2023 ending, 2024 beginning & what's new: My genealogy weeks 15 - 31 December 2023

2023 went by in a blur. So many great things happened and keeping this Diary helps me to remember just how much I do in a year. 

Blogs

Jill Ball aka Geniaus has again offered her Accentuate the Positive Geneameme for 2023. Another great way to think about what happened in your genealogy research in 2023. Read my response here.

I have a guest blog for the Genealogical Society of Queensland coming up in January. The big question as always, will be what to write about.

Books & Magazines

For various reasons my attention has been drawn to Charles Dickens and his association with Australia. To my shame, I suspect, I have only ever read Great Expectations for school. To redress this I am currently reading Tom Keneally's That Dickens Boy. Not quite a Charles Dickens novel but a great insight into the Dickens family. It may even inspire me to read a real Dickens book again.

Books are piling up around me, season gifts and Ph D works plus the number on my IPad is growing at an alarming rate. It seems I may have been converted to the convenience of the ebook. 

Also using Moreton Region libraries more and their app Libby which lets me read all those genealogy magazines as part of my library subscription. Not to mention all the ebooks they have.

Conferences

Not too many on my horizon this year. However, there are lots of webinars and online sessions that I can catch up on. 

Legacy Family Tree Webinars have just announced their 2024 program. Good to see the Down Under series continues with some good Aussie/Kiwi speakers. You can register to watch live for the whole year and its free to watch for the first week after the session. Check it out here.

New Resources

The Australian Home Beautiful
Vol 29 No 7 July 1950

Findmypast added new Kent records, plus opened up more redacted entries in the 1939 Register. There are almost 188,000 of these previously closed records now open. Family history is indeed never ending. Over 90,000 more newspaper pages have been added.   

Trove Treasure in December 2023 and January 2024 and for all our holiday cooking, they have now digitised over 100 classic cookbooks. Confession time. I can spend hours looking at cookbooks, not necessarily cooking, just looking. I can't wait to explore this new collection of cookbooks. 

Or you could read all those wonderful magazines that have also been digitised. Remember the 1950s and all those wonderful hot winter puddings. I loved the pineapple upside down cakes although mine never quite looked like the recipe image.

Over 800,000 images were added to Trove in 2022-2023. More will be coming in 2024 and here is a preview list. Good to see the community cooperation between Trove and regional genealogy societies as well as school and local history groups.

NSW

• Border Morning Mail (1952) [Albury City Libraries]
• Coolamon Farmers' Review (1910-1917) [Coolamon and District History Group]
• Coolamon-Ganmain Farmers' Review (1906-1910, 1917-1918) [Coolamon and District History Group]
• The Pastoral Times and Deniliquin Telegraph (1895-1950) [Deniliquin Genealogy Society Inc]
• The Seagull (1957-2015) [Tweed River High School]

SA

• Australijos Lietuvis - The Australian Lithuanian (1948-1956) [Australian Lithuanian Archives]
• People's Weekly (1890-1926) [State Library of South Australia]
• Port Lincoln Times (1982-1986) [Port Lincoln History Group]
• Seasider (1956-1963) [National Trust of SA - Wilunga Branch]
• South East Kingston Leader (1962-1976) [Kingston Branch of the National Trust of SA]
• The Standard (1959-1965) [Prospect Local History Group]

VIC

• Gippsland Farmers' and Glengarry, Toongabbie and Cowwarr Journal (1923) [Latrobe City Libraries]
• Sun News Pictorial (1922-1954) [State Library Victoria]
• The Journal: Glengarry, Toongabbie and Cowwarr journal (1923-1929) [Latrobe City Libraries]
• Yarrawonga Mercury and Lake Rowan, Tungamah and Mulwala News (1882) [Yarrawonga Mulwala Historical Society Inc]
• Yarrawonga Mercury and Mulwala News (1882-1897) [Yarrawonga Mulwala Historical Society Inc]
• Yarrawonga Mercury and Southern Riverina Advertiser (1897-1905, 1921-1927) [Yarrawonga Mulwala Historical Society Inc]

Talks

My list of talks for 2024 so far are now up on the Events page of my website. As usual I am looking forward to presenting and catching up with friends at these events.

