Genealogy Sunshine Coast

I loved reading this Matron's diary of her voyage on the 'Fitzjames' in 1857 chaperoning 98 single women from Plymouth to Sydney.  It is easiest to click on 'full transcript of the diary' (in blue) and read the printed version. http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/digital-gallery/matrons-diary Matron's Diary — State Records NSW www.records.nsw.gov.au Matron Susan Austen was chaperone to 98 single females on the 'Fitzjames' which arrived in Sydney on 1 April 1857. Her diary records the dramas which unfolded during the voyage, the sea-sickness suffered during stormy weather, the tantrums and shortcomings of many of the young 

More on Posen -  you may be lucky enough to find the parish register you need in the familysearch online collection: Germany, Prussia, Brandenburg and Posen, Church Book Duplicates, 1794-1874 (images and indexes) https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&region=EUROPE All Collections FamilySearch.org — Free Family History and Genealogy Records familysearch.org Discover your family history. Explore the world’s largest collection of free family trees, genealogy records and resources.

Here you can find several historical maps of Schleswig-Holstein, useful for both German and Danish research.  The dates of the maps are critical as this area changed hands between Germany/Prussia and Denmark more times than I can keep up with, so the borders will be different over the years. http://www.slesvignavne.dk/historiskekort.html Slesvig-kort www.slesvignavne.dk

Another website for Schleswig-Holstein research. http://www.rootdigger.de/ Rootdigger - Emigrants Database - Genealogy Schleswig-Holstein www.rootdigger.de Genealogical research in Schleswig-Holstein, about emigrants from there.Finding of ancestors. Database of 45,000 - 50,000 emigrants/immigrants.Treatises about Schleswig-Holstein, historical maps.

And one more important tool for Schleswig-Holstein research - the same website with the maps also gives a list of nameplaces in both Danish and German, the Danish highlighted in blue.  http://www.slesvignavne.dk/scripts/suche.php?wahl=da Slesvigske stednavne - Schleswigsche Ortsnamen - slesvignavne.dk www.slesvignavne.dk

Those with ancestors from the German part of Schleswig Holstein will find it a lot harder to come by information on their ancestors than those from the Danish part, where records are centralised and much is available online.  This area has  a complicated and interesting history which directly affected those migrants who came to Australia in the mid to late 1800s.  There is a lot of historical information online about the region worth reading if you have a connection there. Here is a useful genealogical website for the German part.  http://www.genealogy-sh.com/ Genealogy.com - free genealogical database access www.genealogy-sh.com Genealogy in Schleswig Holstein - Free access to research-tools for your genealogical research

Another useful website for Posen, Prussia research: http://www.posen-l.com/ Posen Genealogy www.posen-l.com Official website of the Posen-L mailing list

A great map of Posen and others of neighbouring areas on this website. High resolution maps so they are large downloads. Posen was formerly a province of Prussia. http://maps.vlasenko.net/historical/german-1870-1919-300k/ Топографические карты - topographic map maps.vlasenko.net

You may find your German ancestor in this book, The Old Lutheran Emigration at the Middle of the 19th Century.  I found my Posen ancestors here.  Read the bit down the bottom 'Searchable Full Text without Page Images' for advice on name sea rching.  If that seems too hard, just look for the word 'Australia' using your 'find' facility on your computer, and go through each one.  If you know what year you are looking for, click on the webpage for that year and you will see a scan of the original page too. The whole site is very interesting.  http://archivaria.com/EmigList/index.html Old Lutheran Emigration List 3 archivaria.com Searchable Full Text without Page Images- The entire emigration roster on one webpage.To search for names, districts, occupations, etc., go to the linked page. Place the cursor in the toolbar at the top of the page. Select 

Do you have German ancestors from the former Prussian province of Posen? The Poznan Project has an excellent database of marriages in the former province (now Poznan in Poland).  It is easy to use, and has been a great help to me. http://poznan-project.psnc.pl/project.php http://poznan-project.psnc.pl/project.php poznan-project.psnc.pl

Danish ancestors from the Island of Fyn ( Funen) If you have Danish ancestors from the island of Fyn (Funen), this website has an amazing collection of historical documents, pictures, drawings etc and articles of interest to both historians and genealogists.  Unfortunately it has no Engli sh version, but google translate works well enough for me to understand most of what is said.  I have found many items relating to my Fyn ancestors on this site and just generally love looking at all the treasures to be found here. If you have a particular person or placename you are looking for you can use the search (søg) facility, or just browse around the site. Imagine my excitement when I found this page from a medical book belonging to my 5 x greatgrandfather, Johan Nicolai Mürer, from his days as an army surgeon in Odense. http://fynhistorie.dk/node/26006 Lægebog (1724) tilhørende J. Murer, Odense - måske identisk med J.N. Mürer, stadskirurg i Svendbor

Danish ancestors – post 9:  A check of the Queensland Historical Birth Index shows Jens Peter Christiansen and his wife, Ane Sophie Wolff, have children by the name of Christian, Mary (for Maren?), Maggie, Hans, Peter, Christine and Caroli ne, amongst others. Our Bornholmer, Jens Peter Christiansen, born 1852 in Aakirkeby has parents named Christian and Maren Margrethe, his siblings are Karoline Margrethe, Christine Marie, Hans Peter and Frederik.  This leaves no doubt in my mind we have the right Jens Peter, and can happily continue researching this man’s family on Bornholm.  The 1845 census (the first census year to show place of birth) tells us that Jens Peter’s father, Christian Christiansen, was 33 in 1845 and born in Nylars (Nylarsker) parish and his mother, Maren Margrethe Frederichsdatter was 30 years old and born in Åker parish. Bornholm, Sønder, Aakirkeby Købstad, 1.Kvarter, , Nordre Bygade - Vester Side 28b, 27, FT-1845 Name: Age: Marital st

Danish ancestors – post 8:  Using the Danish Demographic Database  http://www.ddd.dda.dk/ddd_en.htm This is the English version, the Danish version which has other databases, is available by clicking on the Danish flag. To find the 1870 cens us record for Jens Peter Christiansen, click on ‘Censuses’ Click on ‘Autocheck of database’ Select county ‘Bornholm’ (wait for it to load) You can select a parish if you want, but we will leave it on ‘all parishes’ Enter his name ‘Jens Peter Christiansen’ Under ‘All years’ select 1870 To the left of that, where it says ‘contains’ select ‘=’ (as we only want this year) Click ‘Search’ Five Jens Peter Christiansens will come up, click on ‘Show household’ for the 17 year old born in Aakirkeby, and there you have him. Click on the back arrow to go back and search again, maybe select another year to view. He appears in the 1855, 1860 and 1870 census. In 1855 and 1860 you will find hi

Danish ancestors – post 7:  Census records – The Danish Demographic Database has transcribed census records (folktælling) for all parts of Denmark from 1787 on. Not all records have been transcribed as yet, but every parish will have a good selection available. You also have the option of viewing scans of the originals on arkivalieronline (see post 6) which gives you more coverage. The DDD has  an English language version, so is quite easy to use, the census transcriptions themselves are in Danish, but are simple to understand with the help of a Danish genealogy word list/dictionary, which you can find online at various sites (eg. familysearch). If you remember, I was hoping to find Jens Peter Christiansen in the 1870 census living in Nyker, which is the parish recorded as his last residence in his emigration record. This would help confirm he was one and the same.  Unfortunately, the 1870 census shows him working as a farmhand in Hasle parish, but I’m convinced otherw