Genealogy notes Day 6 at Sea & Wellington adventures

Today was all day in Wellington and right through into the evening. We have been to Wellington many times so we decided to have a leisurely day starting with the shuttle into the CBD, then a short walk over to Te Papa, the national museum. Although we visit Te Papa just about every time we are in Wellington, this time we focused on the immigration and military displays fitting the theme of some of the genealogy talks so far.

The Museum also has a giant squid which is nowhere near as big as the giant baby squid we saw in Auckland. It was interesting watching the video of how the fishermen caught the squid and how it finally ended up in the tank at Te Papa. We stopped to buy some lovely paua jewellery at the Maori Artworks and then had latte and gingerbread watching the world go by on the harbour front.

Then a short walk back into the main shopping area where we wandered around buying a few things that caught our eye. We then managed to find our way back to the shuttle stop and we went back to the ship about 3.30pm for a late lunch up on the Terrace Deck (I could eat Mexican everyday especially when washed down with a Chile chardy – I haven’t a hope of remembering how to spell this really nice South American wine).

Afterwards it was back to the cabin to send yesterday’s Diary, check emails and generally relax. The late lunch didn’t work with the early dinner booking so we ended up going to the Level 4 Rotterdam dining room and were placed just one table over from the Captain and his wife. We then engaged in what can only be called ‘Captain gawking’ while we enjoyed scallop ceviche and orange and ginger pork followed by a divine orange sorbet. The bread basket for two would have fed a small army. We also enjoyed a glass of Australian Rosemount chardonnay.

Then it was time to stroll around the deck looking at the lights of Wellington while we tried to work off the many calories we had just consumed. All the activity over the last few days was catching up with me so I headed off to bed and Max went to catch the crew’s show which started at 10.30pm. We passed the Hudson Room and there were still Unlock the Past cruisers in there making the most of the Research Help Zone and online databases.

At about 3.30am I was woken by the ship’s roll and I knew (having crossed Cook Strait before) that we were in open sea, probably approaching the South Island. Looking out the window I could see the ocean swell so not surprised about the roll and then I noticed all these flying fish (although Max says they were birds). You could easily see them in the ship’s lights and I will admit they didn’t fly like other flying fish I have seen before but then I didn’t think birds flew at night, except owls etc. Maybe seabirds do too. I will have to find out.

Anyway before I totally wander into 26 November, I will go back to the day’ genealogy talks starting with mine on Making the Most of TROVE. I do have a version of this on my website Resources page but I have added some new features so need to upload this new talk (but I am finishing this blog in Picton and there is no internet connection). My session was followed by Richard Reid talking about Farewell My Children looking at Irish assisted immigration and I will confess that this is the book that I brought on board to read during the cruise. So far I’ve only managed a few pages and for a reader like me, that says there are lots of other distractions on board!

There was also an onshore seminar with the Wellington branch of the Society of New Zealand Genealogists where Chris Paton and Rosemary Kopittke gave three talks.

Until next time I have an internet connection!!

Genealogy notes 24 Nov 2011 Day 4 at Sea & Napier Adventures

Today we arrived in Napier in the afternoon. Strong winds put a question mark over whether we could actually berth but after a short delay we were guided in by the local tug boats. A bus shuttle then conveyed passengers into Napier as wharf security and distance meant we couldn't simply walk off by ourselves.

Our friends picked us up and we were then chauffeured around in a very nice, newish Lexus (thanks Lexus of Hawkes Bay)and first stop was The Mission Estate Winery and we did a quick tour of the main building. The old photographs on the wall were fascinating as the Mission is seen as the birthplace of New Zealand wine since 1851. Then it was a short drive to Hastings and up to Te Mata Peak which is a very high lookout reached by a very narrow road but the views are spectacular.

Then it was back to Napier where I asked for a quick stop at The Art Deco Shop where I could have spent a lot of money but restricted myself to a couple of calendars and a beautiful writing journal as potential Christmas gifts although I don’t rule out giving them to myself! Napier is famous for its Art Deco buildings and the Art Deco Trust works towards preserving this unique heritage.

