More searching tips, RootsTech 2022 & Other News: My Week in Genealogy 1-7 January 2022

The first week of 2022 has gone in a blur and the Christmas decorations are all packed away until December. I won't mention that there are hot cross buns in the shops but that is so wrong in my opinion. We should have time to savour each of the seasons and the special events in the year. 

Blogs

My Diary blog made the Top 100 genealogy blogs  - a number of other well known Aussie bloggers are also included so why not try and find some new bloggers to follow in 2022.

Hightville cemetery 2011, north west Queensland
where Thomas Price was buried in 1918

Read my Week 1 blog post on Thomas Price as part of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Thomas Price was my great grandfather born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire and the father of 10 children. He was a miner and eventually settled in Charters Towers, Queensland. At the time of his death he was working for the Hampden Cloncurry copper mine.

Participating in a weekly blog challenge certainly keeps you on your toes. But I like the focus and motivation.

New Resources

1 January signals the release of more records in the public domain including Australian BDMs, archives and libraries. Time to update all your genealogy databases and follow the clues. 

Look for blogs from the archives about what is being released in the public domain. You may be surprised.

FamilySearch have a range of monthly free webinars with a variety of topics - check out January to March offerings here. Categories for the three months include General, using FamilySearch, United States and Canada. Often there are webinars for the British Isles and Asia too.

Newspapers

Do you use Findmypast for newspaper searches? Or do you use British Newspaper Archive? Which ever one you should use both if you can. I was looking for a marriage that took place in Ireland - Henry Andrews Speed a British sailor married an Irish girl Mary Jane Justice in 1852. I had no luck with Findmypast Irish newspapers. I tried the British Newspaper Archive as the groom was English and found numerous references to the wedding in various Irish newspapers in the BNA. 

People often ask me which subscription database should I join? The answer is all of them as they all have slightly different resources. However most of us can't afford that luxury.  A genealogy society membership might be useful as you can normally access subscription sites in their libraries or via home eresources. Or your local library may have Ancestry or Findmypast. See what is available locally and virtually.

The rule is - search everywhere!

Preserving Your Photographs

As a break from writing I am now sorting out all my photo shoe boxes. It is amazing what you forget you have in the back of the warddrobe. Granny died 25 years ago and that is probably the last time I look at her loose photos. I have dragged the two albums out since then but not all the loose photos I had in a shoebox. I was stunned to find so many younger photos of Dad which I can't remember seeing before. Out of sight out of mind or perhaps it is just old age catching me up.

Love Dad's hat

Dad always loved his motorbikes

Behind his father's black FJ Holden
- many a Sunday drive in it

  Not only do I have my grandmothers, but also my mothers and my own photos in shoeboxes. There is some overlap and they take up two shelves in my wardrobe. Going through and tossing those that are not family related or good enough for a final digital album takes an enormous amount of time. Each photo seems to generate its own memories.

More are kept than tossed but the next stage is to merge the three collections and dispose of duplicate photos. I need a bigger table! 

Then the process of scanning, naming and placing into the correct digital family albums will take even longer I suspect. This part is incredibly boring and I have started watching webinars while scanning. Although you have to be careful that you name and file as you go too and not mix things up.

Given the size of this project I think it will be interspersed with writing up those family history drafts. 

RootsTech Connect 

Amazingly it is not that long now to RootsTech 25-27 February 2022 which is again virtual. 

The organisers are starting to release the names of keynote speakers. No doubt the whole program will be fantastic.

It is free to register so if you want  to  be part of the world's biggest geneaevent, register now.

Searching Tips

This week I had to cross check when Lavinia Cleaves died - I had 1914 in Victoria and someone else had 1911. I knew my source was Victorian BDMs online so I tried to find it again. 

No Lavinia Cleaves or Cleves for 1911 or 1914. In the end I searched on Lavinia no surname and between 1910 and 1915. There were only 47 matches but it didn't take me long to find it under Cleanes! Have now made a note in my genealogy database in case I have to find it again. Don't you just love spelling variants.

What's Coming Up?

February is going to be a super busy month as I have a number of talks, both in person and virtual. See my website Events for details.

Plus I am doing a 9 week English genealogy term at Bribie U3A (omicron permitting). 

Bribie Genealogy starts up again in February and trying to plan speakers is tricky with speakers not wanting to travel here. So we are looking at the possibility of speakers zooming in.

Enjoy your genealogy searching this week. I will be having a dive into the 1921 England and Wales census. Hoping to progress my son's paternal line. As I write this there is a degree of uncertainty about omicron and any further restrictions. So stay safe and well everyone. 

Exciting Progress, online events & what's coming up: My Week in Genealogy 13-20 Nov 2021

This is the first week of my new weekly genealogy progress diary. Yes I am doing my own genealogy. And I am having lots of fun and learning heaps. 

