Archives, Certificates, National Family History Month & Other News - Genealogy Notes 7 - 15 Jun 2016

It has been a crazy hectic week. The talk at Noosaville Library on Queensland Genealogy Resources Online went extremely well. It was a full house with no chairs vacant which was really great to see. The Library was so thrilled they collated the feedback and sent it to me later that afternoon. All positive and most people seemed to want more. As usual, the talk is on my website Resources page, scroll down to Presentations. Looking forward to going back there in August.

Reading room at Queensland State Archives, June 2016

The trip to Queensland State Archives was equally good and it was great to see other geneamates there for the convicts seminar. My research was also good, I simply love files that have certificates in them. Read my blog post on the whole day at Convict Queensland and visiting Queensland State Archives.

A new edition of Family History on the Cheap is now out which makes the third new edition I have done for this year. The others were What Was The Voyage Really Like? and Trove: Discover Discover Genealogy Treasure in the National Library of Australia. It is easier to update a guide than to write one from the beginning.

A while back I ordered an 1849 marriage certificate from the UK even though I knew most of the information. The names of the two witnesses don't mean anything to me at the moment. The real benefit was in the fathers' occupations. I knew one was a bailiff from the census records but the marriage certificate says William Adkins was the bailiff to the Marquess of Hertford. A quick look at Wikipedia and I found out all about the Marquess of Hertford and their property.

I then decided to look at Findmypast for British newspapers to see if their was anything on my person and I was rewarded with a brief death notice. He died at Arrow on 14 Oct 1859 of apoplexy and he was 'for a long time house steward to the Marquis of Hertford, aged 77 years'. The following year his son in law Paul Spencer as executor of William's will, called for any creditors. The other executor was William's son also called William but he had predeceased his father. So now I have more information on the son and a will to follow up.

The other father was Joseph Spencer (father of Paul in the last para) and his occupation was Inland Revenue Officer but those records are not online and no overall index for a quick lookup. I have the National Archives UK guide to tracing them so I will need to engage a researcher in London. We know nothing about Joseph apart from his name as we have never been able to locate him in the census. We have his family and it is not until the 1861 census that his wife describes herself as a widow. Perhaps his job took him away from home on census nights? It is too common a name to locate a death certificate without some parameters so his occupation may be our best chance to learn more.

One certificate at just under $20 and lots more to follow up on two family lines. Definitely worth getting!

The other thing grabbing my attention this week is National Family History Month and I have been busy organising the launch over in Perth. In a blog post Meet NFHM 2016 Major Sponsors I looked at the sponsors who help keep NFHM going. In future posts I will also introduce our prize sponsors and don't forget to add your events to our web calendar. Remember the early bird prize for societies ends on 30 June, don't miss out. Full details on the Sponsors page.

I'm in the last stages of finishing up the Health Records course which is part of the Australian Certificate with the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. It has been a fascinating exercise and I have learnt lots of interesting things along the way. The last part of any project is always the longest for me as I keep tinkering with the modules but it is due 30 June so that's focusing my attention.

I also want to update my database and files with all the new information from Queensland State Archives and plan another trip. Trying to file as I go instead of piling up for later. I need to apply that to my journals and magazines, both print and electronic. Perhaps I need more coffee breaks or is it that there are so many good things to read?

Until next time, have a great genealogy week. 

Queensland Convicts, Visiting Archives, Talking & Other News - Genealogy Notes 30 May - 6 Jun 2016

My son visited for the weekend and we had a technology free weekend, just sitting around and talking rather than checking emails and social media. first day was hardest but by the second day I was more comfortable and of course most things can wait till Monday. It was also an opportunity to sit back and see just what emails I was receiving and I was a bit surprised to see that most were not that important and I simply hit the delete button. So an email tidy up is going on and I am unsubscribing to a lot of 'advert' type emails that I don't recall signing up to. My gmail account was worse than my primary email but both were receiving things I don't read and thankfully both my spam filters save me from a lot too.

This week is almost full on with two genealogy adventures. It is Queensland Week and I am heading north to Noosaville Library to give a talk on genealogy research in Queensland focusing more on what's online. I've put together the usual suspects with some other favourite not so usual suspects and everyone should learn something new.

