Short month, lots of genealogy: Australia & New Zealand Genealogy Notes February 2021

Wow the 28 days of February went past so quickly. But a huge month for doing nothing but watch webinars. One of the reasons this blog post is a week late.

Books

Hard to believe but I still haven't started The Chester Creek Murders by Nathan Dylan Goodwin. I have been waiting for some extra spare time so that I can read uninterrupted. I have a week away at Noosa and Caloundra at the end of March. It will be perfect motel reading. 

Bribie Genealogy

Time was spent on putting together an email list (doubles as membership) and preparing for the March meeting. 

Our April meeting is Good Friday so we will be having a Zoom meeting on Easter Saturday instead. We have even started to think about having a second meeting a month in the evening. It is really good to see so many enthusiastic people.

Conferences

This is where most of my time has been spent. Finalising handouts for the FHDU conference in March as well as trying to record my presentation using Powerpoint rather than Zoom. I found it really limiting and stopped the flow of my usual style when giving a talk. Still a learning exercise and technology continues to get better and better. Now that it is virtual, the overall package is cheaper than it was in person. That's a plus but I will miss the personal catch ups.

Of course RootsTech Connect took up three days and nights and it was amazing how you could get caught up in the frenzy of trying to do everything. I scored a few freebies in the Exhibition Hall but will do a blog post soon on how I found the whole experience. The Twitter #ANZAncestryTime topic last week (Tuesdays 7pm Brisbane time) was on RootsTech so I picked up more tips to follow up. 

The talks are still online and if you search for Oceania you will pick up most of the Australia and New Zealand talks. My talk on Australian Archives was well received and there were a few people in the chat room and one person even found her ancestor after hearing one of my tips on spelling variants. 

All RootsTech Connect speakers were sent a gift package which was unexpected and a lovely way to end an amazing experience. Thanks to all the people behind the scenes. 

Plus on the spur of the moment I decided to attend The Family History Show on 20 February which was only about $10AU. I have done a blog post on the conference and it is funny how it took about to 2011 and an article I wrote for Discover Your Ancestors. Small world. Read the report here. 

Talks

My talk at Bribie Island Library on What's In A Surname was well received and the Where Do I Start beginners session at Noosaville Library has a very enthusiastic audience. Both events booked out. Another talk on Using Ancestry's DNA Tools is coming up for Noosaville. I have been asked to do a webinar for The Surname Society in March. 

I'm also back at U3A as the person doing the beginners course can no longer do it. Therefore in Term 2 I will be trying to confine myself to beginner methodology. Hope they don't find me too overwhelming. Actually it will be good to get back to basics. Another plus is that  they can come along to Bribie Genealogy meetings. 

See where I am speaking on the Events page of my website. 

What's New in Australia & New Zealand

If you subscribe to the free Trove enews, you can get the latest on what's new in Trove. There is also a link to the enews on the home page of Trove. For example, the February news was that four newspaper titles for each of New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia were added, varying date ranges. 

I was interested in these three in particular:

• Nowra Colonist (NSW) 1899-1904
• The Telegraph and Shoalhaven Advertiser (NSW) 1879-1881
• Windsor & Richmond Gazette (NSW) 1888-1961.

Two of my great grandmother Elizabeth Price's children were born in the Shoalhaven area in the 1880s. 

Sign up to Trove at the bottom of the February newsletter. 

Also remember it is a new calendar year and many of the BDM indexes are now available for another year. Some states like NSW update through the year, while others don't. This also applies to state archives and that means another year of closed series is now available. You really do need to go back and check for additional records at the start of each calendar year.

FamilySearch added New Zealand electoral rolls 1865 to 1957 adding just over 3.5 million names to the records for New Zealand. With trans Tasman families there's another search I need to do. 

Findmypast added quite a few interesting records for my English and Irish families and Ancestry updated its Australia and New Zealand Obituary Index 2004 to the present. Also some UK WW1 pension records which interest me. 

If you subscribe to the free enews from the archives, libraries and resources that are of interest to your research it really is easy to see what's new. However, beware of bright shiny objects which may tempt you away from a planned research strategy. 

Have a wonderful research time in March. Stay well and safe.

