It’s all in the genes as they say (and I wrote about that here from a personal perspective). That being the case I have a fair chance of making old bones – provided I pass the next danger zone of the early 70s. I have no wish to last to 100 but quite a few … More Health inheritance
As the Irish people commemorate the centenary of the Easter Uprising this weekend it seemed an appropriate time to share a piece of family memorabilia relating to Ireland’s fight for independence and self-government. This brochure was found among my Irish-born grandfather’s possession. Published in 1921, long after he’d been in Australia, we don’t know how … More Family Memorabilia and Ireland
Over the past few days, there have been family historians around the country, possibly around the world, suffering from withdrawal symptoms as our favourite web-site, Trove, undergoes a revamp. While that sunbeam is now available to brighten our lives, there’s a shadow of gloom hanging over all aspects of the National Library of Australia with … More On the Importance of Trove
Yesterday I was reflecting on my Aussie heritage and why I am such a proud Queenslander. I had a little play with my immigrant stats and this is what I came up with, an analysis of my first immigrants to Australia, all bar one of them to Queensland. 8 Pre-Separation Queensland ancestors (pre-1859): George Mathias … More Australia Day 2016
The days have ticked along and I imagine many of us have crossed eyes from staring at the digitised Irish Catholic parish registers…I know I have! Hasn’t the National Library of Ireland done us all proud? What a great program they have that even with all the Irish at home and abroad, the system didn’t … More Reviewing the Irish registers
Today is THE BIG DAY for Irish researchers as we’re all hoping our brick walls will tumble. The calendar has turned to 8 July Down Under but it seems we’re going to be waiting until 9 July at midnight for the Big Event. What Big Event? The release of the National Library of Ireland’s digitised … More Are you going green?
Despite my blog drought and house obsession, I have spent some time on my DNA results which I only recently uploaded to Gedmatch. I had been ambivalent in the past but it is actually very useful, especially for Ancestry results which don’t come with as much info, and for which I have fewer matches (which … More DNA Mysteries and Mazes
I’ve been AWOL lately leaving my blog crying for attention. Unfortunately my mind is completely focused on getting our Darwin house sold and thinking about our proposed move interstate. The same level of obsessiveness I bring to family history has been brought to bear on housing matters. Having to have everything squeaky clean and spic … More A blogging “drought”
Having reviewed some of the talks I attended at Congress 2015, it’s time to turn to a little personal navel-gazing. Decades of working as a senior administrator means I can’t help myself when it comes to assessing what went well and what wasn’t so successful. How else to improve one’s own performance in any sphere? It’s always … More Congress 2015: Navel-gazing
One of the challenges of any conference is the selection of competing topics when inevitably we want to listen to at least two of the choices, if not more. Perhaps that’s why Keynotes are so appealing – not only are the presentations by experts in their field but we don’t have to pick and choose. … More Congress 2015: Inspirational Keynotes
Family history across the seas 