Cornish Families, 52 Ancestors, Talks & Other News: My Genealogy Week 15-21 February 2022

Still playing catch up this week. There is just so much happening at the moment. I may have overcommitted myself to talks in February and March. Still it is nice to see people in person again as well as via Zoom.

Blogs

Managed to complete Week 6 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - theme Branching Out and Maps - picked my GGG grandfather John Carnegie to write about. Although his life could almost be a book. 

If only we could buy land there now for that price!

Working on Week 7 with theme Branching Out and Landed. As there is no landed gentry in my family ancestors, I have gone more with the idea of obtaining land in a new country. 

Books

Last minute editing changes for my book Australian Genealogy Online. It should be good to go next week from the publisher Unlock the Past.

My thanks to the wonderful editing skills of Rosemary Kopittke. She can spot inconsistencies with words or font sizes at 60 paces I think. The good thing is I learn something new from her every time. 

Conferences

At the weekend I attended the Family History Show and listened to some great talks by Debbie Kennett, Mia Bennett and others. In the Goody Bag there was a compendium of all the Discover Your Ancestors monthly magazine for 2015. Just what I wanted - more emagazines to read. Still a great gift which cost me nothing as I received a free ticket to attend as a subscriber to The Genealogist. 

RootsTech Connect is just a week away now so I hope you have registered. It is free. The Relatives at RootsTech feature indicates that I have 50 relatives attending so far. However they are all in the US and no closer than 6th cousin. But they might help to explain some of those more distant DNA matches. Plus more people may register over the next week.

Family Stories

Putting the finishing touches to the family history of the Spencer Family of Cosby, Leicester and Max wants several copies done for his family. 

It was good to print a paper copy for last minute amendments, corrections and whatever other changes were needed. I seem to see errors and inconsistencies more when reading a paper copy than an ecopy. Not sure why, may be just a habit I can't shake.

Talks

My 2022 talk fest continues and you can always see where I am speaking on the Events pages of my website.

The Why Can't I Find It? talk at Caloundra Family History Research ended up being via Zoom. I had been looking forward to seeing everyone again in person. That said, it was still a good session and I think they all went away with some new ideas. 

I still have my membership cup!

My talk on the Cornish in Queensland to the Cornish Association of Victoria via Zoom also received good feedback. There were questions about how/why I try to see myself in the places of my ancestors through images, books and newspaper accounts. To me context is important - we need to know what their lives were like, otherwise they are just names, dates and places. It was lovely to see faces from my days of living in Melbourne. 

Where appropriate slides from my presentations are on the Resources page of my website. I have done this for the last 10 years as I know how hard it is to listen and write at the same time. The slides are for personal research use only NOT to download and hand around the place or put up on other websites. I try to make it easy for my listeners to just sit back and enjoy my talks. The copyright is still mine and anyone who wants the slides for another purpose should ask me. Rant over.

Twitter

It was fun and interesting to be part of the first @ANZAncestryTime on Twitter for 2022. It is now only on the 3rd Tuesday night of the month starting at 6pm Brisbane time. Why not come along and be part of the online discussion and share your family stories and knowledge with others. We use the hash tag #ANZAncestryTime to keep all the tweets together and Sue @tasteach writes up the summary for us. 

What's Coming Up?

I'm currently busy with my talk on Australasian probate records for THE Genealogy Show in April. Not only to I have to write and present the talk, I have to prerecord it. 

There is something strange about sitting in a room and delivering a presentation to yourself and trying not to watch yourself in the camera. It usually takes a few attempts and I have to try not to run over time. 

As I mentioned earlier, RootsTech Connect is not far away but my two talks for that have already been recorded and are waiting to go live. I will be checking the chat for both talks during the weekend. If you want to learn more about mining ancestors and using the National Archives of Australia online catalogue come along to RootsTech. Registration is free.

March has another three talks - all live with one in person for Moreton Libraries and the other two via Zoom. 

Stay safe, take care and keep on genearesearching. Until next time, Shauna

Free Books, DNA, Conferences & New Resources - Genealogy Notes 16-30 Apr 2019

Wow so much is happening in the genealogy world at the moment. I'm torn between looking at new and exciting records, sorting my DNA matches or getting all my family history research for the last 40 plus years into really good order.

Blogs

My last two speaker interviews for the Waves in Time genealogy conference (now only a few weeks away) were completed. Read about Cara Downes from the National Archives of Australia here and Barb Toohey from Canberra here. Barb's talk is on who wants my records and that is partly behind my current determination to tidy up all my paper based records and make sure they are in my genealogy database. To follow will be the tidy up of my digital files which also show a blend of different recordkeeping styles over the last 20 years I have had a computer.

Books

Regular readers will know I am a fan of Nathan Dylan Goodwin's books and recently he has been advertising a free copy of The Asylum which is the prequel to his Morton Farrier Forensic Genealogist series of books. Click the link for a free download from his website. I loved it although I still struggle to read ebooks on my laptop. There is no curling up in bed or a comfy lounge chair - maybe I need to get a smaller device?

Conferences

Only a few weeks now till Waves in Time and my talk on tips for beginners has gone to the organisers. I am the first talk on the Friday at the free public fair which is really good. This means that I then have the rest of the time to totally enjoy myself with no pretalk nerves.

I booked my Brisbane ticket for the DNA Down Under tour in August and made the decision to go to the Sydney 3 day DNA event at the end of August. Before then the aim will be to work out some really good questions to ask all those experts - I'm looking to find a biological grandfather and it is a bit trickier when you haven't got any surname to look for. There are lots of matches that are not on Mum's side and don't match known relatives on Dad's side. I am pleased to be one of the Ambassadors for this exciting event which is occurring during our National Family History Month.

New Records

Findmypast has added some new Queensland records - the WW1 soldier portraits from the State Library of Queensland. I have already found some of my soldiers on the Library site but the advantage of having them in the bigger pond of Findmypast is for those who don't know about the Library's wonderful resources. Judy Webster's Queensland hospital registers are now included and as a big fan of Judy's over the years, I have used these records before too. But for others they could be a breakthrough for missing ancestors, especially those from the Queensland goldfields.

FamilySearch are continuing to add South Australian school admission records which I have found quite useful on the Spencer side.

Talks

My talk on Soldiers in the Family was well received at the Caloundra Family History Research group. Although the traffic on Easter Thursday was a lot heavier than normal, I gave myself plenty of time to get there without stressing. The drive home was marginally easier and I had time to go home for a quick cuppa before going to the Bribie Island Library in case anyone turned up for our new DNA  meetings. There is a lot of interest in DNA on the Island and the first meeting in May should be good.

