Shipboard diaries, ancestral epidemics & other news: My Genealogy Week 22 - 28 February 2022

February is always a short month but it still went faster than anything. 

We were trapped at home by floodwaters and almost driven mad by incessant rain for six days. Watching all those who lost their homes and businesses all the way along the south east Queensland coast was heartbreaking. The weather event is still going on in NSW with towns flooded and isolated. Brisbane is starting her big clean up. 

Mother Nature in February at her worst. Also a very stark reminder to make sure our family history records are backed up, stored safe and accessible to others.

Blogs

Trying to keep up with my 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks genealogy blog challenge. Here is Week 7 which looked at my GGG grandfather Robert Fegan/Fagan from Glasnarget South, County Wicklow, Ireland. Week 8 will be next after this blog post. 

There was also an additional blog post this month as a guest blogger for the Genealogical Society of Queensland. I do this twice a year. The topic for my first 2022 post was ancestral epidemics. My ancestor was the only one in her family to survive a cholera epidemic. Do you ever think about all the coincidences in life and brings us to where we are today? If she had died, I wouldn't be here and that is probably repeated in other family lines. Enough philosopy, read about the 1832 cholera epidemic in the UK Midlands here. 

Books

Back in December as a Christmas present to myself, I had a buying spree on Amazon and purchased Nathan Dylan Goodwin's The Foundlings and the seven book series Ela of Salisbury medieval mysteries by J G Lewis as ebooks. Then promptly forgot about them as ebooks are not the same as print books piled up on the bedside table to read. 

Almost finished The Foundlings and as always a great Morton Farrier story. The Ela of Salisbury books I purchased as my White family were from the Salisbury area and I liked the Brother Cadfael mysteries. Plus Ela was a real person and has an entry in Wikipedia Ela of Salisbury. The series is next on the list to read.

Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, founded by

 Ela of Salisbury in 1229 via Wikipedia

Conferences

RootsTech Connect is almost upon us and I will be giving two talks. There is an amazing range of topics and speakers plus they are offering some talks from 2021 as well. 

I also love the Relatives at RootsTech app and when I first looked I only had 50 connections, then that jumped up to 187 connections but none closer than 4th cousin once removed. Some were even from Australia and New Zealand which was interesting but most were in the USA. That can be useful for working out the more distant DNA matches.

New Resources

Front cover of the Yelland diary
that I received decades ago 

During the week I was contacted by someone who reads my blogs. Nothing new there but her ancestors were on the same immigrant ship as my John Finn and Sarah Fegan. Her ancestor wrote a shipboard diary of his time on the Mairi Bhan and she sent me a copy. 

I already had a copy from another descendant and was able to share that. Shipboard diaries are not that common and we have two for the 1878 voyage of the Mairi Bhan. While similar, both diarists commented on different aspects of the voyage. 

If I didn't blog, I would not have this exciting new insight into my GG grandparents voyage to Queensland. Everyone should be blogging their stories.

Talks

No talks this week but I did prep some talks for March.

I also hosted on Zoom the monthly meeting of the Association of Professional Genealogists in Australia and New Zealand. It is always good to see each other and catch up on the news.

What's Coming Up?

My new research guide published by Unlock the Past is now available from Gould Genealogy & History, either in print or ebook. So that is very exciting news. 

Bribie Genealogy's March meeting is on Friday 4 March and we have Judy Lofthouse from Brisbane talking about the 1921 Census. There will be our usual lunch afterwards which is a good way to end a busy week.

I have also had a bit of a breakthrough on the unknown biological father of my great grandfather James Carnegie. I have now connected a DNA match to that family line so it is now a matter of trying to work out how and where the intersection happened. That should keep me busy!

Happy researching until next time. Stay safe and well, Shauna

National Archives of Australia news, Waves in Time & Other News - Genealogy Notes 16 -31 Jan 2019

A busy start to 2019. There has been time for some new research - what I find is that in preparing  for my U3A sessions, I am locating new information on my own families to use as examples. A win win as they used to say in my old work environment. A lot of the websites I am looking at are old favourites, but there is so much new information since I last looked. Reviewing your families on a regular basis is essential. 

Archive News 

Reception area, Brisbane Office NAA

Here is the exciting news from the Queensland Office of the National Archives of Australia (NAA). I usually just take a few camera images when I visit but this will be much better. The instructions are straight forward and now I just need to organise another visit.

The Queensland Office of the National Archives is testing the feasibility of allowing self-service digitisation of selected records by the public in a controlled reading room environment. Note that this is a service being trialled in the Queensland Reading Room only, from 8 November 2018 to 30 April 2019. If you wish to participate in this trial and digitise a record for your own use:
1. Ask the Archives Officer on duty if the file you wish to digitise is suitable for this service. The Archives Officer will allow digitisation of files that are robust enough to handle the process with minimal risk of damage.
2. The Archives Officer on duty will ensure the scanner is ready to operate. If in doubt, ask.
3. Do not change any scanner settings. The scanner is set to the Archives digitisation standards.
4. Digitise each page
a. Start at the front file cover.
b. Press the green button on the scanner, or click the ‘Scan’ button on the screen.
c. Scan every page, starting from the top page and continuing to the bottom.
d. Place the page in the centre of the glass – the scanner will align the image automatically
e. Include the back of any page that has information regardless of its significance
f. If you make a mistake, just repeat the scan and inform the attendant.
g. Once you have finished, return all pages to the file pin.
h. It is important that the pages are returned in their original order.