The others were a bit bored so then on to the local Speight’s Ale House where we tasted a few beers (we did the Speight’s Brewery tour some years ago in Dunedin) and I also tried Monteith’s Crushed Apple Cider which is quite refreshing and deceptive (doesn’t taste of alcohol). By then it was time to make a dash back into the City centre to catch a shuttle back to the ship.

The day’s genealogy sessions started after breakfast - Chris Paton did Discover Scottish Records (which I heard and reported on at the Auckland seminar) and Richard Reid talked about Key Irish Documents. At breakfast we were seated next to a couple who do lots of house swaps (overseas) and house sits (Australia) and we have often discussed trying these out. So with the interesting discussion and the drawn out breakfast (some people order more than one course) we ended up inadvertently missing Richard’s talk (time seems to disappear on a ship).

All was not lost as Perry McIntyre (her website is now working again) in her talk on Irish Census and Old Age Pensions made a few references to things Richard had said in his talk. One of the key documents was Form B of the 1901 Irish census which tells you what class of house your ancestor lived in. Now I have looked at these and noted all the information but I have never looked for an image of the four house classes (in hindsight it seems obvious but unless someone points us in a particular direction, we may not think of it ourselves).

Perry had a great image of the four types and then brought up a photo of a Class 4 house that Richard had also used in his talk. It is from the National Library of Ireland’s online photos collection (Labourer's hut, Gweedore) and is really a very evocative image and it is not hard to wonder why so many of our ancestors came out to Australia.

Perry’s comprehensive look at the Irish census was also very good for highlighting that not everything was destroyed in the 1922 PRO fire – some of the census records had already been pulped or had been used for paper recycling during World War One. So even if there had been no fire, we still wouldn’t have had access to these records.

The second part of her talk was on the introduction of the 1908 old age pension and the need of many people to prove that they were 70 years of age. With the introduction of civil registration only in 1864, many had to use the 1841 and 1851 census to prove how old they were. These records are mainly for Ulster and there are some indexes but not all online, although some are. Perry suggested using Google to find some of these smaller, localised indexes.

My talk for the evening session was Tracing Your Military Ancestors in Australia which is a broad overview of the main sources and there is a version of this talk on my website Resources page (scroll down to Presentations). I was going to go and join Keith Johnson for a drink in the Oceans Bar afterwards, but knowing that I had to be up and with it for a talk on TROVE at 8.00am the next morning, I decided to head back to the cabin and bed.

Before I forget, there was also an onshore seminar with the Hawkes Bay members of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists and Chris Paton and Jan Gow gave two talks.

Cruises are supposed to be relaxing but can be hectic when you try to combine ship activities, extended meals at breakfast, lunch and dinner (because you are talking to others), onshore tourism and genealogy sessions. It’s Wellington tomorrow all day and into the evening and I’m wondering if I should try and schedule in an afternoon nap!!

Genealogy notes 16-21 Oct 2011 - Irish updates & writing family history

Well another week has gone with family and domestic matters interrupting my family history time. Thankfully I am spending the weekend alone and it is cold and grey in Melbourne so I am hoping to get lots done. I do love the family but it is so peaceful not having to jump up every few minutes to find something for them that is in plain sight!

Tuesday I managed some quiet time and spent it visiting various Irish genealogy sites - so much seems to have gone online since I last looked. I was very impressed with the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) will calendars and the fact that those up to 1900 have been digitised and are freely available online. Ancestry have lots of new Irish records and I have been using their Collection Priority filter (but you do need to remember to turn it off!).

FindMyPast Ireland has also been adding records and most notably this weekend they have added Irish prison records (but doesn't include the North). I'm finding the landed estates records most interesting. Another site I use a lot is Roots Ireland and again lots of new additions and I have also been using the Irish records on FamilySearch. Not doing searches on surname etc in the top section of their home page but going into the Browse by Location section and going into the records themselves and then doing the searches.

