Introduction
The Internet allows you to communicate with and share
information with anyone in the world who also has access to the
Internet. As such it is a particularly useful tool for anyone
tracing their family tree. Email and files can be sent and
received almost instantly anywhere in the world. As more and more
primary records and indexes become available over the Internet,
it is set to become an even more valuable resource.
Name Searches
A useful hint when starting your family
history is to check for other researchers who are tracing the
same family names that you are. People submit the surnames (with
dates and locations) they are researching to a name index site,
so that others can contact them and share information through
email. As people will often enter the same enquiries in several
places, it is a good idea to check a number of these indexes.
- Genealogy's Most Wanted
Lists surnames and known
information on a person that is "MOST WANTED".
The information listed has been submitted by a researcher
who is requesting your help.
- Roots
Surname List indexes at
least 200 000 surnames and contains details of those
researching them
- Online Australasian Names research This is the gateway page to the pages
dedicated to each state and territory in Australasia.
- Federation
East European Surname Search This
site is designed to provide answers to Central and East
European genealogy questions and refer you to specific
FHL microfilm or book genealogy sources for your surnames
if they are known to exist.
- GenDex
Search This server
indexes hundreds of World Wide Web databases containing
genealogical data for over eight million individuals, and
gives you the ability to locate and view data of interest
to you on any of these databases, without having to go
and visit each of the databases separately.
- Online
genealogical database index The Online
Genealogical Database Index contains links to all known
genealogical databases searchable through the Web. It is
limited to searchable databases and does NOT include
links to sites devoted to a family unless a database is
available for searching.
- Guild
of One-Name Studies a
one-name study is a project researching all occurrences
of a surname. The Guild accepts one-name studies for
registration, and anyone with an interest in one-name
studies is welcome to become a member
- Ancestry.com
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Primary
Records
Primary records are records which give direct
original information about a person or subject being researched.
In genealogy they are the indexes of births, deaths, marriages,
shipping etc., which are the mainstays of family history
research. There are not a lot of primary records available on the
Internet at present. Though the number is continually growing,
microfiche and microfilm records will be the main source of these
records for some time to come.
Births, Deaths and
Marriages
Birth, Death and Marriage records are a good starting point
when beginning your family history. Although BD&M indexes
themselves are not generally available to search online, there
are many other types of records which can be of help in this
area. One way of looking for BD&M on the Internet is through
exchanges. People submit basic information taken from BD&M
certificates, along with their contact details, so that others
can contact them. The aim of these exchanges is to provide a free
resource for those wanting to share information.
- St Catherines House Marriages Index
to records of civil registration of post-1837 births,
marriages and deaths in England and Wales
- First Families 2001 a
database and collection of stories about people of
Australia, starting with the earliest member of the
family known to have lived in Australia
- Tasmanian Familylink contains
about 500 000 entries for families living in Tasmania in
the 19th Century taken from records held by the Archives
Office of Tasmania
- Indexes:Great
Britain Census Indexes to over 2.2 million
names from the U.K. Census (mainly 1851)
Passenger/Shipping
Australia is essentially a nation of
immigrants. This makes shipping records very important for our
family history research. Passenger lists can provide such details
as an immigrant's native place, religion and family. There are an
increasing number of passenger lists appearing on the Internet,
especially difficult to obtain records.
Convicts
Over 150 000 convicts were transported to
Australia between 1788 and the end of transportation in 1868. A
number of sites relating to a range of resources such as
assignment lists, first, second and third fleets, and
transportation lists are available on the Internet.
- Convicts transported to Australia This
WWW page contains linkages to a series of special
listings collected by the author, each detailing the
names of convicts compiled in private collections. These
collections are not available in this format in the
archives offices in Australia.
- Lincolnshire Archives Convict Records
This index lists persons convicted of
crimes in Lincolnshire 1787-1840 and transported to
Australia.
- British Imperial Convicts transported to Western
Australia 1850-68
- Claim-a-Convict To
claim a convict, whether they are listed or not, email
the author with the details of your convict ancestor/s
(ship, date of arrival, trial place and date) so
that those researching the same convict may contact each
other direct.
- Wellington Valley Convicts, 1823-31
The details given are from each convict's `Indents',
including the convict's place of origin, trade, age at
time of conviction, details of conviction (date of, place
and sentence) and the name of the transport upon which
they arrived in the colony.
- The First Fleet homepage This page has activities for students and links
to a first fleet database.
- SA Convicts
- National Archives Ireland- Irish Transportation
Records contains an
online index to records relating to transportation to
Australia covering 1788 to 1868
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Organisations, Associations and Societies
Tracing your family history is an increasingly
popular passtime, and there are a growing number of
organisations, associations and societies dedicated to providing
information and help to researchers. These range from official
government organisations, to family history societies and special
interest groups.
Family History
Organisations - Australia
Sydney
Canberra
Newcastle
Melbourne
Family History
Organisations - Overseas
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Pathfinders
and directories
Pathfinders are pages which have lists of
links, usually devoted to one particular subject area and
arranged by subject categories. Someone else has already put in
considerable search time and effort and has compiled a list of
Internet sites they have found useful and interesting. This makes
Pathfinders an extremely useful tool and an essential starting
point for your Family history Internet research.
