South Australian records online, conferences coming up & other news - Genealogy Notes 16-30 Jun 2018

The end of another financial year and part way through winter. Not that we have had a lot of cold weather here yet. I did put a jumper on one day but then it was also raining so definitely a cooler day.

Lots of things on the family front seem to be keeping me busy with little personal time for my own research.

My son marries his long time girlfriend in a few weeks and she has just shown me her family tree for the first time. I knew that the family were from The Netherlands but never realised that the family line goes back to the mid 16th century. They never moved around much and Dutch records seem to be good. I am so glad that my son has Australian royalty (convicts) and a nice sprinkling of English, Irish and Scots ancestors although none of our lines go back much past the 18th century.

Conferences

The Waves in Time 2019 conference committee have asked me to be an ambassador for the event along with four other social media geneabuddies.

It will be our job to make sure people are aware of the conference, the speakers and the sessions. Less than a year to go and there is another planning meeting in early July.

The Sunshine Coast is a great place to host the conference and you can plan a holiday alongside the three day geneaevent.

Recently I was asked was I attending the NSW & ACT Association of Family History Organisations annual conference Sailing Into History in Bateman's Bay this year as I usually do try to attend their conferences. Sadly this year I will be winging my way home from the Unlock the Past Alaska genealogy cruise so miss by one weekend. It looks like another good conference and I used to love weekends down at Bateman's Bay when we lived in Canberra so really sorry not to be going. But then Alaska and my extra days in Vancouver and Seattle will be fantastic too.

Resources

The Spencer family home in Adelaide

Anyone with South Australian ancestors will know that it is not the easiest Australian state to do research in. That seems about to change with the exciting news of records from the State Record Office of South Australia being made available through FamilySearch.

Alona wrote about the release in her blog post Millions of South Australian records added to Family Search.With a title like that I simply had to have a look and most of the records are not yet indexed into FamilySearch but you can browse the registers as if you were in the search room. I have been browsing probate records but there are also prison records, insolvencies, passenger lists, inquests, asylums, courts and more. A veritable feast which will be totally wonderful when indexed and more easily searched.

Talks

Adkins Robert Spencer

Next week I will be speaking at the Pine Rivers Heritage Museum with A Fishy Look at Bribie - while this has local history throughout it is also very much a part of our own family history. My great great great grandparents John and Helen Carnegie were oyster farmers in Pumicestone Passage in the late 19th century and Max's uncle Adkins Robert Spencer was President of the Amateur Fishermen's Association of Queensland at Bongaree for many years in the early 20th century. Plus there are lots of other fishy stories. Should be a lot of fun and I always enjoy visiting the Museum as it has so much to see.

My contribution to National Family History Month this year is giving two presentations at the Family Discovery Day at Forest Glen. There are four sessions throughout the day with four talks in each session with some good speakers. So 16 talks to choose from but you can only attend one talk in each session so some tough decisions to make. Attendance is free but you need to register (just enter Forest Glen Queensland).

What's Coming Up?
It is a two week break from tutoring advanced family history at Bribie U3A, but it is never really a break for the tutor as they are preparing for the next term. Not sure how long I can keep delivering a new talk every week based around the needs of the class but it is always fun trying.

I've got some topics in advance from the group as almost all of them are continuing and some have been with me since the beginning two years ago. So with luck I will get a few talks ahead before term starts again.

Until next time, happy searching.

Perth two day seminar, NSW crew lists & More - Genealogy Notes 1-15 Jun 2018

Changing over to a fortnightly blog post didn't quite go to plan as this is a few days late. Sometimes I wonder how I did everything when I was working five days a week. Yesterday was a total spring clean of the house so I can at least feel good about that. I've also been working on some of the brick walls for my U3A class - happy to say that I have broken one wall down and will be presenting the results at the class on Wednesday.

Books

The second edition of my Where Do I Start:Researching in Australia and New Zealand is now available and I brought home some copies with me from the Unlock the Past seminar in Perth the other week.

The Western Australian Genealogical Society also gave me a copy of Family Reflections which is their silver anniversary anthology edited by Loreley Morling. I love reading family history stories and this is a collection of 35 family histories submitted by individual members. So many aspects of Western Australia's history is reflected in the collection and I will certainly enjoy reading the publication and getting some tips for my own WA families.