I find cross checking in all the various online databases useful if I can't find families under expected spellings or variants. Although it does take time. I have found this particularly so when using the various versions of Griffith's Valuation online which has just reminded me of the Ask About Ireland website which I also visited.

I'm looking forward to seeing Chris Paton's new book on Irish internet sites which I believe will be ready for the Unlock the Past history and genealogy cruise with a Scottish/Irish theme in November . Maybe some of my Irish brick walls will tumble on board the cruise ship! If you can't make the cruise, don't forget there are on shore talks all around New Zealand, Burnie in Tasmania, Melbourne and Sydney.

The other major achievement this week was finishing my book reviews of Hazel Edwards How to Write a Non-Boring Family History and Goldie Alexander's Mentoring Your Memoirs and doing a Writing Family History Again blog to include the reviews and to write about my own struggles in this area . By going public with my procrastination, I hope I am committing myself to some real effort in completing at least one of my draft family histories in 2012.

I haven't managed to do any genealogy reading this week although I try to follow key people on Twitter and Google+ so that I am vaguely aware of what has been happening.

Next week I have been invited to the University of Melbourne Archives to talk to the staff about what researchers want and how they might be able to increase usage of the archives. UMA is one of the archives I demonstrate in my talks It's Not All Online and Archives You Should Know but Perhaps Don't. When I first saw the invite I thought I was in trouble for using them and creating a demand for their services but it is the opposite, so looking forward to catching up with old colleagues and friends.

Hopefully it will be quieter next week and I will catch up with everything before I again pack my bag and hit the road for Pambula and the Bega Valley Genealogy Society in two weeks. At least there is never a dull moment!

Genealogy notes 19-22 Sep 2011 Value of Blogging

There's a lot happening at the moment. After my Judge family breakthrough, see Diary for 15-18 Sep 2011, I have been changing online family trees and entering all my new correct data. I still have to do that with my personal database and of course, go through all my paper files. Still I'm glad I've finally found the real Elizabeth Judge even if she is technically Elizabeth Pollard.

I reviewed my talk Archives You Should Know But Perhaps Don't and updated Powerpoint slides where necessary in preparation for today's talk at the Genealogical Society of Victoria. I received nice feedback and it's good to see genealogists broaden their knowledge outside of the usual national/state archives thinking. Hopefully they will all be on their computers tonight looking at all the various sites. My website Resources page has a number of my talks and handouts with links so that people don't have to write so fast.

We finished up with a discussion about blogs (this was after a show of hands revealed hardly any hands)! I was stressing how good they are to find out what is happening and what other people are doing. Also how blogging your family stories can lead to distant relatives finding you. I gave my Maria Jeffers blog Letters Home My Irish Families example. The comments on that blog include responses from family members descended from the person mentioned in the letters. They had no idea the letters even existed! I hope GSV attendees at least look at some blogs and maybe even try out Blogger themselves. With luck they are reading this now!

I did another guest blog for MyHeritage and that should appear tomorrow and I watched Brad Argent from Ancestry on Mornings with Kerri-Anne on Channel 9 on Wednesday talking about famous Australian celebrities. But I forgot to watch Who Do You Think You Are that night - at 10pm it's a bit late for me. I'll have to get the DVD! It's the second series of the US version and Wikipedia has a nice summary of the WDYTYA US shows, both seasons.

The September e-newsletters I've read since last time include Ancestry, Lost Cousins, National Archives UK, Unlock the Past Crew, FindMyPast UK, and S&N Genealogy News. Sometimes I think I subscribe to too many e-newsletters but they are mostly free (except for my subscription sites) and I usually find something of interest in all of them. I like how you can click on links and follow up items of interest which you can't do if  reading paper magazines (I know you can type in URLs but nothing beats instant link). I will confess I do speed read, skim, only look at the pictures etc unless it is specifically on an area of personal interest.

