Victorian Inquests, Facebook & Other News - Genealogy Notes 15-21 Oct 2016

Another big week. Lots of exciting news including that one of my talk proposals for the Footsteps in Time  genealogy conference on the Gold Coast in May 2017 was accepted. That means I have to send off the photo and short biog to the Committee and the deadline is 30 October. Hopefully that means the conference program will be up on their website some time in November. Being so close to home I was always going to attend, but the program is also a big attraction. Can't wait to see who else is speaking.

Towards the end of my time with Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) we were digitising inquest files in collaboration with FamilySearch. It was exciting to read Suzie Zada's blog post Victoria, Inquest Deposition Files 1840-1925 online. The project was huge so nice to see that we can start to see some of the files. Suzie's post was also a reminder that PROV has a new Beta website. On first glance it looks more exciting and inviting but I haven't had a reason to look for anything yet.

I personally hate new websites because it can be a challenge to find information you could once find easily. A good example is State Records New South Wales new website which thankfully they are working towards getting things right although I still struggle to find things. For example, I had difficulty finding their guides on asylums, not under A, not under H, but under M for Mental Health Facilities. Some asylums are benevolent, destitute or children so it seems odd to now put them all under M and not A for the more generic asylums. Even an old fashioned see reference would help. I liked them on the old site.

Another blog post that I liked this week was Alona's  Update Australian Facebook + Genealogy. Alona has been compiling a list of all Australian Facebook sites that relate to genealogy and family history. It is quite amazing how many there are and how much traffic some of them get. Lots of people are asking for advice and making connections online.

But like anything online you do need to check that what you have been told is correct and follow through with original records. I remember one time someone told me that they had been advised that a particular series of records had been destroyed. Having worked in archives for most of my life that seemed strange as they were significant records, so I checked the catalogue and easily found the series which had been indexed and I was able to give the person a direct reference to ask for. A bonus for me was that I hadn't thought to look at that series myself, and I found a file for my mother in law.

A few years ago I had the pleasure of hearing Paul O'Keefe talking about his family connection to Ned Kelly. From memory the talk was called The Girl Who Loved Ned Kelly and it was the story of Ettie Hart, Paul's great great grandmother. It was fascinating and I'm pleased to see that the whole story is now a musical Ned Kelly My Love and showing in Brunswick, Melbourne in November. One of the few times I wish I was still living down south!

Some of my ancestors lived interesting lives but no one is going to write books or musicals about them. Therefore it is always exciting to see this happen to people I know.

Tomorrow I'm going on the Kookaburra River Queen, a paddle wheeler that goes up and down the Brisbane River while offering morning and afternoon teas, lunches and dinners. We are down for the buffet lunch for Chris' Blarney lunch. Chris writes a number of blogs (how does she keep them all up) but I particularly follow her That Moment in Time which is a weekly round of interesting blogs, Irish news, what's new on Findmypast and other places. If you are short of time it's a good place to look. I know a few of the people going but others will be new. It should be a good day and the weather is fantastic at the moment.

Lots of genealogy reports, articles and blog posts coming up again this week. Some weeks there is nothing but then it gets super busy with requests. Still I love challenges. Have another great week of genealogy searching. Until next time, good luck.

Port Macquarie conference & other news - Genealogy Notes 1-14 Sep 2015

Hard to believe two weeks since by last update but I have been busy notifying prize winners and sponsors of the National Family History Month prize giveaway. There have been some very excited winners and I even had the pleasure of meeting some at the NSW & ACT Association of Family History Societies in Port Macquarie over the weekend.

I gave a Masterclass on using Public Record Office Victoria, attended the free family history fair, collected a very nice goodies bag, enjoyed the Welcome function and dinner, and went to all sessions on both days. I will do a full review this week as I learnt lots of new things. In the meantime my presentation is on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.

As I still only have the use of one hand, everything seems to be in slow motion. Plus the piles around my desk just seem to be getting bigger and bigger, waiting for me to have two hands. I need a priority list on the to do list!

The biggest priority is my keynote address for the History Queensland conference in three weeks time. That will be the last opportunity in 2015 to catch up with geneafriends in the SE Qld area and I am looking forward to it.

I have a final blog post for NFHM to do for The In-Depth Genealogist who were one of our new prize sponsors. My report for AFFHO is also nearly complete and then it will be time to start thinking about NFHM 2016! I hope genealogy and family history societies start planning to include their events for next August. Every society usually has a monthly meeting or opens their library one or more days a month so everyone can participate without doing extra events. One society reported that they gained 60 new members during NFHM which is fantastic.

Time to get back to my arm exercises so have a great genealogy week and I'm hoping to get back to more regular Diary posts soon. Till next time.

