Expert’s Choice
Trove ( trove.nla.gov.au) is a collaboration between the National Library of Australia and hundreds of libraries, archives and organisations providing a one-stop shop for Australian research. It is free to use Trove and download a record if it is digitised.
Keyword-searchable with an advanced search feature, there are 10 categories: ‘Newspapers and Gazettes’; ‘Magazines and Newsletters’; ‘Images, Maps and Artefacts’; ‘Research and Reports’; ‘Books and Libraries’; ‘Diaries, Letters and Archives’; ‘Music, Audio and Video’; ‘People and Organisations’; ‘Websites’; and ‘Lists’ (created by researchers, public or private).
Each category has specific filters. For example, for digitised newspapers the filters are state or territory; newspaper title; date range; category of newspaper article; illustrations; and word count.
Digitised newspapers provide easy access to all kinds of family stories. A quick search for a person’s name, a ship or a place can lead to wonderful new insights about your ancestors. You may even find a few skeletons in the closet!
The website also allows researchers to tag and comment, and to include items in a research list. This is a great way to avoid going over old ground.
The site’s ‘Help’ section is excellent too. I suggest exploring the FAQs, watching the ‘How To’ video, and viewing some of the recent webinars on using the website, to help you get the most out of it.