Genealogy notes 30-31 Aug & 1 Sep 2011 expos & conferences

Not sure where time is going lately. Tuesday was a bit of a loss as we spent most of the day going to various medical appointments - nothing like waiting around and finding the same magazines everywhere. Must remember to take some family history journals next time but I always like to think they will be on time!

Wednesday was spent changing some of the slides in my three talks at the Unlock the Past history and genealogy Geelong expo on 2-3 September. Mostly updating website pages but Google has changed its home page quite a bit since I first did my Google tips talk, so I have reworked that. I also made the discovery that my website counter on a couple of my pages (including the Resources page that I refer everyone to) have not been working for some time. It's now all fixed but I have lost the statistics for those pages although I still have the overall stats via Google Analytics.

In the afternoon I had an exploratory look at the Find My Past Ireland website - I keep hoping that I will progress my Irish lines. I found looking at the Forums and the various questions people ask interesting. When I posted my Norwegian interests to a forum a few years ago I received amazing help so I will post my Irish interests next week when I have more time (she says).

Today I have worked on my guest blog for MyHeritage and realised I didn't include last week's in this Diary. Sometimes I do more than I think  I have - probably should make notes as I go! Anyway it comes out every Friday. One of the things I mentioned in it was the annual conference of the ACT & NSW Family History Societies Association in Inverell on 16-18 September. I usually try to go but as we have been away so much this year and it is a long drive, I'm going to miss catching up with all my old friends.

The next two days will be in Geelong and I will be blogging the expo as I usually do but that won't be out until Sunday. The Expo looks like it will be a big event with over 70 exhibitors so I may not mention them all. It will probably depend on how many are relevant to my own areas of research. I also hope to catch a few speakers that I haven't heard before so that will be good, and on topics I'm interested in. People are coming from all over Victoria so I will also catch up with friends as well. It will be genealogy heaven!

Genealogy notes 5-7 August 2011 Everything Irish

The weather in Brisbane is absolutely perfect, you wouldn't even know it was winter. We haven't even put a cardigan on since we arrived and on our morning and afternoon walks along Enoggera Creek we even manage to work up a sweat! Going back to Melbourne is going to be hard.

Friday was a e-reading day (in between family interruptions) and I caught up with Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (mostly US), QFHS Snippets (Queensland Family History Society), Lost Cousins: Putting Relatives in Touch (mostly UK), Professional Historians Association Queensland, Proformat News (Adelaide Proformat, South Australia), newsletters from Ancestry.com.au, and Genes Reunited and I still have more catching up to do. Now that I have started to put all e-newsletters into a single folder for reading it is easier for me to see just how many I actually receive - it's a bit of an eye opener.

Saturday was the Genealogical Society of Queensland annual seminar Ireland: Unlocking the Mystery so it was an early start to get to the Queen Alexandra Home at Coorparoo. Amazingly I still remember the way from Mum's place. First speaker was an old friend from Canberra Cora Num talking on Irish Research on the Internet which is a talk she gave on the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise but I missed it as numbers were limited and I wasn't quick enough. As usual she has a handout on her website (click on the gopher) which is just as well as she mentioned lots of sites I was familiar with but also some I wasn't aware of. So lots of follow up research on my Irish families is now on the To Do List.

I was second speaker with my talk The Colonial Irish Loved a Beer or Two and Pauline Williams was next talking about Irish Resources at the GSQ. Lunch followed and I must say the catering was fantastic at both morning tea and lunch - I don't think anyone went hungry.

After lunch Richard Reid's talk was From the First Fleet to the Rose of Tralee - The National Museum of Australia's Irish in Australian exhibition. His talk provided some of the background to the Just Not Ned: A True History of the Irish in Australia exhibition which recently closed at the National Museum of Australia (lots of Irish family history tips on this site too). Richard's anecdotes about some of the Irish objects in the exhibition and some of the issues associated with curating an exhibition of that size made for a very interesting talk. Having seen the exhibition myself in Canberra it brought back memories or added a new dimension to what I had been lucky enough to see.