Honour Roll Peachester 

Events in Person

This is certainly something I have missed over the last two years. Yesterday I attended the History Queensland meeting at Peachester. Niles Elvery from Queensland State Archives did a talk on Peachester school which was a good summary of education records in general. 

Each of the member society present gave a quick catch up of their activities over the last six months. We had a wonderful morning tea, lunch and tour of the Peachester Heritage Centre. And we could catch up with people we hadn't seen except via Zoom for ages. It was really good.

Online conferences

Last weekend I spoke at the Virtual Genealogy Association annual conference. I didn't watch any live sessions due to the time difference. I also registed for the FHS Really Useful Family History Show and again because of time differences, I opted to watch after. Therefore this week I have steadily been making my way through the FHS webinars and classes as the link expires this week. Sometimes it is hard to watch everything before links expire. The VGA has given us until March which is not so hectic. 

One of the good things about webinars is that you can pause and then on a different screen call up a website and do some searches or whatever to follow up on what the speaker is saying. Of course, this makes for longer viewing but can be worthwhile when you discover new things. The FHS only cost me $20AU and that is excellent value when there were more than 20 speakers/talks on a range of topics.  So much to learn or is that remember?

My last talk for the year is on asylum records in Australia at THE Genealogy Show Winter Event 3-4 December 2021. 

Writing My Family Histories

With my new dedicated focus, I now have Cornish, Scots and Irish draft family histories drafted with images, citations and list of contents and illustrations. The indexing will happen after I am satisfied with the text. 

Mum's Price and White families are almost complete and I spend a lot of time trying to find my great grandfathers Thomas Price and Herbert William White nieces and nephews in the 1939 Register. 

Finding people can be an issue when handwriting is faint, poor or both. Robert James White was finally located under Robert F White - and I won't tell you how many Robert Whites were in Wiltshire in 1939!

The concentrated writing has made me realise that I have more on some lines and less on other family lines. This of course has led to more research to balance up each family history as I want them to be of interest to anyone descended from the same immigrant couple. 

U3A

One reason I am making some good writing progress is that I am not tutoring at U3A this term. However, with the goal to have all my family histories done by the new year, what will I do next year? So I have agreed to go back to tutoring and will do Advanced English genealogy in Term 1, Advanced Scottish genealogy in Term 3 and Advanced Australian genealogy in Term 4. That should be fun and keep me busy and learning new things at the same time.

Overseas Tripping

I can hear some of you saying 'what about Term 2'? My son lives in Sweden and I will finally be a grandmother in early 2022. The plan is to visit them and also do some tripping around England, Ireland or Scotland depending on how Covid shapes up in 2022. It is hard to plan now with all the uncertainty around this Fourth Wave in Europe but I will map out some travel plans with different scenarios and then see how 2022 unfolds. 

Talks

There have been lots of invitations to speak next year and so far there are all in the first few months as my travel plans are so uncertain. Some in person, some hybrid and some simply Zoom. At least Covid has changed how we interact online and given us so many more options to hear speakers without expensive or time consuming travel. Check out the Events page of my website for dates and places and remember I update as invitations come in.

Big events include two talks for RootsTech 2022, the AFFHO Congress on Norfolk Island, and two presentations for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. All very exciting plus talks to some of my favourite societies in Australia.

Thomas Price

What's New in My Family History

There is so much new I don't know where to begin. What I have noticed that revisiting some websites to check sources for my written histories, I have found new information and photographs that weren't there the last time. So  review and revisit. 

The most exciting find was the burial of my 8 times great grandmother Agnes Leach in Scotland. She was indexed under her maiden name of Mitchell and not her married name although she was described as the widow of Alexander Leach. In 1779 in Maryton, Angus, Scotland. Amazing. One of the places on my 2022 trip wish list.

The most frustrating is tracing my Price family. My great grandfather Thomas Price was the grandson of Henry Price, a coal miner who died in a mining accident in 1840. Just before the census. Henry's wife Elizabeth Peploe died before the 1851 census so I don't know where she was from either. They had nine children and trying to find common names in Staffordshire is not easy.

DNA Update

Just this week someone has turned up matching my brother's Y DNA and just 2 steps away and living in Scotland. That is a close match and the paternal country of origin is Scotland. One of the surnames the person is researching is similar to an American DNA match which is 4 steps away. Both surnames are similar to the surname I suspect is Dad's father's name. Getting closer I feel but definitely not straight forward. 

Takeaway tips

Don't give up 

Keep searching - new resources all the time

Register for overseas conferences - great value - some may even be free

Remember Australian online events may also be free or cheap

Review and revisit your research - maybe declutter

Write those family stories now - dedicate time