Our September session began with an invitation to attend next week's FR Advanced session when family historian Alan Henderson will speak about his publication 'Boots, Gold and Wool'. Alan will draw upon outline of some key people in the Henderson Family and their lives as background to his research methods, sources, and journeys in Scotland and around the Victorian goldfields. Alan's session - from 2 to around 3.30 pm will also include information about surprises and luck in his research journey.

Today's focus on 'craft-y ideas for family historians', began with a 'Show and Tell' by Bev of a framed crocheted lace doyly made by her milliner Great Aunt Victoria (b 1887) surrounded by ribbon lace roses made by her aunt's daughter.  Guest speaker Jan Brown then shared her chosen method of presenting her family story - Scrapbooking.  A keen scrapbooker for many years, Jan's album of thoughtfully and creatively presented photographs, documents, newspaper clippings was most engaging. ​

We also checked out an article from Family Tree magazine on crafty 'do-it-yourself' ideas for family historians - familytreemagazine.com/projects/crafts/family-history-diy-projects

Robyn reported finding property details to follow up with Judy at the next Drop In and presented the draft of her next story.  We also followed up Robyn's query about adding a number of family photos in a row in a word document, with the suggestion to use 'insert table', then 'insert picture', then remove the table grid lines. 

Robyn's story on 'Correspondence' is now with her story collection on the website.  We also had a look at Jacquie Lawson e-cards, which Bev has found to be a delightful way of connecting with family members met as a result of family research.

At the end of the session we watched a September 2023 Ancestry Update which included  the recent introduction of a fan chart.  Interested?  Watch below or click on this link https://youtu.be/no-uyOkSVLw?si=t0cpBMDBjIdwWwoR   

A 'small is beautiful' session with Helen, who is just about to go overseas, and Mary, who has just returned from travelling north.  Helen brought along a timeline on her mother's working life with the WAAF in England she recently typed up from a hand written timeline her mother wrote for her before she died. Helen is planning to 'pad this out' with other things she knew or has found out about her mother's life.  Helen also found a photo of a church in which her ancestor had been warden, with a name and place  in Wiltshire, reminding us of 'Midsummer Murders' country.  Helen's resource collection has developed from the colour coded paper clip collection brought along last session to thoughtfully organised display folders for each of her grandparent's 'lines', resources she has prepared duplicates of for family members.

Mary reported beginning to get back into her family history after time away, describing success in finding documents about her Great Great Grandfather in the National Library of Ireland website.   Mary has been researching for decades, has so much information,  has prepared a detailed family tree chart for family members.  What to do next? We talked about how over time, as our research becomes 'grounded', themes, personalities begin to stand out, providing a fertile basis for story telling based on facts, often verifying stories passed through generations.  Mary identified stories relating to the themes of 'Religion', 'Class', 'Occupation' for which she had stories which would provide a wonderful place to start.  

Mary and Helen shared many common 'learnings' over time including the distraction of the use of different spelling of names being common; having had meetings with sometimes quite distant relatives via ancestry and noting remarkable likenesses across generations and families; and stories of half-siblings having been quietly adopted out, not being 'included' by the grandparents of subsequent children.. 

The destruction of many records in the Irish collection and the fact that some ship's captains recorded the number of, not the names of, passengers in steerage has made Mary's research frustrating at times, however she is hopeful that original source materials were also kept in parishes etc that may have been burnt in the fire, may appear as hints over time, and shipping records may in fact be available, even when the ancestors were in steerage.  Mary is also keen to find out more about the house in which her grandparents lived in at 184 & 186 Elgin Street Carlton from the early 1900's to 1941.  Did they own it, or was it rented to them by relatives?  We had a look at Judy's notes on this topic and will seek out Judy's support at the next First Thursday session. 

