Category Archives: family history

‘An Evergreen Tree of Diabolical Knowledge’. Researching Irish in the State Library of Queensland Pt. 1.

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Madam, a circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge!  It blossoms through the year! Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Although the State Library of Queensland is a reference rather than a circulating library as recommended by Sheridan, the produce of this evergreen tree for those researching Irish people is a profusion of flowers and fruits. As part of a far-reaching forest, the available opportunities ensure that a full harvest will take many seasons as this collection … Continue reading

Who in the family will take my family history notes?

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Another year turns over and a question nibbles away in the back of my mind, like mice hidden in the interior walls of a house, sneaking the odd bit of cheese when you least expect it. On the floor in my studio tucked away in the garden sit three plastic crates, a transparent shade of white as plastic crates commonly are, revealing the edges of old newspaper cuttings, letters, photo albums, and photocopies of records passed down by distant cousins … Continue reading

Shauna’s family history A – Z.

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It is always a challenge when asked to do a guest blog for GSQ. What do readers want? January is a time of looking forward to what we might do during the year. Here are a few of my thoughts for genealogy in 2024. Apologies in advance, I am a bit wordy. A is for Archives My visits to the Runcorn State Archives are few and far between mainly because of distance, traffic and driving on freeways. It is about … Continue reading

Remembering to Accentuate the Positive 2023 – Jill Ball’s yearly challenge.

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Jill Ball has set a January challenge on GeniAus for a yearly blog to Accentuate the Positive, 2024 is my fifth yearly effort looking back over 2023 this time.  The challenge has 20 set points to cover, and some I’ve varied just a smidge. On revisiting some old research I found that doing an involved timeline of all instances of events within the surname within the subject’s locality helped ‘zone in’ on possible folk to consider and research deeper. In … Continue reading

My grandmother Eileen Evans and the photo in a locket.

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  I knew nothing about Eileen Evans my paternal grandmother, or her early life until I started doing family history in the 1990’s, many years after her death in 1969. Stored in the bottom of a wardrobe was a shoe box of photos, inherited by my father from a maternal aunt and his mother’s cousin, Evelyn Walls. There were a lot of photos of people I didn’t know, and my first reaction was to want to throw them away. I … Continue reading