What's Coming Up?

My U3A advanced family history group and the writing family history group are keeping me busier than I anticipated. On the plus side, it's very motivating for me as I can't just do the talk, I have to do the walk too. Hence tackling the organisation of my family history records for the next few months.

The Waves in Time conference will be a lot of fun and I will be blogging about the three days but after the event. Too much going on and I don't want to miss anything while trying to blog at the same time.

There is a DNA talk next week from David Barnes at the local Bribie Island family history group and I will be attending that. There is a lunch afterwards which is a good time to chat to others about the meeting and swap tips.

So a busy two weeks coming up. Take time out where you can to keep your genealogy research going and if you are at any of the same events, please come up and say hello. Until next time.

Free Irish magazine, Waves in Time & Other News - Genealogy Notes 1-15 Jul 2018

Winter is half over and still not that cool here - ever so glad we moved north. Those lovely minus temperatures in Canberra this week were a reminder of why I moved on, I loved the city but too cold for me. We even have a visiting seal who seems in no hurry to swim away and the whales are still on their way north. Blue skies, warm sun but a few drops of rain occasionally would be welcome.

Blogs

It's official - if I don't participate in a regular blog challenge I seem to find no time to write blog posts. I'm still doing research but just not writing about it. With the genealogy cruise to Alaska looming, now is not the right time to start a new blog theme. But it will be on the agenda once I get back in September.

I even keep missing Trove Tuesday but then every day is very much the same for me these days. I need a visual reminder - not a clock in the room but a sign saying 'today is'!

What will also spark my interest again is teaching a couple of blogging sessions to my Bribie U3A advanced family history class.

Books

The Garth Trilogy

My latest book to review is Lynette McDermott's Book 3 in her Garth trilogy - The Promise of Tomorrow.

Book's 1 and 2 dealt with their transportation, life on Norfolk Island in the First Settlement, then the move to Tasmania and now the final book concludes the family's story. I enjoyed the first two volumes and now to try and find some time to read the final volume. It must feel really good to have completed three novels based around your own family history.

I'm not sure that my families have enough interest for three volumes but then again, there is a lot of crime, tragedy, mystery and travel. Maybe in my retirement!

Conferences

With the two week term break for U3A, I was able to attend the Waves in Time conference committee meeting and the organisation so far is very impressive. Venue sorted, sponsors found, exhibitors lining up and speaker proposals coming in. There are three exciting keynote speakers and as usual there will be both local and family history presentations.

Four ambassadors for social media have been endorsed - Pauleen Cass, Caitlin Gow, Helen Smith and myself so you will be hearing a lot about the conference as it looms closer.



Magazines

Did every one get their free copy of the latest issue of Irish Lives Remembered - hard to believe you can get such an interesting genealogy magazine for free. A few years back I was writing regular features for Irish Lives Remembered so I have a digital copy of every issue I think. Must check.

These days I write regularly for Going In-Depth for The In-Depth Genealogist and writing a monthly article and blog posts is quite challenging. Trying to think of a theme that you can write about over a period of months with suitable images is not as easy as it sounds.

Talks

Pine Rivers Heritage Museum

My presentation on A Fishy Look at Bribie (a mix of my family history and local history) was well attended at the Pine Rivers Heritage Museum. Two cousins who found me via a blog post on my Bribie/Pumicestone ancestors (Carnegie and Davis families) attended. It was really good to meet them in person and chat about the family. Another reminder that blogging pays fantastic genealogy dividends.

That same night I went to the Bribie Island Historical Society meeting to learn more about the Island's boarding houses. Another ancestor, Thomas Stephen Burstow, had cottages for rent over at Woorim (ocean side) and in one of those amazing coincidences, a different cousin who was at my Fishy talk  said he had photos of these cottages and the family home. So we should all be telling our stories because you just don't know who is listening/reading and what they have on the family.

My next talks will be at the Forest Glen family history discovery day in August for National Family History Month. Then after that it will be Alaska. Starting to get excited.

What's Coming Up

This has more or less been covered but in preparing for my third term U3A talks I have been revisiting my Scottish ancestors and discovering lots of new information. I'm trying to update my database and write the stories as I go, rather than piling up information but that is not always easy time wise. So there is a lever arch binder beside my desk just waiting for a few spare hours.

Some time before the end of the month I need to write another article and blog post for Going In-Depth and I'm aiming for a Trove Tuesday blog post too.

Have a great genealogy week and remember revisiting your research may lead to new discoveries. Until next time, enjoy.

Oxfordshire Finds, New Books & Other News - Genealogy Notes 1-7 Apr 2018

Instead of writing this blog post over the weekend I was busy searching and finding my Oxfordshire families in Ancestry. It's been quite a few years since I last looked at this family and now the parish they came from has been digitised. Not only can I search for them but I can also see the original parish register images myself. My GGG grandmother was Mary Ann Cooper from Deddington, Oxfordshire and I could find indexed entries for all her siblings but not for her. A little bit of hunting and I discovered her indexed as Gasper which is a bit different from Cooper. This is the 1790s and the handwriting is not always easy to read so be creative when you can't find someone where you expect to.

North end of market place, Deddington, Oxfordshire
with the parish church in the background,
photo courtesy of Motacilla, Wikipedia Commons

It's also useful to then have a look at Wikipedia for an outline of the parish history and any photos. Wikipedia Deddington stated that the parish includes two hamlets - Clifton and Hempton and this helped to explain why I was finding Clifton as a place of birth in the census records.

Understanding the geography of an area and places names are all key to establishing you have the right family. Plus there were some photographs of various buildings in the parish.

When you can't just drive down the road and visit a place, this is the next best thing.


Blogs

John Trevaskis

My second Trove Tuesday blog post for the year was Gone Home to Ireland But Still Remembered Here was a real genealogy find. My great grandmother's brother John Trevaskis was killed in a mining accident in Charters Towers and his wife Mary (nee Kelly) went back to Tipperary, Ireland taking their two children with her. This was about 1906 and when she died in 1944 her son published a death notice in the Townsville Daily Bulletin to let any friends and family know. Thanks to Trove I now know when she died and that she probably still had friends or family in North Queensland.

