Conferences, webinars and DNA finds: My genealogy weeks 1-15 October 2025

Spring is sprung and the hippeastrums are out. Only wish they bloomed more often. Lots of colour in the garden.

It has been incredibly dry here in recent months and the local wildlife is also feeling the lack of water and lush green grass in the surrounding national park. 

The kangaroos and wallabies are coming into residential areas especially where people water their lawns. Caught this rather large visitor the other afternoon at the neighbour's place. 

Books

All my book club suggestions have arrived at the library and now madly reading 'in my spare time'. One of the books has 18 reserves so no chance of an extension on that one. 

Also doing a deaccession of my family history books and looking to give them a new home. On our next trip to the Capricorn Coast I will be taking up a big donation to the Central Queensland Family History Association. 

They were really helpful with unique sources on some of my incarcerated women for my PhD thesis. Some are a bit dated but the information and context is still relevant. And yet the bookshelves don't have any noticeable gaps despite dozens of books in the box!

Conferences

This week I am off to Darwin for the Professional Historians Conference and my session on homeless women in colonial Queensland. I love Darwin so much history and then I will be off to Broome to cross off another bucket list destination. Another place with so much history.

This must have been my year for conferences as I have just been selected as a speaker at the Dragon Tails Conference in Brisbane in November. Another Ph D related session on some of my incarcertated women who partnered with Chinese men. It will be my fourth conference this year, genealogy in March in Brisbane, PhD related history in Townsville in June, the Darwin conference in October and the Chinese one in Brisbane next month. Great opportunities to catch up with friends and colleagues while travelling.

DNA update

My next DNA challenge is to identify my two unknown great great grandfathers on my father's side. I have finally identified two common families (Blakeley and Hardman) in my unknown matches for the one in Brisbane which links to my Brennan family. This gives me six potential suspects so now I need to narrow down to just one family if possible. 

At least it is not a total unknown as my Toorbul great great grandfather remains. But then someone might test and all will become clear. Hope is eternal as they say.

New Resources 

FamilySearch continues to add amazing record numbers to its collection eg over 21 million new records from seven countries as per their October newsletter. Countries include Italy, the Phillipines, American Samoa, Brazil, Haiti, Ukraine and the USA. They have also expanded their FindAGrave index with nearly four million records in the world collection.This made me think that I usually only use FindAGrave for Australia when in fact I should be using it for other countries especially in the UK and Ireland. Another thing on the 'to do' list.

Findmypast added a substantial collection of Suffolk coronial inquest records and more Middlesex baptisms from 1657-1841 which I will be searching for the very generic Walker family! More records for London included the Greater London Burial Index 1530-1812 and Archdeaconry Court of London willis index 1570-1582.

Talks

James Carnegie and Mary Finn

In addition to conference sessions, I still do genealogy talks and the annual seminar day at the Genealogical Society of Queensland was a great day. My session on prison and convict records was well received. 

A few days later I did a live webinar for Legacy Family Tree Webinars onpost office directories in MyHeritage. That session is free and you can watch it by clicking the link. I use Australia, New Zealand, England and Ireland directories as examples.

What's Coming Up

Another birthday, Christmas and 2026. Time does fly when you are having fun. 

I am booked to attend the Founding Families Connect Group for the old Caboolture Shire in November. My Carnegie family was one of the founders so I am looking forward to finally getting to one of their meetings.

Until next time, stay safe and keep researching. 

Shauna

Books, Webinars, New Resources & Other News: my genealogy weeks 16 -30 Sep 2025

 Everything seems to be speeding up or I'm trying to do more. Even the Bribie Family History Association Book Club is challenging me. See more below.

Blogs

The next instalment of my travel postings for the GSQ blog was published. Read more here and the earlier one on my trip to Ireland here.

Books

I have always been a big reader, even in primary school with all the Enid Blyton books. Totally enjoying being part of the BFHA book club and reading books I don't normally choose. 

At the last meeting six new titles were suggested so I put in a request at my local library, as they were at other Moreton libraries. Within a week I had four of the titles which of course now have to be read over the four week loan period. 

Family Baggage is about sorting a parent's belongings after they've passed. We can all relate to that.

Hoping that The Psychology of Family History will explain why I am so obsessed with researching.

New Resources

One thing I learnt from the North Ireland DNA school was that DNA Painter has a whole lot of new tools since I last had a look. Now that Dad's paternal side is definite, I want to try and follow up some strange ethnicities in my mother's family. The paper trail does not lead there. Are there more skeletons in my family? Surely not.

Ancestry regions and Mum's Germanic Europe and Welsh percentages.
Similar results in FTDNA and MyHeritage.

Have been loving the use of AI full text searching in FamilySearch. This is going to break a few brick walls for people I think. Also noted that Ancestry is trialling a similar feature for transcribing original documents. It's a fast moving field and I have booked into the GSQ's event with Andrew Redfern in November.

I also did the GSQ's webinar on We Are XYZ and there are huge possibilites for that. Technology is brilliant but sometimes I wish it didn't move so fast. 

The other day I experimented with using the microphone in Word to write a story on one my my incarcerated women (PhD thesis) instead of keying it. Wow, so good for my arthritic thumbs. 

Talks

Next week there is the GSQ annual seminar and I am first speaker with an introduction to convicts and criminals, all in 45 minutes! Luckily the records are similar. One of my favourite topics and the idea behind my PhD thesis.

Wonder which one is my GG grandmother Brisbane Women's Prison ca 1902

The following week is a webinar for Legacy Family Tree Webinars on using post office directories in MyHeritage. 

On the first Friday in November I am the guest speaker at the Bribie Island Family History Association meeting. Topic is Mining the Archives. Also planning one of my Go Fishing sessions as I have been told some members have missed them this year.

Excited to be doing a 20 minute pre recorded video for RootsTech 2026 on burial and cemetery records in Australia next March. Registration is already open and free unless you are going to Salt Lake City in person. I'd like to but I am already planning to go to England and Scotland next year. 

My Carnegie GGG grandparents grave in the historic Toorbul Cemetery.

What's Coming Up

Finally I am going to be home for a meeting of the Founding Families of Caboolture Shire. This group are descendents of original families which includes my Carnegie, Davis and Bishop connections. Looking forward to meeting others in the group.

I'm off to Darwin for the Professional Historians Conference where I am giving a session on females vagrants (homeless women) in colonial Queensland. After that off to Broome to cross off another bucket list place I have always wanted to visit.

Until next time, stay safe and well and keep on researching. Shauna