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)!


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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!


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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!


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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.


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52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Week 43 Worst School Subject

October 29th, 2011

I’m participating in the weekly Geneabloggers theme of 52 Weeks of Personal  Genealogy & History and sadly I don’t always get the time to do each week’s topic. This week is your worst school subject and I simply had to do this challenge. I only ever failed one school subject and that was Art. Personally I don’t think it should have been a compulsory subject in Year 8 because not everyone is artistic.

I’m a very practical kind of person and not all that patient and the idea of sitting around and sketching, drawing, painting and colouring never really did anything for me. So I attended the classes with no real development of any artistic skills and then time came for the final exam. We had to design, draw and paint a wallpaper for a bedroom and this was the late 1960s. At that period of my life I had already painted my room a striking purple with even darker purple trims and picture rails.

So as I sat there waiting for inspiration it finally came in the form of one of my true loves – the night sky, the moon and the stars. To me the black sky, the planets, moon and stars all looked fantastic on my exam painting and perhaps it was my best work as I was truly inspired.

However when the teachers (the art teacher had asked other teachers to also give their opinions) saw my work they did comment it might be a bit too dark in the room with black wallpaper. For someone living in a purple room it didn’t seem that dark to me but I did take their point. They did praise me for my vision, imagination and artistic skills but the exam was for a bedroom wallpaper and therefore it was the big F.It was the only F ever received and I don’t think I have ever drawn anything since.

Sitting here reliving that moment in my life reminds me of another teacher, my English teacher, who was forever telling me what a boring writer I was. I needed to get more interesting so I find it a bit ironic now that I spend a great deal of my time actually writing blogs, articles and books that other people actually like to read. When did I become interesting (and how)?

My final recollection on this impromptu theme of people’s negative comments, is where shortly after leaving high school in 1972, I applied for a job in a library and at the interview, the librarian in charge told me that I wouldn’t make a very good librarian. I’ve often wondered if it was the purple hair I had back then (I was always ahead of my time, now I would fit in very well!).

Ironically many years later I joined the staff of the John Oxley Library and that particular librarian was working at the State Library of Queensland too. Not long after I started she came up to me and said ‘I remember you’ and I replied that I remembered her and that long ago interview. We went on to do many genealogy events and desk rosters together and at one point I thought I might even try for her job when she eventually retired. That was not to be as I was lured back into archives by Queensland State Archives.

I’ve always believed we end up where we belong, doing what we should be doing – but how we get there is not always that clear. I wonder what they would think of me today (although I still colour my hair, wear makeup and have long painted nails) so perhaps not much has changed at all?


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Beyond the Internet Geneameme

October 27th, 2011

Pauleen from the Family history across the seas blog has created a Geneameme Beyond the Internet which focuses on genealogy resources beyond the Internet. Geneamemes (named by Geniaus) seem to be quite the trend lately so not to be left out, here is my contribution to this new geneameme.

For background I started researching my family history in 1977 so most of it was done pre Internet days. I have been able to solve some of my brick walls using the Internet and online databases especially census records. Also working in libraries and archives probably gave me an advantage as I was able to spend lunch times researching and found records I would never have found otherwise! It takes time to search original records which may only be indexed on a yearly basis or may not even be indexed at all. Looking at my results here, it is quite clear that I am more at home with a pre Internet geneameme than I was with the Tech Savvy Genealogists Geneameme!

Things you have already done or found: bold face type

Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)

Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type

You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item

  1. Looked at microfiche for BDM indexes which go beyond the online search dates. Also CDs.
  2. Talked to elderly relatives about your family history. Wished I’d done more when I still had the chance!
  3. Obtained old family photos from relatives. Otherwise I wouldn’t have any!
  4. Have at least one certificate (birth/death/marr) for each great-grandparent. Have all of them – they were only $5 when I started!
  5. Have at least one certificate (birth/death/marr) for each great-great-grandparent. Again most of them.
  6. Seen/held a baptism or marriage document in a church, church archive or microfilm.
  7. Seen your ancestor’s name in some other form of church record eg kirk session, communion rolls. Does my ancestor’s brothers count – recorded in minutes of church meetings and helped build the local church.
  8. Used any microfilm from an LDS family history centre for your research. Used to spend every Friday night at the library back in the late 1970s.
  9. Researched using a microfilm other than a parish register (LDS family history centre/other). Mostly UK and Scottish census films.
  10. Used cemetery burial records to learn more about your relative’s burial.
  11. Used funeral director’s registers to learn more about your relative’s burial.
  12. Visited all your great-grandparents’ grave sites. All but one who died in remote western Queensland but have contacted local historical society who will take me out there when I get the chance to visit – they have put a memorial on the graves as it is now an historic cemetery.
  13. Visited all your great-great-grandparents’ grave sites. Most of them but still one I can’t find dying anywhere!
  14. Recorded the details on your ancestors’ gravestones and photographed them. Wish more of them had gravestones – would like to put plaques up at some stage.
  15. Obtained a great-grandparent’s will/probate documents. Only a few had wills, some intestacy files too!
  16. Obtained a great-great grandparent’s will/probate documents – again wish there were more to be found but where they exist, info was great.
  17. Found a death certificate among will documents. This is quite common in Queensland and saves money! Sometimes in land records too!
  18. Followed up in the official records, something found on the internet. TROVE has let me find more refs to my criminal relatives so I have dates and places to get into court and prison records.
  19. Obtained a copy of your immigrant ancestors’ original shipping records. Have all of them although it took some time to find them all.
  20. Found an immigration nomination record for your immigrant ancestor – do land orders count (common in Queensland and immigration agent records told me who my Norwegian ancestors went to work for after leaving the barracks).
  21. Found old images of your ancestor’s place of origin (online or other).
  22. Read all/part of a local history for your ancestor’s place of residence.
  23. Read all/part of a local history for your ancestor’s place of origin.
  24. Read your ancestor’s school admission records. Parents and grandparents (some)
  25. Researched the school history for your grandparents. Have looked at centenary or other histories where they exist.
  26. Read a court case involving an ancestor (online newspapers don’t count for this). Too many of them but then who wants a dull family history.
  27. Read about an ancestor’s divorce case in the archives. Mine didn’t divorce, just separated but have seen divorce files for collateral lines.
  28. Have seen an ancestor’s war medals. Handed down on the male line on my mother’s side, and no one knows where my paternal grandfather’s medals are. I have had replicas made for myself.
  29. Have an ancestor’s military record (not a digitised copy eg WWII). From SCMA in Melbourne before files were transferred to NAA.
  30. Read a war diary or equivalent for an ancestor’s battle. Especially for the Boer War.
  31. Seen an ancestor’s/relative’s war grave. Only in photographs from Commonwealth War Graves Commission but have visited local war memorials and seen their names engraved. Also some have a memorial notice on their parents grave although they died overseas.
  32. Read all/part of the history of an ancestor’s military unit (battalion/ship etc).
  33. Seen your ancestor’s name on an original land map.
  34. Found land selection documents for your immigrant ancestor/s.
  35. Found other land documents for your ancestor (home/abroad) – found letters written by my ancestors relating to their land files.
  36. Located land maps or equivalent for your ancestor’s place of origin.
  37. Used contemporaneous gazetteers or directories to learn about your ancestors’ places.
  38. Found your ancestor’s name in a Post Office directory of the time. Also electoral rolls.
  39. Used local government sewerage maps (yes, seriously!) for an ancestor’s street. Now digitised (some) in Melbourne.
  40. Read an inquest report for an ancestor/relative (online/archives). Lots of inquest files – mostly accidents.
  41. Read an ancestor’s/relative’s hospital admission.
  42. Researched a company file if your family owned a business. Had shares in the company and their names were listed in company file.
  43. Looked up any of your ancestor’s local government rate books or valuation records.
  44. Researched occupation records for your ancestor/s (railway, police, teacher etc).
  45. Researched an ancestor’s adoption.  None that I am aware of – although one gg grandmother took her stepfather’s name and threw my research out for quite a few years.
  46. Researched an ancestor’s insolvency. Quite a few in Queensland in the 1890s.
  47. Found a convict ancestor’s passport or certificate of freedom.
  48. Found a convict ancestor’s shipping record.
  49. Found an ancestor’s gaol admission register. Lots of them, both males and females.
  50. Found a licencing record for an ancestor (brands, publican, etc).
  51. Found an ancestor’s mining lease/licence.
  52. Found an ancestor’s name on a petition to government.
  53. Read your ancestor’s citizenship document. A Norwegian naturalization certificate, not a lot of info but did have his signature in Norwegian.
  54. Read about your ancestor in an undigitised regional newspaper. Working at the John Oxley Library in Brisbane gave me an advantage!
  55. Visited a local history library/museum relevant to your family. Lots of them – have made most of my holidays around Australia to places where my ancestors lived.
  56. Looked up your ancestor’s name in the Old Age Pension records. The widow of my gg grandfather – she was his second wife.
  57. Researched your ancestor or relative in Benevolent Asylum/Workhouse records. Another favourite place to find my ancestors.
  58. Researched an ancestor’s/relative’s mental health records. Still waiting for access to one file in Queensland.
  59. Looked for your family in a genealogical publication of any sort (but not online remember). Too many to remember but used to read lots of magazines from other societies at my local family history society library.
  60. Contributed family information to a genealogical publication. Many times.


