Genealogy News – February/March 2023

A new series that I’m starting here is the “Genealogy News” posts. Putting it simply, I’m collating the news from big-name genealogy societies, archives and other genie organisations from Australia and elsewhere, and have listed it here for you. As for how often I’ll do it, I’m thinking monthly at this stage, but it will depend on what news is available, so we’ll see.

As RootsTech (the world’s biggest genie conference) was held recently, there were a lots of posts from numours people relating to the event. For this list I’ve chosen to not include them. They’re still listed on their blogs, so you can check them out if you wish. Anyway, now on with the news …

23andMe
Raising Awareness of Rare Disease
New Algorithm Cleans Up 23andMe Family Tree

Ancestry
Ancestry Launches Storymaker Studio
Celebrating 40 Years of Family History Discoveries

Australian War Memorial
Meet the women in construction at the Australian War Memorial
Australia’s first Academy Award 80 years on
Untold stories of Australian sailors and airmen revealed
Australian War Memorial’s new galleries take flight

FamilySearch
New Free Historical Records on FamilySearch 6 February 2023
The Family History Library Is Now the FamilySearch Library
New Free Historical Records on FamilySearch 30 January 2023
Updated and Redesigned FamilySearch Help

FamilyTreeDNA
FamilyTreeDNA Has Added 5,000 Ancient Connections to Our Database
Big Y-700 DNA Testing Breaks Down Brick Walls in Family with African Ancestry
Introducing the New FTDNATiP™ Report for Y-STRs
The Group Time Tree: A New Big Y Tool for FamilyTreeDNA Group Projects

Findmypast
Honour your heritage with over 100,000 new records, including female shipbuilders and engineers
Delve into the dark legacy of British slavery and the daily life of Nottingham’s churches this week
Enrich your tree with over 200,000 new records, from Lincolnshire to West Yorkshire
Celebrate the civil service and more with nearly a million new records

GEDmatch
GEDmatch sold again
GEDmatch owners Verogen bought by QIAGEN for US $150 million

MyHeritage
5 Women Inventors Whose Innovations Changed the World
MyHeritage Announces Third Installment of DNA Quest Initiative
Introducing Color Coding for Family Trees
Introducing cM Explainer to Predict Relationships Between DNA Matches With Greater Accuracy
Daniel’s Favorites: 10 MyHeritage Features Our Genealogy Expert Can’t Live Without

National Archives of Australia
The Captain’s treasures: Flinders’ letters and books join archival collection
Discovering Anzacs website decommissioned, making way for innovative new digital experiences
Frozen memories, now digital: Antarctic photographic collections preserved for future generations

RootsMagic
It’s here! RootsMagic 9!

ScotlandsPeople
Scottish Handwriting 1500-1700: a self-help pack available to buy
Our Records: One-hour-old: the youngest person enumerated in the 1921 census

The Genealogist
New Release: 1871 UK Census households now plotted on Map Explorer
More than 355 Square Miles of additional Lloyd George Domesday records released on TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer
TheGenealogist adds more than 342,500 to their 1939 Register, opening previously closed records

Trove
Batter up, ladies: Australia’s first women’s cricket match played in front of spectators
New in March 2023
Major Digitisation of Defence Service Newspapers [this was news late 2022, but I’ve included it in case you missed it]

National Library of Australia’s 2023 Community Heritage Grants are Open

The National Library of Australia (NLA) is calling for applications for their 2023 Community Heritage Grants. The grants of up to $20,000 are available to community groups such as libraries, archives, museums, genealogical and historical societies, multicultural and Indigenous groups around the country to help preserve locally owned, but nationally significant collections of materials that are publicly accessible including artifacts, letters, diaries, maps, photographs, and audio visual material.

The types of projects supported include:
– significance assessments of collections
– preservation needs assessments of collections
– conservation activities and collection management, and
– training workshops.

Run annually since 1994, the program has provided more than $8.4 million dollars in funding to over 1,600 projects across Australia.

APPLICATIONS
Applications MUST be made online, no mailed or emailed applications/documentation will be accepted. You can find all the details regarding application guidelines, and the application form on their website.

THE DEADLINE
Applications for new applicants will close on Monday, 8 May 2023
Applications for those who have recently completed a Community Heritage Grant project and are applying for the next stage will close on Thursday, 1 June 2023
Applications for training projects will close on Thursday, 1 June 2023

MORE INFORMATION
If you would like to discuss your project or have any queries, please email the CHG Program Team at chg@nla.gov.au.

Australian Genealogy and History Snippets – January/February 2023

From time to time I come across all sorts of interesting history and/or genealogy related tidbits that I want to share with you, so I’ve collected them together to make up a Snippets post.

