Showing posts with label online newspapers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label online newspapers. Show all posts

Saturday 2 October 2021

A Geneafeast of Conferences & Other News: Australia and New Zealand Genealogy News September 2021

What a wonderful month for even more virtual genealogy events. 

One weekend I was trying to watch three different events and I didn't want to miss any of the talks. Luckily most events now record and allow you to watch over the next week or so.

Plus it is now spring time down under and there are flowers everywhere. 

My favourite double hibiscus. It keeps flowering all year.

Books

Now reading the final (5th) volume of Conn Iggulden historical saga on the family history of Genghis Khan through to his grandson Kublai Khan. A great read and hard to put down at times. It was a hard life for their women and children and I especially found the details around camp life interesting. 

Bribie Genealogy

September saw us permitted to meet in person again which was good. David Barnes shared at the Friday meeting how he organises his family history records and at the Monday night he walked us through the Tier One level of Gedmatch for DNA results. 

Good to see everyone in person again and some of us even shared a lunch.

Conferences

The NSW & ACT Association of Family History Societies conference With Conviction was virtual but hosted by Port Macquarie. There were some interesting talks and I really liked Michelle Patient's Celebrating Cousins and Cate Pearce's Using DNA for Aboriginal Family History. In the virtual goody bag, you could download handouts provided by speakers, a digital copy of Traces magazine and other useful leaflets and forms. Next year will be in the Maitland/Newcastle area and I really hope to make this one in person. Although I have been to Newcastle many times, I never knew that it was the home of Dad's biological families. Will also spend additional time for family research and see what more I can learn.

The Professional Historians Association Queensland conference also went virtual and I missed a weekend stay in Brisbane. All the papers were interesting and stimulating and it was not surprising to me to see that so many professional historians now use genealogy resources. Probably because there is so much more online now.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars declared it Webtember with free webinars throughout the month. Some great sessions were on offer. Personally I have a subscription as it is such a good learning resource and not that expensive. Makes a good birthday/Christmas present each year if the family are looking to buy you something. 

Finally I went to the Irish Lives Female Finds virtual conference hosted by the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Society, Canada. Don't you just love the capability of Zoom. Sessions were recorded so I didn't have to stay up all night. The Irish DNA talks were related to my own family research on Islandmagee, Antrim and I won one of the lucky door prizes, a year's full subscription to MyHeritage.

New Resources

It was exciting to see the list below of new digitised newspapers at Findmypast, especially if you have London ancestors. Every time I see these updates I want to do new searches but I try to limit it to a couple of times a year. Below is the notice in the Leicester Chronicle on 31 January 1846 reporting on the death of Paul Spencer's first wife. Elizabeth was only 24 years old, and it also gave her father's name. So much information can be discovered in newspapers.

  • Chelsea & Pimlico Advertiser covering 1860-1863 and 1865-1866
  • East London Advertiser covering 1862-1866
  • Kingsland Times and General Advertiser covering 1860 and 1862-1863
  • West London Times covering 1860-1861, 1863-1864 and 1866-1867
  • Westminster Times covering 1863

While additional pages have been added to the following titles:

  • Albion from 1852
  • Birkenhead News from 1914
  • British Banner from 1850-1851, 1854 and 1856
  • Croydon Times from 1934-1947, 1950 and 1952-1961
  • Daily Director and Entr’acte from 1860
  • Daily News (London) from 1922-1923, 1925 and 1927
  • Limerick Reporter from 1849
  • Liverpool Daily Post from 1858-1859
  • Morning Herald (London) from 1808
  • Sheffield Independent from 1929

Talks

As we come up to the end of the year I only have three more talks - all virtual even though two of those talks are in Australia. All talks are listed on the Events page of my website. 

What's Coming Up

At the October evening meeting of Bribie Genealogy I am doing a presentation Downsize and Pass On Your Family Research based on my own experiences of trying to downsize 45 years of personal genealogy. 

I first started the project two years ago and progress is not as fast as I expected. Time is not always our friend, even in lockdowns. Making decisions and simply sorting papers and digitising photos takes time.

My other task is to follow up all the tips I wrote down during all those September webinars. Perhaps I won't watch so many in October? 

Take care and stay safe and happy researching. 





Tuesday 14 May 2013

Genealogy notes 3-15 May 2013 hooked on digitised newspapers

Well the last fortnight has made me realised what's wrong with living in paradise! Living on Bribie Island is like being on a permanent holiday - the weather has been fantastic so lots of swimming, fishing, walking, biking etc not to mention the pubs and clubs with their cheap meals and free entertainment. Not surprisingly we have had three lots of visitors in the last fortnight (funny no one ever visited us at Hoppers Crossing) so not much genealogy has been done!

As we are about to head off to Bundaberg to visit an elderly aunt to capture her memories of holidays to the family cottages here on Bribie Island in the 1920s and 30s, I have spent a bit of time on Trove looking for bits and pieces on the Burstow family to help stimulate her memory. Although on the phone she seems totally with it for someone who is approaching her 92nd birthday but then her sister is heading for 103 this year and she is an inspiration! Definitely good genes in that family.

