Tuesday, 24 April 2018

ANZAC day, genealogy talks & other news - Genealogy Notes 16-23 April 2018

Another week and another email from someone who found me via a blog post. This was exciting and I jumped up to grab an album of my mother's that was packed up when she went into the nursing home last year. But the one I wanted wasn't with the others, now the big question is where is it? There are boxes and boxes of photos for me to sort and digitise but with no real deadline they have just been sitting in the cupboard. With this motivation the coming week is going to be all about photographs and digitising them.

Blogs
Having just written the above paragraph on the value of blogs, I haven't had a chance this week to write anything. Tomorrow is ANZAC day and in past years I have written about my military ancestors.

In 2013 I wrote about The Brothers Finn and World War One - with this the final anniversary year of WW1 it is fitting to highlight this post again. Research (and blog posts) are not static and in 2016, three years after my first post, I wrote a Trove Tuesday blog World War One and the Finn Brothers.  In this blog I wrote about my excitement at finding a photograph of all three brothers in the same newspaper The Week, 31 Jan 1919. They all returned home but the youngest, Denis had been wounded and spent time in a German prisoner of war camp. The other two brothers never married. Lest we forget.

Journals
With the mornings getting darker, I'm no longer leaping out of bed and fumbling around in the dark trying to make a cup of tea without waking anyone else up. However there is no chance of going back to sleep so I have been having a reading feast of genealogy journals and magazines that having been piling up in the study. There are so many good stories and lots of tips and advice and URLs to check out on the laptop. One journal can hijack your day as you start exploring whatever the topic was.

Of course this is my print journals and to read my digital journals I have to actually sit at the study desk, not as comfy as being snug in bed. But the time will come when all journals will be digital as it is a much cheaper option for societies. Plus if I'm honest I won't need as many bookshelves! I just need to schedule time to read but so often I am hijacked by the desire to actually do research.

Talks
My talk at Caloundra Family History Research Inc went well with a packed house and interested audience. Received a lovely certificate, purple (what else) photo frame, a silky oak bottle stopper and a nice bottle of sav blanc to use the stopper with.

I stayed on to hear one of their own members talk about his family connection to some well known criminals. He was very entertaining and had people laughing and as someone who also has lots of criminals in the family, it can be hard talking about them. But there are some fantastic records with lots of family information and of course they are always in the newspaper!

The Gold Coast Family History Society have invited me to speak at their next seminar day on 26 May and one of the talks is my favourite - Skeletons in the Family which looks at convicts, prisons and asylums. My ancestors will be on display yet again. The other talk is on Archives You Should Know. Full details about the event are here. The Society meets at Nerang which is about half way between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Looking at their advertising I need to update my photo. That one was taken in Inverell, NSW in April 2014 and hard to believe that was four years ago. I will need a hair cut before the Gold Coast talk so time to take another good photo of me. Just wish it wasn't so hard.

What's Coming Up?
Memorabilia at the AFAQ cottage at Bongaree
There is no U3A this week due to ANZAC day but I am chairing the local history class this week and telling them all about the first five Presidents of the Amateur Fishing Association of Queensland. There is a family history element and it is a talk I gave to the Bribie Island Historical Society last year. Then in the afternoon, the current President of the Historical Society is giving a talk on Women of Bribie which should be fascinating. The U3A serve a wonderful afternoon tea for the modest gold coin entry.

On the writing front there are blog posts and an article for The In-Depth Genealogist. Weeks go fast but then months seem to go even quicker.

Until next week time a great genealogy week with many happy findings.



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