Remember 1 January updates & other news: My Genealogy Week 8-14 January 2025

Well the first week of the year went by in a blur. I mostly worked on researching the women who will feature in my PhD The Grass Wasn't Always Greener.

With all the rain we have had lately, there are lots of lovely blooms in the yard. Max bought some inside to brighten up the house. Lots of red.

Books

Currently reading another one of Meg Kennealy's books which I enjoy. 

Just finished The Fossil Hunter by Tea Cooper and I do love her books on early New South Wales.

Looking forward to our Bribie Family History Association Book Club starting up again in February. Bev always manages to make an interesting choice, and not one that I would necessarily pick for myself.

Conferences

Uploaded my slides and handout for Connections 2025. My session is all about archives. What else!

RootsTech 2025 is on in just a few weeks. The program is now live and it is free to register. You can select what talks you want to listen to and no need to stay awake all night as sessions are mostly prerecorded.

Resources

I forgot to mention last week that the 1 January meant a new release of records into the public domain. So time to look for new BDMs and archival records, and not just in Queensland. Check out Public Record Office Victoria's What's New in December 2024.

FamilySearch continue to amaze me with their use of AI over Australian wills and probates. Fantastic for locating relationships you might not be aware of. For example, a will/probate is usually indexed under the name of the deceased. With AI you also get everyone mentioned  in the will including children and other beneficiaries. Fantastic. The full text search over other records is equally good. Check out the projects in FamilySearch labs. 

Talks

First talk for 2025 is tomorrow with the Caloundra Family History Research Group. The topic is researching Scottish ancestors. James Carnegie's parents were from Montrose, Angus, Scotland and Mary Finn's parents were from Rathdrum, Wicklow, Ireland.

James Carnegie and Mary Finn

For a list of where I am speaking check out the Events page of my website.

Travel

Another trip to Sweden and my little grandson's 3rd birthday. 

On the way home I will spend a week in Ireland visiting the Rathdrum area of Wicklow where my Finn and Fegan families came from and also going up to Northern Ireland to visit Belfast and Islandmagee where my GGG grandparents Stewart Heddles and Agnes Templeton are buried. 

Also having a stopover in Doha so I don't arrive totally washed out in Copenhagen. 

What's Coming Up?

Bookfest in Brisbane and the opportunity to buy some great book bargains. Last year I showed great restraint limiting myself to $100 and one green shopping bag. Achieved but quite a few went back on the tables and choosing that final selection was hard.

 Do I want to do that again? Do I need more books? 

Until next time happy researching Shauna

New Year, Inspiring Blogs & Other Genealogy News: My Genealogy Week 1-7 January 2025

 Welcome to 2025 and another great year of family history research. 

I spent the holiday break on another attempt to weed out my two remaining vertical file cabinets. Tossing what I don't need, scanning what I do need, and putting aside my paper birth, marriage and death certificates for donation to the Queensland Family History Society. After scanning of course.

As usual my library has grown and these new additions are all added into Library Thing, which is also an app on my phone to avoid buying something twice. Yes I am feeling organised to take on 2025.

Blogs

I participated in Jill Ball's Accentuate the Positive 2024 annual blog post. You can read mine here and then go to Jill's Geniaus blogpost for the accumulation of all the contributors to get more ideas for 2025. At the time of writing this post, Jill is still receiving blogposts, so just watch her blog site for the accumulation update.

Books

As mentioned above, there are some new books on the shelves.

Conferences

Looking forward to the AFFHO Congress in Brisbane in March. Read more about Connections here.

Online Webinars

Looking forward to the next series of Rippling Effects of the Great Irish Famine which starts at the end of January. Some excellent speakers including our own Dr Perry McIntyre and it runs for five weeks until the end of February. Lectures are recorded and you can watch at a time that suits. And it's free. 

The previous series is still available on their You Tube channel. See it here.

Resources

The end of the year is always a great time to get a round up of what has been added to various databases. MyHeritage does their compilation as a diagram which really appeals to me. Read their blog post for more details here. Staggering numbers.

I'm a bit behind with Ancestry but I just read that they added over 13 million records in November. it is easy to see all the new collections - just visit the recent collections page and select the country of interest.

FamilySearch also did a blog post on their year in review. Read it here. 

How can anyone keep up with all these new resources? It really is a great time for researching our family history.

Talks

My web page for events has been updated for 2025. See where I am speaking (the list is updated from time to time). Just check the Events page for details. 

March and the Congress will soon be here so I hope to catch up with lots of friends and colleagues in Brisbane.

What's Coming Up?

My first talk for the year is at the Caloundra Family History Research Group on 16 January. In person, and hybrid, I will be looking at Scottish ancestors and how to trace them. Always a fun group to visit.

Research on my PhD is ongoing and amazing how fast 20 hours a week goes. At least there is no travel time.

