Where is FamilyHistorySA?

Question

Hi all,

does anyone know what happened to the FamilyHistorySA website? It seems to have disappeared.

This was an independently run website (by Barry Leadbeater, I believe) that had passenger lists, police, returned service personnel, pioneers, etc.

https://www.familyhistorysa.org/

Thanks, Chris.

Comments

I've been accustomed to link to FamilyHistorySA for their early South Australian births, deaths and marriages, most of which are not freely available online elsewhere. I see that my bookmark isn't working. It will be a pity if the site is gone forever.

---

Bob, you can see images of many of those records at FamilySearch.
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/results?count=20&placeId=219092&query=%2Bplace%3A%22Australia%2C%20South%20Australia%2C%20Adelaide%22&subjectsOpen=519429-50

---

Yes, I know. The Church of England records tend to be accessible, but not the methodist ones.

Answer 1

Barry posted recently on Facebook. He is unable to maintain the site any longer due to health issues. The State Library of SA has offered to host his files on its own website. Another local family history group has also offered to help him. Hopefully his research will be shared again in the near future.

Comments

Thanks Leandra for that information.

In the meantime, the Internet Archive Wayback Machine does have times when it has saved Barry's website.  See here though not all of them seem to open up all the databases.  One save from 6 Aug 2020 did seem to open up the few that I checked.

---

Thanks Leandra.

I appreciate all the work that Barry has done and the State Library of South Australia for offering assistance.

---

Thanks Leandra, I'm not a Facebook user so would have missed this announcement.

Sorry to hear that Barry is not well, and wish him all the best for the future.

Answer 2

hi is this the site : https://www.genealogysa.org.au/resources/online-database-search

Comments

Hi Amanda,

thanks - I'm aware of the GenealogySA site (I'm even a member), but FamilyHistorySA was another site that was only recently brought to my attention. Have the two merged?

---

I only just found out about family history SA from your post, so I'm not sure what's happened to it. Hopefully someone else has an answer :)

---

Did they move?

---

Clicking through any of the links seems to take me to the original site.

---

You must be looking at some other site. This is the site discussed, and it has not been up for at least a week now.

https://www.familyhistorysa.org/

<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-AU X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} <![endif]-->

---

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine has some captures of the website, but I'm not sure that all the search boxes are working for all the databases.

Sorry I just checked Melanie's link and they are all there.  Thanks Melanie

---

It's possible that Barry is in the process of setting up at that site. A number of the searches are not working. Looking through the list of available information, it seems to be all that he had at the other site.

Answer 3

It disappeared last week. I sent an email to Barry but haven't received a response. He's usually very quick to respond.

Comments

Thanks Leandra, I do hope all is well.

Kind regards, Chris.

---

All content seems to have been removed from the site.  All that I can see is "Index of /",  with nothing to index.  I can find no reference to the content being elsewhere or having ever existed.  Who was behind the site?

---

I, too, feel uneasy (as Leandra puts it below). Of all the reasons I can think of as to why all the content has disappeared from the site, most of them would be upsetting for Barry. I hope he is well.

---

I checked in a Facebook group for South Australian genealogy - it's the busiest group for SA I'm aware of, and only 1 person has noticed the site is missing. I'm really very surprised because the site contained some info that was not online anywhere else. Although no source information was available, sometimes a search there first cut down the search time at other sites like State Records or Family Search because it provided a date. Occasionally I would enquire about the source of some info (e.g. a child died at sea but no passenger list has survived) and Barry would promptly reply that it was found in a diary belonging to one of the passengers on the voyage and this information is offline but it can then be verified at the State Library or State Records.

Answer 4

I'm South Australian, the only one I know of are:

Sagenealogy, State Library, (which has a great deal of resources) and State Archives..I hope that helps

Answer 5

I guess that Barry is moving house without telling anyone.

Melanie saw it.  https://www.ongenealogy.com/listings/familyhistorysa/

I expect that the subfolders are still being moved, but the high level index is the same as the old one.

Barry should be pleased that many people refer to his work and his absence was noted very quickly.

Comments

I had only just started looking through the land purchase database. There's a 404 link on that new website. I hope it comes back as there is no other index of that data as far as I know.

---

The ongenealogy site has also noticed the original site is down. I'm not convinced that Barry is moving house.

---

I have an uneasy feeling about it too. It was a very odd way to move without any warning. About 1.5 weeks ago the site was working one day and gone the next. There was no warning on the site that it was moving, no instruction to change our bookmarks. Apart from the home page at the ongenealogy site with the database listings, none of that site appears to be working yet.