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

My WW1 soldiers (2) - Ernest Lee Dawson

Ernest Lee Dawson (500) (1885 - 1968) This is the second post in a series of posts over the next few years to remember all the men in my extended family who enlisted in World War 1. So far I have identified 26 soldiers who enlisted between 20 August 1914 and 2 November 1918 and I feel sure I have missed some. Of the twenty six, five were killed overseas or died here in Australia. My aim is to publish these posts on the 100th anniversary of their enlistment. Ernest Lee Dawson (my great uncle) was the eldest child of William Henry Dawson and his wife Bridget Mylan. He was born in the Cooma district of NSW in 1885. On 25th August 1914, less than three weeks after the outbreak of the First World War Ernie, a farmer who lived at Old Bonalbo enlisted in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment in Lismore. Ernie had previous military experience. In 1906, he answered an advertisement to join the Shanghai Municipal Council Police Force, as a recruit. He was appointed on 10th Ja

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