Resources
As always there are new resources online but the State Archives and Records NSW new online index has over 2500 names in the Crew & Passengers lists, 1828-1841 that were located in correspondence sent to the NSW Colonial Secretary's Office. So if you are missing a crew member in early NSW, check it out.

Seminars

Day one venue State Library of Western Australia

The Unlock the Past seminar in Perth was over two days with Doug Elms, Kerry Farmer and myself giving talks on a variety of subjects including family history software, DNA, newspapers, immigration, mining ancestors, education records and more. My report on the geneaevent gives all the detail. I gave four talks and all four presentations are on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.

What's Coming Up?
My next talk is on 11 July from 10-11 am at the Pine Rivers Heritage Museum and I will be having a fishy look at Bribie Island - talking about our ancestral ties to the Pumicestone Passage. The event is free and for catering purposes they do like you to book. I can certainly recommend the yummy morning tea. Last time I went there was a chocolate cake to die for. Book here.

Then two weeks later my son will marry his long time girlfriend. So that will be a family event not to be missed! They are doing things quite differently - there will be the main event on the Monday and the wedding breakfast will be a real breakfast on the Tuesday morning. He tells me his life is modelled on mine and I have to admit that I'm not the most conventional person. All I want for them is to be happy together and to make the most of their lives. So far they have achieved way more than I had by my 30s so their goal of living and working in Europe looks like a winner. All I'm thinking about is the opportunity of having a white Christmas in the next year or two! Something definitely on my bucket list.

Until next time, happy searching.

Another insolvent in the family, more talks & other news - Genealogy News 18-31 May 2018

Where did May disappear to? This blog looks like becoming a fortnightly event as the weeks seem to go too quickly these days.

Tutoring

Since taking on the advanced family history tutoring at U3A, the preparation for each week's class seems to have taken over my blogging time. I enjoy the classes and have been making new discoveries on my own families while preparing the talks. Last week they wanted a session on insolvencies and bankruptcies and during the preparation I discovered that my great great grandfather John Finn filed for insolvency in northern NSW in 1897. I'm now waiting for a copy of the file from State Archives and Records NSW. The Archives doesn't have a copy service for this record series so I'm using NSW Family History Transcriptions who provide copies of key record groups. Certainly cheaper than travelling to Kingswood.

John is one of my favourite ancestors as he has left so many records - BDMs, passenger list, land files, court records, prisons, newspapers, asylums and now insolvencies. Yet there is no known photograph of him, just this newspaper sketch from when he was accused of arson. Thankfully he was acquitted but the records were still created.

Everyone's keen to continue so we have just signed up for another term. At the end of this term I will have done four terms, a whole year and some students have been with me the whole time.

Talks

Some were keen and took their places early.

The afternoon seminar with the Gold Coast Family History Society went really well with some good feedback. My two talks on Archives You Should Know and Skeletons in the Family had every body talking over the afternoon tea and post seminar. There were lots of questions too. As usual, both talks are on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.

The Society has a wonderful venue to host these mini seminars with lots of room. Behind the seating area there is kitchen space for morning or afternoon teas.  Afterwards I was fortunate enough to be given a tour of their library, also in the same building.

Great library facilities for the lucky members of
the Gold Coast Family History Society.

Then four of us went out for pizza, wine and more stimulating talk about family history. I stayed overnight as it was over a two hour drive down, and after three hours of talking I didn't really feel like driving home in the dark. That's the trouble with winter, I miss the longer days.

Due to a heavy cold I ended up not going to Maurice Gleeson talks in Brisbane which was disappointing. I spent most of the day in bed asleep which is most unusual for me. He provided copies of both his talks to attendees so at least I had those to go through. Everyone said I missed a really good day. I do have the chance to hear him again in Seattle and on the Alaska cruise so that is something to look forward to.

What's Coming Up?

Next Thursday I'm off to Perth for the Unlock the Past exploring family and local history seminar where I will be giving four talks. Kerry Farmer and Doug Elms are also on the program along with local speakers and exhibitors so it will be a full on two days.

Then it's a whole month until my next talk for Pine Rivers Heritage Museum where I will be having A Fishy Look at Bribie Island. Should be fun as its combining my family history with local history. I have been to talks there before and they always have a really nice morning tea.

Until next time, have a great genealogy time with lots of new discoveries.

