Author Archives: Pauline Williams

Accentuate the positive 2022 – Jill Ball’s yearly challenge

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Jill Ball has set a challenge for several years on GeniAus for a yearly blog to Accentuate the Positive. I first completed this as a year in review for 2021, so this post now looks back on 2022. I commented at the beginning of last year’s post that 2021 had presented many challenges; I therefore looked forward to 2022. Sadly challenges remained, not only in local, national and global events but especially on a personal level. It is probably even … Continue reading

My ancestors who sailed the seas

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I recently developed a presentation called Ancestors who sailed the seas for the GSQ Wednesday morning Zoom help meeting. The aim of the presentation was to highlight a range of resources for finding information about sailors, the ships they served on, and the shipping companies that employed them. I used examples from my own family to illustrate what I found and where I found it. Who were the sailors in my family? Unsurprisingly to me, they were on my maternal … Continue reading

History in Paradise – Norfolk Island AFFHO Congress – August 2022

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I recently attended the AFFHO Congress on Norfolk Island. Attending any conference or education session can inspire you to rethink your approach to your family history. Idyllic Norfolk Island is steeped in history – the first settlement, the penal settlement, the arrival of the Pitcairn Islanders. The talks at the Congress focussed on different aspects of the island’s history. One thing that became clear, if I needed reminding, was that history is the history of those in charge, i.e. the … Continue reading

Writing and sharing family stories at GSQ

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The GSQ Writing Group has been going since 2011. Its aim has been to support all GSQ members in their writing endeavours no matter what stage of the writing process they are at. 2022 has been a memorable year to date with some notable achievements. The first of these achievements was the design and delivery of a mini-seminar on Sharing family stories, either through writing or telling. The Writing Group was the instigator of this mini-seminar and several members, led … Continue reading

The way things used to be

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Although it’s difficult to appreciate now, when I first started to research my family history in 1987 there was no internet. Family history research was a much slower process; when we contacted people, we sent letters by post and waited patiently for a reply. If we wrote to someone overseas, we would buy International Reply Paid coupons so there wouldn’t be anything preventing a reply. If we ordered a certificate, we had to wait several weeks before they arrived. We … Continue reading