Genealogy notes 12-18 Sep 2013 Victorian Resources Online & more

Another busy week and although I no longer live in Victoria, my thoughts have been all about Victorian family history research this week. Why? You may recall that I was doing a guest blog for Family Matters, the genealogy blog of the State Library of Victoria. Good news, Using the State Library of Victoria from Afar is now published. It's written for all those who can't personally visit the SLV and it highlights some of the great genealogy resources they have online for free. If you want still more Victorian links check out the very end of the Resources page on my website - it has a list of all my favourite Victorian websites for family history.

Still want more Victorian resources - Findmypast now has the index to Victorian passenger lists 1846-1899 online and I am always amazed at the variety of Australian and New Zealand records that is now searchable in their database - see latest list here. Public Record Office Victoria also has a lot of online indexes and digitised records including wills and probate records so another great free site to visit.

I've always been a fan of the One Place Studies website and now there is a society that you can join if you are researching a one place study. Family history and local history often intersect so check out if anyone is doing a study of one of your places of interest or if you have lots of information on a particular place, you might want to see what others are doing with their studies.

Online e-newsletters received during the week include Queensland State Archives' qsa bulletin highlighting some great new indexes and other news (latest issue here) and Lost Cousins another free online e-newsletters with a broad range of info on the UK and elsewhere (latest issue here). I also received my back issues of History Queensland magazine - somehow the renewal of my subscription went astray during the big move so I have four issues to catch up on with that!

It's probably obvious (in hindsight) that this Diary doesn't capture all the info links I share via Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus and I know that not everyone follows me in all those media so some people are not aware that I was nominated in the recent Rockstar Genealogists survey. This is organised by John D Reid through his Anglo-Celtic Connections blog.

Can't think why I didn't mention it in this Diary as I was quite excited at the time that someone had nominated me. Well I was even more excited this week to find out that I had won the Silver Medal in the Australia & New Zealand section with good friend Chris Paton picking up the Bronze Medal (even though he lives in Scotland). I was really delighted to see another good friend Jill Ball announced as the Gold Medal winner! I noticed that Chris picked up the Gold Medal for Canada as well (he does seem to get around)! Getting nominated is great recognition and picking up a medal is a true honour and I'd like to congratulate all the nominees, and medal winners in all the different countries and John for organising the poll and having a Downunder category.

Quite a few of those nominees and winners will be on the 4th Unlock the Past genealogy cruise next February so I think that's going to be a fantastic trip and I'm already excited at the thought of listening to great speakers and learning more about all kinds of genealogy and family history resources.

In two days I'm going to be at the NSW & ACT Family History Organisations annual conference, this year in Canberra with the theme Limestone Plains to Marble Halls. I will be posting on Twitter and Facebook while at the conference and when I get home I'll write up a report on the conference as usual. There is a family history fair on the Friday and my plane arrives early enough for me to spend the afternoon there so it will be interesting to see how many books I buy! One thing about travelling by plane, it does make you think about how you will get everything home.

I've another great weekend of genealogy ahead of me so now for a spot of grocery shopping and housework so that the family doesn't miss me too much while I'm gone! Until next time happy researching.

Genealogy Notes 29 Aug - 4 Sep 2012 Sydney adventures

Well today is the eve of our last day in this house. In 24 hours the removalists will be here and we still have lots of things to do but I simply have to take time out to report on the Sydney trip and my two talks at the Society of Australian Genealogists. I simply love visiting Richmond Villa (the Society's home and where talks are presented) in The Rocks area which is so historic. As usual my two talks on church records and Victorian resources are on my website under the Resources tab, scroll down to Presentations and if you scroll all the way to the end of the page you will see some of my favourite Victorian links.

I had two new publications out last week and Unlock the Past tried to get copies to my Thursday talk but they arrived after most people had left but quite a few of Thursday's attendees also came on Saturday so I still managed to get a few sales on Finding ancestors in church records: a brief guide to resources ($15.00) and Trove: discover genealogy treasure in the National Library of Australia ($14.50), both available from Gould Genealogy & History along with my other publications.

I also had the opportunity to have lunch with Heather, SAG's very efficient Executive Officer and to brainstorm some of my ideas with her for National Family History Week 2013. Later that day I had another chat with Brad and crew from Ancestry.com.au (a major sponsor of NFHW in the past) about some of my new ideas for a revamped program now that I am the national co-ordinator. I also took the opportunity to ask various people what they liked or wanted to see during the week as well and all these ideas will find their way into my report to AFFHO (Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations) on ways to further highlight the week in future.

I missed a catch up with Ben and Cassie from Inside History Magazine as they were in the throes of getting their new website up and running. Plus there is a new issue due out and they've been busy with dispatch over the weekend. I hope my copy arrives before we leave on Thursday. I have to see the post office today and get our mail held until we have a forwarding address. Everyone keeps asking for one but we really don't have one - we don't even know what caravan park we will stay in once we get up to the Sunshine Coast. Thank goodness for email and mobile phones, how did they ever manage in the old days!