- Cyndi's
List of Genealogical Sites on the Internet over 28 500 links, categorised and cross
referenced in over 90 categories
- Cora
Nun's Genealogy Online author
of the book 'Web sites for Genealogists' this site
contains sites taken from the book and is regularly
updated.
- The
Genealogy Homepage has
good listings of What's New Genealogical sites (updated
frequently) and What's Really New (updated daily)
- Australian and New Zealand Genealogical links
- Australian
Family History Compendium The AustralianFamily
History Compendium is an Internet resource for people
researching their family tree. It contains information on
a widevariety of categories related to genealogy, with a
strongemphasis on Australian material.
- National Library of Australia : Australian
Family History and Genealogy on the Internet
- Genealogy
Toolbox consists of seven sites designed to
provide the tools necessary for genealogists to use the
Internet to discover their family's history. Resources on
the Genealogy Toolbox include a list of over 50,000 links
to genealogical resources on the Internet, informative
news and articles on family history research, a guide to
genealogical software, pages for posting research
questions, a genealogical bookstore, and a site to
register your genealogical home page with several
Internet genealogy indexes.
- Genealogy Resources on the Internet
- Netguide: Genealogist's Guide to the Internet lists of sites arranged by subject but
no direct links
- GENUKI-UK
and Ireland genealogy related information for
England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Channel Isles, Isle of
Man and other islands
- World
Genweb Project The goal of the WorldGenWeb
Project is to have every country in the world represented
by an online website and hosted by researchers who either
live in their own country or who are familiar with their
country's resources.
- Family
Tree Maker very comprehensive site on all aspects of
genealogy. Has a surname search feature.
- Hot list for genealogy pages and Ireland This page contains links to web sites
and pages on Genealogy and Ireland.
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Researchers & Record Agents
Professional genealogy researchers are people
who have completed courses and gained proffessional
qualifications in the field of family history. They can be of
great value to the genealogist as their training and experience
can help them solve problems or find ancestors which have
perplexed the requestor for a long time. They charge for these
services, but sometimes it is money well spent.
A record agent is a researcher who will make personal visits to
BD&M registries and other record repositories, and provide
the requestor with transcriptions of official certificates they
have asked for. It is generally much cheaper to obtain BD&M
transcriptions through a record agent, than to request an offical
copy of a certificate from the registry itrself.
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Phone
Books
At some stage in their research, most
genealogists will want to contact distant relatives or
researchers with similar interests in other countries. An
incresing number of telephone directories are appearing as
searchable sites on the Internet. These sites are also useful for
assessing the occurence of a surname in a geographical location.
- Telstra
Australia White Pages White pages with
national coverage.
- Telecom
New Zealand White Pages Alphabetic listings
for business and residential numbers.
- InfoUSA American Directory Assistance
from InfoUSA. Can't do national search, state is
required.
- UK White Pages UK residential
listing, from the US company Infospace. Not from official
sources (British Telecom have the copyright on the
listings in the UK).
- TeleAusKunft
Online (Germany)Residential and business phone
books, and yellow pages, for all of Germany. Search
nationwide or by region. In English, German and French.
- Telephone
Directories On The Web -
comprehensive current index of telephone books, yellow
pages, white pages, fax, residential and business
listings, alphabetic and classified directories from all
around the world.
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Online
Magazines
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Heraldry
- Heraldica Site devoted to heraldry (the study of
coats of arms) in all forms and in all places
- Heraldry
on the Net - Search for coats of arms for
family names and cities on-line
- Uasal A
resource for those interested in Irish Gaelic nobility
(both pre-1600 and present-day), heraldry, and genealogy.
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Mailing
Lists & Newsgroups
Mailing Lists & Newsgroups are very similar to one
another:
They are free to subscribe to and you participate in
specific genealogical or historical discussions via e-mail.
To participate in a newsgroup you need to have news reader
software, or the news reader program that is already resident in
many web browsers. You then use this software to access the list
you are interested in on a regular basis. Other interested people
write to the newsgroup and their messages are added for all to
see. You can reply to these messages, and your reply will be
available for others to look at.
To participate in a mailing list you send e-mail commands
to a computer software program (i.e. Listserv, Smartlist, etc.)
in order to be automatically added to the list. Any mail posted
to the list is then automatically directed to your own personal
email address. Any letters or replies you send to the list
automatically go to every other members personal email. Mailing
lists should be used with caution as some lists (especially
genealogy ones) are very prolific, and you might end up
with several hundred pieces of email per day.
There are a larger number of genealogy mailing lists to choose
from (over 2,500) than there are genealogy newsgroups (a bit over
30).
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Search
Engines
Don't forget the power of search engines. You
an find all sorts of interesting information simply by searching
a surname in a search engine - of course if the surname is Smith,
search engines will be of little use!
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Places
and Maps
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