Showing posts with label Nick Vine Hall Awards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nick Vine Hall Awards. Show all posts

Sunday 21 January 2024

Geneastats from 2023 & Other News: My Genealogy Weeks 1-15 January 2024

The first two weeks of 2024 have seen devastating storms, flooding and incredible heatwaves almost in a rolling pattern. Now another cyclone seems to be looming off our coast. Stay safe everyone, out thoughts are with all those impacted.

Blogs

Each year I do two guest blog posts for the Genealogical Society of Queensland. I picked January and July for my efforts. This means the January guest blog is lined up and ready to go in early February. I will be interested in all feedback on my 2023 thoughts. A direct link will be in the next edition of this Diary blog.
 

Books

I have so many books to read now. There are those for sheer pleasure, those for genealogy and family history and those for my Ph D research.

Not sure if I mentioned it last year, but we have started up a Bribie Family History Association Book Club and we have been reading The Ancient Paths by Graham Robb. Not an easy book to read but quite fascinating and the archival references are amazing. We operate via the Moreton Bay Region Libraries which makes it very easy to operate a book club.

Plus I try to keep up with the digital genealogy magazines that I can borrow from the local library.

Conferences

The AFFHO Congress is coming up in 2025 and they have released the dates for that. It will be held in Brisbane which is good news for all the locals. The last one was on Norfolk Island which was a much smaller affair due to the remoteness of the venue but still an excellent conference. 

The Congress theme is “Connections: Past, Present and Future” will be held in Brisbane on 21 – 24  March 2025. The venue is Brisbane Technology Park, Clunies Ross Court, Eight Mile Plains and is situated next to hotel accommodation. Save the date and I will be staying onsite as battling highway traffic each day to and from would leave me a total nervous wreck. Everyone is always in a rush and there is usually a bingle or two to slow traffic down further. Plus that would give me an extra four hours a day to chat and mingle with friends. Much more pleasant.

Unlock the Past is having its final genealogy cruise in December 2024 and that has some big name speakers and sails out from Sydney. Booked and will probably give a talk or two depending on how the final program develops.

The NSW/ACT Association of Family History Societies usually have an annual conference about September. There is nothing on their website yet about 2024 so hopefully that will be announced soon.


New Resources

It is almost mind blowing to read some of the statistical accounts from the big genealogy databases on how much is added each year and 2023 was no exception.

FamilySearch added over 30,000 newly digitised books to their online collection which now stands at 586,813 digital books online. I just did a search for Islandmagee in County Antrim, Island. It has returned a number of volumes including the Brennen Chronicles (one of my family lines is Brennan for Islandmagee). Another book mentions the Cain/Kain family of Islandmagee, another one of my family lines. In fact there are 33 pages of references to all kinds of books and journals. I would hate to be searching for a big parish. 

There are now over 18.36 billion historical records online for over 70 countries. A big addition was the digitised 1931 census for Canada. One of my Scottish families went to Canada and I would love to find some DNA matches to confirm that this is one of my family lines. 

MyHeritage also had a very big year and I can't sum it up anymore than their own image of achievements. You can read more about these statistics in the January blog post. I'm beginning to think we could do genealogy 24/7 and still not use all the resources out there. 

And all the others Ancestry, Findmypast, The Genealogist, Irish Roots, Geneanet, WikiTree and others added to their collections. There is so much out there now  that it is often hard to decide where to search first. 

Online trees can be a real time saver but you have to remember to check them carefully and go back to original sources. Recently I found a tree that was exactly what I wanted but they had a different surname for the wife (which was different from the marriage certificate) but absolutely no explanation for this discrepancy. It is so frustrating when people don't give sources and don't add a note that explains such a major difference between the marriage certificate and their tree. 


Nick Vine Hall (NVH) Awards

It is going to be exciting to be part of the NVH Awards for 2023. We have three new judges, revised criteria and all member societies of AFFHO are encouraged to enter one of their 2023 journals/newsletters.

My main job over the next couple of months will be promoting the awards and encouraging editors to submit. Of course members of individual societies have to write up their own stories for publication so make sure you write at least one article this year for your society editor. Don't be shy and who knows it might lead to further information on the family.


