Well the Ekka certainly brought back memories on Thursday - going with my parents as a child and also taking my son when he was little. There are a few changes (Sideshow Alley rides certainly look more scary) but mostly it was the Show as I remembered it. We ended up spending about 8 hours there and saw just about everything. A great day and after a little rain/cloud in the morning it turned into a wonderful winter's day.
Friday I went and collected my grandfathers' replica military medals from National Medals and I am so pleased that I have finally done this. Now I want to write up their stories - Henry Price in WW1 and John Martin Gunderson in WW2. Perhaps that should be a Remembrance Day target as it is closer to November than next April for ANZAC Day.
On Saturday I was pleased to hear from Hazel Edwards who I had heard speak at the Family History Feast at State Library of Victoria in early August. Firstly she advised me that emails were bouncing from my website (Shauna Hicks History Enterprises)which was good to know and is now fixed - but I do wonder what I missed out on for the almost four weeks that I was unaware of the problem. At least in the old days of snail mail, the letterbox managed to hold all your mail even if it did get damp when it rained.
Secondly Hazel informed me of the increased traffic to her website (Hazel Edwards An Australian Author) following my review of Family History Feast and I also mentioned her book How to Write a Non Boring Family History during my Toowoomba talks recently. It is always good to get feedback and to know that people read my blogs and follow up on links from both my blogs and talks. It makes all the hard work of writing blogs and preparing talks all the more worthwhile.
Thirdly it reminded me that I had said in my Researching & Writing History blog that I would blog my 'how to write' talk following the Unlock the Past Researching & Writing History two day seminar in Adelaide back in May. It's now back on my 'to do' list and hopefully in the coming week I will be able to cross it off the list.
As we are heading back to Melbourne on Monday we have been doing some sightseeing around Brisbane and to be honest, the weather has been so great it is a shame to be indoors. Plus the internet connection at Mum's is not the best and it takes so long to do anything!
Today we are having another family gathering as it will probably be Christmas before we are up this way again. Having said that, where did this year go?
I have some exciting talks/events coming up in September and it will be much easier to maintain this Diary once I am back home and no longer in tourist mode. Most events I am speaking at are day trips or only one night away so it will be good to have all my usual research resources around me. It's definitely not all online!
Saturday 20 August 2011
Wednesday 17 August 2011
Genealogy notes 14-17 August 2011 Brisbane talks
Still in Brisbane and catching up with friends and relatives - it's amazing how much time that can take up. Sunday we had a leisurely lunch with my partner's cousin at Redcliffe and it was a beautiful day. Great to see all the boats out sailing and fishing and I can't believe all the development that is happening out that way.
Monday I did something I have always wanted to do - order replica medals of my grandfathers' military service. Mum's father (Henry Price) was in WW1 and Dad's father (John Martin Gunderson) was in WW2 which highlights a generation discrepancy that most people don't have. Mum was the last of ten children where as Dad was an only child. Anyway every ANZAC Day I say I wish I had some family medals to wear and talk about to family and friends as an ongoing reminder of their military service. I collect the replica medals on Friday from National Medals.
Monday night was my talk on Researching Mining Ancestors at Southern Suburbs Branch of the Genealogical Society of Queensland. It was their AGM and a cold night (for Brisbane) so it was a relatively small audience but still keen to research their mining ancestors. It was also good to catch up with old friends.
Tuesday I should have written this blog but I was determined to write my two papers for the 2012 Australasian genealogy congress in Adelaide. That was my focus and I knew that if I started looking at emails and blogs I would be distracted. I'm happy to say that I have reasonable drafts for both papers which I will fine tune before submission next week. It looks like a great congress with some interesting speakers and papers so I can't wait!
Wednesday I indulged myself with some research on my partner's family. His mother (Elma Eldridge) was a Queenslander and there are others researching the family and while I have been given the basics of the family tree, some of the detail is missing. So I worked on his mother's direct family as the others are from sibling lines.
Wednesday night I gave my talk to the Queensland Family History Society and an almost full house listened to my suggestions for researching Victorian ancestors. As I am a Foundation member of QFHS it is always good to see other Foundation members at meetings and remember how we all met back in 1979 to establish the Society. I only start to feel old (older) when I see other people and how they have changed over the years and I know that I have also changed but internally I don't think I have.
Tomorrow I am going to the Ekka (Brisbane Exhibition/Royal Queensland Show) and that will definitely bring back memories as I haven't been in decades. I hope the weather holds and the crowds/queues aren't too big - I'm not as young as I used to be!!