5. If you have any questions, ask the Archives Officer.
6. If you wish to digitise more than one file, inform the Archives Officer. After each file is complete, the Archives Officer will collate the images into a file folder.
7. Once completed, the Archives Officer will download the images to a usb for you to take with you.

Please be aware that the images you create may be processed and loaded to the Archives’
RecordSearch database where they can be viewed by the public. The images will be subject to quality assurance before they are loaded. Some files may be rejected.

Blogs

No time for blogging. My only writing during the fortnight was my final assignment for the Writing Family History course with the University of Tasmania. The first draft didn't take long, it was all the rewriting and fiddling to make it interesting, not boring. Some of those new skills will be handy when I get back to blogging.

My topic was a brief biographical account of my great great grandfather John Finn. Trying to fit his wide ranging life into the assignment word length was not easy. You have to pick just the events you really want to include and succinctly. Perhaps I should have picked a less colourful ancestor.

I did manage to do my regular monthly article and blog post for The In-Depth Genealogist. Fixed deadlines definitely motivate me.

Books

My parcel of genealogy books from Amazon (Christmas present) arrived and were eagerly unwrapped. Now there is a small mountain waiting to be read and I can't even decide what order to read them in.

A number require me to then put into practice what the book suggests so that will be challenging. All to be reported here when I get myself organised. Not surprisingly that is the subject of one of the books - any guesses what the book is?

Talks

Since last time I have had another two invitations to speak - both for National Family History Month in August. One clashed with another event so sadly I had to turn that down. It is always a busy month but an exciting time for genealogy and family history. Where I am speaking can be found on the Events page of my website - still to add all the August talks. Hopefully next week.

What's Coming Up?

Next week is super busy. There is a committee meeting for the Waves in Time conference on the Sunshine Coast in May. I always enjoy these and catching up with other committee members over lunch.

U3A first term is underway so there are my weekly advanced family history sessions plus my new beginners writing family history group. This will require me to put aside dedicated writing time on a family history story to discuss/share at the fortnightly sessions. It will be good to see what others in the group do too.

To end the week there is an exhibition launch at the Bribie Island Seaside Museum. The new exhibition is on Bribie Streets and how/why they were named. A local member of the Bribie Island Historical Society will also give a talk. The morning teas are always good but I need to get away early. I'm enrolled in a 5 week course to learn to use my smart phone more/better.

I am almost exhausted just thinking about next week but it will all be great fun. Take some time to do some genealogy searching or simply review what you have done to date. Until next time enjoy

Centenary of End of WW1, book review & other news - Genealogy Notes 1-15 Nov 2018

It's been a big fortnight with a week away at one of my favourite beaches - Bargara near Bundaberg in Queensland. Lots of walks and swimming (not that I don't do that here at home) but it always seems different elsewhere.

Blogs

My blog for The In-Depth Genealogist on Introducing Monuments Australia has been getting some love on Twitter. For Remembrance Day I reposted my military blogs on Alexander Thomas Davis and the three Finn Brothers - John, Robert and Denis Patrick. The centenary of the end of WW1 was marked by many blog posts as everyone remembered those that were lost.

I have been invited to a book launch (Who Answered the Call) at the Bribie Seaside Museum at the end of November. This is a collected work featuring all the soldiers in the Bribie area who enlisted in WW1 and WW2 and published by the Bribie Island Historical Society. Alexander Thomas Davis is featured in it and my blog post is also referenced. Unfortunately they never found a photograph of him either and he appears to be one of a handful of soldiers who never had their photograph taken in uniform before they left.

Books

I finally finished my book review for The Promise of Tomorrow, the final volume in The Garth Trilogy by Lynette McDermott. I also reviewed the second volume Perseverance and you can read that on the Resources page of my website - scroll down to Book Reviews. The first volume was Of Angels and Eagles which I have also read but not reviewed. It is a fictional saga based on two convict families, the Garths and the Belletts who were on Norfolk Island and then Tasmania. It is an easy read and an interesting way to present a family history.

DNA

I am still trying to analyse my results and work out who is related to Mum and separating them out so that I am left with just those who must be related to Dad. I'm going to another GSQ DNA SIG meeting as Helen Smith will be back and Michelle Patient is visiting too. Lucky for my U3A advanced history group, Michelle has kindly offered to visit us here on Bribie Island so that will be an exciting opportunity for them.

New Resources
The bigger databases just keep on getting bigger and bigger. For example, during the fortnight FamilySearch added the 1901 Irish census and BillionGraves. Both of these are already available on other free websites so what is the advantage of adding them into something else. One stop searching is good because not everyone may know that these sources are available elsewhere. Or you may not think to search in them for someone.

Recently while searching for something in FamilySearch I found a reference to an ancestor who I thought would probably not have a tombstone. Yet there was a reference to him in FindAGrave and when I looked it was definitely him and there was a photograph. So a one stop place to look can be useful but you have to remember that no one database has everything - you need to look in all the big ponds and all the little ponds too.

What's Coming Up?

My last talk for the year is at Caboolture Library and it is all about blogging your family history. There are still a couple of classes for Bribie U3A and then the long hols over December and January. As everyone is keen to continue at U3A, I will be busy planning out some more classes. We are also thinking about doing a family history writing group to encourage all of us to tell our family stories. Motivation and inspiration shared are definitely useful to get you started.

Talks, book launch and research - lots of interesting things to keep me busy in the next fortnight. Until next time, have fun researching.

Another insolvent in the family, more talks & other news - Genealogy News 18-31 May 2018

Where did May disappear to? This blog looks like becoming a fortnightly event as the weeks seem to go too quickly these days.

