Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

My Bucket List Geneameme

January 30th, 2012

I always like to try any challenge thrown out by Geniaus especially her Geneamemes and this Bucket List Geneameme is no exception. The only difference this time is that I have found it incredibly difficult. Why?

I’ve had a personal bucket list for years and slowly ticking off various things I want to do, places I want to go and so on. Some of those have been genealogy oriented (indeed most of my life has been defined by chasing my ancestors) but I have never really sat down and asked the types of questions in this geneameme challenge.

So it has taken me longer than other challenges because I want to do it all and choosing is really hard. Here’s my final list. I’m looking forward to reading what others have got on their lists. Thanks Geniaus for another great challenge.

The Bucket List GeneaMeme
The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you would like to do or find: Bold Type
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type

You are encouraged to add extra comments after each item
  1. The genealogy conference I would most like to attend is… what a tough one for a self confessed conference junkie but if I have to narrow it down it would be between Who Do You Think You Are in London in February or Rootstech in Salt Lake City in the USA – next year I intend to get to one of them, not sure which one yet!
  2. The genealogy speaker I would most like to hear and see is… another tough one as there are so many overseas speakers that I would love to hear in person, but possibly Thomas MacEntee wins this as I have heard him in a webinar and think he probably does a great in person talk (note I am not devaluing Australian or New Zealand speakers but I have been privileged to hear a great many speakers over the last 34 years)
  3. The geneablogger I would most like to meet in person is… three tough ones in a row – one of the really nice things about social media is that it has introduced me to so many great geneabloggers whose blogs I enjoy reading and learning from – picking from a great field (bit like the Melbourne Cup) I choose Dear Myrtle (on an Australia basis I was thrilled to meet Twigs of Yore at a Canberra genealogy expo and similarly Geniaus at Sydney events, plus many others)
  4. The genealogy writer I would most like to have dinner with is… this is very much like the one before but I will plead out as I don’t like dinner conversations as I find it very hard to hear unless it is one on one or no more than four at the table. I was privileged to have a one on one dinner with Dan Lynch during his 2010 trip and it was surprising how wide ranging the discussion was and how much other things we had in common. One dinner is probably not enough!
  5. The genealogy lecture I would most like to present is…. As someone who has probably given thousands of talks over the years to societies and conferences, both in a work and volunteer capacity, I’m not sure what to say here but to give a talk overseas (not New Zealand, already ticked off several times over). That would be a totally different kind of audience with different expectations and needs – I can feel the butterflies already!
  6. I would like to go on a genealogy cruise that visits…. As a veteran of two genealogy cruises in the Australia/Pacific area, I am now looking at some of the overseas ones, either UK or US/Canada as I have ancestors in both areas.
  7. The photo I would most like to find is… Another tough one as there are so many candidates for this one – but making a choice I would go for my Cornish great great grandparents James Henry Trevaskis and Elizabeth Rosewarne. I’m assuming they would be in the photo together but I would also take one of either of them on their own!
  8. The repository in a foreign land I would most like to visit is… Not sure that I classify the UK as foreign so I will go for Norway National and Regional Archives. Although a lot of Norwegian genealogy records have been digitised and are free online!
  9. The place of worship I would most like to visit is… Having been to most places in Australia it would have to be overseas so I will go for the church at Pitton & Farley in Wiltshire where my ancestors were associated with the church for hundreds of years.
  10. The cemetery I would most like to visit is …… Again I have been to most in Australia although my great grandfather Thomas Price’s grave in remote Hightville is still a must do (have recently made contact with someone who will take me out there if I can get myself up to the Cloncurry area of Queensland). Another must do is the cemetery in Harmony, Minnesota in the USA as this is the area where my Norwegian ancestors moved to after they left Norway in 1850.
  11. The ancestral town or village I would most like to visit is…… Another tough one and I’m torn between the various parishes in Cornwall and counties Armagh, Cavan and Wicklow in Ireland. I’ve only ever been to London so seeing more of the UK and Ireland is definitely on the list and will be driven by my genealogy roots.
  12. The brick wall I most want to smash is… What happened to James Henry Trevaskis? He disappears from Copperfield in Queensland and five years later his wife Elizabeth remarries. I’ve blogged about it so I live in hope that he will turn up someday!
  13. The piece of software I most want to buy is…. I’m not a techo person but I do like to try and keep up with what computers can do for genealogy. The idea of my own genealogy website interests me and I do admire Geniaus’s website and use of Next Generation software. Just not sure when I will take the plunge.
  14. The tech toy I want to purchase next is ….. I’m still tossing up whether I need a tablet or not – expect I do but it might mean even more time online and my recent five week trip to places with no internet made me realise there is life away from the computer!
  15. The expensive book I would most like to buy is… I’ve bought quite a few in my time and I’m now in the position of what do I do with them all? We’re moving and I can’t really take everything with me so no more book buying for me. It’s libraries or e-books!
  16. The library I would most like to visit is….. Wow, fancy asking a former librarian that question but I will say the British Library. I didn’t get there on my visit to London as I spent too much time in the British Museum looking at their fantastic exhibits (despite the fact that numerous school groups seemed to have picked the same day to visit).
  17. The genealogy related book I would most like to write is…. Regular readers of my blogs will know that I continue to procrastinate in finalising my various family history drafts. I will do it – someday!
  18. The genealogy blog I would most like to start would be about…. I have two already so I wouldn’t start a third – My Diary of an Australian Genealogist was started to replace my paper diaries so that I could look back and see what I had been doing over the year/s.
  19. The journal article I would most like to write would be about… I have written hundreds of articles and conference papers over the years but in more recent times I have taken to writing about my own ancestors and telling their stories before it is too late.
  20. The ancestor I most want to meet in the afterlife is…. The toughest question of them all but I will have to go with Helen Carnegie, later Ferguson, still later Chick – it took me a long time to find her and there’s still more to find out.