Monday I did something I have always wanted to do - order replica medals of my grandfathers' military service. Mum's father (Henry Price) was in WW1 and Dad's father (John Martin Gunderson) was in WW2 which highlights a generation discrepancy that most people don't have. Mum was the last of ten children where as Dad was an only child. Anyway every ANZAC Day I say I wish I had some family medals to wear and talk about to family and friends as an ongoing reminder of their military service. I collect the replica medals on Friday from National Medals.
Monday night was my talk on Researching Mining Ancestors at Southern Suburbs Branch of the Genealogical Society of Queensland. It was their AGM and a cold night (for Brisbane) so it was a relatively small audience but still keen to research their mining ancestors. It was also good to catch up with old friends.
Tuesday I should have written this blog but I was determined to write my two papers for the 2012 Australasian genealogy congress in Adelaide. That was my focus and I knew that if I started looking at emails and blogs I would be distracted. I'm happy to say that I have reasonable drafts for both papers which I will fine tune before submission next week. It looks like a great congress with some interesting speakers and papers so I can't wait!
Wednesday I indulged myself with some research on my partner's family. His mother (Elma Eldridge) was a Queenslander and there are others researching the family and while I have been given the basics of the family tree, some of the detail is missing. So I worked on his mother's direct family as the others are from sibling lines.
Wednesday night I gave my talk to the Queensland Family History Society and an almost full house listened to my suggestions for researching Victorian ancestors. As I am a Foundation member of QFHS it is always good to see other Foundation members at meetings and remember how we all met back in 1979 to establish the Society. I only start to feel old (older) when I see other people and how they have changed over the years and I know that I have also changed but internally I don't think I have.
Tomorrow I am going to the Ekka (Brisbane Exhibition/Royal Queensland Show) and that will definitely bring back memories as I haven't been in decades. I hope the weather holds and the crowds/queues aren't too big - I'm not as young as I used to be!!
Saturday 13 August 2011
Genealogy notes 10-13 August 2011 Toowoomba seminar
When I started this blog back in July, I should have probably called it a travel and genealogy diary as I seem to have done nothing but travel since then. It's been hectic over the last few days with 10-11 August spent up at Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast catching up with friends. The weather has been absolutely wonderful, blue skies and very warm for winter and it is easy to see why Queensland is the Sunshine State.
Perhaps the highlight was the sunset cruise on the Noosa River on board the Noosa Queen where they take you up river to the mouth of Lake Cooroibah and you arrive just as the sun sets in a fiery red ball on the other side of the lake. A must see event and our photos don't do it justice, although the one on their website is pretty close to what we saw. The bird life is also amazing and it is all so quiet with just a few fishermen here and there and a houseboat or two. You arrive back at Noosa Marina just in time to see thousands and thousands of flying foxes (bats) fly out of the trees and head inland for a night of feasting. Another amazing sight and there was almost a full moon which added a touch of spookiness.
After our relaxing two days at Coolum we had to head over to Toowoomba and rather than take the highways, we went via Kilcoy, Esk and Crow's Nest, all haunts of mine during the 70s. It was nice to see that not a lot of change has occurred and driving past Ravensbourne National Park brought back many memories of a time before family history.
Toowoomba was still largely as I remember it, Picnic Point is still there and the main streets in the CBD are all the same but some of the roundabouts and one way streets tricked us up a bit. Roadworks and detours were another hazard. On the Friday night we did something I haven't done in over 30 years - we went to the incredible seafood buffet at Weis Restaurant at the Top of the Range.
Walking inside was a real trip back in time and it is better than ever I think. Our table was just near the fire in one of the main dining rooms and it was only a short walk to the next room where the buffet was set up. Nothing frozen there and everything we tried was delicious and the dessert table has to be seen to be believed. It is also as popular as ever as we were at the early sitting and most tables were occupied. I want to go back again!!
Saturday was the reason we were in Toowoomba in the first place. I was giving three talks and John Graham from the Ryerson Index was giving two talks in an all day family history seminar organised by the Toowoomba City Council Library. It attracted 76 people which is about the limit of the room but people didn't seem to mind the closeness. It was good to see the folks from the Toowoomba & Darling Downs Family History Society there and I hope they picked up a few new members.
