gathering dust

Um hello. Yes, it has been awhile, but my Masters project was submitted last week and suddenly my time is once again my own. Well except for job hunting and hausfrau-ing, the latter of which I am unbelievably terrible at.  It runs in the family ;) Of course now that I am ready to pick up my research again I have found myself in a bit of a pickle. My notes are in absolute chaos and I cannot remember exactly what it was I was working on. Not to mention the build up of untagged and unfiled documents and photos. And my favourite genealogy program; The Master Genealogist becoming obsolete. Where should one start?

The year has been creeping away from me. Not much genealogy has been done in the past few months as I have been head down and concentrating on my Master's but with recent contact from various relatives and a couple of weeks break I am enthusiastic and ready to dive in again

Last night I attended a 2 hour session on Writing Interesting Family Histories by Carol Baxter  at Hornsby Library. Carol is a fabulous speaker and the information she imparts is invaluable. Her intent is to encourage and help family historians break away from the habit of listing dry facts and dates and instead create engaging narratives, to write histories. I just wanted to hug her, because she encourages people to do all the things that, due to my history training, I am almost desperate for people to do: read widely, understand the context and properly cite your bloody sources! I know the gentleman sitting behind me will probably ignore the latter message [oh the snarky comments I could make about some of the overheard conversations and audience questions] but if even half the audience internalises these 3 things as the take home message, I shall be happy. So, what was my take home message? How to approach the happy medium in writing. I have spent so long in academia that w

Well it appears I may have found the antecedent to that bushranger anecdote passed along by my father: "HIGHWAY ROBBERIES ON THE GREAT NORTHERN ROAD." The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser  (NSW : 1843 - 1893) 22 Dec 1863: 3. Web. 26 Feb 2014 < http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18711885 > Mrs Friend being Mary Maria Friend (nee Baker), my 4th Great Grandmother and the outlaw she met none other than Captain Thunderbolt  or at least someone purporting to be him.

I often joke that I am related in someway to half the people in the town that I grew up in, and with my maternal grandmother's family having been in the region since the 1840s it is pretty true. So it is no surprise that when Mum and Dad came to visit this weekend Dad had plenty of family anecdotes and gossip to share. He'd been to have his hair cut and the barber is his second cousin. They talked a lot it seems about their mutual great-grandmother Julia Christiana Boss later Winter then Bird. I have a bit of a fascination with this part of the family due to the lashings of scandal  that make life interesting. In any case I now have the following tidbits: Julia was, according to our cousin, born in Australian waters and as such was an Australian Citizen. Now this is something I have been having trouble proving, she is not listed as one of the births on the Commodore Perry. The family was questioned as enemy aliens during WWI.  As such I really hope I can find the fil

because I'm not having any luck finding an arrival for Patrick Lynch (b.1832, Ireland d. 1891, NSW) his wife Bridget nee McGraie/McGrail or his children Mary (b. 1856, Scotland?) and John (b. 1857, Scotland?). I have a marriage record for 1855 in Scotland and a birth record for a daughter Annie in 1859 in Wellington NSW but between that... Yeah. They swam.

Pauleen Cass over at Family History across the seas has challenged Aussie geneabloggers to an Australian themed geneameme  for Australia Day/Invasion Day/Survival Day, The questions are really interesting so I hope my answers are as well :) The Family Tree: My first ancestor to arrive in Australia was the convict William Chapman aka Peter Brett Adnum on the Neptune in 1818 I have Australian Royalty , the above mentioned William Chapman, John Fibbens Marquess of Hastings 1825, Robert Muffett Bussorah Merchant  1828, John Brown Asia 1828,  Mary Ann Holgate Roslyn Castle  1830, Sarah Ann Watkins  Burrell  1832 and Robert Bird Bengal Merchant  1838. James Fibbens the brother of John was transported with him, the pair having engaged in a spot of unsuccessful highway robbery and Robert Muffett's younger brother James was sent out on the James Pattison  in 1837 for theft. My research so far also indicates the increasing likelihood that John Green  arrived as a convict and it i

Yes, once again I am crowdsourcing transcriptions , in this case because I want to be really sure about what it says particularly the top right and the information under remarks. I know what I think it says but I'd like a second, third and fourth opinion as it may help to sort out the mystery of John Green . The original, full sized image can be accessed here , courtesy of the Archives Office of Tasmania  Any Suggestions?

I am at the State Library today to do something I am afraid to admit I have been avoiding for years. The day started well enough, a quiet carriage that was actually quiet meant a rather enjoyable trip in to the city. The weather was pleasant enough to make the walk up Macquarie Street enjoyable. I reached the library in good time and proceeded to futz around with books on the history of Maitland and Camden I'd preordered in order to see if I could shed some more light on John Philip Gail . I looked through the pioneer registers on the open shelves and lamented that the one I was after was not on the shelves. Then I could procrastinate no longer. I put in my microfilm request slip and ducked off to the cafe for a sandwich and a fortifying cup of tea. A half hour later and the microfilm was waiting for me on the collection shelves. Scone Advocate January to June 1958.  General unease as I slipped the reel onto the reader, I spent some time reading advertisements. "Oh look

I'm not one for making resolutions, rather at the start of each year I like to think of things I am looking forward too and hope to achieve during the year. Much less pressure. So without any ado in 2014 I am looking forward to : The digitisation of the Scone Advocate and Wellington Times on Trove . Chris Paton & Thomas MacEntee downunder , I've booked in for Sydney Meeting some imaginary friends at the above My new research laptop finally arriving (Hurry up Kogan!) Spending time out of the house and in libraries and archives Working on my Masters (but first defining a topic for it) More GeniAus Hangouts Participating in Julie Goucher 's WorldwideGenealogy project DrBen (my other half) finally taking some time off work and having an actual holiday (yes I can hear all of you who know him laughing yourselves silly) Making time to work on the transcriptions I volunteered to do for the Biographical Database of Australia  I am hoping: To perhaps come t