The next day I am heading south (lots of freeway driving) to the Queensland State Archives (QSA). I have been promising myself a research trip for some time but setting a date was always an issue. But I received an invitation to Shackled - Queensland's First Female Convicts which is a half day seminar with Dr Jennifer Harrison talking about the 140 female convicts who came to Moreton Bay (and we can buy copies of Jennifer's new book, of the same title, Shackled - Queensland's First Female Convicts) followed by a talk on how to research convict records at QSA. Both talks should be interesting and morning tea is also included. All for free!

So with that motivation in the morning, I thought why not a little research in the afternoon before the long trek home. This may say something about my age, but I am Number 1 in the QSA researcher's system and I was really pleased to find out that they can reactivate my number when I visit. In preparation for the trip I have been searching the catalogue for series and item numbers as the system has changed and there are new numbers for my old favourite series.

I also did some name searches and even though there is not a lot of name identified data in the online catalogue (more in the online indexes), I discovered some really exciting references to my great great grandfather John Finn in two series that I would not have thought to look in. I also discovered a reference to Max's grandfather Henry Spencer, again in something I would not have checked. Indexed entries are fantastic. Imagine how much we could find is everything was name indexed if time and money were not critical.

Unfortunately you can't pre-order records at QSA, so I need to get there early and try and order before the talks start. My list of want to look at files is probably too long so a return trip will be necessary but I am looking forward to some wonderful new information on problem ancestors. The other distraction is that I will probably meet up with other geneafriends at the talks, although they might also be trying to fit in a bit of research too.Stay tuned.

My ethnicity map with Ancestry DNA

I haven't seen too much talk of DNA Nation on social media but I have been taping it and have just managed to watch the first episode. I did my matriarchal DNA some years ago with 23 and Me and more recently the Ancestry ethnicity test which revealed mostly a UK background. My brother has just done a full Y test with Family Tree DNA so I am waiting to get those results. DNA Nation looks at three Australians with diverse backgrounds and the first week looked at the matriarchal side of things. I found it interesting and helped confirm my understanding of female DNA. Now to find some time to watch weeks 2 and 3.

As it has been a busy week with some solid writing, I didn't get too much time to read blogs or follow social media. So one of my easy catch up tricks is to check out Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings which is a list of the blogs that he liked best last week. As usual there were some great blog posts listed for 29 May to 4 Jun - why not have a look and see what you may have missed.

A lot of travel time coming up but if those archive files are as exciting as I hope they are, it will be a serious genealogy research weekend coming up. By some good fortune it is also a fishing competition weekend so the house will be all mine with no distractions. Lucky me. It's also a long weekend for the Queen's birthday so perhaps everyone can fit in some genealogy research. Until next time happy searching.

Irish Death Certificates, NFHM 2016 & Other News - Genealogy Notes 22 - 29 May 2016

Part of our daily walk around the resort

After a relaxing week's holiday at a resort in the Gold Coast Hinterland, there is not a lot of genealogy news to report. The only thing I did was check my emails occasionally and update events on the National Family History Month web calendar. The National Institute for Genealogical Studies early bird prize for genealogy and family history societies adding their August NFHM events to the calendar closes on 30 June, just over a month away. I hope that motivates a few more societies to be part of NFHM 2016. Full details on the Sponsors page of the website.

During the week I accepted another two speaking engagements for NFHM - both in the Sunshine Coast area so fortunately not a lot of travelling time for me. This is probably just as well as I am now doing 19 talks for NFHM in Western Australia, Queensland and New Zealand. That may be a record for the number of talks given by any one person and it is almost a certainty that I will be the most traveled person that month. Still, I do love NFHM and seeing everyone so passionate about genealogy and family history. Please help spread the word and encourage your society, local library or archives to join in too by entering their August events in the web calendar.

An email from FamilyTree DNA left me in two minds - excited and somewhat pensive. My brother has finally done the Y DNA test for me and it has been received my FamilyTree DNA. Now we are just waiting for the results. I'm giving my Love Sex and Damn Lies talk twice during NFHM so will there be a different ending??

My four Irish death images arrived by email and very good quality digital images and ever so much cheaper than a certificate. I was right not to expect too much additional information but one informant was the son in law so that confirmed I had the right person. One informant was the husband so again the right person and the other two had informants where I don't recognise the name and no relationship is given. But names, ages and places all match so I am reasonably confident I have all four Irish GGG grandparents deaths.

