Why didn't I think of that?

As I wrestled with linking my Six Feet under Downunder Google sheets to play nicely with my new Wix website I took some time off to read my email.

My clever genimate Carmel asked me why I was using Wix when a Google site would be "Easy for a Googly girl". I don't know why but I hadn't given Google a thought. Why didn't I think of that?

It's a long time since I made a Google site but with the help of Carmel's marvellous "How to create a family site" I was up and away.  I found the process a bit frustrating as the Google site does not have the flexibility of Wix but I don't need something with too many bells and whistles. I just needed something that would play nicely with my spreadsheets. A bit of tweaking is needed especially with the Header but for the moment I am more than satisfied.

I'm putting my Wix site to bed and will continue on with my new Six Feet Under Downunder Google Site which does a sterling job of sharing my spreadsheets.

Thanks to the wonderful Robbie Stockfeld I have lots of  links to indexes from Victoria and elsewhere to add to this site.

Going six feet under

Update 9/2/2019

Because of technical difficulties I could not resolve I have unpublished the Wix site mentioned below and replaced it with a Google Site Six Feet under Downunder. Please visit  https://sites.google.com/view/6feetunderdownunder/ and email me links to your favourite indexes.


I just can't help myself.

While preparing for my Six Feet Under Downunder webinar over the past few days I realised that there was no one site that lists all the wonderful resources in Australia that index the names of deceased resting in cemeteries and crematoria around Australia. It would have helped me no end in my preparation if there was a meta site that links to such resources.

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Of course I decided to fill the gap with a Six Feet Under Downunder Website. I must be mad but I hope that the many generous genies around Australia who know of such indexes of  cremations, headstones and burial sites will share them with me so they can be loaded on the site. I will link to free indexes big and small that are available online.

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Please bear with me as I set the site up and add data, it is my first attempt at creating a website with Wix so I'm on a steep learning curve. The site is live but have only added a little data until I get the structure right and work out how to add hyperlinks from the spreadsheets I am sharing on the pages. I will start wiht the sites I shared in the webinar and then add those shared by webinar attendees in the chat log. Feel free to take a look. 

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I need your HELP. If you know of a list not on this site please email me the details and I will add it.

Attendees teach presenter

Before I signed out from the Six Feet Under Downunder webinar this afternoon I took host Geoff Rasmussen's advice and downloaded the Chat Log and Questions Log from the event. I have just sat down and read through all the comments made and questions asked.

When presenting one needs to concentrate on the job at hand so there is no time to monitor the conversation that is taking place concurrently. Thanks to Geoff, a marvellous moderator, who replied to your comments online and provided links and information.

Sometimes one's activities have unintended outcomes, today's webinar certainly did. Firstly I was surprised that so many people tuned in to hear an Aussie grandma spruiking online, I was pleased to hear that people from 18 countries logged on. THANKS to you all. My curiosity is piqued because to me the attendees are anonymous, I wonder who it was that was online from Augsburg, Germany and down the road from me in Newcastle, Australia. There was a good representation from various states in the US, I think all Australian States were represented and our cousins across the ditch in New Zealand had a fair representation. A big G"Day to you all.

Many of the attendees who made comments taught me things I didn't know so the webinar was a learning experience for me.  Thanks to those who provided answers about the content on Tasmanian death certificates that I was unable to answer:

DEATHS

Prior to 1897 particulars recorded were:

Name of deceased.

Date and place of death.

Age at death.

Occupation.

Cause of death.

In 1897 the birthplace of deceased was added.

In 1914 age at marriage and number of issue were added.

I was interested to learn this about Deaths at sea: "When ex-Navy people are buried, the location (GPS / Lat-Long) of the position at which the ashes were scattered is recorded.  Should be able to ask for these through defence records also." and "Queensland death cert for burial at sea of infant ancestor who died while rellies were immigrating to Aus late 1800s include longtitude/latitude so can pinpoint with accuracy location of this sea burial."

I'll take a look at the unanswered questions and will try to answer them in a future blog post.

Thanks to those who provided me with links to online cemetery records. I will add these to my new blog/site Six Feet Under Downunder once I finish setting it up. I'll let you know when it goes live.

You can view the webinar online here for a limited time.

Heaven Address

Sometimes as I am practising Tangential Genealogy I find some great new stuff.

Occasionally when I search for an ancestor's name on Google I am directed to the Heaven Address site where I might find death and funeral details, sometimes there are tributes posted by family and friends and sometimes there is a collection of photos of the deceased. Until I returned this week the  only entries I found at this site were only for deaths in recent years.

On its home page Heaven Address claims to be "the respectful online memorial community to honour and celebrate the lives of your loved ones." One can join Heaven Address but there is no need to do this to search its database.

What I found this week, when I decided to search Heaven Address for the surname Curry for my CurryAus Surname study, were some old records back to the 1920s. In fact I found enough information to help me reconstruct a few Curry families.

I was under the impression that only funeral directors contributed to this database but it appears that  a small group of cemeteries and crematoria are adding records with maps and GPS coordinates of graves. This must be fairly new as many records, such as William Curry's (below) indicate that they have not yet been inscribed.

I found records from several Australian States. You can see the full list of Australian cemeteries and crematoria that are contributing records here: https://www.heavenaddress.com/partner/view/cem/AU

NSW Cemeteries contributing to Heaven Address.

This is a very useful database to add to your Genealogy Toolbox especially if you are undertaking a surname study.