Books, Talks, Conferences & Trips: My Genealogy Weeks 31 Jan to - 28 Feb 2025

The big highlight of the last few weeks was my confirmation report and presentation to Griffith University assessors for my PhD thesis. A 10000 word report including a literature report tends to focus your thoughts on what your topic is and is it worthwhile as a PhD topic. Personally I think telling the life stories of over 1700 women in colonial Queensland gaols is fascinating. Thankfully the assessing panel agreed and I will get formal approval soon but they told me on the day I had passed.

My Easter orchid continues to flower so it is also a reminder that summer is finishing and autumn is coming.

Books

Just finished Tea Cooper's The Naturalists Daughter. Another great read and when I went to the library to borrow another of her books, none on the shelf. 

Bribie Family History Association book club has started up for the year and we had two books waiting for us. Both look really interesting and both authors I have not read before. 

Heather Morris' book was hard to put down. I hadn't been aware of those events (trying not to do a spoiler alert).

Plus I have a couple of books people have lent me or given to me. The obvious question whenever I meet my friends is, have you read it yet? Now out of the cupboard and on the desk where I can see them. Pity I can't do that with e-books, articles, journals and magazines. Sadly that is a case of out of sight out of mind. I bought a new IPad with lots more memory so I'm hoping to get more e-reading done on my travels in May.

Conferences & Travel

RootsTech 2025 is only a few weeks away now. I'm not familiar with the keynote speakers named so far and will probably just end up watching pre recorded sessions due to the time differences. With over 150 sessions to choose from we won't be bored over the weekend. Remember it is free to watch online.

But not as good as meeting people in person. One of the 2023 highlights was meeting Nathan Dylan Goodwin in person.

The NSW/ACT annual conference is in Wollongong in September and I am still thinking should I go or do my planned trip the east coast of Queensland to Rockhampton and Townsville. Planning to do some PhD research up that way and want to do it before summer arrives again. 

We have our trip to Bali again in August and I don't get back from my Swedish trip till the beginning of June. A Wollongong trip would mean driving through Newcastle and a spot of research on Dad's family has been in my travel plan since pre Covid days.

Stewart's Creek Penal Establishment in 1912
image courtesy State Library Queensland

The other conference I definitely want to attend is the Professional Historian's Association conference in Darwin in October. That will also give me the chance to pop over to Broome, another must visit Australian town on my bucket list. I only have a few to go so it would be good to tick this one off.

New Resources

Excited to learn that Findmypast has added 207,233 cemetery records from New Zealand. Regions include Christchurch, Selwyn District, Far North District, Onehunga, Ruapehu and Auckland. There is a list of cemeteries included on the search page. Good news for those of us with trans Tasman families.

Still with Findmypast they added 307,800 new newspaper pages updating 67 existing titles and adding Bromley. Digitised newspapers are so good for finding out family stories we might never know about. 

Talks

My Monash library and Noosaville library talks were well attended and lots of fun. I enjoy giving my search strategies talk because I can actually see people thinking of why they need to search variant spellings of given names, surnames and places. 

My next talk is at the Connections 2025 conference in Brisbane. I'm looking forward to catching up with lots of genie friends and learning heaps as well.

What's Coming Up?

Bribie Family History genie chats has started up for the year and we are doing Thomas MacEntee's do over or go over program with his permission. Already I have found it useful as I picked my Somerset families on Dad's side to review as I am getting lots of DNA matches to those families. Since I last looked Ancestry has added lots of Somerset records and with images. Already pushed a couple of families back a generation or two. But also looking to record everything properly as I go. Looking forward to seeing how the other participants are going at the next Genie Chat session.

Have to say it is nice to actually spending some dedicated time on my own family research.

RootsTech 2025 will be a full on weekend and there are a few sessions I would like to see live. Maybe I should plan another visit for 2026. That will be three years after my last visit. Plus I am giving a talk on Australian military records on the Thursday. 

Until next time, happy searching. Shauna

Books, Resources & Other News: My Genealogy Week 23 - 30 Jan 2025

Well time is moving fast. My Easter orchid is in bloom, a bit like having hot cross buns in the shop. A hectic week preparing a confirmation report for my Ph D. Still to do the slides but should be ready for presentation on 7 February. 

Books 

My reading pile of books is huge and I have them on Kindle and Funnell too and an academic platform. Not to mention all the academic articles relevant to my research on women incarcerated in colonial Queensland. Had to go through them for my uni report and so many are also relevant to family history research. 

