Graphing Trove - Papers Past newspapers

Firstly, we have to say thank you to Tim Sherratt for building QueryPic. What is Querypic you ask? It builds a graph to display how your research keyword appeared in Australian and New Zealand papers over time.

QueryPic accesses data from either Trove [Australia] or Papers Past [NZ].

You can also explore the results of your query in more detail by clicking on any point of the graph and you'll you being given a list of the first 20 matching articles. We've found it a very useful way of summarising our research in old newspapers. For example, in a conversation with NZ History, we saw how powerful the system can be in describing the buzz in society around a certain subject or event. Gallipoli was chosen and produced the graph below.

You can see the spike in discussion of Gallipoli during WW1 but what was even more interesting were the two smaller spikes in the 1800s, probably showing the 1953-56 Crimean War and 1877-78 Russio-Turkish war, and the rate at which the mentions of Gallipoli dropped away after the war.

We can't recommend enough that you use Trove and Papers Past as two of your primary family history research tools. They are our first port of call for Australian and New Zealand research respectively. Find out more at:

• Trove Australia; National Library of Australia
• Papers Past; National Library of New Zealand

Papers Past has 74 publications from 1839 to 1945 in it's online collection and Trove Australia is continuously adding new publications to its collection - click here for more info.

Get updates on Tim Sherratt's work on twitter at @wragge and on his blog - http://discontents.com.au - I'm sure there's more in the pipeline that makes history even more fun!

New Zealand Family History Fair :: 26 - 27 August 2011

Inside History magazine is proud to be supporting the New Zealand Family History fair and can't wait to visit Hamilton next week!

The New Zealand Family History Fair 2011 is at the Claudelands Events Centre in Hamilton. Exhibitors, seminars, New Zealand Society of Genealogists branches and interest groups, help desks and look-up services will all be returning along with an internet cafe, where you can try out some of the key websites focused on researching your Whakapapa.The recently revamped centre has plenty of free parking and there will be a cafe and coffee cart open throughout the show, if you prefer not to bring your own food and refreshments.

2011 is the International Year of the Forest, so the Fair will focus on Growing and Conserving your Family Tree.

National bodies such as NZBDM and Papers Past will be present, as will the international organization FamilySearch, regional groups such as the Central Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries and commercial entities such as findmypast.com.au, Ancestry.com.au, Guild of One-Name Studies, Unlock the Past.

Where: Claudelands Events Centre
Address: 2 Brooklyn Road, Hamilton
When: Friday 26th and Saturday 27th August, 2011
Parking: Free, enter through Gate 4
Tickets: Available through Ticketek

To find out more about the fair, go to the New Zealand Family History Fair site or follow the fair on Facebook and twitter for updates. The NZFHF team have also answered FAQs on their site. See you there!