Tutoring

Since taking on the advanced family history tutoring at U3A, the preparation for each week's class seems to have taken over my blogging time. I enjoy the classes and have been making new discoveries on my own families while preparing the talks. Last week they wanted a session on insolvencies and bankruptcies and during the preparation I discovered that my great great grandfather John Finn filed for insolvency in northern NSW in 1897. I'm now waiting for a copy of the file from State Archives and Records NSW. The Archives doesn't have a copy service for this record series so I'm using NSW Family History Transcriptions who provide copies of key record groups. Certainly cheaper than travelling to Kingswood.

John is one of my favourite ancestors as he has left so many records - BDMs, passenger list, land files, court records, prisons, newspapers, asylums and now insolvencies. Yet there is no known photograph of him, just this newspaper sketch from when he was accused of arson. Thankfully he was acquitted but the records were still created.

Everyone's keen to continue so we have just signed up for another term. At the end of this term I will have done four terms, a whole year and some students have been with me the whole time.

Talks

Some were keen and took their places early.

The afternoon seminar with the Gold Coast Family History Society went really well with some good feedback. My two talks on Archives You Should Know and Skeletons in the Family had every body talking over the afternoon tea and post seminar. There were lots of questions too. As usual, both talks are on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.

The Society has a wonderful venue to host these mini seminars with lots of room. Behind the seating area there is kitchen space for morning or afternoon teas.  Afterwards I was fortunate enough to be given a tour of their library, also in the same building.

Great library facilities for the lucky members of
the Gold Coast Family History Society.

Then four of us went out for pizza, wine and more stimulating talk about family history. I stayed overnight as it was over a two hour drive down, and after three hours of talking I didn't really feel like driving home in the dark. That's the trouble with winter, I miss the longer days.

Due to a heavy cold I ended up not going to Maurice Gleeson talks in Brisbane which was disappointing. I spent most of the day in bed asleep which is most unusual for me. He provided copies of both his talks to attendees so at least I had those to go through. Everyone said I missed a really good day. I do have the chance to hear him again in Seattle and on the Alaska cruise so that is something to look forward to.

What's Coming Up?

Next Thursday I'm off to Perth for the Unlock the Past exploring family and local history seminar where I will be giving four talks. Kerry Farmer and Doug Elms are also on the program along with local speakers and exhibitors so it will be a full on two days.

Then it's a whole month until my next talk for Pine Rivers Heritage Museum where I will be having A Fishy Look at Bribie Island. Should be fun as its combining my family history with local history. I have been to talks there before and they always have a really nice morning tea.

Until next time, have a great genealogy time with lots of new discoveries.

Newgate Calendar, DNA talks & other news : Genealogy Notes 24-30 Apr 2018

My goody bag from the Caloundra
Family History Research Inc last week

Reviewing old society journals can be rewarding - finally relocated my membership card for Genealogy SA. I obviously was using it as a book mark in one of their journals, it's now safe with all my other membership cards. Sometimes it is useful just to browse and check out urls or other resources and stories.

For example, in the Genealogical Society of Queensland's journal Generation, December 2014 there was an article 'Serious Crimes in the United Kingdom 1700-1825' from The Newgate Calendar.

Although most of my ancestors were criminals with a variety of crimes, none of them were too serious. However I'm fascinated by these types of records. The article finished by saying that the book is online free although it is a multi volume work. You can download volume by volume or browse the thematic contents including sneak thieves, highwaymen, smugglers, traitors, abductors of maidens, body snatchers and much much more.

Some of the entries are really quirky but fascinating. From the Ex-Classics home page, you can do a Google search such as Newgate and the surname of a person if you think one of your ancestors might be listed.

Blogs
Received some nice feedback on my Australian Trade Union Archives blog post for The In-Depth Genealogist. It's always nice to know that people are reading and learning something from our writings.

Tuesday's resolve is to do another Trove Tuesday post. The hard part I find is trying to pick a topic, so many interesting things to write about. Of course, it is also very easy to be distracted while searching in Trove.

Books
I've just finished reading Nathan Dylan Goodwin's The Suffragette's Secret, a Morton Farrier short story (and enjoyed it - review to follow) and now I've started on The Wicked Trade, another Morton Farrier adventure looking into Kent and smugglers in the 1820s. For me the attraction of Nathan's books is the combination of genealogy, history and a good story plus the development of his lead character as he progresses through his own life. I think we can all relate to crying babies and sleepless nights.

Talks
Last week I mentioned that I'm speaking at a Gold Coast Family History Society seminar at the end of May. Should have checked my diary - there are two talks for the Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical and Historical Research Group in conjunction with Noosa Libraries on 14 May.

Since moving back to Queensland I've done a few talks for Noosa Libraries but it has been quite a while since I last did talks for the Cooroy-Noosa group. It was in their old premises so I'm looking forward to seeing the new premises.

Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical & Historical Research Group premises

Moreton Libraries have booked me to do my blogging for family history talk at the Strathpine and Caboolture libraries later in the year. Plus I received my first request to do a presentation in 2019. No wonder time goes so fast!

What's Coming Up?

Front page of the bible Sarah Finn nee Fegan
brought to Queensland

I've just booked for the Queensland Family History Society seminar on Genetic Genealogy with Maurice Gleeson on 19 May. He is giving two talks - Managing your matches: a step by step approach to interpreting your DNA matches and Marrying DNA and Irish family tree research.

Learning more about how to read my DNA results and what to do with them is something I really need plus I have Irish ancestors from Wicklow - John Finn and Sarah Fegan. Should be a great day and a chance to catch up with geneafriends from Brisbane.