My talks were all well received ( a beginner's talk, genealogy on the cheap and a brick walls talk) and I have put copies of the slides on the Resources page of my website as attendees were writing notes down furiously and finding it hard to keep up with all the new ideas and suggestions. I had heard John's basic talks before (one on the Ryerson index and the other on the value of country newspapers) but I am not sure if he has added new information or I just didn't take it in the first time. You can now link from the Ryerson website to digitised newspapers by going to the Request a Lookup link. Fantastic.
Copies of my books all sold well and we soon sold out as we could only carry so many up from Melbourne. They are available online from Gould Genealogy, look under the link for Unlock the Past publications. It's odd but they don't have an author search facility. I think the Library organisers were all pleased with the day and I suspect there will be many attendees online today trying out the new sites.
Three museums also worth a visit in Toowoomba are the Cobb & Co Museum, the Highfields Pioneer Village and the Southern Cross Museum which is part of your ticket to the Village. Just leave plenty of time to see everything.
On the way back to Brisbane we stopped at the Big Orange (another one of my favourite places from the past) and brought some really fresh and cheap fruit and vegetables). We are at Mum's for another week so have lots of time to eat everything we bought, although we may have been a bit over enthusiastic.
After a very big day I was in bed by 8.30pm on a Saturday night! There's a big genealogy week coming up so stay tuned.
Perhaps the highlight was the sunset cruise on the Noosa River on board the Noosa Queen where they take you up river to the mouth of Lake Cooroibah and you arrive just as the sun sets in a fiery red ball on the other side of the lake. A must see event and our photos don't do it justice, although the one on their website is pretty close to what we saw. The bird life is also amazing and it is all so quiet with just a few fishermen here and there and a houseboat or two. You arrive back at Noosa Marina just in time to see thousands and thousands of flying foxes (bats) fly out of the trees and head inland for a night of feasting. Another amazing sight and there was almost a full moon which added a touch of spookiness.
After our relaxing two days at Coolum we had to head over to Toowoomba and rather than take the highways, we went via Kilcoy, Esk and Crow's Nest, all haunts of mine during the 70s. It was nice to see that not a lot of change has occurred and driving past Ravensbourne National Park brought back many memories of a time before family history.
Toowoomba was still largely as I remember it, Picnic Point is still there and the main streets in the CBD are all the same but some of the roundabouts and one way streets tricked us up a bit. Roadworks and detours were another hazard. On the Friday night we did something I haven't done in over 30 years - we went to the incredible seafood buffet at Weis Restaurant at the Top of the Range.
Walking inside was a real trip back in time and it is better than ever I think. Our table was just near the fire in one of the main dining rooms and it was only a short walk to the next room where the buffet was set up. Nothing frozen there and everything we tried was delicious and the dessert table has to be seen to be believed. It is also as popular as ever as we were at the early sitting and most tables were occupied. I want to go back again!!
Saturday was the reason we were in Toowoomba in the first place. I was giving three talks and John Graham from the Ryerson Index was giving two talks in an all day family history seminar organised by the Toowoomba City Council Library. It attracted 76 people which is about the limit of the room but people didn't seem to mind the closeness. It was good to see the folks from the Toowoomba & Darling Downs Family History Society there and I hope they picked up a few new members.
My talks were all well received ( a beginner's talk, genealogy on the cheap and a brick walls talk) and I have put copies of the slides on the Resources page of my website as attendees were writing notes down furiously and finding it hard to keep up with all the new ideas and suggestions. I had heard John's basic talks before (one on the Ryerson index and the other on the value of country newspapers) but I am not sure if he has added new information or I just didn't take it in the first time. You can now link from the Ryerson website to digitised newspapers by going to the Request a Lookup link. Fantastic.
Copies of my books all sold well and we soon sold out as we could only carry so many up from Melbourne. They are available online from Gould Genealogy, look under the link for Unlock the Past publications. It's odd but they don't have an author search facility. I think the Library organisers were all pleased with the day and I suspect there will be many attendees online today trying out the new sites.
Three museums also worth a visit in Toowoomba are the Cobb & Co Museum, the Highfields Pioneer Village and the Southern Cross Museum which is part of your ticket to the Village. Just leave plenty of time to see everything.
On the way back to Brisbane we stopped at the Big Orange (another one of my favourite places from the past) and brought some really fresh and cheap fruit and vegetables). We are at Mum's for another week so have lots of time to eat everything we bought, although we may have been a bit over enthusiastic.
After a very big day I was in bed by 8.30pm on a Saturday night! There's a big genealogy week coming up so stay tuned.
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