Genealogy notes 3 July 2011

Today's Sunday and it is usually a quiet day spent catching up on bits and pieces. I like to also look at the week ahead and see what I should be doing, and of course what I would like to be doing. I find that if I don't set myself little goals along the way I don't get as much done as I originally set out to do.

Fast approaching is the Unlock the Past History and Genealogy Expo in Mount Gambier on 23-24 July and I have been updating my expo talks. It really is amazing how often some websites change and I don't mean just cosmetic changes, I mean new content including indexes and digitised records.What this means is that instead of finalising my revised talks, I am led astray into searching for my own families. So this week a key goal is to finish the revisions on all four talks.

Just a week later on 30 July I am speaking at the Wodonga Family History Society annual seminar and they have an exciting Irish themed day. My talk is titled The Irish Colonials Loved a Beer or Two: Checking Out the Evidence and it is based (loosely) on my own Irish ancestors and for Wodonga I have some Victorian examples as well. I am giving a repeat of the talk in Brisbane on 6 August at the Genealogical Society of Queensland's annual seminar Ireland: Unlocking the Mystery but will use Queensland examples instead. So another key goal is to finish both versions of this new talk.

Another weekly goal I like to set myself (if I'm not travelling too much) is to participate in the blog challenge 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History. Next week's topic is Vacations and that should be really easy to write about - with this series I have been trying to capture memories from my childhood and teenage years. Last week's topic was Songs and what was the No 1 hit the year you were born. Read my Songs contribution here.

I spent a bit more time today reading up on Google+ and thanks to some tweets on Twitter from @SocialMediaGen I found some interesting links to follow up.

Another catch up job today was to visit Genealogy Wise which is a genealogy social network I have been a member of for quite a while. I'm a member of nine groups in Genealogy Wise and I like to see what's been happening over the past week - it's not something that I get to do on a daily basis and of course, some groups (like my Surname groups) don't have a lot of activity. Perhaps the group I am most involved with is Australian Genealogists with 320 members. Like most social networking sites it is free to join and it is a great way to communicate with like minded people.

Today's visit to Genealogy Wise reminded me that I haven't been keeping up with a blog called GeniMates which profiles various people involved in genealogy both in Australia and overseas. There were quite a few profiles that I had missed (sometimes I pick them up in Twitter too) so I spent the time reading about people I have come to know both in person and online. It quite often leads me to following new people on Twitter or new blogs I want to read. For example, I hadn't come across Amanda Epperson or her Scottish Emigration Blog until I read Amanda's profile on GeniMates - I then spent time reading some of her blog entries. See how easy it is to get sidetracked - now you know why I need to set goals and deadlines!!

They say genealogy is never ending, I'm starting to suspect that is also true for social media and genealogy but I wouldn't change it. I learn so much every day and find other people and their work really inspiring. However, I still live in the real world and the family is expecting dinner and I want to watch Masterchef in peace, so signing off for now to become a domestic goddess!