Another insolvent in the family, more talks & other news - Genealogy News 18-31 May 2018

Where did May disappear to? This blog looks like becoming a fortnightly event as the weeks seem to go too quickly these days.

Tutoring

Since taking on the advanced family history tutoring at U3A, the preparation for each week's class seems to have taken over my blogging time. I enjoy the classes and have been making new discoveries on my own families while preparing the talks. Last week they wanted a session on insolvencies and bankruptcies and during the preparation I discovered that my great great grandfather John Finn filed for insolvency in northern NSW in 1897. I'm now waiting for a copy of the file from State Archives and Records NSW. The Archives doesn't have a copy service for this record series so I'm using NSW Family History Transcriptions who provide copies of key record groups. Certainly cheaper than travelling to Kingswood.

John is one of my favourite ancestors as he has left so many records - BDMs, passenger list, land files, court records, prisons, newspapers, asylums and now insolvencies. Yet there is no known photograph of him, just this newspaper sketch from when he was accused of arson. Thankfully he was acquitted but the records were still created.

Everyone's keen to continue so we have just signed up for another term. At the end of this term I will have done four terms, a whole year and some students have been with me the whole time.

Talks

Some were keen and took their places early.

The afternoon seminar with the Gold Coast Family History Society went really well with some good feedback. My two talks on Archives You Should Know and Skeletons in the Family had every body talking over the afternoon tea and post seminar. There were lots of questions too. As usual, both talks are on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.

The Society has a wonderful venue to host these mini seminars with lots of room. Behind the seating area there is kitchen space for morning or afternoon teas.  Afterwards I was fortunate enough to be given a tour of their library, also in the same building.

Great library facilities for the lucky members of
the Gold Coast Family History Society.

Then four of us went out for pizza, wine and more stimulating talk about family history. I stayed overnight as it was over a two hour drive down, and after three hours of talking I didn't really feel like driving home in the dark. That's the trouble with winter, I miss the longer days.

Due to a heavy cold I ended up not going to Maurice Gleeson talks in Brisbane which was disappointing. I spent most of the day in bed asleep which is most unusual for me. He provided copies of both his talks to attendees so at least I had those to go through. Everyone said I missed a really good day. I do have the chance to hear him again in Seattle and on the Alaska cruise so that is something to look forward to.

What's Coming Up?

Next Thursday I'm off to Perth for the Unlock the Past exploring family and local history seminar where I will be giving four talks. Kerry Farmer and Doug Elms are also on the program along with local speakers and exhibitors so it will be a full on two days.

Then it's a whole month until my next talk for Pine Rivers Heritage Museum where I will be having A Fishy Look at Bribie Island. Should be fun as its combining my family history with local history. I have been to talks there before and they always have a really nice morning tea.

Until next time, have a great genealogy time with lots of new discoveries.

Genetic Genealogy, Book Review & Black Sheep Talks: Genealogy Notes 9-17 May 2018

Mother's Day flowers

The past week was dominated by Mother's Day and it was the first Mother's Day that Mum celebrated with my brother and I at my place and my son and his soon to be wife also came for a fish and chip lunch. So my three generations were all in the one place for Mother's Day. My brother headed home to celebrate it all over again with his wife and two children. We are a very small family these days.

As part of the day I showed some very early photos of Mum and I plus early photos of my son and I - Mum's comment was that it didn't even look like us but throw in a few decades and yes that was us way back then! It is only when looking at photos that I feel the passing of the years and wonder at how quickly time passes.

Books

My review of Nathan Dylan Goodwin's The Wicked Trade and The Suffragette's Secret: genealogical crime mysteries is now finished. Read it here. As usual a really good read and now the patient wait for the next book.

My new book to read (or more correctly reread) is Blaine Bettinger's The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy. I am getting lots of DNA matches but still struggling to understand my results so back to the drawing board for a refresher.

Talks
In that DNA spirit I am off to Brisbane tomorrow for the Queensland Family History Society's seminar on Genetic Genealogy with Dr Maurice Gleeson. Apparently it is fully booked which just shows how popular DNA is at the moment. I've spoken at that venue and it is not a small theatre. Should be a great morning and a catch up with geneamates. Just noticed that his handout is already on their home page - a bit of reading for tonight to make the most of the two talks tomorrow. Blog post to follow.

The room started to fill early

My two talks with the Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical & Historical Research Group on Monday were well attended with an almost full house for the convicts talk in the morning and slightly less for the afternoon session on missing ancestors (look for them in prisons). Lots of people seem to have black sheep in the family.

There was lunch in between and an opportunity to chat to people and have a look around their wonderful premises. As usual both talks are on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.

My U3A advanced family history session on Wednesday was all about locating photographs of your ancestors, places they lived, schools they attended, ships they arrived on and other aspects of family history using photographs to tell the stories.

Part of the research area, books always look more
interesting than a row of computers

Television

I have been fascinated by all the celebrity stories so far on the new Australian series of WDYTYA on SBS. There have been some really interesting stories and only three more episodes to go. Although they do drag it out in some cases, but then I guess that is all part of the entertainment value of the show.

What's Coming Up

My next genealogical outing will be to the Gold Coast Family History Society Again I will be giving two talks - one on finding and using archives for family history and the other on skeletons in the family. Another favourite topic with so many in my own family. That mini seminar is on 26 May at Nerang and it is open to the public with a modest price for members and slightly higher for non members.