Thanks also to Crissouli who regularly mentions my blog posts in her weekly Friday Fossicking in That Moment in Time. These weekly roundups have all kinds of links to blogs, resources, news etc so if you are having trouble keeping up, check up her weekly roundup.

Books
Well it was a bonanza week at the post office. Just like Christmas. First Nathan Dylan Goodwin's review copy of The Wicked Trade and the Suffragette's Secret genealogical crime mysteries is sitting here tempting me. I like to read Nathan's books with no distractions so waiting for an opportune time.

Unlock the Past sent author copies of the second edition of my It's Not All Online: a guide to genealogy sources offline and it looks very nice in the new style. Hard to believe that was first published in 2011 and it is still very true today. I have a standing order for any new Unlock the Past titles - I find them very useful for research, talks and keeping myself across a range of genealogy topics. New editions include So You Are Totally New to Family Tree Maker 2017 by John Donaldson; Papers Past New Zealand's Yesteryear Newspapers by Coral Shearer; and Paul Blake's Discover Protestant Nonconformity in England and Wales.

Totally new titles from Unlock the Past include Discover The Poor Law in England and Wales by Paul Blake; Manorial Records for Family Historians by Geoffrey Barber; Hiring a Professional Genealogist You Can Trust by Legacy Tree Genealogists and The Madness of 'Mac' Surnames by Carol Baxter. Yes the whole book is for anyone with a Mac surname and it looks at all of the possible surname variants with lots and lots of examples. All Unlock the Past titles can be purchased online from Gould Genealogy & History as print or e-copies.

U3A
I have been busy doing some talks for the second term of my Advanced Family History class at Bribie U3A in 2018  - there are 10 weeks so rather than a mad weekly panic to have something ready I have prepared sessions in advance. I may even start giving some of these talks in a wider context if they are well received and the students like the approach. Plus there are the presentations from last year which new class members won't have seen. It starts up again next week with about double the numbers we have had previously. I'm a little nervous or perhaps I'm just used to our little group around the table.

What's Coming Up
This is a big week for meetings with the Bribie Island Historical Society on Wednesday and the Bribie Island Family History Group on Thursday. The Society's blog has everything you ever wanted to know about Bribie history and remember a local historical society may have information on your ancestors too. Plus it is Mum's birthday on Saturday and we are hosting coffee and cake here for the family.

This week has been absolutely fabulous for new genealogy information on quite a few of my family lines. So glad I decided to review some of my older research and discover what is now available online. Until next week, have a great genealogy week with lots of exciting finds.

Index finds, DNA discoveries & Other News - Genealogy Notes 3-9 Dec 2016

The big catch up post holiday is now over, the new carpet is laid and slowly moving things back into their respective rooms. The study is looking neat and tidy although there are still lots of boxes out in the tiled hall way. It's like moving house and yet another opportunity to declutter and reorganise.

But as always it is easy to get side tracked by exciting genealogy news. As a member of the local Bribie Island Historical Society I have given a few talks on my ancestors who lived in this area from the 1870s. One of the committee members has been working on indexing local land records for the Island and came across an S J Jewsbury. As it is an uncommon surname she checked on Ancestry and found my public tree and contacted me.

Sarah Jane Jewsbury nee Finn, Truth, 26 Mar 1939 via Trove

While we don't know what those initials stand for on the land record (yet), I have a Sarah Jane Jewsbury nee Finn who was my great grandmother Mary Finn's sister. Mary married James Carnegie whose grandparents lived on the other side of Pumicestone Passage to Bribie Island. Either it is a huge coincidence or it is my Sarah Jane but now I have to try and work out what the S J stands for and if it is her, why and how did she come to own land on the island post World War One. You really can find information anywhere, as long as someone has indexed it!

Sadly Sarah Jane lost her son Ronald in 1939 as a result of a tetanus infection and the inquest made the local newspapers. As well as information on the family, there were photographs of Sarah Jane and Ronald.

Another exciting bit of news was that while I was away my blog post on City of Sydney Archives made Genealogy a la Carte, a Canadian blog list compiled by  Gail Dever.  This is part of a series of blogs I have been doing for The In-Depth Genealogist for the last two years. It is always nice to know someone has read a blog post, but to also have it listed for others to note is great. I am know thinking I should be saying that it is Sydney (or wherever) Australia as there must be lots of places called Sydney in the world.

Personally I'm not a fan of organisations changing names and websites but it is the times in which we live. State Records NSW new corporate name is State Archives and Records Authority of New South Wales. Thankfully the URL is the same and it is nice to see Archives back in the corporate name. Read more about the name change here.  

There has been no time to do any research,  but Family Tree DNA did notify me that my results were now available. Although I did the Ancestry DNA test  in 2015, I wanted to do the same test with FamilyTree DNA just in case the last year has just been one horrible nightmare. So it was with some trepidation that I looked at the results and they were even more conclusive than the Ancestry results. So if I hadn't got suspicious then, I would certainly be suspicious now with 0% Scandinavian. Interestingly my Ancestry percentages have also changed, dropping from less than 8% Scandinavian to less than 1%.

I guess in some respects I'm lucky that Mum is still alive and could explain my 'surprising' results. On the other hand, if I hadn't been expecting Norwegian heritage, then I may never have known the truth.Still trying to work out where to go next as my 40th anniversary of family history research comes up in March 2017. Where would my research be now if everyone had told me the truth 40 years ago? By the way, I notice that there are now MyHeritage DNA home testing kits so it definitely looks like being a part of our genealogy research in the future.

In the lead up to Christmas there are lots of Christmas parties and yesterday I went to the Bribie Island Family History Special Interest Group meeting. I took along some books and magazines to have an impromptu raffle and there were some excited members while I had some more space in my study. We all discussed Christmas memories and it was interesting to see how many people used to leave a beer and nuts out for Santa not to mention those who left gifts for the 'dunny' man!

Some of us then went on to lunch in the Bribie RSL which had several Christmas parties in full swing. You simply can't go past beer battered flathead and chips!

This coming week is very quiet apart from the Christmas party for the Bribie Island Historical Society so which family to choose to do some new searches on. Trove never disappoints and often I find new information on Ancestry and Findmypast so it is always worthwhile to relook at direct and collateral lines.

Until next time, happy searching.

Local & Family History Go Together - Genealogy Notes 3 - 9 Oct 2015

What a fantastic week starting with the History Queensland In Time and Place conference in Brisbane. The conference was excellent and there were a number of geneabloggers there and I have listed some of the reports below. There may be more coming or I haven't picked them up yet. Some of the other bloggers went to different sessions so I think we have captured most of the sessions and different aspects of the conference.