Talks

My first talk for 2024 will be for Monash Library in Melbourne in the first week of February. They are a great group and have hybrid meetings. The session is Researching Australian Ancestors and anyone can join but you need to register and what out for daylight saving time if you live this side of the border.

Then it will be up to Caloundra for my annual appearance there. Another great group and not just because they all wear purple shirts. So friendly over afternoon tea. The talk will be Researching Family in Ireland Online. 


What's Coming Up

Bribie Family History Association is having its first meeting for 2024 and our guest speaker is Sue Reid an excellent presenter on researching newspapers. Afterwards some of our members meet for lunch. No doubt we will be busy sharing our success stories over the summer break. 

Our AGM is coming up in February and here is a happy snap of the current committee hard at work.

My monthly meeting with my Ph D tutors is also challenging especially when they ask to see what I am working on. 

Last month it was my database of incarcerated Queensland women 1850-1900 and this time it is my research plan for Queensland State Archives and my Bibliography to date. It is only seven months since I started so quite full on. 

Take care over the next few weeks of summer weather. A good opportunity to stay inside with a good book, either digital or print. I'm almost preferring digital to my surprise. New skills, new ways of doing things. Until next time, happy researching. Shauna




Tuesday 22 August 2017

Family Memories, Nick Vine Hall Awards & Other News - Genealogy Notes 15-22 Aug 2017

We are now into the third week of National Family History Month in Australia. So far I have done talks in Caloundra, Nambour, Maleny, Beerburrum, Noosaville, North Lakes, Albany Creek, Arana Hills and Strathpine. That's quite a few kilometres around south east Queensland and I have one talk left next week at Caboolture. It is fantastic to see the local libraries providing a great range of talks and speakers during NFHM. My presentations are on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.

Mum Dad me and my baby brother
Lone Pine Sanctuary ca 1960
Also as part of NFHM, I was asked to do a guest blog for MyHeritage one of the major sponsors of NFHM2017. My Family Memories post draws on my recent experiences clearing out my mother's home. No doubt more memories will surface as I now work my way through all the boxes stacked in my own back bedroom. Something to look forward to in September after I finish all of my NFHM activities.

Next week I will be heading off to Townsville for the closing event for NFHM. An all day seminar in conjunction with the Family History Association of North Queensland where I am giving two talks along side Louise Coakley a DNA specialist from Cairns. See her Facebook page Using DNA Testing for Genealogy & Family History Research Australia & New Zealand. It should be a great day and I am also staying on for the Society's DNA special interest group meeting on the Sunday. By the time I get home I will well and truly be motivated to try and work out my own DNA results. There seem to be so many matches it is a bit overwhelming.

So far this month I have managed to read two family history related novels. The first was a review copy from the Moreton Region Libraries Book Club and as a member I get offered from time to time review copies. When I selected this one from the list I was attracted to it because it was set in medieval times and I hadn't realised there was a family history element too. Anyway I found Ian Mortimer's The Outcasts of Time a great read and it starts off in 1348 with England in the grip of the Black Death and the hero is given six days to live. Either in his own time or one day every 100 years ending in 1945. He chooses the latter option and it is fascinating and had me thinking about my own family history over 600 years.

Max and I as part of the 200th anniversary commemoration
on Norfolk Island 2007
The second book is Lynette McDermott's Perseverance which is Book Two of the Garth Trilogy. It is an historical novel based on the lives of two First Fleet convict families who are first exiled to Norfolk Island (Book One) and then exiled again to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in Book Two.

This was of interest to me as Max's convict ancestors Samuel Pyers and Sarah Johnson were also sent to Norfolk Island in the First Settlement and then forced to leave and resettle in Tasmania around the Richmond area. So again it was easy to picture our own families living through the same experiences as the Garth family.

Lynette has kindly donated one of her books as a NFHM prize - see the sponsors page to enter the giveaway and remember it closes on 29 August and is only open to Australian residents.

Announced at the launch of NFHM in Sydney were the winners of the annual Nick Vine Hall Awards. Congratulations to the winners.

