Genealogy notes - 1-3 Jan 2013 Blogs & other things

I'm starting the New Year well with several days of genealogy related activities. It's after the festive season and still two weeks before we move into our new home so I've been indulging myself while the other half has been fishing and motorbike riding. With all that peace and quiet I've been catching up with some of my favourite bloggers. I was really impressed with Chris Paton's genealogy review of 2012 in three parts (go into his 2012 archive to locate them) and I was surprised at how much I missed not being online every day. Still I wouldn't have missed all that travelling for anything but there must be a way to balance the two!

I totally missed contributing to Cassmob and Alona Tester's blogging challenges during 2012 so I'm hoping they will come up with something new for 2013 or even a repeat - I don't mind! It's been good reading through some of their challenges and I find you can always learn from what other's are doing or even see how easy it is to tell your own family stories.


Also Kuringai Historical Society celebrated it's 50th blog post and while that probably doesn't sound like a great achievement it's actually quite significant in that Kuringai is leading where all other historical societies should be going in my opinion. Blogs are a great way to tell local stories (same for family history blogs too) without a great deal of effort or expense if you use a free blogger like Google Blogger and then best of all it's searchable by Google and anyone looking for information or events in the Kuringai area can find it and the Society. I won't stay on this hobby horse but I really do think that historical societies and genealogy/family history societies should all be getting more involved with social media outlets so that researchers can find them more easily.

While on historical societies we finally managed to visit the Bribie Island Seaside Museum which is very much set up for the tourist. It is quite modern and spacious (only opened in 2010) and gives an overview of the history of the Island and the various settlements. From my own family history research I know quite a bit of the early history but I wasn't all that familiar with Bribie's role in WW2 so I found that interesting. The Bribie Historical Society meets monthly so I hoping to go along to a meeting but it won't be until April as we will be away for the first two meetings. I hate it when dates clash!

I've made a start reading Children of the Occupation: Japan's Untold Story by Walter Hamilton which was sent to me to review by New South Books last year. Usually I try to do reviews quickly but finding reading time on the road is never easy! I'm actually finding it hard to put down so expect a review soon. I've still got three other reviews  to do and I'm hoping to get them done before the big move in two weeks. Otherwise they won't get done until we get re-organised again! No more moves for me - Bribie is stuck with me!

The other really nice thing is that I have started to do research for a client again and it's one of those tricky research questions. Is it the right family or not? Even more interesting is that it is Irish and spans Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales and New Zealand. Are they all related? I think they are but not quite the way they are currently presented but it's an interesting challenge.

Finally I've also got back into blogging this Diary more frequently and I've answered another one of those Geniaus geneameme challenges (although I notice that she is now spelling it GeniAus which is even more clever). I mentioned the Accentuate the Positives 2012 geneameme last Diary entry and since then I have managed to answer (positively) all 20 questions. Read my Accentuate the Positives 2012 geneameme.

I've missed the blogging and the interaction with social media friends by not being online more often the last four months. It's only when you get back into it again that you realise what you are missing out on. So roll on 2013 I'm keen to be more genealogy active again!

Genealogy Notes 25-31 Dec 2012 Sailing in Ancestral Footsteps

Well the Christmas week has gone remarkably quickly and it's now New Year's Eve. It's been a great week catching up with family and friends and I've spent a lot of time reflecting on my Scottish great great great grandparents who oyster farmed here at Toorbul back in the 1870s. We did the sunset cruise on the Bribie Island Ferryman and sailed right past their property which is the first time I've had a good look at it from the water. It still looks like it must have done back then with no development although the land is for sale with a multi million dollar price tag for future development. However the whole of Pumicestone Passage is within a Marine Conservation Park so perhaps that development may never happen.

All I know now is that it was a fantastic trip up the Passage past Toorbul, Donnybrook and Mission Point before we turned around after a spectacular view of the Glass House Mountains at sunset. The whole time I kept thinking that they too must have sailed up and down the passage, fished and crabbed and tended their oyster leases. There's not a lot of people there now and there would have been a lot less back then. It's times like this that I really wish we could travel back in time and meet our ancestors, rather than recreate their lives through various government documents.

The further up the Passage you travel there is less evidence of people and more and more bird life not to mention the lack of noise except for the odd boat or two. Even the dolphins turned up which was exciting for those tourists on board. I'm a bit blase now as we get to see them most days from our kitchen window!

