It goes without saying that genealogists are after BDM (Birth, Death and Marriage) records, and why wouldn’t we be?  They give us all sorts of interesting clues: parents’ names, place of birth, what someone died of, family members as witnesses or informants. Seriously they are truly genealogy gold!

One thing everyone who is new to researching Australian records needs to know is that each state has it’s own records, so there is no one-place to search for all Australian BDM records, though there are some partial ones. So while it seems a little annoying that we have to check each states records one-by-one, be thankful that Australia only has six states as opposed to the 48 counties of England, or the 50 US states. 😉

ANZAC Day is upon us again, so I thought I’d share some interesting and often unknown facts about ANZACS and ANZAC Day, so others will understand why we honour this national day.

1. The ANZACs were all volunteers.
2. April 25, Anzac Day, was the day the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915.
3. 25 April, was officially named ANZAC Day in 1916.
4. The first dawn service on an ANZAC Day was in 1923.
5. AIF is an abbreviation for Australian Imperial Force.

To finish off my whole RootsTech / Salt Lake City trip I wanted to share a few of my memorable moments with you. Now there was so many, so I’ve had to think this through and not write a whole books-worth, and hopefully this is a ”copeable” list.

Now these are in no particular order, and they are all equally memorable for their own reasons, so sit back and I hope you enjoy my memorable moments.

ROOTSTECH
First up RootsTech! Now how could I not include is this on my list? I mean it was RootsTech that got me to travel on a plane for over 24 hours to get there. And was it worth it? Hell Yeah. I expected an awesome experience, and trust me it was even better! And I’ll be back.

It all started with a yellow jacket, truly it did! But  before I get into it let me start off by staying this one of the few non-genealogy related posts that I do on this blog.

So the story of  my yellow jacket  starts off when I went shopping while I was in the US last month (I know surprise, surprise). Anyway while I was shopping I walked passed a store which had a gorgeous yellow jacket on display in the window, and had to immediately double-back to go in for a look.  (Trust me, anything yellow gets my attention these days!)

So into the shop I went to check it out. It was gorgeous, it was yellow and it was $180 down to $54!! An absolute bargain. But I thought long and hard about it, and eventually walked out of the store without it. Why I didn’t buy it I don’t know! But every female that is reading this will