Obviously I will be working on these two talks during the week as well as doing a blog post on the QFHS Genetic Genealogy seminar. Plus a new talk for my U3A students on insolvencies and bankruptcies which will be fun. Lots of interesting records to talk about there.

Until next time have a great genealogy week.

Genealogy conferences 2019, digitised gaol photos & other news: Genealogy Notes 1-8 May 2018

It was a big week for exciting announcements and I had a fabulous time discovering new information on my own families. Even after 40 years of research I am still learning new things about some family members who have always fascinated me. New online indexes and digitised records make it a must to go back and relook at your previous research.

While working on my two talks for the Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical & Historical Research Group on convicts and prisoners I was simply amazed at how much more is online and more easily accessible than when I did my convicts thesis for the Society of Australian Genealogists Diploma back in the early 1990s. Similarly while working on this week's talk on parish registers for Australia and the UK for the Bribie U3A advanced family history class I had even more finds. Now I want to review all my early Australian research. My to do list just gets longer and longer.

Blogs

The Chyebassa, image courtesy State Library Victoria

My Trove Tuesday post was the Voyage of the Chyebassa to Queensland in 1883. My great grandfather Herbert William White made his way to Charters Towers after leaving the ship at Townsville. Searching in Trove gave me insights into the voyage and what it was actually like travelling on board the Chyebassa including what they ate. Another wonderful Trove discovery.

Conferences
My overseas plans for next year were all thought out with a planned trip to my first ever Rootstech conference from 27 Feb to 2 Mar 2019. I've been promising to do that for years but something else has always been happening in the early part of the year. Plus I have wanted to go to Salt Lake City for years. This is a four day event which is better value than just a two day event unless you combine the trip with some tourism or genealogical research.

There is also an Unlock the Past Mediterranean cruise with some of my favourite speakers Paul Milner, Janet Few and Caroline Gurney in Sep 2019 going to Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar and on to France and Italy. I've been to the first three places but not the last two so I'm tempted.

This week I found out about two conferences which seem to be stepping into the empty space left by WDYTYA. The first is Family Tree Live on 26-27 Apr 2019 in London's Alexandra Palace with lectures, workshops, displays and stands aimed at all levels of family history experience. It is being organised by Family Tree in partnership with the Federation of Family History Societies. To receive the latest show information you can sign up for the e-newsletter at Family Tree. I love going to London but it is expensive for accommodation and I have been there.

The second conference The Genealogy Show is on 7-8 Jun 2019 at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham where Mum's Price family is from. The Midlands are somewhere I have not managed to get to yet. So a big temptation. The organisers have already set up a Facebook page for The Genealogy Show 2019 where you can get all the latest updates.

Also on next year is the local Waves in Time conference at Caloundra on 24-26 May and that is a definite must attend, apart from it's only an hour or so up the highway from where I live. It will also be a lot cheaper to attend.

Decisions decisions - pity you can't go to everything so I'm back to next year's planning board. Genealogists downunder definitely need 'beam me there' technology.

Convicts and Prisoners
From the introduction you will see it's been a week for looking at convict and prison records. State Archives and Records NSW has some wonderful online guides, indexes and digitised records but I was pleased to see that there are now digitised gaol photographs online (last time I looked it was just the index). It was thrilling to see a photo of my great uncle Denis Patrick Finn in 1928, not because he was in gaol but it was the only the second photo I have even seen.

Denis Patrick Finn, image courtesy
State Library of Queensland

The first was as a 17 year old soldier heading off to the Western Front in WW2 on what was probably his big adventure, having lied about his age to do so. Denis spent his 18th birthday in a German prison of war camp and as his prison alias in QLD was Johann Romanoff, there was a lasting legacy from his teenage experiences during the war.

Looking at his life (through prison registers in QLD and NSW and his two broken marriages) you can easily see that Denis could not settle back into a 'normal' way of life. His two brothers, John and Robert, also returned from the war but instead of trying to live in an urban area, both never married and lived in remote regional areas.

The other website that amazed me with new records was the Biographical Database of Australia. I found new information on my early Sydney convict families and the database groups the information together if they are  sure it is the same person. However, you still need to check other entries for the name as it may not all be together. One drawback is that the database only lets you search on a name which is fine if it is not a common name, but if you are looking for John Smith there are lots of results to skim through. Still it is a useful resource for early NSW in particular. It is free to search but to see the full record there is a reasonable subscription as it is a not for profit project.


Reading
The weekend saw me finish Nathan Dylan Goodwin's The Wicked Trade - now to do the review. As usual I can't wait for the next book!

Virtual Genealogy 
In some ways it was only a matter of time before we started having virtual genealogy societies. Many of our traditional genealogy and family history societies now have members only areas for those who can't attend meetings or the library in person. This is a fantastic benefit and the primary reason I am still a member of four Australian societies.

Last year I mentioned I won a subscription to VicGum and while I have been looking at their newsletters and email posts, I had yet to look at the members only area. Technology is amazing as I have been watching some of their meetings and guest speakers and it is just like being in the audience.

So this week I joined the Virtual Genealogical Society which is a global organization serving family history enthusiasts of all levels, geared towards those:

● whose circumstances make it difficult to attend local genealogical society meetings
● who prefer online presentations, special interest groups (SIGs), conferences, and socializing
● with an interest in connecting, networking, and mentoring with global genealogists.

