It's party season as every society and group wind down for December and January.
One of my new projects in the latter half of the year was setting up Genie Chats where a group of locals join me for 90 minutes on Zoom on a Wednesday morning. We record the sessions for those who can't make that time. I decided to throw a Christmas morning tea at my place and it was good to catch up with all those who attended. Lot's of great food and I think when we say 'bring a plate' it should be 'bring a small plate'. But all delicious and the weather was kind.
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| Dessert at the Slimmers Christmas party |
The Bribie Slimmers lunch was chicken and ham with potatoes, pumpkin, beans and gravy. For dessert there was the most delicious pavlova.
Then there was the Bribie Island Historical Society party which was catered by the RSL. The fish fry was magical and all the other plates of hot food and sandwiches were nice. The bar had white and red wine flowing but the orange juice ran out quickly. Less people are drinking and of course, someone has to drive home.
Blogs
As per usual, I am participating in Jill Ball's annual geneameme Accentuate the Positive which is a recap of our genealogical highlights during the year. I'm part way throught with some questions easier to answer than others. I hope to finish it by Christmas.
Another annual blog challenge I accept is the Genealogical Society of Queensland's guest bloggers list. The lovely Bobbie has me signed up for two guest blogs - one in January and one in June.
I do seem to have lost my blogging mojo. Instead of writing up family stories as a blog post, I am more concentrated on my draft family histories which are largely written. The hard part is adding in sources and adding citations which weren't noted at the time I wrote the draft. I'm getting there but the moral of this story is, note your citations as you go. Ever so much easier.
Books
I have bought more books in the last month than I have all year. Many of them are connected to my PhD research but also some for pleasure. Plus as our local library was closing for a couple of months for building renovation, I ordered in a number of books. Fascinating. Searching the catalogue turned up books in other Moreton libraries which I probably would not have looked for.
Plus I have to read our designated text for the Bribie Family History Association book club, Graham Robb's The Ancient Paths.
Thank goodness I don't have anything on for the rest of December and January.
DNA
No new exciting big matches but lots of little ones (over 20cM) are helping me to fill out Dad's side of the family. I am reasonably sure where we fit into those families but it would be good to have a nice Y match.
Mum's DNA is continuing to throw up Welsh matches and yet I don't have any Welsh in the paper trail. Am I looking at some non parental event or is it further back on a line where I have a brick wall. Something to explore more in 2024.
Family
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| Christmas dinner last year in Sweden |
The plan for 2024 is to visit them in May when both my grandson and my son celebrate their birthdays. In the meantime I have watched his first steps and now see him marching round the house as if he owns it. Amazing how quick he learnt to walk and he is definitely an active child.
New Resources
Another thing that continually amazes me is all the new records that are added each month to the various online sites. Trove had a downtime of 2 whole days and it was then that I realised I am addicted to Trove. Every day I find myself looking for something for my own genealogy, or a talk I am planning to give or my Ph D research. It has opened up so many stories for us.
What's Coming Up?
No more talks until February but I still have to prepare the talks and that can be time consuming. Check out the Events page of my website to see the dates, places and titles of talks.
With Genie Chats next year I am doing English Genealogy in Term 1. As I am planning to travel in May there probably won't be a set subject for Term 2 but we might do a few one off topics.
The plan is to finish at least one of my five family history drafts by 2024. They are all so close but citations are giving me grief. Queensland State Archives have new identification numbers so everything has to be updated and sad to say, some of my orginal citations are not complete.
Stay safe and well and enjoy whatever spare time the Christmas season has for you.
Until next time, Shauna
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