My travel plans in Sydney didn't go quite to schedule but when travelling you do need to be flexible so when I found I had a totally free day on Friday I took the opportunity to do a ferry trip round the harbour stopping off at Taronga Park Zoo and at Darling Harbour to see the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM). I always love visiting zoos and the Sky Safari Cable up to the top of the zoo gives one of the most amazing  views of Sydney not to mention looking down over the various animals as you go up.

I particularly wanted to see the Remembering Titanic 100 years memorial exhibition at the ANMM and it was really sad seeing all the names of those who died listed up on the wall. I found it fascinating to watch some of the outtakes from the James Cameron Titanic movie (was that really 1997, years going too fast for me) as it showed how they recreated the sinking and so on. Made me want to watch the movie again and I think I have seen all the other Titanic movies as well. None of my own ancestors were involved with a shipwreck but I have visited many memorials to shipwrecks especially on King Island (yes there is history there as well as all those yummy cheeses and lobsters).

After the Saturday talk at Richmond Villa I couldn't resist the lure of the arts and crafts at The Rocks market and spent a pleasant few hours in the Sydney sunshine looking at all sorts of wonderful things. The fact that I had to travel home by plane curbed my buying spree and also the fact that I didn't really have a home to go back to just yet!

Cleaning out the food cupboard (do I really have that many herbs and spices not to mention sauce bottles) and the fridge and freezer isn't going to get done unless I get a move on. The other half is tackling dismantling the BBQ and other similar type chores plus we have to move all the 'stuff '  we want to keep with us out to the caravan and the two cars today. Somehow I don't think it is all going to fit but it is hard to know what we might need over the next few months!

The Diary posts on our way north will probably be more like a travel log than a genealogy blog as I can't see myself getting to much genealogy in while driving the car! However I do have to review my talks for the Unlock the Past Queensland Coast roadshow in Sep/Oct (full dates, places and details here) so I'll have to find some time for that. Wish us luck with the removal tomorrow! Till next time.

Genealogy notes 23 - 29 Feb 2012 - lots of blogging

We've been back from Darwin four days and most of that time has been spent trying to catch up with everything in between various medical appointments. I had to finalise the last of the daily blogs from the War Comes to Australia tour (appeared over six days in Diary of an Australian Genealogist) and then do an overview report on my website. The other Darwin blog I finished was a report was on the family history seminar held after the tour.

There was the usual pile of mail waiting for us and I was excited to see my prize for winning one of Inside History's Friday Facebook competitions. I'm looking forward to reading Lucy Frost's Abandoned Women: Scottish Convicts Exiled Beyond the Seas! Currently I'm about half way through Babette Smith's Australia's Birthstain: The Startling Legacy of the Convict Era so it looks like my convict reading theme will continue for a bit longer.

Another exciting piece of correspondence was to receive an invitation to speak at the Deniliquin Genealogy Society's annual expo in October. The last time we were in Deniliquin NSW was because our car broke down travelling back from Adelaide to our then home in Canberra. I'm sure this visit will leave much more pleasant memories.

I didn't think I would get to Sydney this year but the Royal Australian Historical Society have asked me to partner with Carol Baxter to present a full day workshop on researching your family and writing up the family history. I've worked with Carol in a writing seminar before and she is an inspirational speaker who really gets people enthused about writing up their family stories in an interesting way. The new RAHS Calendar of Events (for Apr-Jun) is not up yet but the dates will be 12 April and 19 April - it will run twice as they are expecting it to be popular.

It's my other half's birthday and every year I try to take him some place special that we haven't been before. As we have just got back from Darwin and are going to Adelaide in a few weeks, I didn't want to travel to far. One of the places that has been on my bucket list since arriving in Melbourne in 2003 is to stay at the Vue Grand in Queenscliff. We've done a few fishing charters out of Queenscliff and quite often go down to the Bellarine peninsula to get fresh mussels from Portarlington but we've never stayed at this historic hotel. By chance, I saw a special summer accommodation offer and although summer is now technically over, I was still able to book a night at the special rate for his birthday. I'm really looking forward to it as we haven't even been inside before.

We can't linger down at Queenscliff as I'm giving three talks at the Kyabram Regional Genealogy Society on Saturday and eight of my Deniliquin friends are going to make the trek over to Kyabram (VIC) as well. It should be a good day although after that many talks and lots of questions I often feel a little drained! Max is going along to to sell some of the Unlock the Past publications that I usually take along with me because people out in regional areas don't always get to look at books prior to buying. I know I always like to see before I buy!

There is a stack of unread blogs, e-newsletters and even emails still to catch up on so enough diary writing for now! Until next time. 

