Family memorabilia, DNA results & Other News - Genealogy Notes 12 -31 Jul 2017

The last few weeks have been a blur with the clearing out of Mum's house. Just when I thought I had discovered all Mum's secrets (and regular readers will know that Mum kept some amazing family facts from me) I find yet another family treasure where you would least think to look. What was hidden behind the kitchen drawer with all the cooking bits and pieces?

Mum's 1947 pocket diary

It was a 1947 (used in 1948) pocket diary with a picture of Perry Como pasted on the front cover. I knew instantly it was Mum's as she had a thing for him as a teenage girl. Sure enough inside was her name and address and it starts off with "Saturday 20 December 1947 Mervyn kissed me for the first time". Now I know when my parents first kissed although I already knew that they started going out when they were 13 years old.

I wonder what other secrets will be revealed if I continue past the first page! The handwriting is not the best and a bit small at times but I will save it for when I have more time. Why was it in the kitchen drawer and not with her photo albums or even in a bedroom drawer? Seems an odd place to put it and once I have scanned it, the diary can go with my other family memorabilia.

Mum's DNA results are back and I managed a quick look comparing people who match closely to me and it turns out they are not related to my mother. Which means they must be related through Dad's side and so far no common names so perhaps that means on my unknown grandfather's side. Unfortunately no time to really sort results at the moment so something to do in August during NFHM in between my speaking engagements.

In my spare time I finished my five talks for the Unlock the Past cruise to Papua New Guinea which departs tomorrow. National Family History Month also took up some time as I approved events and made changes for various people. Last minute details for the launch were finalised and it looks like being a fantastic August. Remember the prize giveaway opens on 1 August and no entries before that date will be accepted. I'm giving 13 talks in various places in south east Queensland - to find out where see the Events page of my website.

Thanks to Chris Paton for pointing out the National Archives UK online guide to digital microfilm - these types of guides for any archives or library are a fantastic way to quickly see what is available on particular topics. Remember that Chris is touring Australia during NFHM - see dates and venues here.  I'm looking forward to his talks in Brisbane.

The next five weeks for me are almost non stop genealogy events and as usual I will be doing blog posts about each event that I attend. My presentations will be on the Resources page of my website (after the event) and I hope to progress my DNA results as my NFHM activity. With so much on the time will go quickly.

I've taken this blog post up to the end of July as I won't have regular internet. The next post will be after I return from the genealogy cruise.

Have a great start to National Family History Month and remember there are online events too if you can't get to anything close by. Until next time, happy searching.

Masonic archives, NFHM 2017, & other news - Genealogy Notes 2-11 Jul 2017

Another week taken up with family issues but we have finally managed to get Mum into aged care and here on Bribie Island. That will certainly cut  travel time with no more trips down the highway to Brisbane. We have also spent lots of time going through Mum's things and deciding what to keep, donate or toss. So many memories are in a home and furnishings. At least Mum is still with us to explain when and how something came into her possession.

For example, the crystal duchess set was an engagement present to her from her mother, my grandmother. How many of us have captured that kind of background information on our own possessions?

Provincial Grand Masters Regalia
RW Bro Thomas S Burstow
Brisbane Masonic Memorial Centre
Jul 2017

While in Brisbane I took some time out to visit the Masonic Memorial Centre where an old friend has taken on the job of voluntary archivist. It is always good catching up with friends but it is even better being able to have a behind the scenes look at an archive.

Many organisations save their old records but quite often they don't know what to do with them so the records are stock piled around an organisation. It is a huge job and I'm looking forward to her progress reports.

I also came away with some information on two Masons in the family. Seeing something that was once worn by an ancestor is amazing and it gives you a greater insight into their lives and what occupied their time.

Read more about my visit here and find out what I discovered.

There is an AFFHO meeting tonight where I will be giving an update on National Family History Month for 2017. There are 157 events so far in every state and territory with the exception of the Northern Territory.

There are even some online events including a blogging challenge and no doubt more events will be added between now and 1 August when the fun begins. So far 31 genealogy/family history societies have added events along with archives and libraries. It will be another great month.

Lost Cousins newsletter for this week had some interesting pieces, especially around DNA. I felt better when the editor said "I've still got thousands of matches to analyse". I'm not alone!

I feel a bit inundated at the moment with DNA matches, smart matches and record matches and possibly my own fault as I have posted my family information on a number of sites. Some connections are really distant but good if you are wanting to find every descendant of an ancestor in Australia. Others are more recent and might be good to meet up with and some I can't work out what the connection is in the first place. It is really time consuming but perhaps things will be less hectic once I get NFHM over for another year.

This coming week I have to finalise my five talks for the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise to Papua New Guinea coming up in two weeks. I also have to work on my talks for National Family History Month as I start giving talks as soon as we get back from Papua New Guinea. Although I am taking time out to go to Brisbane for the Unlock the Past two day seminar on Researching Abroad: Finding British Isles and European Ancestors. August is full on and to see all the places I am speaking go to the Events page of my website.

Have a great genealogy week and start planning what you will be doing for NFHM2017. Until next time, happy searching.

Talks & Conferences Coming Up & Other News - Genealogy Notes 25 Jun -2 Jul 2017

It's been a busy week and all I seem to have done is make travel arrangements to attend genealogy events coming up. I have now booked my accommodation for the NSW & ACT Association of Family History Societies annual conference in Orange, NSW. It is on 22-24 Sep 2017 and the theme is Your Family Story: Telling, Recording & Preserving which is really relevant and there are some great speakers on the program.

I'm now an ambassador for the Researching Abroad: Finding British Isles and European Ancestors tour around Australia and New Zealand with Chris Paton and Dirk Weissleder. This is between 8 and 26 August so a perfect event for National Family History Month. It's straight after I get back from the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise to Papua New Guinea so a very busy couple of weeks of genealogy talks and networking with geneamates.

