Pandora, Aussie blogs & other news - Genealogy Notes 8 - 14 Jan 2016

Wow the second week of 2016 went past in a blur and with all my rehabilitation I didn't get time to do much. But it was a week when three good things happened from a genealogy viewpoint and just a shame I couldn't write about them all at the time.

First up I was alerted to a blog post by State Library of New South Wales about the second edition of my book What Was The Voyage Really Like? It was fantastic to see one of my books being used to help people who go into SLNSW. It is part of their popular questions blog series. Thanks to a number of geneabuddies I was alerted to the post otherwise I might have missed it. Read their post here. My books are for sale online through Gould Genealogy & History and are part of their Unlock the Past guide series.

The second piece of good news was a couple of days later with an email from the National Library of Australia asking permission to archive my website Shauna Hicks Historical Enterprises into their web archive Pandora. This is a great honour and I was thrilled. This Diary blog was added to Pandora back in 2013 so now both my websites will be available into the future.

Through Facebook posts I discovered that many Aussie geneabloggers have been added to Pandora recently which is a fantastic recognition of some great blog writing on genealogy in Australia. Congratulations to all those selected. Unfortunately the Library can't archive everybody but this is a great start.

I am a member of a closed group on Facebook for Australian Local & Family History Bloggers and GeniAus compiled a list of everyone's blogs and it is amazing at just how many blogs there are. Not everyone fits the criteria for membership of this group so there are other Aussie genealogy related blogs out there. We could easily spend all day just reading blogs! If you are short of time I always check out GeniAus' GAGS (GeniAus' Gems) - read her round up for 15 Jan 2016.

That might be my excuse for not doing any blog writing myself yet but it is more that other things have higher priority just now. Every time my specialist says it is a 12 month rehab program I just want to say bring on 2017! Perhaps the first month is the hardest and it will get easier.

Back to my good news. The third item was a message from the Post Office to come and collect a parcel. A bit late for Christmas so I went down and was very pleased to discover that I had been sent a lovely tote bag from The In-Depth Genealogist for being part of their writer's team for Going In-Depth, their digital genealogy magazine. It is the only one of its kind in Australasia although some of my Aussie geneamates going to Rootstech in February will bring one back too.

I will get to Rootstech one year but this time I am on the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise around New Zealand and southern Australia in Feb/Mar. While at the post office I was surprised to find another parcel waiting for me.  Yes my tickets and booklet for the cruise so not long now, less than four weeks. I just have to finalise my eight talks before then!

One news item I picked up this week was the release of WW1 hospital diaries by the National Archives UK. It is not only UK forces but also Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand. Read more about the records here.

Next week is busy. I have a good friend from Canberra coming up for a visit over the Australia Day weekend so it will be a great catch up and she can see our lovely Island. My friend is going to Rootstech so I might see if she will bring me back a souvenir! Another visit to the surgeon, not so thrilling but a routine 4 week check up. And as we have a visitor coming, I really should do some housework which has been neglected since my December hospital visit. Or should I just call up the cleaners we used when I had my broken elbow (which is still in therapy mode too)? Decisions decisions.

Have a good geneaweek and check out some of the Facebook sites for Australian genealogy or follow some of the Aussie geneabloggers - always lots of tips and new resources to follow up. Until next time.

Immigration & Getting Ready for NFHM 2015 - Genealogy Notes 1-8 May 2015

Last Diary I was getting ready for Southern Suburbs Branch of the Genealogical Society of Queensland's immigration seminar. It was a great day and I learnt a few new things and you can read my report on the seminar here. I've also spent a bit of time exploring (playing) with my new Queensland Customs House Shipping 1852-1885 passengers and crew CD.

Thanks to Rosemary's talk on it, I have been doing different searches plus I wanted to check out what was on it for the 1864 voyage of the Legion of Honour which I had spotted in her talk. Imagine my surprise when I put in the date and name of the ship and nothing came up. Not all databases use soundex and bring up similar spellings and when I put in Legion of Honor there she was. The ship's name is spelt both ways in a variety of sources so it was a simple thing to find. It is a useful reminder that the difference of one letter might be all that is stopping us from finding what we are looking for. So remember to search for name variations!

National Family History Month 2015 was my other priority this week as I want to get as many events in the web calendar before I go on holidays in July. As it is a manual process to put events into the calendar and a voluntary position I do for AFFHO, I am not taking NFHM on holidays with me! So I am encouraging all genealogy and family history societies, archives, libraries and others to put their events up early so that people can plan what they intend to go to during August. Read more about what's in store in my NFHM blog post and please note that NFHM is in August so only August events will be listed.

