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Australian NSW Passenger Lists launched on TheGenealogist

  TheGenealogist have just released over 190,000 records of passengers who departed Britain on early Migrant ships to New South Wales 1828 - 1896 These new records expand TheGenealogist’s Immigration, Emigration and Naturalisation and passenger list records. The transcripts of the latest release uniquely give a family link so you can see spouses and children setting out on their new life. They also reveal details such as which ship they had sailed on, where they were landing, the passenger’s occupation and in the case where the migrant has been assisted to travel out to a job, their employer’s name. Some records are more detailed than others and can divulge how much the emigrant was to be paid, whether rations were included in their employment. In some cases the immigrants Native Place, or where they had come from is also disclosed. A number of these settlers may have bought their own passages, while others travelled with assistance from one of the public or private programmes that existed at the time. With the discovery of gold in 1851 mass migration to New South Wales of a wider cross section of people took place. The NSW passenger lists will allow researchers to
  • Discover ancestors travelling to New South Wales from Britain and Ireland between 1828 and 1896 in the shipping lists of the era
  • These fully indexed records allow family historians to search by name together with country and port of embarkation, as well as country or port of destination
  • Find ancestors on “bounty scheme” voyages in which free immigrants to Australia were recruited by agents in Britain, who were paid a monetary reward for finding suitable skilled labour and tradespeople willing to sail out to the new colony
  • Locate families travelling together with a single click
  • See linked images and records on the New South Wales Government Website
These records can be found within the Immigration, Emigration and Travel collection on TheGenealogist and add significantly to the resources already available for researchers to use when looking for ancestors who left Britain. TheGenealogist’s extensive British & International Immigration and Emigration records, already include Naturalisation and Denization records, convict registers and early New Zealand settlers. Search the records now at: http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/search/advanced/overseas/passenger-lists/   An example from the records follows below… By selecting Immigration, Emigration and Travel on TheGenealogist’s main search page and then choosing Passenger Lists from the dropdown menu, we are able to look for William Fortune and his young wife who set out for a new life in New South Wales departing from London on the 13th February 1841 on board the ship the Jane Gifford. The detailed records confirm the departure date, the ship’s name and much much more. For example we are able to discover that William was from Newbridge, that he was a labourer aged 28 and a Roman Catholic. We can see that he was heading for Sydney, Australia and that William had been engaged by one Captain Flint at a wage of £19 a year.

TheGenealogist NSW passenger lists

Presumably William’s prospective employer, Captain Flint, was not the template for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Piratical character of the same name, who would appear in print forty years later. As the shipping records also reveals to us that William Fortune could neither read nor write, this fictional person with the same name as his boss may well have passed him by in the years to come. An extremely powerful feature, of searching the passenger lists on TheGenealogist’s website, is the ability to look for a family travelling together. One click on the family group icon, next to William’s results, returns potential family members. We can see that his 19 year old wife, Susan, was also travelling with him. Her occupation is noted as a House Maid and she too was a Roman Catholic from Newbridge. Another charming nugget of family history information revealed, by the Potential Family Members search, is that on the voyage William and Susan were delivered of a baby girl. Their child, Jane Fortune, was born at sea with her native place being prosaically listed simply as “Sea” on the passenger list. Jane is recorded as being aged 2 months and has then been pedantically noted in the records as being “under age”.

New South Wales passenger lists on TheGenealogist

The passenger lists available on TheGenealogist can reveal a significant amount of information about ancestors that have emigrated to New South Wales in the 19th century. As we can see, from the example above, the unique ability to search for relatives travelling together is a compelling reason to use TheGenealogist to research for immigrants down under.  
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Events at the Society of Genealogists for 2016