My Genie Chat sessions here on Bribie are continuing in 2024 and the first term will look at English genealogy.

What's Coming Up?

January is traditionally a quiet time and there are lots of little catch up tasks on my list. Like sorting out all my travel and family photos from this year. I tend to download them into subject folders and promise myself I will get back to delete the not so good and identify the ones I want to keep. No surprises but I rarely do that so I have quite a bit of tidying up just in my photo folders.

Alice Price and her daughters

I could mention the scanning word, but there are too many projects there. I managed to sort Mum's photos into categories and give my brother some that related to his children. But the little piles of scanning are still sitting on the shelf behind me. In the photo above I am reasonably sure that my son could not identify anyone. Even I'm not sure if that is Mum on the far left, she was a lot younger than her siblings. I do know the rest - from left to right Alice Price nee White, her daughter Beryl, daughter in law Peggy, daughter Mavis and daughter Hazel. 

The Genealogy Squad and Cyndi Ingles has her Filing Friday Facebook challenge and occasionally I have set aside a Friday to just tackle things like filing and scanning. Could I keep it up every week? No for starters the Bribie Family History Association has its monthly meeting on the first Friday. Then there is lunch afterwards. But 3 out of 4 Fridays might make a difference to my photo projects. Have a look at their last post for 2023 and the plan for 2024.

Thank you to all my readers over the year - I have not been as regular with blogging as I hoped. Travel took up quite a few weeks and you can follow those travels through my Facebook page. Your ongoing support of this blog is very much appreciated.

I hope that you have all had a fabulous genealogy time in 2023 and that 2024 will be equally fabulous. Stay safe and well until next time, Shauna

Genealogy Updates for March 2023: in person conferences, new resources, & other news

 March was a huge month travelling to the USA for my first ever in person Roots Tech conference. The rest of the month was mainly spent travelling and I would like to thank all those who followed my Facebook photos of the trip. It was fantastic and good to know that others enjoyed my experiences. The most genealogy I did was via emails - reading enews and genealogy ejournals and checking Ancestry and MyHeritage for new DNA matches.

Blogs

FamilySearch Library books and more books 
& even one on an area that I am researching in County Antrim, Ireland

My review of the RootsTech 2023 genealogy conference from an in person perspective is here. 

As always I kept a travel diary so I can go back and see what I did and given that RootsTech was so full on I'm glad I did that. So many experiences!

Books

Very proud of myself in that I only bought one book over there. Diahan Southard's Your DNA Guide.

To be honest there wasn't a lot of temptation as it is too expensive to ship books to a conference. So many exhibitors had order forms or referred you to Amazon. Nathan Dylan Goodwin was the only one with a pile of books around him at the start but by the end those piles had dwindled. I am an impulse buyer so his strategy worked better - the bird in the hand. 

Also good to finally meet him in person. 

Conferences

Although Roots Tech 2023 is over, you can still view the sessions online at home. There is enough to keep us all interested until next year. The dates for Roots Tech 2024 are 29 February to 2 March.

The next Australian genealogy conference is the NSW Association Annual Conference and this year it is hosted by the Wyong Society. The there is The Running Waters of History between 8 - 10 September 2023. Speakers include Martyn Killion, Michelle Patient, Mark Bundy, Geoffrey Potter, Michael Bell and Jeffrey Madsen. The conference is in person and virtual. This year I will be a virtual attendee, as I have conflicting dates with a talk for the Genealogical Society of Queensland that same weekend. 

New Resources

Do you ever check the new additions to the British Newspaper Archive? I get their enewsletter but I usually skip over as I'm busy but then of course I never revisit the email. One of my new promises to myself is to read things as they come in. Not always practicable but worth trying for.

For example, in March they advised that they had added more to the Birmingham Mail which was first published in 1870. Almost another half million digitised pages which made me quite excited as both Max and myself have Black Country ancestors. Years covered include from 1871 to 1999 with gaps. I particularly like that newspapers post 1954 (Trove cut off) as it can lead to discovering more recent cousins. 

