My focus in 2025 was….. It seems I had a year of industry (see Protools) and a year of unexpected collaboration with Scottish relatives, Israel family relatives, and members of Polish community willing to help in a collaboration on my cousin’s stepdad.
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| Henry S Martin |
A Social media post I am most proud of…. When I required information on the whereabouts of some orphaned convict children, the troops rallied and sent me hints, links, information and cleared up my misconceptions. Once again with their collective expertise, they provided the answers swiftly. Thank you, Facebook pals.
A history book I enjoyed was… “The trial of the Honorable James Stamp Sutton Cooke.” The associated trials/ convict records could have you down rabbit holes forever. His stories of bigamy, gambling, domestic violence and much more had me gasping. Memoirs of his wife, Sophia, were also a good read. “Memoirs of Sophia, Widow of James Stamp Sutton Cooke”
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| Part of Sophia's story she wrote for publication in prison |
I researched…. Israels, Rowbothams, Duckwor, Blocks, Bakers and Martins amongst others.
My most valuable subscription. I paid for a ProTool subscription from Ancestry. By far the best thing I did this year was to subscribe to ProTools. I ProTooled my tree from January for about two and a half months coming up for air with pages of follow ups by about April.
I was exhausted but certainly it filled in some records I had previously missed, fixed up my duplicates, errors, people with no family, and checked for problems. I haven't had time to check on the DNA side of this tool yet.
I've continued my subscription to Newspapers.com which has been most useful during Pro Tools work. Lately, I've subscribed to Fold3, but I think that will only be temporary as I don't find it much value. Do you?
I still love my Whispers App as I've done plenty of writing this year. I have to come up with a writing piece each fortnight when I'm home for my U3A writing groupMy fellow writers like my spin on family history and the antics of the ancestors. The Whisper App makes writing from a draft to final copy a dream.
I did plan to write some 20th century, (post-war) stories and finish others. But I went down a few rabbit warrens this year. So instead, I wrote about families whose children went to war or were affected by it. One thing led to another and I ended up following up on a scandalous convict or two in my son-in-law's past.
I've written a lot this year and last, and they are slowly making it into final draft for the blog. 11 blogs have made it to publication, but the research revealed much more and took a lot of time in between pro-tooling.
I met a fourth cousin who just happens to live in Australia and not too far away. We met and swapped information. Another batch of World War One Soldiers in one family were crossed off my to-do list.
A useful website I found was wiki trees. After hitting upon some interesting information, I followed up on some prolific researchers who were very generous. As always, it's good to share information as it safeguards it from losses in storage boxes and disinterested relatives in the future.
My husband was devastated when I uncovered the illegitimacy of the Duckworths. We had a laugh, filled in the blanks and followed up with what happened next. 
I'm dabbling with AI. While it sometimes leaves a lot to be desired, a tech friend suggested I translate some Polish love letters using Chat GPT. Be warned, it seems the Chat GPT likes a good love story. In our early attempts, I had to temper its exuberance. More work on this will happen during 2026. The Polish letters seem to have bred, so it may take some time to build our mystery tree.
I'm keen to use it to transcribe some diary entries from the 1840s in Western Australia. Fingers crossed it can read it and make sense of the notes. I believe Ancestry have added some AI technology for the same task. Next year could have some interesting implications.
A genie surprised we received was a message from someone who is likely following up on the antics of my uncle during World War II. If you follow my meaning. In answer to my cousin's question of “I wonder if there are any little Franks running around England?” - Well, yes. - It looks like they are. It seems that after the person made contact, they have ghosted us or are just not renewing their ancestry membership. Naturally I have copies of all her details / trees supplied as they recommend when you get an NPE.
I don't think it's anything sinister, just that she's probably worked out who fathered her or her relative from my very informative tree and blog, even if I do say so myself.
My grandkids found me useful this year. When year four was studying convicts and year six was researching 10 pound POMS, I was away, but if you research my blog, you can find information readily to solve the homework worries.
Sharing with my genie mates. I think the Strelley relatives have been rattling around “upstairs.” I'm gradually getting interest from the very small Scottish branch via my blog.
R.I.P. Andrew Strelley. Are you stirring things up?
A newly found Strelley relative shared copies of her great-uncle's wartime memorabilia. It helped in two stories. It proves my theory that if you are the one person who gets the photos or the memorabilia, etc., and it's not shared, it's lost to others.
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| Me , Ian Strelley and Andrew when we met in Canada |
The genealogist in me is despairing at the lack of information on 20th and 21st century births, deaths and marriages. A hundred years is a long time to wait in Australia, but at least I can get World War I and II records for free and access to the Trove newspaper records.
In 2026, I plan to finish lots of stories currently in draft and find a few new paths to go down. I'm still very interested in the diaspora.
To all my Genie friends Merry Christmas and Happy New Year xx
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