Genealogy notes 5-9 Oct 2011 genealogy seminars & heritage tourism

Thursday and Friday we spent travelling through the Yarra Valley and we finally did a wine tasting at Helen's Hill Winery and had a three course lunch at Vines Restaurant (this was all part of my partner's retirement gift from his workmates). We couldn't share our experience as there was no phone coverage (at least not for our provider) and on Thursday night we stayed in a motel (just 2 km outside a nearby town) and I couldn't even access the Telstra network with my laptop modem. It made me realise (yet again) how hard it is for rural/regional people to have the same type of easy access that those in more metropolitan areas enjoy.

The next day we travelled up to Lake Eildon which has spent the last few years with less than 5% water capacity but is now back up to 98% capacity. It is really amazing to see all the water again and hard to believe when you drive over the bridge that there was no water there for years. We weren't the only tourists so hopefully all those businesses will get back to normal, especially with the summer season approaching.

So after two days 'in the wilderness' I was glad to arrive at our friend's place at Yarrawonga and again have access to phone and emails etc. While up this way, we have been exploring some of the food and history trails and on Saturday we went to Tocumwal on the Murray River where I was surprised to learn the town (first established in 1862) was the site of the largest aerodrome in the Southern Hemisphere during World War II. As well as Australians, the base also saw over 7,000 Americans and today it is hard to imagine all that activity and people. I found the photographs and other memorabilia at the Tocumwal Historic Aerodrome Museum fascinating and it is definitely worth the 'gold coin' entry donation.

For car and caravan buffs, Chrystie's Museum is worth a visit and I was particularly interested in the early caravans although there was a whole range of other memorabilia in display cases.

If you want the best strawberry pancakes ever then don't go past the Big Strawberry (yes I can add another 'Big' icon to my list of places visited). I don't think I have ever seen so many varieties of strawberry jam or wines and liquers for that matter. I settled on fig and ginger to take home.

But we are not up here just to see the sights and yesterday I spent talking to members of GMAGS (Goulburn Murray Association of Genealogical Societies). While most people were from local societies (within an hour's drive or so) I did meet one couple who had travelled down from Deniliquin. My three talks on mining ancestors, online newspapers and caring for family archives were all well received with plenty of time for questions after each talk. There was also lots of discussion over morning and afternoon tea and lunch.

As a surprise, I had bought along some lucky door prizes which included some copies of Inside History magazine (which is about to celebrate it's first anniversary) and also some copies of Australian Family Tree Connections and some genealogy journals from the Genealogical Society of Victoria and the Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies. Jan Parker was the lucky recipient of a copy of the digital scrapbooking program My Memories. I know Jan is a keen scrapbooker so I will look forward to hearing what she thinks of digital scrapbooking.

When talking about genealogy seminars in rural areas, you simply also have to mention the catering. People brought along plates of food to share and there is nothing better than home cooked slices and cakes. Do it yourself ham or chicken salad rolls for lunch went well with plenty for everyone. There was a $10 charge by GMAGS for the day and this included lunch and the talks so great value.

I again highlighted the value of social media and especially blogging as a way of easily telling their family stories so it will be interesting to see how many explore this option. They started to see the possibilities when I explained the various family connections I have made after distant relatives found my blogs via Google.

I have one more talk at Cobram on Wednesday night - it's on military ancestors so I'm looking forward to that. We should also get the opportunity to explore some more local towns but haven't decided which ones yet. I still have those book reviews to do but its hard to sit here at the laptop when you know there is so much history out there, just waiting to be explored!

Genealogy notes 29 Sep - 4 Oct 2011 value of genealogy conference papers

I've been a bit quiet but only because I was determined to finish a long standing project. A while back I told the Victorian Association of Family History Societies Organisation (VAFHO) that I was doing a complete listing of all papers presented at their conferences between 1995 and 2010. The details of the project are here, plus a link to the online list. As this is just a diary update I wont' go into all again, but I am glad that it is now completed.

I've also been busy reading my two books for review and I hope to finalise those by the end of this week. Then I will only have the CD publication and the scrapbooking software to review. I like doing reviews but they do take time and they always seem to come at the same time!

Some of my e-newsletters have been Snippets (Queensland Family History Society), Public Record Office Despatch (PROV), Now & Then from State Records NSW, qsa bulletin from Queensland State Archives, Lost Cousins, and the SAG e-newsletter from the Society of Australian Genealogists.

The other major task that's kept  me quiet has been updating my three talks for the Goulburn Murray Association of Genealogical Societies (GMAGS) this coming Sunday. I'm looking at Mining Ancestors, Newspapers Online and Caring For Your Family Archives so it will be fairly intensive day with something for everyone.

While up that way I will also be giving a talk on Researching Military Ancestors at the monthly meeting of the Cobram Genealogical Group. I'm a member there and their representative on VAFHO but I don't get up there that often for monthly meetings.

