Monday, 11 August 2014

Genealogy Notes 6-12 August 2014 National Family History Month is nearly half over already!

Time does fly when you are having fun! I have given 6 of my 11 talks for Moreton Bay Region Libraries already and there have been some great audiences. Lots of people have gone home to try out some of my ideas for Demolishing Brick Walls or doing Family History on the Cheap. As usual I have put the presentations on my website Resources page, scroll down to Presentations.

At the top of the Resources page are my 31 Activities for National Family History Month (for individuals and societies) and it has been good seeing some people do all or only a few of the activities. One person  I know is blogging all of her activities and Fran (aka Travelgenee) has done some interesting posts on her adventures so far this NFHM. It is always surprising how people interpret a challenge and I usually pick up new ideas as well.

Pauleen (aka Cassmob) has done a NFHM 2014 geneameme challenge and again I find it inspiring to read what others are saying in response to the prompts. Read Pauleen's response to her own challenge here. Geniaus (aka Jill) has introduced us to the concept of 'geneacave' where we do our family history at home. Sure beats 'study'! And she has introduced me to the PIP process - read all about it here. Pauleen will be collating all of the responses so why not give it a go or at least read a few of them. My NFHM geneameme response is here.

Surprisingly I am still adding a few events to the NFHM web calendar and of course I am busy with entries for the NFHM sponsors prizes giveaway which closes on 26 August. So far there are no entries from TAS, WA or the NT and only one from SA - what does this mean?

NFHM is mainly promoted online with events around the country so are those places not following us on Facebook or Twitter or Google +? I have even placed notices on the main mailing listservs for all States and Territories just in case people are not into social media. But very little response for the effort of signing up to post the notice in the first place.

Or is it just because people don't want to win the NFHM prizes? It can't be that because I would love to win some of those prizes but because I am the person running the giveaway I can't enter! Sob. I hope people don't leave it till the last day or I will go demented trying to organise everything before the prize draw takes place at Redcliffe Library.

It is Ekka week here so we are planning a visit to Mum and then on to the Ekka which brings back all kinds of memories of going with my parents as a child and taking my own son to the Ekka too. At least now I don't have to contemplate those rides but I will admit to a certain fondness still for the showbags.

Next week I am doing another talk for Moreton Bay Region Libraries and my first ever webinar with MyHeritage. I am a bit spooked at this stage as I have still to master a Google Hangout so now to get myself organised and cool and collected before Monday. Deep breath needed and maybe even more than one.

The other new thing I am trying for NFHM is Pinterest and I am really surprised at how many people have shown interest in the NFHM board that I have done. The only way to learn and get to know about some of these social media sites is to dive in and have a look. You can't break anything or at least I haven't yet!

My 'geneacave' desk looks like a cyclone has hit it so time for a good tidy up before I move on to my next NFHM challenge. Have a great time this August researching your families in NFHM. Until next time.






1 comment:

  1. I don't think I invented geneacave but I love uisng it.

    ReplyDelete