Reports on the Time and Place Conference so far:

Alex Daw (Family Tree Frog)  In Time and Place - Just Right 

Caitlin Gow (Genealogically Speaking) In Time and Place

Fran Kitto (Travel Genee) Queensland's First Local, Family and Social History Conference 

Shauna Hicks (SHHE Genie Rambles) Review of History Queensland Conference 3-4 Oct 2015

As well as my blog post on the conference I  kick started my 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2015 again. Week 40 is on Company Records and my focus was mining companies given my families' mining background but there are company records for all kinds of things. Given all the lessons learnt in last weekend's conference, company records should not be overlooked for what they might tell you about the local community and the people who lived there.

While visiting the Queensland Family History Society display at the conference I picked up their beginner's course flyer and was pleasantly surprised to see that they are using my Where Do I Start? research guide as the text book for the beginner's course. We had chatted about this earlier in the year before the guide was even printed but I hadn't realised they were going ahead with it. My broken right elbow has kept me out of the loop with lots of things so lots of catching up to do.

Myself and another committee member of the Bribie Island Historical Society have set up a new blog (Bribie Island History blog) for the Society although some members of the Committee are not convinced it is a good move or necessary. To me blogging is such an obvious way to spread the word about whatever you are researching and as a blog is searchable by Google it is ever so much more effective than having something published in a local newspaper which has limited readership.  Hopefully the blog will see some results quickly which will help to show people why blogging can be good for societies and individuals.

Having two hands to type again certainly helps with my writing and I finally finished my book review of Carol Baxter's two new Help! books - Help! Historical and Genealogical Truth: How do I separate fact from fiction? and Help! Why Can't I Find My Ancestor's Surname?  Read my review here.

I am also excited to have been asked to review Nathan Dylan Goodwin's new book The America Ground (another Morton Farrier forensic genealogist adventure). While I wait patiently for that to arrive (still a paperback girl), I have to do my review for the Australian Society of Archivists on Personal Archiving: Preserving our digital heritage edited by Donald T Hawkins. So lots of reading ahead.

My next piece of writing is an article for Going In-Depth, The In-Depth Genealogist's digital magazine. I will be continuing my Australian series for them again from the December issue. It seems simply ages since I wrote the last article but I couldn't keep with my injured arm and fortunately they have been very understanding.

As usual I am behind with my emails, enewsletters and even my print journals. We have had some lovely weather and I have been out and about now that I can drive again. I have even started exercising in the pool again but nothing too ambitious yet. The gardening had also been sadly neglected so a few hours were also spent getting rid of weeds.

With no more talks for 2015 I am also hoping to do some more of my own family history research. Until next time, have a great genealogy week.

WW1 Soldier Portraits, the first AFFHO Congress and women - Genealogy Notes 9-15 March 2015

I love blogging. I actually relax when I write and this week I managed to do two blogs. Week 34 in my 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2015 is on Maps another fascinating resources for genealogy and family history research. The second blog was Thoughts on the 1977 AFFHO Congress (the first ever Congress) and its proceedings and speculating on how many people who went to that will be at the 14th Congress in Canberra in a week or so.

I started researching my own family history in March 1977 so I have been lucky to hear many of Australia and New Zealand's top conference speakers since then. Plus I have always bought the proceedings to refer to later. The genealogy world has changed so much since then.

The State Library of Queensland has been digitising soldier's portraits from WW1 as published in The Queenslander as part of their QANZAC 100 Memories for a new generation project. They are doing detailed images and as such the images and soldier's names are much clearer than what is in Trove. For example, I have been unable to find Denis Patrick Finn's photo in Trove but thanks to the SLQ's project, I now have his image and the reference to the page and date of The Queenslander. Denis was wounded and served time in a prisoner of war camp so I am really glad to now have a photo of him in uniform. He looks so young but then he was only 17 years old. I have more WW1 soldiers to find so that is another project I am closely following.

March is Women's History Month and my geneacolleague Hazel Edwards (author of How to Write a Non Boring Family History) sent me some wonderful ideas from her annual Witty Women's lunch and this year guests had to bring a plate of food to share with a quote from an historic female. Hazel has been doing this for 36 years with different themes, that's a lot of celebrating women of the past. Here are some examples and I have tried to keep to a family history type theme:

• Actress & inventor Hedy Lamarr developed a patent for frequency hopping now used in Wifi & Blue Tooth
• DNA researcher & biologist Rosalind Franklin, was mentioned three times, with double helix fruit platter, corkscrew cheese sticks and rice rolls in genetic patterns. Her male colleagues Watson, Crick & Wilkins got the Nobel Prize for the double helix model in 1962.
• Family historian Kath Ensor wrote ‘The Blue Family history with Indigo and Skye’ 
• Nurse Florence Nightingale was quoted in connection with ‘Notes on Nursing: What It is, and what it is not,’ translated as having a little of what you fancy, has and always will, do you good.’ 

Reading Hazel's list of women, food and quotes started me thinking about my female ancestors and could I associate them with a food or a quote. Something to work on for next year's women's history month. Thanks Hazel for the reminder of all those talented women from the past and present.

Two talks this week and both on Bribie Island which made a pleasant change from all the driving I have been doing lately. It is always nice to speak at my local library (part of Moreton Bay Region Libraries) and it was a good turnout with some new and familiar faces. Plus a blast from my past - the 60s - a lady came up and introduced herself as the daughter of the family who lived across the road from us in Bardon (Brisbane suburb) back then. There is also a family connection as her brother married my cousin and they and their two children lived two doors up from us in the same street.

My other smaller talk was at the monthly meeting of the Bribie Island Historical Society. It was a members night and a number of people got up and talked about various families and events. My focus was on Max's Burstow, Eldridge and Spencer families and their connection to Bribie in the 1920s and 30s. It was amazing how many of the members stories interconnected. Max has now met one of his Eldridge cousins still living on the Island and we have swapped notes over a yummy carrot and walnut cake which I made. I As I have been a bit stressed with all his medical issues, I reawakened my domestic goddess as I do find cooking and creating meals relaxing.

Regular readers will remember that I was going to be involved in a mini genealogy do over based on promptings from Thomas MacEntee. I was really shocked yesterday when I looked at where I was at - Week 3 - and when I visited his website they are up to Week 11. If you ever want time to fly, nurse someone with a broken leg. So I'm a bit behind there and the other thing I missed out on finishing was my free trial of Family Historian. That month is well and truly over and I had only really started looking at it when priorities shifted. But my mind was almost made up to purchase and swap over so that will be a post Congress task.