Genetic Genealogy, Book Review & Black Sheep Talks: Genealogy Notes 9-17 May 2018

Mother's Day flowers

The past week was dominated by Mother's Day and it was the first Mother's Day that Mum celebrated with my brother and I at my place and my son and his soon to be wife also came for a fish and chip lunch. So my three generations were all in the one place for Mother's Day. My brother headed home to celebrate it all over again with his wife and two children. We are a very small family these days.

As part of the day I showed some very early photos of Mum and I plus early photos of my son and I - Mum's comment was that it didn't even look like us but throw in a few decades and yes that was us way back then! It is only when looking at photos that I feel the passing of the years and wonder at how quickly time passes.

Books

My review of Nathan Dylan Goodwin's The Wicked Trade and The Suffragette's Secret: genealogical crime mysteries is now finished. Read it here. As usual a really good read and now the patient wait for the next book.

My new book to read (or more correctly reread) is Blaine Bettinger's The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy. I am getting lots of DNA matches but still struggling to understand my results so back to the drawing board for a refresher.

Talks
In that DNA spirit I am off to Brisbane tomorrow for the Queensland Family History Society's seminar on Genetic Genealogy with Dr Maurice Gleeson. Apparently it is fully booked which just shows how popular DNA is at the moment. I've spoken at that venue and it is not a small theatre. Should be a great morning and a catch up with geneamates. Just noticed that his handout is already on their home page - a bit of reading for tonight to make the most of the two talks tomorrow. Blog post to follow.

The room started to fill early

My two talks with the Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical & Historical Research Group on Monday were well attended with an almost full house for the convicts talk in the morning and slightly less for the afternoon session on missing ancestors (look for them in prisons). Lots of people seem to have black sheep in the family.

There was lunch in between and an opportunity to chat to people and have a look around their wonderful premises. As usual both talks are on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.

My U3A advanced family history session on Wednesday was all about locating photographs of your ancestors, places they lived, schools they attended, ships they arrived on and other aspects of family history using photographs to tell the stories.

Part of the research area, books always look more
interesting than a row of computers

Television

I have been fascinated by all the celebrity stories so far on the new Australian series of WDYTYA on SBS. There have been some really interesting stories and only three more episodes to go. Although they do drag it out in some cases, but then I guess that is all part of the entertainment value of the show.

What's Coming Up

My next genealogical outing will be to the Gold Coast Family History Society Again I will be giving two talks - one on finding and using archives for family history and the other on skeletons in the family. Another favourite topic with so many in my own family. That mini seminar is on 26 May at Nerang and it is open to the public with a modest price for members and slightly higher for non members.

Obviously I will be working on these two talks during the week as well as doing a blog post on the QFHS Genetic Genealogy seminar. Plus a new talk for my U3A students on insolvencies and bankruptcies which will be fun. Lots of interesting records to talk about there.

Until next time have a great genealogy week.

Genealogy conferences 2019, digitised gaol photos & other news: Genealogy Notes 1-8 May 2018

It was a big week for exciting announcements and I had a fabulous time discovering new information on my own families. Even after 40 years of research I am still learning new things about some family members who have always fascinated me. New online indexes and digitised records make it a must to go back and relook at your previous research.

While working on my two talks for the Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical & Historical Research Group on convicts and prisoners I was simply amazed at how much more is online and more easily accessible than when I did my convicts thesis for the Society of Australian Genealogists Diploma back in the early 1990s. Similarly while working on this week's talk on parish registers for Australia and the UK for the Bribie U3A advanced family history class I had even more finds. Now I want to review all my early Australian research. My to do list just gets longer and longer.

Blogs

The Chyebassa, image courtesy State Library Victoria

My Trove Tuesday post was the Voyage of the Chyebassa to Queensland in 1883. My great grandfather Herbert William White made his way to Charters Towers after leaving the ship at Townsville. Searching in Trove gave me insights into the voyage and what it was actually like travelling on board the Chyebassa including what they ate. Another wonderful Trove discovery.

Conferences
My overseas plans for next year were all thought out with a planned trip to my first ever Rootstech conference from 27 Feb to 2 Mar 2019. I've been promising to do that for years but something else has always been happening in the early part of the year. Plus I have wanted to go to Salt Lake City for years. This is a four day event which is better value than just a two day event unless you combine the trip with some tourism or genealogical research.

There is also an Unlock the Past Mediterranean cruise with some of my favourite speakers Paul Milner, Janet Few and Caroline Gurney in Sep 2019 going to Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar and on to France and Italy. I've been to the first three places but not the last two so I'm tempted.