Just as well P&O sent me a reminder about the need for a travel visa to Papua New Guinea - just print the form, fill it in and hand in at check in. So simple, but lucky I saw the email and didn't delete as advertising.

I've also committed to the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise to Alaska next year. Having never traveled to the US or Canada before this is my big opportunity to resist the lure of Asia and Europe. Chris Paton and Dick Eastman are the keynotes on the cruise and they are always good value and entertaining sessions.

Unfortunately I can't go to everything but for those able to get to Cowra, NSW easily you should think about attending this year's Royal Australian Historical Society conference.  It's on 28 - 29 October 2017 and the theme is Finding Lost Places, Lost People.

The Trove Tuesday blog challenge was successfully met this week with my Did the Family Ever Make Contact Back Home post. In the absence of surviving family letters how can we prove or even guess that our ancestors kept in touch with the family members they left behind. Trove can sometimes throw light on this question and in my case, it was through a court appearance.

National Family History Month is now only 4 weeks away and I have been busy approving events on the NFHM web calendar. There is always room for more events and it is really good to see the National Library of Australia hosting two events this year plus other local libraries and genealogy/family history societies across Australia.

Scotland's People announced the release of Presbyterian church records which was exciting but didn't lead to any Scottish breakthrough.

FamilySearch announced the discontinuation of their microfilm services which was no surprise as they continue to digitise their microfilm holdings and either make them available online or through their Family History Centres. I can still remember visiting the LDS Library (as it was then) in Brisbane in the late 1970s early 1980s and using microfilm on really awful microfilm readers and having a sore right arm from hand winding for days afterwards. What we have today with the internet and digitised records is truly amazing.

This coming week I'm off to Brisbane for a visit to the  United Grand Lodge of Queensland, Masonic Memorial Centre to check out their archives. One of my uncles was fairly high up in the Masons and so was Max's great grandfather so it will be interesting to see what I can find out. I have also got to finish my five talks for the PNG cruise and keep monitoring the NFHM website and promoting it to all.

Enjoy the coming week and if you are attending any of the above events, I look forward to catching up with you. Happy searching until next time.

Talks, Genie Cards & Other News - Genealogy Notes 8 - 24 June 2017

Another couple of weeks where family and health issues were the priority. Time seems to go even quicker and time away from the computer means that you simply can't keep up with what's new or get that blog post out. Two weeks ago I discovered something super exciting on the Spencer family in Trove and was all set to write a Trove Tuesday blog post when I was sidelined. Now I'm getting ready to reveal it next Tuesday.

My talk on my own DNA experience went well and the Bribie Island Family Interest Group had one of their biggest meetings and even picked up some new members. Obviously a lot of interest in the subject. I was relieved to get an email this week from Family Tree DNA to say that they had received my mother's DNA test. By testing Mum I can rule out any matches on her side and any unknown matches should be then on my father's side. I also need to track down some Carnegie cousins to rule out any connections from Dad's mother's side. Anything other matches will be Dad's father's side of the family assuming of course that someone tests.

I did manage to make it to Ipswich Central Library for my session on Demolishing Brick Walls. It was a smaller audience but I think that was due to the change of venue from Redbank Plains to Ipswich Central - some people only received the notice the day before. As usual the presentation is on my website Resources page, scroll down to Presentations.

There are no more talks now until the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise to Papua New Guinea in July where I will be giving five presentations. Then there are the 11 talks for National Family History Month during August at various places in the Moreton, Sunshine Coast and Noosa areas. I'm doing a closing event for NFHM this year in Townsville with another two talks at an all day seminar organised by the Family History Association of North Queensland. It should be really good and a fun way to end NFHM 2017.

While I have been offline, it was good to see more societies and libraries adding their events to the NFHM web calender. My apologies for the slight delay in making those events visible and I hope that we get lots more before the start of August. Remember that the National Institute for Genealogical Studies early bird prize for genealogy and family history societies entering their NFHM events onto the web calendar closes on 30 June. You can still add events after that date, but just won't be eligible for the prize. Full details on the NFHM website.

My thanks to the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office for helping me out with a couple of research problems recently. I was all excited to find a reference to someone but the link was pointing to the wrong page. For the first time I used their online chat and the person confirmed that the link was wrong and gave me the correct one within 60 seconds with the promise that the staff would correct it permanently. The next time online chat was offline so I used the email form to report that only one page of a will had been copied and that I thought there should be another page or two. Within a day I had an email reply with the missing images attached. What fantastic service and it shows that if you do spot something not quite right, report it and after investigating the staff will fix it if it is definitely wrong. They can't fix errors in original records but if it is an indexing or digitising error then they can.

I had to cancel the last Bribie U3A advanced family history class but was still amazed that the nine weeks had gone so quickly. Seems like only yesterday I was wondering if I should do it. The majority of students were all still keen so I will be running it again in Term 4 for another 10 weeks. The interesting thing is that I discovered new material on my own families as I prepared the classes each week. Using my own examples also helps to show students what you can find and how to do it themselves.

Finally I've received my new genie cards courtesy of Gould Digital. I was pleased to accept their offer to try out this new business venture and the hardest part was selecting a design and working out what I wanted to put on the front and back of the card. They actually look nicer than my business cards but then I designed them 8 years ago and my approach has changed since then. At the moment they have free shipping if you sign up to the enewsletter and 100 cards cost for $27. The cards are handy to give out to people when you meet at genealogy events and are not as easy to misplace as scraps of paper.

