Are You Listening? 25 Australian History and Genealogy Podcasts...

Hands up how many of you listen to podcasts? Hmm, not enough of you. Before I get into that, let me start right at the very beginning by giving you the definition of podcast. In simple terms, a podcast is a digital medium consisting of audio episodes that relate to a specific theme. The hosts of a podcast are referred to as “podcasters.” So in essence it’s an audio recording that you can listen to on your computer, iPad, or phone. There are literally hundreds of thousands of podcasts available to listen to, on just about any topic that you can think of – just browse Audible to get an idea. They can be fun and entertaining, they can be horrifying, or they can be educational. Podcasts are great to listen to while you’re travelling. Anyway today I just want to highlight a few Australian history and genealogy-related ones for you. Please note it takes a LOT of work and dedication to create a podcast, and as you’ll see some of those listed below are not currently active, but I’ve included them as you can still listen to the past episodes. —- AdeLOL – Adelaide & SA’s Hilarious History Podcasthttps://adelol.podbean.com/Stories of South Australia and Adelaide’s unique, and often hilarious, past. Australian Ancestry Podcasthttps://australianancestrypodcast.podbean.com/The Australian Ancestry Podcast helps you make the most of your uniquely Australian family history research by providing insights into how to perform your research in Australia, overview of historical trends in Australian migration & settlement and interviews with leading Australian researchers. Aussie History Podcasthttps://player.fm/series/aussie-history-podcastThe Aussie History Podcast, (also known as the Aussie Waves Podcast) tells Australian history though the lens of all those peoples who have made the journey from other lands to call Australia home....

Join SLQ’s New Transcription Project...

Original records are fabulous, but unless you have the days (or weeks) to sit onsite and view these records in the archive or library going through them page by page, they remain unknown to most of the world. So to make them more accessible they need to be indexed, or even better, transcribed. And that’s exactly what the State Library of Queensland is doing with their latest project. They write … Are you something of an expert at deciphering handwriting? Or are you interested in improving your transcription skills?We have recently digitised the letters received by the Colonial Secretary of the British Colony of New South Wales which relate to the Moreton Bay settlement and Queensland from 1822-1860. The correspondence documents the daily activities of a penal settlement, including petitions from prisoners’ wives, supply requests for items needed to establish and maintain the settlement, and proposed infrastructure plans.This is a large and historically significant collection of 42,000 pages of letters and documents. These letters have never been available online before and will be a valuable research resource. However, the machine-generated transcripts of the Colonial Secretary’s letters are, on average, 50% accurate. Technology is great, but there is no substitute for the human perspective in deciphering handwriting. So if you are interested in Queensland history, family history, or you simply enjoy the challenge of decoding handwritten documents, they would welcome your help. To be a part of their project, you can sign up at From The Page and start...

Traces Magazine – Issue 22 (April 2023)...

If you have a love of Australian history and genealogy, this is just what you need. As with all every issue of Traces, this one is packed with high quality Australian history and genealogy-related articles. Issue 22 recently hit the newsagent shelves, (or your letterbox if you’re a subscriber), so what great articles are in this issue? In this edition Traces welcomes back some regular writers, and several new contributors. Karoline Cernoch explores the stunning Waverley Cemetery, and the social and cultural factors that led to its development. Dr David Waldron shares the grizzly story of Fitzroy’s Hand of Glory, and the folklore maintained by Melbourne’s 19th-century immigrants. The genealogy section features a fascinating article by Lucy Frost about convict orphans, transported from Australia with their convict mothers, and how to find them in your family tree. While the cover story, written by Peter Baker, charts the rise and tragic fall of violinist and entertainer Percy Cowan, his wartime service and his enduring friendship with poet Henry Lawson. There’s another “Vintage Vernacular” article, and a profile of the grand historical estate Edina, with its Scottish connections. But there’s plenty more to discover in this edition’s pages, so if you love Australian history and/or genealogy, do yourself a favour, and grab a copy of Traces. Available in both printed and digital form, you can subscribe through iSubscribe or Traces magazine directly. You can buy the current issue from some newsagents, and back issues of the magazine from Traces magazine themselves. More information:Website: http://tracesmagazine.com.au/ Follow...

More Australian Archives to get much needed funding...

