comment challenge

Letter E challenge

Miss W. General info , , ,

I’ve decided to take part in Thomas MacEntee’s Genealogy Do Over for 2016. At the moment I have research and notes on my desktop computer as well as the iPad and my laptop. I need something that will sync on all three devices. So I downloaded

Evernote Taiwan User Meetup

Creative Commons License othree via Compfight

Evernote

Now I need to research the best way to use it for genealogy. This might be part of the Do Over course so will wait until next year (3 days haha) to look into how to create notebooks and pages etc. I have used something similar when teaching – OneNote. I am sure they will work in the same way.

I googled Evernote for genealogy and these are some websites and blogposts that look good.

Readers: Please leave a comment about my post or something beginning with E that relates to your family history or your research.

letter E

Letter B challenge

Miss W. General info , , ,

 

Book Launch

Books and book launches

Ever since I was a young child, I have enjoyed reading and even wanted to be a librarian until I found out I would have to dissect books to look for themes and nuances etc. Well that was not for me! Instead I began buying books related to the teaching profession and the Tasmanian Curriculum as it was then. I always preferred to have my own copy of the book rather than a photocopy – must have known about copyright early in my teaching days.

But I was also interested in history, particularly Australian and Tasmanian history. I inherited this from my father who was and still is, a collector of Tasmaniana. But now he is getting older, he is starting to sort out his office shelves so I am getting many of his books about Tasmanian people and places.

He is a member of the Bellerive Historical Society and we both attended a book launch last week in the Rosny Barn. This book about the City of Clarence and its history was written by John Sargeant, the president of the society. I am a member of the Sorell Historical Society and received an invite to a book launch today at Orford. It was held at Malunnah, a beautiful cottage owned by descendants of the Meredith family, and it was the launch of Louisa Anne Meredith’s books My Bush Friends in Tasmania which she first published in 1860. The event was hosted by the Glamorgan/ Spring Bay Historical Society.

I rarely buy books now as I already have so many, but what do I look for in a history book?

  • an index giving names and places
  • appendix or bibliography of other books used
  • sources or references I can check if I find something relating to my family history

Ways to find books that might relate to your family history is to join historical societies for towns or counties where your relatives lived. Look for books that might mention the social scene of the time your relatives were living there; this might give you clues for more research through newspapers where your relatives might be mentioned by name.

Readers: Please leave a comment about something beginning with B that relates to your family history or your research.

letter B

Letter A challenge

Miss W. Comment challenge , , ,

National Film and Sound Archive

Archives

I used to spend hours in the local archives in Tasmania before they started digitizing the records. I was part of RAOGK (Random Acts Of Genealogical Kindness) and would research convicts for anyone who asked me through my email or rootsweb mailing lists.

Much of the research for my great great grandfather Captain William Smith needs to be done at the Tasmanian archives – looking at lots of Marine Board records. While visiting Samoa a few years ago, I went to their archives to look for birth records of William Smith who is half Samoan. I was very concerned to see the original record books were just kept in storage in a room, not temperature regulated and that I didn’t need to use gloves when touching the original documents. Some of them were crumbling under my hand when I tried to turn the pages that were stuck together by heat and dampness.

When researching my great great grandmother Rebecca Jackson while I was travelling in Ireland, I visited the Donegal county archives in Lifford to have a look at local court records. I found lots of interesting information there about the offences that caused Rebecca to be sent to Van Diemen’s Land as a convict in 1847. Here is a link to all archives in Ireland.

Readers: Please leave a comment about something beginning with A that relates to your family history or your research.

letter A