Family History
Mornington Peninsula PC Family History
Meeting Details: Mornington Community House, 3/91 Wilsons Road Mornington
01.00 PM to 04.00 PM every 3rd Monday a month, except January 2022
Convener: Ian Thomson
Next Meeting:
Monday, 15th August 2022
**** 1:00pm to 4:00pm ****
This will be a “Hybrid” meeting. We encourage you to come to the meeting room, but you will also have the opportunity to stay at home and attend this meeting by using the Zoom link.
Here is the link that will enable you to join the meeting using zoom.
https://us06web.zoom.us/s/88052201301
Meeting ID: 880 5220 1301
AGENDA
Monday, 15th August 2022
1:00pm to 4:00pm
Q & A Session
We are always keen to hear how you are going with your Family History research. We would like to hear about any “Eureka Moments” that you have had in recent times. We would also like to hear about any problems that you have been confronted with.
- The Somerton Man
DNA has had a dramatic effect on Family History research, and we all know that even the best documentation that can be located can never be absolutely relied on to be 100% accurate. However, this is not the case with DNA, and sometimes the results obtained with DNA are not what was previously believed to be the case. DNA has provided the answer to a 74-year-old mystery in discovering the identity of a man, whose body was found on the beach at the Adelaide suburb of Somerton in 1948. It is a fascinating story and a wonderful example of the value of DNA.
- An update on various Family History websites
3.1 The Lost Cousins Newsletter www.LostCousins.com
Peter Calver in his Lost Cousins Newsletter often provides links to fascinating articles on aspects of Family History. A recent link was to an article in the Harvard Magazine about research being done to learn about the origins of the human race. I have read it and will comment on the research that they are carrying out.
In the United Kingdom the authorities are proposing to change the Marriage Laws so that weddings can be performed out of doors.
3.2 Who Do You Think You Are (The Magazine) August 2022
“Lost in Place” A letter about Ancestry
Edinburgh Cemetery Records in Ancestry
The National Archive World War 2 Records
Parish Registers online
The best websites to download maps
3.3 Ancestry www.ancestry.com.au.
Ancestry is carrying out research to enable us to identify which part of our DNA came from each of our parents. The first release from this research came earlier this year when they announced their “SideView Technology”. This has now been followed up by the release of their Chromosome Painter, which shows the workings behind your ethnicity estimate. I will attempt to shed some light on this technology.
3.4 Find my Past www.findmypast.com
A valuable source of family history research that is available from Find my Past is the 1939 Register. We will look at this significant document and demonstrate what can be done with it.
3.5 FamilySearch www.familysearch.com
FamilySearch is totally free, but I get very little information using their basic research method. But I am getting some very interesting documents using the link to FamilySearch from Family Tree Maker.
3.6 My Heritage www.myheritage.com
Recently I went through the process of transferring the 4,500 persons that I have on Ancestry.com to My Heritage. It was a surprisingly straight forward process, and I received a response advising that I would receive notification of matches that they had made with people in their records within 7-10 days. But that was over three weeks ago, and nothing has happened.
3.7 Family Tree Maker www.mackiev.com
As you would realise FTM is the heart and soul of my Family History involvement and I will talk about another aspect of this programme.
3.8 Scotlands People www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
Scotlands People seems pretty quiet these days and their next big thing, the 1921 Census, does not have a release date, but it seems like it will not be before 2023.
3.9 State Library of Victoria www.slv.vic.gov.au
The State Library of Victoria has just released a document entitled “When the boat comes in: voyages to Victoria”. It details where you can find the date and place of arrival of your ancestors when they arrived in Victoria. It includes not only the resources that they hold, but also places like the Public Records Office of Victoria and the National Archives of Australia.
We will conclude the afternoon with some videos, yet to be selected.
Ian Thomson, iaroth@bigpond.com 0425 859 306
On behalf of the Mornington Peninsula PC User Committee
Updated: 10th August 2022
