Apologies for cross-posting, but I think the site I'm writing about is one of huge interest and great value to family history researchers in Australia. It's specifically Australian, doesn't cost to use and I have to say I've been having an absolutely great time browsing family names and locations from the newspaper digitisation project being run by the National Library of Australia. See http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home I cannot praise the project too highly. It's given me absolutely unexpected views of what my families throughout Australia did in everything from their spare time to their working habits. I know from family history that my Bouffiers from the Hunter Valley were wine makers, that's why they were brought out from Germany. But, the NLA project has fleshed my knowledge out much more than this, showing they won numerous medals for their wines both in Australia as well as at exhibitions overseas. They also exported wine to Europe during the 1880s and 1890s. I've just finished reading an interesting article about the value of exports to Australia and the need for quality in those exports, particularly aimed at the wine industry. In relation to the Bouffier's spare time, I've found out family members helped set up the local cricket club, played intercolonial football, polo and a couple of family members were in the habit of writing rather stroppy letters to the editor complaining about a range of things which apparently annoyed them. I didn't know any of these things before I started browsing the NLA site. I've also found my great grandfather James Whiteford, born Melbourne in the 1850s but who worked as a policeman in far north Queensland. He's mentioned in police despatches reported in the newspapers of the day. The newspaper provide details of government appointments e.g. James was appointed the registrar of births and deaths, but not marriages in Coen and the assistant registrar of slaughter houses for Coen as well. I have scans through the family of shares he had in the Great Northern Mine. From the newspaper digitisation project, I've found much more information about the Great Northern Mine itself. There are a couple of extremely graphic and horrifying articles about his police work which give a much more in depth look at his life and work than I previously knew (and possibly wanted to know!). My Whitefords came into Melbourne originally. The NLA site has given me information about the property they had in Malvern and its sale in the early 1900s, details I didn't have previously. This is a fabulous resource - I cannot stress too highly how good it is, even as a beta project with issues around the digitisation. It gave me a completely different picture of, and knowledge about, family members. It's also really interesting reading from a perspective of the 21st Century. An article I was reading tonight was about one of the intercolonial football matches between NSW and Queensland. It goes into some detail about the "lovely ladies" who attended the match and their finery. In terms of searching, there are a huge range of options. You can search by name, property name, ship names, location e.g. Malvern, Coen or Cooktown etc. You can choose to look only at certain papers, you can look at decades, at individual years etc. I've found family land records, sales records of everything from land, to horses, to hogsheads of wine. It's also a work in progress. When I first browsed a few weeks ago for Bouffier there were approximately 90 mentions, there are now 152, without looking at variations such as Buffier. So keep visiting and enjoy!!!! For names such as McGrath, search using M'Grath, as this also bring up hits. It also can be used to search for information about overseas conditions and areas of interest. While I have in excess of 4000 hits for Coen which I will make my way through there are over 56,000 hits for Ireland. Now I don't plan to look at all of those but more of interest to me is that a search for "Famine Ireland" brings up 1,200 references. A search for Invernessshire brings up around 90 hits. It opens up a world of information online for people. I think we should spread the word about the site around the Australian family history area of interests. One other point - get a reader's card for the National Library - any Australian resident can do this now. They now have a great range of online information and databases for browsing, including a number of family history / genealogy websites. See the NLA home page for this. Cheers all Anne

Fantastic project, isn't it? I can lose myself for HOURS reading fascinating little snippets. Some even about family members! The electronic 'translator' seems to have a bit of trouble reading the print. I started correcting some and then (selfishly) though, hang it. I'd much rather read. An absolute gem. And many, many thanks to the person (?) who originally posted the address on whatever newsgroup. Barbara