New year, new records, new genealogy focus, resources & other news: my genealogy fortnight 1-14 January 2026

 

Happy New Year. My wish is that 2026 does not go as fast as 2025. More time out to enjoy the things I like - reading, researching and relaxing. My 3Rs!

Apps

As some of you may know, I have been exploring SubStack as a way of recording my family stories or my genealogy thoughts or whatever. Still getting the hang of it, but there are some very interesting people to follow on SubStack. Lots of genealogy motivation. And it may even benefit your research. For example good friend Alex Daw (Family Tree Frog) is on SubStack and wrote a post on one of her ancestors. He was the brother in law of one of the incarcerated women in colonial Queensland in my PhD case studies. How amazing and as I always say, it is a small world. Find me here.

Irish famine memorial Dublin 2025

Blogs

Jill Ball's Accentuate the Positive geneameme for 2025 has had us bloggers putting fingers to keyboards over the last couple of weeks. I always like reading about what other researchers have been doing and their success stories.

Read my contribution here. 

Books

Updated Library Thing and deleted all the books I have donated to societies or given away. Added the new ones from the last few months. 

Not sure that downsizing is working too well - still have close to 700 books and that's not counting fiction.

Have just finished reading Nathan Dylan Goodwin's latest book The Hop-Picker Murders. It is the 11th book in his series on genetic genealogist Morton Farrier. 

I will do a short review but I always find it hard to write about a book without giving away plot details. So more thought needed.

Resources

A new year means that more records have come into the public domain in national and state archives and of course, birth death and marriage indexes. So take some time to look up what's new or find those entries you have been waiting for.

For example this link will show you all new records under Section 9 for the Public Record Office Victoria. A lot of the records have come out of 75 year closed access including children's courts, asylums, divorce and so on. There is also the story of Jean Lee, the last woman hanged in Australia in 1951.

Watched a webinar on using the Virtual Treasury of Ireland via the Association of Professional Genealogists. Not  the easiest to search, no wildcards or Boolean but keyword followed by filters got me to census statistics for Ballygannon and Glasnarget townlands in County Wicklow. These give population figures and number of households from 1841 to 1881 for the two townlands my Finn and Fagan families emigrated from in 1882. Great background context and also learnt that the railway was completed in 1861.

Talks

Mum's ethnicity via MyHeritage

My first talk for 2026 is coming up on 28 January for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. I will be looking at using MyHeritage's theories of relativity to sort DNA matches or not! 

It was an interesting experiment and useful for sorting out some of Mum's DNA matches. My paper research reveals she was pure English but her ethnicity shows more than England. 

Register here for free and find out what I discover. 

Webinars

Spent some time selecting my webinar registrations from  the fantastic program organised by Legacy Family Tree Webinars. 

I seem to have selected a lot of topics with initials eg DNA and AI!

What's coming up

Mustn't forget that I am still doing my Ph D thesis on incarcerated women in colonial Queensland. I have done a lot of the research into the individual women and now into more serious writing and literature reviews and statistics. It is a lot of work but I am also learning some new skills in research, writing and technology. Definitely not bored.

Looking forward to when societies return from the Christmas/New Year break. Attending meetings in person or visiting society libraries and catching up with friends is all part of the family history world.

Wishing everyone a fantastic genealogy year in 2026. Until next time, Shauna

Watching webinars, experimenting with AI & other genealogy news: my genealogy weeks December 2025

Our shipboard friends

Another year is coming to an end and now that we have the Christmas tree up and a few presents scattered under it, I am taking the time to watch a few genealogy webinars and read a few books. 

For something different we went on a cruise to the South Pacific and had Christmas lunch at sea. Now home again, safe and well, to finish off this post and think about the coming year. 

Saying goodbye to our shipboard mates was hard.

Blogs

Because I stayed focused this year (following Thomas MacEntee's Do Over program) I achieved a lot with my family history. Tidying up files and citations, correcting inconsistencies, making new discoveries and getting ever closer to publishing those family history drafts that have been hanging around for decades.

That was a long way of saying that I will be participating in Jill Ball's Accentuate the Positive geneameme for 2025. With her prompts it is a chance to reflect on our family history achievements for the year. I have made a start and given myself the deadline of New Year's Eve. Stay tuned. It's been an amazing research year.

Books/Genealogy magazines

Trying to prioritise which books  I want to get read over the Christmas/New Year break. Also mindful that I need to finalise my literature review for my Ph D thesis on incarcerated women in colonial Queensland. Most of those are a bit heavy for bedtime reading so I definitely need to have a few fiction books on hand 

Currently reading Grantlee Kieza's book on Mrs Kelly (aka Ellen Kelly, mother of Ned). Did you know she had twelve children? Nine with her first husband and another three with her second husband. The Irish didn't have an easy time in country Victoria.

