-
Properties of George Evans late of James Street, Fortitude Valley
When the Evans family celebrated Proclamation Day on the 10 Dec 1859, “George Evans of Fortitude Valley in the said Colony” was a “freeholder”, having already purchased two blocks of land in 1857, located on the corner of James and Stratton Streets, now known as Arthur Street, Fortitude Valley, where his growing family had been…
-
Mabel’s story
There were four girls and six boys in my grandfather’s family. They were the children of a Victorian vicar who had married into the landed gentry. It was unthinkable that these women had any role other than daughter or wife. Edith (Edith Emma Sale 1867-1963), the eldest girl, found a role as companion to her…
-
My new genealogical buddy: ChatGPT
Recently I attended a GSQ seminar presented by Andrew Redfern on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in genealogy. I thought that I would try out ChatGPT and chose to ask it about the parents of my 3X great grandfather William Thorburn. Many Ancestry trees, including my own until recently, show William’s parents as James…
-
Reading an Inquest with AI: The Death of Alfred Tinney
When I used AI to work through the handwritten inquest into the accidental death of my two-times-great-grandfather Alfred Tinney, it helped me draw together the details and reconstruct a likely sequence of events. I was pleased to find the inquest into the death of Alfred Thomas Tinney, my two-times-great-grandfather, because it promised to reveal more…
-
George Evans of Brisbane, a Pioneer Ancestor
George Evans, a Welshman from Liverpool arrived in Brisbane in 1851, when Queensland was still known as the Colony of New South Wales. His obituary reported that he was “one of the oldest and most respected residents of Fortitude Valley. Landing in the colonies in the early days, he formed one of the ‘Overlanders,’ afterwards…
-
The Case of the Mysterious Paintings
She sat in her comfortable arm chair, the perfect picture of the endearing aunt. The tea had been made, the table set and we settled in for a good chin wag. But suddenly her face darkened, ‘He knows I would like some of them. Why doesn’t he give them to me?’. Her grievance was that…
-
A Chat with Friends: Part 2
I hope you enjoyed reading my first post last week, when I had you looking back at when you started your genealogical journey. This post is looking at advice for the younger you and advice for someone just starting as well as are your family interested Again, just initials for privacy and these are their…
-
A Chat with Friends: Part 1
We welcome a new member to our GSQ Blogging Team. Lilian Magill is a long time blogger with her own site and is taking a rather novel approach when sharing her first two blogs with us. Welcome Lilian! A Chat with Friends. Part 1 I have decided to ask friends questions about their genealogical journey.…
-
Some Pioneers of Brisbane, New South Wales
Elizabeth was a maternal great grandmother of my late wife, Helen Jean Barlow. She was born in Brisbane, Australia, in August 1854 and christened Elizabeth Marion BOWLES in October of that same year.[1] St John’s Church of England, then located on the corner of Queen and George Streets, was a former convict workshop, which was…
-
Family history is not a finite study
Family history research is not a finite study. Don’t you just love it when, whilst doing your family research you make a new discovery but, after analysing this new data, you find that you have opened a can of worms! This new knowledge has resulted in an entire new set of questions! An answer to…
-
Getting to know Catherine
My small collection of personal records about grandmother Catherine, who died several years before I was born, has allowed me to become more familiar with her. These records join with family oral history to add revealing details not included in public and official records. One of the most interesting of these is a post card…
-
Ireland: a Q&A of understanding what lead to the Plantation
So many ‘Rabbit Holes!!!’, so little time… Question: Where to now? I wanted to know more about the term “Irish Landed Gentry” and just what exactly was meant by the term “Plantation” and its relevance in my family history so perhaps I would find more avenues of investigations into my Spunner family, which I have…
-
What do headstones tell us?
