Discover Local History Using Facebook...

I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t like sitting down with an old photo album and flipping through the pages, wondering about people, the places, and life as it was back then … reminiscing. And any historian and/or genealogist know that learning about the history of a region where your family (be it YOUR own family, or the generations before you), is such an important aspect of it research. But just how do you find out the history and people of a town or area? Well until relatively recently there’s been two options. Firstly look around to see what books have been produced on the area and try to track them down, either through libraries, or secondhand bookstores), or secondly visit (or write if you’re not local) the genealogy or historical groups that are in the region. These are usually a goldmine of information, and are ALWAYS a good source of records. A third option, and is one that we all love, is to search old newspapers. And for us here in Australia that means going to Trove! But now there’s a new way to at least enhance your knowledge of the area, and that is by following a Facebook page that is dedicated to the local history of the town or area you’re interested in. The concept of starting a Facebook page for someone to share their photos and knowledge of a town, while inviting others to contribute seems to have really boomed in the past year or so. Facebook now has over 1.15  users globally, and almost 700 million of them log on daily (and yes, I’m one of those 700 million), so creating a Facebook page or group really does potentially give you a global audience. Setting up...

A Dose of Local History and Surprises!...

There’s no doubt that when you get into family history, you need to learn about the social history, as well as the local history of the area your family came from as well. You simply can’t do one without the others. My research which has previously seen me focus on my Finnish and New Jersey lines, has now brought me back to my South Australian roots to some of my emigrating families and their descendants. And as such, I’ve been learning a whole heap about my Randell family who founded Gumeracha, my Kelly family who founded Cudlee Creek,  as well as my Hannaford family who were early pioneers at Cudlee Creek. So to help with my education of the local history of the area I found two books listed on secondhand bookseller, Pioneer Books website, and ordered them: – Gumeracha 1839-1939 by J.E. Monfries, 1939 (yes the original 1939 edition, not the later reprint) – Gumeracha Soldiers Memorial Hospital Diamond Jubilee 1922-1982 by John Norsworthy, 1982 When Monica from Pioneer Books phoned me verify that these books were indeed in stock, and quoted me the freight, she said she was going to put in another book, which is a diary from the 1860s of someone who lived in Gumeracha at the time. She said the diary came as part of a lot that they won in a auction. It was all handwritten, and she and her husband took time to transcribe it all and have republished it. And she wanted to give me a copy. Well as you can imagine I was “is it here yet? is it here yet?”, and that was only half an hour after confirming the order ;-). Anyway fortunately for me (and everyone else) my books...