The prompt for Week 16 is Step, and it brings to mind the complexity of step families. Family relationships are not always straightforward.  Especially in small communities, people could be connected in multiple ways, with several intermarriages within the local families.  In my own more recent  tree, I have an aunt and a great aunt who married brothers.  This made the two women not only aunt and niece, but also sisters-in-law. While years ago divorce and subsequent remarriage was not as common as it is today, often the loss of a spouse resulted in the remarriage of the sur ..read more

Education for their children was always a priority for my parents.  Neither of them were able to pursue their own educational opportunities, so both were determined their daughters would have the best education possible and establish good careers. Reading to each other was always something we simply just did in our household.  Stories on a lazy Sunday morning, a book under our pillows at night to read quietly if we woke up early, regular visits to the local library, all were treasured parts of my childhood. School was taken seriously and my parents regularly attended parent/teacher n ..read more

The latest issue of Who Do You Think You Are magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines. Inside this month's issue:  Parish registers online Discover where to find parish registers for every region of the UK Agricultural shows How agricultural show records can help you find your ancestors Reader story My ancestors survived a massacre by Border Reivers Victorian crime and punishment What happened to criminal ancestors in the 19th century? Surnames Trace the history of your family name online Devonshire ancestry How to ..read more

I have commented before on the family recipe book, primarily created by my sister.  One of the more fun jobs while we were cleaning out the family home was emptying out Mum's recipe drawer.  While the drawer contained a few proper cooking books, and some complete magazines, it was primarily a combination of loose snippets torn or photocopied from old magazines and books, and hand-written recipes from who-knows-where.  Many had notes written on them - things like substitutions of ingredients and notes on who particularly liked the dish.  There were also a number of recipes w ..read more

Episode 3 of the new series of the Really Useful Podcast is out now! The episode discusses the historical migration of people within Britain, including the kind of movements you might find in your family tree, and how we can research migrating ancestors.   The episode is described on the web page : "People in the past moved about a lot more than we might think. In this episode our guests discuss the historical migration of people within Britain, including the kind of movements you might find in your family tree, what this can tell us and how we can research migrating ancestors ..read more

The titles below have recently been digitised and made available in Trove. Note that the year range listed for each title is an indication of what's currently available in Trove, and not always the full year range the item was published. New Victorian Titles Benalla Standard (1932-1940)  Essendon and Flemington Chronicle (1882-1894) Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (1888-1900)  Essendon Gazette (1900-1905)  Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (1905-1913)  Gippsland Farmers' and Glengarry, To ..read more

Religion has played a major role in the lives of our ancestors, and how they chose to worship had the potential to impact their lives in many different ways.  The church, faith and religion were central to the lives of so many, and had the potential to impact where people lived, how they earned a living, who they married, even whether they could own land or work in certain professions. My 3xGreat grandparents Carl Friedrich (Frederick) and Susetta Beseler made the momentous decision to leave their homeland and emigrate to Australia.  Large numbers of Germans emigrated to Australia an ..read more

How wonderful is technology, and how fortunate are we to have so much knowledge and so many resources for family history at our fingertips? As I am writing this post I am taking a break from watching presentations from the wonderful RootsTech conference.  While I was not able to attend in person, technology has made it possible for me to attend virtually, both on the days of the conference itself and then allowed me to continue to enjoy more sessions online in the days and weeks that followed. Technology has also seen more and more data and records digitised and made available online, a b ..read more

The wonderful series of The Family Histories Podcast recently released an announcement that it has begun recording its seventh series, to be released later in the year.  The identities of the guests for this series have not yet been released, so we are still waiting to hear that areas will be discussed and which ancestor each guest will be exploring. The release is below : 'The seventh series of The Family Histories Podcast has now entered production, with microphones having been switched on this week to record. Host Andrew Martin returns for another seven episodes, with seven guests (we ..read more

The latest issue of Family Tree UK magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines. Inside this month's issue :  How to make the most of your genealogy time! Discovering DNA in landmark anniversary year A spring challenge for Chris Paton Create a biography of your ancestor in just a few clicks Halton, Runcorn and Widnes records now available on Deceased Online FindMyPast names new managing director Find your postal ancestors for free New appointments at Society of Genealogists Strathclyde Institute for Genealogical Studies is 1 ..read more