Shauna

DNA connections, blogs as cousin bait & other news - Genealogy Notes 8-15 April 2018

Mum, my brother and I a long long time ago

A lot of the last week was out and about so not a lot of desk time. U3A starts again this week so Wednesday afternoons will be Advanced Family History and Friday mornings Local Bribie History. Two week breaks seem to go so quickly.

Mum had a great 84th birthday with two cakes - one with us and one at the aged care centre. My brother and his son came up for coffee and cake. Then Max and I took Mum to lunch so she could have nachos and a wine, treats not often on the menu!

Blog Reading

My blog post on the Australian Women's Register for The In-Depth Genealogist was listed on Gail Dever's Genealogy a la Carte for 14 Apr 2018. It's always nice to see that people are reading things I write. Plus I like to browse these compilations to pick up other blog posts of interest to my own research.

One I thought would be useful if only I could find a spare day was The Legal Genealogist's post on why we should all find Time to Paint. It's all about DNA Painter and how you can match up known relatives. My problem is not knowing who my relatives are!

Elizabeth Price nee Judge born Pollard

Although blogging about your known relatives can also help connect up in conjunction with DNA testing. A couple of years ago I wrote about my great grandmother Elizabeth Price nee Judge born Pollard - a brick wall that took a while to fall. I also posted a photograph of her.

At the weekend while checking my Ancestry DNA messages I found an email from someone descendant from the same Pollard family in Croughton, Northamptonshire. They had written to tell me how similar my Elizabeth was to her Croughton cousins and sent two photos to show the resemblance.

Blogging is definitely cousin bait and if you have both done DNA tests and submitted family tree charts then it all comes together quite nicely.

Resources

Kerry Farmer is the Director of the Australian Studies certificate with the National Institute for Genealogical Studies and quite often does free webinars. There is another one on Wednesday morning (18 April at 9am Sydney time) on Trove and how it is more than just digitised newspapers. It is free and open to all but you need to register. There is no user name or password required. Just type in your first and last name and click Enter as a Guest. Link to attend. Kerry usually advertises these on various Facebook sites so keep a watch out in the future.

What's Coming Up?

Thursday is my Sporting Ancestors talk for Caloundra Family History Research. It is always a great monthly meeting and I will also be able to find out what is happening with the Waves In Time Conference in Caloundra in May 2019. This is one of my favourite areas of Queensland and we nearly settled here so it is definitely in my diary for next year. Although it is only an hour and a half  up the highway I will be staying locally to maximise all my networking time with geneafriends.

There is a meeting of the Professional Historians Association of Queensland  at the weekend and it's on the north side of Brisbane so I'm planning to attend.

Until next time, have a great genealogy week!

Samuel Plimsoll (ship), new archive releases, free webinars & other news - Genealogy Notes 21-28 Jan 2018

Last week I said that I would randomly review one of my families and see if I could take it back further in Hampshire and Wiltshire. Well there were some deaths post 1837 that might be mine but the information on UK death certificates is not going to confirm that unless my ancestor was the informant. So I haven't paid out any money yet.

All Saints parish church, Winterslow, Wiltshire
image Trish Steel via Wikipedia

On the plus side I did find digitised images of parish church records in Ancestry.  My GGGGG grandmother Hester Parrick's baptism was in 1727 and she married in 1747. Her mother (that's 6 Gs) Martha Parrick was buried in 1742, all in Winterslow, Wiltshire. Amazing that I can sit here and view these images. Somehow it makes my ancestors seem more real.

I also like to read up on a place and find Wikipedia useful for a quick overview of a parish. Plus there is usually a map showing where in the county a parish is located and a photograph of the parish church. Check out the entry for Winterslow.
Blogs
Rootsfinder asked for permission to reuse one of my Trove Tuesday blog posts from last year in their How I Solved It series. Which Trove Tuesday blog post did they choose? It was the one where I found my great grandfather's accidental death, not by name (Thomas Price) but by the place name because the journalist recorded the wrong name (William Price)! Read the Rootsfinder post here and why not check out some of the other blog posts in this series for other ideas.