Final speaker of the day was Jennifer Harrison on Releasing Irish Convicts which was an overall view of a life of an Irish convict and at each stage (crime, arrest, gaol, transportation, etc) Jennifer gave examples of the types of records which might be available to provide more details. By constructing a timeline like this it is easy to see where the gaps are and then focus your research to close those gaps.

It was good to see Queensland State Archives represented there, although they were the only exhibitor apart from the GSQ.

The seminar was a good way for me to catch up with friends and even some relatives and the GSQ's book sales table seemed to do a roaring trade. I didn't win the raffle or the lucky door prizes but then I never do. Still you have to be in it to win it.

This morning I am catching up with my emails, tweets, and blog reading (see Unlock the Past's list of blogs in Australia and New Zealand for some interesting reading). This afternoon we are having a family gathering at my brother's place which will be good as I haven't seen his kids for a while and my son and his girlfriend will also be there. Almost like Christmas in August and there will be seafood too! Must remember to take the camera and unknown to everyone we have DVD copies of our old videos when everyone was so much younger. There will be a few laughs and it's good to be home.

Genealogy notes 2-4 August 2011 - Too Much To Read

My last entry was all about catching up with my genealogy reading but things didn't go quite to plan. I am now in Brisbane but at least with e-newsletters and e-books they can travel with me easily! So still planning to catch up with all that e-reading.

I'm speaking at four events while up in Queensland which is exciting as I will also get to see many old friends as well. The first event is on Saturday with the annual Genealogical Society of Queensland's seminar. The theme this year is Ireland: Unlocking the Mystery and it is fully booked. Lots of people have Irish ancestors so I'm not that surprised.

It should be a great day with speakers Cora Num with Irish Research on the Internet; myself with The Colonial Irish Loved a Beer or Two; Pauline Williams on Irish Resources at GSQ; Richard Reid curator of the Not Just Ned: A True History of the Irish in Australia exhibition at the National Museum of Australia (topic not defined) and Jennifer Harrison on Irish Convicts.

I will write more about the other events in future diary entries but you can see the list of events on my website.

Last night some of my Twitter friends and I were tweeting about 'the reading pile' beside the bed, or is that more than one pile which then seemed to turn into a bookcase, again with a 'to read' tag. I must say I identified with the issue as I often buy magazines or books at genealogy events and then don't get the chance to read them before I buy even more. And that's not counting the e-newsletters and e-books I have waiting to read on the laptop! Does every genealogist have this problem of too much to read or is it just us??

Genealogy notes 27-29 July 2011

We're still travelling and after Canberra we went to our friend's farm in Yarrawonga in northern Victoria where we have been lucky to see the births of some of their new lambs. Also amazing just how many white cockatoos are now in the area along with a few pink galahs.

The head cold I developed in Mount Gambier went to my chest so the last couple of days I haven't even felt like reading my emails or tweeting so I have quite a bit of catching up to do. But our friends have also been taking us round the tourist places and how could I say no to a visit to Rutherglen and some of the old, famous wineries in this area, not to mention the cheese tasting place at All Saints Winery. Today we are off to the Corowa chocolate factory and maybe another winery or two. It's a great gourmet area and I have bought olives, cheeses, spices, sauces etc.

My friend is an avid genealogist too so we have been having some great conversations and I had the chance to see the book she put together after a recent family reunion. I really must finish all my family history 'drafts' - there can always be a second edition!

We have even done a draft strategic plan for discussion at the VAFHO committee meeting next week. I will miss it unfortunately as by then I will be in Brisbane.

But for now I am getting reading for the Irish seminar tomorrow organised by the Wodonga Family History Society. My talk is The Colonial Irish Loved a Beer or Two and the other speaker Professor Geoff Brownrigg is giving two talks on Australian Irish Lives. It should be a great day and Wodonga is always a great audience.