We all heard the absolutely fabulous news from the Australian Federal government in their May Budget, about the National Library of Australia and Trove receiving funding, but I will admit to missing the fact that they were only 1 of 9 Australian cultural organisations to share in over $530 million dollars in funding million over the next four years. Yes, it’s true. And there’s no doubt that this funding is needed. Afterall the organisations have faced funding cuts for years, which resulted in less staff, and less staff to do the required tasks needed to preserve our heritage and the records that go with it. And then there’s the cost of mantenance to the buildings, for which there was simply no money available … until now. So this is fabulous news, not only for the National Library of Australia, but all of these important archives. National Library of Australia (and Trove)The National Library of Australia gets the biggest increase in funding with $146.2 million over the next four years. That includes funding specifically for the Trove program which offers digital access to historical documents, along with money to expand its storage and fix its main building in Canberra, which was seriously damaged in a severe hailstorm in early 2020. **More info => https://www.nla.gov.au/Australian National Maritime MuseumThe Australian National Maritime Museum welcomes $23 million in funding from the recent Federal Budget. Ms Daryl Karp AM, Director and CEO said, ‘We are delighted that the government has established a cultural policy and is supporting and investing in the arts, culture, and community. ‘This announcement gives us much needed short term and ongoing funding – in the first instance, to do urgent work repairing and maintaining our fleet, wharves, and ageing infrastructure....

Who Do You Think You Are? Australia 2023 (Season 14)...

If you’ve been hanging out for the new season of Who Do You Think Your Are?, the Australian version, you don’t have too much longer to wait, as Season 14 starts on Tuesday, 2nd May. This popular series is back with a stellar new line-up of well-known Australian personalities who embark on a deeply personal journey to explore their family history, discovering tales of love, tragedy and perseverance along the way. So just who features in WDYTYA Australia 2023? Here’s the list … Barry Humphries – an Australian comedian, actor, author and satiristJenny Brockie – Australian journalist and documentary-makerDerryn Hinch – media personality, politician, actor, journalist and authorRhonda Burchmore – Australian entertainerStephen Page – Australian choreographer, film director and former dancerPeter Helliar – Australian comedian, actor, television, radio presenter, writer, producer and directorKerry Armstrong – Australian actress and authorJohn Waters – Australian film, theatre and television actor, singer, guitarist, songwriter and musician Bernadine Lim, SBS Commissioning Editor for Documentaries said: “We are completely thrilled the new season of Who Do You Think You Are? will return to SBS from May 2, and with such a brilliant line-up of guests. Prepare to be delighted by Barry Humphries’ quest to prove he’s the most interesting person in his family, captivated by Jenny Brockie’s deeply emotional journey as she searches for the familial connections she has yearned for all her life, and moved as Derryn Hinch finally uncovers the long-suppressed identity of his mother’s father. And that’s just the first three episodes! With this new season Who Do You Think You Are? continues to fascinate, amuse and enthral Australian audiences, resonating with our universal desire to discover our origins, in all their diversity.” Here’s a sneak peek for you … So remember...

Trove is Saved!

Researchers around Australia, and indeed around the world, are breathing a huge sigh of relief at the news that the Australian Federal Government is giving a much needed cash injection to Australia’s national treasure, the National Library of Australia and Trove. In its upcoming May budget, the federal government has promised $33 million over four years to the NLA.The NLA, which runs digital archive database Trove, will also be separately allocated funding of more than $9 million — a move the government said would secure the future of the service for years to come. So this is fabulous news, not only does the National Library of Australia get much needed funding, much of which is needed to upgrade the NLA building itself – the building that holds so much of Australia’s history – Trove gets allocated funds too. With newspapers, diaries, magazines, photos, gazettes, newsletters, maps, artefacts, books, diaries, letters, music, audio and video, and so much more, the Trove website is truly a portal of Australian history, to the world. National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia (Flickr: aussiejeff) On Trove you can find more than 14 billion digital items primarily relating to Australian history, and now with ongoing funding, that number will continue to grow. So a big, big thankyou for everyone who signed the various “Save Trove” petitions, and to those who wrote to their local Members of Parliament to voice concern over the potential closure of Trove. Our voices have been heard, and thanks to the ongoing funding, we can now continue to use our favourite website for all of our research. https://trove.nla.gov.au/ For more about the announcement, have a read of these articles: – National Library welcomes announcement of ongoing Trove funding – Trove secures funding...