Talks

First week home was busy with talks to Strathpine Library on genealogy for beginners and Noosaville Library on resources for women as part of International Women's History Month. 

Next is my talk as part of the Legacy Webinars 24 hour genealogy marathon on 13 April. My session is Australian Indexes Online for Family History Research That You May Not Know About. The event is free but you must register to receive the link. Check out all the speakers and topics here.

What's Coming Up

Due to all my travels I have agreed to run the Irish genealogy course again at Bribie U3A. The first term missed half the lectures due to my absence so they have enrolled again.

Salt Lake City in person 2023

The rest of April will be spent sorting my notes from Roots Tech and following up on all of my action points. 

Easter is next week and the school holidays are always an opportunity to catch up with my brother. Not to mention that I also have a fondness for hot cross buns which I never buy outside of  March/April.

Have a great genealogy month and I hope to be back to regular reports now that all my big trips are out of the way. Until next time, stay safe and well. Shauna

Rootstech 2022, Winter Genealogy & More Newspapers in Trove: My Week in Genealogy 21 - 28 November 2021

 Wow there is so much happening at the moment I'm finding it hard to keep up with webinars and conferences. A weekend away at Tin Can Bay was good and took me away from the study desk.

ANZAncestryTime 

This is a Twitter event by @ANZAncestryTime held every Tuesday night at 6pm Brisbane time (just adjust the time to your time zone). Topics vary each week and attendees answer questions posed by the hosts for the night. It is a great way to pick up some new tips and resources. If you miss a night you can go back and see the night's summary done by @tasteach. Remember to use the hash tag #ANZAncestryTime so that eveyone else can see your responses. The hour goes very quickly.

Association of Professional Genealogists Australia & New Zealand Chapter

Hosted the last Zoom meeting of APG ANZ for 2021 where we discussed what it is like being a genealogy speaker downunder as compared to the US and the UK. 

The impact of Covid and the rise of Zoom has also changed the way society meetings and conferences are managed. 

I also have arranged for a members badge  based on our logo for in person events which will come back some day.

 Bribie Genealogy 

Time was spent on preparing for the December meeting on Friday 3 December where I will be conducting a Christmas genealogy quiz on family history basics. I have also drawn up a list of 31 things to do over the Christmas New Year break before we meet again in February. 

At our last Monday night meeting of the year on 6 December, David Barnes and myself are showing members different ways of identifying DNA matches. 

Conferences

Looking forward to THE Genealogy Show Winter Event this coming weekend 3-5 December. Talking on asylums in Australia and will be doing a live chat on Saturday morning. Not sure how that goes but the talk is prerecorded and loaded along with the handout. So I can just sit back and enjoy the weekend. We have 30 days to then watch all the presentations. It is not too late to buy a ticket.

The Scottish Indexes next conference is on 5 December and I have registered for that too. I love these conferences and get so much out of them. Plus they are free and watchable in our time. 

DNA Update

Totally surprised to see someone two steps away from my brother's Y DNA in Family Tree DNA during the week. It fits with my theory of Dad's father, although still all circumstantial bits of evidence. At least they are all pointing in the same direction.

I have been sent the first photograph of my grandchild due next year. Technology has come a long way since I had my son. His ultrasound was not all that recognisable whereas this image is amazing for the first trimester. 

The Zoom gender reveal party is on 4 December. They are in Sweden, her parents are in New Zealand and the Netherlands and we are in Australia. A multiglobal family. 

Reading

Going on holidays with someone who is a late riser is always difficult for me as I am an early riser. What can I do without making a noise before they wake up? Happy to say that I managed to catch up with my ejournals and emagazines. The latest issues of Who Do You Think You Are and Family Tree Magazine gave me lots of ideas to follow up. Do you know that you may be able to get them through the eresources of your local library? Worth a look and some libraries also have the print magazines for loan. 

SA Genealogy Nov 2021 journal, a couple of back issues of Generation from Genealogical Society of Queensland journals and ditto for the Queensland Family Historian from the Queensland Family History Society. Perhaps I need to get away more! 

