The Ryerson Index

The Ryerson Index covers death notices in current Australian Newspapers which is useful when searching for recent deaths as well as funeral notices, probate notices and obituaries. There is a strength in notices from New South Wales newspapers, as the index was originally created by the Sydney Dead Persons Society. The site is updated on a regular basis with currently 2,393,487 entries and 169 newspapers.

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Historic Homes of Essendon "Mar Lodge"

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Malakoff Castle, Maribyrnong

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Chinese-Australian family history

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This week the National Library of Australia hosted an excellent online seminar on researching Chinese-Australian family history Their presentation was a gold-mine of information, with many tips that are applicable more widely to researching ancestors from other non-English speaking backgrounds. Here are a few of my top take-aways from the session: - Keep a file of name variations for each of your ancestors in cases where name variations are likely - When struggling with researching ancestors from a particular time and place with which you are unfamiliar, check the Family Search website for tips. They have dedicated pages providing specific research tips for various times and places around the world. - For Asian-Australian Ancestors who travelled back and forth from Australia the Records of Exemption from the Dictation Test Certificates database created by CAFHOV is very useful: https://www.cafhov.com/vic-cedt-index/ Above: screenshot of part of the
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