For example, Tanya Evans' Family history, historical consciousness and citizenship: a new social history. I really like her introduction looking at the origins and practice of family history in Australia, Britain and Canada.

Another one that I haven't read fully yet is Janet Few's Marginalised women: a guide for family historians which is on my Kindle. It is good to compare my Queensland examples with her British case studies. 

Conferences

March is the big month with Roots Tech attending virtually and giving two sessions. The theme this year is Discover and I am sure we will all learn something new.

Then the AFFHO Congress in Brisbane where I will present one session in person. Sadly nothing after that unless I see an interesting virtual/hybrid conference. Just have to cheer myself up with my trip to Sweden to see the family.

New Resources & Magazines

WDYTYA January 2025 features one of my guest posts on a reader's question. Always exciting to do but also often quite hard to resolve. Sometimes our ancestors just don't want to be found.

Ancestry now has the 1921 census for England and Wales. 

The Museums of History Newsletters provide updates about the records held by the State Archives in New South Wales. I get really good tips when they produced their own newsletter. There is a webinar on how to read a parish map if you are not familiar with these. Plus information on what is in education records.

Lost Cousins newsletter is still informative and lots of information on updates and new resources.

Talks

February is a big month with a session with Monash Library family history group on searching techniques and a similar session up at Noosaville mid February. 

Love the graphic Noosaville did to advertise the talk. Details of my talks are on the Events page of my website.

What's Coming Up?

I'm buying a new car and should have it by the end of the month or early February. Exciting times. Love the colour and so much quieter and safer than my Mazda. Although not sure that I will get used to a self steering car and one that can move forward and back without me in it.

Until next time, happy searching, Shauna

New DNA matches, books I'm loving & other news: My genealogy week 15 -22 Jan 2025

 Another busy week with a trip to Caloundra to give a talk on Scottish ancestors and lots of work on my confimation milestone for my PhD. In fact, that has taken over my life at the moment.

Books

Still fascinated with Tea Cooper's books. Just finished reading The Fossil Hunter and have now borrowed The Naturalist's Daughter from the Bribie Island library.

Bribie Family History Association

Out first meeting for 2025 is on 7 February with Mariane Young as our guest speaker on researching in Ireland. Putting together the slides for the meeting so that those members who can't attend still get all the news. Looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Conferences

For something different, I am going to talk about the NSW/ACT annual conference which is in Wollongong this yearbetween 12-14 September 2025. No details yet but you can sign up for the conference newsletter. No 1 is here.

My RootsTech handouts are due next week but I notice that my sessions have disappeared from the classes schedule. I need to check that out. 

New Resources

I haven't used Findmypast for a while so a bit surprised to see a new look. There was a hint to an Elizabeth Bilson in the 1841 census in Melton Mowbray and when I checked it out, a 12 year old Mary Spencer was also living there. More proof that the Billson and Spencer families were connected in Leicestershire. Only trouble was that the image is very poor and the name of the three week baby girl is not readable. A search in 1851 didn't find them so I need to have a good look at this. When I get spare time!

Snippet from 1841 census via Findmypast

Then I popped over to Ancestry to check my new DNA matches. Got excited with a large match, first cousin once removed, but once I checked it out, I realised it was a second cousin with a much larger cM match than her brother. Interesting.

Otherwise most of my new matches were in the smallish range of under 20cM. 

I should probably schedule regular checks of my DNA accounts as I have them with FamilyTree DNA and MyHeritage as well as Ancestry and 23 & Me. 

Talks 

My next talk is for Monash Library in Melbourne and it's a variation of my why can't I find it talk. So lots of tips and tricks on how to find something hiding in the indexes. Always a good group and it is hybrid with some in the library's conference room and some on Zoom.

And a trip up to Noosa Libraries - another good group. I like the advert they have done for my talk Why Can't I Find It? Family history searching at Noosaville Library. Very Sherlockian, if that is a word? You can book online by going to the Events Calendar - select Monday 17 Feb at 10.30am till 12 noon.

Always amazed by all the bats in the trees around the library complex. Have to be careful where you park the car!

What's Coming Up?

A new passport! Having booked my trip to Sweden, I now realise that there won't be six months left on it by the end of my holiday. 

Have fun researching, until next time, Shauna