And speaking of Trove Tuesday, I managed to do my first Trove Tuesday blog post for 2018. It was a wonderful find - Samuel Plimsoll (ship) 1878 illustrated sketches. Thomas Price, paragraph above, arrived on the Samuel Plimsoll with his new bride Elizabeth Judge in Sydney in 1878. I'd previously located reports of the voyage out but on rechecking, I discovered these fantastic sketches. It might pay to see what else is under the Illustrated filter!

Education
The internet provides so many ways to learn more about genealogy and family history and how to improve our searching skills. FamilySearch conduct free webinars on a monthly basis and you can see what's coming up in February here. Handouts from past webinars can also be downloaded and some of the sessions on using various aspects of FamilySearch more effectively are quite useful.

Reading

Although it arrived a few weeks back, I have finally sat down to have a good read of Traces: uncovering the past. This is a new magazine and Volume 1 reminded me a lot of Inside History which I also loved reading.

This is what the cover is like if you are trying to locate it in a newsagent. I've taken up a subscription as there are not a lot of newsagents on the Island and the range of genealogy/history magazines is not great. One of the things I miss about not living in a big city.

Sources
Once upon a time in my archives work life, I used to get excited about the 1st of January as that was the day new access releases were made. So this completely slipped my mind this year but there are another year of BDMs to search, and more items opened up in our state archives.

Public Record Office Victoria usually does a very handy list or blog post and this year it is an extremely interesting read with some great photos. Check out New Archival Records to Explore at PROV. There is also a complete list of all new releases under their Section 9 openings. If nothing else, the list will give you a wonderful idea of what can be found in our state archives.

What's Coming Up

Apparently the summer holidays are over, and the Bribie U3A resumes this coming week. On the grapevine I heard that my advanced family history class on Wednesday afternoon is fully booked and there is a waiting list. There has even been the odd email asking can I sneak someone in.

I also go to the local history class on Friday mornings so my weeks will be busier for the next 10 weeks, then the Easter holidays. Reminds me of my school days.

This photo was my first day of school in my new uniform, taken in the back yard. Just to the left of me was the 'old dunny' and it looks like it was before we got the 'hills hoist clothes line' as there is no shadow from it.

Until next time, have a great genealogy week.

Local History, Remembrance Day & Other News - Genealogy Notes 19 Oct - 18 Nov 2017

Well four weeks slipped past again in a blur and my brother assures me that all family drama will be over by Christmas and I can start 2018 again fresh! I'm still trying to work out where 2017 went and having spent last weekend going through all Mum's photos I'm left wondering where the last 60 something years have gone. I'm left with a small box of photos that I want to keep and some that I will digitise and the rest are in a bag for my brother to go through. He seems to have taken more photos than me over the years but then he had two children so you would expect more.

Memorial to the Kennedy Regiment,
Army Museum North Queensland,
Townsville, Sep 2017

I did manage to write one blog post - Remembrance Day 2017 and the Kennedy Regiment, Queensland which is appropriate as Mum's father Henry Price and his brother Les Price were on the Kanowna when it left Townsville for German New Guinea at the start of World War One.

My tutoring sessions at Bribie U3A on advanced family history are going well and it is hard to believe there are only two more sessions before the end of term four. Both are on brick wall solving and already one attendee has broken down her brick wall which is good. Not sure why but I am always surprised by other people's brick walls, some are absolutely fascinating and I suspect our ancestors never thought that one day their descendants would come looking for them. The tutoring has been fun and it will be a continuing course next year with many of the attendees staying in the class. We have even been given a bigger room.

From 13 December 2017 users of FamilySearch will be prompted to register for a free account or sign in to their existing account to have access to the free expanded benefits of FamilySearch. This is due to the need for FamilySearch to be able to assure all its partners that its content is offered in a safe and secure online environment and signing in to accounts fulfills that need. I set up an account a while back to add in some family names but haven't done anything since. Signing in will probably prompt me to do more than just search for something. The hardest part will be remembering yet another password as I don't like using the same password for everything. Read more about the changes here.


The Royal Historical Society of Victoria have published a useful online guide Writing and Publishing Local History: A Guide for First Time Authors and Historical Societies, written by Rosalie Triolo, Helen Doyle and Katya Johanson. It is free to download or you can buy a paper copy from the RHSV Bookshop for $30.