We finished the session by going back to Helen's original research quest - of finding out information about her mother's father, Bertram L, whose name Helen's mother had told her.  Helen has discovered and carefully pieced together a lot of information about him over the past year; this month we took a next step working together from the large screen. We looked through 'Thrulines' from Helen's DNA test to find him, finding no shared results from any direct descendants, however tried another tack and found there was a direct descendant on his brother's line who shared DNA with Helen, establishing the biological connection.  Going in to this person's tree we found the person had knowledge of her grandfather's later children and was descended from one of them, but no mention of his illegitimate daughter, Helen's mother.  "It's a long story" But the shared DNA has given Helen food for thought - it doesn't appear that the person is aware the existence Helen's mother, so Helen is pausing before taking the next step of making contact!  This is a good example of how 'cluster research', in which note is taken of siblings as a way of accessing information, can be helpful!

​A fascinating and productive small group session!

Bev Lee

'Pains and Gains' shared by the intermediate group in July included Helen using family photographs to demonstrate the way in which DNA from Indian ancestors has carried down in at least one member of her husband's family.  Val described working solidly on writing up the Abley side of her family history, gleefully reporting she can begin to see completing 'both sides' in the foreseeable future. 

Robyn shared the research and photographs for a story which we decided related to the topic 'Family Traits'.  Discovering  that one of her 'Rigby' forebears was a famous dairy farmer in the UK, Robyn linked this to her lifetime dream, and the eventual reality, of becoming a farmer. The story also led to a rich discussion on how milk may have been kept cold in the early decades of the 1900's in England; possibly in cellars with marble shelves in which ice blocks cut from the snow in winter.  Robyn aso shared a book sent to her by a relative in England, a precursor to the online apps eliciting stories in response to a series of questions.  

Our theme for the day was Recipes (an upcoming topic on the family stories topic list).  We reminisced about recipes passed down through our families.  Robyn and Helen, whose husbands had forebears who lived in India for a time, reminisced about how they had been taught  the traditional way of making hot curries in the manner of their husbands' ancestors. Memories were also shared of meals with strong links to England, just search for 'Traditional recipes from England' - there are lots of lists on the internet.  Strongly remembered from travelling or living in England, fish and chips with mushy peas!  Bev demonstrated how searching for 'Recipes from County Roscommon in Ireland' resulted in a recipe for Roscommon Rhubarb Pie; 'Recipes from Bath in the UK', the 'Bath Bun' often associated with Jane Austen, and more.  Some links if interested...
How to Collect and Share Recipes plus Troubleshooting Tips (Family Tree Magazine)
How to Make a Recipe Book with your collection of family recipes (Family Tree Magazine

Time allocated for 'hands on' work saw Val working on formatting her written family history, reviewing how to cut and paste; also learning to delete 'headers' not needed any more; Robyn used our My Heritage account to search for information on ancestors which may not have been in Ancestry; while Helen successfully followed up a '10 Hint' list in ancestry.com for an grand uncle who had died in World War I.

​Bev Lee

'Pains and Gains' reported in June included Helen learning how to photograph old photos, load them from her camera to PC, crop, filter, rename and post to a person’s gallery and profile in ancestry.com.  Helen’s pains included the disappearance of ‘Thrulines’ in the DNA page of her tree, although fortunately notifications of cousins sharing DNA links are still appearing. 

Robyn reported continuing to enjoy working on her tree and shared her story ‘Out of My Usual Comfort Zone – Indian Records’ in which she explains using 'Pay as You Go' credits in ancestry.com to find records of family who spent time in India.  A ‘pain’ for Robyn this month was calling in an IT specialist only to find out she probably needs to replace her laptop. 

A highlight for avid reader of history Julie was finding a book she was looking for about the Highland Clearances in a rare boxed-set on E-Bay.  Julie also described drawing on Trove's digitised newspaper collection to research her great grandfather, a Buckland Valley pioneer's son, finding him frequently mentioned in the Ovens/Valley newspaper in roles including rate collector and Police Magistrate. 

Val spoke of valiantly writing up her family history and of her concerns about formatting the final document. Val also reported with glee that two younger family are keen to know more about their ancestors, saying it is such a delight to be asked ‘Gran, can you show me…?”

Apps introduced by Bev this month included ancestry.com's ‘create a keepsake’ link to https://www.mycanvas.com/ to create books, family tree posters and calendars drawing from ancestry.com data and the findpenguins.com online travel blog which is a wonderful way of recording visits to family sites while travelling.

