1. When searching online databases less is always more. Enter as few details as possible, perhaps using the surname or forename. Try different combinations of name, age & birthplace.

2. Use wildcards. * stands for any number of characters (including no Characters) ? stands for a single character.

3. Avoid precise birthplaces where possible. People were not always consistent when it came to stating where they were born. People tend to be less precise the further they are from their birthplace.

4. Consider alternative spellings. Standardised spelling of personal & place names is a relatively modern concept, so Brown and Browne can be the same name!

5. Middle names can help. Same databases allow you to search using middle names, particularly useful if Ancestor had a distinctive one.

6. Search for the family member with the least common first name. Look for Herbert Smith, rather than his brother John, but weigh this against the increased possibility of transcription error with less common names.

7. Where possible, search for children rather than adults. Children’s ages are more likely to be accurately recorded.

8. Find out everything you can about your ancestors & their extended families. This is the best way to identify inconsistencies in your evidence; you never know what else you might discover.

9. Use a combination of the “focussed” and the “scatter-gun” approaches. Try records for the area where your ancestors lived. Search in major family databases. If all else fails, try Google.

10. Build up a theory, then attempt to knock it down. It’s usually easier to disprove something than it is to prove it. If you can’t disprove your theory, it might just be the answer.

11. Ask a fellow enthusiast. Share your problem with subscribers on one of hundreds of mailing lists dedicated to all aspects of family and local history.

12. Write to ancestor’s magazine. We can call on the wealth of experience at the National Australian Archives to answer questions sent in to our Ask the Experts page.

Source: Ancestry: supplied by J Mitchell

Being able conduct a search for a name is probably the most important time-saver for any  family history researcher. Whether it’s for newspaper articles, divorces or BDM records, searching for a name is made much easier when the entries have been indexed.

Many indexes have undergone re-incarnations and updates over the years, with most starting as handwritten card or book indexes, graduating to microfiche, and then to databases which are searchable on computer and on-line.

Late in June 2014 the NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages upgraded its computer systems. As part of that upgrade, a new index search page was launched on their website.

Many users have found the new index search challenging, so here are some tips:

• Start searching here: https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/

• First, choose from the drop down box at the top of the page which type of entry you are looking for – a birth, death, or marriage.

• When the search screen comes up, enter enough detail to be able to do an effective search – sometimes less detail is better than more.

• You only need to enter a name (either a surname or given name) and a date range to search. All other fields may be left blank.

• At present, the date field defaults to a single date, but you can change this to search over a period of time. Next to the field “Date of Event Range” (3^rd from the bottom) it says “No” – to search a range of dates, change this to “Yes” using the drop down tab at the right end of the field. This will reveal another line so that you can enter a start date and end date for your search.

Your end date can be:

o       Deaths: 30 years ago, to the day before’s date (so if today is 4 Sept 2014, you can search to 3 Sept 1984)

o       Marriages: 50 years ago, to the day before’s date

o       Births: 100 years ago, to the day before’s date

At the moment, for marriages you must enter at least one name for each of the bride and groom. You can use the wildcard * for any field you must complete but don’t know, and this will be most useful where you don’t know both parties for a marriage.

You can also use ? to replace a letter if you are not sure of spelling – for example you might be searching the name Mullen but you know it can also be Mullin. You can use the ? to replace the second last letter and capture both spellings, ie Mull?n

Once you have the list of results, you can sort them by clicking on the heading of the column by which you wish to sort, for example, you might want to sort by father’s name to group entries from one family together.

Problems with the new index

There are several problems which the Registry currently have under review. These include (but are not limited to)

• The index does not show the Volume number for pre 1856 Early Church Records.
• Both a groom and bride’s name is required to conduct a marriage search.
• Sometimes the search times out, especially when the * wildcard is used.
• It needs to be clearer which fields are required and which can be left blank – you do NOT need to know the registration number or district to be able to search.

We are working with the Registry to identify the issues and suggest what needs to be done to make the index easier for researchers to use.