So another busy week coming up.

Genealogy notes 2-4 September 2011 The Geelong History & Genealogy Expo

Well the last two days went very quickly as I was at the Unlock the Past history and genealogy expo in Geelong, Victoria. I gave 3 talks, attended lots of other talks, browsed the 70+ exhibitors, caught up with friends and enjoyed myself a lot. My review of the whole expo is here for those who would like to know more.

Today I have been catching up with emails, tweets and blogs as I didn't take my laptop with me - I didn't want to be too distracted from the attractions of the expo and talking with real people in person.

It still surprises me how few Australian genealogists have embraced Twitter and blogs - I keep telling them how much they are missing out on. It will be interesting to see how many take up my invitation to look at my blogs over the next few days or even follow me on Twitter.

I also have to sort out all my notes from the lectures - lots of new ideas and URLs to follow up which might lead to some new family information. The big question is where to start as I want to do everything at once - and that's just what is online!!

Today is Father's Day and my partner and I have been remembering our fathers and sharing stories. It's funny some of the things you remember when prompted by other people's experiences. I hope everyone else is having a good day with their fathers or remembering them as we are. Until next time, happy researching.

Genealogy notes 30-31 Aug & 1 Sep 2011 expos & conferences

Not sure where time is going lately. Tuesday was a bit of a loss as we spent most of the day going to various medical appointments - nothing like waiting around and finding the same magazines everywhere. Must remember to take some family history journals next time but I always like to think they will be on time!

Wednesday was spent changing some of the slides in my three talks at the Unlock the Past history and genealogy Geelong expo on 2-3 September. Mostly updating website pages but Google has changed its home page quite a bit since I first did my Google tips talk, so I have reworked that. I also made the discovery that my website counter on a couple of my pages (including the Resources page that I refer everyone to) have not been working for some time. It's now all fixed but I have lost the statistics for those pages although I still have the overall stats via Google Analytics.

In the afternoon I had an exploratory look at the Find My Past Ireland website - I keep hoping that I will progress my Irish lines. I found looking at the Forums and the various questions people ask interesting. When I posted my Norwegian interests to a forum a few years ago I received amazing help so I will post my Irish interests next week when I have more time (she says).

Today I have worked on my guest blog for MyHeritage and realised I didn't include last week's in this Diary. Sometimes I do more than I think  I have - probably should make notes as I go! Anyway it comes out every Friday. One of the things I mentioned in it was the annual conference of the ACT & NSW Family History Societies Association in Inverell on 16-18 September. I usually try to go but as we have been away so much this year and it is a long drive, I'm going to miss catching up with all my old friends.

The next two days will be in Geelong and I will be blogging the expo as I usually do but that won't be out until Sunday. The Expo looks like it will be a big event with over 70 exhibitors so I may not mention them all. It will probably depend on how many are relevant to my own areas of research. I also hope to catch a few speakers that I haven't heard before so that will be good, and on topics I'm interested in. People are coming from all over Victoria so I will also catch up with friends as well. It will be genealogy heaven!

Genealogy notes 27-29 August 2011 Victorian Seminars & Fairs

It's been a hectic few days. As I indicated last time, on Saturday I attended the VAFHO AGM and Seminar at PROV and it was a great afternoon, but it was a shame that not more people attended as the talks were really good. The AGM was no surprise with the existing committee being voted back in for another year.

Charlie Farrugia's talk on Victorian Wards was really interesting and it is surprising just how much is available on these children who were 'convicted and neglected' to use Charlie's words. There is even an index (1864-1893) on microfiche published by the Australian Institute for Genealogical Studies which makes access easier, if you have access to the microfiche (amazing how we start to want to see everything online). There is also PROVguide 60 Adoption, Wardship and Related Records which gives a lot of information on the topic.

Ada Ackerly's talk highlighted all the fantastic information that might be held on individuals in departmental correspondence files, equity files, non probate files and so on. However most of these types of records have no overall index and you need to look at individual year indexes which is why the records are not used as much as they should be. Ada has done quite a lot of indexing on various series and these are available at PROV in the reading room.

Sunday we left home early to get to the Maryborough Family History Group Fair and we took the heritage route through old mining towns such as Creswick, Clunes and Talbot and all the wattle along the roadside looked fantastic. Although it might explain why I feel like I have a touch of hay fever today.

The Fair was good and there were numerous historical societies and other groups with their records all on hand to assist people with their family history queries. Three speakers, John Tully on Researching the Goldfields, myself on Archives You Probably Don't Know but Should and Anne Howlett from Creative Memories on Heritage Scrapbooking also provided attendees with lots of information and answered lots of questions. It was good to catch up with my many friends and colleagues in central Victoria.