They aim to provide a forum for genealogists to connect, network, and mentor with genealogists around the world through monthly meetings online, webinars, social networking, annual conferences, and in-person meet-ups at conferences, institutes and events around the world. It will be interesting to see how this develops and if it will change how existing (real not virtual) societies operate.

What's Coming Up?
A big week with today's talk on parish records in Australia and the UK at Bribie U3A and on Monday my talks on convicts and prison records with the Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical & Historical Research Group in partnership with Noosa Libraries. If you are at either event do come up and say hello.

Plus I have to start adding all my new information to my database and there must be a blog or two in these new stories. Sometimes it is hard to choose - spend time discovering new information or stop searching and spend time writing it up!

Have a great genealogy week until next time.

Newgate Calendar, DNA talks & other news : Genealogy Notes 24-30 Apr 2018

My goody bag from the Caloundra
Family History Research Inc last week

Reviewing old society journals can be rewarding - finally relocated my membership card for Genealogy SA. I obviously was using it as a book mark in one of their journals, it's now safe with all my other membership cards. Sometimes it is useful just to browse and check out urls or other resources and stories.

For example, in the Genealogical Society of Queensland's journal Generation, December 2014 there was an article 'Serious Crimes in the United Kingdom 1700-1825' from The Newgate Calendar.

Although most of my ancestors were criminals with a variety of crimes, none of them were too serious. However I'm fascinated by these types of records. The article finished by saying that the book is online free although it is a multi volume work. You can download volume by volume or browse the thematic contents including sneak thieves, highwaymen, smugglers, traitors, abductors of maidens, body snatchers and much much more.

Some of the entries are really quirky but fascinating. From the Ex-Classics home page, you can do a Google search such as Newgate and the surname of a person if you think one of your ancestors might be listed.

Blogs
Received some nice feedback on my Australian Trade Union Archives blog post for The In-Depth Genealogist. It's always nice to know that people are reading and learning something from our writings.

Tuesday's resolve is to do another Trove Tuesday post. The hard part I find is trying to pick a topic, so many interesting things to write about. Of course, it is also very easy to be distracted while searching in Trove.

Books
I've just finished reading Nathan Dylan Goodwin's The Suffragette's Secret, a Morton Farrier short story (and enjoyed it - review to follow) and now I've started on The Wicked Trade, another Morton Farrier adventure looking into Kent and smugglers in the 1820s. For me the attraction of Nathan's books is the combination of genealogy, history and a good story plus the development of his lead character as he progresses through his own life. I think we can all relate to crying babies and sleepless nights.

Talks
Last week I mentioned that I'm speaking at a Gold Coast Family History Society seminar at the end of May. Should have checked my diary - there are two talks for the Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical and Historical Research Group in conjunction with Noosa Libraries on 14 May.

Since moving back to Queensland I've done a few talks for Noosa Libraries but it has been quite a while since I last did talks for the Cooroy-Noosa group. It was in their old premises so I'm looking forward to seeing the new premises.

Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical & Historical Research Group premises

Moreton Libraries have booked me to do my blogging for family history talk at the Strathpine and Caboolture libraries later in the year. Plus I received my first request to do a presentation in 2019. No wonder time goes so fast!

What's Coming Up?

Front page of the bible Sarah Finn nee Fegan
brought to Queensland

I've just booked for the Queensland Family History Society seminar on Genetic Genealogy with Maurice Gleeson on 19 May. He is giving two talks - Managing your matches: a step by step approach to interpreting your DNA matches and Marrying DNA and Irish family tree research.

Learning more about how to read my DNA results and what to do with them is something I really need plus I have Irish ancestors from Wicklow - John Finn and Sarah Fegan. Should be a great day and a chance to catch up with geneafriends from Brisbane.

Until next time have a great genealogy week.

ANZAC day, genealogy talks & other news - Genealogy Notes 16-23 April 2018

Another week and another email from someone who found me via a blog post. This was exciting and I jumped up to grab an album of my mother's that was packed up when she went into the nursing home last year. But the one I wanted wasn't with the others, now the big question is where is it? There are boxes and boxes of photos for me to sort and digitise but with no real deadline they have just been sitting in the cupboard. With this motivation the coming week is going to be all about photographs and digitising them.

Blogs
Having just written the above paragraph on the value of blogs, I haven't had a chance this week to write anything. Tomorrow is ANZAC day and in past years I have written about my military ancestors.

In 2013 I wrote about The Brothers Finn and World War One - with this the final anniversary year of WW1 it is fitting to highlight this post again. Research (and blog posts) are not static and in 2016, three years after my first post, I wrote a Trove Tuesday blog World War One and the Finn Brothers.  In this blog I wrote about my excitement at finding a photograph of all three brothers in the same newspaper The Week, 31 Jan 1919. They all returned home but the youngest, Denis had been wounded and spent time in a German prisoner of war camp. The other two brothers never married. Lest we forget.

Journals
With the mornings getting darker, I'm no longer leaping out of bed and fumbling around in the dark trying to make a cup of tea without waking anyone else up. However there is no chance of going back to sleep so I have been having a reading feast of genealogy journals and magazines that having been piling up in the study. There are so many good stories and lots of tips and advice and URLs to check out on the laptop. One journal can hijack your day as you start exploring whatever the topic was.

