What's new, Family History Month, Books, Talks & More: My Genealogy Months May, June and July 2024

Not sure where the last three months have gone but it has been an eventful time.

Back from my holiday which didn't go quite to plan. Missed seeing Belfast and Islandmagee, Shetland and my three-night stopover in Doha. However, I still managed to get to Sweden and spend some time with my little two-year-old grandson. What happened? Bad luck said the hospital doctor when I queried how I got bacterial pneumonia which led to a 11-day hospital stay in Liverpool, England.

Baptismal font
Canterbury Cathedral England

On the plus side I also managed a few days in The Netherlands in Amsterdam and Rotterdam before boarding the cruise ship. The first port was Dover, and it was really good seeing the white cliffs of Dover as we sailed in. 

The excursion to Canterbury Cathedral and Leeds Castle in Kent was good. 

From there we went to Ireland, and we saw the castles of Cashel and Cahir which was amazing. The next day I knew I was sick and confirmed with an x-ray in the ship's hospital. Thank goodness for travel insurance. 

Only a couple more medical appointments and apparently I will be as good as new. Not sure I believe that but I certainly hope it helps with my mobility issues. The pink walking cane is an eye catcher and often leads to people assisting me or giving up a seat for me. I would miss that. Stay tuned.

Blogs

Cashel Castle Ireland

Once out of the blogging habit, it is hard to get back to it. However I did complete another guest post for the Genealogical Society of Queensland. It was inspired by some new records on MyHeritage, marriages in New York. Read about my USA connection here.

Books

Many years ago, I catalogued all my library books into Library Thing. From time to time, I have added books but not every book and I have moved books around and even given some away. As a result, I have bought second copies which is a waste not to mention lugging them home in my suitcase. One of my promises to myself post illness was to update Library Thing and put the app on my phone. It is a tedious job checking, adding and deleting but I will now be able to find any book anywhere in the study.

Do I really have 641 books from 442 authors on my bookshelves? And that is after my massive cull and giveaway of books over the last year.

Extract from my Library Thing catalogue

Family History Month

Check out the new AFFHO website for Family History Month - they have dropped the national. It is now much easier to add events to the calendar for August. Have a look at August events.

Remember too there are prizes to be won. Simple to enter and free.

Genealogy Software

There is a new Version 10 for Legacy Family Tree software which I will have to download as I have Max's family in Legacy. I often move my own family between Family Tree Maker and Legacy as there are different features that I like.

Ancestry have introduced a paid product DNA Pro Tools which allows you to see the shared matches of your matches. Max is away fishing so I have quite a few hours set aside to check out what it does for my own DNA matches. Have heard good reports from others but I am looking to find three unknown biological ancestors all on Dad's side. 

New Records

Findmypast has new parish records for London, Middlesex and Surrey. Also over 320,000 new digitised newspaper pages. Anybody else finding it hard to catch up.

Online Events

On 22 June I attended the Society of Australian Genealogists one day seminar on Enhancing Your Family History with Artificial Intelligence. There were seven speakers looking at different aspects and certainly thought provoking.

Canal cruising Amsterdam

Talks

There are seven talks lined up for me during August so it will be a busy month for me. Some are virtual so that saves travel time and worrying about what the highway traffic will be like.

Check out the events page of my website for dates, places and topics. 

What's Coming Up

There are a number of events I'm looking forward to attending in August. Some in person and some virtual. 

I am also hoping to catch up with everything - so easy to get behind when you go on holidays or get sick or both. 

Emails multiply, my blog and genealogy journals/magazines falls behind and then there is my Ph D on the Incarceration of Women in Colonial Queensland. My one year milestone is coming up in August. The year has flown. 

Until next time happy searching

Staggering additions to online collections, NFHM and other genealogy news: My Genealogy Weeks 22 Mar - 30 Apr 2024

 My holidays are fast approaching and as usual, all the things I have to do seems to increase. The last four weeks have flown.

Bribie Family History Association

As Hon President and unofficial Tech Girl, this keeps me busy every meeting day. I have to get the projector up and running, the remote controls and the speaker's presentation. At the same time I have to try and talk to the guest speaker and any members who want to chat to me. So far no one wants to take on the tech side of things and I can understand why no one wants to be out front as President. 

Still things are usually OK on the day. The May meeting will be interesting - I am Tech Girl, I am chairing the BFHA general meeting and then I am the guest speaker with a talk on finding my Irish family online. By the time the meeting finishes I will be somewhat wrecked.

The FamilySearch workshop I ran for the group was very successful. There are so many aspects within FamilySearch for researching and recording our family history. Booked out both sessions and some lovely feedback on both the morning and the afternoon. Feeling quite chuffed. A lot of work goes into preparing these workshops so it is really nice to see it appreciated.