  • Category A winner  Botany Bay Family History Society; The Endeavour No 129 December 2016 editor John Levy
  • Second Australian Society of Lacemakers of Calais; Tulle Volume 34 No 4 (November 2016) editor Jim Longmire
  • Category B winner Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies; The Genealogist Vol 15 No 4 December 2016  editor Carolann Thomson 
  • Second Queensland Family History Society; Queensland Family Historian Volume 37 No 4 November 2016 editor Lyndal Cosgrove 


If you have run out of ideas for NFHM have a look at my 31 NFHM Activities for Researchers which explores some of our sponsors websites and other activities. It's an online event and anyone can participate.

The next week will be hectic as I prepare for Townsville and the closing of NFHM but then it will be spring, not that we have had much of a winter. Still swimming in the pool most days, solar heating is wonderful. I always think I will have lots of time post NFHM but other things always crop up to keep me busy! There are talks coming up for the Professional Historians Association of Queensland and also for the Bribie Island Historical Society and I also said I would tutor again on advanced family history for the local U3A. No I won't be bored!

Until next time, enjoy the last week of NFHM and good luck with the prizes giveaway. 

Friday 2 August 2013

Genealogy notes 27 Jul - 3 Aug 2013 National Family History Month

I live a normally busy if not hectic lifestyle but this last week has completely tuckered me out! It's only the third day of National Family History Month and I'm exhausted but it's a fantastic feeling. I've put up so many new events on the NFHM web calendar although we still don't have anything happening in the Northern Territory yet. Hopefully that might change as the month progresses.

I was also busy finalising everything for the launch which was on Thursday in Brisbane. It was a fantastic day - we travelled to Brisbane early so that we could collect Kerrie Gray, President of the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations (AFFHO) from the airport on our way through to the National Archives of Australia, Brisbane Office for the launch. I've done a blog post on the various speakers and also gave an account of the changes to NFHM 2013. The winners of the 2013 Nick Vine Hall awards are also included and don't miss all the news from National Archives of Australia. You can read about the launch and speaker talks here. NFHM is quite different from previous years and I think that we have more events than ever before but I haven't had time to count them.

The last few days have seen me give three radio interviews about NFHM - one with Christy-Lee Macqueen, Mornings Presenter with ABC North West, one with Ed Cowlishaw on Riverland Today with ABC Riverland and Mallee and one with Natasha Mitchell on the program Life Matters on ABC National. That was an interesting one hour session titled Framed: the family portrait. There is something a bit nerve wracking about doing live to air interviews - I always have the fear that the questions will be tricky or that I will have a complete mind freeze. But they all went well and I was amazed at how many people actually heard the shows, especially the Life Matters session. I'm not a big radio person myself but others obviously are.

I'm now about to pack for my trip down south. First stop tomorrow is Melbourne where I will be attending Family History Feast at the State Library of Victoria. This will be a bit of a trip down memory lane as it is the 10th anniversary since Anne Burrows (SLV), Anne Piggott (NAA) and myself (then PROV) started what has become a must attend event in NFHM. This year is another full house which is fantastic and myself and the two Annes will celebrate over dinner that night. Really looking forward to catching up with them.

From Melbourne I'm heading up to Canberra (another one of my old homes) to be the NFHM speaker at the August meeting of the Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra (HAGSOC). I'm having dinner with a few of my old HAGSOC friends before the talk so I will have to stick to one glass of wine with dinner or there won't be a talk! On Wednesday I'm catching up with an old colleague from NAA and on Thursday it's a meeting of the NAA's advisory committee for the centenary of WW1 which should be interesting. I love hearing about all the projects on the go for next year.

Somehow I will try and blog these events while I'm on the road and I know I did say that I would be doing blog posts on my 31 activities for researchers and 31 activities for genealogy/family history societies during NFHM but there may be a bit of a delay. Once I'm back on Bribie Island I'll be able to catch up again.

It's been great to see all my social media friends promoting NFHM and I really think that by the end of August everyone will know what genealogy and family history is all about. Thanks everyone. I'm also learning new skills and managed to put up some photos of the launch on the NFHM Facebook page and the number of Likes has gone up to 434 which is still a long way short of the 1000 Likes I would like before the end of August. The NFHM sponsors have all been fantastic in helping to promote the month too.

