Determining the date of genealogical events

The online indexes usually show the year when the birth, death or marriage was REGISTERED.  This does not necessarily mean it is the year of the actual event.  In some cases, BDM registrations were delayed, especially in country areas where the registrations were sent to the registrars office in bulk. Also, events that occurred in December were often not recorded until January which may create some confusion.

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The disappearing men - using census records

Scouring the UK census data often leads to various potholes especially around the years of mass migration to Australia and the USA (1840 - 1870). It's worth remembering that not all who travelled overseas stayed where they landed, or had any intention of staying. Sometimes the intent was purely to solve short term economic problems.

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Following naming conventions in genealogy

Have you noticed how European ancestors, particularly the British ones, often carried the same first names down through the family lines?

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Come find me, actually come find me

Tracing family history is one of the fastest growing interests in Australia, with more people than ever using online records to discover elusive relatives. Sites such as Ancestry and Trove are now making this process easier than ever but for many, the records are just the beginning. In Australia, genealogy tourism is seeing a renaissance as more people plan their holidays to include places surrounding their ancestral stories. Going beyond a series of names and dates - actually walking in the footsteps of those that came before us, is now within everyone's reach.

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Adopting a grave

Most Australian gravesites have perpetual tenure meaning the site cannot be resold or reused and are reserved for the inhabitant in perpetuity. However this is only generally true where the site was originally purchased and not provided by the state. In some cases sites do have limited tenure (of say 50 to 100 years) in which case the cemetery is free to resell the plot once tenure has expired. In this case often the remains will be removed to another location along with any headstone.

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Finding burial information - tips and traps

Many of the interment lists for Australian Cemeteries are coming online and they are extremely useful resources for family historians especially when you cannot easily visit. Thanks in large part to the dedication of volunteers many headstone photos are viewable online too. Headstone inscriptions also possibly give the most accurate date of death. This can be useful where dates transcribed in the many digital indexes seem confusing or inaccurate. Often headstones will list the name of a partner and family members too. 

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16 tips to promote your history group website

As we are constantly looking for and linking to websites of historical interest we have listed below 16 tips for history societies to use to help promote themselves to the wider community.

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