In my spare five minutes I always try to do a quick search in Trove and without fail, I am turning up new articles on my families. Some of the new titles added recently have just been fantastic. The Brisbane Telegraph is coming soon and that is going to be a geneafest of family info.

Only one more week or so before I head down to Canberra so it will be a catch up/tidy up kind of week so that I am totally prepared to simply sit back and enjoy Congress. If you are there too, come up and say hello! Till next time, happy researching.

Crime, new books & a strange bird - Genealogy notes 1 - 8 Mar 2015

Another week with little time to think but an amazing range of genealogy activities. I guess there is always room to squeeze in what we like doing.

Collecting my mail from the post office is an easy way and I was thrilled to see that Unlock the Past has just published three new titles from some of my favourite speakers - Paul Milner with Buried Treasure: what's in the parish chest?; Chris Paton with Down and Out in Scotland: researching ancestral crisis and Thomas MacEntee with 500 Genealogy & Family History Tips. I can't decide which one I want to read first, I love Chris' "ancestral crisis" as that is what my families seem to do all the time and Thomas' is bound to have me zipping all over the web while Paul's looks like a gentle read but will have me wanting to be on the next plane to England!

There is another new title Til Death us do Part: causes of death 1300 - 1948 by Janet Few who is a UK speaker who I have not heard before. It looks fascinating and I must check out her website The History Interpreter.

I have also been asked to review another book The Convict Theatres of Early Australia 1788-1840 by Robert Jordan and now published by Currency House as an ebook. That sounds really interesting too and I am still working on my reviews for Jayne Shrimpton and Carol Baxter. Sounds like I need a nice quiet place to curl up and have a good read!

My personal blog challenge 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2015 continued with Week 33 on Church Records, another underused resource for finding out info on our ancestors, especially some of our female ancestors. Below is my great grandmother Elizabeth Price who was a deaconess at the Baptist church in Charters Towers.

It was a big week for talks with one at Albany Creek Library on Warning Warning: Tips & Tricks to Avoid Common Mistakes and one for the Queensland Family History Society on court of petty session records. Both talks are on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations. The QFHS talk was part of their seminar on Criminals and Victims and you can read my report on the day here. You can learn so much from attending education seminars like this as the speakers really know their topics.

I haven't done any feedback gathering on my talks for a while so with the Moreton Bay Region Libraries talks I have been asking people to fill in a quick survey form. I am happy to say that most people gave me 5s, said they could have listened to me longer and would attend another talk given by me. Plus some suggestions for future talks. This was great and confirmed verbal feedback on other occasions.

But there was one person who gave me 2s indicating that I was not clear, interesting or relevant. There was nothing else to give me a clue as to why I had been so disappointing for them. I know you can't please everyone but it would have been good to know why and perhaps there is something I can do to change their experience in the future.

The reason I raise this is that geneafriend Jill Ball called me a 'strange bird' in her post Going Out on a Limb. I have always placed the slides from my talks on my website so that attendees can go home and relook at the slides at their leisure and so that they don't have to madly write notes while I am talking. They can experience the talk in total and then go home and think about the detail. It also means that those who can't attend can at least see the slides even if they miss all the dialogue that goes with it.

Jill's point is that not many people do this and some even try to stop people taking photos of their slides rather than writing the points down. I did think about not putting my slides online last year after I heard that someone had reproduced one of my talks after taking out my footer and logo. I know my online practice is appreciated by people who attend my talks, why should they suffer because someone decides to copy my work. As Jill says, if someone is going to reproduce your work they can still do it by taking handwritten or typed notes so are we going to ban note taking too. I for one am happy to continue being a 'strange bird'.

This week I am talking at the Bribie Island library so not a long drive which is a refreshing change plus I am going to be talking about Max's families on Bribie in the 1930s at the Bribie Island Historical Society meeting on Wednesday night. It's been fun putting together  a bit of show and tell on his families and their connections to the Island way back then.

The absolute must do is finalise my talks for the AFFHO Congress 2015 which starts in Canberra on 26 March 2015. So much to say and so little time to do it. All the Congress papers are being published on USB although a paper copy will also be available for those who want to pay. It is going to be a fantastic four days catching up with friends, listening to some great talks and socialising.

Until next week try and get some genealogy searching in  or at least read some  fantastic blog posts, or a genealogy society journal.

Genealogy Notes 4 -11 Mar 2014 presenting a life story

Well another week over in the blink of an eye! A good part of my days were spent scanning, editing, naming and searching for photos. The end product so far is a Powerpoint presentation of 49 slides (multiple photos on most slides) to show the family at my mother's 80th birthday party in a month's time. It seems so little for so much time spent and it is still not quite finished as there are some gaps I would like to fill. It might have been quicker just to write her life story but then it probably would not be as interesting.

Photos are always more involving than words and they seem to invoke more memories than words. Having smuggled some of Mum's early photo albums and more recent photos out of her house for the project, I am finding that it is also a trip down memory lane for my brother and I. Sorting through all the photos took hours as there was no real order (most were just stuffed into plastic shopping bags) and then there were the frequent stops to remember the times the photos depicted. Both good times and bad times.

Mum's life has been fairly typical and nothing out of the ordinary - she went to school, married, had a family, worked, retired, became a widow, enjoys seeing her grandchildren grow up and has spent the last few years battling ill health. She looks older than her 80 years and I look younger than my years but in some of the photos I found for the early to mid 1970s we could have been sisters, we looked so close in age.

In the presentation I have early photos of Mum and her siblings, there is the engagement and wedding and early photos of my brother and I, then our school years, teenage years, our marriages (multiple) and our children from babies to adults. I also tried to get photos of Christmas for most years but there are gaps for various reasons. I have tried to have photos of everyone at different stages of their lives and I really do think that the family will enjoy seeing it at the 80th birthday surprise party.

Mum never wants a fuss and for those who might think I have just spilled the beans, Mum would never touch a computer and I do not think she even knows anyone with a computer. Which is a shame as I think she would be able to communicate a lot more with her family if she had an IPad, email, Facebook and so on. Anyway I have another few weeks to tie up some loose ends make sure it all flows smoothly on the day.

