Discovery eresource from the UK National Archives

Thomas Godstone (or Gadstone) was convicted at Lambeth of stealing 7lbs of pork [P COM 2/290/24]

The latest State Library subscription eresource is Discovery which is on trial until 22 May 2013. Discovery is the new search feature for the vast collections of the UK National Archives at Kew and, while Discovery is freely searchable on the internet, this subscription allows State Library members to download digital content free of charge.
Digital content includes:

• Victorian prisoners’ photograph albums 1872-1873
• Wills – e.g. Pre-1858 wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury
• Army records – e.g. British Army nurses’ service records 1914-1918 and British Army war diaries 1914-1922
• Navy records – e.g. Royal Navy ratings’ service records 1853-1923
• Merchant Navy records – e.g. Royal Naval Reserve service records 1860-1955
• Air Force records – e.g. Royal Air Force officers’ service records 1918-1919

These are just some examples of what is available through Discovery. For a more comprehensive list visit Our online records on the National Archives’ website.

The great news is that State Library members can access Discovery from home as well as within the Library. Access Discovery by visiting our eresources page and choosing Featured & On Trial.

If you don’t have a State Library card, please go to eresources at home for SLWA Members. From this page you can follow the link to Join the Library.

If you already have a mylibrarycard, simply log in by entering your full name or surname followed by your barcode on the reverse of your card. Please note that the barcode is case sensitive so you will need to enter the letters as capitals e.g. CSLIBM etc.

If you are having difficulties accessing any of our eresources, come into the Library and see the friendly staff at the Welcome Desk or phone us on 9427 3111.

Walmajarri stories online

Read some truly awesome stories in Walmajarri, English and Kriol online RIGHT NOW! 65 Books written and illustrated by kids and adults from Kadjina Aboriginal Community and now fully online at the State Library of WA.

http://catalogue.slwa.wa.gov.au/record=b3303747~S1

Head to the launch in the Cultural Centre tomorrow at 3pm – one of many events during “Revealed: Emerging Aboriginal Artists from Western Australia” http://www.perthculturalcentre.com.au/What’s-On/?eventid=19892

Family trees now on Ancestry

Marcella Dillon nee Kavanagh (1849-1919) and extended family

Ancestry Library Edition has recently been updated and one of the big changes is that family trees and photographs submitted by the public are now available to view. This is a vast resource but please bear in mind that all sources need to be checked.

• Nearly 40 million trees have been contributed by more than two million Ancestry.com members. These members have indicated that their tree(s) can be viewed by all Ancestry members
• The trees can change over time as users edit, remove, or otherwise modify the data in their trees
• The trees in the Library Edition are read-only. Library patrons cannot edit the existing trees or add new trees
• Information about living people is not shown. There are more than two billion nodes in the Public Member Trees database. A large percentage of the nodes are not for living people
• Each Public Member Tree is owned by the individual who put it on Ancestry.com
• Ancestry.com does not verify that any tree or fact is correct, nor will they correct or edit a tree
• Library patrons will not have the ability to contact the owner of the tree
• Library patrons can submit anonymous comments about any tree
• There is no login for individual users of the Library Edition

 

Family History Seminar with Paul Milner

Paul Milner is a professional genealogist, lecturer and author, specialising in British Isles research for over 30 years. He is an internationally recognised speaker on British Isles research and migration.

Paul will be presenting:

• Buried treasures: what’s in the English parish chest
• Finding your ancestors in Scotland: the big five
• Finding your ancestors in Ireland
• Overcoming the ‘dead end doldrums’

Other presentations:

• Flip-pal mobile scanner demonstration by Rosemary Kopittke
• Findmypast.com.au: gateway to the world collection by Rosemary Kopittke
• Soliciting your ancestors: the records of Stone James and Co. An illustrated talk based on the records of an early firm of solicitors which include many records relating to early WA pioneers by Tricia Fairweather and Leonie Hayes

When: Saturday 23 February, 8.30am – 5.00pm
Where: State Library Theatre (Ground floor)
Cost: Pre-booked by Thursday 21 February – $39.50 full day, $29.50 half day
On the day – $60 full day, $40 half day
Full details and bookings: Unlock the Past or (08) 8263 2055

Please note that entry before the Library opens is via the Francis Street entrance.

