D P S Melbourne Family History and Genealogy Group

22/11/2025

22/11/2025

It’s today!

Scottish Indexes Conference ### - Saturday 22 November 2025

Interested in tracing your Scottish genealogy? The Scottish Indexes Conference is an opportunity to learn new research skills, discover diverse records and see how others have put these into practice. If you want to trace your Scottish family tree, this is the event for you.

Don't live in the UK? No problem. We are live from 7 am to 11 pm UK time. We do this to make our conferences time-zone friendly. Each presentation is shown twice, once between 7 am and 3 pm UK time, then again between 3 pm and 11 pm. You can come and go throughout the day.

Coming up at the November 2025 Conference:

'Introducing the Ordnance Survey Name Books and historical tax rolls on Scotland's People' by Tessa Spencer, Head of Learning at the National Records of Scotland

'An Arran Jigsaw: some records relating to people and places between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries' by Robert Urquhart of Abbotshall Palaeography

'Reverend Russell and relief from patronage' by Dr Kay Williams

'5th Duke of Buccleuch: a forward thinking landed aristocrat' by Dr Craig Thomas, Assistant Archivist at Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust

'The Doctor will see your ancestors now' by Fiona Musk, NHS Grampian Archivist

'Weaving the threads of time: exploring the lives of Dundee textile workers' by Caroline Brown, University Archivist and an Assistant Director in the Library Academic and Cultural Services at the University of Dundee

'Court of Session: Neighbours at war and so much more!' by Emma Maxwell

Scottish Genealogy Q&A hosted by Graham and Emma Maxwell

19/11/2025

This months meeting is on Sunday 23rd Nov at Watsonia Library
Subject Presentation: Google and Genealogy Tips & Techniques
Master your skills in your internet sleuthing for your ancestors. This presentation will provide tips on using Google (as a browser and search engine) and other search engines to improve your search results, including refining your search, the use of search operators and essential words and phrases.
Also covered is finding and using web directories to locate records and free resources.
Meeting Details :Watsonia Library Function room at 4/6 Ibbottson St, Watsonia.
Talk will start at approx 1.30, door open at 1 pm
Free to attend, no need to book...just a gold coin to cover tea or coffee is appreciated.
The D P S Group has been around for over forty years. Members share the common interest of uncovering family stories of the past and teaching each other research strategies, as well as sharing new resources and ideas. The first half of our meeting is often with a presenter giving a talk on specific subjects of interest to family history.
Hope to see you Lyn

19/11/2025

https://www.victorianplaces.com.au/
Victoria - This is a website containing the history of all the places in Victoria (Australia) that have now or once had a population over 200 at any time since the establishment of Victoria as a British colony.

Hop on the historic W-class tram and hop off at any one of over 1600 destinations throughout Victoria (Australia). Along the way you can discover the history of every town, city, suburb, village and settlement with a population of over 200 people.

19/11/2025

https://www.churchhistories.net.au/
Australian Christian Church Histories
Church Names & Details plus Clergy Database

Thanks to the Lutheran Archives for their comprehensive contribution to this project. Thanks to Victorian Presbyterian Church Archives for their Clergy & Historical contributions.

16/11/2025

http://www.ozgenonline.com/vic_data/royal_womens_hospital/index.htm
Royal Women's Hospital Index (Melb Lying in Hosp) 1856- Mar1879
This Index has been created by some wonderful volunteers as a finding aid to these records. This index and web site is not in any way affiliated with the hospital.
It has been created in good faith. Any spelling variations occur due to the nature of the writtten records. The volunteers have endeavoured to determine the most accurate spelling as recorded exactly on the images, and possible alternative spellings. Please note that apart from spelling of surnames, all other details such as Christian name, age, birthplace and marital status should be taken as a guide only, and not a definite or correct record of a woman's details.

16/11/2025

https://www.fhwa.org.au/public
Family History Western Australia - Free database search indexes

Indexes and transcripts publicly available

16/11/2025

Explore items that have recently been digitised and made available in Trove. Curious to see what's in the pipeline? Take a look at our coming soon page. You can also see what’s new and coming soon from the National Library of Australia.

13/11/2025

https://www.oddhistory.com.au/
Lots of Stories on site 'Odd Australian Stories'

An interesting look at the history and the odd characters in the Berwick/ Pakenham and Gippsland regions of Victoria.

13/11/2025

https://www.pmhps.org.au/port-melbourne-decade-by-decade/
Port Melbourne Historical & Preservation Society

13/11/2025

https://www.pmi.net.au/about-us/
Victoria -
Welcome to the PMI Victorian History Library Inc.
The Prahran Mechanics’ Institute (PMI) was established in 1854. It is a community owned and run library, specialising in the history of Victoria, Australia. We are a central resource for research into the history of Victoria.
The library has over 40,000 books for loan, many of which are not available for loan elsewhere.
**A resource to note folks!

Listen Welcome to the PMI Victorian History Library Inc. The Prahran Mechanics’ Institute (PMI) was established in 1854. It is a community owned and run library, specialising in the history of Victoria, Australia. We are a central resource for research into the history of Victoria. The library has...

11/11/2025

Coming up at our Scottish family history conference this month:
‘5th Duke of Buccleuch: a forward thinking landed aristocrat’ by Dr. Craig Thomas, Assistant Archivist at the Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust (BLHT).

This is part of the Scottish Indexes Conference, a free and time-zone friendly event designed to help you trace your Scottish family history and understand the lives of your ancestors.

The 5th Duke of Buccleuch (1806-1884) was one of Scotland’s grandest landed aristocrats. Inheriting a largely agricultural set of estates with rudimentary industry, this individual transformed these estates into a diverse and modern business portfolio. Whilst this industrial transformation took place his paternalistic ethos was never forgotten. But could an individual of such eminence be wholly forward thinking? Through extensive use of the Buccleuch family archive including estate correspondence and assistance books, this presentation will explore whether or not the 5th Duke of Buccleuch really was a forward thinking landed aristocrat.

Everyone is invited to attend. Visit the Scottish Indexes website to view the full list of speakers and find registration instructions. This presentation will be shown on Saturday 22 November 2025.

Dr Craig Thomas is presenting for the first time at our conference. He is the assistant Archivist at the Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust (BLHT). He is based at Bowhill House in the Scottish Borders and looks after the archives across the Buccleuch Estates in Scotland. Craig recently completed an AHRC funded Collaborative Doctoral Award between Newcastle University and BLHT. In addition to his role at BLHT, Craig is a Committee Member of the Scottish Association of Country House Archivists; Trustee of Wanlockhead Lead Mining Museum and Education Advisor to Historic Houses.