RootsTech 2022

I'm excited to have been appointed a RootsTech 2022 influencer. This is the first time for me. 

Two of my speaking proposals were accepted and I have been busy reading forms and contracts. Also there are specific instructions for recording so I will have to practice with the unfamiliar technology. 

Registrations have now opened and you can sign up now for free.

This reminds me that there are still a few talks from last year on my must watch list. 

Writing My Family Histories

The focus this week was on Max's Spencer family as he wants to give it as a Christmas present for his son. I had a draft to start with and this week's just been filling out different sections and making it more clear who is who in the tree. There is a strong military presence so I am adding an appendix of those who served in the various wars both in the UK and Australia. Learning quite a bit about British military records which will be useful.

What's Coming Up?

After this weekend there are no more talks or meetings until the New Year. This will give me even more time to work on those family history drafts. It would be really good to start 2022 with a few of them printed and spiral bound. From there I could PDF and place them on my website. 

I'm going to miss online conferences but there is still plenty of presentations to watch on Legacy Family Tree Webinars and lots of genealogy tutorials on You Tube. 

The following week I will be attending the Caloundra Family History Research Christmas party which is always good fun. 

What's New

Trove enews in November was all about Western Australia. It is free to subscribe and a quick way to find out what's new in Trove. Check out all the new newspaper titles coming and thanks to the various partners who are making it happen. The WA and SA newspapers are of most interest to me. 

          Western Australia

• The amateur sports gazette (1934-1935) [State Library of Western Australia]
• Daily News (1951-1955) [State Library of Western Australia]
• Dalgety's review: a weekly record of pastoral, agricultural, commercial and general information (1926-1948) [State Library of Western Australia]
• Freelance (1924-1925) [State Library of Western Australia]
• Perth Daily Telegraph (1922) [State Library of Western Australia]
• Sports News (1953) [State Library of Western Australia]
• Social wealth: an exposition of the natural laws governing the production and distribution of wealth (1934) [State Library of Western Australia]
• The Sruss-Sruss (1931-1932) [State Library of Western Australia]
• The standard: a church paper for the Diocese of Perth, W.A (1882-1886) [State Library of Western Australia]
• Suburban Life (1939) [State Library of Western Australia]
• Victoria Park News (1949-1950) [State Library of Western Australia]
• W.A. shipping and commercial news: pastoral, agricultural and mining gazette (1922-1923) [State Library of Western Australia]

• South Australia
• Daylight (1919 - 1928) [Brian Samuels / State Library of South Australia]
• The Western Mail (1928 - 1930) [Brian Samuels / State Library of South Australia]
• The Adelaide Examiner (1841 - 1843) [Brian Samuels / State Library of South Australia]
• The Prospecter (1978 - 1984) [Prospect South Australia History Group]
• Northern District Times (21 Oct 1937-17 Feb 1938) [State Library of South Australia with Prospect Local History Group]
• Northern Districts Courier (Aug 1925-Dec 1927) [State Library of South Australia with Prospect Local History Group]

• Queensland
• Catholic Advocate (1911 - 1919; 1923 - 1934; 1936 - 1938) [State Library Queensland]

• Victoria
• Richmond Guardian (Vic. : 1885; 1904 - 1922)
• Albury Banner and Wodonga Express (1860-1872) [Albury Library & Albury Wodonga Historical Society]
• Bacchus Marsh Express (1866 - 1943) [Bacchus Marsh and District Historical Society]
• Great Southern Advocate (1889 - 1906, 1914 - 1919, 1921 - 1940) [Korumburra & District Historical Society]
• Elmore Standard (1882 - 1911) [Bendigo Regional Genealogical Society]
• Ferntree Gully News and Mountain District Free Press (1954); [Eastern Regional Libraries & Dandenong Ranges Historical Society]

• New South Wales
• Inverell Times (1899 - 1907, 1909 - 1954) [Inverell Shire Public Library]
• Albury Banner and Wodonga Express (1860-1872) [Albury Library & Albury Wodonga Historical Society]

Enjoy your genealogy week and stay safe and well. 

