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

Books, Talks, Conferences & Trips: My Genealogy Weeks 31 Jan to - 28 Feb 2025

The big highlight of the last few weeks was my confirmation report and presentation to Griffith University assessors for my PhD thesis. A 10000 word report including a literature report tends to focus your thoughts on what your topic is and is it worthwhile as a PhD topic. Personally I think telling the life stories of over 1700 women in colonial Queensland gaols is fascinating. Thankfully the assessing panel agreed and I will get formal approval soon but they told me on the day I had passed.

My Easter orchid continues to flower so it is also a reminder that summer is finishing and autumn is coming.

Books

Just finished Tea Cooper's The Naturalists Daughter. Another great read and when I went to the library to borrow another of her books, none on the shelf. 

Bribie Family History Association book club has started up for the year and we had two books waiting for us. Both look really interesting and both authors I have not read before. 

Heather Morris' book was hard to put down. I hadn't been aware of those events (trying not to do a spoiler alert).

Plus I have a couple of books people have lent me or given to me. The obvious question whenever I meet my friends is, have you read it yet? Now out of the cupboard and on the desk where I can see them. Pity I can't do that with e-books, articles, journals and magazines. Sadly that is a case of out of sight out of mind. I bought a new IPad with lots more memory so I'm hoping to get more e-reading done on my travels in May.

Conferences & Travel

RootsTech 2025 is only a few weeks away now. I'm not familiar with the keynote speakers named so far and will probably just end up watching pre recorded sessions due to the time differences. With over 150 sessions to choose from we won't be bored over the weekend. Remember it is free to watch online.

But not as good as meeting people in person. One of the 2023 highlights was meeting Nathan Dylan Goodwin in person.

The NSW/ACT annual conference is in Wollongong in September and I am still thinking should I go or do my planned trip the east coast of Queensland to Rockhampton and Townsville. Planning to do some PhD research up that way and want to do it before summer arrives again. 

We have our trip to Bali again in August and I don't get back from my Swedish trip till the beginning of June. A Wollongong trip would mean driving through Newcastle and a spot of research on Dad's family has been in my travel plan since pre Covid days.

Stewart's Creek Penal Establishment in 1912
image courtesy State Library Queensland

The other conference I definitely want to attend is the Professional Historian's Association conference in Darwin in October. That will also give me the chance to pop over to Broome, another must visit Australian town on my bucket list. I only have a few to go so it would be good to tick this one off.

New Resources

Excited to learn that Findmypast has added 207,233 cemetery records from New Zealand. Regions include Christchurch, Selwyn District, Far North District, Onehunga, Ruapehu and Auckland. There is a list of cemeteries included on the search page. Good news for those of us with trans Tasman families.

Still with Findmypast they added 307,800 new newspaper pages updating 67 existing titles and adding Bromley. Digitised newspapers are so good for finding out family stories we might never know about. 

Talks

My Monash library and Noosaville library talks were well attended and lots of fun. I enjoy giving my search strategies talk because I can actually see people thinking of why they need to search variant spellings of given names, surnames and places. 

My next talk is at the Connections 2025 conference in Brisbane. I'm looking forward to catching up with lots of genie friends and learning heaps as well.

What's Coming Up?

Bribie Family History genie chats has started up for the year and we are doing Thomas MacEntee's do over or go over program with his permission. Already I have found it useful as I picked my Somerset families on Dad's side to review as I am getting lots of DNA matches to those families. Since I last looked Ancestry has added lots of Somerset records and with images. Already pushed a couple of families back a generation or two. But also looking to record everything properly as I go. Looking forward to seeing how the other participants are going at the next Genie Chat session.

Have to say it is nice to actually spending some dedicated time on my own family research.

RootsTech 2025 will be a full on weekend and there are a few sessions I would like to see live. Maybe I should plan another visit for 2026. That will be three years after my last visit. Plus I am giving a talk on Australian military records on the Thursday. 

Until next time, happy searching. Shauna