​
Bev Lee

This month our main session moved to the Third Thursday. Our group has been relabelled the Intermediate Group, with a web page separated out from the Beginners Group's page..

​During the session we began by following up and developing the issues covered at the First Thursday Session described in the previous post..

'Pains and Gains, Tips and Tricks' for May included Judy's miraculous discovery of postcards from ancestors in a collectables/opp shop; Julie's gains and recommendations regarding Robert Kee's 'Ireland - A History', the book and the 12 part televised series available through You Tube; and Robyn's work and developing confidence in using ancestry.com 'Pay as You Go' credits ($10.99 for 10 records) in tracking ancestors who worked with the English police force in India and their families.   Robyn also read her story 'Anzac Day', added to her Family Stories collection, to the class.  Robyn finds writing the stories from the 'Fourth Thursday' topic list provides the opportunity to focus on a particular person or family in her tree and add depth to her understanding of their lives. 

In the last hour of the session, guest speaker Deb Saunders gave a fascinating presentation on 'The Earl Grey Scheme'.  Deb set the scene by exploring the context in which the scheme was set, then drew upon records documenting the nature of the Scheme and the processes involved to highlight the possible experiences of her ancestor, Bridget Cain, an Irish orphan, who sailed from Plymouth on December 31st 1849 on the Eliza Caroline, arriving in Port Phillip on March 31st 1850.

Deb, thank you so much for the thought and effort you put into your presentation and the engaging manner in which you presented it.  Hopefully you will get other opportunities to present it in future.  

Items/ideas arising during the session to be carried over to our June session include:

• Helen taking us through the way in which she has been working with her ancestry.com tree now that DNA has been linked to it; particularly to show us why she enjoys using 'Throughlines'.
• Judy sharing her progress in using about timeline producing apps, the result of John's trialling them, a recommendation from John, and will also demonstrate working on a timeline she is constructing using one of the apps.
• Robyn highlighting the ancestors in her tree/s for whom she has been able to find records from India and demonstrating the way in which she has been using 'Pay as You Go' credits in the process of  finding Indian records.

We had a very full session and so did not have time for hands on problem solving or hands on.  Bev is happy to be contacted for support and a possible one to one session if class members have something they are trying to resolve proves difficult. Mentor Judy has a number of queries to follow up, including helping Mary to resolve a problem - were there two James Shortis's with different wives, or was there one James Shortis with two wives?  As you can imagine, with quite a number of children involved, there is scope for much duplication and confusion if this is not resolved.   We'll also have a problem solving, hands on focus at our next 'Third Thursday' session.

​Bev Lee

With no new beginners and two intermediate group members, plus mentors, Judy Barry, and Deb, participating at the beginners/intermediate session on the First Monday in May, the session became an intermediate session! 

Resources used or mentioned during this session included - 

Old Postcards - Judy said that when she travels around she visits op shops and looks through their postcard collection/s.  This month she had a joyous experience, finding postcards from forebears which revealed much about their stories; she was able to purchase 11 of them for $40, however they were really priceless!  

Judy's story prompted Val to report on another wonderful discovery since she has been able to work with a researcher who contacted her via our website - it is likely that other families who settled at Winton also lived and worked on with John Hernan at Somerton

Timelines - a report back on John Barry's session 'Finding Gold' at the recent Family History Festival, led to Bev showing us timelines developed early in her research to help to make sense of all the records she was finding.  Working 'tables' initially; they were then refined.  Timelines can be developed on spreadsheets and tables, however they can also be handwritten, working docs on note pads kept handy for when the need arises..  Bev's examples, using table format, from Devitt/Miller and Hooper/Taylor Combined to Devitt/Miller focus, and to meet a current need John Louis Carl
​
Video Resources on Understanding DNA Results - three video resources suggested by Deb Saunders on helping to understand DNA results, were discussed and recommended as helpful by Helen.  You can find the videos through this link - 'An Introduction to DNA Results' on this website.  