This coming week there will be more medical dramas and family issues but there are no talks or travels so I'm hoping to write up some of those new discoveries, catch up on emails, promote NFHM and even do some blog posts. The warm sunny winter days are also beautiful for sitting outside and catching up on my journal reading. Have a great genealogy week and until next time, happy searching.

More Talks, New Resources, DNA & Other News - Genealogy Notes 30 May - 7 Jun 2017

It's been another busy week with two talks. First I gave my Love Sex and Damn Lies talk to the Sunnybank District History Group. Whenever I talk about the scandals in my own family, there are always lots of comments and nearly everyone else has their own family scandals to share. Does nobody have a boring family history?

The second talk was done in the luxury of my own study. Not that the study is luxurious, just the fact that I didn't have to drive anywhere! I participated in the Society of Australian  Genealogists Virtual Lost Weekend looking at Black Sheep via a series of eight webinars. The technology can be a bit daunting especially when things don't go quite right but after a shaky start everything settled down. My section was on Asylum records for Missing Ancestors and I did a round Australia tour of asylums and where to find the records. Feedback has been good and you can see a copy of the slides on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations. The talk was the same one I did the previous weekend in Coffs Harbour.

In preparing for this week's U3A session I discovered yet another sibling of Henry Spencer (Max's grandfather) came out to Queensland. His sister Elizabeth came out with her husband and family and I've never looked for them as Henry was supposed to be out here by himself. Now I have found his brother Adkins Robert Spencer (who left no descendants) and I will have to trace his sister's family to see if there are any other cousins. Obviously the two brothers were in contact back home and mentioned what a great place Queensland is to live with its blue skies and warm winters. Had to be better than the Midlands of England!

James Carnegie - father unknown

Coming up this week I am giving a talk on my personal view of DNA for family history research to the Bribie Island family history group.

Preparing the talk has been useful as it has helped me to clarify my thinking about my own results so far and where I should go next. If I really want to try and identify James Carnegie's father then I need to track down my male Carnegie cousins and see if one will consent to a Y DNA test.

Mum has now down a DNA test for me and still waiting for those results. This will mean that if I get any matches that don't also match with Mum then they will be on my father's unknown paternal side.  Actually the Carnegie DNA will help to narrow that down further again so perhaps I need to test more than one Carnegie cousin.

Last week's Diary blog was included in Crissouli's Moments in Time Friday Fossicking for 2 Jun 2017. I like these compilations of what other bloggers have seen as interesting during the week. When I am pushed for time it is good to scroll through the roundups and just quickly look at interesting posts. Crissouli has a particular interest in Irish research and there are always new posts on Ireland and all matters Irish.

New projects and resources seem to be happening daily. The latest FamilySearch research news has Victorian cemeteries - transcriptions 1850-1988 listed which will be a good resource once finished. Volunteer indexing projects certainly make it easy for us to find those elusive ancestors especially if we can't travel to search in person.

Findmypast announced Scottish Post Office Directories were now available, over a hundred different directories. Looking at the full list I found several that I want to look more closely at. Directories don't provide a lot of family information but they can confirm where people were living and what their occupations were. You can also see who else was living nearby.

National Family History Month in August is fast approaching so make sure your organisation's events are added to the web calendar so that others know what is happening. Societies often get new members during the month as others find out how rewarding being a member of a society can be.

Next week is a quiet week of catch up and personal research. There is a small pile of papers relating to some of my discoveries in recent weeks which need to be entered into the database, filed or followed up. And my reading pile, plus the e-reading file. My final talk for the financial year is at Ipswich Central Library on 20 June on Demolishing Brick Walls.

Have a great genealogy week and until next time, happy searching.

Gold Coast Conference review, Coffs Harbour talks & Other News - Genealogy Notes 16-29 May 2017

Apologies for no Diary update last week but health and family issues took priority and it was all I could do to turn up where I was supposed to. It's been an exhausting two weeks and the next few aren't looking any easier.

Still I did manage to go to the excellent Footsteps in Time conference on the Gold Coast and caught up with lots of friends, colleagues and new people. My report on the conference is a blog post on my website - read it here. Well done to the organisers and volunteers who made it such a success. The next History Queensland conference will be in Caloundra in 2019.

I  can now reveal that my talks accepted for #Congress_2018 (note the hash tag and watch out for announcements) are What's In a Middle Name and The Public Curator: Guardian of Family History Treasure.

The keynote speakers were revealed at the Southport conference - check them out on the Congress website. Early bird registration opens soon and I know some people have already booked their accommodation! Not one to miss.

The Welcome Desk
at Coffs Harbour District Family History Society

The 6 hour drive to Coffs Harbour for my presentations at the weekend was a bit of an ordeal with traffic and roadworks and even longer on the way back home. However the day spent with the lovely Coffs Harbour District Family History Society was really good. I do love country cooking and they put on a delicious lunch as well as morning tea. They finish early so that those travelling from outer areas can still get home easily. Some great feedback on my talks, lots of raffles and happy winners. My four presentations are on my website Resources page, scroll down to Presentations.

On the Sunday before driving home I popped into the Society's research rooms which are a wonderful resource for their members. It was great to see such an enthusiastic group. Just a shame I couldn't stay for a couple more days but I'll be back!

The Computer Area

This Wednesday is Week 7 of my advanced family history class for Bribie U3A - time is flying with only another three weeks and it will all be over. It's been nice working with the smaller group. Due to National Family History Month preparation I'm not doing anything in Term 3 but I might consider it for Term 4 depending on how all the current health/family issues settle. We really need more societies, libraries and archives to start adding their events for August NFHM. I'm sure people have events already planned but its important to advertise them too so that potential new members here about them.

 I even managed to forget to renew my subscription to Dick Eastman's Plus Newsletter. I get the free daily updates but I also like to read the plus articles. So that was my first job today and all renewed in time for next week's edition.