This week I found out about two conferences which seem to be stepping into the empty space left by WDYTYA. The first is Family Tree Live on 26-27 Apr 2019 in London's Alexandra Palace with lectures, workshops, displays and stands aimed at all levels of family history experience. It is being organised by Family Tree in partnership with the Federation of Family History Societies. To receive the latest show information you can sign up for the e-newsletter at Family Tree. I love going to London but it is expensive for accommodation and I have been there.

The second conference The Genealogy Show is on 7-8 Jun 2019 at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham where Mum's Price family is from. The Midlands are somewhere I have not managed to get to yet. So a big temptation. The organisers have already set up a Facebook page for The Genealogy Show 2019 where you can get all the latest updates.

Also on next year is the local Waves in Time conference at Caloundra on 24-26 May and that is a definite must attend, apart from it's only an hour or so up the highway from where I live. It will also be a lot cheaper to attend.

Decisions decisions - pity you can't go to everything so I'm back to next year's planning board. Genealogists downunder definitely need 'beam me there' technology.

Convicts and Prisoners
From the introduction you will see it's been a week for looking at convict and prison records. State Archives and Records NSW has some wonderful online guides, indexes and digitised records but I was pleased to see that there are now digitised gaol photographs online (last time I looked it was just the index). It was thrilling to see a photo of my great uncle Denis Patrick Finn in 1928, not because he was in gaol but it was the only the second photo I have even seen.

Denis Patrick Finn, image courtesy
State Library of Queensland

The first was as a 17 year old soldier heading off to the Western Front in WW2 on what was probably his big adventure, having lied about his age to do so. Denis spent his 18th birthday in a German prison of war camp and as his prison alias in QLD was Johann Romanoff, there was a lasting legacy from his teenage experiences during the war.

Looking at his life (through prison registers in QLD and NSW and his two broken marriages) you can easily see that Denis could not settle back into a 'normal' way of life. His two brothers, John and Robert, also returned from the war but instead of trying to live in an urban area, both never married and lived in remote regional areas.

The other website that amazed me with new records was the Biographical Database of Australia. I found new information on my early Sydney convict families and the database groups the information together if they are  sure it is the same person. However, you still need to check other entries for the name as it may not all be together. One drawback is that the database only lets you search on a name which is fine if it is not a common name, but if you are looking for John Smith there are lots of results to skim through. Still it is a useful resource for early NSW in particular. It is free to search but to see the full record there is a reasonable subscription as it is a not for profit project.


Reading
The weekend saw me finish Nathan Dylan Goodwin's The Wicked Trade - now to do the review. As usual I can't wait for the next book!

Virtual Genealogy 
In some ways it was only a matter of time before we started having virtual genealogy societies. Many of our traditional genealogy and family history societies now have members only areas for those who can't attend meetings or the library in person. This is a fantastic benefit and the primary reason I am still a member of four Australian societies.

Last year I mentioned I won a subscription to VicGum and while I have been looking at their newsletters and email posts, I had yet to look at the members only area. Technology is amazing as I have been watching some of their meetings and guest speakers and it is just like being in the audience.

So this week I joined the Virtual Genealogical Society which is a global organization serving family history enthusiasts of all levels, geared towards those:

● whose circumstances make it difficult to attend local genealogical society meetings
● who prefer online presentations, special interest groups (SIGs), conferences, and socializing
● with an interest in connecting, networking, and mentoring with global genealogists.

They aim to provide a forum for genealogists to connect, network, and mentor with genealogists around the world through monthly meetings online, webinars, social networking, annual conferences, and in-person meet-ups at conferences, institutes and events around the world. It will be interesting to see how this develops and if it will change how existing (real not virtual) societies operate.

What's Coming Up?
A big week with today's talk on parish records in Australia and the UK at Bribie U3A and on Monday my talks on convicts and prison records with the Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical & Historical Research Group in partnership with Noosa Libraries. If you are at either event do come up and say hello.

Plus I have to start adding all my new information to my database and there must be a blog or two in these new stories. Sometimes it is hard to choose - spend time discovering new information or stop searching and spend time writing it up!

Have a great genealogy week until next time.

Newgate Calendar, DNA talks & other news : Genealogy Notes 24-30 Apr 2018

My goody bag from the Caloundra
Family History Research Inc last week

Reviewing old society journals can be rewarding - finally relocated my membership card for Genealogy SA. I obviously was using it as a book mark in one of their journals, it's now safe with all my other membership cards. Sometimes it is useful just to browse and check out urls or other resources and stories.

