History and Genealogy 2011 Australia and New Zealand

I have been reading History and Genealogy 2011 Australia and New Zealand. http://www.gould.com.au/History-Genealogy-2011-Australia-NZ-p/utp1001.htm   

This is the first of a planned annual publication and is a great read with 66 articles covering a wide range of topics.  I am particularly reading the military articles as Anzac Day approaches. As a medical person I was very interested to read the article by Ron Austin on The Medical War during the Third Battle of Ypres. There were 11 000 Australian killed or died of wounds, 26 000 Australians wounded and 4000 gassed. These all needed medical aid and this article describes how that aid was given. And it is amazing that more did not die.

Another article by Lt Col Neil Smith Reflections on our Anzac Heritage strongly encourage us to collect our families military heritage, the documentation, the memorabilia and record the personal stories. It is important for all of us to learn about the conditions our ancestors endured to fight for the freedom we enjoy today and to give life to our military personnel.

Carole Riley has written an excellent article on Social Media for Family Historians which gives good information for anyone who is a bit unsure about starting to dabble in social media (I say dive in, it is great fun and there is a fantastic online community) I have recently started with Twitter @HVSresearch and have been very happy with  the wealth of information available in 140 characters. As you are restricted to 140 characters you get the gems of knowledge without the padding that often occurs in other media.

We are all time poor now and there is an excellent article by Megan Gibson on  Tips  for the Time Poor! which gives many ideas on how we can gain extra time for research.

If  you have circus ancestors you really must read the article The Story of Circus in Australia by Mark St Leon who descends from one of Australia’s earliest circus families. Other articles of particular interest to me were on Saving your Family Documents, Grain Mills and  Grain Millers in South Australia and Internet Resources for German Research. There are some great New Zealand articles with an excellent one on Immigration to New Zealand, another on New Zealand websites and much more. There are also social history articles such as Sources in Local History and The Crinoline, the Cloak and the Aboriginal Belle. There is a range of articles for the person starting their research as well as those further advanced.

As well as the wide range of articles you also get a directory of Archives, Record Offices, Family History Societies, Historical Societies,  Museums and Professional researchers. As an extra bonus you also get a list of Australian genealogy and history blogs you can access from the Unlock the Past website http://www.unlockthepast.com.au/australian-genealogy-history-blogs . There is also a list of New Zealand blogs.

There is also a range of discount vouchers available in the book and this makes the already quite reasonable price an even better bargain.

In my view this is a book that should be on every researcher’s bookshelf and I look forward to having this resource as an annual publication.

(Disclosure Statement: I am an Unlock the Past speaker and have had a book published by Unlock the Past, the publishers of the above book. Two of my articles are also published in this book. No payment was received for the writing of these articles. This association has not influenced my opinion on the quality of this publication)