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Proformat News
No: 96
February 2014
News
February seminars
12: Introduction to family history, WEA Centre Adelaide 8:00 to 9:30pm over 7 weeks
16: Scottish interest group, SA Genealogy & Heraldry Society 201 Unley Road 2:00 to 4:00pm (free: no booking required)
23: Coming to grips with the new FamilySearch, WEA Centre Adelaide 10:00 to 1:00pm

March seminars
1: Semaphore heritage walk WEA Centre Adelaide 2:00 to 4:00pm
7: Dating nineteenth century photos WEA Centre Adelaide 7:00 to 10:00pm
15: North Adelaide heritage walk WEA Centre Adelaide 2:00 to 4:00pm
16: Family history on the Web WEA Centre Adelaide 10:00am to 1:00pm
23: Hindmarsh heritage walk WEA Centre Adelaide 2:00 to 4:00pm

See the seminar program for more details and bookings.

Scottish interest group
This interest group of the SA Genealogy & Heraldry Society has been in recess for some time. A meeting at the Society's library will be conducted on 16 Feb to gauge interest in resuming regular meetings. If you are interested but cannot attend please let the Society or convenor know.
These meetings are free for Society members and non-members are also welcome but are expected to join the Society if they wish to continue their involvement.

Access to records
January is a good time to check if new records have been made accessible to researchers. For example the National Archives of Australia releases previously embargoed records at the beginning of each year when the 30 year closed period expires. ScotlandsPeople has a similar program releasing birth, death and marriage records.



In this issue:
News
February seminars
March seminars
Scottish interest group
Access to records

Feature article
Place studies

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Graham Jaunay
Adelaide Proformat

Glandore SA 5037
Australia

Tel: +61 8 8371 4465

proformat@jaunay.com


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Place studies
Knowing about places associated with your ancestors can reveal a significant amount of background material for your family's history. Such pursuits can reveal photographs of places associated with your ancestors such as churches, schools, pubs and halls. You may even come across a photograph including a member of your own family! In my own research there have been numerous cases where an understanding of the place clarified issues.

For example when I first visited one of my ancestral homes it quickly became obvious why the family attended a neighbouring church in preference to their parish church. The neighbouring church was closer to home. Of course before the introduction of civil registration, the family had to use their parish church but for normal worship they went elsewhere. That in turn explained why their friends lived almost exclusively in the neighbouring parish.

In an example in a larger French town, the family were buried in the general cemetery and the reason soon became clear. Their church had no graveyard!

In the case of a Scottish family where I even knew the plot number in the cemetery but could not find an entry in a published monumental inscription list even though the family were wealthy, I discovered the churchyard was now occupied by a shopping mall.

In a rural parish in Donegal I could never find the family graves. On a visit to the ancestral home, the present owners resolved the matter pointing out the family were buried in the grounds of the old ruined church situated well out of the village.

While I have been advocating this approach for many years, in recent times the significance of knowing about places has led to some useful online developments that you may find helpful.

The Genealogist, has a wealth of records that can help you understand the relationships between people and places. If you initiate access to this site via my gateway page, I would appreciate the royalty payment by clicking this link. Members of the SA Genealogy and Heraldry Society can freely access this site in the Society Library.

A vision of Britain through time covering the period 1801 to 2001 is an excellent starting site to find details, census material, election results, past maps and historical travel writings on a vast number of places.
Vision of Britain

CuriousFox, is a place by place contact site for anyone researching family history and/or local history in the UK and Ireland. Here you nominate the place to see the associated family history postings. Not only can you nominate the place but also specify the radius of the interest area. For example when checking on my Bridport in Dorset roots I nominated a region of one mile around and that resulted in 39 postings. Most were seeking families in the area but there were also some postings about the convent school and institute. This site also links to Old Maps UK and StreetMap to allow you to compare the location's layout in the nineteenth century with today.

The recently founded One-Place Studies Society, aims to bring those engaged in such studies together and to advance the public’s knowledge of their interests. While most of the society’s information and advice can be read by anyone, membership offers additional benefits. Membership is currently £10 a year, and to register a One-Place Study costs an additional £10. You can find out which areas are already being studied by clicking on the studies tab at the top of the home page and then searching by geographical area.

Another new site, The Register of One-Place Studies, came online last October and already has hundreds of locations. This is a world-wide site but at this time is clearly focussed on the UK, Ireland, North America and Australasia. There are no fees attached to this site.
Place Register
choir
Trawling through online archival sites such as The National Archives PhotoSearch using place names can reveal useful photographs. The names of the individuals are not noted but could easily include your ancestors as depicted in the adjacent example.

Pictured: Glen Innes Holy Trinity NSW - Sunday School choir 1948 (The National Archives A1200/18)

A useful site linking other data sites by place within the UK is dustydocs. One of the interesting sites linked is The Digital Atlas of England that not only aims to photographically record all the rural parish churches in England but also provides a database advising which churches are locked. Very useful if you are planning a visit during your UK vacation!
dustydocs
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