Shauna

NFHM, DNA DownUnder and other news - Genealogy Notes 1-14 Aug 2019

August is always a fantastic month in Australia - lots of genealogy events to mark the end of winter, not that we have had much up here but our friends down south have certainly seen a bit of snow and cold times.

National Family History Month (NFHM)

It's National Family History Month with lots of genealogy and family history events in Australia this month. I've been giving talks around various Moreton Region Libraries and there have been wonderful attendees with lots of questions. My presentations on some of my favourite English and Irish genealogy resources are on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.

Check out the NFHM website for any events still to come in your area. Also don't forget that DNA DownUnder is still touring with events in Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. I went to the Brisbane seminar and you can read my report on it here. In just under two weeks I will be in Sydney for the 3 day event.

There are genealogy bargains out there this month. Queensland Family History Society is offering a special membership price that includes access to MyHeritage at home plus other benefits and resources on offer to their members. The Society's open day is on 24 August from 10am to 3pm with displays by the special interest groups and volunteers to answer your questions. Something for everyone. More information on their website.

Resources

FindMyPast have added some more Scottish newspapers - two new titles for the Moray area, the Forres News and Advertiser; the Northern Scot and Moray & Nairn Express; the Renfrewshire Independent 1858-1877 and the Devon Valley Tribune (Clackmannanshire) 1890s to 1950s. I'm particularly interested in the Moray area.

FamilySearch added Toowoomba, Queensland prison index which is also available via Queensland State Archives. Having the index in a bigger, more widely searched database might mean more people discovering a criminal ancestor. My GG Grandmother is in that index.

Talks 

We had another meeting of the Bribie Island Library DNA Genealogists Group and I gave a presentation on how I am tracing my biological grandfather's family.

As I mentioned above, my presentations Irish Genealogy Resources Online and English Genealogy Resources Online are on my website, go to the Resources page and scroll down to Presentations. There is only one more talk for Moreton Libraries and that is the Strathpine Library just before I leave for Sydney.

By the end of August I will need a holiday. At least I will have more time to watch the local bird life from my office window (which sadly does not move around as much as my other geneacolleagues). Still, a bird in the hand.....

What's Coming Up

I have missed a few of my U3A classes due to the talks and travel but next week we are having another look at Sources & Citations. After Sydney I will be reporting on my DNA adventures to both my U3A class and the Bribie Island Library DNA Genealogists Group. Maybe September will be busy too!

Enjoy the rest of National Family History Month and I hope you make some exciting discoveries. Until next time

Education records, AFFHO Congress interviews & More - Genealogy notes 8-15 Jan 2015

It is a scary thought but we are into the third week of 2015 and already I think I am talking too much! I have accepted another two talks, both in May. The first is part of an all day seminar on immigration organised by Southern Suburbs branch of the GSQ and the second is for the Genealogical Society of Queensland, a new date for my asylums talks which had to be postponed last November due to car problems. Dates have been added to the speaking calendar on the Events page of my website. That makes 17 presentations so far not counting the two Unlock the Past genealogy cruises in July and November (not sure how many I will be doing on them yet) and National Family History Month in August.

Yesterday I gave my first presentation for 2015 to Caloundra Family History Research group on School Days: education records for family history. They are a great group, laughed in all the right places and more importantly, hadn't really thought about how much education records can add to family history research. Most of them said they would be going home to see what they could discover on their own families. As usual I have placed the presentation on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.

My AFFHO Congress 2015 interviews continue and the latest is with Mathew Trinca from the National Museum of Australia. It is only 10 weeks to Congress so before we know, we will all be meeting up in Canberra for a geneaorgy (I wonder if that will make Jill Ball's geneadictionary)?

The topic of this week's 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2015, my personal genealogy blog challenge, was census records and I have made some interesting discoveries using the UK and Irish census records. Read the post here.

