Here’s a bunch of good links to help with your family history research:
| Australian family history Cemetery links |
Family history magazines General family history sites Music |
Other genies in Australia |
Australian family history sites
Price comparisons of Australian birth, death and marriage certificates: Cora Webb has done a good job of collating a comparison of the costs of purchasing birth, death and marriage certificates across the states and territories of Australia. Read more …
Australian Cemeteries Index: This online index contains information about headstones from almost 900 cemeteries in Australia.
Australian Cemeteries: A good additional site to use if you can’t find what you’re looking for on the Australian Cemeteries Index. This site provides photos, information and other links.
Australian Cemetery Geolocations: This website helps you to find a cemetery’s exact location in Australia – and it also gives you a link to an interactive map to show you exactly where the cemetery is.
Australian Wargraves: This website started up in 2000, and the website owner is committed to gathering up a photograph of every Australian War Grave and Memorial Commemoration that exists – in Australia and across the world. For some graves there are photos and for others there is text information. [Thanks to Amanda Kendle for contributing this site.]
Rookwood Cemetery (NSW): Known as the largest cemetery in the southern hemisphere, located in Sydney.
Metropolitan Cemeteries Board, Western Australia (WA): The Metropolitan Cemeteries Board for the Perth Metropolitan area covers the Guildford, Karrakatta, Midland, Pinnaroo, Fremantle, and Rockingham cemeteries. While photos are not available on the site, it is very comprehensive for tracing records of those interned there. This site provides name searches of deceased persons’ names.
Oz Burials in Western Australia (WA): Useful for Western Australian Country areas. The site also covers other states of Australia and may be helpful when you cannot locate someone in the Australian Cemeteries Index
[Thanks to Graham Wilkie for contributing the WA sites.]
Deceased Online(UK): is described as “the central database for UK burials and cremations”. Holds records from the 1850s onwards. Searching is FREE but if you register with, you can then purchase credits online which will help you to access further information about the records you’ve found.
Deceased search (Victoria): Especially helpful for ancestors buried in Victoria. You can search by surname, given name, date of death, date of birth and locaton.
Genealogical Photography (Tasmania): A semi-commercial site for Tasmania, Genealogical Photography – Tasmania. This site is described as “”We are aiming to make this site a useful resource for people researching their Family History or otherwise engaged in Genealogy in Tasmania.”
Millington’s Funeral Services (Tasmania): This site for a funeral director in Hobart is very helpful and can supply maps and other information. Also provides a name search service online. This link searches the four Cemeteries operated by Millingtons – Cornelian Bay, Kingston Regional, East Risdon and Cambridge. Pontville Catholic Cemetery will be added to the database in the coming months.
Carr Villa Memorial Park, Launceston (Tasmania): Owned by Launceston City Council, this is Launceston’s major cemetery and crematorium.
[Thanks to Vic Malham for contributing the Victorian and Tasmanian sites.]
Resting spot (US): A way of recording digital photographs, GPS coordinates of grave locations and biographical information of people who have died. It’s described as: “RestingSpot connects the memories of loved ones who have passed with their final location on earth. A unique combination of mobile and web technologies preserves the legacy of loved ones for generations to come.”
Findagrave (US):This website is described as: “Find A Grave is a resource for finding the final resting place of family, friends, and ‘famous’ individuals. Visitors can leave ‘virtual flowers’ on the memorials they visit, completing the online cemetery experience.”
Creative Commons licensing in Australia is explained at the Creative Commons website. Their motto is “Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally. Creative Commons works to increase sharing, collaboration and innovation worldwide.”
Australian Family Tree Connections magazine: This is a reasonably priced ($6.95 in September 2011) independent monthly magazine for Australian and New Zealand family historians. It lists genealogy events being held in both countries. Read more … about this magazine.
Inside History magazine: The Inside History magazine is for people passionate about Australian and New Zealand genealogy, history and heritage. Read more … about this magazine.
Family Chronicle magazine: This magazine is described as a “how to” genealogy magazine. The magazine is printed in Canada but it’s tips and ideas are travel well across the seas to Australia. Read more … about this magazine.