Until next time have a great genealogy week.

ANZAC day, genealogy talks & other news - Genealogy Notes 16-23 April 2018

Another week and another email from someone who found me via a blog post. This was exciting and I jumped up to grab an album of my mother's that was packed up when she went into the nursing home last year. But the one I wanted wasn't with the others, now the big question is where is it? There are boxes and boxes of photos for me to sort and digitise but with no real deadline they have just been sitting in the cupboard. With this motivation the coming week is going to be all about photographs and digitising them.

Blogs
Having just written the above paragraph on the value of blogs, I haven't had a chance this week to write anything. Tomorrow is ANZAC day and in past years I have written about my military ancestors.

In 2013 I wrote about The Brothers Finn and World War One - with this the final anniversary year of WW1 it is fitting to highlight this post again. Research (and blog posts) are not static and in 2016, three years after my first post, I wrote a Trove Tuesday blog World War One and the Finn Brothers.  In this blog I wrote about my excitement at finding a photograph of all three brothers in the same newspaper The Week, 31 Jan 1919. They all returned home but the youngest, Denis had been wounded and spent time in a German prisoner of war camp. The other two brothers never married. Lest we forget.

Journals
With the mornings getting darker, I'm no longer leaping out of bed and fumbling around in the dark trying to make a cup of tea without waking anyone else up. However there is no chance of going back to sleep so I have been having a reading feast of genealogy journals and magazines that having been piling up in the study. There are so many good stories and lots of tips and advice and URLs to check out on the laptop. One journal can hijack your day as you start exploring whatever the topic was.

Of course this is my print journals and to read my digital journals I have to actually sit at the study desk, not as comfy as being snug in bed. But the time will come when all journals will be digital as it is a much cheaper option for societies. Plus if I'm honest I won't need as many bookshelves! I just need to schedule time to read but so often I am hijacked by the desire to actually do research.

Talks

My talk at Caloundra Family History Research Inc went well with a packed house and interested audience. Received a lovely certificate, purple (what else) photo frame, a silky oak bottle stopper and a nice bottle of sav blanc to use the stopper with.

I stayed on to hear one of their own members talk about his family connection to some well known criminals. He was very entertaining and had people laughing and as someone who also has lots of criminals in the family, it can be hard talking about them. But there are some fantastic records with lots of family information and of course they are always in the newspaper!

The Gold Coast Family History Society have invited me to speak at their next seminar day on 26 May and one of the talks is my favourite - Skeletons in the Family which looks at convicts, prisons and asylums. My ancestors will be on display yet again. The other talk is on Archives You Should Know. Full details about the event are here. The Society meets at Nerang which is about half way between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Looking at their advertising I need to update my photo. That one was taken in Inverell, NSW in April 2014 and hard to believe that was four years ago. I will need a hair cut before the Gold Coast talk so time to take another good photo of me. Just wish it wasn't so hard.

What's Coming Up?

Memorabilia at the AFAQ cottage at Bongaree

There is no U3A this week due to ANZAC day but I am chairing the local history class this week and telling them all about the first five Presidents of the Amateur Fishing Association of Queensland. There is a family history element and it is a talk I gave to the Bribie Island Historical Society last year. Then in the afternoon, the current President of the Historical Society is giving a talk on Women of Bribie which should be fascinating. The U3A serve a wonderful afternoon tea for the modest gold coin entry.

On the writing front there are blog posts and an article for The In-Depth Genealogist. Weeks go fast but then months seem to go even quicker.

Until next week time a great genealogy week with many happy findings.

Red Cross files, DNA talk & other news - Genealogy Notes 8-15 May 2017

A huge week with lots on and getting ready for the Footsteps in Time genealogy conference on the Gold Coast this coming weekend. Should be a wonderful time catching up with geneamates and learning heaps of new things.

Where to start? Bribie Island hosted a talk by Chris Schuetz from Queensland Family History Society on DNA last Thursday. It was a packed session with lots of questions and obviously people are interested in this aspect of family history. Chris continually reminded people that it is a tool and that it does not replace traditional research and a paper (digital) trail. Chris also recommended Kerry Farmer's DNA for Genealogists, 4th edition and see below for details.

Given my own DNA discoveries, Chris kindly lent me The Genetic Strand: Exploring a family history through DNA by Edward Ball. It is the story of the author's journey after finding locks of hair belonging to his ancestors. I have to return it at the conference so desperately trying to find the time to read it before then.

This week I received an email from the University of Melbourne Archives (sometimes I do miss living in Melbourne) telling me about a new digitised collection. In their words:

In 2016 Red Cross Australia donated their historical collection to the University of Melbourne Archives (UMA) as a ‘Gift to the Nation’. Part of this collection included the Missing, Wounded and Prisoner of War Enquiry Cards dating from World War Two to 1973. Since the transfer, UMA has been working to make all of the cards relating to World War Two available online. There are now over 58,000 cards available through UMA’s online catalogue. To find a card, just type the surname into the search box. For further enquiries, please contact UMA at archives@archives.unimelb.edu.au or 03 9035 4337. For more information about the series, see the wonderful article on our blog, ‘A Humane and Intimate Administration’: The Red Cross’ World War Two Wounded, Missing and Prisoner of War Cards by Senior Archivist Fiona Ross.

I had a look at a few of the cards and wonderful information, some cards more detailed than others. None of my WW2 people were reported missing, wounded or prisoner of war so I randomly looked at names. Most only have initials so best to search on surnames and to see the actual cards click on the PDF symbol.

