Family Tree Frog

Yesterday I went to the QFHS Family Tree Maker ™    seminar held at the Queensland Baptists Conference Centre at 53 Prospect Road Gaythorne.  For those of you who have lived in Brisbane a lot longer than me or a long time ago - it's the old ACU campus. View Larger Map This was my first visit to the Conference Centre which is just around the corner from QFHS in Bellevue Avenue Gaythorne. There was a welcoming email sent out a few days before the event asking us to get there in plenty of time and advising us what landmarks to look out for on the way there and what facilities would be available when we got there in terms of catering, the QFHS bookshop, EFTPOS etc.  A small flaw was the identification of a fast food outlet near the turn off to the Centre.  It's Big Rooster rather than Hungry Jacks which is near Prospect Road. There was clear signage on approach and plenty of parking as well as lots of smiling faces to greet me as I arrived....

Alan from Sepia Saturday says: Trumpet fanfares :  My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to that celebration of old and curious photographs that is known throughout the world as Sepia Saturday. Indeed, welcome to a very special Sepia Saturday, because four years and 199 themes ago, Sepia Saturday was born. And we are celebrating this important anniversary by asking everybody who has ever joined in with Sepia Saturday to look back on their contributions and choose a favourite one. Simply republish that favourite Sepia post and we will gather together all the contributions and publish them in a little "The Best Of Sepia Saturday" book which will be available for anyone to buy on-line. As you would expect from Sepia Saturday, there are very few rules and regulations involved in this special Sepia Saturday post. It can be any of your Sepia Saturday posts, but unfortunately we will have to limit it to one per participant. If you would like to amend or update the post, t...

from Ron Doke on  Flickr Are you looking for a coherent post about researching Irish ancestors? Um...you won't get it on this blog.....think more along the lines of musings from a bemused family historian blundering her way around different resources and trying to find what works without spending too much $..... Let me tell you what I've been up to..... So...last night I did a bit more reading and perusing of websites and I came across this one.... Roots Ireland.   I'd been to it before - only I'd forgotten....you know when you try to register for a site and it tells you you've already registered.  Oh dear!  Alzheimers has well and truly set in. Anyway...I was frustrated and thought I'd try looking for Patrick McLoughlin's birth/baptism again....Roots Ireland seemed promising.   I looked for Patrick McLoughlin with father Owen and mother Bridget Sweeny in County Sligo... Zip. Hmmm....I thought.  Let's give Bridget a miss.  I got tha...

Very recently I caught up with a new-found cousin.  We've started exchanging information - as cousins do.  I sent her some stuff with a bit of an apology....."Found this the other day, not sure if it's ours...." - that sort of thing. "This" happened to be some items from Griffith's Valuations.  "What are Griffith's Valuations?" my cousin replied. Right then, better get my facts straight hadn't I? What? The Griffith's Valuation of Ireland 1847-1864 is an invaluable resource and census substitute because it lists where people lived and what property they held.  This valuation was based on the productive capacity of land and the potential rent of buildings.  It is arranged by county, barony, poor law union, civil parish and townland.  It lists every household head and occupier of land in Ireland.  This site offers a family name search and a place name search.  There is free access to d...

Alan at Sepia Saturday says: Hey, let's put on a show! The desire to dress up, lark around in public, utter words that you would not normally recognise, is as old as the hills - or at least as old as a string of Judy Garland films. Sepia Saturday 199 celebrates the theatre, be it professional or amateur, serious or comic, situated below a proscenium arch or behind a kitchen table. Dressing up, dressing down, acting daft or acting dreadfully - they all form part of the script for Sepia Saturday 199 (post your posts on or around Saturday 19th October 2013 and add a link to the linky list below). Our archive theme image was taken in 1914 in Waterford in Ireland and it has been suggested that it might be the cast of an amateur performance of the Pirates of Penzance. It's going to be a quick one this week and I'm afraid there's nothing from my own collection as I fear I have run out of material. Thankfully the State Library of Queensland collection at Pi...

This is Part B of Week 7 of a 15 month project inspired by Julie Goucher of Angler's Rest. What were their names? Where were they from? Were they related? – Cousins perhaps Where were they born, another Country or state/area Photos What did they do? Did you know them? What was your relationship with them? If you didn't know them have you researched about them? Paternal Grandfather I only knew two of my grandparents - one from each side of the family. I didn't know my paternal grandfather.  He died just before my parents were married and before I was born. That must have been very very hard for all concerned. All the photos of my paternal grandfather make me wish I had known him.  He always looks a lot of fun and as though he had a great sense of humour.  I remember my mother saying that he would play tricks at the dinner table.  You know the sort of thing... "Look at that enormous spider !"...and then he'd stea...