Of course this is my print journals and to read my digital journals I have to actually sit at the study desk, not as comfy as being snug in bed. But the time will come when all journals will be digital as it is a much cheaper option for societies. Plus if I'm honest I won't need as many bookshelves! I just need to schedule time to read but so often I am hijacked by the desire to actually do research.

Talks

My talk at Caloundra Family History Research Inc went well with a packed house and interested audience. Received a lovely certificate, purple (what else) photo frame, a silky oak bottle stopper and a nice bottle of sav blanc to use the stopper with.

I stayed on to hear one of their own members talk about his family connection to some well known criminals. He was very entertaining and had people laughing and as someone who also has lots of criminals in the family, it can be hard talking about them. But there are some fantastic records with lots of family information and of course they are always in the newspaper!

The Gold Coast Family History Society have invited me to speak at their next seminar day on 26 May and one of the talks is my favourite - Skeletons in the Family which looks at convicts, prisons and asylums. My ancestors will be on display yet again. The other talk is on Archives You Should Know. Full details about the event are here. The Society meets at Nerang which is about half way between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Looking at their advertising I need to update my photo. That one was taken in Inverell, NSW in April 2014 and hard to believe that was four years ago. I will need a hair cut before the Gold Coast talk so time to take another good photo of me. Just wish it wasn't so hard.

What's Coming Up?

Memorabilia at the AFAQ cottage at Bongaree

There is no U3A this week due to ANZAC day but I am chairing the local history class this week and telling them all about the first five Presidents of the Amateur Fishing Association of Queensland. There is a family history element and it is a talk I gave to the Bribie Island Historical Society last year. Then in the afternoon, the current President of the Historical Society is giving a talk on Women of Bribie which should be fascinating. The U3A serve a wonderful afternoon tea for the modest gold coin entry.

On the writing front there are blog posts and an article for The In-Depth Genealogist. Weeks go fast but then months seem to go even quicker.

Until next week time a great genealogy week with many happy findings.

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

Mum, my brother and I a long long time ago

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

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

Blog Reading

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

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

Elizabeth Price nee Judge born Pollard

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

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

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

Resources

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

What's Coming Up?

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

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

Until next time, have a great genealogy week!

Oxfordshire Finds, New Books & Other News - Genealogy Notes 1-7 Apr 2018

Instead of writing this blog post over the weekend I was busy searching and finding my Oxfordshire families in Ancestry. It's been quite a few years since I last looked at this family and now the parish they came from has been digitised. Not only can I search for them but I can also see the original parish register images myself. My GGG grandmother was Mary Ann Cooper from Deddington, Oxfordshire and I could find indexed entries for all her siblings but not for her. A little bit of hunting and I discovered her indexed as Gasper which is a bit different from Cooper. This is the 1790s and the handwriting is not always easy to read so be creative when you can't find someone where you expect to.

North end of market place, Deddington, Oxfordshire
with the parish church in the background,
photo courtesy of Motacilla, Wikipedia Commons

It's also useful to then have a look at Wikipedia for an outline of the parish history and any photos. Wikipedia Deddington stated that the parish includes two hamlets - Clifton and Hempton and this helped to explain why I was finding Clifton as a place of birth in the census records.

Understanding the geography of an area and places names are all key to establishing you have the right family. Plus there were some photographs of various buildings in the parish.

When you can't just drive down the road and visit a place, this is the next best thing.


Blogs

John Trevaskis

My second Trove Tuesday blog post for the year was Gone Home to Ireland But Still Remembered Here was a real genealogy find. My great grandmother's brother John Trevaskis was killed in a mining accident in Charters Towers and his wife Mary (nee Kelly) went back to Tipperary, Ireland taking their two children with her. This was about 1906 and when she died in 1944 her son published a death notice in the Townsville Daily Bulletin to let any friends and family know. Thanks to Trove I now know when she died and that she probably still had friends or family in North Queensland.

Thanks also to Crissouli who regularly mentions my blog posts in her weekly Friday Fossicking in That Moment in Time. These weekly roundups have all kinds of links to blogs, resources, news etc so if you are having trouble keeping up, check up her weekly roundup.

Books
Well it was a bonanza week at the post office. Just like Christmas. First Nathan Dylan Goodwin's review copy of The Wicked Trade and the Suffragette's Secret genealogical crime mysteries is sitting here tempting me. I like to read Nathan's books with no distractions so waiting for an opportune time.

Unlock the Past sent author copies of the second edition of my It's Not All Online: a guide to genealogy sources offline and it looks very nice in the new style. Hard to believe that was first published in 2011 and it is still very true today. I have a standing order for any new Unlock the Past titles - I find them very useful for research, talks and keeping myself across a range of genealogy topics. New editions include So You Are Totally New to Family Tree Maker 2017 by John Donaldson; Papers Past New Zealand's Yesteryear Newspapers by Coral Shearer; and Paul Blake's Discover Protestant Nonconformity in England and Wales.

Totally new titles from Unlock the Past include Discover The Poor Law in England and Wales by Paul Blake; Manorial Records for Family Historians by Geoffrey Barber; Hiring a Professional Genealogist You Can Trust by Legacy Tree Genealogists and The Madness of 'Mac' Surnames by Carol Baxter. Yes the whole book is for anyone with a Mac surname and it looks at all of the possible surname variants with lots and lots of examples. All Unlock the Past titles can be purchased online from Gould Genealogy & History as print or e-copies.