John Finn, the family patriarch
from County Wicklow

Today is Trove Tuesday and I managed to do a blog post - Frederick John Finn, a sad victim of Murphy's Creek. Some of my Finn families have incredibly sad stories, not a lucky family. I'm not sure if there is anyone still with the Finn name as two sons never married after serving in WW1, one son only had a daughter, one son died without issue and the remaining son had two sons who died and the only surviving male was Daniel Finn, brother of Frederick John Finn. I have not been able to trace him since WW2 but perhaps he married and had sons. One to follow up.

Tomorrow's U3A class is all about using social media and Facebook for genealogy and family history so that should be a stimulating session. The small group works well as people can ask questions as we go.

I've seen on Facebook people posting about the last issue of Inside History Magazine. Mine must still be in the mail as they say! I hope it arrives soon but sad to know it is the last issue. Time to go back and look at all the wonderful stories and items of interest.

Not that I have a lot of reading time as my standing order with Gould Genealogy & History for Unlock the Past research guides means that I now have another three guides to read: Neil Smith has just published Australians in Peril: Tracing Your World War Two Australian Military Ancestors; Rosemary Kopittke has a 3rd edition of Scotlands People: the place to launch your Scottish research and Kerry Farmer has a 4th edition of DNA for Genealogists. All timely publications given all my news above.

Making sure I have everything I need for the Footsteps in Time conference is now the top priority. My presentation has already been sent but I also like to take a back up plus my trusty notebook (paper) and pen. My over the shoulder bag so that I can carry all the bits and pieces I pick up at the Fair on the Friday. It's only three days but there will also be the conference satchel to pack into the suitcase. Luckily I'm driving down so I don't have to watch the weight I carry back. Look out for the blog posts when I return.

Have a wonderful week researching and if you are at the conference, come up and say hello. Until next week, have geneafun!  

St Patrick's Day, NZ conference & Other News - Genealogy Notes 8-14 Mar 2017

Well it was another week of geneaenvy when I discovered via Facebook that quite a few geneamates are heading for Auckland for the New Zealand Society of Genealogists conference in June. I have been to quite a few of their conferences and expos over the years and they are always good value. Dick Eastman is again on the program, he must like going to New Zealand and who wouldn't, and Judy Russell who I first met in person on an Unlock the Past genealogy cruise. You could easily sit and listen to Judy talk all day. There are other speakers and some great topics so check the program out here. I'm seriously tempted to go but I already have one geneaconference on the Gold Coast in May, plus the geneacruise to Papua New Guinea in July and lots of talks lined up in August for National Family History Month. So lots of exciting things already in my calendar.

With regard to National Family History Month we are still trying to fix the bug in our events calendar so it is a slow start to promoting it this year. But I can't really ask for events when last year's are still showing as current. Hopefully we will work out a solution soon. In the meantime I now have 8 talks during August and this will probably increase as I still need to find an event for the drawing of the sponsor's prizes at the end of the month. Stay tuned.

Another exciting event is Chris Paton (British and Irish research) returning to our shores in August and he will be touring with Dirk Weissleder (German research) as part of an Unlock the Past tour. Check out the tour dates here. They will be visiting Brisbane, Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth so lots of people will get the chance to see them. The issue for me is that the Brisbane event is the day after I get home from the Papua New Guinea cruise. Can I zip off again after returning home for only one day?

My great grandmother, Mary Finn
daughter of John Finn and Sarah Fegan

St Patrick's Day is coming up on 17 March so I will be celebrating my Irish ancestry - two great great grandparents, John Finn and Sarah Fegan from County Wicklow. My St Patrick's day blog post last year was about them and rereading it I'm surprised at how much more I have learnt about the family in a year. I recently saw a photograph of Sarah Fegan for the first time and I'm eagerly waiting for my cousin to send a copy. So until I get that, I won't update the blog post. Read how I traced my Finn and Fegan families in County Wicklow here.

Findmypast are making their entire Irish collection free until midnight 17 March (GMT) so that is a fantastic chance for people to look for any Irish ancestors. Read more about the offer here. Don't miss out.

There is so much happening in the genealogy world that it is hard to keep up with all the news,even spending time on social media only scratches the surface. To help myself keep up to date I have offered to do an advance class on family history at the local U3A in Term 2. They have been running a beginners course for years and students want to progress to beyond the basics. It should be challenging but with a smaller group you can focus on what people want to know about. Plus I will be able to learn from them too.


Finally one of my favourite authors, Nathan Dylan Goodwin has published another novella in his forensic genealogist series, The Missing Man again starring the fictional Morton Farrier. I have loved all the previous books, very hard to put down once you start, so I am looking forward to reading this latest adventure.

This coming week will be mainly finishing some research enquiries, attending the local history class at  U3A and catching up on my journal reading, both paper and e-journal. The paper ones are piled up on the floor and quite visible while the e-journals are out of sight which is not a good thing for me. I need to set a dedicated time to read everything that comes in, at least once a week.

Have another good week of genealogy researching and if you can attend any of those genealogy events listed above, enter the dates in your calendar now. Personal networking with others is one of the best ways to learn and have geneafun.

Until next time.

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.

Irish Death Certificates, NFHM 2016 & Other News - Genealogy Notes 22 - 29 May 2016

Part of our daily walk around the resort

After a relaxing week's holiday at a resort in the Gold Coast Hinterland, there is not a lot of genealogy news to report. The only thing I did was check my emails occasionally and update events on the National Family History Month web calendar. The National Institute for Genealogical Studies early bird prize for genealogy and family history societies adding their August NFHM events to the calendar closes on 30 June, just over a month away. I hope that motivates a few more societies to be part of NFHM 2016. Full details on the Sponsors page of the website.

