I recently received an email from Geneanet advertising - amongst other databases "Johns's notable Australians and Who is who in Australasia, a dictionary of biography containing records of the careers of men and women of distinction in the commonwealth of Australia and the dominion of New Zealand" which I can access for 45 Euros pa. Am I wrong in thinking this is the same as The Australian Online Dictionary of Biographies - freely available to all at http://adb.anu.edu.au/ and http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies I have noticed this sort of thing before - Ancestry.com frequently advertises access to databases which are freely available elsewhere. I find it really annoying that Ancestry charges us to access 'our' electoral rolls - however they can be accessed at any Library in Tasmania. cheers Sally

Sally Don't know about the Who's Who in Australia database, but with Ancestry electoral rolls, you can access them for free at a Library, but they are not indexed, so unless you know where people are living they can be hard to trace, especially if they are not where you thought they may be. I found a few of mine that were having children say in Victoria, then moved interstate and died there, some of their children moving with them or nearby so would not have found them easily. But Yes I do agree with your sentiments. I also disagree with Family Trees on there site and then charging others an arm and a leg to view them. Cheers Joy

Apologies for prolonging a thread which is clearly off-topic for this list ... but the ADB and the other database mentioned below are entirely different. On 19/07/2014 10:22 AM, narnty via wrote: > I recently received an email from Geneanet advertising - amongst other > databases > "Johns's notable Australians and Who is who in Australasia, a dictionary of > biography containing records of the careers of men and women of distinction > in the commonwealth of Australia and the dominion of New Zealand" which I > can access for 45 Euros pa. > > Am I wrong in thinking this is the same as The Australian Online Dictionary > of Biographies - freely available to all at > http://adb.anu.edu.au/ and http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies > > I have noticed this sort of thing before - Ancestry.com frequently > advertises access to databases which are freely available elsewhere. > > I find it really annoying that Ancestry charges us to access 'our' electoral > rolls - however they can be accessed > at any Library in Tasmania. > cheers > Sally > > > ------------------------------- > AUS-Tasmania Mailing List Website http://www.rootsweb.com/~austashs/ > Contact Admin AUS-Tasmania-Admin@rootsweb.com > Search the Archive (type AUS-Tasmania in the list box) > http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to AUS-TASMANIA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Hi, Sally John's dictionary of Australian biography is only one of several such dictionaries published over the last 150 years. The first may have been J H Heaton's 'Australian dictionary of dates and men of the time', published in 1879, but I could be wrong about this. Some of these earlier (and later) dictionaries can be found listed in the catalogue of the State Library of Tasmania. http://catalogue.statelibrary.tas.gov.au/find/?subject=Australia+-+Biography+-+Dictionaries The current and authoritative 'Australian Dictionary of Biography', now published free on line by the ANU, only began publication in 1966. But it is by far the most comprehensive and reliable, keeping in mind that new research is always bringing new information to light. So some of the older entries need revision. The older dictionaries are less comprehensive and reliable. Many of them are now out of copyright, and may be re-published by anyone who wants to do so, in whatever form they want, paper or online. And they are free to charge what they like to cover their costs. We just have to put up with it! As you say, most are available in libraries around the country. Judy