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 That includes funding specifically for the Trove program which offers digital access to historical documents, along with money to expand its storage and fix its main building in Canberra, which was seriously damaged in a severe hailstorm in early 2020.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 Museum
The 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. The ongoing uplift will help to alleviate the pressure that the Maritime Museum faces with the rising costs of suppliers, labour and ongoing maintenance of our harbourside site.’
More info => https://www.sea.museum/

Bundanon Trust
Australian Prime Minister, The Hon Anthony Albanese MP, announced $33 million in funding for Bundanon. This funding will give Bundanon a sustainable future, allowing it to grow in the new infrastructure, reach new audiences, and build and deliver innovative exhibitions, live programs, multi-disciplinary residencies and learning opportunities for all ages within the landscape of the Shoalhaven, on south coast NSW. As the only National Collecting Institution in regional Australia, Bundanon has an important role to play in shaping the nation’s cultural identity.
More info => https://www.beagleweekly.com.au/

Museum of Australian Democracy – Old Parliament House
The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House (MoAD) welcomes the funding announcement by the Prime Minister and Minister for the Arts of $37.9 million over 4 years. MOAD’s role is to protect and preserve the significant heritage building of Old Parliament House (OPH), and to celebrate the spirit and stories of Australian democracy and the power of our voices within it through exhibitions, content and programming.”‘This funding commitment is a testament to the importance of this building and its place in Australia’s history. It will allow us to strengthen our historical interpretation, collections, exhibitions and digital engagement programs to share with all Australians”.
More info => https://www.moadoph.gov.au/

National Archives of Australia
National Archives of Australia will receive $36.5 million in the next Federal Budget. With over 45 million items in their care ‘an additional $36.5 million for National Archives means we can continue to digitise records and make accessible our vast and growing collection. We hold records and items of significant importance to our nation including military service, immigration, First Nations Australians and much more.’
More info => https://www.naa.gov.au/

National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) will receive an additional $41.9 million in Federal Government funding over four years to digitise the nation’s at-risk audiovisual heritage.
More info => https://www.nfsa.gov.au/

National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia will be given a $76 million “booster” to bolster its operations and an extra $42 million to fix its leaky building, under a federal government boost hailed by its director as the most significant since the institution’s opening.
More info => https://nga.gov.au/

National Museum of Australia
The National Museum of Australia in Canberra has applauded a federal government announcement of a major $78.3 million funding boost over the next four years, in the upcoming federal budget.
More info => https://www.nma.gov.au/

National Portrait Gallery of Australia
From their Facebook page … “Like our fellow national collecting institutions, we’re so incredibly uplifted to hear this morning’s funding announcement! As the new kids on the block, funding of $27 million over four years will be absolutely transformational.  We are so very grateful for the ongoing and unprecedented support provided to us by the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese; the Minister for Finance, Katy Gallagher; and the Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke MP.  With this increased funding, we plan to proactively continue to enhance the understanding of the Australian people – our identity, history, culture, creativity and diversity – through portraiture”.
More info => https://www.facebook.com/PortraitAu/

** I note that the amount mentioned here for both the National Library of Australia and Trove is significantly higher than the reports I read earlier. So if this figure is correct, that’s even better news for not only yhe NLA and Trove teams, but for everyone using their facilities, both online and in person.

A huge thankyou to the Australian government for this funding. It was so desperately needed for these organisations to be able to preserve, protect and share Australia’s history with the world.

Last month I started my “Genealogy News” series, and people seemed to love it, so here’s the next one for you. These are, putting it simply, a collation of news from the bigger-name genealogy and history societies, archives and other related organisations from Australia and elsewhere.