Ravenswood Hotel, Sep 2017

Catching up with my National Trust of Australia news and the 2018 Australian Heritage Festival theme is My Culture, My Story and they are currently looking for events to go into the calendar for April/May next year. There will probably be lots of interest for family history too so make a note to watch out for the calendar. The Festival starts on 18 April 2018.

With everything that has happened this year I have given considerable thought to what I want to carry over into the New Year. After coordinating the last 5 National Family History Month's in Australia from 2013-2017 I have stepped down as the voluntary coordinator.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the societies, individuals and sponsors who helped me achieve all that I did over the five years. So much of what is done in the family history world is done by volunteers who try to support societies who exist to help individuals both in person and online. The answer is not always on Facebook and it is not always instant and free.

Support your local societies before we lose more of them and the services they offer such as meetings, seminars, libraries and special interest groups.

Best parma in Queensland,
Ravenswood Hotel, Sep 2017

With my haphazard blog posts of late I was also planning to end this blog but as my brother said, things will be better in 2018 and I might regret killing it off. So possibly monthly posts as we go into the Christmas/New Year period and not a lot of family history usually happens then as we all get caught up in the festive spirit. We can then see what the New Year brings.

So on a more positive note I've drawn up a list of three things to focus on in 2018:

•  a regular schedule of blog posts for my own genealogy development in 2018 which will appear on my website, 
• again writing regular blogs and articles for Going In-Depth after my sabbatical (which has taken far too long) 
• and getting back to my DNA research and the mystery grandfather. 

There will be one more Diary post before Christmas so until then have fun searching and why not think about what you want to focus on in 2018.

New Wiltshire records, more newspapers coming & Other News - Genealogy Notes 1-7 Apr 2017

There is nothing more exciting than finding out about new collections online. All of the major databases have free enewsletters or blogs that alert you to what's new which can be distracting. To be honest anything would take me away from the housework at the weekend.

Findmypast announced in their Friday 7 April update that there are new Scottish Roman Catholic parish records and new Wiltshire parish records online.

My great grandfather Herbert William White (on the far left in the photograph) was from Pitton & Farley in Wiltshire. I have a few lines in Wiltshire and neighbouring Hampshire that are stuck so this was welcome news.

I've discovered a few more things but one family still eludes me in the 1841 census. I know they are there but I simply can't find them in any of the transcript/indexed sites.

Not even using approximate ages and given names only. The surname is Pragnell and that can be written in lots of different ways.


Another area where I can spend lots of hours is digitised newspapers and the list of titles coming to Trove includes the following:

• Daily News (Tweed Heads, NSW: 1938-1940) ); [State Library of New South Wales Digital Excellence Program]
• The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW: 1879-1906); [State Library of New South Wales Digital Excellence Program]
• Labor Daily (NSW: 1924 - 1938); [State Library of New South Wales Digital Excellence Program]
• Millthorpe Post (1900-1901); [Millthorpe and District Historical Society]
• Tribune (Communist Party of Australia: 1955-1974); [State Library of New South Wales Digital Excellence Program and The Search Foundation]
• Moreton Mail (1886-1889); [Moreton Bay Regional Libraries]
• The Citizen (Port Adelaide, SA: Nov. 1938-May 1940); [Renewal SA]
• The Gateway (Port Adelaide, SA: 30 Aug. 1946-29 Nov. 1946); [Renewal SA]
• Port Adelaide District Pictorial (14 Mar. 1952-14 Jan. 1954); [Renewal SA]
• The Progressive Times (Largs North, SA: 16 May 1949-Feb 1951); [Renewal SA]
• Seaport News Review (21 Jan. 1954-29 Apr. 1954); [Renewal SA]
• The Evening Echo (Ballarat, VIC: 1914-1918); [State Library Victoria]
• The Star (Ballarat, VIC: 1856) [Ballarat Library]
• Hamersley News (180-1987) [State Library of Western Australia]

I'm particularly excited about the Moreton Mail and the South Australian titles. Now to be patient until they are finished. 