There hasn't been much time for anything else but I did like Alona Tester's blog post Yes Folks, Genealogy Does Cost Money! We do have to buy certificates and documents and I do like viewing digitised records at home when I want without having travel time/costs and other expenses. Without commercial providers we wouldn't have many of these resources and do we really want to go back to those days of no easy access? Read Alona's well thought out post.

So far I only have two trips to Brisbane this coming week and a bit more time at home to catch up on everything, especially NFHM 2017. Enjoy any genealogy time you get and good luck with your searches. Until next time.

Red Cross files, DNA talk & other news - Genealogy Notes 8-15 May 2017

A huge week with lots on and getting ready for the Footsteps in Time genealogy conference on the Gold Coast this coming weekend. Should be a wonderful time catching up with geneamates and learning heaps of new things.

Where to start? Bribie Island hosted a talk by Chris Schuetz from Queensland Family History Society on DNA last Thursday. It was a packed session with lots of questions and obviously people are interested in this aspect of family history. Chris continually reminded people that it is a tool and that it does not replace traditional research and a paper (digital) trail. Chris also recommended Kerry Farmer's DNA for Genealogists, 4th edition and see below for details.

Given my own DNA discoveries, Chris kindly lent me The Genetic Strand: Exploring a family history through DNA by Edward Ball. It is the story of the author's journey after finding locks of hair belonging to his ancestors. I have to return it at the conference so desperately trying to find the time to read it before then.

This week I received an email from the University of Melbourne Archives (sometimes I do miss living in Melbourne) telling me about a new digitised collection. In their words:

In 2016 Red Cross Australia donated their historical collection to the University of Melbourne Archives (UMA) as a ‘Gift to the Nation’. Part of this collection included the Missing, Wounded and Prisoner of War Enquiry Cards dating from World War Two to 1973. Since the transfer, UMA has been working to make all of the cards relating to World War Two available online. There are now over 58,000 cards available through UMA’s online catalogue. To find a card, just type the surname into the search box. For further enquiries, please contact UMA at archives@archives.unimelb.edu.au or 03 9035 4337. For more information about the series, see the wonderful article on our blog, ‘A Humane and Intimate Administration’: The Red Cross’ World War Two Wounded, Missing and Prisoner of War Cards by Senior Archivist Fiona Ross.

I had a look at a few of the cards and wonderful information, some cards more detailed than others. None of my WW2 people were reported missing, wounded or prisoner of war so I randomly looked at names. Most only have initials so best to search on surnames and to see the actual cards click on the PDF symbol.

John Finn, the family patriarch
from County Wicklow

Today is Trove Tuesday and I managed to do a blog post - Frederick John Finn, a sad victim of Murphy's Creek. Some of my Finn families have incredibly sad stories, not a lucky family. I'm not sure if there is anyone still with the Finn name as two sons never married after serving in WW1, one son only had a daughter, one son died without issue and the remaining son had two sons who died and the only surviving male was Daniel Finn, brother of Frederick John Finn. I have not been able to trace him since WW2 but perhaps he married and had sons. One to follow up.

Tomorrow's U3A class is all about using social media and Facebook for genealogy and family history so that should be a stimulating session. The small group works well as people can ask questions as we go.

I've seen on Facebook people posting about the last issue of Inside History Magazine. Mine must still be in the mail as they say! I hope it arrives soon but sad to know it is the last issue. Time to go back and look at all the wonderful stories and items of interest.

Not that I have a lot of reading time as my standing order with Gould Genealogy & History for Unlock the Past research guides means that I now have another three guides to read: Neil Smith has just published Australians in Peril: Tracing Your World War Two Australian Military Ancestors; Rosemary Kopittke has a 3rd edition of Scotlands People: the place to launch your Scottish research and Kerry Farmer has a 4th edition of DNA for Genealogists. All timely publications given all my news above.

Making sure I have everything I need for the Footsteps in Time conference is now the top priority. My presentation has already been sent but I also like to take a back up plus my trusty notebook (paper) and pen. My over the shoulder bag so that I can carry all the bits and pieces I pick up at the Fair on the Friday. It's only three days but there will also be the conference satchel to pack into the suitcase. Luckily I'm driving down so I don't have to watch the weight I carry back. Look out for the blog posts when I return.

Have a wonderful week researching and if you are at the conference, come up and say hello. Until next week, have geneafun!  

Irish Tour Downunder, Archives Day & More - Genealogy Notes 1-7 May 2017

There seems to be a number of overseas speakers visiting downunder over the next few months which is wonderful. First up is the Australia and New Zealand lecture tour by Fintan Mullan and Gillian Hunt from the Ulster Historical Foundation between 18 May and 4 June 2017. They are visiting New Zealand, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and the Sunshine Coast. To see dates and venues click here. Unfortunately for me I will be giving a four talk seminar in Coffs Harbour when they are on the Sunshine Coast. Can't go to everything!

Then there is the Unlock the Past tour with Chris Paton and and Dirk Weissleder finding European and British ancestors. They are visiting Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth throughout August - to see dates and venues click here. This is a wonderful list of events for National Family History Month (NFHM) which always occurs in August.

The Brisbane date is the day after we get back from the Papua New Guinea Unlock the Past genealogy cruise so I'm hoping that I still have the energy to make the trek back to Brisbane to hear the Chris Paton talks.

Speaking of NFHM I've also agreed to do some talks for the Sunshine Coast Libraries during August so my month is looking quite busy too. For all my speaking engagements see the Events page of my website.

But before August we also have International Archives Day 9 Jun 2017 and David Fricker, Director General of the National Archives of Australia is calling on archives around the world to be part of the celebrations. Watch out for archive events and news on 9 Jun 2017. Read more about it here.

