   Free webinars by State Archives New South Wales will be recorded so that you can watch them a time that suits you.


• Qld State Archives:   There have been big changes at Queensland State Archives. They no longer accept cash (only EFTPOS or credit cards); coin-operated microfilm reader/printers have been removed (you can save copies onto a USB drive); you can't use wildcards in index searches; indexes on their Web site can no longer be downloaded as PDFs; the Web site is completely different and much less user friendly; etc! The Archives' customer satisfaction survey> (open until 3 Apr 2017) gives you a chance to say what you like or dislike.


• Commonwealth Gazettes:   Commonwealth of Australia Government Gazettes (1901-1957) are now online, free and fully text searchable. They give details of many interactions that ordinary people had with the government.


• DNA for genealogy:   DNA testing is now an important tool for family historians, especially if you have 'brick walls' in your research. For a short time there is a discount on the AncestryDNAtest. See also changing your AncestryDNA settings.

Recommended reading:

• How to search FamilySearch by individual, location or collection. For unindexed records, browse digital images online, or use microfilms.


• 10 Reasons to Use Vintage Telephone Books and Street Directories in Your Research.


• How to Set a Smart Genealogy Goal.

(This post first appeared on http://updatesgenie.blogspot.com/2017/03/no49-genealogy-news-and-tips-worldwide.html.)

No.48 (genealogy news and tips worldwide)

Links open in new windows. If you share the tips below, the Creative Commons license requires that you acknowledge the source as http://updatesgenie.blogspot.com.

• Irish records FREE:   The largest online collection of Irish records (more than 116 million records, including images) will be FREE until 11.59pm (GMT) Friday 17 Mar 2017.


• AncestryDNA:   Until 19 Mar 2017, save up to 30% on Ancestry's DNA test for genealogy (the one you've seen advertised on TV).


• More discounts:   New discount offers (relevant worldwide) are coming soon, so check Genealogy Discounts and Freebies this weekend. If you use ChangeDetection to monitor that page, log in at www.changedetection.com and edit your alert for http://www.judywebster.com.au/specials.html to 'daily'. If new offers are added twice in one week, you will then be alerted twice instead of missing one.


• Conference & Fair:   The 'Footsteps in Time' Family and Local History Conference and free Fair is at Southport (Gold Coast, Queensland), 19th to 21st May 2017. I'm looking forward to it. Conference registration closes 14th April.


• Catholic records:   The Catholic Heritage Collection (available only on FindMyPast) is a growing online digitised and indexed collection of Roman Catholic records for Ireland, Britain and the USA. Most of the records have never before been accessible by the public, either offline or online.


• Electoral rolls:   You can do either a name search or an address search in the Australian electoral rolls collection at FindMyPast. The new search page explains which State and Commonwealth rolls are included. There are some for Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, and more rolls will be added in the future. Ignore the 'birth year' search field (it doesn't help).


• Gen-Ebooks:   Genealogy Ebooks (known as Gen-Ebooks) is one of Australia's largest Ebook stores for genealogy. They currently have over 550 titles, with more being added every month, all instantly downloadable. They offer four 50% discount specials each month.


• Web pages from GEDCOM:   GedSite by John Cardinal is a new program that creates 'family tree Web pages from GEDCOM files. It generates narrative or grid style person pages, a master index, a surname index, source pages and any other pages you want to add. You can review the pages on your own computer before you share them via DVD or flash drive or publish them on the Web. I expect GedSite to be even more popular than John's other program (SecondSite for The Master Genealogist, which I use to create the family tree on my Website).


• Digitised records:   Many records from around the world have been digitised but not indexed. You just have to know how to find them! See Image-Only Collections.


• 53,000 names:   You'll find information about an amazing number of interstate and overseas folk, as well as locals, in records at Queensland State Archives. My Web site has over 53,000 names from original documents there. See the list of record types, with links to alphabetical lists of names.

(This post first appeared on http://updatesgenie.blogspot.com/2017/03/no48-genealogy-news-and-tips-worldwide.html.)
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