This coming week there are meetings of the Bribie Island Historical Society and the Bribie Island Family History Group and there will be a talk on the Susanne Godeffroy which arrived in Brisbane from Hamburg, Germany in 1865. Not one of my family ships but I always enjoy hearing about different voyages. 

There are two of my own talks coming up this month in Caloundra and Ipswich so I need to finalise those talks. To see where I am speaking over the next few months visit the Services and Events page of my website. I have started writing again for Going In-Depth, an online genealogy magazine published by The In-Depth Genealogist. I had a few months off as it is not always easy coming up with articles on a regular basis. A bit like blogging.

Trove Tuesday is a regular blog challenge and this week my piece was titled Why You Can't Find Someone because I finally found a newspaper report on my great grandfather Thomas Price's accidental death. He is the dapper gentleman on the right in the photo. 

Why did it take so long to find, given that I had a date? Because it was recorded as William Price and I wasn't searching for a William! Read the post for the whole story and how I found it.

Easter is next weekend and it will be a chance to catch up with the family and celebrate Mum's 83rd birthday. Seems like only yesterday we were planning the big 80 and now the big 85 is looming. Should be a good time. Cake and Easter eggs together!

Enjoy the coming week and try and find the time to check out all the new resources coming online. 

Until next time, happy searching.

Female ancestors, NFHM 2017 & Other News - Genealogy Notes 15 - 21 Mar 2017

Dorcas White nee Trevaskis

March is Women's History Month and I was going to write a blog post on my great grandmothers. But as I started thinking about what to write, it felt very familiar. You know that feeling - I've done this before. On my website I have a page for My Families and under that all the family names I am researching. It is here that I link my blog posts to my family names to keep track of what I have written about. Searching under my grandmothers' names I couldn't find the post yet I was sure that I had done something similar at some point.

When in doubt, Google. I found it by searching for my own name and 'my grandmothers'. Obviously I forgot to put links to the post on My Families pages. What's even worse I only wrote it 12 months ago so my memory is also going! Read Women's History Month - My Four Great Grandmothers and I have added 'check blog post links' to my 'to do' list.

Recently a friend also commented that she had started doing reminder notes to herself and she is only a year older than me. We lead such busy lives with lots going on that you almost need them for everything, not just shopping lists. When I revisit a family that I haven't looked at for a while, I like to see that I have left a note about what needs to be done next. Or sometimes it is good to relook at everything. I do that all the time with Trove and last time I turned up some interesting snippets on distant cousins. Everything from car accidents to petty court appearances - not just births, deaths and marriages.

I'm happy to say that we seem to have the National Family History Month web calendar working again so it is now open for anyone to add their events for August 2017. The Genealogical Society of Queensland were first off the mark and I hope lots of other societies, libraries and archives add their events to the calendar. The major sponsors this year are Ancestry, Momento and MyHeritage as well as our Prize Sponsors and our major sponsors are also offering prizes.

Heading to Queensland State Archives tomorrow to do some research and hoping that no one asks me if I like their new website. I don't and it took ages for me to find what I wanted. There are some records relating to my great grandparents Thomas and Elizabeth Price that I really want to find - but it is correspondence in a top number system so only hope that I can track it through and that the correspondence is at the end of the search. A few other bits and pieces on microfilm to occupy me while I wait for records to be retrieved and I must remember to take some food with me this time. You can drive up to the shops for lunch but that all takes time and I try to maximise my time with the records.

My brother and I many moons ago!

Easter is fast approaching and it will be Mum's 83rd birthday. Seems like only yesterday we had the 80th birthday party and I did my Powerpoint presentation on Mum's life. It will be a chance to catch up with all of the family again so I'm thinking about putting together another slide show of early family photos as the kids (really all adults now) love seeing their parents as youngsters!

There is not much on my agenda next week now that I have sorted out NFHM so perhaps I will get to do some family history research. Time to blog a few more family stories too. Until next time, have a great geneaweek.

Trove Tuesday, PNG & other news - Genealogy notes 51-21 Jan 2016

Well it is now official, my website has been archived by the National Library of Australia into Pandora. This Diary was added a few years ago and I can now put this button on both sites to indicate that they are in Pandora. There are some great websites there and while some are still current, many are archived because they are no longer in existence. Why not check out what's already in Australia's web archive, Pandora!