I am still keeping up with my personal blog challenge, 52 weeks of Genealogical Records in 2014, and Week 9 is on inquest records.  I have been fortunate (in a black humour kind of way) in that many of my direct ancestors and their siblings or other descendants have died in accidents, died in asylums or died suddenly resulting in a magisterial enquiry into their deaths. Witness statements in inquest files can provide some fantastic information so it is always worth following up if you suspect an inquest was held.

There is a fantastic seminar coming up on 11-12 October. The Gold Coast Family History Society is holding Angling for Ancestors and guest speakers are Jan Gow QSM and Graham Jaunay in a full day of talks. I have heard both speakers before so it should be a great day. On the following day there are tours to the Mudgeeraba Light Horse Museum and the Gold Coast Hinterland Heritage Museum, both places I would like to visit. So we have booked ourselves in a for a Gold Coast weekend.

My talk at the Redcliffe Library as part of the Moreton Bay Region Libraries genealogy program went well and a lady came up to me afterwards and said that she had first heard me speak at North Brisbane in 1981! That is 33 years ago and the only time I ever start to think I might be getting old is when people say things like that to me. Or I look at my adult son. One of the nice things about talking in South East Queensland again is that people still remember me so there is usually at least one friendly face in the audience. The final talk is next week at the North Lakes Library.

Just a reminder that the National Library of Australia's Community Heritage Grants 2014 applications are now open and close on 2 May 2014. The grants are provided to assist with the preservation of locally owned, but nationally significant collections of materials that are publicly accessible including artefacts, letters, diaries, maps, photographs, and audio visual material.

I'm way behind with my reading, both in print and digital but on a positive note I have had new family contacts as a result of putting my family stories on my website and using them as examples in my blog series. It is proof positive that advertising your family through blogging works yet at the Redcliffe talk yesterday only the librarians put up their hands to reading or writing blogs. It would be really nice to know how many people went home to check out my blogs and other links I mentioned.

Tonight is my presentation on the Carnegie family to the Bribie Island Historical Society. In some ways it is similar to what I have done for Mum's 80th. It tells the story of the family but I have also included slides on neighbouring families to make it more interesting to a wider audience. Doing this has highlighted some gaps in my research, uncovered new information and made me question some of my earlier assumptions. I had previously written up in draft form the whole Carnegie story but trying to condense it down into dot points and images really does make you focus on critical points. Perhaps this is something I should do with my other families as I revisit my research? Till next time, happy researching.

Genealogy Notes 24 Feb - 3 Mar 2014 - More talks, more blogs

Last week I was on a high because my Diary blog was listed in Randy Seaver's (Geneamusings) best of geneablogs and I am really happy to say that my SHHE Genie Rambles blog on The Future of Genealogy on my website also made his weekly list - details of Randy's weekly list here. I am also pleased because that blog article has attracted more readers than my blogs usually attract so that means it is a topic of great interest to many people. I think it is a great time to be researching family history with online resources and the ability to use social media making it easier than ever. But we should still use standard research methodology and remember that not everything is online.

I have also accepted two more talks. Due to illness of another speaker, I have been asked to do a second talk at the Inverell Family History Group seminar in April. They have asked me to do something on blogging and why you should do it or not. This is a great topic and I am looking forward to convincing them why I think it is a good thing! Unlock the Past have asked me to do a talk on newspapers and their use for family and local history research at a Research & Writing History Seminar in Adelaide in May. This is a seminar being conducted by Carol Baxter over two days with a couple of other speakers as well. Normally I would not go to Adelaide for one talk but we were planning a visit to the grand kids so it ties in nicely with that. Details of talk dates etc are on the Events page of my website.

My personal blogging challenge, 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2014, is progressing and in Week 7 Local Histories I showed why it is important to check all information, even if it is published in a local history. and Week 8 was on diaries and how they can give you an image of daily life for our ancestors. I do not have any family diaries in my records, I use other peoples diaries so if you have not considered the idea before, have a look at Week 8 Diaries.

My newspapers talk at Bribie Island Library went well and tomorrow it is Narangba Library on Google Tools for Genealogy. Moreton Bay Region Libraries run a fantastic program of talks for genealogists and family historians in the shire. We went to the exhibition launch for Blood Brothers: an ANZAC Genesis at the Pine Rivers Heritage Museum and we will have to visit again as it is quite a substantial place (part of Old Petrie Town) with lots of buildings to see.

The Queensland BDMs have been adding new products over the last few months including the Australian Imperial Force and WW2 images. If you have not had a look for a while, it might be worthwhile to see what the site looks like now. See here for their family history information. They are also conducting a survey to see how they can further improve their services. It is refreshing to see that they actively seek feedback and perhaps more importantly, actually then make changes based on that feedback. If you would like to do the survey, click here.

We have agreed to host a meeting of the Professional Historian's Association (Queensland) (PHAQ) at our place in just over two weeks time. As well as providing lunch we are also giving them a tour around the historic places on Bribie Island before taking them to the Bribie Island Seaside Museum for a talk and tour of the museum. It is a good way for us to become familiar with the Island's history and I am putting together a leaflet in case anyone asks us to do the same again. The Bribie Island Historical Society (BIHS) do have a leaflet but we do not have time to do all of those things plus there are some sites that I want to take PHAQ to that are not on the BIHS leaflet.

My talk at the BIHS is now only a week away so I have visited their room at the local library and checked the database for what they have on my Carnegie and Davis families. I have lots more information so I think that the members will be interested in my talk on the Carnegie family plus I mention the oyster industry and other families in the Toorbul area. It is the first time that I have done a talk based solely on my own family history so I am a bit nervous and hope I don't put too many people to sleep on the night!

This week copies of my two new publications arrived - Tracing Mining Ancestors: a brief guide to resources in Australia and New Zealand and My Ancestor was in an Asylum: brief guide to asylum records in Australia and New Zealand. Both are published by Unlock the Past and are available from Gould Genealogy & History or I have them for sale at my various talks.

With all the talks I have not had too much time for my own research but I do try to do examples from my own research in the talks so I guess that is one way to extend my knowledge of the family a little more. Happy researching until next time.

Genealogy notes 30 Jan - 4 Feb 2014 Geneacrusing!

Well the lead up to getting away for the cruise did not go to plan. It is amazing how many unexpected things crop up when you have a tight time frame. There were some things I simply had to do and others had to drop down the priority list.