During the week I managed to take part in Trove Tuesday with a blog post Why You Should Repeat Trove Searches. With new titles being added from time to time, it is quite possible that you will find new articles. I was quite excited by this find about my GGG grandparents when they were living in Grafton, NSW under an assumed name. It's no wonder we can't find our ancestors sometimes!

James Carnegie and Mary Finn

I also managed to write my review of Nathan Dylan Goodwin's The Missing Man, the fifth installment of the adventures of fictional forensic genealogist, Morton Farrier. Read my review here. Other reviews and presentations can be found on my Resources page.

Going to the local U3A for the advanced family history classes and the local history sessions is also keeping me busy. So many people have wonderful family stories and this Friday I will be giving my Carnegie @ Pumicestone talk which is all about my GGG grandparents who settled here in the Toorbul/Bribie area in the late 1870s.

There hasn't been any time for new research and next week is the History Queensland Footsteps in Time conference on the Gold Coast. I am really looking forward to that and catching up with lots of genealogy friends.

Until next time happy searching!

Conferences coming up & other news - Genealogy Notes 22-30 Apr 2017

Wow the 1st of May already, where did April go? Time goes when you are busy and last week was fantastic with all kinds of news and events.

First was the exciting news that I have been selected to present two talks at AFFHO Congress 2018 in Sydney next year. Bridging the Past & Future will be held from 9-12 March 2018 and there is a great range of speakers and topics over the four days.  Make sure the dates are in your diary as this is Australasia's main genealogy event and it only happens every three years.

The next bit of exciting news was the invitation to speak at the NSW & ACT annual conference which is being held in Orange, NSW. My great uncle Solomon Price was born in Orange so I was doubly excited to have a reason to accept. It is on between 22-24 September 2017 and the conference theme is Your Family Story: Telling, Recording & Preserving. Registrations open today and the program should be going up this week. Something to look forward to.

Last week's presentation at Ipswich Central Library was well attended with lots of questions. One lady told me she remembered me from 35 years ago when I worked at the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland and that she still enjoys my talks. She is now 87 years old and still doing the family history which is wonderful to see. It has to be one of the best hobbies because so many of us have been doing it for so long. The passion never goes away. The talk was Warning Warning: Avoiding Common Genealogy Mistakes and as usual the presentation is on my website. Go to the Resources page, and scroll down to Presentations.

I have another presentation in June for Ipswich Libraries and next time it will be at the Redbank Plains Library. To see where I am speaking and the topic go to the Events page of my website.

My sessions at the Bribie U3A are going well and it is interesting working with a small group of people as you can focus on individual genealogy problems and factor in their interests to the talks.

The other big thing occupying my time this week is my presentation for the Footsteps in Time conference on the Gold Coast which is now less than three weeks away. The final presentation is due Friday so definitely a priority. It should be a great time with lots of interesting sessions and catching up with geneamates and making new friends.

The following weekend I am giving four talks for the Coffs Harbour District Family History Society at an all day seminar. It is a few years since I last spoke there so I am looking forward to catching up with everyone again.


So May is going to be a busy month with lots of talks and travel. There has been no time for any genealogy research or blogging as preparing and delivering presentations takes time. I'm hoping for some more free time this coming week as the other half is away on a fishing trip.

Happy researching until next time.

Outback History, Archives & Other News - Genealogy Notes 15 - 21 Apr 2017

My Ancestry DNA  profile

A big week with lots of interesting things happening. Friend, genealogist and DNA expert Helen Smith visited me in my Island paradise over Easter and helped me to understand my DNA results better. I have done autosomal tests with Ancestry DNA and Family Tree DNA and had my brother do a Y DNA test with Family Tree DNA.

If I am going to puzzle out my father's origins then I also need to get Mum and my brother to do autosomal tests too. The order is placed and hopefully they will both agree so that I can narrow down possible connections on Dad's side.

While analysing some of my top results we did find a second cousin on my mother's side. I had researched that line back in the 1970s and nobody was that interested then but now someone has done some research and DNA testing so I need to get back in touch. They are descended from my grandmother's eldest sister. So I can see how DNA can be used to locate more distant cousins. It was a very useful few hours and I really did appreciate the one on one chat about my own results. Thanks Helen.

Moya Sharp asked me to do a guest blog post on her Outback History website which I was pleased to do. Quite a few of my ancestors went to Western Australia during the 1890s gold rushes and I have found references to them on Moya's site. It is free to search and there are lots of resources for the WA goldfields. Read my blog post Queenslanders in Western Australia to get some more tips on using the site and tracing mining ancestors.

I was a bit teary when I read the proof of my last article for Inside History Magazine, although totally honoured to be part of the very last issue. As I reported last week, the Magazine is stopping publication although their website will continue with news and other information from time to time. I won't spoil the surprise of what my last article is about but I hope it generates lots of discussion.

Chocolate & wine - thanks Caloundra

My annual trek to Caloundra Family History Research to talk at their monthly meeting was as usual a wonderful afternoon. If nothing else, I should join just so that I can savour those wonderful home cooked slices they serve at afternoon tea. On a more serious note my talks was on Archives You May Not Know But Should and quite a few people said they hadn't realised there were so many archives and that they had such wonderful records. It definitely is not all online. As usual my presentation is on my website, go to the Resources page and scroll down to Presentations.

My first session as a U3A tutor on advanced family history went well and the 90 minutes went super fast. I'm not sure that an afternoon session is best as I am a morning person but it was the only time slot available. It's a keen group of people and I'm looking for this week's session too.  I will be gathering their wish list of what they want to see discussed and hopefully it can be incorporated into our sessions. I've also asked for any brick walls as actual exercises so that should be fun too.

