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
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
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| James Carnegie and Mary Finn |
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
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