U3A
I have been busy doing some talks for the second term of my Advanced Family History class at Bribie U3A in 2018  - there are 10 weeks so rather than a mad weekly panic to have something ready I have prepared sessions in advance. I may even start giving some of these talks in a wider context if they are well received and the students like the approach. Plus there are the presentations from last year which new class members won't have seen. It starts up again next week with about double the numbers we have had previously. I'm a little nervous or perhaps I'm just used to our little group around the table.

What's Coming Up
This is a big week for meetings with the Bribie Island Historical Society on Wednesday and the Bribie Island Family History Group on Thursday. The Society's blog has everything you ever wanted to know about Bribie history and remember a local historical society may have information on your ancestors too. Plus it is Mum's birthday on Saturday and we are hosting coffee and cake here for the family.

This week has been absolutely fabulous for new genealogy information on quite a few of my family lines. So glad I decided to review some of my older research and discover what is now available online. Until next week, have a great genealogy week with lots of exciting finds.

WDYTYA, DNA, & Other News: Genealogy Notes 23-31 Mar 2018

I'm not a fan of acronyms as not everyone knows what they are but they do save you a lot of keystrokes. The two in the title of this post should be familiar to everyone.

This week was the last U3A session for Term 1 and there is a two week break before Term 2 starts. My advanced family history class looks like doubling so I need to do some planning. Many students continue on plus there will be new students which means that I have to balance so that the 'oldies' aren't bored and the 'newbies' are not overwhelmed. Plus I need to keep myself interested otherwise there is no point volunteering to do these sessions. It is actually a great way to keep up to date!

DNA

My Ancestry ethnicity profile

How exciting to be contacted by Chris Paton and be told that we are related! He found me through FamilyTree DNA while looking for connections to his Mitchell family in County Fermanagh. This didn't mean anything to me but looking at some of his other surnames I recognised three from my own grandmother's Irish and Scottish families. Now to work out the connection!

While on the topic, Queensland Family History Society is hosting a seminar with Maurice Gleeson (Irish genetic genealogist amongst other things) on 19 May so a trip to Brisbane is coming up. Maurice is also on the Alaska Unlock the Past cruise that I'm going on in September but this is another opportunity to try and understand my matches.

Genealogy/family history societies have an active education program so check out your local society and see what speakers or seminars are coming up. They are great opportunities to learn something new as well as chatting to like minded people about your family history problems, or perhaps you can help someone with their brick walls.

Blogs/Articles

The Congress satchel

The Genealogical Society of Queensland invited me to do a guest post on the recent Sydney Congress 2018 for those who couldn't attend. It will be posted on 2 April on their weekly blog. Some of the other posts might interest you too.

I also managed to get my monthly blog post for The In-Depth Genealogist in on time as well as my monthly article.  The deadline is always the end of the month and despite my good intentions of doing it early in the month, I always seem to be hovering around the very end!

With all my Congress 2018 blog reports finished, I'm hoping to do a Trove Tuesday blog post this week. It's been a while since my last one - January to be precise on the Samuel Plimsoll. So much for doing one a month but the last two months have been busy and I was away from home twice.

Resources
Thanks to Carmel (Library Currants) we have a handy website that allows you to customise a tombstone for your blog posts, articles or family histories. Try out Tombstone Builder. I quite often pick up nice little tips from Carmel's blog Library Currants so if you haven't seen it before have a look.

Ancestry have added the New Zealand police gazettes 1878-1945 and I love police gazettes because you can find out all kinds of unknown family snippets. Yes you might find a crime or a desertion but there were also missing friends/family and of course victims. My great uncle managed to have his bicycle stolen not once but twice and I would not have known this without browsing Queensland police gazettes.

If you don't have an Ancestry subscription you may have access to it through your local council library or your nearest genealogy/family history society. One of my families spent time in New Zealand so this Easter I will be checking out the New Zealand police gazettes just in case!

Television
Who has time for television when you are a family historian? There are a few shows I like to watch and one of my favourites is starting a new series on 19 April on SBS - the 9th series of the Australian WDYTYA. Celebrities include Justine Clarke, Ernie Dingo, Noni Hazlehurst, Natalie Imbruglia, John Jarratt, Todd McKenney, Patti Newton and Charlie Teo. The 8th season went to air in 2016 so it has been a long wait but I'm ready and excited.

What's Coming Up

My orchids Easter 2015

It's Easter which means some of my orchids are in flower but they are not as spectacular (must be all that rain we have had this year) as they were when I took this photo. It's in a much larger pot now so I was hoping for more blooms. Perhaps a dash of fertiliser!

Apart from gardening I like to get out and about and my next talk is at Caloundra Family History Research on 19 April with a presenatation on Sporting Ancestors.

Enjoy the Easter long weekend with family and friends, try not to eat too much chocolate and do spend your time on your family history. I hope you have some fabulous finds.

Until next time

Congress 2018 wrap up, talks, DNA contacts & other news - Genealogy Notes 15- 22 Mar 2018

As usual the week flew past with a couple of outings, a few blog posts and another attempt to tame the paper in my office. Going through drawers of 'stuff ' is always illuminating - first, why did I keep it, where did I get it from, what do I do with it now and so on. Mostly there were BSOs as Lisa Louise Cooke put it during one of her sessions at Congress 2018 - bright shiny objects that distract you when you are looking for something else.