These aren’t meant to be comprehensive, but rather they are just bits that I’ve found and wanted to share.


Call for expressions of interest for new editor/s of the Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society
The Council of the RAHS is seeking expressions of interest for the position of editor of the Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society (JRAHS). The current editor Adjunct Associate Professor Carol Liston AO and our proof reader Mrs Joy Hughes are stepping down after many years of distinguished services in their respective roles. [via their email newsletter]

Billionaire fails in bid to partially demolish historic goods shed in Victoria
A $750 million twin office tower project has been turned down in a move by Heritage Victoria to preserve the state’s largest and most architecturally elaborate 19th century railway goods building. [via The Age]

New Records at Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
New records alert!  The Queensland Registry now has 107,603 new records available to search on their BDMs website. These include BDMs from the following years: 1923 Births, 1948 Marriages, 1993 Deaths. Start searching today! www.qld.gov.au/familyhistory [via Facebook post]

Labour History Society South Australia
Did you know that there is a society dedicated to the history of labouring in South Australia? No, nor did I until I found it mentioned on a website. So if you’re interested be sure to get in touch with them, or if you’re local, pop along to one of their meetings. [via Experience Adelaide site]

41,000 Burials for the ‘Adelaide Plains’
Recently the Adelaide Northern Districts Family History Group (ANDFHG) added the Adelaide Plains Burial Register to their records. A searchable (onsite) database consisting of some 41,000 names for Burials across the whole of the Adelaide Plains. It includes many of the Burials not listed in the Council districts, from the smaller lesser-known cemeteries. [via their email newsletter]

Happy 167th Birthday to the State Library Victoria
On February 2023, we celebrate another Library birthday. At 3pm #OnThisDay in 1856, State Library Victoria (then known as the Melbourne Public Library) opened its doors for the very first time. Upon opening, the Library was one of the first free public libraries in the world with a humble 3000 books in the collection. While the Library has remained on the same two-acre allotment since 1856, the structure you see today is made up of around 24 individual buildings that have changed dramatically over the years. You can learn more about their history here. [via Facebook post]

The History Trust of South Australia has a new home
The History Trust of South Australia is delighted to announce our new home at 233 North Terrace, ‘Security House’! You can find them Level 2, 233 North Terrace, from May this year. They say “we are grateful to our community for being so patient with us throughout this transitional period; we welcome you into our new home”. [via Facebook post]

Keith Conlon to leave state heritage council after criticising WCH site decision
Keith Conlon is stepping down from the state heritage council after publicly sharing disapproval of the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital project. The state government on Wednesday said Mr Conlon, 78, would leave the position in March. It comes after Mr Conlon criticism of the state government’s decision to build part of the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital on a site consisting of parklands at the heritage-listed Thebarton Police Barracks, near the Old Adelaide Gaol. The barracks will be torn down to make room for the new hospital, which will cost up to $3.2bn. “When we did get the chance to oppose it, it was all too late,” he told The Advertiser. “It makes you concerned for the future of state heritage.” [via The Advertiser, Saturday, 11 February 2023]


If you have any Australian genealogy and/or history related news that you’d like me to share, please feel free to send me an email with the info, and I’ll put it in my next Snippets update.  

Please, Help Save Trove

For any Australian historian (family, local, or social historian) Trove is the ultimate GO-TO site. It is the National Library of Australia’s site, which is accessed by around 20 million people every year, and contains about six billion (that’s right BILLION) digital items, including news­papers, magazines, photographs, journals, parliamentary papers and more … and it’s all FREE!!

However due to huge funding cuts over a number of years, and the fact that Federal funding for the National Library of Australia’s digital resource ends in June 2023, means that Trove could cease operations, or at least in its current form.

What if there was no Trove?
But to us researchers, a life without Trove is as unthinkable as life without Google.

This is Australia’s primary institution, the one that provides access to not only what the National Library of Australia itself holds, but access to holdings from 900 or so other Australian institutions. This is portal for Australia’s heritage, and yet depite it being used on a globa scale, is being treated as unimportant.

What can we do?
We have been asked to use our voice (well technically fingers), to sign a petition, and spread the word far and wide. But there is a time limit … the petition date is 22 February 2023. So we don’t have much time.

There was a Change.org petition for this topic, but it’s been said that the government only acts on “official” petitions. So another one was started by the same person, and this official petition will be presented to parliament. So if you care about access to Australia’s history, even if you don’t use Trove, please take a few moments to sign the petition.

SIGN THE PETITION NOW

And if you want to read more about what the organisations are saying, here are links to a number of articles about it:

[banner graphic used with permission from GenealogySA]