Family History

(Photos make blogs look better!)

I know how much everyone loves dealing with family history questions. I am perfectly happy for people to send them straight to me but for when I am not here I thought I'd give you a quick outline of how I deal with them.

- First I check the catalogue using anyword - you never know.

- Then I look at Sherry Morris' Biographical Index of Wagga up to the 1920s. There are a vast number of entries on this CD-ROM (kept in Local Studies, first row, top right) and sometimes the entries are very basic, other times quite detailed.

- If the entry says they were involved with a particular industry eg. wine, brewery or flour mills then I look in Sherry Morris' Wagga Wagga Industries, the first 80 years: 1846-1926.

- If I can't find anything (not everyone does something noteworthy) I point them to the cemetery transcription books in RG. To check if someone died in Wagga check the historical indexes at http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/search.htm

- There is also the wonderful option of giving them a green brochure and sending them to the Family History Society, Archives or the Mormons. If there are no green brochures at the desk, there should be more in the drawer in the genealogy brochure file.

There is a folder in the drawer at the reference desk that has lots of Family History tips in it - check it out.

Ancestry.com does not have births, deaths and marriages (bdm) information for Australia. It has some early electoral rolls and various other records. For bdms go straight to the state bdm registry.