This is the first week of my new weekly genealogy progress diary. Yes I am doing my own genealogy. And I am having lots of fun and learning heaps.
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| Honour Roll Peachester |
Events in Person
This is certainly something I have missed over the last two years. Yesterday I attended the History Queensland meeting at Peachester. Niles Elvery from Queensland State Archives did a talk on Peachester school which was a good summary of education records in general.
Each of the member society present gave a quick catch up of their activities over the last six months. We had a wonderful morning tea, lunch and tour of the Peachester Heritage Centre. And we could catch up with people we hadn't seen except via Zoom for ages. It was really good.
Online conferences
Last weekend I spoke at the Virtual Genealogy Association annual conference. I didn't watch any live sessions due to the time difference. I also registed for the FHS Really Useful Family History Show and again because of time differences, I opted to watch after. Therefore this week I have steadily been making my way through the FHS webinars and classes as the link expires this week. Sometimes it is hard to watch everything before links expire. The VGA has given us until March which is not so hectic.
One of the good things about webinars is that you can pause and then on a different screen call up a website and do some searches or whatever to follow up on what the speaker is saying. Of course, this makes for longer viewing but can be worthwhile when you discover new things. The FHS only cost me $20AU and that is excellent value when there were more than 20 speakers/talks on a range of topics. So much to learn or is that remember?
Writing My Family Histories
With my new dedicated focus, I now have Cornish, Scots and Irish draft family histories drafted with images, citations and list of contents and illustrations. The indexing will happen after I am satisfied with the text.
Mum's Price and White families are almost complete and I spend a lot of time trying to find my great grandfathers Thomas Price and Herbert William White nieces and nephews in the 1939 Register.
Finding people can be an issue when handwriting is faint, poor or both. Robert James White was finally located under Robert F White - and I won't tell you how many Robert Whites were in Wiltshire in 1939!
The concentrated writing has made me realise that I have more on some lines and less on other family lines. This of course has led to more research to balance up each family history as I want them to be of interest to anyone descended from the same immigrant couple.
U3A
One reason I am making some good writing progress is that I am not tutoring at U3A this term. However, with the goal to have all my family histories done by the new year, what will I do next year? So I have agreed to go back to tutoring and will do Advanced English genealogy in Term 1, Advanced Scottish genealogy in Term 3 and Advanced Australian genealogy in Term 4. That should be fun and keep me busy and learning new things at the same time.
Overseas Tripping
I can hear some of you saying 'what about Term 2'? My son lives in Sweden and I will finally be a grandmother in early 2022. The plan is to visit them and also do some tripping around England, Ireland or Scotland depending on how Covid shapes up in 2022. It is hard to plan now with all the uncertainty around this Fourth Wave in Europe but I will map out some travel plans with different scenarios and then see how 2022 unfolds.
Talks
There have been lots of invitations to speak next year and so far there are all in the first few months as my travel plans are so uncertain. Some in person, some hybrid and some simply Zoom. At least Covid has changed how we interact online and given us so many more options to hear speakers without expensive or time consuming travel. Check out the Events page of my website for dates and places and remember I update as invitations come in.
Big events include two talks for RootsTech 2022, the AFFHO Congress on Norfolk Island, and two presentations for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. All very exciting plus talks to some of my favourite societies in Australia.
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| Thomas Price |
What's New in My Family History
There is so much new I don't know where to begin. What I have noticed that revisiting some websites to check sources for my written histories, I have found new information and photographs that weren't there the last time. So review and revisit.
The most exciting find was the burial of my 8 times great grandmother Agnes Leach in Scotland. She was indexed under her maiden name of Mitchell and not her married name although she was described as the widow of Alexander Leach. In 1779 in Maryton, Angus, Scotland. Amazing. One of the places on my 2022 trip wish list.
The most frustrating is tracing my Price family. My great grandfather Thomas Price was the grandson of Henry Price, a coal miner who died in a mining accident in 1840. Just before the census. Henry's wife Elizabeth Peploe died before the 1851 census so I don't know where she was from either. They had nine children and trying to find common names in Staffordshire is not easy.
DNA Update
Just this week someone has turned up matching my brother's Y DNA and just 2 steps away and living in Scotland. That is a close match and the paternal country of origin is Scotland. One of the surnames the person is researching is similar to an American DNA match which is 4 steps away. Both surnames are similar to the surname I suspect is Dad's father's name. Getting closer I feel but definitely not straight forward.
Takeaway tips
Don't give up
Keep searching - new resources all the time
Register for overseas conferences - great value - some may even be free
Remember Australian online events may also be free or cheap
Review and revisit your research - maybe declutter
Write those family stories now - dedicate time
Dear Shauna - I am so impressed with your focus and your achievements. Well done you. If I could have but 1/10th of your focus I would be a happy woman. Instead I seem to flit from one thing to another. Maybe I can focus on being more focussed next year!! Having a tidier study would be a good start!! Very exciting news about your grandchild too. Another twig to add to the tree.
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