• All excellent, thoroughly enjoyed and learnt heaps
• Shauna is an excellent speaker and knows her subject well
• (enjoyed the most) depth of knowledge of speaker and humour in talk
• Found out things I didn't know
• All wonderful, enjoyed it immensely and very professional presentation
• Took me to another level that I didn't expect
• Very thorough and exactly what I didn't know I needed
• Shauna is an excellent teacher and she makes the talks very interesting
• Extremely well done Shauna is a wealth of knowledge

BFHA Book Club

One of our members has taken over the organisation of the club for me. This saves me additional visits to the library to pick up and drop off our book sets. Plus she will be suggesting the books which will be a surprise to me. So far we have had very different books each month. 

Our next selection is Judy Nunn's Khaki Town based around the bombing of Darwin in World War 2. Perfect holiday reading.

There is no May meeting as a couple of us will be away and the June meeting is put back a week so that I can attend.

Also loaded up my reading apps for the trip. Not ideal reading on my phone, but certainly beats carrying books around in my suitcase. I have enough Bluey books as it is.

DNA

Downloaded from Diahan Southhard So Far Genetic Genealogy: The first 25 years 1999-2024: Reflections from DNA Leaders and Luminaries. Yes another book to read (only 90 pages) but so interesting to see the changes in our own lifetimes. Although DNA has only been on my own radar since 2015 and that fateful test. 

Nick Vine Hall Awards

The awards closed on 30 April 2024. As the new convenor, on behalf of AFFHO, I am super excited to say that we have 22 entries from member societies. These have all been sent off to our three judges who will have the big job of reading and scoring the entries and then I collate the scores, organise the plaques and certificates and hand over to the AFFHO President. The Awards are announced during National Family History Month in August. 

Resources

I was somewhat shocked to read the latest newsletter from the British Newspaper Archive - they added half a million new pages in just one week. Staggering. Digitised newspapers are the gift that just keeps on giving as you find snippets or longer stores abour your ancestors and their families. What a great time to be researching your family history.

Another great mind explosion since last Diary was attending the FamilySearch 130th anniversary in Brisbane and finding out that they are using AI with free text collections. This will save enormous amounts of time indexing and will make everyone mentioned in a document accessible not just the primary person eg in wills. 

Here is an example from my FamilySearch workshop. The will is for Mary Hayes but I searched for Trevaskis and as you can see the words are highlighted in the transcript and in the original document. How good is that? Still experimental in their labs but coming soon.

Talks

Another great session at Noosaville Library on military ancestors just in time for Anzac Day. 

Just updated my website to reflect some of the new talks for the second half of the year. That includes events for National Family History Month in August, always a busy time for me. Go to the Events page of my website to see what is coming up - both in person and virtual.

What's Coming Up?

A mad week making sure I have everything I need for my trip. Ticking off a few items from my bucket list as usual - one of the big highlights is visiting Lerwick in the Shetland Islands (love Shetland the series) and a personal tour to Islandmagee in County Antrim where Dad's paternal family is from. The icing on the cake is seeing my little grandson and giving him his 2nd birthday presents in person. 

My 'to do' list for when I return is starting to look a little daunting and I always wonder should I slow down. Maybe in a few more years. Until next time, happy researching, Shauna

PS Next Diary will be the end of June. 

Nick Vine Hall Awards, Bribie Library & Other News: My Genealogy Weeks 1-21 Mar 2024

So much has been happening over the last few weeks and as per usual, I am behind with my updates. March is Women's History Month and I liked Trove's blog on Pioneering Women.

Books

The Bribie Family History Association Book Club totally enjoyed Kate Grenville's A Room Made of Leaves.

Our next book is from one of our own members. Rick Desmier published his own family history in 2020 using NED the National E Deposit Library maintained by the National Library of Australia and searchable through Trove. The Desmier family history: an Anglo Indian family that has been in India for more than 200 years. 

Rick joined my U3A family history writing class in 2019 to undertake this and it is an inspiration to me to finish my own drafts. 

I like the fact that our book club seem to go between fiction and non fiction books. 

Genealogy Software

I had an interesting chat with Martin who is the developer of Forebears the easy to navigate family history app. It is available for both Apple IPhone/IPad and Mac. 

You can upload your family tree via gedcom and then carry it around on your phone or device.

It is not connected to any of the online databases and it is easy to add to and share with family members. No one has access to your data except you.

The Forebears app is free to download and use. I found it easy to use and it managed Mum's rather large gedcom file. 