It's a fishing weekend so I have been able to sit down and read Nathan Dylan Goodwin's latest novella The Missing Man in a single sitting. What bliss as they are usually hard to put down once you start. I haven't done the review yet but probably by next week.

Coming up this week I have the first of two talks for Ipswich City Libraries so anyone in the Ipswich area is welcome to join us at the Central Library on Thursday 27 April at 10am. It's free with details here.

National Family History Month is a bit quiet with only one society entering their genealogy events for August 2017 so far. I certainly hope we get some more participation soon. Societies who do participate usually report that they get more new members and more people visiting their premises and attending their sessions so it does pay to advertise.

Another busy week coming up with the trip to Ipswich, tutoring at U3A and hopefully writing a blog post or two. Have a great genealogy week and good luck with your searching. Until next time.

WDYTYA Speaker handouts, Inside History Ends & Other News - Genealogical Notes 7-14 Apr 2017

Happy Easter everyone. We spent yesterday helping Mum celebrate 83 years and catching up with other family members. Family occasions seem to be where you most notice the passing of the years. It has been a while since I last saw my nephew and he is now sporting a moustache and looking much older. Yet I can still easily remember him as a baby and surely he was only at school last year. Mum is talking about wanting to see a great grandchild but none of the three grandchildren look like settling down anytime soon. But then my brother and I were a bit tardy there too so we will be waiting a while to be grandparents. Every family is different but we should all be recording these family stories while we can.

Photo courtesy of Noel and Del Bergman

On Thursday I went to the Bribie Island Family History Group meeting to hear the talk on the 1865 voyage of the Susanne Godeffroy from Hamburg Germany to Moreton Bay. Noel and Del Bergman gave a fascinating talk on their research which led to a 522 book The Passage of Time: the 1865 voyage of the Susanne Godeffroy not only on the voyage but also all those on board the ship.

Some of the case studies were fascinating. Noel and Del gave some really good research advice during the talk including the following points:

• you need to visit archives and libraries (it's not all online)
• you need to visit cemeteries - online indexes, transcripts or photos still don't give you context of who is buried close by (and that's true for any record series)
• you need to use more that just the usual family history resources - they mentioned some of my favourites including police gazettes (it really is staggering how many different resources there are when you see them listed in a publication).

My only regret was that I didn't have someone on the Susanne Godeffroy. If you get a chance to hear the Bergman's talk, definitely go and you can also visit their website on the Bergman/Eckersley family history. A small group of us stayed on to have lunch at the Bribie RSL and continued talking about research. A great day out.

On a sad note I received an email from Inside History magazine this week advising that the next issue will be their last. We can all appreciate how hard it must be to continually produce and publish such a quality print and digital magazine and it is a shame that it was not financially sustainable. I have been a supporter from the beginning and had the pleasure of writing many articles, blogs and expert queries for them over the years. I was especially honoured to be part of the last issue. Cassie wrote:

I would like to thank our subscribers and advertisers who believed in Inside History from the start; without your support the magazine would not have lasted as long as it did. I would like to thank our talented contributors, who generously gave their time and expertise to write for us. And to our readership, all 60,000 of you across our print, digital and social platforms, thank you for reading the magazine, and for telling us how much you loved each issue.  We’ve loved hearing your stories, how we’ve helped you overcome research brick walls, and connected you with new family members.

I would just like to say to Cassie that Inside History magazine will be greatly missed and on the positive side, it is really good news that the Inside History website will continue and be updated from time to time. They are also working on an exciting photo dating website which will be launched later this year. Sounds fascinating.

WDYTYA 2017 - photo courtesy Alan Phillips

Who Do You Think You Are 2017 looks like it was another fun event and it is good to see the social media posts and photos even if we can't get their ourselves. I followed Alan Phillips' (from Gould Genealogy & History and Unlock the Past)  photos on Facebook. So many different exhibitors and such a large venue. It's on the 'must do' list for the future.

Of particular interest is that the handouts from the various speakers are available free on the website. While it is not as good as hearing someone's talk you can still learn a lot from the handouts. There were some interesting sessions - check them out here. You can also see 2014 and 2015 talks as well. Why not binge out on WDYTYA handouts instead of Easter chocolates?

I have been sent a review copy of Nathan Dylan Goodwin's new book The Missing Man so I am looking to find some quiet time to read uninterrupted. From what I have seen on social media, this one is another 'you can't put it down' book.

A busy week coming up with a talk at the monthly meeting of the Caloundra Family History Research, my advanced course in family history starts at the Bribie U3A and my ongoing local history course starts up again after the holiday break.

Have a safe and happy Easter, and if you do find time for some genealogy research, good luck. Until next time, happy searching.

New Wiltshire records, more newspapers coming & Other News - Genealogy Notes 1-7 Apr 2017

There is nothing more exciting than finding out about new collections online. All of the major databases have free enewsletters or blogs that alert you to what's new which can be distracting. To be honest anything would take me away from the housework at the weekend.

Findmypast announced in their Friday 7 April update that there are new Scottish Roman Catholic parish records and new Wiltshire parish records online.

My great grandfather Herbert William White (on the far left in the photograph) was from Pitton & Farley in Wiltshire. I have a few lines in Wiltshire and neighbouring Hampshire that are stuck so this was welcome news.

I've discovered a few more things but one family still eludes me in the 1841 census. I know they are there but I simply can't find them in any of the transcript/indexed sites.

Not even using approximate ages and given names only. The surname is Pragnell and that can be written in lots of different ways.