I have been working on my talks for the next Unlock the Past genealogy cruise which leaves in about three weeks. As usual I am amazed at how many websites have changed since I last checked links or how much has been added to sites. It is so distracting because I often hive off to check something out instead of  working on the presentation. I remember we used to joke about genealogy being never ending back in the 80s - that was a self fulfilling prophecy especially with the introduction of the internet.

Gordon Price, WW2

The other distraction re genealogy cruising is that Unlock the Past have started advertising their July 2017 cruise to Papua New Guinea which has long been on my list of places to visit. My uncle Gordon, a Rat of Tobruk. spent time their during WW2 (read Gordon's story here) as did Max's father and my grandfather Henry Price was also sent there in WW1. Read Henry's story here. So a strong family and history connection ties us to that part of the Pacific. No surprises that I booked a cabin this week!

It was only after I had paid the deposit and confirmed everything that I realised I would be away for the start of National Family History Month 2017 which is  due to launch in Sydney. Well perhaps I won't be the voluntary coordinator by then or I do what I inadvertently did in 2015, not attend the launch. I have to get through NFHM 2016 first before I need to make those decisions. My approach to sponsors is going well and most of last year's sponsors have agreed to sponsor again which is fantastic.

I am currently looking at web proofs for the new revamped NFHM website - so hard to make those design type decisions. I like a bit of that one and a bit of the other one which of course doesn't help the designer. But I will say it looks 100% better than the old website. All will be revealed soon and the site will be open for new events in February. The launch is in Perth this year so definitely spreading the word across Australia.

Although I have no new resolutions for 2016, I have always wanted to participate in Trove Tuesday blogging. Lots of other bloggers have been doing it for years but rather than commit myself to every Tuesday I am going for at least one Trove Tuesday post a month. More if time permits. My first ever Trove Tuesday post was on my great grandfather James Carnegie and I found a fantastic report on his retirement from Brisbane River Ferries in 1946. Read the whole story here.

The really bright spot in the week was a royalty notice from Unlock the Past for the 3rd quarter of 2015. My biggest selling guide was Where Do I Start? closely followed by my Tracing Mining Ancestors guide. Book sales still outnumber e-book sales and I even have a few overseas sales which is interesting. So print publishing not quite out of the picture yet.

With a guest arriving tomorrow I have spent time gardening, cleaning and decluttering rather than researching or writing. Sad but true. But next week it will be back to more research fun.  In the meantime it is the Australia Day weekend although some people do have to work on the Monday before the holiday on Tuesday.

This Australia Day I am going to pick one of my first immigrant ancestors who I have not written too much about yet. Herbert William White came out from Wiltshire in the early 1880s and married a South Australian of Cornish descent in Charters Towers, Queensland. Stay tuned for his story!

Enjoy Australia Day and the coming week. Good luck with any genealogy searches. Until next time.

Look Two Hands - Genealogy Notes 25 Sep - 2 Oct 2015

This is my first blog post using two hands since early July. I now have the go ahead to use my right arm but it is a bit weak from no usage and aches a bit if I overdo things. But I can type ever so much faster.

During the week I did a catch up on some of the WDYTYA episodes in Australian season 7 and I think it is one of the best series so far. Also noted quite a few geneafriends helping the celebrities which was fantastic. Some great stories and even a bit teary eyed in some episodes. You can catch up online if you missed any of the episodes.

Gordon Price in Syria 1941

I am all set for the History Queensland conference this weekend and I hope people like what I have done for my keynote address. It is a bit different from what I usually do but then it is a keynote. I am also looking forward to hearing the other speakers but there are two streams outside the keynotes. One with a local history focus and the other a family history focus. As usual it would be good to be two people and go to both. I will have a blog report next week.

The tidy up of the study went well - now I have neat piles of stuff to read and file. My trouble is that while reading or filing/entering data I get bright ideas and hive off to do a spot of research which is of course more interesting than just straight filing/entering data. Some of the websites I read about in magazines or see talked about on Facebook can lead to hours of research. For example, I read in an RSL newsletter about the Rats of Tobruk Association Victoria website and as my Uncle Gordon was a Rat of Tobruk I had a quick look. There is lots of information about Tobruk and members of the Association.