I’ve been thinking a lot about headstones recently. This follows a trip to Victoria in early March 2026, after being invited to give two talks; one with the Mornington Peninsula Family History Society on Ann Simmons, a convict transported in 1823 to Van Diemen’s Land with her daughter. Ann features in a chapter in the…
-
The Power of Full-Text Search
About a year and a half ago, we were given a present as family historians – have you unwrapped it yet? Full-Text Search on the FamilySearch website (https://www.familysearch.org/search/full-text) means a plenitude of unindexed record sets can now be interrogated to find mentions of our ancestors. So what exactly is ‘Full-Text Search’? FamilySearch is using Artificial…
-
A Woman of Character
The little girl scrambled under the whirling machinery to retrieve the cotton bobbin, breathing air filled with micro threads that made her cough. The images in the restored cotton mill at New Lanark, Ayrshire, showed a smiling, happy child but, nonetheless, there was a dark lining to the narrative that made it ‘a lovely day…
-
Susannah Armstrong Davern: A woman of resilience
Susannah Armstrong was not afraid of challenges. Her life was full of life-changing decisions that propelled her in various directions. Sometimes good and sometimes bad or sad. With that said, some things in her life offer up some mysteries. I cannot find a birth certificate or baptism for Susannah, so we cannot be certain of…
-
Tell me a story of the olden days
These days much of my research concerns the first residents at the Moreton Bay penal settlement in addition to the work devoted to extending my own family’s origins. As many of these original settlers have become favourites, one of my endeavours has been to create unique descriptions of their Moreton Bay years encouraging them to…
-
From gaol to ‘the smarter end of Queen Street’: the changing face of Brisbane
In 1825 the Moreton Bay convict settlement moved from Humpybong, Redcliffe to Brisbane and more permanent growth. Building centred around North Quay, George, and Queen Streets but it was not until the arrival of Commandant Patrick Logan in 1826 that substantial building began. The widest and highest, and most significant building in Brisbane, the convict…
-
Betty’s Story
This year marks 180 years since the first recorded burial at Nundah Historic Cemetery in 1846.[1] To commemorate this milestone, the Friends of Nundah Historic Cemetery have published a book of 180 very short stories about individuals buried there. I volunteered to write a couple of stories, including one about Phillip Harley Baker (1945-1946), an…
-
Bonshaw Tower: Home of our DNA Clan
My attendance last November at the Angie Bush GSQ DNA Interest Group seminar brought back memories of the multi speaker DNA event held in the Nazareth Lutheran Church, Woolloongabba in 2019. At that event I nervously presented a short PowerPoint of my brother’s Big Y-DNA results and heaved a sigh of relief when it…
-
Our new GSQ Blogs page is coming!
For some time now, Deb, our GSQ Archivist and I, Bobbie, have been working on developing a new blogs page, which will be linked to the main GSQ website as it currently is. The domain page is available, and for the last three weeks we have been setting it up alongside our other work. We…
-
Bridget Connor: My Irish Orphan 2nd Great-Grandmother
Bridget Connare, survived the worst of the Great Irish Famine, as a ‘pauper’ in Loughrea Workhouse, County Galway. She was one of 4114 Irish Orphan Girls carefully selected by Lieutenant John Henry, the British Emigration Agent for the Colonial Land and Emigration Commission in Ireland, to come to Australia under the Earl Grey Scheme. Between…
-
Accentuate the Positive: 2025
Each year GeniAus Jill Ball sets a challenge to fellow genealogists, this is the eighth year I have participated. I feel that no matter how many challenges a single year can throw at you, it is a good point to sit and think about the positive aspects of that year 1. I treasured time spent…
-
My White Christmas Memories
I’m Australian born so my experiences of Christmas were quite different to those I had during my time spent after marriage whilst living in England. Hubby was in the Royal Navy and at the time of our first winter there, we lived in the Navy ‘patch’ near his posting to HMS Royal Arthur in the…
-
Christmas at Grannie Bell’s
My mother always enjoyed telling a story and as the year’s end approaches, I am reminded of one of my favourites from her childhood, “Christmas at Grannie Bell’s”. Grannie and Pop Bell were Mum’s maternal grandparents. Grannie’s parents, Gottfried and Augusta Kuhn were of German heritage, having come to the Colony of Queensland as young…
-
The Hallams’ Pioneer Days in the Whitsundays
I’m planning to write a longer story about the Hallam family and their pioneering life in the Whitsundays. This blog shares some starting thoughts. My great-grandparents, William (Billy) Hallam and Mary Josephine Sheehy, raised nine children, all born in Bowen, North Queensland. What strikes me about Billy, a man of short and nuggety build, is…