I managed to review and update my genealogy aspirations for 2013 and you can read about them here. I was really pleased with all the comments and encouragement from my blogger friends. Since then my friend Geniaus has thrown out another one of her geneameme challenges Accentuate the Positives 2012 which makes us look at all the positives in our genealogy year rather than all the things we might not have done or finished. As usual I can't resist these, so I will have to put my thinking cap on and see if I can answer her 20 questions (positively).

I've been happily reading Issue 3 of Circa: the Journal of Professional Historians which is an annual publication by the Professional Historians Association of Victoria and the Australian Council of Professional Historians Associations. Each issue gets better and better and there are some great articles highlighting the work of historians today. I've always maintained my membership of the Queensland branch, perhaps I knew I would come back some day!

I've also applied to join the Cornish Association of Queensland rather than renew my membership of the Cornish Association of Victoria. Their meetings are in Brisbane but it's not that far, especially if it's during the day. I'm still fascinated by the Cornish culture and once I get into my new house in January I want to start practicing making the Cornish pastry recipe I learnt at the Cornish Cultural Celebration in Shoalhaven back in October, hosted by the Southern Sons of Cornwall.

My January 2013 issue of Queensland Family History Society's email newsletter Snippets arrived in my inbox this morning so starting a new habit (I hope) I have read it already and noted all the helpful news and hints. Back issues are on their website here. I find with email newsletters and journals I put them into a To Read Folder but then don't always find the time to read them. A bit like the physical To Read Pile which I now have in a wardrobe. So my new habit is always to read/scan something before I file it away. Wish me luck with that one!!

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter is another one that I regularly try to read and if you don't keep up with that on a daily basis it can get away from you. Although a lot of the news is US or Canada related, it is a great way to keep up with what's happening in the genealogy world.

My other regular reads include the UK Lost Cousins monthly newsletter and Irish Lives Remembered which is a much bigger read. I also get the newsletters from FindMyPast and Ancestry to try and keep up with all the new material coming online. That also applies to the enews from Public Record Office Victoria, State Records NSW and Queensland State Archives which are the three main archives I regularly research in.

On the eve of a new year I would like to take the opportunity to thank all my regular readers and to wish them good luck with their ancestor hunting in 2013. Now I'm off to think about that geneameme challenge!

Genealogy notes 8 -24 Dec 2012 - Christmas thoughts

Regular readers will know that we have been very busy buying our new house on Bribie Island and getting ready for move in day on 14 January plus organising ourselves for Christmas this year. To make it all more complicated I had a very painfall fall in the bathroom just over a week ago. I slipped on wet tiles and down I went so this Diary has been delayed and I've spent quite a few hours visiting doctors and getting x-rays. No permanent damage luckily just stiff and sore.

I had thought I might get lots of genealogy reading done but the pain killers seem to put me to sleep which is probably a good thing but it isn't reducing my reading pile by much. I was excited to learn that Inside History magazine has a new digital only annual volume out so I quickly downloaded their app and my copy for a very modest price. I still like reading a paper copy I think but reading it on the IPad was almost as good and easier than trying to read on the laptop.

One thing I did have to finish after my fall was the 6th instalment of my Missing Down Under series for Irish Lives Remembered which is a great free e-magazine for Irish genealogy. All previous issues are available online so you can catch up if you haven't previously seen it.

I was going to review my 2012 genealogy resolutions as I do every year but that hasn't happened yet. It was almost impossible this year to achieve my goals after our sudden decision to sell up and leave Melbourne. I think I need smaller more achievable type goals or break them down into monthly goals. Otherwise I'm never going to get all my old photos scanned, organised and listed!

Happily I did manage to contribute to Cassmob's Christmas geneameme and my contribution is here. I like these kind of challenges as they make you think back and dredge up long forgotten memories.

My seminar with Sue Reid on digital newspapers for the Queensland Family History Society in February is almost sold out which is fantastic. Obviously a popular topic and everyone is keen to get researching in 2013.

I've accepted an invitation to speak on the 4th Unlock the Past genealogy cruise which is going to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart. It is doing two things I've always wanted to do - sailing through Bass Strait and doing a run from Hobart to Sydney (just like the Boxing Day race only in reverse). Plus there are some exciting overseas speakers too so I wouldn't want to miss this one.

Well I've been sitting for too long so it's time to wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas with their families and loved ones. I'm spending it with my mother and other family members in Brisbane and it will be traditional as Mum thinks that is the only way to have a good Christmas. I'll just have to have the prawns and crabs on Boxing Day! Take care and enjoy yourselves until next time.