It is certainly convenient to have it on my phone without having to log into a website. Like any app or software program it is what best suits your purpose. Only by trying different things do we know what works best for our own research needs.

During my playtime with this app, I realised just how many places my tree is online. Also many are quite out of date and I really should either update or take down. An online tidy up just went on my to do list. How does everyone keep their trees online up to date?

New Resources - DNA update

Ancestry have updated their DNA communities and I now have Queensland (no surprises there), Eastern Australia (from Jervis Bay down to Eden and almost out to Griffith and Wodonga and the ACT. Wish I had known that when I lived there! Obviously Dad's family.

Further afield I have northern Ireland and south western Scotland, again aligns with Dad's family. No real surprises on Mum's side but a designated Western Cornwall now. 

Interesting to see how these ethnicity fields are refined over time.  

Nick Vine Hall Awards for AFFHO

As the new convenor for the NVH awards, I have been busy accepting early entries for the 2023 awards, answering queries, liasing with the judges and getting organised for a Zoom session for members after Easter. Read more about the Awards on the AFFHO website.

Presentations

The Genie Chats on English Genealogy keep me busy each week and hard to believe another term is almost over. Next term it will be looking at a few brick wall case studies as I will be away for quite a few weeks.

PhD Update

Griffith University have now finished my working database for my colonial women in Queensland gaols. Now all I have to do is enter my data on women already researched and continue working on the thousand plus still to go. I have used one of my favourite photos as a backdrop - it might have my great great grandmother in it.

Every book or article I read sends me in even more directions and it is amazing how much relates to my own personal family history. 

Talks

It was nice seeing familiar faces at my talk for the Bribie Island Library. The session was on the 1921 census for England and Wales which is available on Findmypast at the Library. So many new features that you wish were available for the earlier census records. 

What's Coming Up

Easter can you believe it? My trip to Sweden and my grandson's second birthday is also getting closer. So many things to finalise before I head off for another trip of a lifetime. A quick circumnavigation of the UK and Shetland Islands is also in the plan as well as stopovers in Amsterdam and Doha.

Over Easter I hope to do a tidy up of my website. One tends to set the pages and then forget that they might need a bit of an update from time to time.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter break with family or friends. Try not to eat too much chocolate. And try to find a little time for your own personal family history research. 

Take care until next time 

Shauna

RootsTech, Talks, & other genealogy news: My Genealogy Weeks 15-29 February 2024

Summer is over and autumn is upon us. Although here in Queensland we are still sweltering in the heat and the gardens look like they need more water. 

Blogs

I have finally created a blog for Bribie Family History Association. There is still content to add and I need to establish regular posts, although that is easier on our Facebook page.

Beautiful flowers every table

Keeping this blog every fortnight is hard going as I seem to be going off Island a lot lately. Morning tea at Miegunyah in Brisbane followed by an afternoon with the Brisbane History Group celebrating the sesquicentenary of Brisbane. Managed to buy a couple of books discounted down. 

Who can resist cake and scones?

Books

Big shout out to Moreton Libraries as I have been able to get some of my PhD reading through their library system or via interlibrary loan. So good and I only have to drive down to the Bribie Library to collect. So many books to read and take notes from. I will never remember where I got what piece of information/evidence if I don't write it down. 

Reading Kate Grenville's A Room Made of Leaves for our Bribie Family History Association book club. I will be interested to see what other club members think.

Conferences

RootsTech 2024 is over, a weekend that went very fast. Fortunately a lot of the classes are still on the website and we can watch them at home for free. I would like to have been there in person but coming from downunder it is an expensive weekend with flights, accommodation, meals, taxis and other expenses. If I do it again I will factor in serious time at the FamilySearch Library for material that I cannot get online, all those lovely books not yet scanned.

The AFFHO 2025 Congress planning is going well and the website has information on all aspects of the conference. There is also a call for papers out at present. 

The last Unlock the Past genealogy cruise sails in December 2024. Not too late to join other like minded people on what looks like a fantastic program.

Brisbane History Group publication

Nick Vine Hall Awards, AFFHO

There have been a few entries so far but I will be doing more publicity over March and into April. Any member society of AFFHO can submit one of their journals from 2023 for judging in the Awards. 

Also working with our new judges on the judging criteria and marking system so that we will have consistency over the three judges. As convenor I collate the results. All very exciting and a big part of National Family History Month in August.

Talks

My visit to Noosa Libraries was very successful with a great group of people. The evaluation sheets were encouraging and always suggestions for what else could be done. 

Weekly Genie Chats on English Genealogy also keep me busy at the moment. Only four more weeks to go this term. There won't be a second term as I will be away for most of it. 