The causes of death were the most interesting part.Sarah Fegan was 84 years old and died of senile decay and cardiac failure. I realised that she had lived longer than her daughter Sarah who came out to Queensland. I was left wondering if she had been informed of Sarah's death or had all contact with the family been lost. Her husband Robert Fegan had died earlier, aged 78 years from asthma, something I suffered from as a child. Rosanna Finn died aged 67 years from bronchitis another one of my childhood illnesses and her husband James Finn died aged 75 years from chronic Bright's disease and something else that I cannot read (yet). This had me reaching for Helen Smith's Death Certificates and Archaic Medical Terms to learn that Bright's Disease is an inflammatory disease of the kidneys (increased protein in the urine).

Coming up in June is Queensland Week 4-12 June 2016 (celebrating Queensland's birthday on 6 June) and I will be speaking at Noosaville Library about online sources for Queensland genealogy and family history. I'm looking forward to going back to Noosaville as it is another one of those places we almost settled. Watch out for other interesting events during the week.

History Week in New South Wales is 3-11 September and they are calling for events to be registered and also for groups who would like a speaker to visit them. Now in its 19th year, it has a Neighbours theme including stories of individuals, families and communities living near one another and links between suburbs, regions and countries. Full details on their website and it should be an exciting time for those in NSW.

Now that I am back home there are a few writing projects that need to be finalised before the end of June and regular blogs and articles to be completed. The weather is a little cooler but still not really autumn and with winter next week, I am still able to swim in the pool, although it is solar heated.

Tortoise enjoying a sun bake

Python also enjoying the sunshine

One of the great things about where we stayed on the Gold Coast Hinterland was that it had a natural lagoon with an amazing range of birds and tortoises which were fond of coming up for a sun bake during the day. I was not so fond of the huge python we came across on one of our bush walks. It really  was good to have a week off but now looking forward to a fantastic week of genealogy research. Until next time enjoy those genealogy moments.

AFFHO Congress 2018, NFHM 2016 & other news": Genealogy Notes 14 - 21 May 2016

Well the big news this week was the announcement of the AFFHO Congress date and venue. It will be held 9-12 March 2018 at the Darling Harbour International Convention Centre in Sydney. I've been to other conferences there and it is a fantastic venue with lots of accommodation nearby, easy transport and other fascinating Sydney things to do nearby.There is a Congress 2018 website and a Congress 2018 Facebook page to follow for all the news leading up to 2018. You can even watch the YouTube video. It seems like a long way away but time will fly. Not an event to be missed.

The other news I found exciting was that Roots Ireland now has a one day subscription. I don't have that many Irish families and would not really benefit from a whole year subscription. But if I sit down and work out all my Irish searches, a one day session just might  suit. Mind you, I would have to make certain there would be no family interruptions to distract me. Perhaps the next fishing trip away could be my time for an Irish weekend?

I'm eagerly waiting for an English marriage certificate and four Irish death certificates to arrive. With the marriage certificate I am hoping to discover the occupation of the groom's father. I have been unable to find anything on him other than his name and perhaps the occupation will help. If it says deceased that will be a clue to. With the death certificates I am interested in the cause of death and not expecting to learn anything else but it will help to finalise those lines.

It was nice to receive a small but welcome payment for my articles for Going In-Depth digital genealogy magazine published by The In-Depth Genealogist. My next article and blog for them is due at the end of the month so that will keep me busy. I was also asked to do another Q&A  for Family Tree Magazine UK which was interesting.

Also renewed my subscription to Dick Eastman's Plus newsletter which always has some great articles. Really looking forward to hearing him talk again at the Auckland Family History Expo in August.

National Family History Month is still adding events but we would really welcome more genealogy events for our August genea-extravanganza. Check out  the new website and why not also follow us on our NFHM Facebook page for all the latest news and events.

I'm away from home at the moment so not a lot of time to do much genealogy but will be visiting a cousin who has always shared family information. Will be good to catch up with them.

Until next week, have a great geneaweek.

Killing Off Ancestors, Adelaide Expo & Other News - Genealogy Notes 7-13 May 2016

Mother's Day tulips

Mother's Day 2016 for us was a great family reunion with all of us turning up at Mum's place. There are not a lot of us - just me and Max, my son and his fiancee (not sure if I have mentioned this before but she now wears a rather dazzling ring), my brother and his wife, my nephew and his girlfriend and my niece. My brother has still not done the DNA test I bought last November but he is admitting to being slack. Fingers crossed he went home motivated. I need an ending to my Love Sex and Damn Lies talk!