Have I done any of my own genealogy in the last week? Not a lot but one thing that was interesting is that I visited the genEbooks website (one of the NFHM sponsors) and noticed that they have a free ebook each month. So I registered which is a simple process, selected the free ebook and proceeded to check out and within a minute or so I had received the ebook via email. I also did a survey for the Unlock the Past genealogy cruises and by leaving my name I received a 50% discount on an ebook before 31 August. So when I come back I will take up that offer but sadly it will probably just go into my virtual pile of ebooks to read. The good thing is that they don't gather dust like the pile of real books I have to read!

Breaking news from AFFHO! Our Australasian Really Useful Information Leaflet is now available. This is a free, 20 page initiative of the UK based Federation of Family History Societies in association with Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations and the Society of  Australian Genealogists.

Well I have to go and finish packing and this afternoon I've been invited to a Tupperware party and I don't think I've been to one of those in over 20 years if not longer.It's a gorgeous day here on Bribie Island and I also have to water all my new herbs, flowers and other plants as they are predicting even warmer, dry days while I'm away. I'm trying not to think of those much cooler temperatures in Melbourne and Canberra!

Enjoy the next week of NFHM and remember to keep checking the web calendar as events might still be added as the month progresses! Happy researching.


Thursday 11 July 2013

Genealogy notes 4-11 July 2013 State libraries for genealogy

Well we have farewelled yet another house guest, this time someone we used to know in Canberra but who is now living on the Gold Coast. It always surprises me that people living in Queensland have never been to Bribie Island but then I think I like it as a secret little hideaway!

As usual having people in the house takes me away from the laptop and genealogy pursuits and this time it made me completely forget that it is Diary's anniversary! Two years ago on 1 July 2011 I started up Diary of an Australian Genealogist to prove to someone that it was very easy to set up a blog and keep it going. Time has gone quickly but then lots of things seem to happen in my life. Two years ago I was still working full time and had more time for genealogy and social media  whereas now I'm part time and living in a beach paradise with lots of other distractions.

Still I do manage to get to some great genealogy events and yesterday I attended the local Bribie Island family history group meeting where old friend and colleague Stephanie Ryan was talking about the genealogy resources at the State Library of Queensland where she is the Genealogy Librarian. It was a bit of a walk down memory lane for me as I first went to work at SLQ in 1981 and I went back to work there in 1990. Both times I left to go and work at Queensland State Archives. It was also good to see that SLQ still supports researchers who live outside the capital city, all too often regional and rural people miss out on personal visits although I can understand that there are time and travel costs involved. We just need that 'beam me up' technology!

Anyway enough of memory lane, it was great to hear Stephanie mention the AJCP (Australian Joint Copying Project) which has to be one of the most under-utilised resources for genealogy and she definitely invoked memories when she mentioned the A2 series of microfilm which was a joint copying project between SLQ and State Records NSW back in the 1970s. It is really good to know that they are currently working on a better index to all the wonderful material that relates to pre separation Queensland (1824-1859).

Stephanie mentioned all the useful family history information guides which are all online and nice to see that they have been recently updated. All too often you see guides which are out of date! There are more online indexes at SLQ than I realised so I have a bit of exploring to do just in case any of my families are mentioned. I have been using the Library's One Search to find information so I was interested to hear that you can also still search the former online catalogue as well. Like most things it can be useful to search both as sometimes the results vary.

I recently applied for my SLQ library card which gives me access to the Library's e-resources at home and I really must make the trek down to Brisbane and check out the new building. It has changed a lot since I last worked there in 1994. The trouble is I expect I'd want to spend more than a day there as there is just so much available for both Australian and UK genealogy.

National Family History Month has been keeping me busy with lots of events being added over the last week. It's only three weeks to launch so I'm expecting the next weeks to be busier than ever. I'm looking forward to the announcement of the Nick Vine Hall awards at the launch and I hope that genealogy and family history societies have nominated their journals this year. It is good to recognise the enormous effort all the editors do to bring new information and stories to society members.

Finally I would like to say that it was wonderful to see that Diary was listed in Jill Ball's 50 Blogs You Need to Read in the current issue of Inside History Magazine. It was a great anniversary present although I expect Jill doesn't remember it has been two years this month. We obviously have similar interests as many of the genealogy blogs she listed are ones that I try to look at on a regular basis. It's divided up into Institutions, Organisations, Niche Topics and Societies, Personal Genealogists and Professional Genealogists. However there are some that I haven't seen before so there's another thing down on my list to do - check them out! If you are looking to find some good blogs to read check out Jill's list and they are not all Australian, some overseas ones as well.

