The Western District Families family is in the process of moving house and it’s been a slow process.

Things are going to get a lot busier over the next month so I’m not sure if I’ll get an August Passing of the Pioneers post out.  It also means I, unfortunately, won’t take part in the National Family History Month Blogging Challenge during August.  There’s a new topic to write about each week during August and two I’m really keen on.  The first is due from today, and although I’ve started a draft, I won’t make it.  The next topic I’m interested is Week 3 so I’ll see how I go because it will be a reboot of an earlier Western District Families post so some of the work is already done.  Alex Daw will post a list of the weekly contributions at her Family Tree Frog blog, so why not check out what some of Australia’s leading geneabloggers are writing about.  Week one is on the link here.

Over on the Western District Families Facebook page, we have just finished a virtual historic tour of the Henty Highway.  There was so much history along the way, it took three months to “travel” 160 kilometres from Cherrypool (below) to Portland’s History House with posts most days.  It certainly took longer than I expected but now it’s ended, I can spend more time on our move.

The tours are good fun and a great way to learn more about Western District towns and families, and I always find new stories ideas, but they are incredibly time consuming.   The Mount Everest of the Western District highways is the Princes Highway taking in towns such as Colac, Warrnambool and Port Fairy.  In the most recent tour, it took two weeks just to “travel” from North Portland to South Portland, so I think the Princes Highway might be one for next year…in fact, it could last a year!  During August for National Family History Month, I’m inviting everyone to share a photo of their Western District family to the page.

The Hamilton’s WW1 chapter of Western District Families has been quiet since April.  I was getting out about five bios a week in the lead up to Anzac Day taking the total number to around 130 biographies.  I have only a small group of men still to research from the various Hamilton outdoor WW1 memorials.  After we have moved and settled, I’ll get back into it. I’ve got a few ideas on improving the Hamilton’s WW1 page and I’ll also move on to some of the Honour Rolls from around the town.

With all the new story ideas I have from the Henty Highway tour, the many drafts waiting for completion, including three cemetery posts, and more Hamilton enlistments to write about, I think I need to speed up this moving process.  Time to swap the bullocks for some engine power.