Photo by Alex Daw Barley Sugar It's been a while since I've blogged and boy do I miss it. Have you received an email from Ancestry lately suggesting you check out new traits?  DNA doesn't lie, so they say, but I beg to differ.   This will probably be an intensely boring post for those of you who don't really know me but I feel compelled to record my responses to the alleged traits for the amusement or interest of posterity and my family. 16 new traits have been identified for me.  There are 56 identified traits altogether. Let's tackle the new traits first ..read more

      The theme for Week 3 is "Favorite Photo." Amy Johnson Crow has devised these prompts and you can participate too by signing up here. Tell the story of a favorite photo: Who is in it, when and where it was taken, and why it was taken. (That last part is often left out!)   Barbara Conner hanging up washing in Edinburgh     This is a photo of my mother hanging up the washing when we were living in Edinburgh in the 60s. I think my father took it to record what ordinary life was like at the time and to send back to the folks at home in Australia.  I ..read more

Image by Ekaterine Kantaria from Pixabay The theme for Week 2 is "Origins." Genealogists often get the question, "Where is your family from?" With this week's theme, you could explore an immigrant ancestor, but you could also think about the origin of other aspects of your family. Who was the first person in your family to settle in a particular town? If you have a long line of people with the same occupation, talent, etc, who was the first person you know who did it? If you want to join the challenge, sign up here. Here is my latest ethnicity estimate from Ancestry which, if you hav ..read more

Image by hurk from Pixabay Amy Johnson Crow challenges us to write about our Family History again in 2024 using her 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  The theme for Week 1 is "Family Lore." Many of us have heard stories from our grandparents about incredible feats our ancestors did or a famous person we're related to. What's a tale that has been passed down in your family? Did it end up being true or did it turn out to just be a good story? You can join the challenge too here. The most famous/shocking story handed down in our family was that my father's great-grandfather was m ..read more

  Every year, fabulous blogger and family historian Jill Ball on Geniaus issues a challenge to fellow bloggers to record the positive things that happened at the end of the year.  No matter how big or small the achievements, the emphasis is on the positive.     Here are my responses for 2023's questions:       1. On revisiting some old research I found ... Hmmm….to be honest I had no time to revisit old research this year AT ALL.  Very disappointing.       2. In 2023 I hooked up with a new (to me) living co ..read more

  Hi everyone It seems I pressed the publish button too soon on my last blog post without proof reading it thoroughly.   I was asked by the Genealogical Society of Victoria to take the post down immediately this morning as it contained incorrect information about their finances.   In my haste to take down the blog post, I have now completely lost it so am unable to confirm exactly where the error was. However the Secretary of GSV advised me that I indicated that the GSV ran at a loss in 2022 which is completely untrue. You can check GSV's accounts on the ACNC website here ..read more

    A while ago, John Reid wrote an article entitled The Financial Health of Canadian Genealogical Societies 2022 .  Thank you John for this most thought-provoking article. What a brilliant idea, I thought to self.  Let's see if we can do the same for Australian societies. Reid's article looked at 12 societies in Canada: Alberta Genealogical Society British Columbia Genealogical Society British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa Family History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador Inc Manitoba Genealogical Society New Brunswick Genealogical Society Genealogica ..read more

  Goodness me!  There's only a couple of weeks to go before it is August and National Family History Month. Here's a list of 31 things you can do to celebrate National Family History Month in Australia and New Zealand. Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart Andrew Redfern Join us for the Opening Ceremony with speakers Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Andrew Redfern looking at the pros and cons of using Artificial Intelligence in researching your family history.  Please register and request the Zoom login details via this website's contact form, or Email j ..read more

Image by Leandro De Carvalho from Pixabay  Let's talk about writing, shall we? I'm contributing to a Talking About session tomorrow morning run by QFHS.   The session description says the following: The best way to preserve your family history is to write about it. You could write a story for our journal; upload a document to Ancestry; a page on a website such as the Virtual War Memorial, My Primitive Methodists; an entry on Convict Records, Wikipedia and Wikitree; a media output (blog, podcast and YouTube); or a play for your grandchildren to act ou ..read more

  Alex and her bestie Loani showing off the quilt made for Caspar's birthday 1. I was happy to go back to ... after a Covid absence Face-to-face conferences, meetings, and workshops. 2. In 2022 I was particularly proud of writing ... as many of my 52Ancestorsin52week blog posts as I could. 36 in total. 3. A new software package or web application I embraced was ... I kept going with PowerPoint in terms of presentations and was very brave and did a presentation at a SAG hangout in March.  I had lots of egg on my face in terms of working out the sound but the SAG convenors ..read more