But Trove, although wonderful, is a trap. I managed to spend the whole day looking for info on the ten Burstow children and their families and I found all kinds of information which then sparked searches in online BDMs for both Queensland and New South Wales, as well as online cemetery databases in Brisbane and Moreton, not to mention the Queensland State Archives and State Records NSW. In fact I had so many leads I then spent the next day doing more Trove searches and before I knew it, it was dark and I was fumbling around in the dark trying to remember where the light switches were. Two days gone!

If the other half hadn't out bike riding and fishing I probably wouldn't have spent so much time but now that more regional newspapers are online in Trove, I really need to do that kind of searching with all my families.

We went to the Bribie Island historical society meeting and I was fascinated to chat with someone who knew a lot about my Carnegie ancestors and what is in the Society's database on them. It seems they know info I don't and of course, I have info that they haven't but I have promised them copies. When I was doing this research back in the 1970s and 80s the Society didn't even exist and it wasn't established until 2008 which is quite late for a historical society. Most local areas have had a historical society for decades. Again this highlights that you do need to revisit your research as things change, especially over 35 years.

The other thing I realised after going through my paper files of documents on the Carnegie family is that I haven't put all the info into my family history program and I've forgotten a lot as well. There are lots of things I could follow up now that weren't easily searched way back then. So as I sort my info out for the historical society, I'm also going to input the data myself and follow up some of the new leads. If I do that for all my families, my son's and my partner's, I'm going to need more than another 35 years!!

But what has been really nice about this massive overdose of genealogy research over the last few days is that I'm still as passionate about it as I was when I started back in 1977. The only real difference is that now it is more instantaneous and you can follow that trail now instead of waiting for the mailman!

I still have some research enquiries, reviews and articles to do and I'm procrastinating there because I really like the research more than writing but I do need to keep this part time business moving along. Plus I'm partway through a couple of new books which I should finish but I seem to get to a certain point and then I start to procrastinate over the finish. I'm obviously not an athlete as I'd never get to the finish line!

The other half is planning a trip to see his brother and will be away for 4-5 days which will be the perfect opportunity for me to catch up on the business side of things or will I succumb to the lure of Trove and my own personal research?

On the reading side I simply loved the latest edition of Inside History magazine with its Irish theme. I only have two more parts to my Missing Irish Loved Ones Downunder for Irish Lives Remembered which is a bit sad as I've loved doing that series. I took out two books on medieval genealogy from the local library as I love that period of history and have a few Cornish lines that wander into that era. Research and reading - probably my two biggest time consumers!

Lastly just a quick mention of National Family History Month - I've finished the campaign letter and poster and sent it off to all key genealogy and family history umbrella groups for further dissemination but sadly no influx of events on the NFHM calendar yet. The campaign letter and poster will next be sent to key historical society bodies and archives and libraries as I'm hoping to raise the profile in a variety of sectors. So don't forget to make your local society aware of NFHM and ask them to do an event this year even if it is something as simple as calling the August monthly meeting 'NFHM meeting'!

Well that beautiful sunshine is calling me for an afternoon walk to the beach - it's either that or bring up Trove again and I really should get some sun and exercise after the last few rainy days. Until next time happy searching.

Tuesday 26 March 2013

Genealogy notes 15-26 March 2013 online newspapers

Well being home is a nice change but there is so much to do around our new house and we are still unpacking. Not to mention the paperwork involved in changing over things like vehicle registration, car licenses, electoral rolls and so on. And if we want refunds for the pro rata on on Victorian regos and licenses there are even more forms to fill in (once you manage to find them on the internet).

But I'm still finding time to do some research and two clients recently gave me a couple of challenges which had happy endings. I really do love it when you find something unexpected and with all the online indexes and digitised records online it can happen quite quickly.

For example, I was trying to find the death of someone in Ireland and not having much luck and then I decided what if they followed their daughter out to NSW. A quick look at immigration indexes at State Records NSW revealed a few suspects then checking the digitised passenger lists confirmed one as a real possibility. A check then of NSW BDMs then revealed a death entry in the right locality. I'm now waiting for a transcript to prove that it is the right person but I feel fairly confident.

I've also been looking at online newspapers and regular readers that I'm a huge fan of Trove and the National Library of Australia's e-resources for British newspapers. I hate to think how much time I spend reading newspapers! Then of course there is Papers Past for New Zealand which I use whenever looking into my NZ connections.

But this week I looked at the British Newspaper Archive for the first time. I'd heard about it and read bits and pieces but never sat down to look for anything. Well after a few hours of searching I was addicted to yet another online site! I found references to births, deaths and marriages I didn't have and even found a first wife of Max's great grandfather who we didn't know about as she died within the first year of marriage, probably from child birth as she was only 26. There were references to family members in the court sections and even an inquest into the death of a brother of a direct ancestor. Newspapers really can help fill out details of our families lives.

