Travel adventures ahead, books, talks & other news: My Genealogy Weeks 1-30 April 2025

 Another great few weeks progressing my family history drafts and following up new ideas from the AFFHO congress last month. 

Plus the research on my 1750 women for my PhD is ramping up and I am loving discovering their stories. Although often sad if not tragic. 

My gardening friend has given us a plant whose flower is truly unique. Meet the Bat Plant! I just hope that we can coax flowers out of it just as she does. So weird looking.

In a review of my commitments I decided to stand down from President of Bribie Family History Association after two years. Prior to that I was running Bribie Genealogy on my own for however many years so well and truly time for new perspectives. 

Handing over committee meetings, admin of the Facebook page and BFHA blog, and the organisation of the speaker program and TechGirl at meetings will be a big timesaver. I can simply sit back and enjoy the meetings. Definitely less stress.

Blogs

Of late my blogging has been less regular mainly due to too many commitments. However I have just discovered that this Diary blog is the front runner in a list of Australia genealogy blogs.  Closely followed by the Genealogical Society of Victoria and GeniAus. Check out the list of Australian bloggers and discover more interesting blogs to follow.

Given that accolade I am going to try and keep that position and be more informative and timely. Although finding time is probably my biggest issue.

Books

Moreton Libraries continues to assist my PhD research and it is often surprising how many books I want to read are within the library itself. If not, they get them in for me on inter library loan. How fantastic and makes remote research so much more accessible.

The Bribie Family History book club is looking at Kate Morton books at the moment. I hadn't read her before and mine is set around the time of the First World War (almost Downton Abbey or Upstairs Downstairs). The other members have different books so our next catch up will be chatting about the different story lines and time periods. 

Conferences

My next conference is in July in Townsville with the Australian Historical Association where I am giving a paper on my North Queensland ladies. It's been a while since I have spoken at an academic conference but I am looking forward to the other sessions and meeting like minded researchers. Will also be doing some research in both Townsville and Rockhampton and meeting up with a cousin in Bowen. 

May even get out to do Australia's dinosaur trail visiting Hughenden, Richmond and Winton. Plus we can't go past without saying hello to Muttaburrasaurus at Muttaburra.

Talks

Can't linger too long on our travels up north as I have to be back in Moreton for a talk on immigration at the Pine Rivers Heritage Museum in mid July.

It was good being part of the Legacy Family Tree Webinars 24 hour marathon and I am still catching up on sessions I want to view.

Received my goodie bag as part of the RootsTech 2025 media group. A handy bag and some very nice note cards. 

What's coming up next?

My little grandson is turning 3 and so I am off to Sweden for birthdays and Mother's day. Shame they live so far away but I do get a European holiday each year. 

After I leave them I am heading over to Ireland and will be travelling around Wicklow after my Finn and Fegan ancestors then up to Belfast for my Heddles and Brennan ancestors on Islandmagee. Always love walking in my ancestors footsteps when I can.

Until next time stay safe and happy researching. Shauna

Congress 2025 review, blogs, books, & other news: My genealogy weeks 16-31 March 2025

 Another busy fortnight with four days away in Brisbane for the Connections conference. Fresh on the heels of the cyclone we have had another extreme weather event which has flooded Queensland from top to bottom. So many people and animals have been impacted. Truly heartbreaking.

Blogs

I was thrilled to see my Diary blog listed at No 37 in the top 100 genealogy blogs compiled by FeedSpot considering that I have been struggling to keep my blogging mojo. There are some old blog favourites in this list as well as some new ones to check out.

Books

Yes I said no more books so only buying three at the conference was progress, more or less. Glenville Pike's local history Croydon Gold is of interest to my PhD, The Scots and their fish by G W Lockhart might help me understand my Scottish salmon farmers and Kay Ryan's What's in a name? a journey of immigration, infidelity and incarceration is a local history with some connection to my PhD topic.

Conferences

I have written a review blog of the Connections conference on my website. See it here with some links to websites that might be of interest.

