Conferences, Talks & Other News: My Genealogy Month 1-30 Sep 2024

 Spring has sprung down under and we are out and about at conferences. Here in Brisbane we have been commemorating the 200th anniversary of the settlement of the Moreton Bay penal colony, first at Redcliffe then at Brisbane.

Books

At both the Brisbane History Group Welcome to Brisbane seminar and the Moreton Bay Bicentennial Commemoration Conference there were free book giveaways. 

Couldn't resist The Ethnic Presence in Queensland and John Pearn's In the Capacity of a Surgeon. The proceedings of the Conference will be published in a few months and will include papers not presented on the day. Something to look forward to and will be a good summary of those early years in Queensland.

Conferences

The NSW ACT conference Digging Deeper in 2024, a virtual conference hosted by Port Macquarie was held on 14 September. Excellent speakers with Clive Smith, Andrew Redfern, Nick Reddan and Ruth Graham. Great value without having to travel and pay accommodation. However I do miss meeting catching up with people in person. Sessions were recorded so you can watch again which is a plus.

Also booked for the QFHS all day seminar on Family Tree Maker in person event in Brisbane in October. 

Starting to think about the Unlock the Past Genealogy Cruise in December. Lots of people I know are booked and it will be a nice finish to 2024. I am giving three talks on the cruise.

Looking into 2025 we have RootsTech 2025 (virtual attendance for me) and the AFFHO Congress Connections in Brisbane in March. Honoured to be presenting a session on Mining the Archives as competition for a speaking spot was very competitive. Also giving two sessions virtually at RootsTech on Australian Genealogy Online and Australian Military Ancestors.

Order of Australia Investiture

The highlight of my life so far was going to Queensland Government House to receive my OAM for services to community history with Max and my brother. The Governor is a lovely person and it was a wonderful event and champers and nibbles on the lawn afterwards was delightful. It is a small world as I was seated next to the brother in law of one of our Bribie Genealogy book club members who had received his award for services to the defence force.

PhD update

I passed my early candidate milestone so now officially a Ph D candidate. My database on 1700 women incarcerated in Queensland gaols is progressing and my research on immigrant ships the women arrived on is not as easy as I had thought.

 Discovering what name they used is not always obvious - did they arrive single, married, widowed or with their parents. The use of alias names does my head in but all good training for searching indexes for variant names and spelling.

Talks

My session at Caboolture Library on Convicts and Criminals was also a part of the 200th commemorations for Moreton Libraries. A nice enthusiastic group with good feedback.

My next talk will be at the annual seminar of the Genealogical Society of Queensland in October. Another excellent program of speakers but a virtual event. More affordable and not having to deal with highway traffic.

Check my website Events page for final presentations in 2024 and what is already organised for 2025.

What's Coming Up?

Christmas and where did 2024 go? My goal this year was to complete my draft family histories and at least get first editions up on Ned and into Trove. 

Good intentions but I am struggling with updating my sources to new archival online catalogue references. To be honest my citations were not as good as they should have been and time has been spent looking things up again. 

Happy searching until next time.

Shauna

Family History Month Weeks 3 and 4 : My Genealogy Weeks 16 - 31 August 2024

 Well that's a wrap. Family History Month in Australia and New Zealand is over for another year. As usual August went incredibly fast.

AFFHO Closing Ceremony 

This was hosted by President Sonia Russell and featured David Barnes talking about the AFFHO Congress in 2025. This is in Brisbane next March. Check out the website here.

The conference venue is modern and a bit of a distance from where I live. So accommodation is booked as the drive up and down the highway is not worth thinking about. All right if you live on the south side of Brisbane.

It will be excellent and I am looking forward to catching up with genie friends from all over.

Sonia also announced all the winners of the various sponsor prizes and it was nice to hear the names of many genie friends around the country.

Nick Vine Hall Awards

This kept me busy sending out all judges feedback to each of the societies and contacting the winners and runners up with the good news. Society journals are a wealth of advice on all topics and a great resource for family stories. 

Check them out at your Society Library and I noticed that some Societies are now sharing journal exchanges online with their members, usually in the members only section. This is exciting if you find it hard to get to the library in person.

Bribie Family History Association Book Club and Genie Chats

This month we discussed Judy Nunn's Khaki Town based around Townsville in World War II. 

I will miss the next meeting as I will be in Brisbane at Government House accepting my OAM award. That will be exciting as I have never managed to visit there before. 

Another two sessions looking at social media for family history research and an Irish brick wall for one of our members.

Brisbane History Group

Went down to Brisbane for their Welcome to Brisbane afternoon seminar on immigration. It was part of the various events to celebrate the bicentenary of the founding of Brisbane in 1824.

Papers on immigrants from Lebanon, Greece, Germany, Russia, and Jewish immigrants.

Brisbane History Group have some interesting events so check out their website here.

Talks

A trip up to Noosaville Library to give a presentation on Sporting Ancestors. They have such a lovely family history search room which is separate from the main library area. Nice and quiet with a computer and access to Ancestry and Findmypast and they are an affiliate for FamilySearch. Plus lots of great genealogy books and local history books.

I also did a live webinar for Legacy Family Tree Webinars on using MyHeritage to research family history in Australia. That went well and by preparing the talk I learnt a lot more about some of the features of MyHeritage. The webinar can be viewed for free here.

What's Coming Up?

Sadly we have to wait a whole year for Family History Month to come around again. However, in the meantime check out local and online events as there is usually something on each month. Your local genealogy society is a good place to start.

Until next time, happy researching.

Shauna

Family History Month 2024 Week 2: My Genealogy Week 8 -15 August 2024

 Another busy week. Received some nice feedback after sending out the judges' feedback on the various society journals in the Nick Vine Hall awards for 2024.

8 August 

Attended a committee meeting of the Bribie Family History Association. Starting to plan our 2025 list of guest speakers for our monthly meetings. 

Book club reading this month

9 August

My early candidate milestone for my PhD on the Grass Wasn't Always Greener and the Incarceration of Women in Colonial Queensland involved a 20 minute presentation followed by questions from the audience of other historians and Griffith University lecturers and tutors. A bit nerve racking but got the green light to continue my research.

10 August

Attended a writing family history workshop led by Sue Reid and Clem Ditton from Queensland Family History Society writing group. It was our second Bribie Family History Association workshop for 2024. As usual our members appreciated having a more in-depth look at a topic. 

11 -13 August

Catching up with the week's email and working on presentations coming up later in the month. Also trying to keep up with the BFHA book club reading as well as all my PhD reading. Not really a chore as I love reading but finding the time for that and keeping up with genealogy journals is not easy.

Great grandfather Thomas Price

14 August

Hosted Genie Chats in the morning and then some members joined me here for morning tea and cakes. 

15 August

Practising my new writing focus - get up an hour earlier and work steadily on one of my family history drafts. Selected the Price family history to do first. What I am finding is that I can get quite a lot done in a focussed two hour session several times a week.Now to keep up that momentum.

What's Coming Up?

A talk on sporting ancestors at Noosaville, a meeting of the Professional Historians Association Queensland, more Genie Chats and a book club meeting.

I hope everyone has entered the AFFHO prizes draw. There are still two weeks to go and more prizes to win. See the website.

Until next time, happy searching 

Shauna