Back in the 1990s, I did extensive research of indexes and certificates to construct a basic family tree of some of my ancestors. There were few online sources of anything then, and the internet was not freely available for the public to access.
I worked in a public library that purchased the complete set of the indexes to NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages. I spent many hours recording details of the ones relevant to my family and paid to have full copies of the certificates sent to me. The certificates contain many details that allowed me to trace further members of my family. It was intensive work and I still have all my hand-written notes.
Part of the original marriage certificate of my grandparents, dated 1909. So precious.
Since then, I’ve done little work with this information. Many (but certainly not all) records are now digitised and available through the internet. Some are free, while others are not. DNA testing has become affordable and something that some family historians use to trace relatives. In general, the world of genealogy research has massively changed since I first started.
To inform myself, I’ve enrolled in some genealogy courses that will help me update my skills this year. But I’m more interested in adding detail to create family stories and perhaps use these as the basis of short historical fiction stories. It should be an interesting undertaking.