I seem to be having some allergy issues at the moment, lots of sneezing which makes it hard to concentrate or do anything as it is non stop sneezing. The chemist sold me some tabs which control the sneezing but then your head just feels like it is full of concrete. We had prebooked on a trip to North Stradbroke Island with the Bribie RSL Branch and I did not want to miss out so I popped a tablet and went.

Why North Stradbroke? Last time I was there was back in the late 1970s and not a lot has changed accept the more modern ferries, love the Big Red Cat (a vehicular ferry). But back then I did not know that my great great grandfather John Finn had lived at Dunwich Benevolent Asylum for a time, nor did I know of his time in Brisbane Gaol and Woogaroo Asylum - all of that was waiting for me to discover ten years in the future. Next weekend I am giving a talk on asylum records for the Genealogical Society of Queensland so I have been thinking of John as his story is in my presentation.

The only trouble with travelling with a bus load of other people is that you stop at the scenic places (we went to Dunwich, Amity Point and Point Lookout) and drive straight past the cemetery and any of the other historic places. I would have loved to visit the museum but there was no time. Still it was a good day out although an 11 hour round trip! I will certainly plan to go again and do the historical things we missed out on this time.

Mum and I ca 1975 (where did 40 years go?)

Tomorrow is Mother's Day so I will be visiting Mum and letting her know she still has two cousins older than her. I expect she will be surprised. My son is also going to go to Mum's so a chance to all see each other at the same time. My brother might even be there, a real family day.

As I mentioned above I have my asylums presentation next weekend and then I am doing a webinar for the Society of Australian Genealogists on Queensland resources online. So another technologically challenging session for me but one way to learn about new technology. Personally I think I prefer nodding heads in an audience rather than a laptop screen at home by myself.

Everyone have a great Mother's Day either being with our mothers or remembering them. Until next time, have an exciting genealogical week.

Genealogy notes 28 Jun - 3 Jul 2013 genealogy seminars & reviews

It's been a big week for genealogy. On Sunday I went to the annual Genealogical Society of Queensland seminar which had a program of Irish heritage in the morning and immigration in the afternoon. As usual I've written a review of the day and you can read the review here. A copy of the talk I gave on 19thC immigration is on my Resources page, scroll down to Presentations. The great thing about genealogy seminars is that you can meet up with old friends and meet new ones, or help solve someone's brick wall, or at least try to.

It was with real pleasure that I saw Helen Smith's smiling face in the audience and at lunch I had the chance to chat. Her first words to me - haven't seen anything about the Burstows in the Diary for a while? Immediate guilt on my part as Burstow is my one name study and Helen is the Queensland rep for the Guild of One Name Studies, she's researching the name Quested. I shouldn't really feel guilt as National Family History Month is taking up a lot of my spare time at present and there is now less than four weeks to August. Still I would like to get back to working on the one name study!

I also caught up with one of Max's cousins - it turns out that we are related by marriage! My gg grandfather's  (Anders Gundersen) second wife (Ann Pollard) was the younger sister of their ancestor (William Pollard). So it was nice to get that information to add into both of our family databases. Max's family seems to be the flavour of the month as I also received an email from Scotland from another one of his more distant cousins on the Jarvis side, so I've been swapping information with them too.

We have had a spell of wet and cold weather here (for a change) so I've spent the time writing up all the reviews that I had previously promised people. There are five new reviews on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Reviews to see the following:

• Hazel Edwards OAM, Authorpreneurship: the business of creativity
• Carol Baxter, Captain Thunderbolt & His Lady: the true story of bushrangers Frederick Ward & Mary Ann Bugg
• Cathy Dunn, Norfolk Island Deaths 1st Settlement 1788-1814
• Merle D Grinly, Queensland Ship Deserters 1861-1911 
• Merle D Grinly, Queensland Transmissions of Real Estate by Death 1878-1940
• Merle D Grinly, Wallangarra Quarantine Registers 1918-1919

Some great new genealogy resources here so check them out if you have Norfolk Island or Queensland research interests and Hazel's book is a must read if you are a writer or thinking about becoming an author. Carol's book is simply a good read.

Last Diary I mentioned that I would be doing a Q&A on National Family History Month on Inside History's Facebook page on 18 July - that has now been changed to 25 July so amend your calendars! I will be talking about my 31 genealogy activities for researchers during NFHM and I am also going to have 31 activities for genealogy and family history societies to do during August. None of it is compulsory but it will give people some ideas on what to try during the month and don't forget to check the NFHM web calendar to see what events are on near you. I'm adding events most days lately.

In the coming week I'll be finalising my two talks for Chinchilla and continuing with NFHM activities including launch arrangements and adding events to the NFHM website. It's a gorgeous day here on Bribie Island, sunny blue skies and the temp going up to 24 today so I'm heading out to do a bit of gardening and enjoy that winter sunshine. Until next time.