Comments ( 2 )

, , , , , , ,

Wealth for Toil – Thomas Price

January 25th, 2012

It’s Australia Day 2012 tomorrow and I am participating in Twigs of Yore’s annual blog challenge with this year’s theme Wealth for Toil. It took me a while to decide on who to write about because although all my ancestor’s worked hard, none of them were wealthy and most of them died early, through illness or accidents.

In the end I chose my mother’s grandfather Thomas Price as he led an interesting and varied life as he tried to provide for his family. Certificates give him a variety of occupations including labourer, coach axle turner, contractor, life insurance agent and at the time of his death he was a miner working in a remote area near Cloncurry having left Charters Towers where he had been a Baptist minister.

Thomas and his wife Elizabeth arrived in Sydney in 1878 and over the next ten years they had six children in six different places in NSW – Caleula, Orange, Parramatta, Kiama, Broughton Creek and Nattai. They then made the move to Queensland and four more children were born in Bundanba (now Bundamba), Bundaberg and Charters Towers.

The family then settled in Charters Towers for a while and it is here that Thomas and Elizabeth Price became involved with the Baptist Church. In an article Find Your Ancestors in Church Publications Part 1 for Australian Family Tree Connections, I briefly told of their involvement with the Ryan Street Baptist Church in Charters Towers.

Oddly enough I know more about Thomas’ last job because he was killed in an accident on the way to work at the Wee McGregor mine at Hightville. Thomas also died intestate and away from his family which meant the Public Curator became involved. I can only assume that work and money were in short supply and that is why he took the job so far away from his family who had moved on to Townsville.

The inquest into his death at Hightville gives me a very vivid account of his last moments including what he looked like and what he was wearing. Without being too morbid, the autopsy also gives me an idea of his health at the time. He was buried at Hightville and I can only assume that his wife and family did not travel out to that remote mining area for the funeral.

His personal belongings were packed up and sent to the Public Curator in Townsville who then passed them on to his widow Elizabeth. Again I am fortunate as I have a list of my ancestor’s personal belongings at the time of his death and in many ways it makes for sad reading. The list is long and detailed under a number of headings – money, equipment, clothing, toiletries, jewellry, stationery, kitchen utensils and foodstuffs.

Under Money there was one item – a cheque for 8 pounds 14 shillings, his final payment from the Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines. Under Equipment he had a tent, a bed rug, a pillow, a towel, a coathanger, a portmanteau, a sweat rag, a piece of rope and two boxes of matches. Under Jewellery was his watch chain and spectacles and under Stationery there were various writing items including his AWU ticket (Australian Workers Union). Under Kitchen Utensils he had a billy can, two tin dishes, a knife, a fork, two spoons and an enamel pint. Foodstuffs included three tins of dripping, two tins of condensed milk, one tin of Golden Syrup, one tin of luncheon beef, one tin of pork sausages and a bottle of condensed milk.

This list paints a somewhat lonely and less than luxurious life and Thomas was only 60 years old when he fell from the bridge at Hightville on his way to work on that fateful day in June 1918. From Townsville the family moved south to Collinsville and Elizabeth Price eventually lost her sight and moved in with my grandmother in Brisbane. My mother fondly remembers Elizabeth because she always had a lolly in her pockets for when Mum came home from school.

Elizabeth died in 1944, 26 years after her husband Thomas Price died. Eight of her ten children predeceased her as did many of her grandchildren so Elizabeth’s life was one of sorrow as well. I have recently returned from a trip to the various places in NSW that Thomas and Elizabeth lived when they first came to Australia. I found myself wondering what it was like to be continually moving and not really settling anywhere and having your family settle in various places.

Thomas and Elizabeth Price have many descendants today who are grateful that they emigrated to Australia in 1878 and through their pioneering efforts, successive generations have followed and built successful lives. Our ancestor’s toil may not have led to wealth in terms of money, but it has given us knowledge and stories of which we can know them better. Happy Australia Day!


Comments ( 10 )

, , , ,

Genealogy Aspirations Reviewed & Renewed 2012

January 13th, 2012

Although it’s already two weeks into January, my holiday travels (see Diary of an Australian Genealogist) have slowed down my blogging output. However I have been thinking about what I aspired to in 2011 (see My 2011 Genealogy Aspirations) and how well I managed to keep them in focus over what turned out to be another very busy year with lots of travel.

No 1 was finalising my mother’s Price family history and publishing it. Research on this led to a major breakthrough and the answer to something that had puzzled me for over 30 years (see Old Research, New Resources, Fresh Eyes). So this has to continue into 2012 as I am rewriting that section plus I have made contact with more members of the family recently so I need to incorporate some of that too.

No 2 was to learn more about DNA and its use in genealogy and this was progressed. I went along to talks on it by Kerry Farmer and Chris Paton but I have not done any further DNA testing. So another carry over into 2012.

No 3 was to learn more about my Cornish ancestors and Cornish culture and I joined the Cornish Association of Victoria and spent lots of time on the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks website. I’ve also agreed to give a talk on my Cornish miners to the Southern Sons of Cornwall Cornish Cultural Celebration later this year. This will probably be an ongoing part of my research now so I need to think up another goal for 2012.

