CAUTION: Some people may find the content of this post confronting and distressing. It started simply enough as these things sometimes do but became quite the research rabbit warren. Why not grab a drink of your choice and join me. My friend Ursula C Krause, whom I met at Roots Tech London 2019, is a professional German genealogist at…

As so often happens with me and these challenges, my theme is only forming when the starter’s gun goes off. Friends who are more thoughtful and prepared, often have their own program already mapped out, and many posts written. I hadn’t planned to join in this year though I’d had an idea back in January but decided it would be too political and contentious.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. YVR Vancouver International Airport, Sea Island, Richmond, Vancouver, Canada We were very excited to finally get to see Canada and this was our gateway in 2017, after RootsTech in Salt Lake.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. How many countries have we visited by flying into an airport? XXXIV Feel free to blip over this list, and perhaps read the stories below…

Somewhat to my surprise, this was my 9th participation in the A to Z blogging challenge, so I thought I'd revisit the topics I'd written about over the years. A to Z 2025 Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with, using IATA codes where they’re available. This is an aide memoir of our travels for ourselves and our family.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. WWK Wewak Airport (also known as Boram Airport), Wewak, PNG Wewak was another airport we travelled to specifically for visits to family.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. VCE Venice Marco Polo Airport, Venice, Italy On previous holidays to Venice, we had arrived by train, but in 2018 we flew in from Barcelona, via Rome with Alitalia.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. UAS Samburu Oryx or Samburu Buffalo Springs? Kenya, Africa There is some conflicting information about this airstrip in the Samburu National Reserve as there are/were…

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent.   THR Mehrabad International Airport, Tehran, Iran It’s been informative to learn from Wikipedia, that some of the airports we flew into in the 70s have changed and also have different names.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent.   SYD Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, Sydney, NSW, Australia I hadn’t been to Sydney until 1968, when I went to a conference for a university group.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. RAK Marrakesh Menara Airport, Marrakesh, Morocco We had a wonderful time on our 10 day tour of Morocco but it was super busy so in some respects we were happy to be at Marrakesh airport for our final few days at Barcelona.

  My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent.   A promotional postcard from our 1974 trip. Many people would be familiar with the Qantas airline, whether they fly often or not.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. POM Port Moresby International Airport, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea Moresby airport, more commonly known as Jackson’s, was my first introduction to Papua New Guinea.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. NBO Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, Kenya. We always joke with our family that they can get work anywhere, so long as it’s somewhere we can visit.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. MAD Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, Madrid, Spain I’ve decided to use my Facebook posts to illustrate the joys of travel from Down Under to Europe in 2018.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. LOS Losuia Airport, Trobriand Islands, Milne Bay District, Papua New Guinea In my first year living in Papua New Guinea I had two opportunities to visit Losuia on Kiriwina Island.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. KHI      Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan Karachi was part of our flight to Rome in 1974 and 1977.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. JFK      John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, USA We first flew into JFK in 1992 on our long-service leave holiday.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. It may not be apparent so far, but I’ve mostly been adding airports in the chronological order in which I/we have visited them.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. HGU Kagamuga International Airport, Mt Hagen, Western Highlands, PNG Mt Hagen became one of our visiting places because my sister-in-law was teaching there and later married there at one of the coffee plantations.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. GUR Gurney Airstrip/Airport, Milne Bay District, Papua New Guinea Gurney has great military significance for Australia in World War II.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. FCO     Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport, Rome, Italy We have arrived at Rome airport twice, once in 1977 and once in 2000.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. Since I've been playing catch-up having joined the A to Z party late, I'm relieved to reach a letter that only involves two flying experiences for me.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. DPS Ngurah Rai, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia We first visited Bali in 2005, a few years after the…

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. CDG Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France We have visited CDG a couple of times over the years.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent. BNE Brisbane Airport, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Brisbane has been my most frequently used flight hub for both internal and international flights, largely because it’s been closest to where I’ve lived over many years.

My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. ACF[i] Archerfield, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Archerfield is significant to me because it’s where had my first experience of flight in 1968. A friend who had been in the Air Force cadets took me up in a single engine Cessna, soon after he obtained his licence.

Chatting to a friend on Facebook a few days ago, brought out my inner travel agent and changed my mind about participating in the 2025 A to Z challenge. Obviously, I'm going to have to get my skates on to catch up. My theme is Airports, Airstrips and Airlines I’ve known and flown. It will be a retrospective on my travelling years from 1968 onwards.

Volume 22, Issue 1 of History Australia

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been catching up from the family excitement and visits in December and January. Then I discovered that some of the parish registers for the Catholic Archdiocese of …

It was an entry in the Pandora-archived First Families database[1] that alerted me to the possibility that Mary Rosalie Zeller (Zöller) might be a member of the emigrant group from Dorfprozelten in…

Ever had one of those skeletons from the past come knocking at your door? Should you answer? I guarantee that every family will have secrets, some might call them ‘skeletons in the cupboard&#…

Join Dr. Damian Shiels for a three part course into using several fascinating archives in your Irish in the Civil War research.

Explore the fascinating intersection of family history, collaboration, and technology in my guest blogs for the GSQ. It is hoped these posts will provide practical tips and inspiration.