I also don't mind flicking through genealogy magazines at night although sometimes the temptation to get up out of bed to look at something is strong. To avoid that I keep a pen and notebook beside the bed and write down what to follow up in the morning. The trick is to make sure I am not too cryptic or I won't remember the next day.

Photographs

Just this month a second cousin on my Dad's father's side of the family sent me a photo of Dad's father as a young man. As I have never seen a photo of him I was thrilled but on opening up the image, all I could think of was 'that's where Dad got his ears from'. It's not the sharpest image, but still lets me see who he was. Can't wait to show my brother when we get together after Christmas. 

Resources

I think the only way I am going to keep up with new resources is to set calendar dates with myself to go in and search the what's new section on various websites at least once or twice a year. Even Trove this year has turned up new references to my families with new papers digitised. I had a major breakthrough with one of my incarcerated women because someone had changed an entry in FindAGrave. If I hadn't been rechecking everything I would never have discovered it. Research can be very fluid. 

Visited the old penal settlement
on Noumea

 Talks

 My first talk for 2026 is in January and it is a case study of   using MyHeritage's Theories of Family Relativity to sort my   Mum's DNA matches. Not something I have looked at closely   before but in preparing my slides I am discovering some   interesting matches. Or at least working out which family line the   matches might belong to. Register here for free. 

 My 2026 talks are on the Events page of my website and I am   still adding some as details are finalised. 

 Just noticed that my security certificate is not working despite the   fact that I paid it back in October. Hopefully my supplier can   solve the issue quickly. 

Webinars

Legacy Family Tree Webinars have announced their 2026 program of topics and speakers. Membership makes a great Christmas/New Year present and is definitely good value or you can try and watch the webinar live or within a week to see it for free. 

I have two talks in 2026 - one in January (see above) and the other in September on researching in Western Australia. 

What's Coming Up

Reflection on what I have managed to achieve with my family research this year and what I would like to continue tidying up in 2026. Not to mention learning some new skills especially around the use of AI for genealogy.

I hope that everyone has had an enjoyable time with family and friends in December and wishing you all a safe and happy New Year in 2026. 

Chinese ancestry, more travels and other news - my genealogy weeks 1-30 Nov 2025

 Well November went by in the blink of an eye. It took us longer to get over the dreaded virus than we thought so Yeppoon was more of a rest and relax holiday. 

Still had a good time but returned to Bribie Island just as it was hit with the 'nuclear' storm that left most of the Island without power for days. There must have been dozens and dozens of trees down all over the Island, roads blocked and power lines down. Even telecommunications went down. A week later we still have gangs of workers going around cutting up fallen trees and cutting down dangerous trees or branches. 

Traffic has been a nightmare not helped by those who came to sightsee. Fortunately we had no damage to the house but our potting shed was blown over, some fence palings went along with some bamboo panels around the BBQ area. Others were not so fortunate and lost roofs. Without power for days, most people lost the contents of their fridges and freezers. 

Books

So excited to be given a  review ecopy of Nathan Dylan Goodwin's new book The Hop Pickers Murders which is number 11 in the Morton series. Just in time for a good Christmas read. Although usually I finish Nathan's books within a day or so of starting as I can't put them down. The paper back is not out until next year. 

Conferences

Attended the Dragon Tails conference in Brisbane and stayed over three nights in George Street. Brisbane has changed a lot since I last visited the city centre. 

The conference was good and I learnt about more Chinese sources to try when researching my incarcerated women in colonial Queensland. Even met a descendant of one of the women I am interested in. 

That was the third conference this year where I spoke about different aspects of my PhD thesis. It has really helped focus my thoughts on what I want to say.

Museums

While in Brisbane took the opportunity to visit the MacArthur  Museum. It is where Douglas MacArthur ran his war office during WW2. His office and desk are recreated and the original war boardroom desk is still there. Also surprised  to see in one of the display cases a photo which included Max's mother who was in the WAAF during WW2. 

New Resources

Watched after the event, Andrew Redfern's talk on AI for genealogists hosted by Genealogical Society of Queensland. This is such a fast moving area and Andrew always amazes me with what he gets AI to do. In the coming weeks, the quiet time of Christmas when you don't have family living near by, I hope to try some of the suggestions on my own research and draft family history stories.

Talks

No more talks this year, thank goodness. It was busier than I anticipated with all three conference proposals accepted.

I have agreed to do some talks already in 2026. These are listed up on the Events page of my website.

What's coming up?

Christmas tree King George Square Brisbane

The December and January period are set aside for more writing of biographical sketches of my incarcerated women.

 Plus I am hoping to use AI to tidy up my draft family histories so that I can complete them, or at least the first edition of each. They will be uploaded into Trove through NED and free to access. That is one way to ensure that my research is not lost if I meet the proverbial bus.

Try to find a little time for family history research especially if you are visiting relatives. Have a wonderful and safe Christmas with family and friends. Although I am hoping to do another post before Christmas

Until next time, Shauna