This also reminded me that I was yet to open my Christmas present which was a complimentary copy of a newspaper from Historic Newspapers. I've been waiting for the time and opportunity to really have a good look but with our moving, travels and that I haven't had the chance. Perhaps I should take off the Christmas paper wrapping and replace it with Easter paper? Anyway it has now moved down from the shelf to my desk so that I do open it for Easter!

Now that I'm back in Queensland old friends have been contacting me and I was pleased to have Merle Grinly visit this week. Merle and I go back to the late 1970s and we met through the Genealogical Society of Queensland. She also kindly gave me copies of her new publications on CD which I will review shortly (or should that be in the fullness of time?). They are


I have been to meetings of the Bribie Island Family History Special Interest Group and they have asked me to speak in November so I'm looking forward to that. I also went to the U3A Bribie Island family history group meeting and I now have to join that. Attending meetings is a great way to find out what's new and also to share any research problems.

Next week I have a meeting of the National Archives of Australia centenary of WW1 advisory group meeting in Canberra which I'm looking forward too. I also hope to catch up with a few people to discuss National Family History Week which I need to start promoting as I'm the voluntary National Coordinator. I'm still hoping that AFFHO will decided to make it a month but I haven't had a response yet so perhaps that's not looking good.

I had all sorts of good intentions today but noticed on Facebook that Ancestry had added a whole lot of Wiltshire records to their website and FindMyPast.com.au have added a whole lot of New Zealand records. So the call of research has been too strong and I have been checking out all the new info. I really think you could do 24/7 genealogy research these days, but who would feed me? The other half likes hearing about all the new info but isn't so keen on the time that researching takes! Where as time just slips by when I'm looking online.

This afternoon it is the hairdresser as I am going to update my website - there are lots of changes I want to make and I think I really need a new profile picture too. The current one was probably taken about 8 years ago and I've aged a bit since then! The image on Diary is about 4 years old and the one on Twitter and Facebook is about 3 years old. The last few years have just vanished. So watch out for the new me!

Have fun researching, I know I am!

Monday 4 February 2013

Genealogy notes 1-5 Feb 2013 online newspapers

Well my genealogy year has started with a great online newspapers seminar organised by Queensland Family History Society with speakers Sue Reid and myself. I missed Sue's two talks on online newspapers and how to search them more strategically when she gave them at last year's Unlock the Past expo in Brisbane so I was really glad to finally here them. Sue also mentioned that the talks are also the basis for an upcoming article in Inside History magazine so watch out for that.

The day started with my talk on Trove and Other National Library of Australia Treasures and the slides can be viewed on my website Resources page (scroll down to Presentations). No matter where or how often I give this talk there are always lots of people who don't have an NLA library card for e-resources or aren't members of Trove so that they can do comments, tags, lists and so on. No doubt quite a few went home to investigate these wonderful free resources further! I don't do handouts (saving a tree or two plus paper weighs a lot and is one extra thing to carry when I travel to talks) but by putting the slides up on my website attendees can go home and relook at the talk and study the slides in greater detail.

Sue did have handouts for her two talks and these were included in the Queensland State Archives goodies bag given to all attendees. Sue's first talk was an overview of the big four which are all free - Trove, Papers Past,  The Times London (via the NLA's e-resources) and the London Gazette. She used a case study to highlight the wealth of information that can be found and the second part of her talk was focused on why you might not be able to find what you are looking for.

Sue's second talk was a round up of other online newspaper sites, some free and some pay to view and I found this part really interesting as some of her portal sites for America will probably useful for my own research as a GGG grandfather went to Minnesota in the USA in 1850. I've never looked for the family in US newspapers so it's now on my to do list when I get time!!

There were about 150 people from all over south east Queensland so that was a great start to QFHS's seminar program for 2013. Most people returned the evaluation forms which were mostly positive with the negatives such as signage something that the organisers can do better for the next seminar. During the morning tea break I sold copies of my books and I certainly missed Max doing this for me. It's really hard trying to answer people's questions, say hello to people welcoming me back to Queensland and sell books and give correct change all at the same time. I had to sneak morning tea during the first part of Sue's second talk I was that busy. The QFHS sales table was also kept busy so the printed book is still in demand!

Their next seminar is on Military Records for Family Historians on 20 April and the third seminar is on Convict Lives: Finding Our Founders on 1 June. Both seminars have great speakers on a range of topics withing those themes so definitely not to be missed.

I've just completed my application form to join the Cornish Association of Queensland and unfortunately their first meeting for the year is on 9 March and I am returning from Bali that day. The date is the closest they could get to St Piran's Day, Cornwall's national day but hopefully I'll be able to get to their next I'meeting. It's not that far to Brisbane and traffic is not too bad at the weekends.

Today there is a meeting of the Bribie Island Family History Group (an informal meeting group) which I will go along to. I missed the last meeting last year as I was in Brisbane but I'm hoping to attend most meetings if I'm on Bribie. The other thing I'm working on today is my next article for Irish Lives Remembered as the deadline falls while I'm away on the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise. I'm continuing with County Waterford examples as I found so many in my last search for interesting examples to write about. The free January issue is now online.

Well must go as I've still got some unpacking and sorting to do before I head off to my meeting. Happy researching till next time.