Technology

The Family History Academy ran a three week workshop on AI for Family History with Fiona Brooker and Andrew Redfern. This certainly opened up my eyes to what can be done with AI not only with my genealogy/family history but also with my PhD and lengthy criminal trials. 

What's Coming Up?

A talk at Bribie Library on the UK 1921 census on Findmypast. It is interesting following up siblings lines in the UK as I often find a connection then with DNA matches. 

RootsTech 2023 - will I get there in 2025?

I know it can be hard for some, but try to find a little family history time for yourself and use some of the new resources or watch some RootsTech 2024 classes.

Take care, stay safe and happy searching until next time. Shauna

RootsTech, New Resources & Other News: My Genealogy Weeks 16 January - 14 February 2024

Well January is done and dusted and we are half way through February. From now on it will be back to regular genie society meetings, attending special events and meeting new people. There is never a dull day when you research your family history.

Blogs

The ship dwarfed by Alaska's
Inner Passage 2018 

My first guest post for the Genealogical Society of Queensland was completed and there were some interesting comments on both the blog page and on Facebook. 

Many people identified with some of my points. The post is called Shauna's family history A-Z and you can read it by clicking the link.

In the post I put C is for Conferences but now I am thinking perhaps it should have been for Cruises. The Alaska genealogy cruise was a stand out with Cyndi (from Cyndi's List - another C) and amazing Alaska scenery. 

I am planning to keep Diary more regular this year. My tip is to schedule in my calendar and then do it rather than whenever I remember or think of it. This will be my year to be organised! All good except I drafted the end of January post and then forgot to publish it. Hence the delay.

Books

Reading so many interesting books for my PhD on Incarcerated Women in Colonial Queensland 1850-1900. Perhaps not surprisingly, many are also of interest to my family history research. A bonus. Interlibrary loans will get a workout this year. 

The Bribie Family History Association Book Club is having its first meeting in February. We have been readingThe Ancient Paths by Graham Robb. We had a good time discussing the author's incredible use of resources and the attention to detail. Not the easiest book to read but definitely one to make you aware of the need for thoroughness of research.

Our next book club read will be Kate Grenville's A Room Made of Leaves which I am really looking forward to. I am a big fan of her books. What if Elizabeth McArthur had a secret diary? What if indeed!

Conferences

RootsTech 2024 is almost upon us and I am disappointed not to be there this year. So many more Australians going than last year. Still there are all the virtual sessions so it is definitely a genealogy feast for the last weekend in Febrary. 

2024 in person 

The big news is the 2025 AFFHO/History Queensland congress now has a website. The theme is Connections Past Present and Future and the dates are 21-24 March 2025 in Brisbane, Queensland.

Keynote speakers are the wonderful Judy Russell (The Legal Genealogist), Nick Barrett (Who Do You Think You Are) and Hamish Maxwell-Stewart (Digital History Tasmania). 

Details of accommodation, call for speakers and other news is all online now. Check it out and book a space in your diary.

Also looking forward to the final Unlock the Past genealogy cruise in December 2024 with Chris Paton, Mia Bennett and others. It is a Southern Australia cruise and I have also seen it advertised as a wine and food cruise. Definitely my kind of cruise.

New Resources

Not quite a new resource but I have just done a 3 week workshop on Artificial Intelligence with Fiona Brooker and Andrew Redfern through the Family History Academy. Wow there are certainly ways to do some things more efficiently and quickly using ChatGPT and other AI tools. I think the issue will be indicating that you have used AI in a project or whatever. The ethics are an interesting topic all on their own. 

Great session and I love playing with ChatGPT which is free. That's my new technology toy for the year done and dusted.

Presentations

So far I have given a Zoom/hybrid presentation to 93 people in Monash Library/virtual and in person presentation at Caloundra where they had their biggest turn out since pre Covid. Next week I have an in person presentation at Noosa which is fully booked. 

Perhaps we are getting back to our pre Covid lives?

Details of where I am speaking are on the Events page of my website.

Special Projects

I have been working with a group of people revising the Queensland Family History Society's library policy. Like any revision project, there are lots of things that need to be looked at and how these will be dealt with in future. Think ebooks and ejournals and archival records of the Society and donations and dare I say it, legacy issues and backlogs arising from moving premises more than once. 

The good news is that the revised library policy is coming along and a project plan for all the legacy issues will be developed and then it will be a case of one smaller project at a time. Boxes in storage sheds are not ideal conditions for books and archival materials. Looking forward to working more with the volunteers.

What's Coming Up?

Miegunyah 2014 via Wikipedia

A visit to Miegunyah (Queensland Women's History Association), an afternoon of talks with the Brisbane History Group and my regular weekly Genie Chats. This term is all about English Genealogy. 