No 4 was to continue to scan photographs and documents so that I have a digital copy as well as the paper copies and this has progressed but not as much as I wanted. It’s not something I can do while travelling so I really need to stay home more often (which is a goal for 2012 as we really do need to stay home to declutter and start packing for our move from Melbourne to what now looks like Port Macquarie). So scanning has to be on the 2012 agenda.

No 5 was to conserve and preserve family heirlooms and like No 4 it progressed slowly due to time away from home and will probably be done as we pack up (at least that’s the plan). However I also accumulated more items on Max’s side of the family (or rediscovered is probably more accurate) so lots to do in 2012.

So of my five aspirations, I can only dismiss one, do the DNA which is relatively straight forward and carry over the other three which are quite big given that I have been doing the family history since 1977 and have lots of information and memorabilia.

So here are my 2012 aspirations.

1. Write up my mother’s Price family history, including photographs and other illustrations in time for her 78th birthday

2. Do another DNA test, this time from a genealogy perspective and investigate my own DNA

3. Learn more about my Norwegian ancestors – I already know the basics from parish registers and census records but not the history and culture of Norway

4. Continue to scan photographs and documents so that I have digital copies as well as original copies and maintain a backup regime for both

5. Conserve and preserve family heirlooms I have collected ensuring they are boxed and stored appropriately

Hopefully during the year I will also progress other areas of my family history as new information comes online, new indexes are made available or long lost relatives make contact.

2012 is going to be another great year for genealogy!


Comments ( 5 )

, , ,

Unlock the Past Scottish Irish Genealogy Cruise 2011 Overview

December 11th, 2011

Regular readers will know that I flew to Auckland New Zealand on 18 November for the  Unlock the Past history & genealogy cruise with a Scottish Irish theme. Throughout the trip I maintained a daily account of the genealogy sessions as well as the onshore excursions and shipboard life. They weren’t sent every day due to no affordable internet  for most of the time at sea but whenever I could use my Australian or New Zealand modems I sent out updates.

These can be found on this website in my SHHE Genie Rambles blog (more the genealogy session reports but not always) and also on my Diary of an Australian Genealogist blog (more the shipboard and onshore activity as well as a few genealogy sessions held on the days we were in port).

Fourteen days is a long time for a conference and I had wondered if it would be too long. Our earlier cruise was only seven days and I felt that was too short. The other change was evening sessions as well as day sessions and I had thought people might not attend given the other ship attractions. I was wrong on all counts – the fourteen days flew past and attendance at all sessions, day and evening remained strong right to the end.

There were also a lot of onshore days and these were exhausting as you tried to make the most of the time ashore, usually shopping, visiting local museums and other attractions. Shuttle buses, often free, or reasonably priced, took tourists from the wharf area to the CBD areas of the various ports. These all ran like clockwork and we never found ourselves waiting long for a shuttle in any port.

I attended most of the sessions on board ship unless I had heard it previously at an onshore seminar and I missed some due to time mix-ups. Overall I learnt heaps from the various speakers who often overlapped and complemented each other as they reinforced various aspects of Scottish Irish research. I have a notebook full of ideas, suggestions, and URLs to follow up.

As well as the Scottish Irish talks, other speakers gave a wide range of talks and these I reported on at the time (see above links) and there was something for everyone. I especially liked Rosemary’s talks on the subscription databases such as Ancestry, FindMyPast UK and FindMyPast Australasia, The Genealogist and also MyHeritage as her talks broadened my expectations of what you can find or do with these sites. It’s often not as expensive as we might think especially if you get lots of information and I’ve especially found this with Scotland’s People. It’s much cheaper than buying Australian certificates!!

I also gave eleven talks and received quite good feedback during the cruise which was nice. The Help Desk area was always busy and I had lots of sessions with people one on one to discuss their brickwalls or more simple queries. When we were within internet range, I also did some searching to see if I could actually solve some of these issues. I had some small success on a few and managed to find some things they hadn’t found. In the process, I also managed to locate Max’s mother’s RAAF file in the National Archives of Australia so now we are waiting to receive a copy once access clearance is organised. On a negative note, I am surprised (still) by people who don’t buy certificates – sometimes that is the easiest way to knock down a brickwall.

What didn’t I like? These were mostly specific to the Holland America ship Volendam and I was shocked to find that there was smoking in the Casino which was right next door to the Hudson Room where a number of our talks were held. You also had to walk through the Casino to get to the other end of the ship and it was also next door to a lot of the shopping areas of the ship. It was not an enclosed area so smoke did drift out into these other areas depending on how many were smoking. Most of the Australians I spoke to found this annoying as we are now so used to no smoking in public areas.

Another difference was the food which was American/Canadian in focus rather than the British food we had on the Pacific Dawn. Although by the end of the trip I noticed at the breakfast buffet there were three kinds of bacon – crispy (and I do mean crispy), Canadian and what I can only describe as more Australian style. Eggs were over easy (and we needed a translation) but the omelettes were divine. Lots of other differences but it was like being in the US rather than in the South Pacific.

Early on I discovered the Mexican style of food at the Terrace Grill on the pool deck and had lunch there many times but I didn’t like the cheeseburgers or their pizzas which weren’t like what we have.  Still when you travel overseas you do expect to eat different kinds of food but for some reason I wasn’t expecting American style food although I knew it was a Holland American ship.

The other area that threw me was wine and often depending on where we were dining, we couldn’t get Australian wines, only American or French. Although I will now confess a fondness for some of the wines from Washington State in the US. If you click on that link to one of the wineries I enjoyed, you will see that you have to declare that you are over 21 to enter the site (their legal drinking age is 21 yet our age is 18, another major difference if you are travelling with anyone between 18 and 21). We even tried a Budweiser (American beer) and if I am eating Mexican I do like a Corona!