Today has been spent catching up on emails, tweets and blogs and some of the enewsletters I have read today include Eneclann with the latest Irish history and genealogy news; several days worth of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter; and I have been catching up on profiles on GeniMates, a blog series on 'genealogists from all over the place'.

The other major task for today was to finally finish my two Congress papers for the 13th Australasian genealogy and heraldry congress next March. I have made more changes again today and I am starting to seriously think I am procrastinating! Tomorrow is the deadline so it will definitely all be over then. The issue, I think, is that the paper is due now, six months before the Congress and as we all know, things change quite rapidly in the genealogy environment. There is scope to have a handout with any changes but the handout won't appear in the Congress proceedings. I'll have a final read tonight then hit the Send button!

Checking my diary reminds me that the Unlock the Past Victorian history and genealogy expo at Geelong is this coming Friday and Saturday so there goes another weekend devoted to genealogy, not that I mind! As usual I will try and tweet from the venue and do an overall blog of the event.

Now domestic duties call - I have to go and cook dinner!

Genealogy notes 24-26 August 2011 Non Stop Genealogy

Well I finally got to cross off a few things off my 'to do' list. I wrote my blog on Writing Family History and although it is a bit longer than I originally intended, it covers most of the points I made in my presentation on writing resource guides.

I also made substantial progress on catching up with my emails but there are still a lot of blogs in my Google Reader that I need to at least take a peek at. So many good genealogy bloggers out there! If your new to this take a look at the Unlock the Past list of genealogy blogs for Australia and New Zealand and if you want overseas try Geneabloggers for a mind blowing list of blogs from just about everywhere.

While on the subject of blogs, My Heritage have asked me to do a guest blog on Australian news so that took a bit of time yesterday and should appear on Friday 26 August. I should point out that there is no payment involved, just the opportunity to reach a different audience and to share my knowledge with others.

I have found family relatives through My Heritage as well as Genes Reunited and Ancestry. Advertising family lines online can be a good way to pick up near relatives as well as more distant lines so I have a few generations of my families on each of the three sites. It does cost to be on so many sites but I would have missed linking up with some families if I hadn't. I have opted for the free or least expensive options which still let me link up with others.

I have also been catching up with some of the enewsletters I receive. I always like the Professional Historians Association (PHA) (Qld Branch) enews as I catch up with news of my Queensland friends. When I arrived home earlier this week, in my snail mail there was a copy of Circa, which is the professional journal published by the PHA's (Vic Branch). There are some great articles in that so I am looking forward to curling up and reading it once I have some of the other things out of the way. For information on Professional Historians Associations in other States see the Australian Council of Professional Historians Associations.

qsa-bulletin is enews from the Queensland State Archives and it is great for finding out what new records are available, what has been digitised or indexed, what seminars are on and so on. State Records NSW and Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) also have enewsletters which I receive as my families tended to move around quite a bit.

Today I will be spending time preparing for the Victorian Association of Family History Organisations (VAFHO) AGM and seminar tomorrow at PROV - I am a committee member and have been asked to stand again for the coming year. The two speakers following the AGM are Charlie Farrugia from PROV and Ada Ackerley who is well known for her many indexes of PROV records so both talks should be really good.

I also have to get ready for the Maryborough Family History Group Fair on Sunday as I am giving a talk on Archives You Should Know But Don't and I will also have a display table for the various Unlock the Past publications. It's only a couple of hours drive from our place and is a really historic part of Victoria's mining past so I am looking forward to the trip.

Well my coming weekend is almost non stop genealogy so I hope your weekend is equally blessed with genealogy time and if you are at either PROV or Maryborough Fair do come up and say hello!

Genealogy notes 30 July - 1 August

It's amazing how fast time goes when you are busy and travelling around. Saturday was the Irish seminar organised by the Wodonga Family History Society. My talk on the Colonial Irish Liked a Beer or Two was well received and I managed to sell a few of my books too. Jeff Brownrigg's two talks on Australian Irish Lives was also good and he accompanied his presentation with music and songs and even had the audience singing along. Both Jeff and I were presented with a local produce goodies bag which was nice.

Sunday was spent travelling back to Melbourne and catching up with domestic chores - friends came over to dinner that night (impromptu) but it meant no time for logging on and catching up with emails and tweets.

Monday I left home early so that I could go to the State Library of Victoria for Family History Feast 2011- an annual event during National Family History Week. It was a great day of genealogy talks and catching up with friends - my review gives details of the various presentations.

I'm hoping the next few days will let me catch up with all my genealogy reading - I now have quite a few e-newsletters waiting as well as blogs I like to follow. The other thing I must do tomorrow is my next instalment on mining ancestors for Australian Family Tree Connections. Another busy genealogy day ahead!