For example, in the Genealogical Society of Queensland's journal Generation, December 2014 there was an article 'Serious Crimes in the United Kingdom 1700-1825' from The Newgate Calendar.

Although most of my ancestors were criminals with a variety of crimes, none of them were too serious. However I'm fascinated by these types of records. The article finished by saying that the book is online free although it is a multi volume work. You can download volume by volume or browse the thematic contents including sneak thieves, highwaymen, smugglers, traitors, abductors of maidens, body snatchers and much much more.

Some of the entries are really quirky but fascinating. From the Ex-Classics home page, you can do a Google search such as Newgate and the surname of a person if you think one of your ancestors might be listed.

Blogs
Received some nice feedback on my Australian Trade Union Archives blog post for The In-Depth Genealogist. It's always nice to know that people are reading and learning something from our writings.

Tuesday's resolve is to do another Trove Tuesday post. The hard part I find is trying to pick a topic, so many interesting things to write about. Of course, it is also very easy to be distracted while searching in Trove.

Books
I've just finished reading Nathan Dylan Goodwin's The Suffragette's Secret, a Morton Farrier short story (and enjoyed it - review to follow) and now I've started on The Wicked Trade, another Morton Farrier adventure looking into Kent and smugglers in the 1820s. For me the attraction of Nathan's books is the combination of genealogy, history and a good story plus the development of his lead character as he progresses through his own life. I think we can all relate to crying babies and sleepless nights.

Talks
Last week I mentioned that I'm speaking at a Gold Coast Family History Society seminar at the end of May. Should have checked my diary - there are two talks for the Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical and Historical Research Group in conjunction with Noosa Libraries on 14 May.

Since moving back to Queensland I've done a few talks for Noosa Libraries but it has been quite a while since I last did talks for the Cooroy-Noosa group. It was in their old premises so I'm looking forward to seeing the new premises.

Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical & Historical Research Group premises

Moreton Libraries have booked me to do my blogging for family history talk at the Strathpine and Caboolture libraries later in the year. Plus I received my first request to do a presentation in 2019. No wonder time goes so fast!

What's Coming Up?

Front page of the bible Sarah Finn nee Fegan
brought to Queensland

I've just booked for the Queensland Family History Society seminar on Genetic Genealogy with Maurice Gleeson on 19 May. He is giving two talks - Managing your matches: a step by step approach to interpreting your DNA matches and Marrying DNA and Irish family tree research.

Learning more about how to read my DNA results and what to do with them is something I really need plus I have Irish ancestors from Wicklow - John Finn and Sarah Fegan. Should be a great day and a chance to catch up with geneafriends from Brisbane.

Until next time have a great genealogy week.

ANZAC day, genealogy talks & other news - Genealogy Notes 16-23 April 2018

Another week and another email from someone who found me via a blog post. This was exciting and I jumped up to grab an album of my mother's that was packed up when she went into the nursing home last year. But the one I wanted wasn't with the others, now the big question is where is it? There are boxes and boxes of photos for me to sort and digitise but with no real deadline they have just been sitting in the cupboard. With this motivation the coming week is going to be all about photographs and digitising them.

Blogs
Having just written the above paragraph on the value of blogs, I haven't had a chance this week to write anything. Tomorrow is ANZAC day and in past years I have written about my military ancestors.

In 2013 I wrote about The Brothers Finn and World War One - with this the final anniversary year of WW1 it is fitting to highlight this post again. Research (and blog posts) are not static and in 2016, three years after my first post, I wrote a Trove Tuesday blog World War One and the Finn Brothers.  In this blog I wrote about my excitement at finding a photograph of all three brothers in the same newspaper The Week, 31 Jan 1919. They all returned home but the youngest, Denis had been wounded and spent time in a German prisoner of war camp. The other two brothers never married. Lest we forget.

Journals
With the mornings getting darker, I'm no longer leaping out of bed and fumbling around in the dark trying to make a cup of tea without waking anyone else up. However there is no chance of going back to sleep so I have been having a reading feast of genealogy journals and magazines that having been piling up in the study. There are so many good stories and lots of tips and advice and URLs to check out on the laptop. One journal can hijack your day as you start exploring whatever the topic was.