It really is hard trying to keep up with all the new digitised newspapers. Both Trove and the British Newspaper Archive made announcements of new titles and of course, they cover areas that I am interested in. Do I keep cataloging my library into Library Thing and reorganising and scanning my paper documents accumulated over nearly 40 years (both long term projects) or do I drop everything and see what exciting things I can find??

You guessed right! The lure of Trove was too strong but I was rewarded with an article on the retirement of my great grandfather James Carnegie. Sadly there was no image but it did talk about his career on Brisbane ferries. Thanks to the article I now know he spent 28 years on the ferries, traveled 200,000 miles, he smoked a pipe and weighed 16 stone! All things you are not likely to find in government documents and as he died before I was born, I never had the chance to know him.

These weren't the only temptations, there are always interesting links posted on Twitter, Facebook, in blog posts and the enewsletters I receive from state archives, libraries and so on. It is a wonder that I ever get anything done!

We are having a heat wave with high humidity at the moment and sweat is pouring off me as I look at the pool and the surrounding palm trees. Yes more temptation in paradise but before I can leap in, I have promised to attack the weeds that enjoyed all last week's rain. Why do weeds grow faster than flowers and herbs although the basil is looking great and it won't be long before the tomatoes start ripening. One of our beautiful hibiscus even flowered this morning. So off to do some gardening before I see some new genealogy temptation. Until next time, happy researching.

Genealogy notes 5-11 April 2014 talks and travels

My time at the moment is taken up with doing some new talks. Later this month I am giving two talks at the Inverell Family History Group seminar day. One is on researching women ancestors and the other is on blogging, both topics where you can probably talk for hours! Then in May I have four talks - one on Bribie with the local society, one in Adelaide (part of Carol Baxter's research and writing history seminar with Unlock the Past) and two in Brisbane at the Genealogical Society of Queensland's seminar. Details on the Events page of my website.

I often wonder if people realise how much work actually goes into a 45 minute presentation. It is almost like writing an article or a book except you have to do it with less words and still get the message across. I also try to do the presentations so that attendees can go home and try out their own searches. Still it will be good to have some new topics available in the future. Recycling talks makes sense!

I have done another installment of 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2014. Week 12 is on Gazetteers and their use in family history. One thing about doing a personal blog challenge is that you soon realise how quickly a week goes and where did those last 12 weeks go? But on the positive side I have done 12 pieces looking at various examples from my own family research and revisited research I last did decades ago.

Time has also been spent doing more articles for Inside History Magazine - I really love working on their 'archives series' as there are so many great places to research beyond the usual suspects. Some of the 'ask an expert' questions they send my way are truly challenging and sometimes I believe our ancestors do not want to be found! I am still thinking about my talk last month to the local historical society on my Carnegie family - why did the security alarm go off twice during my talk? This month's speaker was not interrupted once!

I have made my travel arrangements for the 6th Unlock the Past cruise and we are also going to the Norfolk Island conference so airfares and accommodation booked for that too. Both events are going to be good and next week I am going to do my early bird registration for the AFFHO Congress 2015 in Canberra next March. That is a fantastic program with so many good speakers and presentations.

Does anyone feel that we are starting to live on our phones, tablets, laptops? One of my emails this week was from the British Newspapers Archive inviting me to download their free app so that I can view daily fascinating historical articles, images and adverts on my phone for free. Or you can read these daily stories on their Facebook page! How tempting is that? I simply love reading and searching the historic newspapers  but if I also had access on my phone I would never get any work done but then it could come in handy when sitting around waiting for the doctor. If I don't log on to Trove everyday for a quick search I feel like I am missing something.

We had a very bad storm here last Sunday and we lost power due to trees falling down all over the island. No power meant no charging phones, tablets or laptops so one lesson learnt was keep everything fully charged! Luckily we were only without power for a few hours but dinner on the gas BBQ by candlelight was interesting and we must buy a better torch. As I write this there is a category 5 cyclone bearing down on the Queensland coast near Cooktown and I sincerely hope that everyone stays safe although the property damage will probably be massive. Mother Nature can be very destructive and it is a sobering reminder to us all to make sure that we have our precious heirlooms and research backed up and stored somewhere safe.

