Abundant Genealogy - Week 4 - Free offline genealogy tools

Week 4 – Free Offline Genealogy Tools: For which free offline genealogy tool are you most grateful? How did you find this tool and how has it benefitted your genealogy? Describe to others how to access this tool and spread the genealogy love.

My favourite free offline genealogy tool is Dixson Library at the University of New England in Armidale, NSW, Australia. I have been using this library since 1978 when I began university.

If you have ancestors who lived in the New England area, the New England Room may be just the thing for you.

The New England Collection exists to ensure the preservation of works related to the New England region...It covers a collecting area from the Queensland border in the north to the Gloucester Shire in the south and from the coast to the Bourke Shire in the west.

Check out what is in this collection via the online catalogue. I have been able to access many books and ephemera about the towns where my ancestors lived and worked.

Dixson Library also has a family history collection with many varied resources including:

BDM indexes
shipping records
convict records
electoral rolls
land records
muster and census records
naturalisation records

Of course, many of these records are available online so these resources are probably not used as much as they once were.

My favourite section of Dixson Library is the newspaper collection. Microfilms of newspapers from the northern part of NSW (including the north coast), Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne can all be found. Best of all, you don't need to request access to individual microfilms as they are all on open access. This collection is particularly useful as there are few NSW country newspapers on Trove. The range also goes beyond 1954 so more recent news stories can easily be accessed. You can either print pages or save them to a thumb drive.

As a member of the community you are free to use the resources at Dixson Library. However, if you wish to borrow from the library in person you must become a member.

If you live nearby a visit to Dixson is well worth the effort. If you don't live close, why not include a visit to Dixson when you are next holidaying in the New England region. Don't forget to check opening hours before you leave home.

Caroline Chisholm

I am currently in England visiting my daughter who is working in London. Naturally I decided I would have to spend some time on genealogical pursuits. The problem was where would I choose for a few day's retreat from London? In the end I decided to go to Northampton to visit the grave of Caroline Chisholm. Caroline is known as the immigrant's friend. She was a well known social reformer of her day. Why is Caroline significant to me and my family? You may recall that Caroline Chisholm was on the original $5 note in Australia. As well as her image there was a picture of a ship. That ship was the Waverley . Caroline agitated at the Home Office to reunite the wives and families of convicts with their husbands and fathers. On 22 June 1847 she wrote that she ‘had just left the Home Office and had obtained a passage per Waverley for forty-nine souls.’ SMH 9 August 1847, extract from letter 30 March 1847. My great great grandmother Matilda Agnew, her older siblings James, Joh...

Family Homes - No 3 - Moolan Downs, Queensland

My previous Family Home post showed the childhood home of Catherine Ellen Dawson . After leaving Tasmania Catherine moved to Melbourne with her mother and siblings after the death of her father Dr William Lee Dawson. Catherine married Gustav Baumgarten in Melbourne on 30th November 1876. They lived at Pleasant Bank Vineyard at Barnawatha. According to the Cyclopedia of Victoria they had 180 acres of vines, 465 acres of agricultural and grazing land and a further 300 acres under cultivation. During 1908 the Baumgarten family moved from Barnawatha to Moolan Downs, near Meandarra west of Dalby. They left a thriving business with an established homestead and moved to western Queensland. One of their first tasks when they arrived was to build the dwelling shown below. Original dwelling at Moolan Downs - c1908 The second house at Moolan Downs The final homestead at Moolan Downs One can only admire our early pioneering families. Gustav died at Moolan Downs...

The Tree of Me

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