So grab yourself a coffee, and find a comfy place to sit and click on through to find out the latest news in the genie world. Anyway, now on with the news …

23andMe
23andMe Adds More Detail for Customers with British and Irish Ancestry
23andMe’s New Hereditary Prostate Cancer (HOXB13-Related) Report

Ancestor Network
The Irish Ancestry of President Joe Biden

Ancestry
Ancestry Shares Corporate Responsibility Progress in Second Annual Impact Report
Kurrent & Fraktur: An Introduction to German Paleography
Finding Your Irish Potato Famine Ancestors
Ancestry Community Update – March 2023

Australian War Memorial
Anzac Day 2023 at the Australian War Memorial
Australian War Memorial marks Iraq Invasion 20 years on

DNA Painter
Shared cM histograms: did you know? #3
New gridlines and enhanced chromosome view in maps
Keeping track of genetic ancestors: did you know? #2
Changing segment layer order: did you know? #1

FamilySearch
RootsTech 2023 Unites Friends and Families Worldwide
How FamilySearch is using the future to discover the past with AI

FamilyTreeDNA
How Can Testing Your Siblings’ DNA Help Your Genealogy Research?
The New “Events” Mini Feature in Discover
Three Important Takeaways From RootsTech 2023
Group Project Administration Series: Shifting Your Mindset on Genealogy
Early Contributions to DNA Studies from Rosalind Franklin and Florence Bell
New DNA Analysis Uncovers Mysteries Around Beethoven’s Paternal Line
FamilyTreeDNA Works With Cambridge University Team To Uncover New Health and Genetic Information About Beethoven
Two Ways To Manage Test Results With FamilyTreeDNA

Find and Connect
Usability Testing is Open!
More Institutions Added

Findmypast
Discover monumental inscriptions for England and Wales
How to build your family tree with Findmypast
Explore the updated 1939 Register and more
Discover the stories of your military ancestors this week
Who’s who on King Charles III’s family tree?
Discover all things Irish history with this week’s record release
How to use the free Findmypast app for on-the-go family history
Discover the remarkably rich history behind Irish diaspora through the centuries

Legacy Family Tree Webinars
The 24-Hour Genealogy Webinar Marathon concludes – more than 55k registrants!

MyHeritage
Daniel’s Favorites: 7 Historical Record Collections on MyHeritage That You Should Bookmark
New Look for Category and Collection Pages for Historical Records
8 Things a Genealogist Should Carry at All Times
MyHeritage Adds 19 Million Records in February 2023
What’s New at MyHeritage: Our Founder and CEO Gilad Japhet Addresses RootsTech 2023

National Archives of Australia
National Archives welcomes funding announcement for cultural and historical institutions

National Library of Australia
Temporary change to collection access
Book launch – Bold Types: How Australia’s First Women Journalists Blazed a Trail
Sustainable funding for the National Library of Australia
National Library welcomes announcement of ongoing Trove funding
Rare dictionaries at the Library
First Women in federal parliament – Dame Enid Lyons and Dame Dorothy Tangney
Apply now for Community Heritage Grants
Fellowships 2024: see your research come together

National Library of Ireland
National Library of Ireland Launches New Website

National Library of Scotland
National Library to celebrate 100 years of broadcasting in Scotland

Public Record Office Victoria
Feedback for new RDA for Redress and Reparations Function
Celebrating 50 years
Ports, piers and paddles: A century of Port Melbourne in photos
What’s new in 2023: March

RootsIreland
New East Galway Records
New Issue of ‘Irish Genealogy Matters’ Newsletter Published
New Limerick Records Added

RootsWeb
Retiring and Migrating Portions of RootsWeb

The Genealogist
Find your Infamous Ancestors

The National Archives (UK)
Ancestry to digitise UK Second World War records
Ancestry wins contract to digitise Ministry of Defence records
Colonial correspondence: Tasmania settlers [this is not brand new news, but worth resharing in case you missed it]

Trove
SOS: Save our Stories Appeal: Help State Library Victoria digitise the 1922-1954 editions of The Sun News-Pictorial
Admirable women in Trove: Shared by the Trove Community – Stories of little-known women making big impacts
National Library welcomes announcement of ongoing Trove funding
New in April 2023 Fresh in Trove, ready to explore
New in March 2023: Fresh in Trove, ready to explore
Coming Soon to Trove: New collections and titles (April 2023)
Find her-story (part two): Feminism in Australia 1980s-today
Explore Tasmania: 159 years of Tasmanian history with Libraries Tasmania
Find her-story (part one): Feminism in Australia 1900-1970s
First Australian leaders: For our Elders

Happy reading 🙂

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

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]