Indexing and Retrieval Software

DocFetcher (http://docfetcher.sourceforge.net/en/index.html) is free document and indexing and retrieval software. I have been using this for a couple of years now and found it ideal. There is also a Portable version which means that I can take my data anywhere on a portable drive and simply plug the drive into a PC and start searching. File types that can be indexed include text, Word, PDF, Excel, HTML and many others

Digital Versions of Early Australian Books

A website worth looking at is www.archive.org . It contains digital copies of numerous early Australian books that have been long out of print and extremely expensive to buy second hand.

Just a few  are listed below :-

Across Australia, Spencer (1912)

The Native Tribes of Central Australia, Spencer and Gillen  (1899)
The Northern Tribes of Central Australia, Spencer and Gillen (1904)
The Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia, Spencer (1914)
Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia Volumes 1, 3& 4, Horn and Spencer (1894)
Journal of the Horn Scientific Exploring Expedition , Winnecke (1894)
The Native Tribes of South-East Australia, Howitt (1904)
Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits Volumes 1-6, Haddon (1901)
Among Cannibals, Lumholtz (1889)

Searchable PDF  versions are available for most.

Aboriginal Ties to the Land

Sarah Martin's report " Aboriginal Cultural Heritage of the Menindee Lakes area Part 1 - Aboriginal Ties to the Land" is available to download  here .

It contains a wealth of genealogical information for this area.

Aurukun Genealogical Data

Another useful site located at the University of California Irvine, School of Social Sciences , Eclectic Anthropology Server is the following

http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/linkages/datasets/p-wik.txt

The data here refers to Aurukun in Queensland and can be used to build genealogical relationships. The raw data can be easily converted into meaningful information using a spreadsheet or database program.

The original data looks like this

    IDSe    Sp    Fa    Mo          DOB RnaName
     6F     34     2     1   04/08/1929  6Peinkinna, May

which can be reconstructed as

Identification Number (ID) 6
Name                       Peinkinna, May               
Sex                        Female
Date of Birth              04/08/1929
Father                     Pootchemunka, Samuel           (ID 2)
Mother                     Pootchemunka, Minoota          (ID 1)
Spouse                     Peinkinna, Donald              (ID 34)

Other genealogical information for Australia is available on this site.

Australian National University Ebooks

 Digital sources available at the Australian National University EPress
( http://epress.anu.edu.au/titles )

(1) Aboriginal History Journal Volumes 1 - 35

(2) Terra Australis Volumes 21 - 35

(3) Aboriginal History Monographs

What Good Condition (2006) Edited by Peter Read, Gary Meyers and Bob Reece

The Axe Had Never Sounded (2007) by John Mulvaney
Culture in Translation (2007) Edited by Martin Thomas
Transgressions (2007) Edited by Ingereth Macfarlane and Mark Hannah
Indigenous Biography and Autobiography (2008) Edited by P. Read, F. Peters-Little and A. Haebich
Aboriginal Placenames (2009) Edited by Harold Koch and Luise Hercus
The Two Rainbow Serpents Travelling (2009) by Jeremy Beckett and Luise Hercus
Passionate Histories (2010) Edited by Frances Peters-Little, Ann Curthoys and John Docker
Racial Folly (2010) by Gordon Briscoe
I Succeeded Once (2011) by Marie Hansen Fels
In Good Faith (2011) by Jessie Mitchell
Country, Native Title and Ecology (2012) Edited by Jessica K Weir

Removal of Aboriginal Children

The web page of Robert van Krieken here contains pages titled

1. Attitudes to Aboriginals
2. Legislation and Policy Relating to Aboriginals and Halfcastes
3. Letters, Documents, Case Studies Re Removal of Aboriginal Children
4. Missions and Institutions - Conditions and Education

Item 3 above contains detailed examples of correspondence relating to removal of children from the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia.

The other items contain similar information to a lesser degree.

Central Australian Genealogy

The following two publications are available digitally and contain detailed genealogical information about people from Central Australia.

Kathleen Stuart StrehlowAboriginal Women in Central Australia, a Preliminary Account (2000)
( here )
Appendices include detailed genealogical information on
(1) The Henbury or Tunja Group (32 individuals)
(2) Urumuna Group (9 individuals)
(3) Emalknja Group (33 individuals)

Carl StrehlowDie Aranda- und Loritja-Stamme in Zentral-Australien (1907 - 1920)
( here )
Contains some detailed genealogical charts

Federal Court of Australia - Genealogy

The following cases from the Federal Court of Australia ( http://www.fedcourt.gov.au/ ) are examples of Judgements containing a wealth of autobiographical and genealogical information about the claimants.

(1) Risk  v Northern Territory of Australia (with Corrigendum dated 29 August 2006) [2006] FCA 404 (29 August 2006) (Larrakia)
(2) Jango v Northern Territory of Australia (includes Summary) [2006] FCA 318 (31 March 2006) (Yulara)
(3) Harrington-Smith on behalf of the  Wongatha  People v Western Australia (No 9) [2007] FCA 31 (5 February 2007)

Site move from VICNET

As VICNET is closing down I have moved my website to www.cifhs.com .

The information is the same although the page appearance has changed slightly.

A web site search feature had been added.

Other additions will be added over time.

I welcome any comments