The other thing I don’t like is round tables of eight, they are too big for everyone to engage in the conversation even if they don’t have hearing problems. We started out at the bigger tables but by the end we had settled nicely into rectangular tables of six which are much easier to hold conversations around without leaving anyone out.

I would also like cheaper access to the internet while on board and at sea. There must be ways for groups to do deals to access a cheaper rate. It would also be easier for speakers to help people if they could instantly show them a website or do a search with them rather than just outline what to do.

We had a disappointing end to the cruise, along with a few other genealogy cruisers, in that our prepaid ship to airport transfers didn’t eventuate for reasons I still don’t quite understand (I asked for a written explanation which I was told on the phone I would get but didn’t) but Clean Cruising have refunded our money.

So really my biggest gripe was the smoking issue and that would probably put me off doing another cruise where smoking is allowed in public areas that are open to other areas of the ship.

From a genealogy perspective, I would be off on another one tomorrow if I could. I always enjoy myself listening to other speakers and talking with fellow cruisers about their genealogy issues. Often their problems make mine look easy!

The next Unlock the Past history and genealogy cruise is 10-19 February 2013 departing Sydney with visits to Noumea and Lautoka, Fiji (I was last there in 1976 so I expect it has changed somewhat). This is a difference cruise line again, the Royal Caribbean and the ship is the Voyager of the Seas and there are more days at sea which means more genealogy sessions with less interruptions for onshore visits .

At this stage I’m planning to be on the Voyager of the Seas although the international speaker or other speakers for that matter, haven’t been revealed yet. For me genealogy cruising is an ideal combination – no housework, overseas travel and genealogy in an affordable package. Plus all that food and drink (I was pleasantly surprised to find  that I didn’t put any weight on this trip, must be all the additional exercise, walking and stairs that I don’t get at home)!

Now the long wait until February 2013 – perhaps I should check out some of the American genealogy cruises for 2012??

Finally I would like to thank all those who read my cruising blogs – it’s great turning up somewhere and someone says ‘loved reading about your cruise adventures’. It makes the effort of writing these blogs all the more worthwhile but don’t just read about the next one – why don’t you think about joining me and experience it all for yourself?

Comments ( 6 )

, , , , , ,

Two Full On Genealogy At Sea Days

December 3rd, 2011

Those following my Diary of an Australian Genealogist blogs will know that I am recording my touristy adventures there along with reports on the few genealogy sessions we have when in port. For the days we are totally at sea with no touristy distractions, I am putting those session reports on this website.

Day Ten

The extra hour of sleep last night was good and the day started with Chris Paton talking about Scottish Censuses 1841-1939 and then Perry McIntyre on Finding Your Irish Ancestors in Australia: BDMs and Arrival. I was familiar with both these areas but still good to have refresher sessions as it is amazing what you can forget or not realise what else you can do with certain resources.

I spent some more time with one on one sessions and took two more bookings for tomorrow. I have now got a growing number of searches to do for people once we get into internet connection range again. I will briefly see if my suggestions look like they will work, and then advise people to thoroughly search themselves when they get home.

After lunch it was a solid session of talks right through to dinner time starting with Rosemary highlighting the various resources on Ancestry for Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Scotland and America – all in 45 minutes. Even though I have been an Ancestry subscriber for a few years, I realised that I tend to use the usual suspects and there are lots of smaller collections which I should look at for my families. More notes on my To Do list!

Chris Paton then spoke about DNA and Genealogy and I found this very useful as it was not too scientific and more practical. His examples were from his own Paton ancestry and I need to look at some more DNA sites including Family Tree DNA which is one he mentioned a few times.

Keith Johnson was next talking about the forthcoming  Biographical Database of Australia which will be hosted by State Records NSW and should be online in 2012. It is an ambitious project to list everyone who ever lived or visited Australia and link up all their records in a single database. I have heard Carol Baxter talk about this at various genealogy events too and I can’t help wondering if this will take all the fun out of searching in years to come.

Rosemary then gave a talk on The Genealogist which is a subscription website I haven’t used before so I was interested to see what they have and how it differs from Ancestry, FindMyPast and others. If you have non-conformists then it is definitely worth a look and I was intrigued by the surname coverage maps and census name maps. It also has a lot of military records and even an international section for Australia and New Zealand so another notation or two on my To Do List!

Richard Reid followed with his interesting and moving talk on The Great Famine 1845-55: Irish Ancestral Experience and Memory and he highlighted a few books to read for more background and understanding. These included The Irish Famine by Peter Gray and The Sharing of the Green: A Modern Irish History For Australians by Oliver Macdonagh.

Chris then spoke on Irish Resources Online which is based on his new Unlock the Past publication Irish Family History Resources Online.

After dinner I gave my Google Your Family Tree: Tips and Tricks (an expanded version of which is on my website Resources page, scroll down to Presentations). Jan Gow followed with a talk on using Legacy Family Tree.

I wandered out to the Casino to find Max learning to play 21 so I sat and watched for a while. Amazingly he didn’t lose and finished the night with what he started with. While in the Casino the staff came around and reminded everyone to set their watches back another hour so that we would be on Australian time tomorrow.  (As I write this after the event, this was a disastrous announcement for us to hear – more in tomorrow’s blog).

Another full day at sea with a full day of talks – not sure if my notebook is going to have enough pages left as there are still some great talks coming up.

Day Eleven

As I indicated in yesterday’s blog, we were told to set our watches back another hour last night which is what we did. We woke up, went up to breakfast and then wandered down at what we thought was 8am only to find that Richard Reid was just finishing up his talk on The Australian Imperial Force on the Western Front 1916-19. What was going on??