Top priority was turning up for my talk at the Moreton Bay Region Library at Albany Creek on Monday. Traffic had been heavy and we were a bit later than I had planned. I like to get there early and make sure everything is working but when we arrived there was already a crowd of eager people. The library computer did not seem to like either of my two USBs and with ten minutes to spare the library staff went through a check and reboot of the computer and I was connected with a few minutes to spare! It was a good audience but I was surprised that no one seems to read or write blogs and were not into social media.

My talk was on online newspapers including Trove (as usual the slides are on my website - go to the Resources page and scroll down to Presentations) and again I was surprised that most of the audience are not members of Trove and do not do tags, lists, text corrections etc. However I think a few were going home to try it out. There were a few more signed up for the National Library of Australia's E-resources but not many and some were members of the State Library of Queensland. Again I think a few will be applying for membership. The verbal feedback after the talk was good and a few even told me they will be going to my Google Tools talk too. Always good to turn up somewhere and already know someone.

The other thing I really wanted to get done was my Week 5 Family Stories blog from my 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2014 blog challenge. I really wanted to get Week 6 done too but that just didn't happen but I have brought along some notes to write it while on the cruise (she hopes)! I had planned to write this Diary yesterday but we remembered belatedly it was also our 13th anniversary so an impromptu lunch after the talk had us talking about the good times. Then it was the mad dash home to pack.

It's nice living on Bribie Island but to get to the airport for an early flight we have to leave about sun up, so that means an early start. Again traffic was heavy but we arrived in time for the flight to Sydney. From Sydney airport we then caught their excellent train service to Circular Quay and our first sight of Voyager of the Seas was looking up at it from what appeared to be a very small train station. I am writing this from our cabin which has a view of the Sydney Opera House but it is below us! It is hard to visualise how big this ship is until you see it berthed next to our national icons including the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

So far we have said hello to Chris Paton and the Phillips family in the dining room and we met a New Zealand lady on the train in. She is 81 years old and has flown all the way by herself to be part of the geneacruise so we discussed family history over lunch with her. My mum is about to turn 80 years old and we have not been able to convince her to travel to Bribie yet. Age really is a mind set.

In all the cruise excitement, I almost forgot my Canberra trip. The new National Archives of Australia Discovering ANZACS website is looking really good and on track for an April launch. It was great seeing old colleagues from NAA. I also met up with the President of AFFHO to discuss National Family History Month 2014 and that is moving along nicely. It will be all systems go when I get home. I also had dinner with the President of HAGSOC and again it was good to catch up on all the Canberra news. I really enjoyed living in Canberra but it was the cold in winter and the heat in summer that used to get to me. Autumn and spring were my favourite times and of course now living in the tropics means that I will not experience the seasons like that again (unless I travel south).

After I post this Diary entry it is off to the cruise registration desk to let them know I am here, then a look around the ship before lifeboat drill at 5pm. Dinner is booked for everyone at 5.45pm so we will get to meet the people at our table and after dinner we have a Meet and Greet. Tomorrow the sessions start as we are at sea all day. The next Diary will probably be from Melbourne and as we have also lived there, we are not in tourist mode although I do want to see the Victoria Markets again and ride on the free tram. There are lots of Geneabloggers on this cruise and I will try and mention their posts too. Although so much is happening I probably will not get time to read them until after I get home.

So happy researching while I bliss out on genealogy lectures for the next week or so. Until next time.

Genealogy notes 15-22 October 2013 - Australian archives conference

I've been a bit quiet the last week or so as I went to the Australian Society of Archivists conference in Canberra and came home extremely tired and still trying to shake my chest cold. As it was the Bribie Festival at the weekend I spent a quiet couple of days in bed so I wouldn't miss any of the festivities and I'm happy to say I'm feeling much better.

But back to Canberra which was my home for a number of years and I always love going back. This time I stayed at the Capital Executive Apartments (free mini Kit Kats in the fridge every day) which was only a couple of blocks from the free bus stop that takes visitors around to the major tourist attractions including the National Museum of Australia, the Australian War Memorial, the National Film and Sound Archive and the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House to mention just a few stops. It was a great way to travel around Canberra and to get to the conference venues.

I had planned to tweet during the archives conference but for some reason my Twitter app and my phone are no longer compatible (even reloading didn't help) so I missed out on tweeting and seeing tweets from other attendees. The hash tag was #ausarch2013 so you can see what others posted there, including photos. The irony was that for the first time I decided to travel light and left the IPad at home, otherwise I would have used that.

You can read my report on the archives conference here and I have to say that the catering at the conference and the social events was so good and so plentiful that I didn't bother with dinner at night, but then I was also struggling with the time difference as well. It's funny it took me years to get used to daylight saving, now I'm having trouble getting used to not having it!

The conference satchel was a useful reusable shopping bag and had all kinds of brochures including a copy of Wartime, the official magazine of the Australian War Memorial plus a copy of the ASA's Archives Matter! publication  (copy online free). I also arranged for the inclusion of a flyer on National Family History Month 2014 as I hope to encourage more archives to participate in NFHM next year.

From a genealogy perspective I found a number of the sessions interesting as the National Archives of Australia and the National Library of Australia talked about their future directions. Trove is just going to get better and better and it will be harder than ever to drag ourselves away from our laptops. Ancestry.com.au was the principal sponsor and Inside History Magazine was another sponsor together with a number of universities and the major archival institutions.

An onsite exhibitor was Gale Cengage Learning and most of us would be familiar with the digitised collections of Gale newspapers that we can access with our e-resources cards from the National Library of Australia and our local State Library. It's been a while since I looked at the Gale products and they had paper copies of information sheets including Nineteenth Century Collections Online, State Papers Online Eighteenth Century 1714-1782, Archives Unbound, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Part II: New Editions, Daily Mail Historical Archive 1896-2004 and later this year they are releasing The Chatham House Online Archive. Gale subscriptions are not cheap and you usually can access them via your local library or State Library and perhaps via e-resources as mentioned earlier. I usually only look at the London Times Digital Archive 1785-2007 but its quite obvious they have many more resources of interest to family historians. Browse their extensive catalogue and don't just look under Biology and Genealogy, there is also lots to interest under History and other topics. Then see what's available at your local library.

The first weekend of the Bribie Festival was great and we went to a 1960s cocktail party on Saturday night at the Bribie Island Seaside Museum. Some attendees came in 60s fashion and that brought back many memories! On the Sunday we went to the expanded markets and watched the dragon boat races and other activities. There are events all week and more markets next weekend so lots of visitors to the Island this week which is good.

