December 2011
8 posts
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Elopement
I had searched the UK records, without success, for the marriage of my great grandfather Samuel Drew to Jane Harris. My father, uncle, aunt could throw no light on the matter. Great grandfather’s stepmother had written in the family “register” that “Samuel Drew left for a ferran land 7th April 1867”. The ship leaving that day for America was the North American, and on...
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Family Secrets
We released new research recently that reveals that New Zealand trumps Australia in the celebrity stakes, as 16% of Kiwis are able to lay claim to someone famous. However, Aussies should not fear as we are twice as likely as New Zealanders to be related to ‘convict royalty’, with almost one in five of Australians having a link to a convicted criminal or convict.
2,000 Australian and New Zealand...
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Long Lost Family
I am 73 years old and all my life I have had to say “Oh my father died in the war, I have no family on that side”. My father was English and had enlisted in the Australian Army and my mother was Scottish, so my sister and I had no relatives here in Australia.
Last year, I put my children’s names and birth dates on a family tree on Ancestry.com.au. My husband who died 36 years ago...
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I have hit a brick wall with my family history...
When you encounter an obstacle, such as an inability to find an official registration (like a birth, death or marriage record), you need to start thinking laterally.
Apart from the official registration process, there may also be records of a religious nature, such as those kept by a church documenting marriages and christenings. Employment records can also contain details of birth dates and...
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How do I search for databases on Ancestry.com.au?
As a lot of you know, there are an enormous number of databases on Ancestry.com.au. And, given the complex nature of ‘search,’ you might never come across some of the buried treasures within by using only the standard search interface. So how do you find these gems?
Go to the Search page and click on the link to the Card Catalogue to the right of the search box or select Card Catalogue from...