Remember 1 January updates & other news: My Genealogy Week 8-14 January 2025

Well the first week of the year went by in a blur. I mostly worked on researching the women who will feature in my PhD The Grass Wasn't Always Greener.

With all the rain we have had lately, there are lots of lovely blooms in the yard. Max bought some inside to brighten up the house. Lots of red.

Books

Currently reading another one of Meg Kennealy's books which I enjoy. 

Just finished The Fossil Hunter by Tea Cooper and I do love her books on early New South Wales.

Looking forward to our Bribie Family History Association Book Club starting up again in February. Bev always manages to make an interesting choice, and not one that I would necessarily pick for myself.

Conferences

Uploaded my slides and handout for Connections 2025. My session is all about archives. What else!

RootsTech 2025 is on in just a few weeks. The program is now live and it is free to register. You can select what talks you want to listen to and no need to stay awake all night as sessions are mostly prerecorded.

Resources

I forgot to mention last week that the 1 January meant a new release of records into the public domain. So time to look for new BDMs and archival records, and not just in Queensland. Check out Public Record Office Victoria's What's New in December 2024.

FamilySearch continue to amaze me with their use of AI over Australian wills and probates. Fantastic for locating relationships you might not be aware of. For example, a will/probate is usually indexed under the name of the deceased. With AI you also get everyone mentioned  in the will including children and other beneficiaries. Fantastic. The full text search over other records is equally good. Check out the projects in FamilySearch labs. 

Talks

First talk for 2025 is tomorrow with the Caloundra Family History Research Group. The topic is researching Scottish ancestors. James Carnegie's parents were from Montrose, Angus, Scotland and Mary Finn's parents were from Rathdrum, Wicklow, Ireland.

James Carnegie and Mary Finn

For a list of where I am speaking check out the Events page of my website.

Travel

Another trip to Sweden and my little grandson's 3rd birthday. 

On the way home I will spend a week in Ireland visiting the Rathdrum area of Wicklow where my Finn and Fegan families came from and also going up to Northern Ireland to visit Belfast and Islandmagee where my GGG grandparents Stewart Heddles and Agnes Templeton are buried. 

Also having a stopover in Doha so I don't arrive totally washed out in Copenhagen. 

What's Coming Up?

Bookfest in Brisbane and the opportunity to buy some great book bargains. Last year I showed great restraint limiting myself to $100 and one green shopping bag. Achieved but quite a few went back on the tables and choosing that final selection was hard.

 Do I want to do that again? Do I need more books? 

Until next time happy researching Shauna

New Year, Inspiring Blogs & Other Genealogy News: My Genealogy Week 1-7 January 2025

 Welcome to 2025 and another great year of family history research. 

I spent the holiday break on another attempt to weed out my two remaining vertical file cabinets. Tossing what I don't need, scanning what I do need, and putting aside my paper birth, marriage and death certificates for donation to the Queensland Family History Society. After scanning of course.

As usual my library has grown and these new additions are all added into Library Thing, which is also an app on my phone to avoid buying something twice. Yes I am feeling organised to take on 2025.

Blogs

I participated in Jill Ball's Accentuate the Positive 2024 annual blog post. You can read mine here and then go to Jill's Geniaus blogpost for the accumulation of all the contributors to get more ideas for 2025. At the time of writing this post, Jill is still receiving blogposts, so just watch her blog site for the accumulation update.

Books

As mentioned above, there are some new books on the shelves.

Conferences

Looking forward to the AFFHO Congress in Brisbane in March. Read more about Connections here.

Online Webinars

Looking forward to the next series of Rippling Effects of the Great Irish Famine which starts at the end of January. Some excellent speakers including our own Dr Perry McIntyre and it runs for five weeks until the end of February. Lectures are recorded and you can watch at a time that suits. And it's free. 

The previous series is still available on their You Tube channel. See it here.