During the week I accepted another two speaking engagements for NFHM - both in the Sunshine Coast area so fortunately not a lot of travelling time for me. This is probably just as well as I am now doing 19 talks for NFHM in Western Australia, Queensland and New Zealand. That may be a record for the number of talks given by any one person and it is almost a certainty that I will be the most traveled person that month. Still, I do love NFHM and seeing everyone so passionate about genealogy and family history. Please help spread the word and encourage your society, local library or archives to join in too by entering their August events in the web calendar.

An email from FamilyTree DNA left me in two minds - excited and somewhat pensive. My brother has finally done the Y DNA test for me and it has been received my FamilyTree DNA. Now we are just waiting for the results. I'm giving my Love Sex and Damn Lies talk twice during NFHM so will there be a different ending??

My four Irish death images arrived by email and very good quality digital images and ever so much cheaper than a certificate. I was right not to expect too much additional information but one informant was the son in law so that confirmed I had the right person. One informant was the husband so again the right person and the other two had informants where I don't recognise the name and no relationship is given. But names, ages and places all match so I am reasonably confident I have all four Irish GGG grandparents deaths.

The causes of death were the most interesting part.Sarah Fegan was 84 years old and died of senile decay and cardiac failure. I realised that she had lived longer than her daughter Sarah who came out to Queensland. I was left wondering if she had been informed of Sarah's death or had all contact with the family been lost. Her husband Robert Fegan had died earlier, aged 78 years from asthma, something I suffered from as a child. Rosanna Finn died aged 67 years from bronchitis another one of my childhood illnesses and her husband James Finn died aged 75 years from chronic Bright's disease and something else that I cannot read (yet). This had me reaching for Helen Smith's Death Certificates and Archaic Medical Terms to learn that Bright's Disease is an inflammatory disease of the kidneys (increased protein in the urine).

Coming up in June is Queensland Week 4-12 June 2016 (celebrating Queensland's birthday on 6 June) and I will be speaking at Noosaville Library about online sources for Queensland genealogy and family history. I'm looking forward to going back to Noosaville as it is another one of those places we almost settled. Watch out for other interesting events during the week.

History Week in New South Wales is 3-11 September and they are calling for events to be registered and also for groups who would like a speaker to visit them. Now in its 19th year, it has a Neighbours theme including stories of individuals, families and communities living near one another and links between suburbs, regions and countries. Full details on their website and it should be an exciting time for those in NSW.

Now that I am back home there are a few writing projects that need to be finalised before the end of June and regular blogs and articles to be completed. The weather is a little cooler but still not really autumn and with winter next week, I am still able to swim in the pool, although it is solar heated.

Tortoise enjoying a sun bake

Python also enjoying the sunshine

One of the great things about where we stayed on the Gold Coast Hinterland was that it had a natural lagoon with an amazing range of birds and tortoises which were fond of coming up for a sun bake during the day. I was not so fond of the huge python we came across on one of our bush walks. It really  was good to have a week off but now looking forward to a fantastic week of genealogy research. Until next time enjoy those genealogy moments.

Killing Off Ancestors, Adelaide Expo & Other News - Genealogy Notes 7-13 May 2016

Mother's Day tulips

Mother's Day 2016 for us was a great family reunion with all of us turning up at Mum's place. There are not a lot of us - just me and Max, my son and his fiancee (not sure if I have mentioned this before but she now wears a rather dazzling ring), my brother and his wife, my nephew and his girlfriend and my niece. My brother has still not done the DNA test I bought last November but he is admitting to being slack. Fingers crossed he went home motivated. I need an ending to my Love Sex and Damn Lies talk!

Another date for your calendars is the Unlock the Past Australian History and Genealogy Expo in Adelaide 7-8 October 2016. I'm planning to go and I know some of my other geneafriends are planning a trip over and of course all our SA friends who don't have to travel.

Why am I making the trek? My Cornish ancestors arrived in South Australia in the early 1860s and my great grandmother Dorcas Trevaskis was born in Moonta in 1866. I have always been fascinated with Cornish culture and one of my favourite books is Philip Payton's Cornwall: A History. Philip Payton is going to be one of the speakers at the Expo and it will be so good to hear him in person. The other key presenter is Tom Lewis a military historian who I first heard in Darwin in 2012 at the 70th anniversary commemoration of the bombing of Darwin. Two excellent reasons to go plus there are other presenters and exhibitors for two days of genealogy in Adelaide.

Killing off John's parents

Some months ago now I discovered what I believe to be the death years for my Wicklow great great great grandparents, James and Rosanna Finn and Robert and Sarah Fagan. I have delayed getting the certificates because there is not a lot of information on Irish death certificates although it would be good to know cause of death and if the informant is a relative.

Re-looking at my paperwork in the Note section I find you can get a photocopy of the entry for 4 Euros instead of 16 Euros for the certificate. This option should be in the list of options available not in a note. Anyway now that I know for about $25 AU instead of $100 I can kill off my GGG grandparents I have gone ahead and ordered the photocopies. I have even asked for the copies to be sent email as I am now super keen to see if there are any surprises.

Getting Sarah's
death certificate at last

At the least I will know more about them than I do now which is only their names and their marriage information (sadly minus any parent details). So killing them off (getting their death certificates) may signal the end of the road for my Irish research. Although who knows what might turn up as more records are indexed or digitised.

