About family history

Family history is about names, places and dates.

To research family history we need a name, a place and a time. In other words Who? Where? When? For us the place is Ballarat and District. We have experienced volunteer researchers who know their way around the local records but we also have the know how to follow families with a Ballarat connection to other parts of Victoria, interstate and outside of Australia. This was particularly evident as the mining declined towards the end of the 19th century.

Basic genealogical research requires Births Deaths and Marriages. The information on official government certificates provide the structure for creating family trees.

Why did they come? How did they get here? What did they do?

Explore the push and pull factors that influenced emigration and immigration.

Australian families in the 19th century with the exception of the indigenous came from elsewhere over the ocean. Finding an ancestral village in the old country and documenting arrivals are significant milestones in the quest for knowledge of our ancestors.

What did they do with their lives in the new country? Occupations, hospital admissions, schooling, places of worship, court cases, newspaper items, property records, inquests, wills and probate can contribute personal details to the story. Events which occurred in their lifetime may be celebrations such as royal visits and openings or catastrophes such as floods and fires, as well as economic periods of boom and bust will all provide a social context.