Family History Research Day

It is Library and Information Week. This year's theme is "Libraries - Your Passport to Discovery". There are still vacancies for our Family History Research Day at Diamond Valley Library on Thursday 28 May 10.00 - 3.00 pm

If you are an experienced researchers and need some time to access databases and the internet, this day is for you. Network with others, and limited staff assistance will be available.

Please book with Diamond Valley (Greensborough) library. Phone: 9434 3809

Preserving Family Traditions

Have you documented the important family traditons and customs that your family celebrate? They may be unique to your culture, or simply unique to your family. My husband's father was a painter and traditionally created a screen print each year which became a very personal Christmas Card which was mailed out to all friends and relations annually. Our family has quite a collection of these.

The Age Epicure section this week produced an Italian issue and highlighted two friends efforts in preserving the rich traditons of food and family of their parents transplanted from their Southern Italian heritage.Locals to Melbourne's northern suburbs, Teresa and Angela state on their website Mangia Mangia - "We encourage all to rescue their families' culturally-defining and much cherished unwritten recipes and food traditions from extinction."

Wikinorthia: documenting life in Melbourne's north welcomes articles. Check the community category, articles under Every Day life includes an article on the "Lest we Forget" cookbook.

Yarra Plenty Regional Library also hosts a reminiscences program - currently monthly at Watsonia library where you are invited to come along and share your memorabilia and stories on various themes. The next theme is Marriage and family and will be held on Tuesday 9 June 2009 10.30am - 11.30 am.

Google News Timeline

Have a play with the new Google News Timeline

The Timeline pulls its results from lots of different sources and displays in the one place. Sources include Newspapers, Magazines, Blogs, Wikipedia and various media sources. You can search an event that may have had significance in your family history. I searched "Migration Australia 1950s" and the more recent example "Black Saturday Australia 2009" and received some interesting results. Local results have been harvested from Australian Newspapers Beta 1803-1954.

Lisa Louise Cooke from the Genealogy Gems podcast has put together a step by step video using the example of the San Francisco earthquake.

As with all family history websites, type in your research name of interest and see what comes up. You never know what you might find.

Family History Database

Before you get too drowned in certificates, photocopies and paperwork from your family history research it really is a good idea to install a program on your personal computer into which you can type all your important names, dates and more. These are variously referred to as your family history database, program or software package.

There are a number of free ones which you can download online which can get you started.
Legacy
Free online training is also available on their website.
My Heritage
Personal Ancestral File

Other programs worth exploring are linked from
Cyndislist - free software & computers
and Free genealogy software

Australian Family Tree Connections - programs

You can also search for reviews on various programs, and be aware that updates for some programs are available at a fee.

There are usually online support groups that will assist you if you are having trouble with your program.
I have also referred in a previous posting to websites that will also store and display your information.

Do you use a database? Which one would you recommend and why?