It turns out that there was a miscommunication (love that word) and some crew were informed there would be an hour time change and some weren’t, this also applied to some passengers too. This meant great confusion for the first few hours this morning but didn’t really impact on anyone unless they wanted to attend a genealogy talk at 8am. I am really cranky that I missed Richard’s talk but hopefully I will have other opportunities in the future.

I’m also envious that Helen Smith has internet for these three days at sea – she has taken up the ship’s wifi offer whereas I had purchased a Vodaphone modem for use while in New Zealand which was a cheaper method. But it does mean I have no access until back into Australian waters.

Given that I was in a cranky mood, I decided to skip Chris’ talk on Scottish Civil Records and go down to my cabin and blog (vent) my frustrations. Having calmed down (and it really is hard to stay cranky on a cruise ship) I then met up for another two one on one sessions with fellow cruisers. The first wanted to know more about blogging and how to go about it so that was fairly easy as I am a great fan of blogging with two blogs myself – SHHE Genie Rambles on my website and Diary of an Australian Genealogist. The second query was more challenging!

After lunch it was non stop talks until dinner starting with Rosemary talking about FindMyPastUK which I am reasonably familiar with but keeping up with all the new additions is the hard part. Jan Gow followed with a repeat of her session on using Treepad which was cut short the other day.

Chris Paton then talked on Scots and Gaelic – D’ye Ken The Difference and I must admit he did lose me a few times on the complexity of the various strains of Gaelic and their history. Rosemary followed with a session on MyHeritage and again I have been a member for some years but have not really made the most of this site’s features. So more on the To Do List!

Chris then did Writing Family History Articles which was a good overview of the topic and he also included blogging your own family stories if you don’t want to publish as such. I finished the day’s sessions with my Where Else Can You Look: It’s Not All Online (handout on my Resources page scroll down to Presentations).

Then it was off to dinner where everyone discussed the various sessions and what they had learned. Helen Smith gave her Using UK Archives for Family History Research talk after dinner (this was the one postponed due to the clash with Milford Sound the other day). Helen’s notes will be on the Unlock the Past website in a few weeks time so keep an eye out for them as she had lots of great suggestions.

What is surprising (not really I guess) is how enthusiastic everyone still is and attendance at all sessions is still quite high given the ship’s other temptations. We set our clocks back another hour tonight as we are back in Australia from tomorrow. I’m starting to feel a little sad as there is only three more days left, with two of them port days, Burnie and Melbourne.

Time always flies when you are having fun!


Comments ( 0 )

, , , , ,

Genealogy Cruising Day One at Sea

November 23rd, 2011

It was great to see so many people turn up for my talk At Sea Then and Now and I appreciated the feedback throughout the day as I kept running into other Unlock the Past cruisers (now easily identifiable by our lanyards and name tags). Also interesting to see how many others on board also ask about what we are doing – so many people seem to be doing genealogy or are interested in it.

Although I missed Chris Paton’s session on Discover Scottish Family History (having heard it before) I know he has the URLs that he mentions on his website Scotland’s Greatest Story so have a look there for some great resources and links.

After lunch Perry McIntyre’s talk was a great introduction to The Convict Irish and I particularly liked Perry’s approach of trying to get people thinking about why their ancestors did things and where they had come from and so on. She highlighted books published by Irish Wattle along with many others, Irish newspapers available via the National Library of Australia’s E-Resources, her own book Free Passage: The Reunion of Irish Convicts and Their Families in Australia 1788-1852 published by Anchor Books Australia to mention just a few points.

Next was Rosemary Kopittke talking about government gazettes, police gazettes and education gazettes – all fantastic resources for finding out details on ancestors and relatives that you might not easily find elsewhere. There is a range of resources on gazettes on the Unlock the Past website under Resources including indexes and sample pages. Many of these gazettes are also included in FindMyPast Australasia as well.

Lynne Blake was next with an introduction to New Zealand research and I think she gets my koala bear award for putting the most information into any talk but unfortunately she ran out of time and many of her slides were just skipped through. It was really an hour talk but she covered all of the repositories and the various kinds of records you can use for researching New Zealand ancestors. I was particularly disappointed as she started skipping slides just as she came to military records and that was one area I did want to know more about.

Lynne also talked about the New Zealand Society of Genealogists and the Resources they have for members only. Cyndi’s List also has a great list of New Zealand resources, many mentioned by Lynne.

Next was Jan Gow talking about how she uses Treepad to organise her genealogy resources and links and again as time was very short, only 30 minutes, she spoke very quickly and skipping through parts of the talk. What made it even worse was just towards the end the ship’s sound system came on with the announcement about White Island coming up so that put an end to Jan’s talk. I would like to hear it again but without the time constraints.

As White Island was so fascinating, I didn’t make it back in time for Richard Reid’s talk on The ANZACS: Australians at Gallipoli and Gallipoli Today or Perry’s talk on Beginning Irish Research, both talks I wanted to hear. However, I’m not sure that people would have heard them very well as the ship’s sound system continued to give out a history of White Island and a running commentary as we circled the island.

I’m writing this in my cabin at dawn the following day so haven’t caught up with anyone yet to see how those talks went. Hopefully I will be able to get some feedback from those who did go.

For more on what happened at sea yesterday check out my Diary of an Australian Genealogist blog on Day 2 on board Volendam.


Comments ( 0 )

, , , ,

Genealogy Cruising Again – Day One

November 20th, 2011

I write another blog, Diary of an Australian Genealogist, and note my daily activities briefly there but for the larger seminar reports, I will be putting them on my website. So for those interested in the Unlock the Past Scottish/Irish history and genealogy cruise over the next two weeks there will be updates in both blogs. I had thought I would do it differently, but the length of this report changed my mind.

