Genealogy cruising, geneabooks & other news, November to December 2024

November went by in a bit of a blur - recovering from surgery, celebrating my birthday and getting ready for the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise in December. Once we were home from that trip, it was get ready for Christmas and the New Year. A whirlwind couple of months.

Cruise speakers with Alan and Anthea Phillips

Blogs

In my review of the year I realised I had written no blogs for my Genie Rambles on my website and not as many as I had hoped in Diary. Plus there were the two guest blogs for the Genealogical Society of Queensland. 

In a last minute rush I have written a report on the genealogy cruise, read it here and revisited an Aussie Christmas blog from a few years ago, read it here. Updating it made me realise how much has changed in the last few years.

I am also going to be part of Geniaus' annual review of our achievements in the past year. 2024 has been a strange year for me, mostly focused on my PhD research, but still finding new things on the family. Read my Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2024 here.

As part of my plan to move all my research online, I am republishing articles I wrote for various journals in the past. To start with, I have done all my articles between 2015 and 2017 for Going In-Depth for the In-Depth Genealogist, now defunct. I had forgotten how much of my own family history I had written about so this will be another way via Google for relatives to find my research. See the articles on a new page of Diary called Genealogy Downunder.

Books

In some ways not being well is good as you can lie around and read. Over the last two months I have read quite a few and have gained some new books thanks to Santa and the Unlock the Past bookstore on the cruise. Looking forward to picking up some new hints.

Some of my Christmas reading

Conferences and Travel

The March AFFHO Congress is coming up fast. I am registered, booked my accommodation and the only thing left to do is finish my talk and handout.

The ACT/NSW conference is in Woollongong this year and in person. I am considering going but it is also the same time that I was planning to go to England. Need to sort out my travel plans for 2025 as there is quite a bit of travel coming up, Bali (holiday), Sweden (family), Ireland (family history) , England (family history) and in Australia, Darwin (a history conference) and Broome (bucket list).

And don't forget a virtual visit to RootsTech 2025. It's free and online. I am giving two talks. But I will miss the in person experience that I had in 2023.

2023 was a great experience

Resources

Wow so many new records from Ancestry, Findmypast, MyHeritage and FamilySearch. And let's not forget Trove and all those wonderful newspapers. I honestly can't keep up although I know most of my family lines need updating.

Talks

2025 always starts early for me as I accept invitations to speak at various events. There are quite a few  in the first six months of 2025 and you can check them out on the Events page of my website. Looking forward to catching up with everyone again.

What's coming up next?

I am still planning to publish at least one of my family histories online through NED. It is just taking longer than I thought to tidy up and make the endnotes consistent.

This will make my family research available through Trove for other researchers. Not so much a family history, but a record of my research on each of the families. I don't want all the hard work of the last, nearly 50 years, lost when I am no longer here.

Always lurking in the background is my PhD research on 1750 women incarcerated in colonial Queensland gaols. Never short of anything to do there.

As always, have fun researching. Until next time, Shauna

A reading feast, Brisbane history and other news: my genealogy weeks 16-31 October 2024

 Hello everyone

Another full on two weeks of all things history and genealogy. A trip to Brisbane for the Brisbane History Group's seminar on Not Quite the Centenary (of greater Brisbane which is next year in 2025). An interesting selection of talks during the afternoon and a chance to catch up with others. If only the traffic on the highway was not so daunting.

Books

As I said on Facebook, one of the nice things about being sick is that you can curl up and read books and nobody tells you to get up and do other things that need doing.

A spot of surgery this week has meant time out with no exertion and I made sure I had stocked up with library books. 

But then with my own home library, I am pretty guaranteed never to run out of reading material. Plus there is always Libby with my Moreton library card.

Pretty stoked to have a review copy of Nathan Dylan Goodwin's The Hollywood Strangler to read. Just waiting to come off the pain killers so that I can really enjoy reading it without worrying about dozing off with my tabbies.

Conferences

At RootsTech in 2023

2025 is off to a great start with RootsTech in March and I will be a virtual speaker and attendee. So far to travel for just a few days and you need to combine it with more travel in the USA. Or just spend it in the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City. 

Then the AFFHO Congress Connections in Brisbane in March. Here I am an in person attendee and a speaker plus it will be a great opportunity to catch up with geniemates from around Australia, New Zealand and overseas. My accommodation onsite is booked as the thought of travelling the Bruce Highway every day is not worth thinking about. 

Why sit in traffic if you can spend money at the sponsors tables or chat with friends?

Talks in 2025

That time of the year when my speaking calendar starts to fill up. The Events page of my website has all the dates, talks and other information. This will be added to as necessary so remember to check back from time to time.

What's Coming Up?

Most excited about the 18th Unlock the Past cruise to Southern Australia with Chris Paton and Mia Bennett. Three full days of talks at sea plus an evening lecture.