Since starting my Ph D my own personal family history writing has come to a stop. I want to allocate time to completing my citations and drafts and getting them up into NED (national edeposit).

Until next time, happy searching. Do try and make some time for your own research, no one else will do it and others will benefit now and in the future. 

Take care, stay safe.

Geneastats from 2023 & Other News: My Genealogy Weeks 1-15 January 2024

The first two weeks of 2024 have seen devastating storms, flooding and incredible heatwaves almost in a rolling pattern. Now another cyclone seems to be looming off our coast. Stay safe everyone, out thoughts are with all those impacted.

Blogs

Each year I do two guest blog posts for the Genealogical Society of Queensland. I picked January and July for my efforts. This means the January guest blog is lined up and ready to go in early February. I will be interested in all feedback on my 2023 thoughts. A direct link will be in the next edition of this Diary blog.
 

Books

I have so many books to read now. There are those for sheer pleasure, those for genealogy and family history and those for my Ph D research.

Not sure if I mentioned it last year, but we have started up a Bribie Family History Association Book Club and we have been reading The Ancient Paths by Graham Robb. Not an easy book to read but quite fascinating and the archival references are amazing. We operate via the Moreton Bay Region Libraries which makes it very easy to operate a book club.

Plus I try to keep up with the digital genealogy magazines that I can borrow from the local library.

Conferences

The AFFHO Congress is coming up in 2025 and they have released the dates for that. It will be held in Brisbane which is good news for all the locals. The last one was on Norfolk Island which was a much smaller affair due to the remoteness of the venue but still an excellent conference. 

The Congress theme is “Connections: Past, Present and Future” will be held in Brisbane on 21 – 24  March 2025. The venue is Brisbane Technology Park, Clunies Ross Court, Eight Mile Plains and is situated next to hotel accommodation. Save the date and I will be staying onsite as battling highway traffic each day to and from would leave me a total nervous wreck. Everyone is always in a rush and there is usually a bingle or two to slow traffic down further. Plus that would give me an extra four hours a day to chat and mingle with friends. Much more pleasant.

Unlock the Past is having its final genealogy cruise in December 2024 and that has some big name speakers and sails out from Sydney. Booked and will probably give a talk or two depending on how the final program develops.

The NSW/ACT Association of Family History Societies usually have an annual conference about September. There is nothing on their website yet about 2024 so hopefully that will be announced soon.

New Resources

It is almost mind blowing to read some of the statistical accounts from the big genealogy databases on how much is added each year and 2023 was no exception.

FamilySearch added over 30,000 newly digitised books to their online collection which now stands at 586,813 digital books online. I just did a search for Islandmagee in County Antrim, Island. It has returned a number of volumes including the Brennen Chronicles (one of my family lines is Brennan for Islandmagee). Another book mentions the Cain/Kain family of Islandmagee, another one of my family lines. In fact there are 33 pages of references to all kinds of books and journals. I would hate to be searching for a big parish. 

There are now over 18.36 billion historical records online for over 70 countries. A big addition was the digitised 1931 census for Canada. One of my Scottish families went to Canada and I would love to find some DNA matches to confirm that this is one of my family lines. 

MyHeritage also had a very big year and I can't sum it up anymore than their own image of achievements. You can read more about these statistics in the January blog post. I'm beginning to think we could do genealogy 24/7 and still not use all the resources out there. 

And all the others Ancestry, Findmypast, The Genealogist, Irish Roots, Geneanet, WikiTree and others added to their collections. There is so much out there now  that it is often hard to decide where to search first. 

Online trees can be a real time saver but you have to remember to check them carefully and go back to original sources. Recently I found a tree that was exactly what I wanted but they had a different surname for the wife (which was different from the marriage certificate) but absolutely no explanation for this discrepancy. It is so frustrating when people don't give sources and don't add a note that explains such a major difference between the marriage certificate and their tree. 

Nick Vine Hall (NVH) Awards

It is going to be exciting to be part of the NVH Awards for 2023. We have three new judges, revised criteria and all member societies of AFFHO are encouraged to enter one of their 2023 journals/newsletters.

My main job over the next couple of months will be promoting the awards and encouraging editors to submit. Of course members of individual societies have to write up their own stories for publication so make sure you write at least one article this year for your society editor. Don't be shy and who knows it might lead to further information on the family.

Talks

My first talk for 2024 will be for Monash Library in Melbourne in the first week of February. They are a great group and have hybrid meetings. The session is Researching Australian Ancestors and anyone can join but you need to register and what out for daylight saving time if you live this side of the border.