We need your help! Please take our WAPLDMC ebook survey

We’re looking for feedback on our WAPLDMC (Western Australia Public Libraries Digital Media Collection) ebooks service.  We’d love you to help by completing our 5 minute survey – please click the survey button on the WAPLDMC home page.

If you haven’t already checked out this collection please take a look at the service, check out an ebook or audio book, then come back and complete the survey!

If you are accessing WAPLDMC via an app on a tablet or smart phone, use this link to go directly to the survey.

Thanks for your help!

Do you have a convict in your family?

Individual convicts can be named in these volumes – this table even gives wives’ maiden names [Convict system, volume 8, page 65 of section on Western Australia]

The State Library is adding new digital content to its website all the time, which means that you can do some of your family history research from home. For instance, if you have a convict or guard in your family, you might be interested in the Convict system. This eight-volume set, housed in our rare book collection, consists of corrrespondence about the convict establishment from the Comptroller General.

Lots of convicts are named, as you can see from the example here, and there is plenty of background information too. For instance, I was able to find out when the government ceased the practice of recouping passage money from convicts – 1857. There is a notice to this effect on page 29 of the same volume.

The easiest way to access this wonderful resource is to type convict system under Title in our catalogue and select State Library Online from the drop-down box. Once you’ve selected a volume, you can browse through the pages by placing your cursor on the edge of a page and clicking. This makes a very satisfying page-turning noise! If you want to search for names, scroll down and select the Download button. This means you can save a searchable PDF version to your PC. The files are fairly large so you may need to be patient.

Top Ten lists

Explore and discover our online pictorial collection! The Data and Discovery team have created some quirky Top Ten lists to browse from the main catalogue page – find them in the bottom right hand corner…the Top Ten sport pictures are especially topical. And there are more to come:
http://catalogue.slwa.wa.gov.au/search~S2
 
The Studio portrait of the Albany Ladies Rollerskating Hockey Team from 1907 is my current favourite.

Albany Ladies roller skating hockey team 1907

British Newspaper Archive now at the State Library

The Illustrated Police News is just one of the many newspapers available in this wonderful archive [Illustrated Police News, May 21 1887]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The latest addition to the Library’s family history e-resources is the British Newspaper Archive, which gives you access to millions of pages of digitised historical newspapers held at the British Library. There are newspaper titles from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and you will find news articles, family notices, obituaries, letters, advertisements and illustrations.
Please note that you need to be within the State Library building to access the British Newspaper Archive and you will also need to register i.e. create your own login and password. Once you have done this you will be able to search, view articles, save (bookmark) articles of interest into different folders and add tags or comments. You will also be able to correct the optical character recognition (OCR) text, making articles easier for other people to find, in a similar way to the National Library of Australia’s Trove website.

Sunday Times newspaper (UK) on trial

Front page, Sunday Times, July 4 1915

The State Library currently has the Sunday Times Historical Archive, 1822 – 2006 (UK) available as a trial e-resource. To access it you need to be within the State Library building.

This newspaper archive, covering more than 180 years, complements our other British newspaper e-resources such as the Times Digital Archive and the Illustrated London News. See the full list of Family History e-resources here.
This is a very useful addition to our collection for both social and family history. Feel free to try it out during the trial and please give us your feedback.

World War One soldiers’ in memoriam cards online

To commemorate Anzac Day, the State Library has digitised a collection of Western Australian “In memoriam” cards which were collected by Dr Battye to commemorate Anzac Day.
Each card features a photograph of the deceased soldier together with biographical notes which often detail how the soldier died and where they are buried. Names of other family members are also given. This is a small, but poignant, collection which will be of interest to anyone researching World War One as well as to the relatives of the men featured.
You can browse the complete collection here. Or, to search for an individual, select Subject from the drop-down box and enter surname followed by first name or initial e.g. miller e or miller ernest.
This collection adds to the photographs of WWI soldiers previously digitised through the Adopt a soldier project.