Another area where I can spend lots of hours is digitised newspapers and the list of titles coming to Trove includes the following:

• Daily News (Tweed Heads, NSW: 1938-1940) ); [State Library of New South Wales Digital Excellence Program]
• The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW: 1879-1906); [State Library of New South Wales Digital Excellence Program]
• Labor Daily (NSW: 1924 - 1938); [State Library of New South Wales Digital Excellence Program]
• Millthorpe Post (1900-1901); [Millthorpe and District Historical Society]
• Tribune (Communist Party of Australia: 1955-1974); [State Library of New South Wales Digital Excellence Program and The Search Foundation]
• Moreton Mail (1886-1889); [Moreton Bay Regional Libraries]
• The Citizen (Port Adelaide, SA: Nov. 1938-May 1940); [Renewal SA]
• The Gateway (Port Adelaide, SA: 30 Aug. 1946-29 Nov. 1946); [Renewal SA]
• Port Adelaide District Pictorial (14 Mar. 1952-14 Jan. 1954); [Renewal SA]
• The Progressive Times (Largs North, SA: 16 May 1949-Feb 1951); [Renewal SA]
• Seaport News Review (21 Jan. 1954-29 Apr. 1954); [Renewal SA]
• The Evening Echo (Ballarat, VIC: 1914-1918); [State Library Victoria]
• The Star (Ballarat, VIC: 1856) [Ballarat Library]
• Hamersley News (180-1987) [State Library of Western Australia]

I'm particularly excited about the Moreton Mail and the South Australian titles. Now to be patient until they are finished. 

This coming week there are meetings of the Bribie Island Historical Society and the Bribie Island Family History Group and there will be a talk on the Susanne Godeffroy which arrived in Brisbane from Hamburg, Germany in 1865. Not one of my family ships but I always enjoy hearing about different voyages. 

There are two of my own talks coming up this month in Caloundra and Ipswich so I need to finalise those talks. To see where I am speaking over the next few months visit the Services and Events page of my website. I have started writing again for Going In-Depth, an online genealogy magazine published by The In-Depth Genealogist. I had a few months off as it is not always easy coming up with articles on a regular basis. A bit like blogging.

Trove Tuesday is a regular blog challenge and this week my piece was titled Why You Can't Find Someone because I finally found a newspaper report on my great grandfather Thomas Price's accidental death. He is the dapper gentleman on the right in the photo. 

Why did it take so long to find, given that I had a date? Because it was recorded as William Price and I wasn't searching for a William! Read the post for the whole story and how I found it.

Easter is next weekend and it will be a chance to catch up with the family and celebrate Mum's 83rd birthday. Seems like only yesterday we were planning the big 80 and now the big 85 is looming. Should be a good time. Cake and Easter eggs together!

Enjoy the coming week and try and find the time to check out all the new resources coming online. 

Until next time, happy searching.

Perpetual copyright ends & Other News - Genealogy Notes 22-31 Mar 2017

I'm busy writing this as strong winds and heavy rain swirls around us and its been like that since early this morning. And it will get worse in a couple of hours - ex cyclone Debbie has to be one of the biggest storms ever to impact so much of Queensland over the last few days. I hope everyone stays as safe as they possibly can and that damage is minimal.

Perhaps the best news ever was that on 22 March 2017 the Copyright Amendment (Disability Access and Other Measures) Bill was introduced to the Australian Parliament. The Bill will end perpetual copyright for unpublished materials and as a result millions of historical manuscripts will be freed into the public domain on 1 January 2019.

This is fantastic news - how often have we found something in manuscript or archive collections that would be wonderful to share with others but it has been almost impossible to establish copyright. All those old letters sent to government departments or shared between family and friends decades ago. 

The Australian Libraries and Copyright Committee released a statement on the tabling of the Copyright Amendment Bill - read more about Captain Cook’s Diaries Free Thanks to Copyright Bill. Remember we just have to wait now until 1 January 2019.

Deniliquin is also famous for its Ute Muster
- our favourite from last visit

For those in western New South Wales or norther Victoria, or perhaps even Adelaide you might want to note that Deniliquin Genealogy Society is having another one of their famous Family History Expos on 13-15 October 2017. They have some fantastic exhibitors already lined up and some speakers over the weekend. I went to the first one back in 2012 and had a fantastic time. Just a pity that Bribie Island is so far from Deniliquin. Almost makes me wish I was back in Victoria.

The University of Tasmania is offering a unit entitled Convict Ancestors and it is covered by a full HECS scholarship, meaning that you will not incur a tuition fee or debt for study of the unit. See the home page for more information.
Have a look at the old woman on that page - her face has just so much character and you can't help thinking what stories could she tell.

I'm tempted to do some of their courses myself but I have just agreed to run an advanced family history course at the local Bribie U3A in second term. There will be dedicated subject areas for the first six weeks and then for the remaining four weeks we will look at Australia, England, Scotland and Ireland. We will look at topics that students suggest over the course. Should be good. I've attended local history courses but this will be the first time as a U3A tutor.

My blog writing has been a little haphazard of late and I have been asked to do a guest blog for Outback Family History which is one of my favourite sites. Anyone with mining ancestors who went to WA should really look at this site. With all the rain forecast, now might be a good time to start that. I have a number of families who chased the gold so I might write about them. Coming up with the catchy blog title is always the hardest part.

Although Trove Tuesday blog challenge comes around every week, somehow I always seem to miss Tuesday. Must be Island time but my aim is to at least write one a month so next Tuesday is now a yellow post it note on my desk!

It's a busy week coming up with a couple of trips to Brisbane, assuming all the roads are open again on Monday. There are two talks coming up in April which I have to prepare not to mention the U3A course. Maybe I should try and get more done over the next few very wet days, assuming we keep the power on. Stay safe everyone in SE Qld and good luck with any genealogy searching in the coming week. Until next time.