Then it will be up to Caloundra for my annual appearance there. Another great group and not just because they all wear purple shirts. So friendly over afternoon tea. The talk will be Researching Family in Ireland Online. 

What's Coming Up

Bribie Family History Association is having its first meeting for 2024 and our guest speaker is Sue Reid an excellent presenter on researching newspapers. Afterwards some of our members meet for lunch. No doubt we will be busy sharing our success stories over the summer break. 

Our AGM is coming up in February and here is a happy snap of the current committee hard at work.

My monthly meeting with my Ph D tutors is also challenging especially when they ask to see what I am working on. 

Last month it was my database of incarcerated Queensland women 1850-1900 and this time it is my research plan for Queensland State Archives and my Bibliography to date. It is only seven months since I started so quite full on. 

Take care over the next few weeks of summer weather. A good opportunity to stay inside with a good book, either digital or print. I'm almost preferring digital to my surprise. New skills, new ways of doing things. Until next time, happy researching. Shauna

2023 ending, 2024 beginning & what's new: My genealogy weeks 15 - 31 December 2023

2023 went by in a blur. So many great things happened and keeping this Diary helps me to remember just how much I do in a year. 

Blogs

Jill Ball aka Geniaus has again offered her Accentuate the Positive Geneameme for 2023. Another great way to think about what happened in your genealogy research in 2023. Read my response here.

I have a guest blog for the Genealogical Society of Queensland coming up in January. The big question as always, will be what to write about.

Books & Magazines

For various reasons my attention has been drawn to Charles Dickens and his association with Australia. To my shame, I suspect, I have only ever read Great Expectations for school. To redress this I am currently reading Tom Keneally's That Dickens Boy. Not quite a Charles Dickens novel but a great insight into the Dickens family. It may even inspire me to read a real Dickens book again.

Books are piling up around me, season gifts and Ph D works plus the number on my IPad is growing at an alarming rate. It seems I may have been converted to the convenience of the ebook. 

Also using Moreton Region libraries more and their app Libby which lets me read all those genealogy magazines as part of my library subscription. Not to mention all the ebooks they have.

Conferences

Not too many on my horizon this year. However, there are lots of webinars and online sessions that I can catch up on. 

Legacy Family Tree Webinars have just announced their 2024 program. Good to see the Down Under series continues with some good Aussie/Kiwi speakers. You can register to watch live for the whole year and its free to watch for the first week after the session. Check it out here.

New Resources

The Australian Home Beautiful
Vol 29 No 7 July 1950

Findmypast added new Kent records, plus opened up more redacted entries in the 1939 Register. There are almost 188,000 of these previously closed records now open. Family history is indeed never ending. Over 90,000 more newspaper pages have been added.   

Trove Treasure in December 2023 and January 2024 and for all our holiday cooking, they have now digitised over 100 classic cookbooks. Confession time. I can spend hours looking at cookbooks, not necessarily cooking, just looking. I can't wait to explore this new collection of cookbooks. 

Or you could read all those wonderful magazines that have also been digitised. Remember the 1950s and all those wonderful hot winter puddings. I loved the pineapple upside down cakes although mine never quite looked like the recipe image.

Over 800,000 images were added to Trove in 2022-2023. More will be coming in 2024 and here is a preview list. Good to see the community cooperation between Trove and regional genealogy societies as well as school and local history groups.

NSW

• Border Morning Mail (1952) [Albury City Libraries]
• Coolamon Farmers' Review (1910-1917) [Coolamon and District History Group]
• Coolamon-Ganmain Farmers' Review (1906-1910, 1917-1918) [Coolamon and District History Group]
• The Pastoral Times and Deniliquin Telegraph (1895-1950) [Deniliquin Genealogy Society Inc]
• The Seagull (1957-2015) [Tweed River High School]

SA

• Australijos Lietuvis - The Australian Lithuanian (1948-1956) [Australian Lithuanian Archives]
• People's Weekly (1890-1926) [State Library of South Australia]
• Port Lincoln Times (1982-1986) [Port Lincoln History Group]
• Seasider (1956-1963) [National Trust of SA - Wilunga Branch]
• South East Kingston Leader (1962-1976) [Kingston Branch of the National Trust of SA]
• The Standard (1959-1965) [Prospect Local History Group]

VIC

• Gippsland Farmers' and Glengarry, Toongabbie and Cowwarr Journal (1923) [Latrobe City Libraries]
• Sun News Pictorial (1922-1954) [State Library Victoria]
• The Journal: Glengarry, Toongabbie and Cowwarr journal (1923-1929) [Latrobe City Libraries]
• Yarrawonga Mercury and Lake Rowan, Tungamah and Mulwala News (1882) [Yarrawonga Mulwala Historical Society Inc]
• Yarrawonga Mercury and Mulwala News (1882-1897) [Yarrawonga Mulwala Historical Society Inc]
• Yarrawonga Mercury and Southern Riverina Advertiser (1897-1905, 1921-1927) [Yarrawonga Mulwala Historical Society Inc]

Talks

My list of talks for 2024 so far are now up on the Events page of my website. As usual I am looking forward to presenting and catching up with friends at these events.