Saturday was the first onshore genealogy seminar associated with Unlock the Past’s Irish/Scottish themed genealogy cruise. Auckland City Library is very impressive – modern, multi-storied (with escalators) it has fantastic resources for family history research. The Library describes itself as one of the most comprehensive family history collections in the southern hemisphere and I’d have to agree with that. It reminds me a lot of the Helen Macpherson Genealogy Centre at the State Library of Victoria although that’s a remodelled 19th century building so the atmosphere is different. In fact, the Auckland Research Centre is the type of library I would have loved to work for.

There is a great seminar room, good acoustics and really comfy chairs. The drawback was the low ceiling which meant the screen was not as high as it could have been to allow easier access to info at the bottom of the screen.

The seminar program was mainly Chris Paton talking on a number of subjects with Rosemary Kopittke talking on FindMyPast and myself on Google Your Family Tree: Tips & Tricks. Seonaid Lewis did a tour of the Auckland Research Centre for those interested.

I knew it was going to be a fantastic day as I sat listening to Chris’ first talk Irish Resources Online. While I like to think I know a bit about Irish genealogy and have used all the usual suspects, libraries, archives, subscription sites etc, I found my pen madly scribbling down URLs for sites that I’ve never come across. When I get home after the cruise, I’m going to have to spend quite a bit of time following up my new leads.

In fact there are so many great Irish resources now online that Chris has just published a new book Irish Family History Resources Online with Unlock the Past ($19.50 AU) so I am definitely going to have to get a copy of that while on the cruise.

Rosemary’s talk looked at the UK, Ireland and Australasia resources available through FindMyPast. I have heard Rosemary many times but this was the first time on the Irish resources. Even so, I was still amazed at all the new material that has gone up on the UK and Australasian sites  and there are a few new resources I want to follow up. At the beginning of her talk, Rosemary handed out a four page outline of her talk which made note taking easier, although it did not include the Irish site which is still relatively new.

After a lunch break, Chris gave an incredibly detailed talk on Scottish church records with lots of dates and their significance. I have read a copy of his book of the same name, and heard him speak on this topic last year, so that made it easier to follow.  Those not as familiar with the complexities would have found his timelines useful and his detailed slides clearly explained why it’s not so straight forward finding church records.

My talk on Google Your Family Tree: Tips & Tricks was next and I was pleased that a number of attendees came up and said how much they got out of it. I had been worried that most might have already heard a variation of the talk during the Unlock the Past roadshow last year.

Google makes changes every so often so you need to try and keep on top and although I had revised the talk and noted the Language translation tools needed an app now, I hadn’t been aware of the fact that Cache had changed so was very grateful to my friend Michelle for pointing that out. That’s another reason why going to seminars and genealogy society meetings is so important, you get to talk to others and learn things you might miss if you simply try to do it alone at home.

As my Google talk covers a wide range of Google features in only 45 minutes, I have a slightly expanded version of the talk on my website on the Resources page (scroll down to Presentations) which allows attendees to relook at the slides as they try out the various search strategies and other features with their own family names.

Final talk of the day was Chris on Scottish land records and all I can say is I hope he is planning a book on this topic too.  He mentioned so many dates and types of records depending on the time frame. Starting off gently with a brief look at newspapers and their relevance, he then moved into the more complex land systems and records. I found myself thinking I was lucky that my Scottish ancestors didn’t have any land although I suspect they must have been renters in Montrose!

The only fact that stands out in my mind after Chris’ talk on Scottish land records is that feudalism was not abolished until 2004 – what a fantastic trivia question, no one would guess that!

Gould Genealogy had a display of their ever growing range of Unlock the Past publications, Auckland City Library had a display of their various useful brochures and publications on family history, the Guild of One Name Studies was represented and the New Zealand Society of Genealogists (NZSOG) had a display of their publications and non-members were given a copy of their journal The New Zealand Genealogist and a membership form.

I have written previously about the Society and still think it must be one of the best genealogy societies  for what it offers its members in the members’ only section of the website, especially the at home access to the Gale newspapers. In Australia we are lucky to have some of these resources provided free by the National Library of Australia and its E-Resources. It’s a fantastic membership benefit, as New Zealand like Australia, has long distances between its various cities and towns and not everyone can visit the Society’s Auckland library.

It was also great to catch up with Library staff Marie and Seonaid and various NZSOG members who I had met on previous trips plus all the new people I met and talked with during the day. Afterwards a few people joined us for drinks and dinner and I learnt another Google tip which I hadn’t heard of so I’m eagerly waiting for an email with more details.

All up it was a full on day and I have lots of new URLs to follow up and ideas to explore with my Irish and Scottish ancestors. This was only Day One of the cruise/onshore seminars – I think I already need a bigger notebook!

Sunday is a day off (after I finish writing this report) and we will be exploring Auckland while other cruise presenters arrive. On Monday there is another seminar at Auckland City Library with Dr Perry McIntyre and Dr Richard Reid, both good speakers and long time friends so will be great catching up with them (not to mention learning more new things). Can’t wait (seem to be saying that a lot lately)!


Comments ( 0 )

, , , , , ,

Surname Saturday Meme: Names, Places and Most Wanted Faces

November 17th, 2011

As a regular reader of Geniaus‘ blogs, I often find myself (lately) doing memes. Sometimes they are created by Geniaus and sometimes she has picked up memes from fellow bloggers. This is one of the latter, and it is a really useful way to advertise the primary surnames we are researching. I have already had considerable success with relatives finding me via my own blogs, so this meme instantly appealed to me.