Finally I have started promoting National Family History Month and sending out invitations to participate to genealogy and family history societies, archives, libraries and so on. Don't forget to like the Facebook page if you have not done so yet. Happy researching until next time.

Genealogy notes 19-26 Mar 2014 what's new

Another busy week writing articles for Irish Lives Remembered and Inside History Magazine. We have had a few rainy days recently so I caught up with recent issues of both magazines. As usual there was lots of news and great stories to read and my to do list got bigger. Irish Lives is moving to a new bi-monthly format starting in May/June with no April issue but it is still free online.

My personal blog challenge 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2014 continues to progress and Week 11 was Newspapers and the previous 10 weeks were on a variety of topics, all still on my website. I was pleased to learn that Campaspe Regional Library have taken up the challenge.

I have also caught up with media releases from Findmypast.com.au and I was really excited to see that they have just added another 8,000 South Australian records including naturalisations, land owner records, cemetery inscriptions and destitute women. Ancestry.com.au advised in their March update that 900 million records for 27 (or 67 - both numbers are in the media release) countries were added thanks to their collaboration with FamilySearch. Most of the countries are not of interest to me but the numbers are still staggering.

MyHeritage advised they have gone into partnership with Billion Graves (where people can upload images of gravestones) and MyHeritage record matching technology will be able to tell their users is any images match someone in their family trees. The records will be free on both sites and individual and societies are encouraged to contribute. Read more about the project here.

All of the major subscription sites have a wealth of information on them that we could never imagined pre internet days. Not to mention all the free sites such as FamilySearch and the UK Online Parish Clerks. Collaborative projects between all the players is great to see as it makes it easier and better for all family historians and genealogists. The hard part is keeping up with all the new information which is why it is a good idea to subscribe to their e-newsletters or blogs.

Queensland BDMs advised that a full range of historical birth register images is now available between 1906 and 1914. Images for the period 1891 to 1905 to follow. Death historical images are complete except for the period 1953 to 1964. The RBDM historical website features a table detailing the availability of historical images here.

I have accepted an opportunity to speak at the June meeting of  Caloundra Family History Research Inc and it will be good to catch up with friends there as we nearly settled in that area. If I had not decided to spend my birthday on Bribie we probably would have ended up on the Sunshine Coast. I have also done my bookings for the 6th Unlock the Past genealogy cruise and the UTP genealogy conference on Norfolk Island which is in October. Both events should be really good.

When you organise something you should always plan for the unexpected but sometimes it can take you by surprise. Our weekend visit by some members of the Professional Historians Association (Queensland) went very well with some great feedback. We had everything organised by the time they arrived, we had done a dummy run of the tour, pre-cooked the BBQ and had everything set up. We had allowed an hour and a half for the tour around the historic spots of Bribie Island, what we did not anticipate were the number of questions everyone had. Each stop took longer and longer and we fell seriously behind our timetable so much that we had to skip the stop at Bongaree.

Even with that we had lost most of our lunch time and after a hasty BBQ lunch at our place we arrived a little late at the Bribie Island Seaside Museum for a talk by the President of the historical society. Again I was amazed by the number of questions (and I think the President was too). In the conversation afterwards it was mentioned that people are not always tourists in their own home towns and that they may not think that other people's history is of interest  or of benefit to themselves. I think we can learn from these types of get togethers and of course they are also great opportunities to meet new people and network. I am going to make a more determined effort to try and attend similar events in Brisbane (which is after all my own old home town)!

Next week we are having a mini holiday in the caravan. It was going to be work free but I still have quite a few new talks to work on for April and May. I am still waiting to finalise sponsors for National Family History Month 2014 and I had hoped to have all that done before I left.  More news on NFHM in April.

Just as well Max likes to sleep in as I can get lots done as I am an early riser but it gets a bit tricky in the caravan. It is hard to use the keys on the laptop without making a sound and in the dark! Still if we have a quiet weekend I might get more done before we leave. Until next time, happy researching!