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...

Dipping My Toes in to Irish Genealogy Research...

Apart from my British, Finnish and a little European heritage, I have some Irish blood in me too. About 30% in fact (according to my AncestryDNA test). But the whole Irish side is one that I’ve pretty much avoided. Afterall, there are so many other lines and branches to follow … so it always ended up in the “I’ll get to it one day” pile. Well I’ve just discovered John Grenham’s YouTube channel. And to say I’m a fan is an understatement. For anyone who hasn’t heard of John Grenham, he is like THE No.1 authority on Irish genealogy research. The Godfather of it so to speak. He’s also the author of the best known Irish research book “Tracing Your Irish Ancestors“, now up to the 5th edition, and which is commonly referred to as the Bible for Irish research. So in other words, he knows his stuff. He also has the most incredible website for Irish genealogy around. It has SO MUCH info. So much, that he’s actually created a video to show people how to use it. I urge to to find 20 minutes to watch this video, because if you haven’t used his website, you will be blow away by what it offers, and how it works. —————— But I also wanted to share another of his videos with you … one that is common for everyone starting their Irish research “Irish Ancestors: Why Can’t I Find Mine?” As I’m a total newbie to Irish research, I thought it would be good to watch this to see what he had to say, and as expected John gives his viewers lots of great advice, so I’m sharing it here. If you are researching Irish ancestors, please go...

They Closed the Borders ….. AGAIN!!...

“Victoria-NSW border to close for the first time in 100 years as Melbourne coronavirus cases hit record daily high” – this is the headline from the SBS News report, dated 7 July 2020, and it comes as Victoria is just beginning another six weeks of lockdown to try get COVID-19 under control. Anyway that headline intrigued me, as I was curious about the previous border closure … so I headed to Trove to see what I could find. And what an amazing article I found. Talk about history repeating itself … just have a read of this article from South Australian newspaper, The Register, dated 3 February 1919. You can see the original article here. Please note, the red highlight is my emphasis, not that of the original article.  —The Spanish Flu— No one desires to minimise the horrors or the epidemic which has swept over the world, nor the necessity for precautions, but it would seem that if ever fear was worse than the disease, the present is the occasion. The Federal Quarantining Department kept the disease out of the country for months. Australia has had ample warning, and advantage from the experience of other countries. The Commonwealth and State authorities met last November, and planned, a joint course of action. The Sydney doctors diagnosed their cases as the real thing; the Melbourne doctors were still using big words, and unable to make up their minds. Now both States have been declared infected, but New South Wales will not admit Victorian passengers, because Melbourne was responsible for the trouble, and Queensland, not to be out of the fuss, is asking the despised Commonwealth Government to lend it a body of Light Horse to patrol its border against New South Wales....

Activities for the Genealogist While Self-Isolating...

Are you currently in lockdown, quarantined or self-isolating at home? Looking for some ideas to fill the day? I know that I could simply write “research” here and you’d all be happy (I would be), but for those of you who may need a break from just “research” on occasions, or don’t have the longer spurts of time required for researching, there’s plenty of useful genealogy-related activities that you can still do. Here’s a few ideas… ————————– WATCH – Webinars & Videos Webinars and videos are a fantastic way to learn in your own time, and from the comfort of your own home. There literally thousands available to watch, and that’s without going to YouTube and searching for more, and most of them are free. – Ancestry Academy – Short tutorial videos, covering Ancestry, DNA, methodology and more. – FamilySearch Webinars – Watch webinars on researching in different countries, as well a numerous general topics (organisation, DNA etc.), as well as how to master the FamilySearch website. – Legacy Family Tree Webinars – This one is a pay site, but at less than US$50/year, and access to over 1000 tutorial videos, it is SOOO worth it. But just so you know all newly added videos are free for 7 days, before they then go behind the paywall, and you will then need to pay or subscribe. – MyHeritage Education – There are a heap of webinars available covering how to use the MyHeritage website to advantage, as well as how to build a family tree, general research basics, well as DNA and health tutorials. – The National Archives (UK) – From using Discovery, to workhouse records, emigration, musters and militia, King Henry VIII, and a whole heap more. – National Library of Australia – Watch videos...