Another piece of good news is that the National Archives of Australia replied to my enquiry re the wrong indexing of John James Carnegie's WW2 dossier. I was right and they have corrected it so that Carnegie is now the surname and not James. So if you do find indexing errors, always point them out and if it is a genuine error it can be fixed. If the name is wrong on the records then it can't be changed. For example, my great uncle Solomon Price has a number of Boer War documents but on one of them it is definitely Soloman not Solomon so I have to search both variants as he seems to have used both spellings at different times.

This coming week I have a Skype meeting with AFFHO where I will be giving an update on National Family History Month. My only wish is that more people will put their August events up into our new web calendar. NFHM can only work if societies advertise events such as their monthly meetings, library days or anything else they are doing during August. The early bird prize for all societies contributing an event ends on 30 June so don't miss out. Archives and libraries can also participate. Our media sponsor Inside History Magazine has given us a whole page advert in the May-Jun 2016 issue so that should get people interested.

Have a great week and remember to squeeze in a little genealogy. Until next time happy researching

More photo success, ANZAC Day blogs & other news - Genealogy Notes 22 - 28 Apr 2016

A fantastic week of new discoveries in sources previously searched but not under names I was expecting. I've always looked for variant spellings but sometimes it is hard to know if something is the right entry. And sometimes we need a little prompt to try again.

I am so glad that I went to State Library of Queensland's WW1 White Glove Experience at the Bribie Island Seaside Museum last Friday. Not only was it a chance to catch up with my old Library colleague Niles Elvery but also to see up close some of the Library's WW1 treasures. It's been a while since I have worn the 'white gloves'.

Niles Elvery Regional Coordinator
of Q Anzac 100 program

WW1 treasures on display
in regional areas

 In chatting to Niles afterwards I mentioned that I could only find one of my three Finn brothers in the WW1 soldiers portraits database which contains nearly 27,000 Queensland soldiers. He agreed that it was odd so I went home to have another look. Since last searching the database I had been lucky enough to find a photo of all three brothers in The Week, a digitised newspaper now in Trove. As usual I only searched on the Finn surname as there are not that many and as I looked at the photo of I Finn it looked very much like the photo of John Finn in The Week. Yes the I should have been a J and the error was made in 1917 at the time of publication in The Queenslander.

I was so excited about this discovery that I used it for my  post for the Trans Tasman ANZAC Day blog challenge - The Finn Brothers. Lots of other bloggers also did the challenge so have a look and maybe discover some new military tips and resources. I still have to find a good quality image of Robert Finn but at least I have images of all three now.

The Anzac Day parade and service on Bribie was bigger again this year and thankfully it was a bit cooler than last time. For most of the service there was cloud cover and not full sun. At least Max could participate in the march this year, last year he was still walking with a cane after breaking his leg in late January.

Max with his RAAF buddies
on the march

Bribie Island RSL

There is a 'we're part of NFHM' logo and I have put a copy on the Participate page of the website so that those organising events can download it. I am hoping to see lots of it in the months leading up to National Family History Month in August. When you think about it, that is only three months away!

I finished the University of Strathclyde FutureLearn free online course on genealogy. It was a well structured course and I found the six weeks went incredibly fast. While a lot of material was familiar to me there was some new information and lots of people put tips and resources in their comments. Perhaps its main benefit to me was that it inspired me to relook at some of my research and over the last few weeks I have made new discoveries and solved some old stumbling blocks.And it was free so it doesn't get better than that. There is a 'register interest' button on the website so they must be thinking of running the course again.

The History Queensland Footsteps in Time family and local history conference and fair 19-21 May 2017 website is now up. Definitely a conference to pencil into your calendars for next year! There is also an invitation to speak so if you want to be part of the program, submit your proposal before 30 August. The date's a bit tricky for me as it is also my son's 30th birthday - maybe I can pop in on my way back from the Gold Coast.

It's a rainy day here for a change so I am doing a little blog writing in between filing all my new information into my database and folders. I might pick another family I haven't looked at for a while and see what's new in Trove. That might even give me next Trove Tuesday's blog post!

Have a good genealogy week. Until next time.

Distant Cousins, Blogging Success & Other News - Genealogy Notes 13 - 21 Apr 2016

A super busy week which is why this is a little late. Mum has not been well again and there have been lots of trips up and down the highway so little chance to blog or do research. But it is amazing what you can squeeze into those spare moments.

Some months ago I discovered two divorce files for my great uncle Denis Patrick Finn, a German prisoner of war in World War One. Read his story here. There was no chance of my getting down to State Records NSW in the near future so I used the services of Marilyn Rowan who was quick and efficient. I was aware that she did NSW transcriptions but not that she also offered a document service. It was a simple matter to place my order for the two divorce files (flat fee) and within a week I had digital copies of both files (one 32 pages and the other 44 pages). Dropbox is used to deliver the files due to their size. Sadly no photographs or certificates but I did learn some new info which made me feel even sorrier for Denis.

On the way back from one of our Brisbane visits, we called in to see one of Max's first cousins, Neville Spencer - a descendant from the second marriage of his grandfather, Max is descended from the third marriage. We had never met before and the Spencer likeness was well and truly evident. We took some photos and they kindly lent me some documents to copy. I will be dropping in again next Tuesday to return their documents and to give them some of our family information. It really does pay to track down long lost cousins.

Trove Tuesday blogging is starting to get me hooked! I had a great time trying to tie up some loose ends with another one of my Carnegie families. I knew a little from family stories but not any real detail. So after a few keyword searches on names, I was able to determine the date of death of his first wife and his marriage to his second wife. Both the funeral notice and the marriage notice mentioned his WW2 service but I have never been able to find his army dossier. So this led to another search for it and the discovery of an indexing error. Read all about how I found John James Carnegie's army dossier here.