I did the right thing to park (print/save depending on your methodology) them but what I failed to do was set a date with myself to review them in a timely fashion. Now most are superseded with the wonders of technology but I am still left with a sizable pile of paper that I must go through because it is not going back into the filing cabinet. Out of sight out of mind (at least my mind).

Blogs

Handy conference satchel

I have finally finished writing up my daily reports on Congress 2018 plus a look at some of the Exhibitors and a Summary. Read the posts here Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 and Exhibitors/Summary.

As you can see from the introduction I have started to do some of my learnings but it is easy to be distracted. Focus with a research plan - one person/family at a time. Then you look in Trove and lots of you beaut results leap out at you! Focus is not easy.

Books/Reading 
My copy of Lisa Louise Cooke's The Genealogists Google Toolbox 2nd edition has arrived so that will be another date with self - sit down, read and practice the suggestions. What's the bet that I find lots of BSOs and that might just be on one family name. Which name to practice the new tricks on? Names in a hat might work. Stay tuned.

Yesterday I downloaded my free copy of the latest issue of Irish Lives Remembered and it has Winter 2017 on it. That's their winter not ours and the editorial welcomes us to the new year so it is running a bit behind time. Still it has articles from some of my favourites including Jayne Shrimpton (photographs) and Maurice Gleeson (DNA). Apparently Maurice's DNA took him on a wild genealogical ride - looking forward to reading that article as mine has done the same! Great magazine and its free.

Research
Quite a few years ago I did a mitochondrial DNA test with 23 and Me. This is your maternal DNA and nothing has ever really come out of it. I have had more contacts from Ancestry and MyHeritage with autosomal DNA. Now I have received an email from someone who said my name was familiar and that we were related via the 23 and Me site. Well her name was familiar too and after a bit of thought I realised she also attends the Bribie U3A local history class that I go to. She lives around the corner from me and now it appears that we are related! Small world indeed. We have a family history catch up during the week to establish the connection.

Cousins - Max and Cliff post talk enjoying a cuppa

Talks
It's not often I go off the Island, usually either for medical reasons or to go to a talk somewhere. Happy to say this time was to the Pine Rivers Heritage Museum to see The Final 100 Days exhibition. It is the last days of WW1 and marks the end of the anniversary celebrations for the centenary of WW1. Those last four years have gone quick and lots of great projects have been undertaken during that time. The exhibition closes on 27 May 2018 so there is time to get there if you live in the Brisbane/Moreton regions.

Denis was 17 when he enlisted and spent his 18th
birthday in a German POW camp.
Image courtesy State Library of Queensland.

One of my favourite projects was the State Library of Queensland's digitisation of WW1 soldier portraits from The Queenslander. I found quite a few of my relatives and it is really good to have a quality image and not one from Trove (they are usually too dark for clarity). The Library has some wonderful resources for World War One.

The other reason we went to the exhibition was that Max's cousin Cliff was doing a talk on Queensland military hospitals, repatriation and Spanish flu. So it was a chance to catch up with family plus Cliff does some wonderful talks on various aspects of the war on the home front as well as overseas.

What's Coming Up
How did Easter get here so quickly and as I write this the humidity is 100%. There are light showers too and I can see the weeds growing before my eyes.

This week is the last session of Term 1 at Bribie U3A for my advanced family history classes. In Term 2 we will have double the number as they are taking the tables out of the room to fit more chairs in - this will get rid of the waiting list as most students re-enrol each term. Keen!

Tutoring keeps me on my toes planning and Term 2 has 11 weeks. I survey each class to see what they would like to learn more about and that helps with ideas.

Blog posts and articles still to write and I must try and get another Trove Tuesday post done.

Time for a coffee break. Until next time, have a great genealogical week with many wonderful finds.

Blogs, Books, Congress 2018 & Other News - Genealogy Notes 1-14 Mar 2018

The first two weeks of March certainly sped past and were super exciting for all those who attended the Bridging the Past genealogy conference in Sydney. Ongoing family and health issues saw multiple trips to Brisbane and were the main reason this is two weeks and not my usual weekly update.

Blog Posts

Congress was fabulous and as usual I will be sharing my experiences with those who could not attend in person. Day One is already written and Days 2-4 with a final post on Exhibitors and other bits and pieces are still to be completed. As I write the posts I am compiling a to do list to follow up on various links and searches. Congress 2018 will be in my life for a few more weeks yet.

Some of the other bloggers have also written or are in the process of writing up blog posts for Congress. Some of the links are being posted in the Facebook page Geniemates for Congress but this is a closed group. Some kind soul may also be compiling a list of bloggers doing reports so stay tuned.

Some of the bloggers at Congress 2018, photo courtesy Lilian Magill

Lilian Magill has been quick to do a number of Congress posts and has also shared her photo of some of the bloggers who attended. Sadly I missed the photo opportunity as well as the one for Queensland attendees, but I did manage to make the photo opportunity for the students of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. So much was going on, it was hard to be everywhere at once!

My blog post on one of my favourite Western Australian websites, Outback History, was featured on the In-Depth Genealogist on 8 March. There are so many great Australian websites I don't think I will ever run out of topics.

Books

Although I say no more books, who can resist buying them when there is so much opportunity at an event like Congress. The after dinner speaker at the Congress dinner (more in the daily post to come) was a very passionate speaker and so now I have an author signed copy of Mark Tedeschi QC's book Murder at Myall Creek: the trial that defined a nation.