The next AFFHO Congress will be in Wellington, New Zealand in 2027. Seems a long time in the future but never to early to start planning to attend. At least for this conference junkie.

 New resources

Excited to see these New South Wales newspapers due to appear on Trove soon.

• Adelong Mining Journal and Tumut Express (1858-1860)
• Border Post (1856-1860) [Albury City Libraries]
• Cootamundra Liberal (1888-1906)
• Germanton Times and Tumbarumba Advocate (1884-1885)
• Junee Democrat (1899-1904)
• South Coast Register (1926-1948) [Shoalhaven Libraries]
• Tumbarumba Times (1906-1955)

Check out the what's coming soon to Trove page here.

Talks

For the Legacy Family Tree Webinars 24 hour marathon I am giving a session on using MyHeritage Downunder for genealogy research. A little bit of Australian and Canadian research and a look at the new Cousin Finder. Register free here for my talk or any of the others over the 24 hours.

What's coming up

My next task for AFFHO is to organise the judging of the Nick Vine Hall awards for 2025. Collating the entries and then sending them off to the judges. They then do the hard work and I collate the scores in July in time for Family History Month in August.

Don't miss Legacy Family Tree Webinars 24 hour marathon coming up on 3/4 April 2025. Sessions are in time friendly zones or you can watch later for the following week.

Until next time, happy researching. Shauna

Conferences, new editions & other news: My genealogy fortnight 1-15 March 2025

The first two weeks of March were full on with Cyclone Alfred hovering around Bribie Island for a few days. Had to be the slowest cyclone ever and travelled all the way down the Queensland coast to impact the Gold Coast and northern New South Wales. Strangely it was not until after the cyclone/weather event hit the mainland that Bribie actually got the strong winds and rain. Other parts of south east Queensland were not so lucky. 

To keep me busy indoors was RootsTech 2025 with lots of talks on offer. The Find Your Relatives feature ends on 11 April so make sure you check that out before then. I have 734 relatives now but mostly 8th cousins. Just be careful that you check trees and matches for any wrong assumptions, especially the further back the match is.

Below is a map of my Find Your Relatives connections in the US and Canada. Sometimes I find that these link up to my more distant DNA matches so a useful tool to explore. Remember ends 11 April.

This weekend we had the Scottish Indexes Conference so lots of learning this month so far. You can download past conference handouts from the website. The date for the next one is 13 September 2025 and registration is free but given the value offered, a donation to their website is a nice idea.

Blogs

Stay tuned for a blog or two on the upcoming AFFHO Congress where I will mention the sessions I attend and other bits and pieces for those who can't attend in person. Hybrid conferences definitely make it more affordable for people without having to spend on airfares and accommodation. Maybe we were spoilt by Covid.

Books

I have been working on a second edition of my Australian Genealogy Online and that should be at the printers this week. Looking forward to seeing the updated edition. Just checked Gould Genealogy & History and the ebook is here and the print book here.

Conferences

Next weekend is Connections 2025 the biannual AFFHO conference which is in Brisbane. I will be staying at the venue rather than doing the highway shuffle for three days. Looking forward to catching up with friends and hearing some interesting presentations.

I am giving one session Mining the archives and attending the welcome function and the conference dinner.On the Thursday night pre conference I will be joining APG ANZ members for dinner and a drink at a local iconic hotel. 

Talks

My next session is for Legacy Family Tree Webinars and it will be part of their 24 hour marathon on 4-5 April. Sessions are live in the time zone of the presenter so you can watch sessions in the middle of the night or at a more convenient time. Registration is free, just pick which sessions you want to listen to live. My session is Discover MyHeritage from Downunder at 3pm on Friday 4 April.

What's Coming Up?

Bribie Family History Association's AGM is now being held at the April monthly meeting as March was cancelled due to the shut down occasioned by Cyclone Alfred. We also have Christine Ianna a conservation specialist talking about saving our soggy treasures. Little did I think that we would have a cyclone just before her visit.

As usual my PhD research and reading will take up time with the weeks just zipping past. 

Until next time, happy searching. Shauna