My Genie Chat sessions here on Bribie are continuing in 2024 and the first term will look at English genealogy.

What's Coming Up?

January is traditionally a quiet time and there are lots of little catch up tasks on my list. Like sorting out all my travel and family photos from this year. I tend to download them into subject folders and promise myself I will get back to delete the not so good and identify the ones I want to keep. No surprises but I rarely do that so I have quite a bit of tidying up just in my photo folders.

Alice Price and her daughters

I could mention the scanning word, but there are too many projects there. I managed to sort Mum's photos into categories and give my brother some that related to his children. But the little piles of scanning are still sitting on the shelf behind me. In the photo above I am reasonably sure that my son could not identify anyone. Even I'm not sure if that is Mum on the far left, she was a lot younger than her siblings. I do know the rest - from left to right Alice Price nee White, her daughter Beryl, daughter in law Peggy, daughter Mavis and daughter Hazel. 

The Genealogy Squad and Cyndi Ingles has her Filing Friday Facebook challenge and occasionally I have set aside a Friday to just tackle things like filing and scanning. Could I keep it up every week? No for starters the Bribie Family History Association has its monthly meeting on the first Friday. Then there is lunch afterwards. But 3 out of 4 Fridays might make a difference to my photo projects. Have a look at their last post for 2023 and the plan for 2024.

Thank you to all my readers over the year - I have not been as regular with blogging as I hoped. Travel took up quite a few weeks and you can follow those travels through my Facebook page. Your ongoing support of this blog is very much appreciated.

I hope that you have all had a fabulous genealogy time in 2023 and that 2024 will be equally fabulous. Stay safe and well until next time, Shauna

Parties, Books & Other News: My Genealogy Weeks 21 November - 14 December 2023

 It's party season as every society and group wind down for December and January. 

One of my new projects in the latter half of the year was setting up Genie Chats where a group of locals join me for 90 minutes on Zoom on a Wednesday morning. We record the sessions for those who can't make that time. I decided to throw a Christmas morning tea at my place and it was good to catch up with all those who attended. Lot's of great food and I think when we say 'bring a plate' it should be 'bring a small plate'. But all delicious and the weather was kind.

Dessert at the
Slimmers Christmas party

Also attended the Bribie Family History Association lunch at Botanic at Bribie RSL. We occupied two tables and again great chats and delicious food and drinks. 

The Bribie Slimmers lunch was chicken and ham with potatoes, pumpkin, beans and gravy. For dessert there was the most delicious pavlova. 

Then there was the Bribie Island Historical Society party which was catered by the RSL. The fish fry was magical and all the other plates of hot food and sandwiches were nice. The bar had white and red wine flowing but the orange juice ran out quickly. Less people are drinking and of course, someone has to drive home.

Blogs

As per usual, I am participating in Jill Ball's annual geneameme Accentuate the Positive which is a recap of our genealogical highlights during the year. I'm part way throught with some questions easier to answer than others. I hope to finish it by Christmas.

Another annual blog challenge I accept is the Genealogical Society of Queensland's guest bloggers list. The lovely Bobbie has me signed up for two guest blogs - one in January and one in June.

I do seem to have lost my blogging mojo. Instead of writing up family stories as a blog post, I am more concentrated on my draft family histories which are largely written. The hard part is adding in sources and adding citations which weren't noted at the time I wrote the draft. I'm getting there but the moral of this story is, note your citations as you go. Ever so much easier.

Books

I have bought more books in the last month than I have all year. Many of them are connected to my PhD research but also some for pleasure. Plus as our local library was closing for a couple of months for building renovation, I ordered in a number of books. Fascinating. Searching the catalogue turned up books in other Moreton libraries which I probably would not have looked for. 

Plus I have to read our designated text for the Bribie Family History Association book club, Graham Robb's The Ancient Paths. 

Thank goodness I don't have anything on for the rest of December and January.

DNA

No new exciting big matches but lots of little ones (over 20cM) are helping me to fill out Dad's side of the family. I am reasonably sure where we fit into those families but it would be good to have a nice Y match. 