Genealogy notes 27-29 July 2011

We're still travelling and after Canberra we went to our friend's farm in Yarrawonga in northern Victoria where we have been lucky to see the births of some of their new lambs. Also amazing just how many white cockatoos are now in the area along with a few pink galahs.

The head cold I developed in Mount Gambier went to my chest so the last couple of days I haven't even felt like reading my emails or tweeting so I have quite a bit of catching up to do. But our friends have also been taking us round the tourist places and how could I say no to a visit to Rutherglen and some of the old, famous wineries in this area, not to mention the cheese tasting place at All Saints Winery. Today we are off to the Corowa chocolate factory and maybe another winery or two. It's a great gourmet area and I have bought olives, cheeses, spices, sauces etc.

My friend is an avid genealogist too so we have been having some great conversations and I had the chance to see the book she put together after a recent family reunion. I really must finish all my family history 'drafts' - there can always be a second edition!

We have even done a draft strategic plan for discussion at the VAFHO committee meeting next week. I will miss it unfortunately as by then I will be in Brisbane.

But for now I am getting reading for the Irish seminar tomorrow organised by the Wodonga Family History Society. My talk is The Colonial Irish Loved a Beer or Two and the other speaker Professor Geoff Brownrigg is giving two talks on Australian Irish Lives. It should be a great day and Wodonga is always a great audience.

Tomorrow will be a big genealogy day and I am hoping to learn lots to assist researching my own Irish ancestors - I have four great great grandparents who came out to Queensland in the 1860s and 1870s. Stay tuned.

Genealogy notes 13 July 2011 National Family History Week 2011

As I've mentioned over the last few days I am busy updating existing talks and doing new talks - in fact I am giving 11 talks over the next six weeks! See my schedule for more details.

Why so much happening around this particular time? Well it is winter in Australia and if we didn't have genealogy events to go to, we probably wouldn't venture out of our homes - not that winter here is anything like it is overseas. But more importantly, winter is the time when we have our National Family History Week - to be more exact it's 29 July to 8 August.

This is an initiative of the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations (AFFHO) and their other big initiative every three years is a genealogy congress and the next one is 28-31 March 2012 in Adelaide with a theme of  Your Ancestors in Their Social Context. There is a great line up of speakers and talks so it is definitely not one to miss.

But back to National Family History Week - anyone can add an event but unfortunately not everyone lists their events here. Still, depending on what State or Territory you live in, you can easily find events of interest. Here in Victoria one event I have attended every year is Family History Feast at the State Library of Victoria. Scrolling through the list of events in Victoria shows that there is a great variety of talks and not just in Melbourne which is great.

So check out your State and see what you can attend for National Family History Week and if your organisation is having an event and it's not listed, encourage them to add it. All too often I hear people say they would have attended something if only they had known about it. So let's all publicise National Family History Week in 2011.

Yesterday my other half came home after visiting friends with a rather detailed family history chart in his hands. His friends have a genealogy brickwall and he assured them that I might be able to help solve it. He has great faith in my abilities and I must admit I do like a challenge - however this one is where the wife leaves the family, never to be seen again. Already my mind is thinking of all the possibilities and to complicate it further it has both Australia and New Zealand links. Wish me luck!

Genealogy notes 12 July 2011 DNA genealogy

Another day working on talks for my Brisbane/Toowoomba trip in August. I'm happy to say that all talks are drafted and I'm now in the review stage to make sure they run to time, make sense and give attendees information to further their own research. Without knowing an audience, you have to try and cater for everyone from basic beginners to those who may have considerable experience.

Amongst my emails yesterday was an updated report from 23andMe which is a DNA company which specialises in genetic testing for health and provides an insight into various health risks through maternal DNA.  I have also had people contact me to see if we are related because of DNA strands matching up, although this is more 4th or 5th cousin relationships. So far there have been no definite connections. This is an area that I have been exploring more this year and I will probably do a DNA test with one of the companies that is more into family history rather than health issues.

I also need to read more about the subject as well and recently purchased a book DNA For Genealogists by Kerry Farmer to help me understand more. I have heard Kerry's talk on DNA at an Unlock the Past history and genealogy expo but it is a lot to take in so the book will build on that (I hope). Science was never one of my strong subjects at school.

Another interesting email was from Unlock the Past and a draft brochure for their War Comes To Australia: WWII 70th anniversary tour to commemorate the bombing of Darwin in 1942. I have been asked to give a talk on Tracing Military Ancestors as part of the tour which is 17-22 Feb 2012. There will be two seminars as part of the tour and other speakers are Brad Manera and Dr Tom Lewis OAM. It should be an exciting time to be in Darwin next year.