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Writing Family History Again

October 21st, 2011

Back on 24 August 2011 I wrote a Writing Family History blog and since then I have met and talked with two interesting authors and have read and reviewed their books.

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I have been a fan of Hazel Edwards for many years and recently I had the pleasure of chatting with her over afternoon tea. It was really good to talk to another author about publishing and e-books and the use of social media. I also took along my first edition copy of Hazel’s How to Write a Non-Boring Family History so that she could sign it for me. When I purchased the second edition in August Hazel also signed that copy.

The other surprise I had for Hazel was a copy of the original article she wrote for the Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies journal, The Genealogist in March 1993. It is titled A Non-Boring Family History by Hazel Edwards and morphed into her book four years later. The article sets out the ten commandments of crafting a non-boring family history and I used it to start writing my own (still draft) family histories.

Although it has been 18 years since I started writing, and 34 years since I started researching my family history, I have to say in my own defence that my life has been fairly full and busy over that time. However, I equally appreciate that I can’t take another 18 years to finish them! The only trouble is that I have become a master of procrastination in this area. But no more!

The other inspiring author I met recently was Goldie Alexander, who like Hazel, is more well known for her children’s books. Goldie is currently  conducting classes based on her book Mentoring Your Memoir which is more about writing your own story, although many aspects are also relevant to writing family history. I’m hoping to attend one of Goldie’s sessions next year, as I had conflicting appointments for her last classes this year.

Both these books are worth reading if you are considering writing family history and as both authors are Melbourne based, if you are in Victoria keep an eye out, or check their websites, for details of any talks or workshops they may be doing in 2012. Here is my review of How to Write a Non-Boring Family History and my review of Mentoring Your Memoir.

Now I’m going to go back and read their chapters on overcoming procrastination!


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My Ancestors’ Geneameme

October 15th, 2011

Geniaus is one of my favourite Australian bloggers and I can easily follow her posts on Twitter. She likes to issue challenges from time to time and here is another Meme challenge – The Ancestors’ Geneameme. This was issued on Friday and I notice that there is already a good response so time to add mine to the list.

The list should be annotated in the following manner:

Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item

Which of these apply to you?

  1. Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents (only 15 as I have one illegitimate gg grandparent)
  2. Can name over 50 direct ancestors
  3. Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents
  4. Have an ancestor who was married more than three times
  5. Have an ancestor who was a bigamist
  6. Met all four of my grandparents (I would have liked to have met Mum’s father but he died when she was only 3 years old)
  7. Met one or more of my great-grandparents (seven were well and truly deceased by the time I came along but my grandmother’s mother was still alive and she died when I was 7 years old – but I have no recollection of her – my granny didn’t get on too well with her family so perhaps I never did meet her mother)
  8. Named a child after an ancestor (my son after the gg grandfather allegedly eaten by a crocodile in Oxley Creek, Brisbane – just one of my family ’stories’)
  9. Bear an ancestor’s given name/s
  10. Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland (lots – Cornwall, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire in England; Angus in Scotland; Cavan, Armagh and Wicklow in Ireland)
  11. Have an ancestor from Asia
  12. Have an ancestor from Continental Europe (my father’s family were Norwegian)
  13. Have an ancestor from Africa
  14. Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer
  15. Have an ancestor who had large land holdings (even small land holdings would have been nice)
  16. Have an ancestor who was a holy man – minister, priest, rabbi (does a lay Baptist minister count?)
  17. Have an ancestor who was a midwife
  18. Have an ancestor who was an author
  19. Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones (hasn’t everyone?)
  20. Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng
  21. Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X
  22. Have an ancestor with a forename beginnining with Z (strangely I do – Zenobia)
  23. Have an ancestor born on 25th December (not a direct ancestor)
  24. Have an ancestor born on New Year’s Day (no – but I did have ancestors’ who married then)
  25. Have blue blood in your family lines
  26. Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
  27. Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
  28. Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century
  29. Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier (several English lines and my Norwegian line back to 1688)
  30. Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents
  31. Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X
  32. Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university
  33. Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence (too many of them!)
  34. Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime
  35. Have shared an ancestor’s story online or in a magazine (Tell us where) – I have been blogging on my website and have been writing articles for genealogy magazines for years and it’s surprising how many other distant relatives have contacted me because they have read these mags or Googled and found my blogs
  36. Have published a family history online or in print (Details please) – still working on it!
  37. Have visited an ancestor’s home from the 19th or earlier centuries (have visited all the places my ancestors lived in Australia but no ‘homes’ still exist
  38. Still have an ancestor’s home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family
  39. Have a  family bible from the 19th Century (a cousin has the family bible on my mother’s side)
  40. Have a pre-19th century family bible