Kiva Genealogists for Families, Resources & Other News: My Genealogy Weeks 1-15 Oct 2024

Hello everyone

Fresh back from a two week holiday in Bali. We haven't been since Covid and found it much busier than before. Airport congestion was unreal mostly due to having to do online visas and health declarations prior to arrival. Many hadn't and quite a few planes arrived at the same time. 

It didn't help that they changed baggage carousels without announcing the changes. 

But the people were friendly and the food was wonderful. We even did a Balinese cooking course so now to put that into practice.

The good thing was that I didn't get sick or fall over and hurt myself. Bought some nice casual dresses for summer and planning when we might be able to escape there again.

Books

Our Bribie Family History Association bookclub has been reading some great books. Our current book The Girl Who Left: from Croatia to the cane fields by Debra Gavranich is about a woman who left Yugoslavia after WW2 to marry a man she had never seen before in Queensland. Based on a real life story it is interesting to learn more about Australia's post war immigrants.

One thing I forgot to mention in my September news was that I have completely updated my books on Library Thing. I also received their Tenner badge as I have been a member for over 10 years. 

The app is now on my smart phone so that I can see if I already have a book before buying it. A great way to avoid having two copies of the same book.

Looking forward to reading this new book from Nathan Dylan Goodwin. It is the next one in the Venator cold case series.

DNA

Ancestry has done a major update to how DNA ethnicity (now ancestral regions) helps us to understand our paternal and maternal lines.  

Dad has lost his Scandinavian and it is now England and Northwestern Europe (this must be the two lines where I don't know who my GG grandfathers are). Otherwise he is Scots and Irish.

Mum still has that puzzling Wales connection with no Welsh in the paper trail. Her Cornish is now a defined group.

Hopefully over the December/January break I will find some time to get back to those unknown ancestors and see if I can track them down.

Kiva for Genealogists

Another group I have been a member of for years has been Genealogists for Families team on Kiva which lends small loans to people in other countries under a range of categories. Our team captain is Judy Webster and we have been in existence since 27 Sep 2011 - that's 13 years so we missed that 10th anniversary. There are 264 members who have made over $550,830 in loans. 

That's an impressive record and by relending or making new loans it is amazing how your individual contribution adds up. For example I have made 194 loans in 71 countries. Now that I have actually looked at my stats it would be nice to get to 200 loans before the end of 2024 which will depend on existing loans being repaid or I can make new loans. I usually do this for Christmas instead of buying gifts. Now on my to do list so I don't forget.

Anyone can join us by going to Kiva, signing up and selecting the Genealogists for Families team. You do have to make a $25 loan as well.

Resources

The Trove Treasures e-newsletter for October talked about haunted buildings, tracing towns through resources in Trove, early Australian maps and a feature on brides from 1890. Everyone should sign up for this newsletter as it really does expand your knowledge of what is in Trove and how best to find what you are looking for. Plus it's free.

At right is an image from the the Brisbane Telegraph of Mum's eldest sister who was an October bride in 1938. Mum was only 4 at the time so my memories of aunty Hazel were always of an older woman. Finding this image in Trove was wonderful and it is just one of the many images I have found on Mum's family.

MyHeritage has an all new look to their Inbox feature for easier communication with other researchers. Plus they added another 56 million records in September. No wonder everyone is saying it is hard to keep up with changes and new resources.

If only we could do family history 24/7! But then the house doesn't get dusted, the garden doesn't get weeded and no food shopping gets done. Amazing how these basic chores take up so much of our daily life - how did I manage when I worked 9-5, five days a week?

Talks

Genealogical Society of Queensland's annual seminar was at the weekend. Forgotten Women and Children had an incredible line up of good speakers with varied topics on women. 

I was one of the speakers looking at homeless women in colonial Queensland gaols based on my PhD research. But many of the aspects I cover apply to all women, not just those unfortunate enough to be sent to gaol for having nowhere to live.

Left is an image of female prisoners at the Boggo Road Gaol. My great great grandmother Helen/Ellen Carnegie/Ferguson could be in that photograph which was part of a series in The Queenslander in 1903.

I still have talks in November and December so it has been a very full year of presentations despite my saying at the start I would be cutting back to focus on my PhD. Hard to stop something you love doing.

See my Events page for details.

What's Coming Up?

First is catching up with my emails and ejournal and enewsletter reading. As a member of numerous genealogy societies and other organisations I receive their quarterly journals and weekly newsletters. It is so easy to simply flag and aim to go back when I have more time. The only trouble is that 'more time' never seems to happen.

My plan for 2025 is to list all the journals and magazines in a chart and then tick them off when I have read the issue. Sounds simple but it never seems to work until I get to the end of the year and madly flick through a whole lot at once. There will be more timely reading in 2025. Wish me luck.

Until next time happy researching

Shauna