Regular readers will know that at the beginning of the year I took on Thomas MacEntee's Genealogy Do Over challenge to relook at some of my family lines which I first started nearly 40 years ago. I was making great progress until family medical dramas overtook the year. Cycle 4 has just started and Thomas has a new workbook on the horizon. Read about the changes here.

I have to also get back to my own blog challenge 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2015. I am up to Week 40 so 12 blog posts to go and only 12 weeks to the end of the year. I need to get my skates on if I want to wrap this challenge up.

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies have just asked me to do another online course for them on Australian church records which will be interesting. I give talks on this topic as I believe church records are an underutilised resource. My Unlock the Past research guide on Finding Ancestors in Church Records: a brief guide to resources highlights some of these resources. It will be good to do a much deeper look at church records for family history.

Now that I have the use of both hands again I really do want to get back into more blogging, writing up my own stories and tidying up my research. There are no more talks for the year so I can concentrate on my projects, get back my fitness after three months of little activity and tame the garden again!

Have another great genealogy week. Until next time.

AFFHO Congress wrap up - Genealogy Notes 28 Mar - 3 Apr 2015

It has been a huge week since last Diary. The AFFHO Congress 2015 is over and most of us have returned home and have been busy writing up our post Congress blogs. I had so much to say that it is a three part review. Part One was Days 1 and 2, Part Two was Days 3 and 4 and Part Three was Social Events and Exhibitors. Click on the links to read each part.

Photo taken by Mr Geniaus

As well as my own blogs I have been busy reading what others had to say and there were lots of geneabloggers there. To assist us in finding all these bloggers Geniaus (aka Jill) is compiling a pre, during and post Congress list of blogs. Jill's Geneabloggers at Congress- Reflections has all the links although there might be still more to come. Geniaus and Mr Geniaus are obviously a dynamic duo as he came in to Congress to take the Geneabloggers photo and I think we were mostly all there. That's Jill second from right at the front and you can see the lovely blogger beads that Jill supplied as with. It was a great way to instantly see who was a Geneablogger!

It was only after we got home that I realised that Easter was this weekend and we had one of Max's sons popping in for a short visit, hence the mad effort to finish my blog posts before Easter. We also have a trip down to Brisbane to see Mum and other family members. Easter is the time when my orchids start to flower and I am particularly pleased with this one. The others took a bit of a battering in the storm we had while we were in Canberra.

As always after a Congress, or any genealogy event, I am super motivated and as Mum's birthday is coming up I dragged out my draft family history on her Price family. I originally wrote it back in 2002 when I was in Canberra and of course since then I have added bits and pieces, the usual never ending story. After talking to David from Openbook Howden at Congress, I realised that I could print a few copies for family members at a relatively reasonable price, especially if I just give him a PDF. Of course this means I have to do layout, editing etc myself or they can do it but that costs more. It will depend on how clever I am!

My Easter genealogy exercise is to reread it, do amendments, additions and add in some charts and photographs with the aim of an almost final work by Easter Monday night. It is limited to three generations so I have not mentioned any living people except Mum and I believe she is the last of her generation. I will have to get someone else to read it as you can never pick up all your own mistakes.

Already I have doubts about this goal as so far today I have found new information courtesy of Trove (what else!). Two photos of Mum's uncle, William Price, who went to the Boer War twice and eventually settled in South Africa have surfaced in Trove. Now we finally know what he looked like. If I recheck Trove for everyone mentioned in the Price family draft, then I might just need more than the Easter weekend to finish.

Plus there are the new genealogy books and magazines I bought home to read (see Congress blog posts for titles), not to mention all those Congress papers. I have some new prize sponsors for National Family History Month 2015 so I need to make some more changes to the website and post Easter I am starting the NFHM PR campaign in earnest.

Next weekend (11 April) I will be in Maryborough (QLD) giving three talks for the Maryborough Family Heritage Research Institute - this was the event cancelled back in February due to Cyclone Marcia. Looking forward to that as they are always a good crowd.

Have a safe and happy Easter and where possible, try and sneak in some genealogy time, especially if you are catching up with family members. Happy searching until next time.