The Society of Genealogists has released its new 2016 Events programme is now online and bookable. Listed below are events taking place at the Society of Genealogists in January. Visit their website if you want to find out further information about each event, as well as events taking place during the remainder of the year. If  you are a member of the Society of Genealogists and are booking online, then you should remember to log in first, in order to receive the member discount. Non-members are  also welcome to attend events, at the full price. Events can also be booked by telephone (Tuesday-Thursday & Saturdays), at the number listed below. All events take place at their premises in London, unless otherwise noted.   Wednesday, 13 January  14:00 - Discovering Discovery: Using The National Archives Website and Catalogue Discovery is The National Archives online catalogue and holds more than 32 million descriptions of records held by The National Archives and more than 2,500 archives across the country. Millions of records are available for download, find out what can be found in the catalogue and how to get the best from the website. A one-hour lecture with Guy Grannum, Discovery Product Manager at The National Archives. Free of charge, but must be pre-booked.   Thursday, 14 January     18:00-20:00 - Stage 1 Evening Skills Course (10 weeks) The Society's successful family history skills course begins again with the first ten-week series of classes for those who are new to family history or who have had a little experience and want to build upon their initial progress. Our team of professional genealogists will introduce the records and illustrate how they should best be used for the study of family history. Publications, electronic finding aids and the internet will, of course, be included along with all the basic sources needed to start research. Topics will include how to get started, how to best search the census, newspapers, probate, parish registers, Non-Anglican family History and more. With Else Churchill, John Hanson, Simon Fowler and Ian Waller. Thursday evenings (last class 17 March)   Cost 175.00/140.00, Please see further information about Stage 2 and Stage 3 courses, on our website.   Saturday, 16 January     14:00-17:00 - Researching Irish Family Life in the Famine Years    80% of today’s English people have Irish ancestry and this seminar looks at Irish lives in the rural west of Ireland in the famine years between about 1800 and 1850. In the first talk, we will look at how people lived; their houses, possessions, food, work, education, entertainment, etc.  It touches on politics, social attitudes and the reasons for mass poverty and emigration. The second talk discusses how to use such facts as these to build your own family history in places, like Ireland, where few real records survive.  It looks at subjects such as additional places to search and how to follow leads, how to put the story together and to what extent you can judge events of 200 years ago by modern standards.  It opens up a whole area of family history beyond the collecting of birth, marriage, death and census data. If you have just a few facts, this seminar will start you on a family quest that will be engrossing, interesting and, with luck, extremely rewarding. A half-day course with Stephen Lally, Cost 20.00/16.00   Wednesday, 20 January   14:00 - Copyright for Family History      Copyright applies to photographs, diaries, paintings, film clips and many other works.  This talk will aim to cover some of the issues you might face with copyright works in your family history, including how long copyright lasts, when you might or might not need permission to use the works, and what you can do if you cannot find the right holder and would like to copy the work.  This talk will be especially useful for those considering publication of their family history. A one-hour talk with staff from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), the official government body responsible for intellectual property rights including patents, designs, trademarks and copyright. Cost 8.00/6.40   Saturday, 23 January      10:30-13:00 - Research Before Parish Registers Pre 1600 research is an entirely different "ballgame" with many records existing that can be useful. Many such records continued beyond 1600 but are under-used. Some family historians think they have to stop researching when parish registers end. How wrong you are! Come see what is available. A half-day course with Ian Waller, FSG  Cost 20.00/16.00   Wednesday, 27 January  14:00 - Catching up with FamilySearch  The familysearch.org website is the largest family history website in the world, with billions of names across thousands of collections - and more are added monthly. Learn what new major databases have been added, how to find this information, and how to best use the website. A one-hour lecture with Sharon Hintze. Free, but must be pre-booked.   Thursday, 28 January  14:00 - Visit: St-Mary-le-Bow Church We will learn about the history of this famous church and the great architecture of Sir Christopher Wren, in particular relating to the famous steeple.  Inside the church we will look at the post-war rebuilding by Lawrence King, the beautiful stained glass windows by John Hayward and the other modern furnishings. The church has many international connections, including significant ones with the USA, Norway, Germany and Australia.  It also possesses an 11th century crypt, part of it now an elegant chapel, the rest of it used as a restaurant, set among many of the original Norman arches. With Tony Tucker   Cost 10.00/8.00 (appx 1 hour)   Saturday, 30 January  10:30-13:00 - East London, Kent & Essex in the 18th Century The emphasis of this course will be on the movement of people, money and goods backwards and forwards between East London and the counties - the pattern being very different between Kent and Essex. Come and learn more about these areas, and subsequently more about your ancestors during this important time. A half-day course with Derek Morris Cost 20.00/16.00   Saturday, 30 January      14:00-17:00 - Good Research Techniques This course will take an in-depth look at the best ways to research in order to avoid making mistakes as well as how to get the most out of the records you use. We will also look at the likely causes of brick walls you may meet during the course of your research and the best way to tackle them. Sources covered include BMDs, census and parish records. A half-day course with Celia Heritage Cost 20.00/16.00

Society of Genealogists

Society of Genealogists

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Save 40% on the Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers

You may need to be quick, but here is a great special offer we spotted this week. Makes a great gift for family historians!

Save 40% on the Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers

This guide to parish registers, now in its third edition, and covering England, Scotland and Wales, is a vital, time-saving tool that has become universally known as 'the genealogist's bible'. The Atlas includes the famous county 'parish' maps, which show pre-1832 parochial boundaries, colour-coded probate jurisdictions, starting dates of surviving registers, and churches and chapels, where relevant. Topographical maps face each 'parish' map, and show the contemporary road system and other local features, to help deduce the likely movement of people beyond the searcher's starting point. The Index lists the parishes, with grid references to the county maps. It indicates the present whereabouts of original registers and copies, and whether a parish is included in other indexes. It also gives registration districts and census information. Thus, in this invaluable guide, the user may quickly find answers to such questions as: Have the registers been deposited? Where may they be found? What outside dates do they cover? Have they been copied or indexed and by whom? Get your copy for £29.95 http://genealogysupplies.com/offer-of-the-week/

The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers

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Its November and a New Discover Your Ancestors online magazine is out

Discover Your Ancestors Periodical is a high quality monthly digital magazine delivered to your own personalised online account every month and there is a new one just out! If you haven't seen this publication yet then what you are missing out on is a well designed 30+ page online magazine that is packed full of stories, case studies, social history articles and research advice. This regular and affordable online magazine is highly recommended for anyone starting out in family history research, or for those with more experience but who have reached brick walls. This month we have been reading in our copy the following great articles... The best of times: Daniel Hewitt explores the history of horology through his Clerkenwell clockmaker ancestry The quartermaster’s tale: Anthony Boulton presents a unique memoir of his grandfather’s WW1 experiences From Longleat to the Tower of London: Nick Thorne delves into the history of Longleat and its illustrious inhabitants Decoding Victorian jewellery: Victorian jewellery was rich in symbolism, as Kim Fleet explains Woven into history: Caroline Taylor explores carpet-making in Kidderminster and resources in the town’s carpet museum A fair hearing?: Jill Morris explains the Court of Chancery History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on boots Regulars: News / Events / Books / Place in focus: Somerset / Classifieds

Discover Your Ancestors Periodical November 2015

To find out more go to their website here:  http://www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk/current-issue/
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