Another date for your calendars is the Unlock the Past Australian History and Genealogy Expo in Adelaide 7-8 October 2016. I'm planning to go and I know some of my other geneafriends are planning a trip over and of course all our SA friends who don't have to travel.

Why am I making the trek? My Cornish ancestors arrived in South Australia in the early 1860s and my great grandmother Dorcas Trevaskis was born in Moonta in 1866. I have always been fascinated with Cornish culture and one of my favourite books is Philip Payton's Cornwall: A History. Philip Payton is going to be one of the speakers at the Expo and it will be so good to hear him in person. The other key presenter is Tom Lewis a military historian who I first heard in Darwin in 2012 at the 70th anniversary commemoration of the bombing of Darwin. Two excellent reasons to go plus there are other presenters and exhibitors for two days of genealogy in Adelaide.

Killing off John's parents

Some months ago now I discovered what I believe to be the death years for my Wicklow great great great grandparents, James and Rosanna Finn and Robert and Sarah Fagan. I have delayed getting the certificates because there is not a lot of information on Irish death certificates although it would be good to know cause of death and if the informant is a relative.

Re-looking at my paperwork in the Note section I find you can get a photocopy of the entry for 4 Euros instead of 16 Euros for the certificate. This option should be in the list of options available not in a note. Anyway now that I know for about $25 AU instead of $100 I can kill off my GGG grandparents I have gone ahead and ordered the photocopies. I have even asked for the copies to be sent email as I am now super keen to see if there are any surprises.

Getting Sarah's
death certificate at last

At the least I will know more about them than I do now which is only their names and their marriage information (sadly minus any parent details). So killing them off (getting their death certificates) may signal the end of the road for my Irish research. Although who knows what might turn up as more records are indexed or digitised.

Another piece of good news is that the National Archives of Australia replied to my enquiry re the wrong indexing of John James Carnegie's WW2 dossier. I was right and they have corrected it so that Carnegie is now the surname and not James. So if you do find indexing errors, always point them out and if it is a genuine error it can be fixed. If the name is wrong on the records then it can't be changed. For example, my great uncle Solomon Price has a number of Boer War documents but on one of them it is definitely Soloman not Solomon so I have to search both variants as he seems to have used both spellings at different times.

This coming week I have a Skype meeting with AFFHO where I will be giving an update on National Family History Month. My only wish is that more people will put their August events up into our new web calendar. NFHM can only work if societies advertise events such as their monthly meetings, library days or anything else they are doing during August. The early bird prize for all societies contributing an event ends on 30 June so don't miss out. Archives and libraries can also participate. Our media sponsor Inside History Magazine has given us a whole page advert in the May-Jun 2016 issue so that should get people interested.

Have a great week and remember to squeeze in a little genealogy. Until next time happy researching

Mother's Day, In Memoriams & Other News - Genealogy Notes 29 Apr - 6 May 2016

Mother and son, 1987

This weekend is Mother's Day and the only blog post I achieved this week was my Mother's Day 2016 post. My son was born just after Mother's Day and we tend to often celebrate the two events together. This is what we looked like back then and hopefully we will take some more good photos when we catch up on Sunday.

In Memoriam notices can be worth looking for and with Trove's digitised newspapers it is ever so much easier than trying to find them on microfilm. In my Mother's Day blog I have written about the In Memoriam notices that the daughters of my great grandmother Dorcas White wrote to remember their mother, long after she died. Even today the verses are moving and show that Dorcas was a mother greatly loved.

The end of a month always sees me finishing up my blog and article for The In-Depth Genealogist. I have been doing a blog series on Australasian archives and libraries for over 12 months now and the article series is about researching downunder with a different subject each month. It is a great way for me to keep up with what is new and quite often I end up doing some research on one of my own families as they were all over Australia and New Zealand at various times.

As voluntary coordinator of National Family History Month in Australia, I will be busy in August with the launch in Perth and talks here in Queensland. I'm excited to reveal that I will also be celebrating NFHM in New Zealand as I am a speaker at the Auckland Family History Expo. Even more exciting, Dick Eastman is a key speaker and the last time I had the pleasure of meeting Dick was in Auckland at the 2009 AFFHO Congress. It should be a great three days and I will also be giving a talk at the Auckland Library on the Monday. They have a fantastic family history centre there and I am looking forward to seeing it again. A busy August coming up.