Another speaker who motivated me was Lisa Louise Cooke from Genealogy Gems and I purchased the 2nd edition of her The Genealogist's Google Tool Box together with a DVD package on using Google Earth. While I use Google Maps all the time I seem to struggle with Google Earth so time to learn a new resource.

The Congress Handouts are in PDF format and I have now downloaded them - all 309 pages! No wonder they didn't go for a printed version. I've even refrained from hitting the print button. This might be the time to seriously try reading (and enjoying) a publication on my laptop.

Nathan Dylan Goodwin has asked me to do a review of his latest book The Wicked Trade so that is winging its way to me. Always a good read and I'm looking forward to curling up on the lounge for some uninterrupted reading time.

Conferences

As usual everyone is sad that Congress is over for another three years, but it is even sadder this time as the next Congress has not been announced as no society or group of societies have said they will take on the enormous task of running an event like this.

However we do have some state conferences which might be of interest. This year the NSW & ACT conference is in Bateman's Bay on 14-16 September 2018 with the theme Sailing into History. I usually try to go to these if possible but not this year as I am already booked on the Unlock the Past Alaska cruise.

Another one for early next year is the History Queensland and Caloundra Family History Research  conference on 24-26 May 2019 with the theme Waves in Time. That will be a definite attend as it is only about an hour up the road from me.

Resources

Most of the new resources I've come across will be in the daily blog posts from Congress so keep an eye out for those and there will be a round up in the next Diary.

Talks

April 2017 talk at Caloundra

My next talk will be on Sporting Ancestors: everyone has them and it will be with Caloundra Family History Research on 19 April. They are a super friendly group and always have a great afternoon tea and chat.

Plus it is a great excuse to get another purple top to fit with the Group's image!

What's Coming Up
There are only another two weeks of First Term at Bribie U3A remaining - all of the present attendees have signed on again and we will have additional students for second term as advanced family history seems to be a popular topic.

No surprises there. But it does keep me busy preparing sessions based on the individual needs of the class.

There are research projects, articles and blog posts to write not to mention all the things I want to follow up on my own family history research. Busy times but fun times.

Until next Diary have fun searching and remember to try out some of those URLs mentioned in my Congress posts. Good luck.

Cousin Bait, Blogging, Talks & Other News - Genealogy Notes 19 -28 Feb 2018

Full on the last few weeks with time out for talks and a couple of trips to Brisbane. The whole of summer seems to have flown past although the start of autumn still seems hot and humid. While browsing the local bottle shop for some birthday party wine, I came across this wine label and I simply had to buy the bottle. Luckily I like red wine! Who would have thought we would be using convict photos to sell wine?

Articles

Managed to get my monthly article to The In-Depth Genealogist for their Going In-Depth digital journal in on time despite the short month, those 2-3 days make a difference. This time I was looking at the wonderful digital resources on the State Library of Western Australia's website and last month it was State Library of Victoria. We really do have some wonderful libraries offering free access to key genealogical resources. Both articles will appear in future issues of Going In-Depth.

I was also excited to be asked to do a Q&A for Traces magazine which made it's debut at Christmas. It has taken over the now defunct Inside History magazine and many of our favourite pieces are still in the new magazine. The website is worth a visit as some of the old Q&A content from Inside History is on the Traces website and the advice is still good advice.

Cousin Bait (aka blogging)

Maria Jeffers

I first wrote Letters Home - My Irish Families in March 2010, eight years ago which doesn't seem possible, and I am still being contacted by people who are related to the Jeffers family. Just this week there was another email from yet another unknown branch. Blogging and Google make it so easy for distant relatives to make contact. Anyone doing a Google search on Jeffers from Portadown will find my blog post and me. Amazing and I'm surprised that not everyone is telling their stories online.

My U3A class this week discussed the issues with putting your info online and how some simply take and never acknowledge which is disheartening. So I guess that has to be weighed against the benefits of finding people you would never be able to track down easily or cheaply. I never put everything online which encourages people to make contact and that's always a plus.

Resources

With many mining families, both in Australia and in England, I was excited to see that Find My Past has added England, Mining Disaster Victims. There are over 9000 transcripts from four counties - Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. I really wanted Staffordshire as one of my direct ancestors was killed in a mine accident, (from the burial register) but so far I haven't been able to find a reference to the accident in the newspapers. 

There are so many new collections going online all the time it is hard to keep up with everything. Repeat searches are a must.

Thanks to Queensland Family History Society March enewsletter Snippets I found out that New Zealand was also sending its convicts to Australia - a fascinating article Soldiers Thieves Maori Warriors: the New Zealand convicts sent to Australia by Kristyn Harman. Back issues of Snippets are online and always some good tips.

Talks

My talk on Weaving Your Stories on the Web at Arana Hills Library went well with a very enthusiastic audience all keen to either start a blog or improve what they are already doing. Moreton Libraries have indicated they might get me to do it at some of their other libraries later in the year. As usual my presentation is on my website Resources page - scroll down to Presentations.

What's Coming Up?

I can't believe Congress 2018 is next week in Sydney where I, and 599 other delegates, will experience some fantastic talks, catch up with friends and spend money at the exhibitors stalls. I fly to Sydney on Thursday and hope to collect my Congress satchel at the Society of Australian Genealogists in Kent Street before they close Thursday afternoon. That way I will beat the rush on Friday morning. Plus I always like to go through the goodies before the Congress starts.