When problem solving about being able to transfer someone else's DNA results from another tree into their profile on your tree, Deb suggested the following video - which while superceded in design, did help to work on the problem -  .

While we came up with a brick wall in terms of the original goal, we developed a 'work around' at a follow up meeting with Helen and Chris which we hope to hear has been a 'Gain', not a 'Pain".

Military Records -  Highly recommended article from State Library of Victoria - 
https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/family-matters/mentioned-in-dispatches-ways-to-research-your-military-ancestors/ 
Brief look at military records and Trove for Sister Hilda Knox, Benalla
Personal Service Records
Embarkation Documents
Other awards
Trove - search term 'Sister Hilda Knox, Benalla' 

School Records - Deb hasn't been able to find birth registrations for some members of her family and has been advised school records might be of help.  
Recommended article from State Library of Victoria - to be added
Searching State Library of Victoria also comes up with other articles; resource suggestions relating to school records
Something for the future - video presentation - Finding Teacher Records at PROV https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/view-discuss/jack-martin-finding-teacher-records-prov​

Cemetery Records 

An interesting case study involving a transcription error - Deb shared a interesting 'case study' of a fortuitous encounter with a very helpful staff member of Box Hill Cemetery.  When Deb couldn't locate the name, the staff member took the time to suggest a possible transcription, and voila, problem solved!  In terms of 'resources', a story about the advisability of asking questions of staff, just in case!

A sad story about cemeteries - Sister Gertrude Froggatt (nee Chandler of Winton), one of the nurses in Judith Borthwick's project on nurses, is in an unmarked grave at the Benalla Cemetery.  There is a magnificent headstone with her father and two brother's named, with a space left underneath. It was probably for Gertrude,  possibly when organising the other names.  Havng outlived them, there was possibly no one who knew that she could have been be buried in the family grave and included on the headstone.  

Here is the link to Judith's project - 'Benalla Hospitals and Nurses in the early 1900's'.

Printfriendly.com A useful resource was previewed  during the session - Printfriendly.com - which enables the print out a pdf of a website page without all the additional advertising, side menu detail etc - just a focus on the content.  

Much was covered - and there's probably more!

Bev​

The ‘continuing beginners’ group came in for a hands-on session on the second Thursday after meeting with Judy at Rambling Rose on the frst Thursday.  All members described making progress in journeys typified by individual approaches to documenting their family trees.

With Anzac Day approaching we had a look at the war records of Benalla nurse Sister Hilda Knox, who died of meningitis in France in 1917 and is listed on the Roll of Honour in Canberra.  We also completed a search for ‘Sister Hilda Knox, Benalla’, using Trove, previewing articles developing some of the events we had noted in the records, with knowledge about her also shared by group members.

With DNA results featuring more regularly in discussions, the group showed interest in three videos recommended by Deb Saunders on understanding DNA results.  Records from India where English ancestors did military service and had families featured in both DNA results for Helen’s family (5% Indian) and in Robyn’s current search for ancestors.  Robyn learned to use Pay as You Go credits to open records from India in ancestry, then Judy helped her to locate similar records using our new My Heritage account.   Val worked on adding photos and images from Trove to a family story she is writing in Word, and Mary made first steps in to learning how to use Trove. 

From May, this group will have a new name 'Family Research - Intermediate' and meet at changed time slot - the 3rd Thursday from 1 to 4 pm - for it's main session.  The session will have a problem solving/hands on element, as well as a ‘pains and gains’ catch up and theme for the day. Intermediate group members can also attend the beginners’ session on the first Monday if topics are relevant to their learning needs and the guest speaker component of the advanced group on the 4th Thursday if it is of interest..

A special thanks to mentor Judy Barry, who is creatively supporting group members to make breakthroughs when they seem to have reached brick walls!

