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 satirist
Jenny Brockie – Australian journalist and documentary-maker
Derryn Hinch – media personality, politician, actor, journalist and author
Rhonda Burchmore – Australian entertainer
Stephen Page – Australian choreographer, film director and former dancer
Peter Helliar – Australian comedian, actor, television, radio presenter, writer, producer and director
Kerry Armstrong – Australian actress and author
John 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 to note the date, Tuesday, 2 May, 7.30pm, SBS is when it starts, and if you want to check out episodes from past seasons in the meantime, just head to SBS OnDemand, and you can watch them from there.

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.

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 as federal government comes to rescue of National Library of Australia’s digitised archive
– Australia’s Trove Receives Lifeline with $42.2 Million Funding Boost
– Trove funding secured in 2023-24 Federal Budget

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:

• Online resource Trove is due to run out of government funding in six months, National Library of Australia warns
• Trove’s funding runs out in July 2023 – it’s time for a radical overhaul
• Trove in trouble: why does it cost money to keep the resource online?
• National Library’s digital archive Trove under threat
• Trove thrown overboard amid funding cuts
• National Library’s treasure Trove under threat from budget cuts
• National Library of Australia’s free digital archives may be forced to close without funding
• Trove’s funding is under threat. It’s time for an overhaul
• Speak up for Trove

[banner graphic used with permission from GenealogySA]

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.

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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 and check out (and subscribe) to his YouTube channel. You’ll learn heaps!!!

So now I am enthused about getting going on my Irish ancestors, now to find some time (which really translates to “MAKE” some time) to do some actual research.

Wish me luck!