Happy New Year to everyone. (1) New sites added to http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/nzsoghamilton/ http://www.scotlandsclans.com/census.htm Scottish Census Records Links to sites that have posted census information from around Scotland + Free census downloads. http://www.scotlandsclans.com/cemeteries.htm Scottish Cemetery Records Links to sites that have posted monumental inscriptions from around Scotland. http://www.nanray.cjb.net/family/make_cd/cd_intro.html How To Make your Family CD Information & instructions on how to make a Family CD with Family Photo Album, Family Tree, & Family Stories. Also on-line Message board for those working on the project. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Lane/2349 OZ Genlink Linking Australia With the Online World of Genealogical Research. http://web.one.net.au/~lockhartz Genealogy Things Australian CARR, LOCKHART, MCCARTHY, SLEIGHT. http://prodigi.bl.uk/nlcat/ the British Library now, just this week, has its' newspaper library catalogue on-line. so at least you can now find which paper, worldwide, you want to search!! http://www.vectisweb.co.uk/index.htm Family history research on the Isle of Wight, England Located on the Isle of Wight, England, I offer a reliable worldwide service for genealogical and local history research on the Isle of Wight. http://www.merchantfleets.com/ MERCHANT SHIPS A reference for finding pictures of merchant ships and a listing of over 7000 shipwrecks. http://pcanz.freeyellow.com/ Archives of the Presbyterian Church of NZ http://www.angelfire.com/az/nzgenweb/ Helen's Page of NZ History (a reminder - already on site) http://www.rootsweb.com/~nzlwgw/resources.html NZ Resources (a reminder - already on site) http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html Misc. Worldwide repositories (2) Readers of this news with Australian connections may be interested in a visit to this site: http://www.firstfamilies2001.net.au/welcome.htm To quote from the site: "First Families 2001 will be a unique historical and cultural record of Australia. It is a database and collection of stories about the people of Australia, past and present. It is accessible to all Australians through the Internet, and welcomes contributions from everyone. Your first family is the earliest person in your family known to have lived in Australia. You may choose to submit information on the earliest generation of each branch of your family". It is not a place where you can expect to find your family tree. It may however, lead you to other relatives through the links on the site. It is to be as stated, a record of the first person in your family line or lines that came to Australia, regardless of the time period. The site has just been updated and now operates very efficiently. Take a visit, register and add your first Australian ancestor/s to this thoughtful concept. (3) From Legacy News & Tips. Some people who research their family history spend much effort getting birth, death, and marriage facts, but give little notice to what their ancestors did to provide for their "keep". Our ancestors were exactly like us in that they spent most of their waking hours in some type of work or occupation. Whether they kept house, farmed the land, or worked in a factory, they had a job to do. You might want to consider spending some time on your ancestors' resumes. Why did they do that job? Did they have more then one? Were there historical events that affected their occupational choices? Is their workplace still around? The first task of course is discovering what your ancestor did. Some sources include: Census records: Starting in 1841 England, & 1850 USA, the occupation of each member of the household is listed. This is the best place to start and what's neat is that you can check successive censuses to see if their occupation changed. - City Directories: These are helpful because they often list the occupation in addition to a home address. Like the census records, checking successive editions can show changes. Check you local library for old editions. - Obituaries: These contain a multitude of biographical information, including jobs. - Wills, Probate records, Military Pension records, and death certificates can also contain occupation information. - Your Name: Are you a Baker or Carpenter? If so then you probably had an ancestor with that occupation. In colonial times, most people had two names, not our three today. Often their name was listed followed by a comma and their occupation. In 1780, Henry Robert Baker was probably Henry Robert, baker. So be watchful of records where an occupation may be part of the identification. If you come across an occupation that you don't understand, check out one of the links at the end of this article for descriptions of old occupations. Perhaps your ancestor was an "ankle beater" (young person who helped drive cattle to market) or a "fower" (street cleaner or sweeper). How about a "pettifogger" (shyster lawyer) or "chandler" (makes or sells candles). Many of the ancestors in our families were farmers, which was a common father to son type of transition. But we also have a tailor, shoemaker, minister, and doctor. What a variety! Once you have a resume of your ancestor, you can begin to interweave it with their life events and the events that happened around them. Try to look for reasons that might explain why they had that occupation. Our grandfather, for example, migrated at the end of WW I to a larger town to find work and ended up a street car driver. Then when the Depression came and work was scarce, he started a small grocery store on his farm to help provide more income. These "larger" historical events shaped his occupation at the time. A nice touch for your heritage album would be to get pictures of where your ancestors worked. Whether it's the old family farm, or the bank where grandpa worked, it may not be there forever, so now is the time. Whether you have a picture or not, think about highlighting your ancestor's resume in your album, after all, they spent a lot of time at it to provide a living for themselves and their families. Related info: Listings of old occupations & trades: http://cpcug.org/user/jlacombe/terms.html http://www.usgenweb.org/researchers/occupations.html http://www.gendocs.demon.co.uk/trades.html (4) SHAKING YOUR FAMILY TREE (SYFT) by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG. This week's column includes guidelines and suggested questions to get your relatives talking about family history. If you are lucky enough to have grandparents and/or other older relatives still living, there is a gold mine of genealogy to be learned from them. Just learn to ask the right questions. http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/syft/curcolumn.htm Bryan A Curran Hamilton, NZ Courtesy of th e "nzsghamilton news" list.