Of course this is my print journals and to read my digital journals I have to actually sit at the study desk, not as comfy as being snug in bed. But the time will come when all journals will be digital as it is a much cheaper option for societies. Plus if I'm honest I won't need as many bookshelves! I just need to schedule time to read but so often I am hijacked by the desire to actually do research.

Talks

My talk at Caloundra Family History Research Inc went well with a packed house and interested audience. Received a lovely certificate, purple (what else) photo frame, a silky oak bottle stopper and a nice bottle of sav blanc to use the stopper with.

I stayed on to hear one of their own members talk about his family connection to some well known criminals. He was very entertaining and had people laughing and as someone who also has lots of criminals in the family, it can be hard talking about them. But there are some fantastic records with lots of family information and of course they are always in the newspaper!

The Gold Coast Family History Society have invited me to speak at their next seminar day on 26 May and one of the talks is my favourite - Skeletons in the Family which looks at convicts, prisons and asylums. My ancestors will be on display yet again. The other talk is on Archives You Should Know. Full details about the event are here. The Society meets at Nerang which is about half way between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Looking at their advertising I need to update my photo. That one was taken in Inverell, NSW in April 2014 and hard to believe that was four years ago. I will need a hair cut before the Gold Coast talk so time to take another good photo of me. Just wish it wasn't so hard.

What's Coming Up?

Memorabilia at the AFAQ cottage at Bongaree

There is no U3A this week due to ANZAC day but I am chairing the local history class this week and telling them all about the first five Presidents of the Amateur Fishing Association of Queensland. There is a family history element and it is a talk I gave to the Bribie Island Historical Society last year. Then in the afternoon, the current President of the Historical Society is giving a talk on Women of Bribie which should be fascinating. The U3A serve a wonderful afternoon tea for the modest gold coin entry.

On the writing front there are blog posts and an article for The In-Depth Genealogist. Weeks go fast but then months seem to go even quicker.

Until next week time a great genealogy week with many happy findings.

DNA connections, blogs as cousin bait & other news - Genealogy Notes 8-15 April 2018

Mum, my brother and I a long long time ago

A lot of the last week was out and about so not a lot of desk time. U3A starts again this week so Wednesday afternoons will be Advanced Family History and Friday mornings Local Bribie History. Two week breaks seem to go so quickly.

Mum had a great 84th birthday with two cakes - one with us and one at the aged care centre. My brother and his son came up for coffee and cake. Then Max and I took Mum to lunch so she could have nachos and a wine, treats not often on the menu!

Blog Reading

My blog post on the Australian Women's Register for The In-Depth Genealogist was listed on Gail Dever's Genealogy a la Carte for 14 Apr 2018. It's always nice to see that people are reading things I write. Plus I like to browse these compilations to pick up other blog posts of interest to my own research.

One I thought would be useful if only I could find a spare day was The Legal Genealogist's post on why we should all find Time to Paint. It's all about DNA Painter and how you can match up known relatives. My problem is not knowing who my relatives are!

Elizabeth Price nee Judge born Pollard

Although blogging about your known relatives can also help connect up in conjunction with DNA testing. A couple of years ago I wrote about my great grandmother Elizabeth Price nee Judge born Pollard - a brick wall that took a while to fall. I also posted a photograph of her.

At the weekend while checking my Ancestry DNA messages I found an email from someone descendant from the same Pollard family in Croughton, Northamptonshire. They had written to tell me how similar my Elizabeth was to her Croughton cousins and sent two photos to show the resemblance.

Blogging is definitely cousin bait and if you have both done DNA tests and submitted family tree charts then it all comes together quite nicely.

Resources

Kerry Farmer is the Director of the Australian Studies certificate with the National Institute for Genealogical Studies and quite often does free webinars. There is another one on Wednesday morning (18 April at 9am Sydney time) on Trove and how it is more than just digitised newspapers. It is free and open to all but you need to register. There is no user name or password required. Just type in your first and last name and click Enter as a Guest. Link to attend. Kerry usually advertises these on various Facebook sites so keep a watch out in the future.

What's Coming Up?

Thursday is my Sporting Ancestors talk for Caloundra Family History Research. It is always a great monthly meeting and I will also be able to find out what is happening with the Waves In Time Conference in Caloundra in May 2019. This is one of my favourite areas of Queensland and we nearly settled here so it is definitely in my diary for next year. Although it is only an hour and a half  up the highway I will be staying locally to maximise all my networking time with geneafriends.

