After asking our staff who knew about WikiNorthia, and getting a unanimous “no”, I’ve decided that this site needs to get more attention than it does. So let me introduce you to it. Firstly WikiNorthia is a website (a wiki in this case) that is all about documenting life, history (and the present) of everything to to do with Melbourne’s north.

Did any of your ancestors work on building the Great Ocean Road? If so, you’ll be interested to know about a Project that the Portland Family History Group is working on, that is recording details of all of those who worked on, or even those who helped the workers along the way, to enable them to build this iconic part of Australia.

The beginning of a new month always means that you can expect your magazine subscriptions to arrive in the letterbox, and the May 2013 issue of Australian Family Tree Connections magazine has just arrived in ours. With a whole bunch of articles, a number of Can You Help? queries …

The Kernewek Lowender, is a Cornish festival held in the Copper Coast towns of Kadina, Moonta and Wallaroo on Yorke Peninsula. Held on the 2nd Monday of May, every two years, it claims to be the ‘biggest Cornish Festival in the world’. 2013 marks the 40th Anniversary of the Cornish festival, and the week long program will run from May 20-26, is designed to …

ANZAC Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli. It now commemorates all those who served and died in military operations for their countries. I’m just letting you know about some special offers together with ways that you can honour your military ancestors …

For all of you who have been hanging out for the new Australian season of Who Do You Think You Are?, the wait is nearly over. We’ve had the UK ones airing recently, along with reruns of previous Australian ones, but “after Easter” is when Season 5 is scheduled to air. By that SBS means …

The National Library of Australia is calling for applications for the 2013 Community Heritage Grants. The grants of up to $15,000 are available to community groups around the country to help preserve and manage locally held, nationally significant cultural heritage collections of documents and objects for future generations.

My recent post on “Help Save Headstones, Sign the Petition” created a lot of discussion and feedback in various ways. Since then I felt the need to do this Follow Up post, as I have had the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board (MCB) contact me wishing to clarify a few things, so I am passing this info on to you. Firstly no-one likes to see headstones destroyed, and that includes the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board.

Back in December 2012 I advised you about the first edition of The Forgotten Times magazine, which was a brand new, free genealogy and history magazine. Now I have the pleasure of advising you that Issue 2 of The Forgotten Times is now available, it is online, and it is still FREE.

Anzac Day is coming up on April 25th, and Findmypast.com.au are are asking those with Australian or New Zealand military ancestors to join them in honouring your Anzacs and the sacrifices they made for their country. They are creating an Anzac Memory Bank to honour and remember the brave men and women who fought for their country. It includes not only those that lost their lives but also the brave men and women who made it home.

As genealogists and family historians, it goes without saying that we LOVE cemeteries and headstones, so take a moment to read this, and sign the petition in a bid to stop the Western Australian government not only destroying headstones, but also family history and memories along with them.

A new web site details the search for the living male descendants of the 35 men who died on the Great Barrier Reef in 1791 during the wrecking of the Pandora. The intention is to find matching DNA (Y) signatures to sequences recently obtained from 3 skeletons recovered from the Pandora wreck in the 1990s.

“The Forgotten Times” is a brand new Australian digital-only history (and genealogy) magazine. Produced by a team of journalists dedicated to quality writing with a love of history and a combined experience of 70 years, ‘The Forgotten Times” is already attracting expert writers from the industry keen to contribute.