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Genealogy Sunshine Coast is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9.00am til 4.30pm.
In this section we cover some of the websites which are most widely used for genealogy research. All sites are accessible for members on-line at our Centre free of charge. These sites are repositories for vast numbers of the world's digitised records from censuses, directories, government records and newspapers. They have much in common and many people simply prefer one site over the others, but it can always be worthwhile looking in more than one place for information.
It's recommended that you at least briefly look at each site, to get a feel for what it might offer, as no single site contains everything and your requirements may change as you discover more about your family.
Also, remember that our Reseach drive contains over 1200 sets of digitised records covering all states, New Zealand and UK. These items include censuses, maps, parish records, government gazettes, shipping and convict records. Additionally, there is often information to be found in library books which is not available on-line, so always bear in mind what's available at out Centre.
Those sites listed further down the page are guides put together by dedicated genealogists, providing a pathway to many other sites, sometimes more specialised or focused on a particular location, which can be helpful for overcoming roadblocks or cross-checking information. Again, there is no single best site. You may have a preference for one or more. Alternatively, if you've reached a roadblock in your research, you might explore the same topic across many sites to search for new ideas and approaches.
In addition, please refer to individual state and country headings further down the left-hand menus on this page, as these provide even more specific information, links and tips.
If you visit our Centre, always feel free to ask for help and advice.
Ancestry is the world's largest genealogy company, based in Utah, USA and is a common starting point for family history research, including DNA testing. You can personalise your use by taking out a paid subscription (keep an eye out for specials), otherwise you can visit our Centre to use the Library edition fee of charge.
Genealogy, Family Trees and Family History Records online - Ancestry.com
Tip: Family Tree Magazine offers helpful tips for using the Ancestry site: Ancestry.com: Tips and Tricks for Beginners and the Ancestry site itself provides helpful information - use Google to search for help on a particular aspect.
Family Search is a free site run by the Jesus Christ Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) in Utah, USA. It shares a great deal of information in common with Ancestry. You can subscribe to the site in order to save your own family tree etc.
Family Search Australia is the link to most easily access their Australian record collections, however you will still be able to access records worldwide.
At our Centre you can also access the Family Search Affiliate Library, which will enable you to access further records which are not otherwise available.
Tip: If you Google: Family Search followed by a country name e.g. Family Search Scotland there will be a Wiki or similar page with high level information about the country and the collections held by Family Search. This can be helpful if you are wanting to search a specific collection e.g. Probate, Church or Migration records of that country.
Also, Family Tree Magazine has published advice for using the FamilySearch site: 22 Tips for Using FamilySearch.org and the FamilySearch site itself contains a great deal of helpful information.
Find My Past is a UK based site. It has paid subscriptions, but you can enrol for a 7 day free trial.
Find Your Ancestors & Family History - Genealogy & Ancestry | Findmypast.com.au
MyHeritage is another vast database, containing billions of records. However it is a paid subscription service.
Trove is run by the National Library of Australia. It contains digitised newspapers, gazettes, photos and other historic artifacts from throughout Australia, dating back to 1803, when Australia's first newspaper (The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser) was published. Non-newspaper items include reports, maps, images and diaries available to be searched. The value of Trove for the genealogist cannot be overstated, as it provides so much in terms of social history and family events, enabling us to nail down names, dates and places.
Newspapers Search is a good place to start: Newspapers & Gazettes Home - Trove
Once your search results have been returned, use "Refine Your Results" on the right-hand side, to limit the number of records displayed at one time.
Advanced Search can also be used to more tightly define what you are looking for.
Tip: There are continually more newspapers being added to Trove, particularly those from country areas and some suburban papers. It's worthwhile checking back periodically, especially if you have rural connections. The following link can be helpful: Coming soon to Trove
Consider joining Trove (it's free). In doing so you will be able to make corrections to digitised information, as electronic digitisation of old, damaged newspapers is not 100% accurate - somebody with direct knowledge of the subject matter is best placed to correct it. You can also add notes, tags and lists (public or private) to help with managing your own research.
GSC periodically runs workshops for using Trove. These popular sessions are a great way to see the potential of Trove for your research.
Online International Ship Passenger Lists records internet sources for digitised or transcribed passenger records and indexes, listed alphabetically by country, and can be an efficient way of discovering what records are readily available for different countries and the period of time they cover.
CoraWeb is a user-friendly site developed by Cora Num, a Canberra genealogist. which provides descriptive information and links to websites covering various genealogy related topics and records for locations worldwide. Many of these links connect to the sites mentioned above, however there are numerous others which may provide new aspects for your research.
Cyndi's List, created by Cyndi Howells in the US, is along similar lines to CoraWeb - it's a "categorized and cross-referenced index to genealogical resources" online. Click on the Categories and an alphabetical listing of numerous topics and locations will open. Again, this is a worldwide site.
GENUKI is a specialised UK and Ireland site (including Channel Islands and Isle of Man). It's organised along Wiki lines, containing explanatory information and links to historical records. Select a country, then a topic. Alternatively, you can easily search for links related to a specific village/town. GENUKI's Gazeteer (accessed via Quick Links on right hand side of Home page) is fantastic for this purpose - given that the same place name can occur in more than one county or country (Bangor being a good example)!
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