I'm off to Chinchilla for the weekend for the genealogy seminar with the Chinchilla Family History Group and I have a number of historical villages on my list of things to do while I'm out that way. At least that gives me something to write about next Diary! Until next time, try and find some time to do your own genealogy.

Sunday 6 January 2013

Genealogy notes 4-7 Jan 2012 Reading catchup time!

As I'm still recovering from my recent fall, I've spent the last few days propped up on the lounge surrounded by books and magazines (heaven)! I've managed to finish Children of the Occupation: Japan's Untold Story by Walter Hamilton (his own website dedicated to the project) and my review is here.

I'm now onto Hazel Edwards' Authorpreneurship: The Business of Creativity which is aimed at authors and so far it looks like it was almost written for me and other similar writers.I think I'm going to learn a lot from this book. Stay tuned for a review soon.

Every so often our surface mail catches up with us (only one more week till we move into our new house and no more delayed mail). This time I was especially pleased to see the latest issue of Inside History Magazine which includes an article I wrote Crime Does Pay: At Least in Genealogy It Does which is all about having criminal ancestors. It's almost hard to believe that this is Issue 14, seems like only yesterday Cassie was talking to us about starting it up! There's lots of other great articles so that kept me happily entertained for a few hours.

My January 2013 issue of Australian Family Tree Connections also arrived and that's always good for finding out what talks and other events are coming up. It was also good to see in Letters to the Editor AFFHO seeking feedback on my article about making changes to National Family History Week and also advertising the Nick Vine Hall Awards. All genealogy and family history societies should consider entering their journals - after all you can't win it if you aren't in it!

My old printer up and died the other day so I had to install a new printer. This one is wi fi so we can use it in the caravan when we are travelling or according to the literature I can also send print jobs to it via my phone or iPad. All sounds very futuristic to me but at least I can print in the kitchen while writing this in the lounge room.

I was at a bit of a loss on Sunday afternoon when Trove was down (thankfully back up again today) so I started to look at some of the websites listed in the Top 100 Genealogy Websites for 2013 according to Genealogy in Time Magazine. This is UK/US centric so you won't find Trove and other good Australian sites on it but it is still worth a browse. Some of my favourites are there and some I'm familiar with it but don't visit often, and then I'm amazed at how much new information has been added since last time. The internet is great for genealogy and family history but keeping up with it is almost impossible.

Well time to get back to that reading so until next time, happy ancestor hunting!



Monday 30 July 2012

Genealogy Notes 29 Jul 2012 - Nick Vine Hall Awards 2012 announced

In the last Diary I mentioned that these awards were announced at the launch of National Family History Week last Friday but as some winners had not yet been contacted, I couldn't reveal all. Well I am now cleared to tell all.
For those not familiar with the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations (AFFHO) annual Nick Vine Hall awards, there are two categories. Category A is for the best journal produced in 2011 from an organisation of less than 500 members and Category B is the best journal from an organisation with over 500 members. Each winner receives a wall plaque, a certificate and a cheque for $300. The Editor of each winning journal also receives a certificate. The runner up in each category receive a certificate and a cheque for $100.
The Awards are named after Nick Vine Hall a well known genealogist and family historian who died in 2006.
Now the moment you have all been waiting for!
The winner of Category A for 2012 is Cape Banks Family History Society in NSW for their journal Kith & Kin. The runner up is the Armidale Family History Group also in NSW for their journal Dust of Ages.
The winner of Category B for 2012 is the Genealogical Society of Victoria for their journal Ancestor (which has won a lot of awards over the years from memory) and the runner up is The Heraldry & Genealogical Society of  Canberra for their journal The Ancestral Searcher.
Congratulations to everyone and it is a shame that not everyone can win as it really is a big job getting a journal out every quarter or however often it is published.
I'm a bit weary from attending Family History Feast at State Library of Victoria today so my report on it will be in tomorrow's Diary. I was really pleased to see that the Library had a Twitter hashtag #fhfeast and an official blogger, Carmen whose blogs are already starting to appear online in their Family Matters blog!
Now time to go and get dinner ready. Till next time.