On his Destination Austin Family Blog Thomas MacEntee has revived Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie’s meme from 2009. Thomas says “Why so? Well this meme actually helps the genealogy blogger create “surname bait” for other researchers to find out on Google and other search engines.”

I’m a bit behind in responding to the challenge as it is a busy (or busier) time for me at present but that won’t detract from the results I am hoping for, which may be next week, next year or even in a few years time. As Geniaus said, it has also made me reflect on my direct ancestors again as it is a while since I revisited some of those lines (having started in 1977) and more recently I have been doing my partner’s families. Plus there are so many more resources available now I really should revisit all family lines.

The instructions for this meme are very simple (although they are US centric) but simply adjust them slightly to include Country, state or county or whatever is relevant for your ancestors.

How The Meme Works

To participate, do the following at your own blog and post a link in the comments of Thomas’ post:

1. List your surnames in alphabetical order as follows:

[SURNAME]: State/Province (county/subdivision), date range
as in:

AUSTIN surname: New York (Jefferson County, Lewis County, St. Lawrence County), 1830-present; Rhode Island (Kent County, Washington County), 1638-1830

2. At the end, list your Most Wanted Ancestor with details!

Shauna’s Names, Places and Most Wanted Faces

Following are the surnames of my Great-Great Grandparents

CARNEGIE surname: Scotland (Angus, Montrose) 1786-1875; Australia (New South Wales, Grafton, Queensland, Brisbane, Toorbul) 1875-present

FAGAN surname: Ireland (Wicklow, Rathdrum, Glasnarget) 1861-present

FINN surname: Ireland (Wicklow, Rathdrum, Avoca) 1841-1882; Australia (Queensland, Brisbane) 1882-present

GUNDERSON surname: Norway (Telemark County, Seljord) 1688-1873; Australia (Queensland, Brisbane) 1873-present

HALVORSDATTER surname: Norway (Telemark County, Seljord) 1811-present

JEFFERS surname: Ireland (Armagh, Portadown) 1844-present

JOHNSTON surname: Ireland (Cavan, Bailieborough, Knockbride) 1803-1861; Australia (Queensland, Brisbane, Mackay) 1861-present

JUDGE surname: England (Northamptonshire, Croughton, Brackley) 1799-present

POLLARD surname: England (Northamptonshire, Croughton, Brackley) 1799-present

PRICE surname: England (Staffordshire, Wednesbury, West Bromwich) 1789-1878; Australia (New South Wales, Queensland, Charters Towers, Brisbane) 1878-present

ROSEWARNE surname: England (Cornwall, St Hilary Breage) 1582-present

SILK surname: England (Staffordshire, Wednesbury) 1740-present

SWEATMAN surname: England (Oxfordshire, Deddington) 1798-present

TITT surname: England (Wiltshire, Wylie, Bishopstrow) 1549-present

TREVASKIS surname: England (Cornwall, St Hilary, Ludgvan) 1698-1861; Australia (South Australia, Moonta, Queensland, Copperfield, Charters Towers) 1861-present

WHITE surname: England (Wiltshire, Pitton & Farley) 1640-1883; Australia (Queensland, Charters Towers, Brisbane) 1883-present

Most Wanted Ancestor: I’ve just recently found mine – Elizabeth JUDGE who was really a POLLARD (story here) but I’m happy to have any additional information on any of the above!


Comments ( 2 )

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pambula Genealogy Seminar

November 14th, 2011

It’s a long drive (606 kilometres) from our place to Pambula, New South Wales but it does take you through the scenic Gippsland area of Eastern Victoria. For most of the time we were out of mobile phone coverage which always makes me wonder what would happen if the car broke down as towns are few and far between the further east you go.

Even in Pambula I often found it hard to get phone coverage and if I did, it was odds on that the line would fall out before I had finished. This is a long way of saying it is not always easy for people in regional areas to have access to mobile phone and internet coverage. A bit ironic given that I was asked to talk about using Google for family history and online trends in genealogy.

It had been 10 years since I last gave a genealogy talk in Pambula for the Bega Valley Genealogy Society and there were still some familiar faces plus new ones. As well as my two talks, there was Beth Mitchell talking about the Parramatta Female Factory and while I don’t have a direct interest, I was fascinated by some of the family photos she had of various inmates and their families. What I hadn’t realised was that when the Parramatta Female Factory closed down in 1848, it became the ‘new’ hospital for lunatics (Parramatta Asylum). Beth also promoted the Save the Parramatta Female Factory campaign and most attendees signed the petition she had with her. The Parramatta Female Factory Precinct has a wide range of information and links for this fascinating area of early colonial history and heritage.

The other speaker for the day was Christine Yeats from State Records NSW talking about the DVD The Old Register One to Nine which is an invaluable resource for anyone with ancestors 1794-1824 in NSW. When the DVD first came out I was asked to do a review for the Australian archival journal Archives & Manuscripts so I was aware of how useful and interesting this resource is. In the review I mentioned that I didn’t find it all that easy to use, but I found Christine’s walk through using the various indexes and then finding the digitised images easier to understand. Another useful point from Christine’s talk was the relationship of the Register to other records held by SRNSW. It’s on sale for $100 (that’s a saving of $25) until 14 December so perhaps a great Christmas present for an enthusiastic family historian with early convict or military connections!

Christine had a paper handout  of her presentation (useful for the step by step instructions on using the Register) and versions of my talks Google Your Family Tree: Tips & Tricks and Online Trends in Family History are on the Resources page of my website (scroll down to Presentations).