Tomorrow will be a big genealogy day and I am hoping to learn lots to assist researching my own Irish ancestors - I have four great great grandparents who came out to Queensland in the 1860s and 1870s. Stay tuned.

Genealogy notes 24-26 July 2011 Not Just Ned & Tobruk 1941

We've done a lot of driving over the last few days - after the Unlock the Past history and genealogy expo in Mount Gambier we drove back to Melbourne on the Sunday for a quick change of clothes etc. I managed to finish my review of the expo and then on the Monday we drove up to Canberra. Why a visit to Canberra?

Well this is the last week of the Not Just Ned: A True History of the Irish in Australia exhibition and I have been wanting to see it but we just haven't been able to get to Canberra. Also on at the moment is the Rats of Tobruk 1941 exhibition at the Australian War Memorial, another Canberra exhibition we wanted to see.

We are both nursing head colds from Mount Gambier, so after an early night we were keen to get to the exhibitions but the day started badly. I discovered that somehow I had chipped my front tooth and despite my partner telling me no one would notice, we both knew they would. Fixing it will have to wait until we return to Melbourne.

Our second bit of bad news was a phone call telling us our beloved pet had died unexpectedly in the night and despite wanting to rush home, we knew that would not change anything. So after much tears, we went to the Irish exhibition late morning although I didn't phone my friends at the Museum as I felt I just couldn't talk to anyone at present. We will make another longer visit to Canberra and catch up with friends then.

Anyway the Not Just Ned exhibition at the National Museum of Australia is really spectacular and it is amazing to see what they have brought together for the exhibition which takes at least two hours to walk around. At the end there is a room where you can look at books and computers to trace your own Irish ancestry. Members of the Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra volunteer there on Friday afternoons. I bought the catalogue so I could read more at leisure. Finally there are very useful Irish family history tips on the NMA website.

After that we drove over to the Australian War Memorial and visited the Rats of Tobruk 1941 exhibition, another very worth while exhibition. My uncle was at Tobruk and my partner's father was too so there was a personal interest for both of us. After that we toured the WW2 area of the AWM and managed to also see the light and sound show Striking in the Dark, based around the bombing of Berlin. There are excellent family history resources on the AWM's website and I couldn't resist temptation in the AWM Shop buying Peter Fitzsimon's book Tobruk.

Having seen both exhibitions I now have a list of things I want to follow up on my own Irish and military ancestors - genealogy really is a never ending story!

Genealogy notes 5 July 2011 - Irish genealogy

Today in Melbourne was wet and windy with the odd earthquake to make it interesting. I had planned on going out and doing a few errands but changed my mind and spent most of the day looking at Irish records and websites.

Some of the sites I spent time on included the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and it must be a while since I last looked because they have a lot of indexes I hadn't tried before. I had some good family finds in the Will Calendars and some I need to look into further. Another site, and an old favourite now digitised, is Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland 1837 which I used to learn about various places my family were from.

I revisited Griffith's Valuation of Ireland 1848-1864, now also online (I'll soon forget how to even use a microfiche at this rate) which is searchable on the Ask About Ireland website. There are all sorts of interesting links from this website so there went a 'bit of time'.

I also tried to pin down some of my Irish ancestors deaths using the FamilySearch Irish Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958 with some success. The Roots Ireland database was also useful in tying a few loose ends down but it is amazing how those Euros add up (but still cheaper than some of the prices we pay for Australian certificates).

It's great that the 1901 and 1911 Irish census records are free but most of my Irish ancestors were out here early and their parents deceased by 1901. I really need to find out more about collateral lines.

Periodically I used Google Maps to help me locate various places and to see that they were all in the same area. Genuki was also useful in helping me to locate what was available for the various counties I am interested in.

Although I had a good afternoon researching on the various sites, I can't help wishing for a one stop shop! I am also conscious that there are more Irish sites that I didn't visit today. So I am going to have an early night and read Cora Num's Irish Research on the Internet - it's supposed to be raining again tomorrow so I might as well prepare for another Irish research day!!