Abundant Geneaolgy - Week 3 - Free Online Genealogy Tools

Week 3 – Free Online Genealogy Tools: Free online genealogy tools are like gifts from above. Which one are you most thankful for? How has it helped your family history experience?

Where does one start? There are so many fantastic free online sites so I don't think I'll be able to stop at one.

I love The Ryerson Index which is an index to death notices in current Australian newspapers. It is a fantastic resource and thanks must go to those who freely give their time to work on this project. I'm only sorry that the newspaper from where I grew up is not one of those indexed. I'd index it if I had regular access to the paper. Unfortunately, I read the paper fourth hand in bulk about three times a year and I can't guarantee that issues aren't missing.

Recently I've been spending a lot of time on the Public Record Office of Victoria website, particularly looking at their Wills, Probate and Administration Records 1841-1925. I have been able to access free of charge several family wills which have proved to be extremely beneficial in my research. Thanks for providing these to the public.

I visit Trove's digitised newspapers on a weekly basis. To play a part in the continual improvement of Trove I always correct the electronically translated text. Although this digitisation project has yet to digitise any of the papers of the small country towns that I am interested in I have still been able to locate stories about my families. I was really pleased to be able to verify a story that my father had told me about his grandfather. You can read about it here.

I am very grateful for cemetery sites. The Australian Cemetery Index is a record of inscriptions on headstones or plaques found in each cemetery at the time it was surveyed. Currently there are 616 NSW cemeteries and 181 from Queensland with much smaller holdings for the other states. I have been able to see images of the headstones of many of my extended families on this site. These images have given me death dates which in turn have often led to published obituaries. It's not quite as exciting as finding the headstone yourself but it certainly makes research easier.

I'm looking forward to reading about other fantastic free sites.

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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