Wednesday 22 January 2014

Genealogy Notes 16 -23 Jan 2014 - blast from my own past

It has been a week of surprises with my brother making a surprise visit which was good as it gave us a chance to start planning the surprise 80th birthday party for our mother. We went through some old photos and starting selecting photos that we want to scan and put together as a slide show - almost a 'this is your life'. Her birthday is not till April so I have some time to scan, arrange and put it all together but the hard part is selecting the photos and it is obvious we have some gaps. Next visit to Mum's I will have to have a sneaky look in the back room to see what I can find in her collection of photos!

Another surprise was that Max and I realised we had been in our new house a whole year and I have to say that went super quick. I downloaded the real estate photos from when our house was on the market (luckily they were still there) as we have made quite a few changes especially to the gardens, driveway and side access. I need to take some new photos so that we have some before and after photos as I am sure we will not remember a few years down the track.

Fortunately I had written, before my brother's visit, my Week 3 Probates (wills and administration) blog post as part of my 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records blog challenge before he arrived. Rereading some of my probate files for the blog was interesting because I realised I had not fully appreciated things listed in inventories and what they were really telling me. Items of furniture and lists of personal effects can give us an idea of where and how they lived. I also participated in Cassmob's Australia Day geneameme challenge C'mon Aussie so I am well and truly ahead on writing blog posts as compared to this time last year.

I have been working on my talk for the Bribie Island Historical Society in March on my Carnegie Family from Toorbul and in reviewing all my notes on the family, I am discovering new information and relooking at some of my previous interpretation of the family's history. This will be the first time that I have solely talked about one of my own families so I know it has to be interesting for those not related but still interested in the area in which they lived. Putting the talk together has been a challenge but a great way of telling the family's story. I might even try it for other families just for my own benefit.

I completed the National Institute of Genealogical Studies course on Connecting Families Online. I can proudly say I received 100% on the exam which was a bit of a surprise as some of the questions were a bit tricky and could have been taken two ways I thought.  Now theoretically I have some free time!

My online reading has been Dick Eastman's e-newsletter (and good to see him up and about again), Lost Cousins, Society of Australian Genealogists e-newsletter, Queensland Family History Society's Snippets and e-news from the Genealogical Society of Queensland to mention just a few.

I have been trying to trace down some Spencer descendants for Max and it now looks like there was even a Spencer family connection here on Bribie Island back in the 1930s. So that means that both Max's mother (Burstow and Eldridge lines) and his father's families have connections to Bribie even though his Mum and Dad didn't meet each other until World War 2! It is either a small world or everyone passed through Bribie at some point!

I am heading out to the hairdresser's this afternoon for a new look. Then it will be photo time as I want to update the photo on my website (now quite dated) and the one on my social media accounts is also a bit dated). I am not fond of having my photo taken but 2014 is the year for a new image all round. The last time I was going to do it was Easter 2013, we took the photos then lost the camera. Stay tuned for the new me.

Next week I will be fine tuning my talks for the  Unlock the Past Genealogy cruise and there is a quick trip down to Canberra. I am a member of the National Archives of Australia advisory committee for the centenary of World War One and a key program is their new Discovering ANZACS website. It will be good to see what progress they have made since the last meeting.

Happy researching this week.




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