Mum's DNA is continuing to throw up Welsh matches and yet I don't have any Welsh in the paper trail. Am I looking at some non parental event or is it further back on a line where I have a brick wall. Something to explore more in 2024.

Family

Christmas dinner last year
in Sweden

Hard to believe but this time last year I was on my way to my son's place in Sweden. My hopes for a white Christmas were dashed but it was frosty. Meeting my little grandson was the highlight of the year. 

The plan for 2024 is to visit them in May when both my grandson and my son celebrate their birthdays. In the meantime I have watched his first steps and now see him marching round the house as if he owns it. Amazing how quick he learnt to walk and he is definitely an active child.

New Resources

Another thing that continually amazes me is all the new records that are added each month to the various online sites. Trove had a downtime of 2 whole days and it was then that I realised I am addicted to Trove. Every day I find myself looking for something for my own genealogy, or a talk I am planning to give or my Ph D research. It has opened up so many stories for us.

What's Coming Up?

No more talks until February but I still have to prepare the talks and that can be time consuming. Check out the Events page of my website to see the dates, places and titles of talks.

With Genie Chats next year I am doing English Genealogy in Term 1.  As I am planning to travel in May there probably won't be a set subject for Term 2 but we might do a few one off topics. 

The plan is to finish at least one of my five family history drafts by 2024. They are all so close but citations are giving me grief. Queensland State Archives have new identification numbers so everything has to be updated and sad to say, some of my orginal citations are not complete.

Stay safe and well and enjoy whatever spare time the Christmas season has for you. 

Until next time, Shauna

Travels, books, workshops & other news: My Genealogy Weeks 16 Oct - 17 Nov 2023

Half this month was spent travelling in China. We did the usual things in Beijing and then went to the older areas of Hangshou and Souchou before ending in Shanghai. It was supposed to be autumn and cool but while we were there, they had some of their hottest days in years.

Touring the Imperial Palaces

The Great Wall of China

So many people, cars, bikes and very few accidents that we saw. Traffic was heavy but not gridlocked as their road systems are amazing and mostly above the ground. You only go off the freeways if you want to visit a particular place.

AFFHO & the Nick Vine Hall Awards

One of my new challenges for 2024. I have agreed to convene the NVH awards and I have a report for Council consideration at the November meeting. The plan is to have regular articles in the AFFHO newsletter to remind societies about the Awards which recognise published articles and society journals in Australia and New Zealand.

Books

Bribie Library is closed for some repairs so I ordered in a few books to tide me over until the end of January. A mix of easy reading by the pool to more heavier tomes for my PhD thesis.

Plus the book I selected for the inaugural Bribie Family History Association Book Club via Moreton Libraries also arrived. Thankfully that is not due back till February so I have time to recruit a few more people to make up our ten.

I used to hope for rainy days so I could stay inside and read. Now I turn on the aircon for these incredibly hot and humid November days.

New Resources

Roots Ireland have added some new Cork records - the exact details are in their blog post. I was hoping for earlier records but they all seem to be more later releases.

I've registered for the next Scottish Indexes conference - they are free but with excellent speakers and topics you can give thanks by making a donation. Each presentation is shown twice so you watch all the sessions at a reasonable time no matter where you live.

A Christmas wish to find a photo of my Scottish GGG grandparents John & Helen Carnegie,
buried Toorbul cemetery

Talks

We are coming up to the end of the year so not a lot happening. However, one exciting new speaking engagement for me was an appearance at the Really Useful Family History Show held in the UK but virtual. You had to buy a ticket but lots of great talks over last weekend. My slot was Saturday night and all about researching family history in Australia. From the virtual exhibition area I was able to download a society journal from a number of exhibitors and I'm looking forward to having a good read.

2024 calendar is starting to fill out and with the PhD commitment plus my local Genie Chats, I don't want to be too busy with talks. Always hard to say no when it is usually a friend asking for their society. Or it is a paid presentation as that all helps to pay for my travel expenses.

What's Coming Up?

The Christmas tree with lights is already up and all that is left is to put  some more presents under the tree. Even if it is only for us and our inner child.

Love the lights changing colours

My Genie Chats finish for the year next week and I have decided to resurrect the Christmas party at home with the traditional goodie bag. This was something I did back in the day when we were Bribie Zoom Genies. That should be a fun morning.

The last meeting of the year for Bribie Family History Association is a Christmas Quiz hosted by Judy Lofthouse. Afterwards a number of us are staying on for lunch at the Bribie RSL restaurant Botanic. I always feel lost with no meeting in January but as we meet on the first Friday that is early in the month and too close to New Year's Day.

Until next time, stay safe and happy researching. Shauna