Cyndi’s List: A collection of internet sites about genealogical research. Read more …
Genealogical resources by Veritas Prep – including links to general and US-based family history sites and helpful resources. Thanks to Olivia and Elizabeth for recommending this link in January 2017.
Warren Fahey‘s homepage and general store to peruse and order his very Aussie music at very reasonable prices. Warren has kindly given us permission to feature his excellent music in our podcast. He describes himself as a “folklorist, record producer, author, performer and oral historian” -so you can see he is a real fan of history, research and music.
Michael Stewart‘s album, The Genealogy Widower, is all about genealogy. Check out his three excellent songs about genealogy:
1. The Genealogy Widower; 2. 10 More Minutes; and 3. Who Do you Think You Are
There are quite a few genies researching their family history – with links to Australia. Check out these sites to see if any of your family history overlaps with the family histories of any of these genies.
Tina Bean’s Grandsen Family History blog is a great read with some interesting ongoing stories about her research into her ancestors’ lives.
Lesa Harris’ family history research at Lesa’s Family Tree Site. Some of the surnames Lesa is researching include: McLean and Lang, along with a list of surnames she provides on her website.
Diary of an Australian Genealogist: by Shauna Hicks – Retired archivist and librarian
Kylie’s Genes: Kylie Willison’s genealogy, craft and technology blog
Geniaus: Jill Ball’s genealogy blog. Did you know that Jill Ball recently called Maria, the Podcast Queen of Australia, on her Geniaus genealogy blog?
Bob McAllister’s blog: Ancestory Envy. This is a very well organised, informative blog that Bob describes as: “A record of some of the joys and frustration in piecing together family history.”
Kemp(e) Family History: Andrew Kemp’s website includes an amazing amount of information about the genealogy of the Kemp(e) and related families worldwide.
Janelle’s Family Tree Addition: Janelle Colllins blog about her family tree with a focus on her first post on immigrants and convicts.
Jacqui Kirkman’s blog, Leaves on My Family Tree has some great stories about early Australian life
Alona Tester’s blog: LoneTester HQ.
Kerry Farmer’s family history research pages, Family History Research
Pauleen’s blog, Family history across the seas: My family history in Australia and overseas and related migration research
Moya Sharp’s Outback Family History Blog
Aussie Mike’s blog, Family Matters
Barbara Kernos’ blog, Genealogy Boomerangs
Family History Fossicking by Rebecca Reid
Lisa Louise Cooke in the US has three excellent family podcasts: Genealogy Gems podcast, Family History Made Easy podcast and her Family Tree Magazine podcast. Lisa is based in the US but her messages travel well across to the seas to genies across the world research family history with Australian connections. You can catch Lisa’s podcasts on iTunes. A brilliant podcaster with a lovely voice, very passionate about genealogy.
Ian Kath in Brisbane has a wonderful podcast about how to record your lifestory or the lifestory of someone in your family – Create Your LifeStory: podcast that helps you to record a lifetime of stories. Ian’s helpful, down-to-earth tips are especially relevant for genies down under.
Michael O’Laughlin‘s Irish Roots Cafe podcast is a lively podcast on Irish Family heritage, history and genealogy.
George G. Morgan & Drew Smith are the Genealogy Guys and they produce a great podcast which includes “news of the genealogy community, book and software reviews, guest interviews, and a lot of fun chat.”
Thomas MacEntee hosts the live Geneabloggers podcast each Friday night (USA time)/ Saturday midday (AEST) in which a community of genealogists and family historians augment their passion for genealogy by blogging.
In Myrt‘s podcast, Dear Myrtle, she presents “website reviews, software discussions, and interviews with leading genealogy authors and researchers”.
Jon Kay presents the Artisan Ancestors podcast which explores ways to “research and understand the past” and helps you to learn about “the everyday creative lives of people and the things they made”.
The National Archives of Australia podcast presents aseries of lectures on historical topics to help genealogists with Australian interests fill in some of the context of their ancestors’ lives.
Hindsight podcast is a radio show devoted exclusively to social history, produced by the ABC. It’s “It offers new perspectives on well-known aspects of the past and brings to light those stories long-ignored on the public record.”