Female ancestors, NFHM 2017 & Other News - Genealogy Notes 15 - 21 Mar 2017

Dorcas White nee Trevaskis

March is Women's History Month and I was going to write a blog post on my great grandmothers. But as I started thinking about what to write, it felt very familiar. You know that feeling - I've done this before. On my website I have a page for My Families and under that all the family names I am researching. It is here that I link my blog posts to my family names to keep track of what I have written about. Searching under my grandmothers' names I couldn't find the post yet I was sure that I had done something similar at some point.

When in doubt, Google. I found it by searching for my own name and 'my grandmothers'. Obviously I forgot to put links to the post on My Families pages. What's even worse I only wrote it 12 months ago so my memory is also going! Read Women's History Month - My Four Great Grandmothers and I have added 'check blog post links' to my 'to do' list.

Recently a friend also commented that she had started doing reminder notes to herself and she is only a year older than me. We lead such busy lives with lots going on that you almost need them for everything, not just shopping lists. When I revisit a family that I haven't looked at for a while, I like to see that I have left a note about what needs to be done next. Or sometimes it is good to relook at everything. I do that all the time with Trove and last time I turned up some interesting snippets on distant cousins. Everything from car accidents to petty court appearances - not just births, deaths and marriages.

I'm happy to say that we seem to have the National Family History Month web calendar working again so it is now open for anyone to add their events for August 2017. The Genealogical Society of Queensland were first off the mark and I hope lots of other societies, libraries and archives add their events to the calendar. The major sponsors this year are Ancestry, Momento and MyHeritage as well as our Prize Sponsors and our major sponsors are also offering prizes.

Heading to Queensland State Archives tomorrow to do some research and hoping that no one asks me if I like their new website. I don't and it took ages for me to find what I wanted. There are some records relating to my great grandparents Thomas and Elizabeth Price that I really want to find - but it is correspondence in a top number system so only hope that I can track it through and that the correspondence is at the end of the search. A few other bits and pieces on microfilm to occupy me while I wait for records to be retrieved and I must remember to take some food with me this time. You can drive up to the shops for lunch but that all takes time and I try to maximise my time with the records.

My brother and I many moons ago!

Easter is fast approaching and it will be Mum's 83rd birthday. Seems like only yesterday we had the 80th birthday party and I did my Powerpoint presentation on Mum's life. It will be a chance to catch up with all of the family again so I'm thinking about putting together another slide show of early family photos as the kids (really all adults now) love seeing their parents as youngsters!

There is not much on my agenda next week now that I have sorted out NFHM so perhaps I will get to do some family history research. Time to blog a few more family stories too. Until next time, have a great geneaweek.

St Patrick's Day, NZ conference & Other News - Genealogy Notes 8-14 Mar 2017

Well it was another week of geneaenvy when I discovered via Facebook that quite a few geneamates are heading for Auckland for the New Zealand Society of Genealogists conference in June. I have been to quite a few of their conferences and expos over the years and they are always good value. Dick Eastman is again on the program, he must like going to New Zealand and who wouldn't, and Judy Russell who I first met in person on an Unlock the Past genealogy cruise. You could easily sit and listen to Judy talk all day. There are other speakers and some great topics so check the program out here. I'm seriously tempted to go but I already have one geneaconference on the Gold Coast in May, plus the geneacruise to Papua New Guinea in July and lots of talks lined up in August for National Family History Month. So lots of exciting things already in my calendar.

With regard to National Family History Month we are still trying to fix the bug in our events calendar so it is a slow start to promoting it this year. But I can't really ask for events when last year's are still showing as current. Hopefully we will work out a solution soon. In the meantime I now have 8 talks during August and this will probably increase as I still need to find an event for the drawing of the sponsor's prizes at the end of the month. Stay tuned.

Another exciting event is Chris Paton (British and Irish research) returning to our shores in August and he will be touring with Dirk Weissleder (German research) as part of an Unlock the Past tour. Check out the tour dates here. They will be visiting Brisbane, Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth so lots of people will get the chance to see them. The issue for me is that the Brisbane event is the day after I get home from the Papua New Guinea cruise. Can I zip off again after returning home for only one day?

My great grandmother, Mary Finn
daughter of John Finn and Sarah Fegan

St Patrick's Day is coming up on 17 March so I will be celebrating my Irish ancestry - two great great grandparents, John Finn and Sarah Fegan from County Wicklow. My St Patrick's day blog post last year was about them and rereading it I'm surprised at how much more I have learnt about the family in a year. I recently saw a photograph of Sarah Fegan for the first time and I'm eagerly waiting for my cousin to send a copy. So until I get that, I won't update the blog post. Read how I traced my Finn and Fegan families in County Wicklow here.

Findmypast are making their entire Irish collection free until midnight 17 March (GMT) so that is a fantastic chance for people to look for any Irish ancestors. Read more about the offer here. Don't miss out.

There is so much happening in the genealogy world that it is hard to keep up with all the news,even spending time on social media only scratches the surface. To help myself keep up to date I have offered to do an advance class on family history at the local U3A in Term 2. They have been running a beginners course for years and students want to progress to beyond the basics. It should be challenging but with a smaller group you can focus on what people want to know about. Plus I will be able to learn from them too.


Finally one of my favourite authors, Nathan Dylan Goodwin has published another novella in his forensic genealogist series, The Missing Man again starring the fictional Morton Farrier. I have loved all the previous books, very hard to put down once you start, so I am looking forward to reading this latest adventure.

This coming week will be mainly finishing some research enquiries, attending the local history class at  U3A and catching up on my journal reading, both paper and e-journal. The paper ones are piled up on the floor and quite visible while the e-journals are out of sight which is not a good thing for me. I need to set a dedicated time to read everything that comes in, at least once a week.

Have another good week of genealogy researching and if you can attend any of those genealogy events listed above, enter the dates in your calendar now. Personal networking with others is one of the best ways to learn and have geneafun.

Until next time.