Launceston Family Album

Website Review

If you were lucky enough to have a relative attend the Tasmanian International Exhibition of 1891-1892 then this is the website for you.
Easily searchable and navigatable the website displays the 1179 photo of early Launceston residents. Most photographs are accompanied by an excellent biography of the person and their family.The website also allows the public to contribute information on an individual.

The photos are of a high quality with an enlarge option that allows for easy saving or downloading (photos maybe copyrighted please contact the Friends of the Library before using)

Bendigo Family History Fair 2012

On Sunday 25th March 2012 GenTree Australia is heading across Bass Strait to attend the annual Bendigo Family History Fair. Last years fair was a fantastic event and a must for anyone with ancestors from the area. Or if you want advice on Tasmanian resources or your Tasmanian ancestor come along and speak to us.  The event is well organised and attended by local and Family History Groups, who are a hive of information.

We highly recommend the fair to everyone, both the public and potential stall holders.

To us the trip across Bass Strait is well worth the effort.

Congratulations to the organisers.

We will be bringing the following information (covering all over Tasmania)
Baptism info, burial info, cemetery records, orphanage records
Pioneer and Federation Indexes etc.

We hope to see you there.


Bendigo Family History Expo
Sunday 25th March 2012
10 am start
$8.00 entry
at  the YMCA Leisure Center, Browning St, Kangaroo Flat, Bendigo, Victoria

Bass Strait People 1790 - 1850: Aborigines, Sealers & Others

This is a great site and it's still a work in progress which means, of course, it can only get better.  We came across it in our search for a man who died in Hobart Town in 1808.  An ordinary man with an ordinary name - a man who didn't do anything spectacular enough to make him newsworthy.  William Rook was his name and William, we are told by the researcher seeking him, may have been a sailor and it was possible that he'd arrived in the colony as early as 1804.  And what do you know, as we trolled the net looking for this man, up popped this great site with its list of Aboriginal women who were taken by sealers to Bass Strait, a list that names those women and the men with whom they were associated, women not from VDL who were living with sealers in Bass Strait, and much much more.

Anyway, we found William Rook on this site,  on a list of sealers in Bass Strait and other Australian waters in 1806 and while we can't be sure, yet, that he's the William Rook we want, his presence on this list has given us a starting point.

If you're interested in early colonial history in general, the early history of Bass Strait in particular or you're looking for someone you can't find who was out here between 1790 and 1850, this site is worth a visit.

If you do take a look at it, we'd love to know what you think of it.  Please let us know. 

Ancestry. Who owns it and is it worth the membership?

Who owns Ancesty.com is a question we’ve asked ourselves many times and it’s a question we’ve been asked many times.  The other day, we decided to ask Wikipedia this question and below you have its response. (Except for the last paragraph, where we mention Mundia).  
“Ancestry.com Inc., formerly The Generations Network, is a publicly traded Internet company (NASDAQ: ACOM) based in Provo, Utah, USA. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world,^[2] it operates a network of genealogical and historical record websites focused on the U.S. and nine foreign countries, develops and markets genealogical software, and offers a wide array of genealogical related services. In December 2010, the company provided access to more than 6 billion records and had 1.395 million paying subscribers.^[3]
In addition to its flagship site, Ancestry.com operates Genealogy.com, MyFamily.com, and Rootsweb.com, ^[4] and owns Footnote.com, which provides images of historical records. Family Tree Maker software, developed and marketed by the company, is the largest selling genealogical software in the world.^{[citation needed]}
Under its subsidiaries, Ancestry.com operates foreign sites that provide access to services and records specific to other countries in the languages of those countries. These include several countries in Europe (covered by Ancestry.com Europe S.à r.l.^[5]) as well as Australia, Canada, and China. According to the company's latest annual report, Spectrum Equity Investors is a majority owner in the business.^[3]”
And we can’t go without mentioning another member of the Ancestry stable, http://www.mundia.com/ , a global multilanguage family history network that is really making its presence felt these days.

For Australians is the information it holds worth the cost of the membership? We would love to hear your opinion.

Ballarat Family History Festival

Venue: Ballarat Mechanics Institute, Sturt Street, Ballarat
Date: Sunday 23rd and Monday 24th October 2011
Admission: Free
Theme: Education

GenTree Australia will be attending the Ballarat  Festival and invites you to bring along your Tasmanian Ancestory information and sit down and have a chat with us.

Information we will be bringing will include:
Tasmanian Death, Cemetery and Burial Records
Tasmanian Baptism Records
St John's Orphanage Records (Kings and Queens Orphanages)
Tasmanian Pioneer and Federation Indexes
Tasmanian Convict related records and information etc

If your family has a connection to the Ballarat or surrounding  area then this is an opportunity not to be missed. Liaise with  local and family history experts, access databases and get lots of free advice whilst checking out the great displays in the fun, friendly historic atmosphere of a historically listed building.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Warracknabeal and District History Group

Research Services

What a wonderful organisation. Jack was helpful and informative and went out of his way to help. We were at a dead end with our Perry Family and with Jack's expert help we have been able to track Alfred and narrow down our search timeline.

The Museum

What a fantastic local history museum. Located in the Old State Bank Building Victoria on the main street in Waracknabeal the museum represents the town throughout its history. The Society has restored the old bank chambers to its former glory (with searchable bank ledgers for the beginning of the century) whilst the second floor is set up as it would have been when the bank manager lived there.

The whole service is a credit to the town and the Society.

If you up in that neck of the woods the Museum and research rooms are a must see.

Details:
Warracknabeal and District Historical Society and Museum
"Old State Bank Building"
81 Scott Street, Warracknabeal
Ph: 5398 2371