A Shoutout to our Registrar

Recently at Hornsby Shire Family History Group we welcomed Amanda Ianna, NSW Registrar for Births, Deaths and Marriages to our meeting. I was thrilled that such a busy person accepted my invitation to address our Group as I knew that she was an enthusiastic and energetic speaker who would keep our members entertained.

During the meeting on Wednesday 17 October several of our members mentioned their frustrations with searching the NSW Historical BDM indexes since the Registry's website revamp about a fortnight earlier. Amanda, who is very interested in user feedback, said she would take this up with the website team and see if they could address our issue. 

Two days later on Friday 19 October when I opened the Registry's BDM Home Page I found that our website issue  had already been addressed and that the link to start searching the Historical Indexes was only a click away from the Home Page. 

Thank you Amanda for your prompt resolution of our issue.

BDM Places - A Rant

I get annoyed when people often incorrectly use the NSW BDM Indexes to provide place names for Birth Death or Marriage events.

In so many trees I find that the Place of an Event is incorrectly recorded as the Place of Registration (the registry where the event was recorded). If I don't have a second reliable source (like a certificate) for an NSW event I record the place accurately as NSW, Australia.

Just because a birth was registered in Sydney does not mean that the event occurred in Sydney. My Grandfather died in hospital Darlinghurst but his death was registered in Rockdale close to Brighton-le-sands where the family lived. Aunt Jane's death was registered in Sydney but I know she died at Waverley. My Grandparents were married at Lavender Bay but their marriage was registered at St Leonards. My Maternal Grandmother was born at Thompson's Creek but her birth was registered at Rockley.

I could go on and on and on.... but you get my drift. Registration Place does not equal the Place of the Event.

Unfortunately many people in their online Public Trees have recorded the places for these events erroneously.

How can we educate our fellow researchers to do the right thing?

A little bit of Majick

Over the years some of my ancestors have given me grief because of the varied spellings of their surnames in records.

One such chap is my 2xGreat Grandfather, James Magick (born Westbrook). When looking for my Magick ancestors I have found them recorded as Madgwick, Magic, Maquirk, Maguirk, Madgick, Mogick and other variations. Although I have been able to find evidence of James' death  in a cemetery record and in a Coroner's report I hadn't found a death registration for him. When I was researching him nearly thirty years ago I put this down to the fact that his death occurred out in the bush and that no one bothered to record it.

Yesterday as I was trying to sort out my FTDNA matches I went over to Ancestry to see if one of my matches  had a tree there.... and he did.  And what did I find? This person had a reference to a death entry for James under the surname Majick. How had I not thought of this spelling????

Off to the NSW BDM Online Indexes I went and found:

I probably would have found it if I was starting my research now as I would have done a wildcard surname search for James in the NSW Online BDM index but back in the days of microfiche this was not available.

I think I need to search again more creatively for all those other ancestors for whom I couldn't find BDM records years ago.

As the entry for James indicated that a copy of his registration was Readily Available I ordered it and opted for email delivery. And Guess what? While I have been typing up this post I got these messages:

How's that for efficiency from a government department? Majick?

After 30 odd years I have the official record of James' death in my hands. How can anyone ever say "I've done my family history"?

Save on NSW BDM Transcriptions

I notice that Marilyn Rowan has an Australia Day special. so, if you are in the market for some transcriptions now is the time to act. Copied below is Marilyn's announcement.

AUSTRALIA DAY LONG WEEKEND SPECIAL NOW ON!

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

Verifying Sources with the NSW BDMs

A job I do each New Year is to wander over to the Historical Indexes on The New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages site and check their updated indexes to see if I can find any new references to people in my tree. Each year another year of records is added to the index.

The site now now covers the indexes to Births - to 1912, Deaths to 1982  and Marriages to 1962.

Among the new birth records I found:

43661/1911

BEETSON

ROBERT R

EMILY M

NYNGAN

A second cousin once removed on Mum's side. Missed this one last year - now confirms his birth in NSW.

25671/1912

KEALY

JOHN R

PATRICK J

JANE

ASHFIELD

I didn't know about this second cousin once removed on Dad's side. Another person to investigate.

15438/1912

PUSELL

THOMAS P

THOMAS R

CATHERINE M

COBAR

A son of my Great-Uncle Tom. A first cousin once removed on Mum's side - I now have an approximate birth date.

28468/1912

TIERNEY

EUGENE D

PATRICK J

CARLOTTA

DUNGOG

A first cousin once removed on Dad's side. I have his birth date as 1908, perhaps they took a while to register it. Thought it could be related to Legitimation but his parents were married in 1910.

Among the death records I found:

7359/1982

MAGICK

ALICE MAUD

WILLIAM

ELIZABETH ANN

Not in my database but with the surname Magick she is likely to be a relation of some sort on Mum's side.

Among the new marriage records I found:

14240/1962

MCALPINE

MURRAY REGINALD

MAGICK

MICHELE MARGARET

SINGLETON

Michele is a half second cousin once removed. This indicates that a marriage date in 1963 shared by a family member is not correct.

I didn't find anything relevant for these family names: Curry, Gowans, Hamshere.

What did you find on this site this year?

Australian Cemeteries Index - Editor position becoming vacant

The Australian Cemeteries Index austcemindex.com/ is a wonderful collaborative resource for genealogists.

I received this email via two lists to which I subscribe. As there is a message to Please distribute attached I am doing so.

"Please distribute this message.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Reg McDonell" <regjean@exemail.com.au>
To:
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2010 4:17 PM
Subject: Australian Cemeteries Index

> Dear Contributors,
>
> This is to let everyone know that, because the years are catching up on
> us, Jean and I will be retiring at the end of 2010. We both wish to
> express our sincere gratitude to the many contributors of images and
> data to the Australian Cemeteries Index over recent years. It is
> obvious from the swag of positive feedback we have continually received,
> that the site has been a blessing and help to lots of people all over
> the world who have been doing family history research.
>
> The site will remain online, of course, but may be in static mode for a
> while until a new editor takes over.
>
> If you are working on or planning to do any cemeteries in the near
> future, please try and get the data to us by the end of December and we
> will undertake, God willing, to get it all online as soon as possible.
>
> Best wishes,
> Reg and Jean McDonell"
>