Genealogy Notes 4-10 Dec 2014 blog posts & 2015 events

The last week has seen three very different blog posts. The first was a So This is Christmas 2014 geneameme challenge from Sharn White (FamilyHistory4U) and it has been interesting reading the various responses from other Geneabloggers. My response was 2014 Christmas Genealogy Geneameme and I found it very hard to remember any of my childhood Christmas dinners. So this Christmas I will have to ask my brother what he remembers and to see if Mum has any old Christmas photos to jog my memory!

My next blog post was a book review of Nathan Dylan Goodwin's first two genealogical crime mysteries with Morton Farrier, a forensic genealogist - Hiding The Past and The Lost Ancestor. Read my review of both books here. Since I finished the review, I have discovered there is a new Morton Farrier adventure, a novella ebook The Orange Lilies and I have been dropping hints to the family. Certainly a more interesting present than the electric toothbrush I received last year!

The final blog for the week was another interview in my AFFHO Congress 2015 series of interviews with speakers. Read my interview with Michelle Nichols here. I have some more interviews to put up but there have been severe storms here every day and it is just not worth being online with so many lightning strikes around. Pauleen Cass one of the Congress official blogging team is doing a similar interview with me although I am still considering my own answers to the questions!

I have received some sponsor confirmations for National Family History Month 2015 which is fantastic. Hopefully I will hear from the others in the next week or so and then I can change the website over for 2015. Make sure you have August marked in your diaries as NFHM.

All my known speaking engagements for 2015 are now on the Services & Events page of my website.  I have three major conferences, two genealogy cruises, some society seminars and library talks so far and as I commit to any other presentations I will add them to the list. But it looks like being a big year for genealogy in 2015 especially if you live in Canberra, Port Macquarie, Adelaide or Brisbane or can travel to those events!

I went to the Bribie Island family history group meeting and Christmas lunch today and everyone spoke about what they had been doing. Sometimes that is a great way to learn about new sites or to get other peoples ideas on your family history problems. No more meetings now until next year.

Another storm is rolling its way in and it is now so dark I almost need the lights on and it is still afternoon. We are fairly lucky here on Bribie Island as the main storm cells seem to go around us and as a sand island, the water usually just goes straight through. The winds can be pretty full on depending on the direction they are coming from.  Thunder, lightning, rain and wind now here so time to log off and stand by with the mop and a torch! Happy researching until next time.

Genealogy notes 24 Nov - 3 Dec 2014 Congress 2015 speaker interviews

The last week or so has totally got away from me. But yesterday I did make the Bribie Island Family History Group meeting where the speaker talked about his own convict families and how wonderful the Australian Joint Copying Project was. This reminded me of the talk I gave on AJCP earlier this year for the Genealogical Society of Queensland - the presentation is still on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations and it was in May 2014.

There are now two interviews in my AFFHO Congress 2015 speaker interviews - Richard Reid interview and Sue Reid interview (no relation to Richard). Over the next week or so I will be doing another two interviews and all up I have 12 speakers in my list. The other two official Congress bloggers Jill Ball and Pauleen Cass are also doing a similar number of interviews. Some fantastic speakers are lined up for Congress so watch out for all the latest news.

There is an AFFHO committee meeting tomorrow night. I am a member with my role as voluntary coordinator for National Family History Month. Meetings always prompt me to do things so I wrote a small piece on NFHM 2015 for the December News Flash and I have contacted all of last year's NFHM sponsors and invited them to sponsor us again. Of course we always welcome new sponsors too!

Another new experience is looming for me too. I have been asked to participate in Maria Northcote's Genies Down Under podcasts - January and February episodes to be exact. In the past I have done podcasts with the State Library of Victoria and the Genealogical Society of Victoria for members only (more just recording my talks at those institutions). This is a bit different so I have said yes so look out for them in the New Year.

I have been busy writing some Q&A pieces for Inside History Magazine and Family Tree Magazine UK and as usual, always amazed by some of the tricky ancestors out there doing their best to stay hidden!

Findmypast have been adding lots of Scottish records over the last month so I did a quick search and was pleasantly surprised to find three references to my Scottish GGG grandfather. The references prove that he was a merchant seaman (an occupation on one of the certificates I have for him) and one of the references had his birth date so I know it is definitely him. I just wish I could work out what all the abbreviations and squiggles on the entries mean. One of the entries looks like US which might explain the American colours tattoo he had, I always believed he must have travelled to the US prior to marrying and coming to Queensland.

Unlock the Past Cruises sent out a media release for the seven cruises they have in 2015-2016 - something for everyone. You can see their 16 page catalogue here. It would be great to do them all but not really an option time or money wise for most of us. So I am definitely doing the Baltic cruise in July 2015 as it is a while since I last went to Europe.

I have never been to America so I am also doing the Trans Atlantic cruise in November 2015 plus I have always wanted to celebrate my birthday at sea. The Melbourne Cup is just going to have to miss me next year. It is a while since I was in New Zealand too so I am going to do the New Zealand to Australia (including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth) cruise in February 2016.

I am missing out on Western Australia, Queensland and the Barrier Reef cruises and I am still undecided on the European river cruise which goes from Amsterdam to Basel in Switzerland through France and Germany. My issue is timing - it is late July early August 2016 which is of course National Family History Month but perhaps I will no longer be voluntary coordinator by then??

Now that I have my next research guide with Unlock the Past's editor, I am going to have another big tidy up in the study, get back to cataloging more of my books into Library Thing and do some of my own research during the 'quiet' holiday season. The other half has a significant birthday coming up and I have something planned which I need to start working on or it won't be finished in time.

So lots to keep me going next week.Happy researching.

