Sands of Time speaker Eric Kopittke, National Family History Month & genealogy travels at last & other news : My Genealogy Weeks 16 - 31 July 2022

Norfolk Island 2007 holiday

In a few days time I will be once again geneatravelling to in person events in New Zealand and on Norfolk Island for the AFFHO congress. 

Catching up with friends and colleagues over a cup of coffee (or a wine or two). Seems like forever since the last geneaevent which was the last Unlock the Past Genealogy Cruise to Kangaroo Island and Tasmania. 

Although we didn't end up getting to Tasmania as we were turned around by Covid. Thankfully we managed to get back to Queensland before it all got worse.

Blogs

There hasn't been much time lately for blog writing but there is a National Family History Month blog challenge by Alexandra Daw, the NFHM coordinator. If you want to take part, it is simply a matter of doing a blog post every Sunday in August. For each week there are suggestions of what to blog about focussing on one of your ancestors. For more details see Alex's post here.

I hope to take part but will be away most of August so it will depend on how good all that free wifi is in the various places we are staying.

Bribie U3A & Bribie Genealogy

This term we are doing Scottish Genealogy at Bribie U3A. In doing the preparation for the weekly classes, I am happy to say that I am finding out new information on my own Scottish families. A bonus. A  few class members have already submitted their Scottish brick walls, so that will be challenging towards the end of the term.

The August meeting of Bribie Genealogy will be a Zoom meeting with Queensland State Archives telling us all about their records and how to have a successful visit. Like anything, it is all in the planning.

Conferences

The second half of the year is a virtual (no pun intended) feast of genealogy conferences both online and in person.

I have already booked for the virtual Riding the Waves of History conference in September. Great value for money and you don't have to leave home. It is the annual conference of the NSW &ACT Family History Organistions.

Next is the Sands of Time conference at Redcliffe over the weekend of 21-23 October 2022.

I am both an Ambassador of the conference as well as one of the keynote speakers so I am really looking forward to spending a few days at Redcliffe. 

Meet one of the other great speakers, Eric Kopittke as he tells us a little about himself, his talk and what he hope to take away from the conference sessions.

1. I have had a broad interest in family all my live having grown up amongst numbers of relatives from both sides of my family and have been actively researching my family history for nearly 40 years. Although most of my ancestors had origins in the former German Empire, my maternal grandmother was the daughter of English immigrants from Sussex and this has provided me with the opportunity to research and compare church and civil records from England and Germany.
2. As part of a course with NIGS (National Institute for Gnealogical Studies) I read an article about the use of signatures to distinguish families of the same name in the West Country of England. Some of the men concerned had signed documents in their role as church wardens. I initially thought that the article was not relevant to my situation since I had not found any church wardens amongst my agricultural labourers, but I subsequently found that one of my ancestors signed three different marriage records.
3. Attending a conference such as Sands of Time is a great way to catch up with other researchers and learning more about the history of our local area.

In November we then have the Family History Downunder 2022 event in Sydney. Another mega geneafeast which will be both in person and virtual. 

National Family History Month

Remember that August is National Family History Month in both Australia and New Zealand. With Covid still lurking around, many events are virtual. Check out the NFHM calendar for events that might interest you.

I'm starting off the month at the sold out AFFHO Congress on Norfolk Island. My presentation is Finding Love in Paradise: the Samuel Pyers/Sarah Johnson story. 

Then off to Auckland New Zealand for their annual Family History Expo where I am giving two talks - one on Trans Tasman mining ancestors and the other on Discovering Australian Convicts in the family. While there I will also give at presentation on It's Not All Online: Where Else Can I Look. The second half of the trip will be attending the Christchurch Family History Expo on the South Island. 

A busy NFHM for me this year. 

Talks

There have been a number of talks lately both in person and virtual. The last one was for the Genealogical Society of Queensland and was titled The Tail End of England: Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset. There was some lovely feedback from attendees and I do like giving people a different way of looking at their research.

What's Coming Up?

The next few weeks will be exciting as we enter airports again for the first time since March 2020. It's interesting to note that we are travelling with almost a pharmacy with our RAT tests, cold and flu tabs, lozenges, masks not to mention our usual medications. Times have changed and this will be our new norm I guess. 

If you are at any of the events I am attending, please come up and say hello.

Hopefully I will write a blog post or two about geneaevents I'm attending and keep you all up to date with geneanews. Take care, stay safe and until next time, happy searching.