Family Tree Magazine, an American genealogy magazine, has published their latest list of 101 Best Genealogy Websites for 2008.

What has this got to do with an Australian, you might ask. I admit that the majority of American websites have little relevance to us here in Australia unless we have ancestors from the US but if you think about it, Americans have similar problems to us. Most Americans’ ancestors came from somewhere else, as ours did.

Once they get far enough back up their family tree they need to know about English and Irish and Scottish and European research just as we do. The US and Canada had large waves of immigration in the same periods as Australia; theirs just started earlier than ours.

So what is in the list of 101 best websites? This year they’ve broken them down into categories so their readers, and browsers like us, can pick and choose according to relevance.

Best for Beginning Researchers This is a category to pick and choose from. Cyndi’s List, WorldCat and FamilySearch have universal relevance, but the US Library of Congress may not.

Best for Web Researchers I was a bit confused by this category - surely they are all good for web researchers. They appear to be sites that you can spend a lot of time in, “in your pajamas”. Many of them, such as Ancestry and WorldVitalRecords, have Australian content as well as British and European. Others are places to link with other researchers and share information, such as WeRelate and Shared Tree.

Best for Military Researchers is purely for American military history, so if you are interested in that I will leave you to check it out on your own.

Best for US Researchers is similarly restricted to American research, as is Best for African-American Research.

Best for Canadian Research may be useful if your ancestors siblings went to Canada instead of coming here, as one of mine did. Others changed their minds about Canada and came here. It’s daunting to realise that you suddenly have to learn about a whole new country and its records and knowing that a good place to start is the Canadian Genealogy Centre, part of Library and Archives Canada.

Best for Immigration Research is best for immigration into America, although The Ships List has Australian and New Zealand lists as well.

Best for British Isles Research has a good list of essential sites, although I’m not so sure about Burke’s Peerage Online. GENUKI is an essential first stop and FreeBMD should be on everyone’s list of favourite sites with English or Welsh ancestry. Scotland and Ireland are not left out, with ScotlandsPeople and Ireland’s History in Maps.

Personally I think this list could have been longer, or broken into smaller categories. What are your suggestions?

Best for Continental Researchers is similarly brief with just seven sites for the whole continent.

Best for Jewish Research is possibly a neglected area in Australia. Less so in the States where Avotaynu is probably the best known Jewish research site.

Best for Genetic Researchers is another universal category. GeneTree is a social networking site that uses mitochondrial DNA test results (from the female line).

I haven’t listed all 101 sites for obvious reasons - you can go there and look around to your heart’s content. An Australian-made list would obviously be different, and every compiler would have their own version.

What are your favourite sites?

 To mark the bicentenary of the Rum Rebellion in 1808, which deposed Governor Bligh and placed him under arrest the State Library of New South Wales has an exhibition until 27th April 2008 and a conference next Friday 14th March.

The exhibition is called Politics and Power: Bligh’s Sydney Rebellion 1808 and presents the story of the rebellion through the original pictures, manuscripts and printed works of the time.

The conference “will take a fresh look at methods of control and acts of opposition to authority. Topics include protests at ‘female factories’ and penal stations; conflict between naval and military administration of the colonies; and acts of lawlessness. Speakers include Dr Peter Stanley, Prof Richard Waterhouse, Brad Manera, Dr Grace Karskens and Paul Brunton.”

The conference costs $105, $85 (concession), includes a walking tour reconstructing the Rebellion followed by drinks in the Hyde Park Barracks on Thursday 13 March and the all day conference on Friday 14 March. Thursday program only: $30 Friday program only: $90.

Who Do You Think You Are?

The big news for family history fans is the SBS premier of Who Do You Think You Are this Sunday, 2nd December. Starting with some selected episodes from the first three UK series they will then show the six episodes of the Australian series on Sunday 13th January 2008. The first three UK series have been shown on cable TV, (or perhaps just the 2nd and 3rd), and have been very enjoyable and inspiring.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have teams of researchers going ahead of you and digging up everything you need to find out about your ancestors! Genealogists and social historians local historians and all the rest. I would love it! Alas, most of us have to do it ourselves, and this show won’t help you to do that. I would say that Who Do You Think You Are is more inspirational than informative, and of course it is very entertaining watching people we feel we know find out the thrilling or disturbing secrets of their ancestry. It’s interesting to watch their attitudes change as their ancestors become real people.
The BBC has a comprehensive website that covers UK family history research in some detail at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory/.  They are currently showing series four in the UK. Also check out the SBS website for the series at http://programs.sbs.com.au/whodoyouthinkyouare/.  The Australian series should be of great interest to us here in Australia, with Cathy Freeman, Kate Ceberano, Jack Thompson, Geoffrey Robertson and others.
National Burial Index of England and Wales now on FindMyPast

FindMyPast has released the National Burial Index of England and Wales (NBI). The National Burial Index is an ongoing project run by the Federation of Family History Societies and currently contains approximately 10 million records collected from individual family history societies of England and Wales. There have been two releases on CD and these are available at many libraries and family history societies, but the convenience of searching from home, as well as taking advantage of continuous updates, makes the FindMyPast option exciting news.

FindMyPast is a pay-per-view site run in association with The National Archives. Searching is free on findmypast.com, as is building an online family tree with our innovative Family Tree Explorer software. “To view the records you will need to purchase credits, either by buying pay-per-view units or one of three subscription options.”