This week I completed the third of my blog posts Days 13-19 on the 10th Unlock the Past genealogy cruise. I also did the review blog of the whole cruise and what I thought were highlights and negatives. Looking at my notes it will take me a while to follow up on URLs I noted and suggestions to explore for my brick walls.
As it was a rainy weekend I decided to follow up on the Irish leads I had reported on last Diary post. A more thorough search of the Catholic parish registers in Findmypast confirmed that I had found more siblings of my great great grandfather John Finn (father of the three soldiers mentioned in the paragraph above). I found more references to Finn and Beakey sponsors who are probably related to my GGG grandparents James Finn and Rosanna Beakey. BUT nothing that definitely ties them all together as siblings or other relatives. A work still in progress.
Although finding John's siblings, I still could not find reference to his own baptism in 1856 so in some frustration I simply Googled parish names for where the family lived based on his siblings places of baptism. This led me to the Irish Genealogy Toolkit and the page on the Wicklow Family History Centre. This is where I learnt that there is a gaping hole (their words) in the registers for Kilbride and Barndarrig from 1838 and 1858. As John was born ca 1856 his baptism is probably in that 'hole'.
The family seem to have moved around so why have I now focused on that parish. While browsing Findmypast I also checked out some of the prison and court of petty session entries for my Finns and Beakeys. Surprise surprise, my John liked a drink even before he left Ireland for Queensland. Quite a few references to drunk and disorderly and even better some time in prison. How do I know he is mine? Well his physical description in the Irish prison matches exactly his prison description in the Brisbane prison. In the Irish prison register he gives his birthplace as Barndarrig, hence my looking more closely at this parish.
Although I have not been able to find out more on James Finn and Rosanna Beakey apart from possible siblings or other relatives I feel that I am progressing a little on my Irish family. A quick search of newspapers didn't reveal anything exciting but I probably need to spend more time as Rosanna Beakey's name has quite a few spelling variations as does James Finn.
I have been looking at what is coming up in the genealogy world and whether I can get there or not.
New South Wales has the Kiama Family History Centre family, local and social history expo on 16 April 2016 and that is an easy drive from Sydney. The NSW &ACT annual genealogy conference is in Camden on 9-11 September 2016 and is an easy drive from either Sydney or Canberra. This year the theme is Cowpastures and Beyond. Both are probably too far for me to get to easily and without considerable cost. Perhaps I will save the money for Rootstech 2017 which is 8-11 Feb 2017!
Unlock the Past is having an Adelaide genealogy expo on 7-8 October 2016 and a trip to Adelaide is also a chance to visit family and friends. I had planned to go to their event last August but my broken elbow meant I had to miss out.
August is National Family History Month and I will be having a busy month with the launch in Perth, and commitments already to speak in Nambour and Noosa in Queensland. Plus there are a couple of other speaking engagements not yet confirmed for August.
The new NFHM website is progressing and we are still tweaking the events calendar which should make things easier for me. At least that is the plan. Not long now before I release the 2016 NFHM news.
One Facebook post that really caught my attention this week was Katherine R Willson's Genealogy on Facebook compilation. It is 209 pages with over 7,000 links which must represent a lot of people doing genealogy via Facebook. Makes me wonder how many Australian societies have their own Facebook page and are using it to actively attract new members to their society? Is your society on the list? Have you liked their page? If your society is not on the list, why not suggest they start a Facebook page? I follow quite a few Australian societies via Facebook and you really do learn about new resources and what is happening locally.
This week I am planning on working on a new research guide which is always an opportunity to do some of my own genealogy as I look for examples from my own research to include in the guide. I also want to do a blog post for Women's History Month which is March and I probably should blog my Irish ancestors for St Patrick's Day later this week.
Have a great genealogy and family history week. Until next time.
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| Celebrity Solstice in Tauranga, New Zealand |
Another Trove Tuesday blog post led me to discovering photographs of two of my great uncles and what was really fantastic was that all three brothers' photos from WW1 were in the same newspaper article with a caption that said they were 'the sons of John Finn of Brisbane'. Read it here.
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| Denis Finn, The Queenslander, 8 Jan 1916 via Trove |
Although finding John's siblings, I still could not find reference to his own baptism in 1856 so in some frustration I simply Googled parish names for where the family lived based on his siblings places of baptism. This led me to the Irish Genealogy Toolkit and the page on the Wicklow Family History Centre. This is where I learnt that there is a gaping hole (their words) in the registers for Kilbride and Barndarrig from 1838 and 1858. As John was born ca 1856 his baptism is probably in that 'hole'.
The family seem to have moved around so why have I now focused on that parish. While browsing Findmypast I also checked out some of the prison and court of petty session entries for my Finns and Beakeys. Surprise surprise, my John liked a drink even before he left Ireland for Queensland. Quite a few references to drunk and disorderly and even better some time in prison. How do I know he is mine? Well his physical description in the Irish prison matches exactly his prison description in the Brisbane prison. In the Irish prison register he gives his birthplace as Barndarrig, hence my looking more closely at this parish.
Although I have not been able to find out more on James Finn and Rosanna Beakey apart from possible siblings or other relatives I feel that I am progressing a little on my Irish family. A quick search of newspapers didn't reveal anything exciting but I probably need to spend more time as Rosanna Beakey's name has quite a few spelling variations as does James Finn.
I have been looking at what is coming up in the genealogy world and whether I can get there or not.
New South Wales has the Kiama Family History Centre family, local and social history expo on 16 April 2016 and that is an easy drive from Sydney. The NSW &ACT annual genealogy conference is in Camden on 9-11 September 2016 and is an easy drive from either Sydney or Canberra. This year the theme is Cowpastures and Beyond. Both are probably too far for me to get to easily and without considerable cost. Perhaps I will save the money for Rootstech 2017 which is 8-11 Feb 2017!
Unlock the Past is having an Adelaide genealogy expo on 7-8 October 2016 and a trip to Adelaide is also a chance to visit family and friends. I had planned to go to their event last August but my broken elbow meant I had to miss out.
August is National Family History Month and I will be having a busy month with the launch in Perth, and commitments already to speak in Nambour and Noosa in Queensland. Plus there are a couple of other speaking engagements not yet confirmed for August.
The new NFHM website is progressing and we are still tweaking the events calendar which should make things easier for me. At least that is the plan. Not long now before I release the 2016 NFHM news.
One Facebook post that really caught my attention this week was Katherine R Willson's Genealogy on Facebook compilation. It is 209 pages with over 7,000 links which must represent a lot of people doing genealogy via Facebook. Makes me wonder how many Australian societies have their own Facebook page and are using it to actively attract new members to their society? Is your society on the list? Have you liked their page? If your society is not on the list, why not suggest they start a Facebook page? I follow quite a few Australian societies via Facebook and you really do learn about new resources and what is happening locally.
This week I am planning on working on a new research guide which is always an opportunity to do some of my own genealogy as I look for examples from my own research to include in the guide. I also want to do a blog post for Women's History Month which is March and I probably should blog my Irish ancestors for St Patrick's Day later this week.
Have a great genealogy and family history week. Until next time.
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