Last Diary it was raining and I was about to do some serious filing and catching up on the Spencer family. Most of this information I had gathered over the last few years since we moved to Bribie. I've discovered lots on the family during this time and just kept piling it together and its amazing how much I had forgotten or not looked at closely because of other priorities.

It was only as I cross checked my database and the documents and filed in the binders that I could see how much of the Spencer families lives I have detailed. Thanks to Findmypast I even managed to flesh out a few generations in England. The sad part is that it does not look like there are any males of that Spencer line left in England although there are a few here. So many sons only had daughters or did not have children at all.

Mother and daughter ca 1974

As a female, I am not that interested in male only  lines, my female lines are equally interesting but it is sad to see a family name disappear. This also happened with my White family in Queensland. There are lots of White descendants from the daughters but the sons either did not marry or only had daughters. I'm now starting to look for any similar trends in my other families.

I hope everyone enjoys the Mother's Day weekend as we either visit them or remember them. In this photo Mum and I looked more like sisters and I'm guessing this is about 1974. Pity we didn't put dates, places and names on our photos back then!

Until next time, happy genealogy researching.

More photo success, ANZAC Day blogs & other news - Genealogy Notes 22 - 28 Apr 2016

A fantastic week of new discoveries in sources previously searched but not under names I was expecting. I've always looked for variant spellings but sometimes it is hard to know if something is the right entry. And sometimes we need a little prompt to try again.

I am so glad that I went to State Library of Queensland's WW1 White Glove Experience at the Bribie Island Seaside Museum last Friday. Not only was it a chance to catch up with my old Library colleague Niles Elvery but also to see up close some of the Library's WW1 treasures. It's been a while since I have worn the 'white gloves'.

Niles Elvery Regional Coordinator
of Q Anzac 100 program

WW1 treasures on display
in regional areas

 In chatting to Niles afterwards I mentioned that I could only find one of my three Finn brothers in the WW1 soldiers portraits database which contains nearly 27,000 Queensland soldiers. He agreed that it was odd so I went home to have another look. Since last searching the database I had been lucky enough to find a photo of all three brothers in The Week, a digitised newspaper now in Trove. As usual I only searched on the Finn surname as there are not that many and as I looked at the photo of I Finn it looked very much like the photo of John Finn in The Week. Yes the I should have been a J and the error was made in 1917 at the time of publication in The Queenslander.

I was so excited about this discovery that I used it for my  post for the Trans Tasman ANZAC Day blog challenge - The Finn Brothers. Lots of other bloggers also did the challenge so have a look and maybe discover some new military tips and resources. I still have to find a good quality image of Robert Finn but at least I have images of all three now.

The Anzac Day parade and service on Bribie was bigger again this year and thankfully it was a bit cooler than last time. For most of the service there was cloud cover and not full sun. At least Max could participate in the march this year, last year he was still walking with a cane after breaking his leg in late January.

Max with his RAAF buddies
on the march

Bribie Island RSL

There is a 'we're part of NFHM' logo and I have put a copy on the Participate page of the website so that those organising events can download it. I am hoping to see lots of it in the months leading up to National Family History Month in August. When you think about it, that is only three months away!

I finished the University of Strathclyde FutureLearn free online course on genealogy. It was a well structured course and I found the six weeks went incredibly fast. While a lot of material was familiar to me there was some new information and lots of people put tips and resources in their comments. Perhaps its main benefit to me was that it inspired me to relook at some of my research and over the last few weeks I have made new discoveries and solved some old stumbling blocks.And it was free so it doesn't get better than that. There is a 'register interest' button on the website so they must be thinking of running the course again.

The History Queensland Footsteps in Time family and local history conference and fair 19-21 May 2017 website is now up. Definitely a conference to pencil into your calendars for next year! There is also an invitation to speak so if you want to be part of the program, submit your proposal before 30 August. The date's a bit tricky for me as it is also my son's 30th birthday - maybe I can pop in on my way back from the Gold Coast.

It's a rainy day here for a change so I am doing a little blog writing in between filing all my new information into my database and folders. I might pick another family I haven't looked at for a while and see what's new in Trove. That might even give me next Trove Tuesday's blog post!

Have a good genealogy week. Until next time.