Bev Lee

​Report back on recent DNA Presentation by Jim Burnell 
Review, reactions and next steps
Some other resources on understanding DNA results suggested by Deb Saunders:  - see this link:  u3abenalla.weebly.com/family-stories/members-choice-an-introduction-to-dna-results-in-ancestry

An overview of Military Records - 'Her Story' Case Study - Sister Hilda Knox, Benalla

Australian War Memorial - War Service Records (in memory of Anzac Day / WWI)
Benalla Nurses - Sister Hilda Knox - Benalla  
Nominal Roll re Death - ​www.awm.gov.au/collection/R2453650
Embarkation Details Search- 
https://www.awm.gov.au/advanced-search/people?people_preferred_name=Hilda+Knox&people_service_number=&people_roll_title=&people_embarkation_date=&roll=First+World+War+Embarkation+Roll
1916/17  https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1987255
1914 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1853846
​AIF Project  https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=167859​
Personnel Service Record 
​recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ListingReports/ItemsListing.aspx
​
'Trove' Sister Hilda Knox, Benalla

Hands On!!
​
New Timetable Arrangements - In May we move to a slightly revised timetable.  One to one sessions have, or are coming, to an end for most new students, who move to a ‘hands on session’ on the 2nd Thursday.. 
1st Thursday – new beginners (and ‘intermediate’ class members who would like to attend to review topics), a session focusing on learning new skills and developing a deeper understanding of the possibilities of family research.
2nd Thursday—'new beginners’ – hands on (bring your laptops/other devices used)
3rd Thursday—‘intermediate’ group – a hands on focus, but with a ‘pains and gains’ catch up and theme for the day in terms of theory/practice
4th Thursday—‘advanced’ group – this group is pretty competent ‘hands on’ but meets to review progress over the past month through sharing of ‘pains and gains’, shares family stories on topics selected to encourage a deeper look at their family history; guest speakers (intermediate students also invited to hear guest speakers).

Next 'Intermediate' Session will be in May on the 3rd Thursday afternoon - the third Thursday will be your special theme/hands on session from now on timetabled as Intermediate Group:  The continuing theme of Her Story will apply for carry over during session - 'Earl Grey Scheme' - guest presenter Deb Saunders will come in at 3.30pm to tell us the story of her ancestor, Bridget, who was orphaned during the Irish Famine as part of the Earl Grey Scheme. 

​
Bev Lee

 A quick overview of online apps for publishing Family Stories

There are an increasing number of programs/apps which aim to make self publication, from simple to more advanced, easier - some now using AI (artificial intelligence) algorithms.  Could these be used as part of sharing our family stories? 

The Creative Historian on Facebook – has videos and links eg.  Is 2023 the year to create your family history book?  https://www.facebook.com/thecreativefamilyhistorian/videos/2354327214729572

The Creative Historian offers a blueprint course for developing a family history book https://www.creativefamilyhistorian.com/familyhistorybookblueprintwaitlist/

‘My Life in a Book’ - https://mylifeinabook.com/  Standard price $99 includes a one year subscription to enable you to write your story through the My Life In a Book platform together with a premium keepsake book in lively colours in A5 format that will contain the stories and images you share.  Additional copies $30.  Every Monday you will receive one question prompt to help you to decide what to write about – you will write your story and add an image for each question – you also have the option to email your story to your loved ones after you’ve written it. 

‘Storyworth.com’ storyworth.com    $99 for subscription and one black and white interior book

‘The Life Writer’ – https://thelifewriter.com  offers a format which may work well with our stories, having categories which could work… it is $95 (?US) and it may only be for one copy.  Worth finding out more about!

‘Memlife.com’ An online tool – https://www.memlife.com     I’m trialling it; it looks very user friendly!  It’s free – at least for a basic purpose.  It doesn’t have prompts, but is easy to use when you remember to use it!

A Book Creation Tool – popsa.com   Seems to be for IOS – ipad platform; initially focussed on photobooks; now developing text based components/publication possibilities. 

Suggestion - we monitor what is happening, take out test subscriptions if they seem to be useful, .... we generally 'watch this space!

Celebrating International Women's Day - Previewing video on the 'Bounty Women'

A message from Maggie Hollins following her session recently sharing with us the story of her ancestor 'Betsy Trim'...  "Here is the link to the Voyage performance about the Bounty Women that was held at the Celtic Lakes School in Koroit in 2018."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am4a-cOvkrU