Genealogy Notes 15-22 October 2014 Geneacruising again

Most of the last week I have been reviewing my talks for the 6th Unlock the Past cruise which is a three night cruise out of Sydney which is basically a genealogy conference at sea. So no sightseeing or foreign ports but lots of genealogy talks and research help sessions. I will be giving 5 talks over 3 days and I am not the only speaker so definitely full on for all attendees. A blog report will follow in early November.

Why so long to wait? Well straight after the cruise I am heading over to Norfolk Island for the Unlock the Past history and genealogy conference. We will be on the Island for 5 nights and the conference itself is only 3 days so plenty of time for sightseeing although I have been to Norfolk before. Again I will be doing 5 talks in 3 days so no rest for the wicked although I suspect that is really no rest for the geneaddicted. Again a blog report will follow in early November as I am not sure what internet access I will have or how much spare time there will be.

This is my last geneafling for 2014 so I am going the whole geneahog. I do hope Geniaus is reading this as I would love to see myself credited with a new genea word in her geneadictionary.

The other thing I have been doing is trying to avoid seeing comments by geneamates on Nathan Goodwin's forensic genealogy novels which I have been given to review. I hate spoilers so I will need to think about how to review a novel without giving it all away. So far everyone has said they can't put it down so I am thinking of reading them when I get back after all my geneadistractions.

Week 25 Immigration records in my 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2014 was completed but there won't be another post in that series until early November. That week is also my birthday and Melbourne Cup so perhaps I should not be promising too much as it usually is a party week for me.

I can go for weeks with no one asking me to do anything and then all of a sudden everything happens. This week I have seen requests to speak next year, a request for research from someone, to do some more articles for magazines (Inside History Magazine) and I still have two more to go for Irish Lives Remembered and I have agreed to write another course in the Australian certificate for the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. I learnt a lot from writing the last one I did and this time around I will be more familiar with their requirements and style etc. So lots of interesting things to finish the year with.

I have one more talk for the Genealogical Society of Queensland on 22 November in Brisbane and I have two papers to write for the AFFHO Congress 2015 due before 30 November so my birthday month is shaping up to be very busy. The Congress early bird closes on 31 October and it really is the genealogy conference not to miss (only every 3 years) and Canberra in March is simply stunning with all those autumn colours we don't see here in the north. 

Well time to go and pack and get myself totally organised for an early morning flight to Sydney and 8 days of genealogy fun and some fantastic sightseeing on Norfolk Island. Stay tuned for my return and reports on all the geneaction. Sorry couldn't help myself! Happy researching until next time.

Genealogy Notes 1-7 Oct 2014 Online but Not Online

Another super big week but a highlight was the Queensland Family History Society seminar on asylums, prisons and hospitals at the weekend. I gave two talks Family Skeletons or Just Old and Sick: Looking at Asylum Records and Missing an Ancestor? Try Looking Behind Bars. As usual both my presentations are on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations. The other speaker was Pauleen Cass on hospital records and her presentation can be found on her blog Family History Across the Seas under the Presentation page.

Alex (Family Tree Frog) has done an in-depth review of the day (read it here) so I won't repeat any of that here. What I do want to say is that I took the opportunity to do a quick survey of the audience and their online habits. When asked the general question is everybody online most hands went up, although surprisingly a few people still don't use computers. My next questions were about who used Twitter, read or wrote blogs, Google+ and Facebook and Facebook was the only one where more than a few hands went up. It seems that most only used their computers for email, web searching and not for social media although both Pauleen and I did try to encourage them during the day.

I also took the opportunity to mention that Pauleen, Jill Ball (aka Geniaus) and myself are the official bloggers for Congress 2015 in Canberra in March 2015. This is the must attend genealogy event in Australia/New Zealand every three years. We will be using social media to promote Congress and its wonderful sponsors over the coming months. But if people don't use social media it is hard for us to get all the exciting messages out in a timely way.

After every talk I usually pick up a few followers or my blogs are viewed by more people so obviously some people do go home and at least have a look. I have been using social media for just over five years now and can't imagine how I could possibly learn about all the great new resources without finding out through social media. In Australia the genealogy community does not seem to have embraced social media. Do people know what they are missing out on?

I noticed this lack of engagement with social media during National Family History Month too. Or have I got it wrong? Is it there and I just haven't picked up on who to follow?

Pauleen also took the opportunity to mention that we are both members of the Kiva Genealogists for Families project and it was good to see a few other hands go up for that. If you would like to join us follow this link. $25 can make a big difference to other families and I have relent my $25 over and over.

A great day. QFHS have really embraced the online world - they even sent Pauleen and I virtual thank you cards by email using Jacquie Lawson notecards.

This coming weekend I have the Angling for Ancestors genealogy weekend with the Gold Coast Family History Society with key speakers Jan Gow QSM and Graham Jaunay. I am not speaking so will be quietly sitting back and absorbing the knowledge. There will be a review of the day coming up next week.

Week 24 of my personal genealogy blog challenge is on post office directories - read about it here.

My LibraryThing cataloging is going slowly and having to do three trips to Brisbane took away a lot of time. It is not that far but an hour there and back plus time waiting around for appointments means that virtually a whole day is gone by the time we get back.  Now that the weather is so gorgeous I have been swimming every day and doing some more gardening. No rain also means time spent hosing all our gardens, thank goodness we have bore water.

It is just over a week until my next Unlock the Past cruise so the focus will be finalising my five talks for that plus I have another five talks for the Norfolk Island conference to finalise too. My two papers for Congress 2015 are due at the end of November and while I have been thinking about them  I have yet to put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard to be more specific.

Amazing how fast this year has gone. Until next week, enjoy your genealogy research and why not try and encourage more of our Aussie geneamates to try social media. If we all recruited just one person that would make a difference. Until next time.