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Ongoing Value of Genealogy Conference Papers

October 5th, 2011

In my ’spare’ time, I have been compiling a list of all the conference papers presented at VAFHO (Victorian Association of Family History Organisations) conferences between 1995 and 2010. Conferences are usually held every two years but there are exceptions especially if the AFFHO (Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations) Congress is being held the same year.

I’m happy to say that I have finally completed the listing. Over the last few years I have managed to pick up copies of all of the proceedings except for two conferences. I had to borrow copies of those so that I could look at the papers as it is not always easy to work out what a paper is about simply from the title.

I finally settled on the following headings: name of paper, presenter, subject, place of conference, year of conference and the conference theme. I then put it all in subject order but I must say the subjects are very broad and I tried not to have too many. Where necessary I did list some papers under two subjects.

Why did I do this? Well I find that conference papers often have information and resources listed in them that are not readily found elsewhere. Of course, some papers do date very quickly but others are still as relevant today as there were when first written. After a conference everyone goes away totally motivated and excited but after a while, the proceedings end up on a bookshelf and may never be looked at again.

I would like to see more use made of these resources hence my listing and placing it online here for everyone to look at. Of course once you see a paper you want to read, you need to then find a copy of the proceedings or arrange for a copy via inter library loan. Ideally it would be good to see the proceedings all digitised and available in a single volume for sale. Or perhaps even online so that the papers can be directly linked to the digital copy.

At the next VAFHO committee meeting I will be reporting on the completion of my listing and raising the issue of how others can also access the articles easily. Either way I’m glad to tick a major item off my to do list! As always, I am happy to receive any feedback.


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52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Week 39 Least Favourite Foods

October 1st, 2011

I’m participating in the weekly blogging theme 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History and this week’s topic is all about our least favourite foods. When I first saw the topic all the horrible things Mum used to cook for me as a child instantly came to mind. Now before anyone says that’s not nice, I have to say my statement needs to be placed in the context of the times.

This was Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in the late 1950s, early 1960s before we had any real impact from the European and later Asian and African migrants who would make Australia their home. It was very much a meat and potato type diet and as my parents were not very well off, it was more offal than meat. My earliest food memories are of tripe with onions in a white sauce, lamb brains crumbed, lambs fry and bacon, steak and kidney with more kidney than steak and all served with lumpy mashed potatoes, peas and carrots.

Meal times were a bit of a battle as I simply could not eat tripe, brains, kidneys or lambs fry without gagging and eventually I ended up having sausages instead. The only trouble was Mum usually cooked my sausages in with the other ‘foods’ so they still smelt strange but at least they tasted like sausages. Even today if I see mashed potato, peas and carrots on my plate I have trouble eating them and there is no way that I can eat offal.

The best day of the week was Sunday when we had the traditional roast, usually lamb but it was probably mutton, and I can remember my brother and I fighting over the shank. That was always the best part.

As the 1960s progressed, I remember going to our first ever Chinese restaurant and having chicken chow mein and soon Chinese became a regular weekly takeaway event. When  my brother started playing soccer we made Italian friends and discovered pasta and pizza and again I discovered there was a whole world of good food out there. In the early 1970s I discovered Mexican food and chillies at Byron Bay and I use chillies in just about everything I cook today.

Mum wasn’t into baking so I don’t have any memories of cakes and biscuits and as she went back to work once my brother and I went to school, there wasn’t too much time for cooking anyway. I’m not into cakes and biscuits either but I do try and cook exotic dishes for dinner most nights. These days my taste is very much Asian and anything hot and spicy is good. My partner and I both like trying cuisine from different cultures and when we travel we always try and eat the local foods. Although the frog dish we had in Bali reminded me a lot of my experiences with offal!

I know my family was not alone in eating offal back then and some people still eat it today – but if you ever come to my place for dinner, I can guarantee you won’t be served any form of offal. It is still my least favourite food!


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