The big highlight of the last few weeks was my confirmation report and presentation to Griffith University assessors for my PhD thesis. A 10000 word report including a literature report tends to focus your thoughts on what your topic is and is it worthwhile as a PhD topic. Personally I think telling the life stories of over 1700 women in colonial Queensland gaols is fascinating. Thankfully the assessing panel agreed and I will get formal approval soon but they told me on the day I had passed.
My Easter orchid continues to flower so it is also a reminder that summer is finishing and autumn is coming.
Books
Bribie Family History Association book club has started up for the year and we had two books waiting for us. Both look really interesting and both authors I have not read before.
Heather Morris' book was hard to put down. I hadn't been aware of those events (trying not to do a spoiler alert).
Plus I have a couple of books people have lent me or given to me. The obvious question whenever I meet my friends is, have you read it yet? Now out of the cupboard and on the desk where I can see them. Pity I can't do that with e-books, articles, journals and magazines. Sadly that is a case of out of sight out of mind. I bought a new IPad with lots more memory so I'm hoping to get more e-reading done on my travels in May.
Conferences & Travel
RootsTech 2025 is only a few weeks away now. I'm not familiar with the keynote speakers named so far and will probably just end up watching pre recorded sessions due to the time differences. With over 150 sessions to choose from we won't be bored over the weekend. Remember it is free to watch online.
But not as good as meeting people in person. One of the 2023 highlights was meeting Nathan Dylan Goodwin in person.
The NSW/ACT annual conference is in Wollongong in September and I am still thinking should I go or do my planned trip the east coast of Queensland to Rockhampton and Townsville. Planning to do some PhD research up that way and want to do it before summer arrives again.
We have our trip to Bali again in August and I don't get back from my Swedish trip till the beginning of June. A Wollongong trip would mean driving through Newcastle and a spot of research on Dad's family has been in my travel plan since pre Covid days.
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| Stewart's Creek Penal Establishment in 1912 image courtesy State Library Queensland |
The other conference I definitely want to attend is the Professional Historian's Association conference in Darwin in October. That will also give me the chance to pop over to Broome, another must visit Australian town on my bucket list. I only have a few to go so it would be good to tick this one off.
New Resources
Excited to learn that Findmypast has added 207,233 cemetery records from New Zealand. Regions include Christchurch, Selwyn District, Far North District, Onehunga, Ruapehu and Auckland. There is a list of cemeteries included on the search page. Good news for those of us with trans Tasman families.
Still with Findmypast they added 307,800 new newspaper pages updating 67 existing titles and adding Bromley. Digitised newspapers are so good for finding out family stories we might never know about.
Talks
My Monash library and Noosaville library talks were well attended and lots of fun. I enjoy giving my search strategies talk because I can actually see people thinking of why they need to search variant spellings of given names, surnames and places.
My next talk is at the Connections 2025 conference in Brisbane. I'm looking forward to catching up with lots of genie friends and learning heaps as well.
What's Coming Up?
Bribie Family History genie chats has started up for the year and we are doing Thomas MacEntee's do over or go over program with his permission. Already I have found it useful as I picked my Somerset families on Dad's side to review as I am getting lots of DNA matches to those families. Since I last looked Ancestry has added lots of Somerset records and with images. Already pushed a couple of families back a generation or two. But also looking to record everything properly as I go. Looking forward to seeing how the other participants are going at the next Genie Chat session.
Have to say it is nice to actually spending some dedicated time on my own family research.
RootsTech 2025 will be a full on weekend and there are a few sessions I would like to see live. Maybe I should plan another visit for 2026. That will be three years after my last visit. Plus I am giving a talk on Australian military records on the Thursday.
Until next time, happy searching. Shauna