Resources

The end of the year is always a great time to get a round up of what has been added to various databases. MyHeritage does their compilation as a diagram which really appeals to me. Read their blog post for more details here. Staggering numbers.

I'm a bit behind with Ancestry but I just read that they added over 13 million records in November. it is easy to see all the new collections - just visit the recent collections page and select the country of interest.

FamilySearch also did a blog post on their year in review. Read it here. 

How can anyone keep up with all these new resources? It really is a great time for researching our family history.

Talks

My web page for events has been updated for 2025. See where I am speaking (the list is updated from time to time). Just check the Events page for details. 

March and the Congress will soon be here so I hope to catch up with lots of friends and colleagues in Brisbane.

What's Coming Up?

My first talk for the year is at the Caloundra Family History Research Group on 16 January. In person, and hybrid, I will be looking at Scottish ancestors and how to trace them. Always a fun group to visit.

Research on my PhD is ongoing and amazing how fast 20 hours a week goes. At least there is no travel time.

Have a great geneaweek and until next time, have fun finding those ancestors. Shauna

Genealogy cruising, geneabooks & other news, November to December 2024

November went by in a bit of a blur - recovering from surgery, celebrating my birthday and getting ready for the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise in December. Once we were home from that trip, it was get ready for Christmas and the New Year. A whirlwind couple of months.

Cruise speakers with Alan and Anthea Phillips

Blogs

In my review of the year I realised I had written no blogs for my Genie Rambles on my website and not as many as I had hoped in Diary. Plus there were the two guest blogs for the Genealogical Society of Queensland. 

In a last minute rush I have written a report on the genealogy cruise, read it here and revisited an Aussie Christmas blog from a few years ago, read it here. Updating it made me realise how much has changed in the last few years.

I am also going to be part of Geniaus' annual review of our achievements in the past year. 2024 has been a strange year for me, mostly focused on my PhD research, but still finding new things on the family. Read my Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2024 here.

As part of my plan to move all my research online, I am republishing articles I wrote for various journals in the past. To start with, I have done all my articles between 2015 and 2017 for Going In-Depth for the In-Depth Genealogist, now defunct. I had forgotten how much of my own family history I had written about so this will be another way via Google for relatives to find my research. See the articles on a new page of Diary called Genealogy Downunder.

Books

In some ways not being well is good as you can lie around and read. Over the last two months I have read quite a few and have gained some new books thanks to Santa and the Unlock the Past bookstore on the cruise. Looking forward to picking up some new hints.

Some of my Christmas reading

Conferences and Travel

The March AFFHO Congress is coming up fast. I am registered, booked my accommodation and the only thing left to do is finish my talk and handout.

The ACT/NSW conference is in Woollongong this year and in person. I am considering going but it is also the same time that I was planning to go to England. Need to sort out my travel plans for 2025 as there is quite a bit of travel coming up, Bali (holiday), Sweden (family), Ireland (family history) , England (family history) and in Australia, Darwin (a history conference) and Broome (bucket list).

And don't forget a virtual visit to RootsTech 2025. It's free and online. I am giving two talks. But I will miss the in person experience that I had in 2023.

2023 was a great experience

Resources

Wow so many new records from Ancestry, Findmypast, MyHeritage and FamilySearch. And let's not forget Trove and all those wonderful newspapers. I honestly can't keep up although I know most of my family lines need updating.

Talks

2025 always starts early for me as I accept invitations to speak at various events. There are quite a few  in the first six months of 2025 and you can check them out on the Events page of my website. Looking forward to catching up with everyone again.

What's coming up next?

I am still planning to publish at least one of my family histories online through NED. It is just taking longer than I thought to tidy up and make the endnotes consistent.

This will make my family research available through Trove for other researchers. Not so much a family history, but a record of my research on each of the families. I don't want all the hard work of the last, nearly 50 years, lost when I am no longer here.

Always lurking in the background is my PhD research on 1750 women incarcerated in colonial Queensland gaols. Never short of anything to do there.

As always, have fun researching. Until next time, Shauna