Genealogy notes 8-9 Jan 2013 blogging awards

Well this morning we woke up to a blanket of smoke as the Bribie Island fire is into it's third day but this is the first day where the smoke has not been blowing towards the mainland. It's in the national park so campers have been evacuated and for the moment it's under control with back burning and eleven fire units. The cool breeze seems to have given way to the higher temperatures but we still have quite windy conditions.

After a brief excursion to the shops I'm now bunkered down for an afternoon of genealogy and working on the last four talks for the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise in just four weeks time. I'm past the half way point with five talks already finished. So far I've still got the windows open and the fan on but I'm starting to look at the air-conditioner.

Yesterday I was honoured to receive a nomination for Blog of the Year 2012 Award and you can read how I was nominated by Geniaus and my response on my website here. As part of the Award I had to nominate some blogs that I thought worthy of the Award and this was hard to narrow down as there are so many good genealogy and family history blogs out there. Also some had already been nominated by other recipients and I always think it is good to spread the encouragement around as I can't be the only blogger who wonders if anyone reads what I write. So be sure to read my response and check out those I nominated and also those nominated by other recipients.

Today's surface mail brought my copy of the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly journal which I always like reading. It can be a little US centric but there aren't that many Australian members I don't think. A lot of the articles are quite global and one article that I'm keen to read is Harold Henderson's Genealogy Education on a Shoestring as most of us try to do things as cheaply as possible. A quick scan of the article looks like he is using the internet as a basis which is great as most of us have access to that eithr at home, work or the local library.

I'll finish up this blog on a sadder note as yesterday I made two more loans to the Kiva Genealogists for Families Project started up by Judy Webster and later co-captained by Joan Miller in Canada. The loans were in memory of Joan who lost her fight with cancer last week. If you would like to join the project you can click here and remember to link to the Genealogists for Families project.

Joan was one of the first people I started following on Twitter three years ago as my GGGG grandfather's Carnegie family went to Canada from Scotland and I was looking for Canadian research tips. I also liked reading her Luxegen blogs and we exchanged tweets and emails and she gave me some good advice on locating those Scottish ancestors. So I'm sad to see one of my earliest cyber geneabuddies gone but I'm glad to see so many people have taken the opportunity to take up a Kiva loan in Joan's memory which was at the suggestion of her family.

Tomorrow is the final inspection of our new home and settlement is on Monday then we have to move out of this unit and get ready for the delivery of our two container loads of furniture and other worldly goods on Wednesday. I'm going to be very relieved to see all my books and family history records again. Though I'm not looking forward to all that unpacking. Until next time.

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!

Genealogy notes - 1-3 Jan 2013 Blogs & other things

I'm starting the New Year well with several days of genealogy related activities. It's after the festive season and still two weeks before we move into our new home so I've been indulging myself while the other half has been fishing and motorbike riding. With all that peace and quiet I've been catching up with some of my favourite bloggers. I was really impressed with Chris Paton's genealogy review of 2012 in three parts (go into his 2012 archive to locate them) and I was surprised at how much I missed not being online every day. Still I wouldn't have missed all that travelling for anything but there must be a way to balance the two!

I totally missed contributing to Cassmob and Alona Tester's blogging challenges during 2012 so I'm hoping they will come up with something new for 2013 or even a repeat - I don't mind! It's been good reading through some of their challenges and I find you can always learn from what other's are doing or even see how easy it is to tell your own family stories.


Also Kuringai Historical Society celebrated it's 50th blog post and while that probably doesn't sound like a great achievement it's actually quite significant in that Kuringai is leading where all other historical societies should be going in my opinion. Blogs are a great way to tell local stories (same for family history blogs too) without a great deal of effort or expense if you use a free blogger like Google Blogger and then best of all it's searchable by Google and anyone looking for information or events in the Kuringai area can find it and the Society. I won't stay on this hobby horse but I really do think that historical societies and genealogy/family history societies should all be getting more involved with social media outlets so that researchers can find them more easily.

While on historical societies we finally managed to visit the Bribie Island Seaside Museum which is very much set up for the tourist. It is quite modern and spacious (only opened in 2010) and gives an overview of the history of the Island and the various settlements. From my own family history research I know quite a bit of the early history but I wasn't all that familiar with Bribie's role in WW2 so I found that interesting. The Bribie Historical Society meets monthly so I hoping to go along to a meeting but it won't be until April as we will be away for the first two meetings. I hate it when dates clash!

I've made a start reading Children of the Occupation: Japan's Untold Story by Walter Hamilton which was sent to me to review by New South Books last year. Usually I try to do reviews quickly but finding reading time on the road is never easy! I'm actually finding it hard to put down so expect a review soon. I've still got three other reviews  to do and I'm hoping to get them done before the big move in two weeks. Otherwise they won't get done until we get re-organised again! No more moves for me - Bribie is stuck with me!

The other really nice thing is that I have started to do research for a client again and it's one of those tricky research questions. Is it the right family or not? Even more interesting is that it is Irish and spans Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales and New Zealand. Are they all related? I think they are but not quite the way they are currently presented but it's an interesting challenge.

Finally I've also got back into blogging this Diary more frequently and I've answered another one of those Geniaus geneameme challenges (although I notice that she is now spelling it GeniAus which is even more clever). I mentioned the Accentuate the Positives 2012 geneameme last Diary entry and since then I have managed to answer (positively) all 20 questions. Read my Accentuate the Positives 2012 geneameme.

I've missed the blogging and the interaction with social media friends by not being online more often the last four months. It's only when you get back into it again that you realise what you are missing out on. So roll on 2013 I'm keen to be more genealogy active again!