Sunday Snippets

13 April 2025

Time for another in my Sunday Snippets series. This is where I share what’s been happening in my world of genealogy. I’ve had a very busy week, deep diving into research, writing blog posts and reading some of the amazing family history stories that are published on Substack.

My World of Genealogy This Week

I’ve had an extremely busy week, both with research and writing posts. I have been researching my convict ancestors for an upcoming blog post. I did this research decades ago, but there is so much information available now, that wasn’t available back then. It’s been really interesting to fill in the gaps of that old research. Also, as usual, I have been down many rabbit holes and off on many tangents during this research.

I have decided that I need to get my writing and posts more organised. Even though I’m ‘quite organised’ there is much room for improvement. Over the past week, I have been drafting posts for May. I’m not yet finished, but will get them done and scheduled next week. I should then be able to move onto organising June. I’m trying not to be too impressed with myself, as it doesn’t take much at all to send me off on a tangent.

AtoZ Challenge

We are now two weeks into The April AtoZ Blogging Challenge. So far we have covered Letters A - K. This challenge requires me to post every day in April, except Sunday, to a chosen theme. My Theme for 2025 is The Earl Grey Orphan Scheme which brought destitute young Irish girls to Australia during the potato famine in Ireland. My 2x great grandmother was one of those young girls.

During the challenge, I have been reading many newsletters and blog posts of other participants. I especially love the genealogy posts. One newsletter that I have looked forward to each day, is NextGenGenealogy written by Carole McCulloch. Carole includes a huge amount of information in her posts each day, so I’m planning to revisit after the Challenge is over, when I will have more time for a slow, deep dive. Click on the image below to see her post for the Letter K.

Following are links to my AtoZ Challenge posts so far:
A: About The Earl Grey Scheme
B: Ellen Boyle, my 2x great grandmother
C: Colonial Inquest - Mary Coglan
D: Death of an Orphan Girl
E: SS Earl Grey
F: Famine
G: Girls and Orphans
H: Hyde Park Barracks
I: Is Mise Ellen Boyle - I am Ellen Boyle
J: The Journey
K: Kindness Shown to Irish Orphan Girls

Genstack

Robin Stewart from Genealogy Matters publishes Genstack each weekend, and it’s always packed full of great family history reading. It’s a go-to for me every Sunday, to see what I missed during the week. I have had a very busy week, so was looking forward to catching up on Genstack. As usual, I wasn’t disappointed. There were links to articles written by great family history storytellers that I had missed.

The image below will take you to the latest issue.

The Chiddicks Observer 7th Edition

In this 7th edition of Paul Chiddicks roundup, of stories that have captured his attention, Paul also highlights newsletters that I haven’t come across during the week, and I love that. I was very pleased that Paul shared Secret Sleuths, a newsletter that I hadn’t seen previously - crime historian, specialising in gender & crime, crime reporting and the history of private detectives. How could I resist that!

Thanks to Paul for also featuring my series on Tracking Down The Family - Letters to Bedfordshire.

Click on the image below to catch up with The Chiddicks Observer 7th Edition.

Projectkin Live

Tomorrow I will be the guest on Projectkin Live, chatting to Barbara about my One Place Study Haverfordwest History and the April A to Z Blogging Challenge.
Read more about it here -Projectkin Live