I firmly believe that one of the main reasons we can't find some people is simply because of indexing errors. This is another great example of it and of course, the trick is discovering what it has been indexed under. I love people with middle names!

In some of my spare moments I have also been trying to keep up with Pauleen Cass and her A2Z blogging challenge in April. I know others have been doing it too but Pauleen always has catchy titles  (S for Stories and Serendipity and who doesn't love serendipity) and I find myself clicking links to find out more. See Pauleen's posts here.

Thursday afternoon I gave a talk to the monthly meeting of Caloundra Family History Research - my talk Love Sex and Damn Lies went down real well. It is always surprising when people come up afterwards and say they have similar stories. I guess we all have very human ancestors. As usual my talk is on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.

Tomorrow I am going to the Bribie Island Seaside Museum to hear Niles Elvery talk about and display WW1 items from the State Library of Queensland's collection. Niles and I used to work together in the John Oxley Library back in the early 90s so a good chance to catch up too.

My ANZAC Day tribute this year will be to the State Library's QANZAC100 project so stay tuned for that. It is a fantastic tribute to Queenslanders who went to WW1. It is how I found my army photo of Denis Patrick Finn but unfortunately his two brothers Robert and John were not captured in this digitisation project. I must investigate further because I would love good quality images of them all.

I still have to do Week 6 of the University of Strathclyde FutureLearn online genealogy course. It is the last week so hopefully I will catch up and finish by the end of the weekend. It has been a good course and considering it was free, excellent value.

This coming week should be a little less hectic and only one planned trip to the hospital with Mum on Tuesday . As the end of the month nears I know that my deadline for my blog and magazine article for The In-Depth Genealogist is due. That will probably focus my writing time along with the ANZAC Day blog. Have a great genealogy week!

16 Websites, St Patrick's Day & Other News - Genealogy Notes 15-21 Mar 2016

My great grandmother 

For St Patrick's day, I wrote up my research on the Finn family of County Wicklow, Ireland into a blog post. I've made quite a few discoveries recently so writing everything up helped me to see where the gaps still were and what else I could follow up. Read about the family and my efforts to tie all the pieces together here. It's a tale of spelling variations, missing records and a family that seems to have moved around but mostly within a small area.

Work is continuing on the new National Family History Month (the URL will stay the same but it will look different) website and I am now happy with how events are added. It should save me a lot of time once people start adding their events after we launch the new site, hopefully very soon. I am  pleased to say that the National Archives of Australia is again sponsoring the launch which will be in Perth this year. It is their 11th year of launch sponsorship and it is fantastic to see that ongoing support for family history.

Many people only ever go to the National Archives of Australia main website (the link above) but did you know they actually have lots of websites. From the Home page, select the Engage option and then Connect with us option. This is a quick route to all the other websites including:

• The arcHive website -  this is where you can help the Archives to list some of their records that are not online yet. As a reward, you earn points towards Archives publications or copies of Archives files for your research. 
• Australia's Prime Ministers - everything you ever wanted to know (or not)
• Banned - read about the secret history of Australian censorship
• Constitution Day - a blog about the Constitution
• Destination Australia: sharing our post war migrant stories - if you have someone who arrived after WW2 there are over 20,000 photos of migrants here plus lots of stories
• Discovering Anzacs - joint project with Archives New Zealand covering the Boer War and WW1. You can upload your photos and stories as well as see government records on soldier ancestors.
• Faces of Australia - this site features 227 images from the Archives' collection - help them to identify people, places and events
• Forced Adoptions History Project - learn about the history and experiences of forced adoptions in Australia. Includes information on accessing adoption records and support services.
• Mildenhall's Canberra - early Canberra photographs that you can comment on and pinpoint locations if you have any information 
• Montevideo Maru - this Japanese ship was sunk in July 1942 by the USS Sturgeon not realising that it carried over 1,000 mostly Australian prisoners captured in Rabaul and who were being transferred to Hainan off southern China. A really tragic story and a great memorial to those soldiers.
• Paper Research - includes a history of papermaking, research on paper quality and a database of watermarks 
• PhotoSearch - as the name suggests, browse, discover, map and share 
• Soda - newly scanned records that you can view, share and get updates 
• Uncommon Lives - the stories of famous and not so famous Australians as revealed in files held by the Archives
• Vrroom: Virtual Reading Room - resources for students and teachers on Australian history, civics, citizenship and more.

How many of NAA's 16 websites are you familiar with? There is a lot of family history information in the National Archives of Australia, make sure you are not missing any of it.

During the week I had a Q&A request from Family Tree Magazine UK which is always fun and often challenging to do. At the AFFHO meeting last night (via Skype) I reported on NFHM progress and the AFFHO AGM is on 21 April. Last year the AGM was in Canberra at the Congress, this time it will be virtual. Amazing technology and times that we live in.

My blog post for National Women's History Month (March) is almost finished and it is a tribute to my four grandmothers. Easter is the end of this week and we are staying home so I will be doing my monthly blog and article for The In-Depth Genealogist. Plus continuing to work on my new guide but there will be time for the Easter Bunny to visit. Great that there is a bridge to our island!

My orchids are starting to flower just in time for the Easter orchid show. I find it amazing because Easter changes each year but that doesn't seem to bother orchids. They always seem to know when to bloom. One of the many wonders of nature that continues to delight us.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Easter with family and friends and that you manage a little genealogy research too. Until next time.