Perhaps the thing I like most about speaking in regional areas is that the catering is always superb. Country cooking is always in evidence with delicious cakes, biscuits and slices and a great variety of sandwiches plus fresh fruit. Not to mention tea in teapots!!

After the seminar ended we went for a short drive down to Pambula South beach (sometimes you can even see the humpack whales from the beach) and we were surprised to see kangaroos (or were they wallabies or both, many with joeys) in people’s gardens, on footpaths and every where else! Pambula is an historic area and many of the old stone buildings also caught our attention.

The organisers did a great job and from the verbal feedback, everyone went home with lots of things they wanted to follow up on. I hope it is not another 10 years before I am asked back!


Comments ( 0 )

, ,

Remembrance Day & My Two Grandfathers

November 10th, 2011

Each ANZAC Day I like to blog about one of my military ancestors, and this Remembrance Day I have decided to do the same. Neither of my two grandfathers spent much time in military service but their stories are still interesting.

Although my parents were born only a few months apart, my mother’s father Henry Price was born in 1887 while my father’s father John Martin Gunderson was born in 1909. So one grandfather saw brief service in World War One and the other in World War Two.

Henry Price

At the outbreak of World War One, Henry as part of the Kennedy Regiment in North Queensland, was mobilised for war service.  In the event of war, it had been previously arranged that the Kennedy Regiment, one of the citizen-force regiments enrolled under the compulsory training scheme, would garrison Thursday Island. Therefore as soon as the news was received, the regiment’s was mobilised. On 8 August 1914 Henry and his regiment (over 1000 men) embarked on the troopship Kanowna at Cairns for Thursday Island.

After reaching Thursday Island safely, a few days later the volunteers were called for ‘for service outside Australia’. The Defence Act provided that no citizen forces could be sent outside the Commonwealth without their consent, hence the ‘call for service’.  About 500 of the men volunteered including Henry Price and they were then sent on to Port Moresby on 16 August 1914 on board the Kanowna where they were to take part in the capture of German New Guinea.

On 4 September 1914 the Kennedy Regiment met Colonel William Holmes who was based in Port Moresby to prepare the task force to attack German New Guinea. Henry joined the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force on 6 September 1914.

Holmes had been expecting mature, trained well-equipped soldiers. Unfortunately he was disappointed for a number of reasons.  Firstly, the Kennedy troops were mainly young men aged between 18 and 20 years old.  The Regiment had been mobilised quickly, without proper medical inspection and consisted of both trainees under the compulsory scheme (some of whom were not yet 18) and middle-aged members of local rifle clubs.

Secondly, the  new arrivals had very little gear with them and to fight in the tropics soldiers needed mosquito nets, good boots, hammocks and suitable uniforms. There had been no time to provision the Kanowna for a long voyage and she quickly ran out of stores and was given extra stores from the Sydney.

A third factor that upset Holmes was that the Kanowna’s crew were considering mutiny as most of its members had  been shanghaied into service and were not volunteers.  Without the Kanowna, there was no way of getting the Kennedy Regiment from Port Moresby to the attack area.

For these reasons Holmes wanted to send the Kennedy Regiment and the Kanowna back to Queensland.  However, he could not do this without higher authority and before this could be arranged, Holmes was ordered to send his troops off to battle.  On 7 September 1914 the cruisers Sydney and Encounter, the auxiliary cruiser Berrima, destroyers Warrego and Yarra, submarines AE1 and AE2, the supply ship Aorangi, the Parramatta, the Koolonga, the oil tanker Murex and the Kanowna steamed out of Port Moresby.

However, just outside the harbour the Kanowna slewed sideways and halted.  The firemen had stopped stoking the engines and insisted that they would not start again until the ship was going home to Queensland.  The soldiers declared they would stoke the engines but were overruled and the Kanowna was ordered back to Townsville.

Colonel Holmes reported ‘I consider the Kanowna detachment, as at present constituted and equipped, unfit for immediate service and, in view of today’s events …. recommend disbandment’. The Kanowna arrived back in Townsville on 18 September 1914 and the Kennedy troops, including Henry Price, were discharged on the same day.

Henry Price

Henry Price

The majority of the Kennedy Regiment then rushed to volunteer for the 1st AIF and subsequently became the backbone of the 15th Battalion at Gallipoli which went in with 1000 men but sadly, within just a few short weeks came out with only 350 men.

Henry Price did not re-enlist following the abortive campaign on the Kanowna.  For his brief part in the war effort, Henry received the British War Medal.  This simple silver medal was issued singly without the Victory Medal 1914-18 to certain personnel who did not actually serve in the theatre of war. The family story that he participated in the capture of German New Guinea was not quite accurate.

Had Henry re-enlisted, he would have gone to Gallipoli and perhaps this story may not have been written as only three of his ten children had been born at the outbreak of  World War One. The photo to the right shows Henry and my grandmother Alice and their daughter (my mother) shortly before his death in 1938.

John Martin Gunderson

John Martin Gunderson

John Martin Gunderson
Jack, as he was more commonly known, enlisted in the Australian Army on 27 August 1941 in Brisbane and was discharged two years later as a Sapper with the 2/3 Field Squadron on 27 October 1943.

Aged 32 years when he enlisted, Jack’s health was an issue and he served at various places in Australia including Redbank in Queensland, Bonegilla in Victoria and Northam in Western Australia before he was declared medically unfit and discharged.

Although he never saw military service outside of Australia, he received the War Medal 1939-45 and the Australian Service Medal 1939-45.  The photo above shows Jack in his army uniform with my grandmother Kathleen and my father.


Comments ( 4 )

, , , , ,

« Previous Entries

RSS Feed

Search