My Irish Eyes were Smiling

Guess who I heard speak on Wednesday?

HINT - she was the star turn at the Hawkesbury Family History Group meeting for National Family History Month.

1. She has a wicked, dry sense of humour.
2. She knows her topic inside out.
3. She is a non-boring academic type.
4. She is obsessed with her topic.
5. Perhaps she should have been named Colleen.
6. She is the Chair of the Great Irish Famine Commemoration Committee (GIFCC) which is actively seeking information about Earl Grey’s Irish Workhouse Immigrant women. 

I have heard Dr Perry McIntyre speak on a number of occasions and was privileged to hear her again on Wednesday morning. Perry's topic was "Single female emigration in the 1830s & 1840s". As examples to illustrate her presentation Perry cited Irish examples. Now that was right up my alley as I have a couple of troublesome Irish girls in my tree including my Great-great-grandmother Bridget (Did she swim?) Ryan.

Perry's opening slide

Perry explained the options, criteria and processes for single Irish girls who wanted to come to the colonies and illustrated her talk with images of contemporary newspaper ads, paintings and photos. She then explained what happened to the girls from when they came off the boats until they got hitched. The stories and photos she shared of several Earl Grey girls were interesting.  I wish I could find a picture of my girl, Mary Cregan/Cligan/Creigan/Gregson. 

As Chair of the Great Irish Famine Commemoration Committee (GIFCC) Perry is actively seeking information about Earl Grey’s Irish Workhouse Immigrant women; as requested I will be emailing Perry with the scant information I have on Mary Cregan/Cligan/Creigan/Gregson, another of my Great-Great-Grandmothers.

Perry suggested the Atlas of the Great Irish Famine as a useful resource for background information on the famine. She neglected to say that one needs to be a weightlifter to lift this weighty tome!

My revelation for the day came when I asked Perry about how I could access a resource in PRONI that refers to my girl Mary. Apparently our friends at Familysearch have filmed the records and I could order it in to a local centre but I will wait until I go to Salt Lake City for Rootstech in Febraury. It will be something to look forward to.

Should you wish to hear Perry speak on a similar topic she will be talking at The Quarantine Station at North Head later this month. Details here.

Thanks to Jonathan for the happy snap. Perry (left) and me

My super morning was topped off when I had a cup of coffee and nice chat with Jonathan Auld and Michelle Nichols in a nearby cafe. Thanks to Michelle for organising another great talk at Hawkesbury and to Michelle and Jonathan who, knowing about my fetish for geneabling, brought me back a badge from the London "Who do you think you are live" event they attended.

By the Skin of my Teeth

I just checked the clock and it is 20:37 Saturday (MDT) in Salt Lake City, UT, USA on 30 June 2012. Phew, I made it with over three hours to spare! 

Midnight is the time when proposals for Rootstech 2013 presentations close. It was a very close shave for me as I planned to do mine yesterday believing that I would be able to access the  Rootstech  site any time. After trying to gain access yesterday for five hours I went to bed not knowing if the site would be accessible this morning Australian time. Thankfully, when I woke, I was able to get into the site so I have spent the past couple of hours editing and submitting the ideas I had saved on a Google Doc.

My concerns were alleviated a little last night when Lisa Alzo posted on Facebook and Twitter that she was unable to access the Rootstech site; at least I knew that the problem was not with my computer. Thanks to Jonathon Auld who told me on Twitter that there was an outage in parts of the USA due to severe weather I realised that the problem was probably shared by more people than Lisa and me.

Now I have to sit and wait until I hear from The RootsTech 2013 Committee who said in a recent email "We have received some fantastic proposals and we are looking forward to our best conference yet!" I am hopeful that my proposal for an International Panel will be accepted as last year's panel was a huge success but I do not hold out much hope for the two proposals I have submitted that have an Australian focus. I had one crazy idea that will require a lot of work on my part; it will be just my luck for this one to be accepted.  I don't know if any other Australians have submitted proposals so I have my fingers crossed that I get at least one of my ideas accepted so that Australia has a presence on the Rootstech 2013 program.


If I am successful I may need to call on you, my readers, for help in preparing my talks.

Richmond Presbyterian Cemetery

Great news from Jonathan Auld on the Rootsweb aus-nsw-hills-hawkesbury-hunter-valley list. Thanks to the volunteers have produced this resource for those of us with Hawkesbury ancestors.

"Just a heads up for those listers interested in cemeteries located in the Hawkesbury. We have completed the Richmond Presbyterian Cemetery, with all of the headstone transcriptions and photographs now available online for you to view. Information can be viewed at the following url:

Richmond, Richmond Presbyterian Cemetery http://www.hawkesbury.net.au/cemetery/richmond_presbyterian/index.html "