Lifeline Bookfest

Brisbane Bookfest - part of one of the three halls
(photo by Judy Webster)

Books relevant to family history are lurking in secondhand shops, markets and book fairs. One of the best places to find them is at a Lifeline Bookfest.

Bookfests are held at various times throughout the year in Brisbane, Bundaberg, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Mackay, Maryborough, Rockhampton and Sunshine Coast.

The Brisbane event is held in January and June each year, in the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre at South Brisbane. It's on right now and continues until 26 Jan 2015.

There are three separate halls: 'High Quality (prices as marked)', '$1 Section' and '$2.50 Section'.

Within each hall, books are arranged by category (Australiana; History; Biography; Reference; Paperback Fiction; Hardback Fiction; Children's; Humour and Oddities; Literature and Classics; Textbooks; Travel; Health; Science Fiction; Art and Music; Cooking; Computers; Hobbies; Sport; Gardening; Religion; Foreign Language; Vehicles and War Craft; Animals; Penguins and Pelicans; Economics; Sociology; Philosophy; Science). Each section also has magazines, stationery, videos, CDs, cassettes and records.

You may want to stock up on stationery items such as ring binders and lever arch files, which sometimes cost less than a dollar.

The real treasures for family historians are usually in the Australiana and History sections. Look for books about the history of regions, towns, schools, churches, businesses and organisations, and published family histories.

The Reference section has atlases, street directories, medical dictionaries, and sometimes unexpected items like a complete set of The Public Acts of Queensland 1828-1936.

With luck, you may find some of the titles listed on 'Suggested Reading (Genealogy and History)'.

Another money-saving tip? If you are on a very tight budget, wait until the last day when the (already affordable) prices are usually reduced.

I strongly advise you to bring a suitcase on wheels, as books soon get heavy when you are browsing. Local street parking is limited and fills very early. Undercover parking is available, but it costs about $17. You can travel by train to South Brisbane station or by bus to the Cultural Centre bus stop.

To find out more about Lifeline Bookfests in Queensland, do a Google keyword search to find the current Web page.

Free Certificates in Archives Files (Thrifty Thursday)

Before buying certificates, check whether there is a free alternative!

The sources mentioned below are in Queensland, but similar records exist in many interstate and overseas repositories.

Before buying a certificate from the Queensland Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, check whether that certificate is included in a file at Queensland State Archives. If it is, you can either take a digital photograph or save an image to a USB memory stick free of charge. (The Archives keep changing their Web site, so use Google to find the current URL.)

At the Archives you can often see certificates that you cannot buy from the Registry (because of differences in access restrictions). Certificates in archival files are often more accurate than typed copies issued by the Registry now.

From about the mid-1890s onwards, most Queensland Supreme Court 'will' files, and some 'intestacy' files, contain the death certificate. There are also probate files in Queensland for many people who died in other States and countries.

I sometimes find that the information on the death certificate in a probate file and the information on the certificate you bought from the Registry are significantly different! In one case the certificate in the probate file listed children who were not mentioned on the copy my client had bought from the Registry. In another case the probate file's copy showed that a person had lived in both the Northern Territory and Queensland (and how long in each place), but a more recent typed certificate from the Registry did not mention that.

I have seen birth, death and marriage certificates (including some from overseas) in many series of records. They include (but are not limited to):

• Supreme Court probate files ('wills' and 'intestacies'), divorce files and equity files
• Public Curator insanity files and Supreme Court insanity files
• Lands Department selection files
• Colonial Secretary's Office correspondence
• Police staff files
• Court of Petty Sessions maintenance records
• Police watchhouse records.

More information about those sources is in the book Tips for Queensland Research. For wills and probate records see also Queensland Genealogy and Archives Research Tips.

Postscript 1:  For the rest of Australia, see Kerry Farmer's suggestions re certificates.

Postscript 2:  A friend and I are creating an index for certificates that we find in odd places in Archives files. In the future, names from that index will be added to my main Web site.