There are some really good things about the new index – the best one being that they update with new entries daily. On the 2^nd of September, I did a search for a birth in 1914. I didn’t know the date, so I just put in the 31^st August 1914 as the end date to keep it simple – no result. I decided I should look at the extra day available and changed the end date to 1^st September 1914, and there it was! The birth had only been added to the on-line search database that very day!

If you’re still having problems, here is a link to a page where the previous index can be searched. This is particularly useful for the pre 1856 records, and for marriages, however, please keep in mind that it is not updated daily like the new index, so it’s still worth checking both.

http://www.austcemindex.com/old/bdmsch

If you’re still having problems you can always email me at marilynr@nswtranscriptions.com.au for help.

Happy hunting!

I received a lovely email a few weeks ago from a client who told me that as a result of his research he had discovered who he really was. He was the “Letter of the Month” in the  Australian Family Tree Connections magazine, and he kindly mentioned how our Researcher Connect service had helped him.

Here is part of his letter:

“I would not be here today if I had not allowed Marilyn Rowan (Transcriptions NSW) to share my name and contact details with others researching the same families. As a result I had a call from a lady whose father turned out to be my first cousin! At that stage I was unsure of my connection and did not have sufficient proof of who I was. This lovely lady…said that she could arrange for me to be DNA tested… To cut a long story short, her dear father (my first cousin) aged 90, had a DNA test with me, which was 99.994% compatible. As a result I am positive of my family connection.”

It’s one of many lovely stories we’ve heard over the years from clients who have been able to benefit from our free Researcher Connect service.

In a nutshell, Researcher Connect is an initiative by NSW Family History Transcriptions to assist family history researchers by putting them in contact with others doing family history research on the same people. It is a free service when you order from NSW Family History Transcriptions. It’s our way of helping our clients further in the quest to discover their genealogy.

It works like this:

When you order a NSW Birth, Death or Marriage certificate transcription, we check to see if anyone has ordered the same certificate before. The “matching” is based on the reference number of the certificate ordered. We then email each person who has ordered that same certificate, and ask if we can pass their details on to the others. Once we receive their permission, we then pass their details on to the other researchers.

Of course, some researchers choose not to make contact, but many do.

Deciding whether to share your research can be a big question for many people, but there can be huge benefits in swapping information and making contact with far distant cousins. Many years ago I was able to contact my great-grandfather’s niece through doing family history research. Meeting her solved a long-mysterious family tale of shotgun weddings, name changes and half-truths mangled with the passage of time. But that’s a story for another day!

Have you been searching for NSW deaths but can’t find them in NSW BDM? The next best thing is to search for a cemetery record.  There are two types of websites that record cemetery records on the internet: ones that hold official records of every death in a particular cemetery and ones that transcribe the actual headstones.  The limitation of the latter is that, if there was no headstone, or if the headstone has deteriorated to the point where it can’t be read (or it has gone altogether!), then there won’t be a record.

Sydney’s major cemeteries are pretty well known and generally easy to search.  It becomes more difficult finding individuals who died in country areas; in the small cemeteries that dot the NSW countryside.

Many local councils are now digitising their records and putting them online and that’s a great help.  You just have to know the town or shire in which the cemetery lies and you can go to their website and see if you can search.  Don’t be dismayed if the records for the cemetery you are searching for aren’t yet digitised.  Often, a call to the local council will result in them searching their records for you.

If that doesn’t work, there is a website that claims to have documented every cemetery in country NSW.  It’s called the Australian Cemeteries Index and you can find it at http://austcemindex.com .  Although the site is called “Australian Cemeteries Index”, there are few cemeteries listed for other states but it’s great for country deaths in NSW.

The site has developed over the years – originally it was just a surname only search.  Now, there’s a more sophisticated search screen allowing you to put in additional details regarding given names, dates, spouse names and the like. That will help you to narrow the search.  There are also many, many pictures of headstones – great for those into enhancing their NSW family history rather than just recording births, deaths and marriages details.

However, these are transcripts of existing headstones.  Remember the warning above.  Nevertheless, this is a valuable website in searching for NSW deaths in the country.