Genealogy notes 15-22 October 2013 - Australian archives conference

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Genealogy Notes 25 Sep - 4 Oct 2013 digitised newspaper success

Just as well I wrote up my two reports of the NSW & ACT conference quickly (here and here if you missed them) as I've been laid low with a dreaded virus since. On the good side I've managed to catch up with all my unread issues of the QFHS Queensland Family Historian and the GSQ Generation plus I have been reading Oceans of Consolation by David Fitzpatrick. This book is based on personal accounts of Irish migration to Australia from 14 families and no, I'm not lucky enough to have my ancestors within that collection. But what those various families experienced is probably similar to what my Irish ancestors went through so it is good background information and helps to provide more context to my research.

I also indulged myself with some genealogy searching in my more wide awake moments and I'm so glad I did. Trove is forever turning up new things in my family history as new papers are being digitised and added online all the time. I'm sure I've looked for my gg grandmother Helen Chick/Ferguson/Carnegie many times before but this is the first time that I've found a probate reference for her which was two years after her death. She died in Queensland where she spent most of her life but she did spend a few years in New South Wales with her second husband Charles Chick. I've not thought of looking for a will and probate for her in QLD or NSW (as she never appeared to have had any property or to settle anywhere for long) but the references in Trove quickly sent me to the State Records NSW website to check their online catalogue for probate references to Chick. Not only was there a probate reference for Helen but there was also one for Charles so after a quick dash for the credit card, I order both probate packets and I now sit patiently waiting for the postman.

The news that Findmypast.com.au now had Irish newspapers also aroused my interest and a quick search for Jeffers of Portadown revealed a number of entries which I believe belong to my gg grandmother Maria Jeffers' family. Being able to do a keyword search on a digitised newspaper is so fantastic as we probably wouldn't find some of these stories simply winding through microfilms. When I feel a bit better I'm going to spend more time looking for some of my other ancestors.

While on the subject of historic newspapers, there is an offer (until the end of the year) from Historic Newspapers - they are offering a UK 5  pound credit with findmypast.co.uk with every newspaper order. More information on the offer here. Readers may recall I was offered a review copy from Historic Newspapers last year and I have to say they do make an unusual and different present for someone as they even come packaged in tissue paper in a gift box. Christmas is fast approaching!

Speaking of presents for genealogy loved ones, I also received display copies of the latest releases from Unlock the Past. I always have the UTP titles for sale at my talks and seminars and of course, the first two UTP titles were my own books! Now there are dozens of titles from a whole range of authors. You can check out all the new (and existing) titles here. Some of them are even available as e-books. I was supposed to have my new book with them by the end of September but I simply haven't been able to think, let alone write, with my stuffed up head!

I did manage to put up a new blog post on my website, Researching the State Library of Victoria from Afar which was a guest blog for their Family Matters blog. It really is amazing just how much information is available on our State library websites so check them out for whatever States your ancestors were in.

For those who don't follow me on Twitter and Facebook I'm going to start recording in this Diary some of the links I share through those social media forums. Perhaps I will just simply list them:
The Community Archive: National Register of Archives and Manuscripts, New Zealand
Founders and Survivors (Tasmanian convicts project)
Twisted Twigs on Gnarled Branches Genealogy (some great genealogy sayings and often funny and true!

Finally I would like to thank my two Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra friends for helping me out with a National Family History Month 2014 task. I've arranged for a special flyer to go into the conference satchel for the Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) Conference which is in Canberra in just over a week. Being sick I hadn't got around to getting the flyer printed and posted off to meet their deadline. My two friends arranged the printing and delivery for me for which I'm really grateful. As national coordinator for NFHM, I'm a one person band but that doesn't work so well, when the band needs a tune up! I still haven't heard from AFFHO about my evaluation and recommendations post NFHM 2013 but I'm hoping to set up the 2014 website soon.

After being sick for over a week, I'm off to the doctor's again - I'm rarely sick these days and I find it frustrating not having a clear head and more energy. Still catching up on my reading and lying in bed with the IPad and Trove isn't all that bad either. But I am attending the ASA conference week after next so I do have to get better for that. Happy researching!