All the dreadful fires in NSW at the moment are bringing back the memories we have of the Canberra fires in 2003. Even now I still feel the fear that we had that day when we were hosing our house and gardens and trying to watch out for embers. Fortunately for us they were able to stop the fire from crossing the main road and into our street. While living in Melbourne we were nowhere near a natural forest but I had my escape plan and what I would save all ready to go. Here on Bribie we have also decided not to live too close to the national park but I haven't as yet set up a new back up system and escape plan with what I definitely want to try and save. House fires sadly happen too so this has gone on to my must do list. We can only hope and pray those brave volunteers get the fires under control soon and some rain would be good.

I have emails to catch up on, blogs to read, articles to write and my new research guide to index. But I have my new issue of the Journal of One Name Studies from the Guild of One Name Studies so I think perhaps a cup of tea and a nice read is in order. Happy researching this week.

Genealogy Notes 5-14 October 2013 - genealogy magazines

Never thought I would say this but I've done very little genealogy over the last week or so as I've still been laid up with whatever the dreaded virus was! I've even lost interest in Twitter, Facebook and blogs so if you've been wondering where I've been, it's only been my bed, not very exciting.

But there has been a little excitement here and there and I did drag myself down to the local newsagent to buy a copy of a new Australian genealogy magazine Family Tree Tracker but apparently it's a once only publication. I was alerted to it when I read Alona's blog Family Tree Tracker Hits the Shelves and she gave a detailed description of the contents. Alona is a great person to follow as she always knows what's going on! I was a bit surprised that a once off magazine was actually in a Bribie Island newsagent but I happily paid my money and of course couldn't resist looking at the UK magazines they have.  As usual one had an article on an area of interest so that was two magazines but at least I had more to read in bed.

It's not cheap buying one off UK magazines and I was looking at some of the US genealogy magazines online and noted that I could get a year's subscription (digital) for US$19.95 which is approximately $22.00. I have a GGG grandfather in the US and a GGG grandfather in Canada so it will be interesting to see what information is in the magazine over the next year. My Oct/Nov 2013 issue of US Family Tree Magazine arrived promptly and with a free digital gift - 49 Ways to Discover Your Roots. Now I might finally track down when those two GGG grandfathers died.

Another blogger I like to read is Cassmob and her blog Kenya and Kiva on her recent travels to Kenya caught my eye as I've always wanted to go to Africa (I blame John Wayne in Hatari for those who can remember that far back). I'm also a member of Kiva's Genealogists for Families Project and as I had enough credit for another loan I decided to help a Kenyan woman this time. At the moment Kiva is offering free loans (funded by other benefactors) so if you want to know more check out  http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/shauna1522. Amazingly I'm on my 37th loan of $25, most of which has been with my original $25 plus a few free gift loans and it all does amazing work helping other families.

The really exciting news is that I submitted two papers for the 2015 AFFHO Congress and both papers have been accepted. Lots of other well known speakers have also said that their papers were accepted so it looks like being a great event in 2015. Start planning to go now.

I'm off to Canberra tomorrow for the Australian Society of Archivists conference. I wish I was a bit more perky but it will be good to see all my old colleagues and to hear all the latest news. Ancestry.com.au is the principal sponsor and Inside History Magazine is also one of the sponsors. Looking forward to catching up with both of them. It seems to be a lot cooler down that way again so trying to work out what to take in my little carry on bag is a bit of a challenge.

Well have a good time researching and I hope to return fit and well from Canberra in time for the Bribie Island Festival at the weekend. Until next time.

Genealogy Notes 21-26 Aug 2013 Last week of National Family History Month

It's unbelievable how fast August has gone - we are now into the last week of National Family History Month. I hope everyone has been attending events, doing blogs, following people on Twitter or Facebook, finding time for some of their own research and anything else remotely genealogy related! Check out the National Family History Month web calendar and home page for ideas this last week. The Momento photo book competition closes today so it's not too late to put in an entry - details on the NFHM home page. I'm getting some great suggestions for NFHM 2014 so if you want to suggest something, enter the competition!

My last talk for NFHM is on this coming Friday at the Bribie Island library, this will be my first talk on Bribie so it will be interesting to see what the turn out will be. That's where I will also be doing the NFHM sponsors prizes draw and then contact all the winning societies and of course, promote the prize draw winners in the hope that we get even more genealogy and family history societies hosting events next year. Sponsors are also on my list to follow up and I'm even hoping to attract some new sponsors for my new ideas in 2014!

After that I have to write up a report for AFFHO on NFHM 2013 and include recommendations for 2014. I would like to see a whole 12 month awareness campaign so that everyone finds out about it in plenty of time to either host or attend an event. Many libraries and archives plan their event calendars twelve months in advances so we need to make it easier for them to participate.

History is in the air here on Bribie Island at the moment. At the Bribie historical society meeting the other night I bought the new book on the Bribie Bridge which turns 50 in October and at the weekend I bought another book on the Bribie Surf Life Saving Club which has just turned 90. We found lots of entries for Max's Burstow and Eldridge families as they were involved with the club back in the 1930s. The Club had a lot of its photos and other memorabilia on display at the clubhouse and a steady stream of visitors over the weekend.

I've received two UK certificates this week which confirmed what I knew but gave me details to go back another generation but still finding it a bit tough to find them in the census - common surnames should be banned! Still I keep chipping away at it. Every time I look at Trove I find new stories on the family and with new digitised newspapers coming online all the time, it's really worthwhile.

As part of my ongoing rearrangement of my new study, I'm going through all my old paper files and its amazing what I have forgotten I have on file (but it is 36 years this month since I bought my first filing cabinet so maybe it's just old age rather than too much stuff). Not everything has been entered into my genealogy software (mostly the basics) and I'm starting to realise I need to capture all the other bits and pieces of information as well. I've rearranged all the old photos and albums into a scanning priority order, another job I need to get back to now that we have resettled.

So that is my dilemma - I want to do more research on my families using all the modern resources (I can easily spend all day on Trove alone) but I really need to get e-control of all my paper based 'stuff ' before it's too late. Being surrounded by filing cabinets and book cases is a little intimidating not to mention overwhelming. It's not too hard, I just need to do it file by file, album by album (but the tricky part is that each one triggers new ideas to search and I get side tracked). The only good part is that I know I'm not alone and that others share this burden. I'm going to try for an hour a day (or at least 7 hours a week) - wish me luck!

Enjoy the rest of National Family History Month 2013!