March 2018
Tithe Maps and Records
After a short AGM where the usual suspects were elected, (and the possibility of a name change for the group was mooted and discarded), Liana gave us a brief run-down of the recent Sydney Congress attended by a couple of dozen folks from WA.
Geoff Barber then led us through an exploration of Tithe Records in the UK. You can access extensive Tithe records and detailed maps from 1836 using the Genealogist website (available free at the Family History Research Centre - aka the WAGS library).
December 2017
Finding the right man
Peter confessed to an error in one of his research projects and led us through the process of rectifying it...first, what made him think it was wrong (he had nagging doubts), what convinced him to start again, how did he go about finding the right person. Moral – keep checking the evidence; sometimes coincidences are just that!
And Liana gave a talk on her recent visit to Wales where she literally followed in the footsteps of her convict ancestor, including standing in the dock and being locked up in his cell.
September 2017
Wills and Probate
Lesley enlightened us all on this extremely large and sometimes complex topic. In addition to the presentation there was a handout with some explanations and many useful links. We spent some time using the Principal Probate Registry search index and records at https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate looking for Wills from 1858 to date. We also canvassed for some future presentation ideas and plan the follow ing: Passenger Lists & Migration, Sussex Tithe Maps, Non-Conformist Records, and “Identifying the Right Man”.
June 2017
Brick Walls Tumble
In a packed session we managed to tackle about eight brick walls brought along by members. Collectively we solved half of them and gave excellent leads to the others.
As well as using the standard websites and various search techniques, we found that a particularly useful feature in this session was being able to access some mother's maiden names in pre-1912 births at the recently improved GRO site.
March 2017
Welsh Naming Patterns
After a short AGM where the usual suspects were re-elected, Mike gave some information about some of the difficulties of doing genealogy in Wales, specifically, the habit of calling Morris Thomas's son Thomas, Thomas Morris. So boys' surnames were based on their father's first names, eg Thomas [son of] Morris. Then Peter Hamersly told us about his successes in reconstructing his Grandfather's fractured family.
December 2016
Innkeepers
Member Marian Crew enlightened us on her research into her Innkeeping ancestors and the various stories she had uncovered. Marian’s interesting presentation included photographs she had taken herself on recent visits to the London area.
September 2016
Cornwall - it's easy
Ian Simons gave an interesting talk about the resources that are available for those lucky enough to have Cornish ancestors. We also formally agreed to absorb Wales into our sphere of interest, which made half a dozen members of the group very happy, and the rest mildly interested.
June 2016
Off the Beaten Track
Mike and Lesley had a look at the treasure trove of family history records you can find in old books and other documents through websites like archives.com and familysearch.org
Peter Hamersley explored 'Tracing Living Relatives' -- he used a case study of an unusually named person and led us through freebmd and electoral rolls to build up quite a story on that individual.
And we had our AGM at this meeting. Co-Convenors Mike and Lesley (last time, folks, we won't be nominating next year) and a small committee of Peter Hamersley and Frank Hutchison
March 2016
Our main presentation was given by Frank Hutchison. It was the story of John Hobden, Janet Hutchison’s direct ancestor, who was transported to Van Diemen’s Land for stealing ten pounds – making him literally a “Ten Pound Pom”!. Frank presented a lively story that was very well researched and illustrated. Presentations such as Frank’s are greatly appreciated and always welcome. Peter then updated members on various records that have been released since the December meeting. This was followed by a demonstration entitled “The Power of your State Library Card” where Peter showed members what resources were available for free once a card has been obtained from the State Library at http://slwa.wa.gov.au/ . In particular we focused on the free resources available from The National Archives (UK) site using the Discovery Catalogue http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ .
To finish, we had a look at how to effectively use the Lost Cousins web site and obtain it’s very informative newsletter on http://www.lostcousins.com .
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