I still receive mail from the postman and while not as much as via email, it is still exciting to open up the mailbox and see letters and journals. Yesterday I received my latest copy of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria's journal and newsletter. You can also see the latter on their website, even if you aren't a member and it is a good read with lots of information on research in Victoria and what is happening with affiliated historical societies. The Society has a lot of information, indexes and databases online and anyone with Victorian ancestors may find it worthwhile to search for their names and places.

We are leaving for Adelaide on Saturday and I have so many things I want to do before then. To do lists are something that I'm good at but they do have a problem of growing faster than I can tick them off. The next six weeks are incredibly busy and I'm looking forward to some down time in September. Fingers crossed!

Genealogy notes 9-10 July 2011 Royal Australian Armoured Corps Tank Museum

It was as I expected - a weekend with no genealogy as we were visiting a friend's farm and staying overnight.  In some ways a technology free weekend is quite nice and it is good to know I can go 48 hours without turning the laptop on. However, I am now wading my way through various emails, tweets, Facebook and Google+ invitations.

But there is one thing that I do want to report on. We finally managed a visit to the  Royal Australian Armoured Corps Tank Museum at Puckapunyal on the way home. We had gone there previously on the spur of the moment when passing, but it is not open every weekend and we hadn't picked an open weekend. This time, as it was school holidays, it was open.

Museums don't always reflect what the name suggests and this is no exception. Of course there are many, many tanks (over 70 of them) to wander around and look at. In fact, I hadn't realised just how many different kinds there were or the differences between British, German, Japanese and American tanks until you see them all lined up. Each tank had it's history and statistics on a display board which was good for people like me who know nothing about tanks. There was an icy wind blowing and rain threatening so we didn't spend all that long wandering around the huge, open sheds which give some cover to the tanks.

I found it more interesting in the interior museum which paid tribute to every war since the Boer War. There were lots of photos, medals, uniforms, weapons, with various stories and tributes in display cases. I took some photos but the museum's website has a very good 3D map which allows you to do almost a virtual tour.

Visiting these kinds of museums can help us to understand our own military research better. For example, my ancestors fought it the Boer War in Light Horse Regiments and while I knew that meant they rode horses, I had not consciously thought how they transported the horses. There is a Light Horse memorial at the Museum which is a railway carriage and when you go up to have a look inside there is a fake horse inside a horse stall. It's obvious when you think about it, but it wasn't till I explored that Light Horse memorial that I realised exactly what it meant for soldiers to not only have to transport themselves and their gear but they also had to look after their horses.

It's a great place to visit and if you don't live in Victoria, do the website tour and look for other military museums - who knows what you will learn and perhaps even better, it will be of interest to your own family history.

Genealogy notes 6 July 2011

Well today didn't go to plan. Melbourne was freezing and got worse as the day went on. I can't function in the cold - must be my Queensland blood!

My goal today was to finalise my Colonial Irish talk for the Wodonga Family History Society and the Genealogical Society of Queensland seminars I am speaking at in the next few weeks. The talks feature various anecdotes from my own Irish ancestors - I am 25% Irish (Counties Cavan, Armagh and Wicklow).

Most of my Irish research was done back in the late 1970s and early 1980s and then I put it into the too hard basket. So it has been quite a while since I dragged my Irish families out of the filing cabinet. To illustrate my talks I had planned to show various documents highlighting my ancestors' exploits while under the influence of alcohol. The talk is actually called The Colonial Irish Liked A Beer or Two: Checking Out The Evidence.

My first shock was that the photocopies of various government records that I had done in the early 1980s had faded - badly - but then that is nearly 30 years ago. The next shock was that some of the documents had been stapled and the staples had rusted - badly. The final shock was that there was information in the documents that was really relevant to me today but obviously I either had not realised its significance back then or I had not read the documents carefully enough at the time. In my own defence, I suspect I know more now than I did back then.

However, what this all means is that instead of just finalising my talk, I ended up spending the day removing rusty staples, scanning what are now poor photocopies and rereading and rethinking my Irish family research. The day just went past in a blur.

The sad part is I think I probably should do this with all my paper files - and I have been doing it with some files but more as time permits rather than as any dedicated project. It is probably the type of task we should all do on a regular basis, especially if we have been researching for decades and have multiple filing cabinets of information.

It's now past my bedtime but I plan to read Inherit Issue No 47 June 2011 which is the free e-newsletter from the Heritage Council of Victoria and they have some interesting new stories on the built environment on the Culture Victoria website. Lots of interesting things on that website that may be relevant to family historians researching in Victoria.

The other e-newsletter I plan to read tonight is from the National Trust of Australia (Victoria branch). In their June newsletter there are lots of suggestions for the school holidays, offers for members and one that particularly intrigues me is Spookspotters' Twilight Ghost Tours at Como House.

Tomorrow is supposed to be even colder than today but I do have to go out so most of the day will be out and about. I've also got a lot of genealogy tasks on my to do list - focus will be my mantra tomorrow!