There is a meeting of the Professional Historians Association of Queensland  at the weekend and it's on the north side of Brisbane so I'm planning to attend.

Until next time, have a great genealogy week!

Oxfordshire Finds, New Books & Other News - Genealogy Notes 1-7 Apr 2018

Instead of writing this blog post over the weekend I was busy searching and finding my Oxfordshire families in Ancestry. It's been quite a few years since I last looked at this family and now the parish they came from has been digitised. Not only can I search for them but I can also see the original parish register images myself. My GGG grandmother was Mary Ann Cooper from Deddington, Oxfordshire and I could find indexed entries for all her siblings but not for her. A little bit of hunting and I discovered her indexed as Gasper which is a bit different from Cooper. This is the 1790s and the handwriting is not always easy to read so be creative when you can't find someone where you expect to.

North end of market place, Deddington, Oxfordshire
with the parish church in the background,
photo courtesy of Motacilla, Wikipedia Commons

It's also useful to then have a look at Wikipedia for an outline of the parish history and any photos. Wikipedia Deddington stated that the parish includes two hamlets - Clifton and Hempton and this helped to explain why I was finding Clifton as a place of birth in the census records.

Understanding the geography of an area and places names are all key to establishing you have the right family. Plus there were some photographs of various buildings in the parish.

When you can't just drive down the road and visit a place, this is the next best thing.


Blogs

John Trevaskis

My second Trove Tuesday blog post for the year was Gone Home to Ireland But Still Remembered Here was a real genealogy find. My great grandmother's brother John Trevaskis was killed in a mining accident in Charters Towers and his wife Mary (nee Kelly) went back to Tipperary, Ireland taking their two children with her. This was about 1906 and when she died in 1944 her son published a death notice in the Townsville Daily Bulletin to let any friends and family know. Thanks to Trove I now know when she died and that she probably still had friends or family in North Queensland.

Thanks also to Crissouli who regularly mentions my blog posts in her weekly Friday Fossicking in That Moment in Time. These weekly roundups have all kinds of links to blogs, resources, news etc so if you are having trouble keeping up, check up her weekly roundup.

Books
Well it was a bonanza week at the post office. Just like Christmas. First Nathan Dylan Goodwin's review copy of The Wicked Trade and the Suffragette's Secret genealogical crime mysteries is sitting here tempting me. I like to read Nathan's books with no distractions so waiting for an opportune time.

Unlock the Past sent author copies of the second edition of my It's Not All Online: a guide to genealogy sources offline and it looks very nice in the new style. Hard to believe that was first published in 2011 and it is still very true today. I have a standing order for any new Unlock the Past titles - I find them very useful for research, talks and keeping myself across a range of genealogy topics. New editions include So You Are Totally New to Family Tree Maker 2017 by John Donaldson; Papers Past New Zealand's Yesteryear Newspapers by Coral Shearer; and Paul Blake's Discover Protestant Nonconformity in England and Wales.

Totally new titles from Unlock the Past include Discover The Poor Law in England and Wales by Paul Blake; Manorial Records for Family Historians by Geoffrey Barber; Hiring a Professional Genealogist You Can Trust by Legacy Tree Genealogists and The Madness of 'Mac' Surnames by Carol Baxter. Yes the whole book is for anyone with a Mac surname and it looks at all of the possible surname variants with lots and lots of examples. All Unlock the Past titles can be purchased online from Gould Genealogy & History as print or e-copies.

U3A
I have been busy doing some talks for the second term of my Advanced Family History class at Bribie U3A in 2018  - there are 10 weeks so rather than a mad weekly panic to have something ready I have prepared sessions in advance. I may even start giving some of these talks in a wider context if they are well received and the students like the approach. Plus there are the presentations from last year which new class members won't have seen. It starts up again next week with about double the numbers we have had previously. I'm a little nervous or perhaps I'm just used to our little group around the table.

What's Coming Up
This is a big week for meetings with the Bribie Island Historical Society on Wednesday and the Bribie Island Family History Group on Thursday. The Society's blog has everything you ever wanted to know about Bribie history and remember a local historical society may have information on your ancestors too. Plus it is Mum's birthday on Saturday and we are hosting coffee and cake here for the family.

This week has been absolutely fabulous for new genealogy information on quite a few of my family lines. So glad I decided to review some of my older research and discover what is now available online. Until next week, have a great genealogy week with lots of exciting finds.