I will be too busy over the four days, attending sessions and giving two of my own talks. So there won't be daily blog updates but there will be daily reviews once I'm back. Flying home on Monday night so it will be a late night and probably a sleep in, but then straight on to blogging all the news and excitement.

This coming week I need to prepare two U3A sessions - Fleshing Out the Family and Some Different Websites for Genealogy so that I don't have to panic when I get back. The sessions are popular and there are so many on the waiting list that we have decided to dispense with tables in the room and just have chairs. This should double the numbers next term. I send my session notes via email so we don't use the tables and it will be nice to have new faces and a wider pool of experience.

If you are going to Congress, I will see you there. If not, have a fun week searching for those ancestors.

Geneafiction, Freebies, Cornwall & Local Talks - Genealogy Notes 29 Jan - 18 Feb 2018

We had a week away tuning in to nature instead of technology which was fantastic. So much more relaxed but of course you do have to come back and read those emails, blogs and open up those bills. I hardly ever get mail via Australia Post these days and no more paper cuts!

It also means that there was nothing to report last week although I will comment on the book I read while lazing around. This week has been catch up and trying to get organised for some events coming up soon.

Blogs
GeniAus' blog post Getting Conference Ready was a wake up call that Congress 2015 is almost upon us. I'm not going to Rootstech 2018 like so many of my other geneafriends but I will be following it via social media. It starts in a week or so and Congress a week or so after that. An exciting geneamonth coming up.

But back to the post - lots of good tips for newbies to Congress and a good reminder to old hands as we always want to try and fit in more than we possibly can over the four days. Already there are additional meetings, breakfast, lunch and dinner gatherings for various groups and you really can't go to everything. Plus you also want to just chat with geneafriends you only ever see at Congress every three years.

My tips are comfy shoes as there is a lot of walking and standing, money/credit card, business cards, notebook and pens (I'm a Luddite), camera, and try not to make your bag too heavy. I carry an across the chest bag to help distribute the weight more and not burden my shoulder/neck.

Freebies
It's a while since I mentioned genEbooks but they offer a free download and this month's caught my eye - Ranks and Badges in the Australian and American Navy, Army and RAAF published ca 1943. It should be useful to help identify uniforms in family photos. It's a simple process to download, even easier if you are already registered which saves entering your email etc. You can usually find the free download in with the specials.

Rootstech 2018 is where about 30,000 genealogists will gather for four days of talks, explore or is that be enticed by exhibitors  and catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Probably more than 100,000 people will also participate remotely via livestreams and social media. The world's biggest geneaevent.

Check out the livestream schedule and remember to convert to your local time. If it is not too inconvenient time wise, you might want to attend some of the sessions. You need to register or you can wait till it is over and watch at your leisure.

My preference is to watch afterwards without the pressure of a busy week during Rootstech. You can still watch some of the 2017 sessions for free.

Reading
While on hols I read Marie Benedict's Carnegie's Maid which is a fictional story of an Irish maid who worked for the Carnegie family. While my grandmother on Dad's side was a Carnegie there is no connection to Andrew Carnegie and his family (unfortunately). The story is presented through the eyes of the Irish servant and how she was forced to leave Ireland and her family to seek work in the US to help her family. She connects up with Irish cousins who went before and sees their struggles to adjust to life in their new homeland.

We also see what life was like for the servants and what type of tasks they were asked to perform. As a lady's maid, the book's heroine has to help her mistress dress, undress, hair, makeup and accompany her places. Today we find it strange that people didn't brush their own hair or put their own hand cream on. It was an interesting insight into that type of world. I never give away the key story but this was a nice lighthearted look at the trials of being a lady's maid in the mid to late 19th century. 

I simply love geneafiction and once started, rarely put a book down until finished. So it was good to pick up some genealogical fiction 'must read' from Janet Few's blog post Genealogical Sleuths - Fiction for you to enjoy on the In-Depth Genealogist. I'm already a fan of Nathan Dylan Goodwin's genealogical books but there are some new authors for me to follow up.

Resources
There are always new resources each week and it can be hard to keep up with things. The best way I find is to subscribe to free emails that give you weekly updates from Ancestry, Findmypast, MyHeritage and FamilySearch or smaller national/state archives and libraries.

For example, this week FamilySearch added collections for Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, England, Panama, Russia and Slovakia. Now most of those countries don't interest me but the English collection was Cornwall parish registers 1538-2010 with almost 500,000 indexed entries. I usually use the Cornwall Online Parish Clerk but will also check out this new FamilySearch collection. I was also surprised to see that BillionGraves is now in FamilySearch as that is another resource used frequently.

What's Coming Up?
My immediate priority is a talk on blogging for family history which is 21 February at Arana Hills Library. There is a sizable audience already registered to learn the benefits of blogging - not only capturing your own family stories but also learning from the experiences of others. It should be a good afternoon and I just hope I don't get too lost again. Arana Hills Library is one of those places that is tucked away in suburbia. It is also the most far flung of the Moreton Region Libraries, almost Brisbane!

Then of course I have the weekly preparations for the Advanced Family History Session I tutor at Bribie U3A. It's another enthusiastic group and we are covering a wide range of topics suggested by those attending.

Plus I'm starting to work through my Congress 2018 preparations to make sure everything is ready to go. I don't think I will do any live blogging while there, too busy having fun but I will write up my adventures on the return home.

Have another great genealogy week. Until next time.