Have a great geneaweek and until next time, have fun finding those ancestors. Shauna

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

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

Cruise speakers with Alan and Anthea Phillips

Blogs

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

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

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

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

Books

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

Some of my Christmas reading

Conferences and Travel

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

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

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

2023 was a great experience

Resources

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

Talks

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

What's coming up next?

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

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

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

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

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

 Hello everyone

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

Books

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

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

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

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

Conferences

At RootsTech in 2023

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

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

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

Talks in 2025

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

What's Coming Up?

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

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

Hello everyone

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

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

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

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

Books

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

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

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

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

DNA

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

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

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

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

Kiva for Genealogists

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

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

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

Resources

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

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

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

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

Talks

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

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

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

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

See my Events page for details.

What's Coming Up?

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

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

Until next time happy researching

Shauna

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

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

Books

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

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

Conferences

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

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

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

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

Order of Australia Investiture

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

PhD update

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

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

Talks

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

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

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

What's Coming Up?

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

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

Happy searching until next time.

Shauna

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

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

AFFHO Closing Ceremony 

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

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

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

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

Nick Vine Hall Awards

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

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

Bribie Family History Association Book Club and Genie Chats

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

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

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

Brisbane History Group

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

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

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

Talks

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

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

What's Coming Up?

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

Until next time, happy researching.

Shauna

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

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

8 August 

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

Book club reading this month

9 August

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

10 August

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

11 -13 August

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

Great grandfather Thomas Price

14 August

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

15 August

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

What's Coming Up?

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

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

Until next time, happy searching 

Shauna

Family History Month 2024 Week 1 : My Genealogy Week 1 - 7 August 2024

 The first week went by in a blur of events, both in person and virtual.

1 August

Started the day with a visit to the Genealogical Society of Queensland library down at Wishart. The drive is long and often horrendous with traffic, but always good once I am there.

Had to be home by 6pm for the opening of Family History Month for two reasons. First I was announcing the winners of the Nick Vine Hall awards for 2024. Congratulations go to Genealogical Society of Victoria for their journal Ancestor and in the smaller societies category, Cape Banks Family History Society for their journal Kith and Kin.

Second I was guest speaker along with Heather Garnsey talking about our time in family history over the last few decades. Heather is most associated with the Society of Australian Genealogists in Sydney and I have been involved in many archival projects that have benefited family historians with greater access to records. Plus doing my own family history research since 1977. It was a great chat with Sonya Russell, President of AFFHO asking the questions. The hour went very fast.

Both Heather and myself received the Order of Australia medal as part of the King's Birthday Honours in June.

2 August

Presented a talk to Bribie Family History Association on D is for Diaries, outlining how shipboard, military and personal diaries can be used for family history research. It was a good session with some members keeping the chat going over lunch at the Bribie RSL. Since then a couple of members have written to me about diaries held within their own family collections.

3 August

Up early for the trip up to Caloundra for a one day seminar on DNA with Caloundra Family History Research. Helen Smith from Dragon Genealogy and myself each gave two talks. 

Mine were about my personal approach using coloured dots and clusters to organise my matches. The second talk was a follow on with Looking for Granddad, a case study searching for my biological grandfather. 

In July I finally had proof for my theory when another descendant from that male line matched with my brother. 

Granny is probably up there cursing me for my doggedness in searching for the truth but at the same time, she should be saying 'what a clever granddaughter'! Secrets will always come out with DNA so don't test unless you want to  know the truth.

Then the drive back home from Caloundra. Great day but a long one and my brain was mulling over all the things from Helen's two talks.

4 August

Sunday at last and I had promised myself the day in bed reading. But I was too restless with new research ideas so it was a good day doing my own family history on the computer.

5 August

One of my favourite Victorian libraries is Monash as they have a very active family history group. This time the presentation was virtual only rather than the usual hybrid set up. My talk was Where Do I Start which is aimed at beginners but can also be a good refresher talk for more experience family historians.

Lots of questions mostly not related to a beginners session but I managed to field questions and provide further references.

6 August

A meeting with my two Griffith University supervisors on the progress of my Ph D on the Incarceration of Women in Colonial Queensland. My Early Candidate Milestone is next week and I have to be ready to present and impress independent assessors. Otherwise I cannot progress with my Ph D. Happy to say I passed with flying colours and I am grateful to my two supervisors for their support.

7 August

A morning session of Genie Chats with members of the Bribie Family History Association via Zoom. These chats are a way of talking about specific subjects or following a theme for the term.

Rather a hectic first week for Family History Month but the fun is not over yet. You can still register an interest in events being held, some free and some paid. There are prizes to be won so visit the AFFHO website for more information.

What's Coming Up?

More meetings, talks both family history and Ph D, a writing family history workshop and more Genie Chats. There is also dinner at the Bribie RSL followed by the Bribie Island Historical Society monthly meeting. 

Have a great time during the second week of Family History Month in Australia and New Zealand. Until next time, Shauna.