Yes it has been two months but I have travelled thousands of kilometres and had some amazing adventures. These days I only travel with my smart phone which is not easy to write blog posts on. However if you are a Facebook follower than I regularly post photos of my daily doings.
Books
Still trying not to buy books but on my recent trip to Islandmagee in Northern Ireland I couldn't help myself. This is where Dad's family is from and the two books are good histories of the area with some interesting historical post cards as illustrations in one of the books. A bit weighty for my luggage but fortunately I packed light to start with.
Genealogy Travels
On my annual visit to my family in Sweden, I had a stopover in Doha for a few days.
The spice market was amazing as were the camels just down the road from my hotel. Not something you see every day.
After my two weeks in Sweden, I decided to have a quick week in Ireland to tick off two bucket list items. The first was to visit the Roman Catholic Church in Rathdrum, Wicklow where my great great grandparents John Finn and Sarah Fegan married. The second was to visit my great great grandparents Stewart Heddles and Agnes Templeton's grave in Islandmagee in Antrim in Northern Ireland. You can read more of my Irish adventures in my guest blog for the Genealogical Society of Queensland which will be published next week.
St John's Islandmagee, Antrim, Northern Ireland where my GGG grandparents Stewart Heddles and Agnes Templeton are buried.
New Resources
I have had no chance to explore some of the new record releases or webinars. I haven't even kept up with genealogy society journals or genealogy magazines through the local library.
The best way to find out what is new is to subscribe to the free newslettes which usually provide a montly update.
PhD Incarcerated women in colonial Queensland
Slowly plugging away with the biographies of my 1750 women who were incarcerated in Queensland gaols between 1850 and 1900. So many interesting stories and it is going to be hard to decide who goes into the thesis. I keep telling myself you have to write a 100,000 thesis not just do the research, which of course is the fun place.
Talks
A busy time with a talk on my North Queensland incarcerated women at the Australian Historical Association conference in Townsville.
Two talks at the Central Queensland Family History Association premises. It has been a few years since I have spoken at their library and I am looking forward to catching up with everyone again.
After my travels I have a talk on immigration records for Moreton City Libraries at the Pine Rivers Heritage Museum. A great place to visit especially if you have any ancestors in that area.
What's Coming Up?
More travel as I leave on Friday for North Queensland and the Australian Historical Association conference in Townsville. On the way up we have stops in Rockhampton and Bowen. Yes I want photos of the Big Bull and the Big Mango. But I am going to meet a second cousin in Bowen who has also been researching the Price family history.
My involvement in the AHA conference is three fold - one I am a speaker on women incarcerated in North Queensland gaols, two I am chairing an interesting session on Chinese migration issues and thirdly I will just be sitting back and listening to some fascinating presentations. There are multple streams which means you need to mak a decision as to which one to go to.
After the conference we are doing a trip out to Winton via Charters Towers and Hughenden. Checking out the Dinosaur Trail as well as other historica places. Coming back via Barcaldine to Rockhampton where I will be researching some of my Central Queensland women at the Central Queensland Family History Associatin library. Lots of my names appear in their online index so I'm hoping to discover some treasures.
Then home via Tannum Sands where we are catching up with friends.
Hopefully there will be another Diary post about mid July. Have fun researching until then, Shauna
