Perpetual copyright ends & Other News - Genealogy Notes 22-31 Mar 2017

I'm busy writing this as strong winds and heavy rain swirls around us and its been like that since early this morning. And it will get worse in a couple of hours - ex cyclone Debbie has to be one of the biggest storms ever to impact so much of Queensland over the last few days. I hope everyone stays as safe as they possibly can and that damage is minimal.

Perhaps the best news ever was that on 22 March 2017 the Copyright Amendment (Disability Access and Other Measures) Bill was introduced to the Australian Parliament. The Bill will end perpetual copyright for unpublished materials and as a result millions of historical manuscripts will be freed into the public domain on 1 January 2019.

This is fantastic news - how often have we found something in manuscript or archive collections that would be wonderful to share with others but it has been almost impossible to establish copyright. All those old letters sent to government departments or shared between family and friends decades ago. 

The Australian Libraries and Copyright Committee released a statement on the tabling of the Copyright Amendment Bill - read more about Captain Cook’s Diaries Free Thanks to Copyright Bill. Remember we just have to wait now until 1 January 2019.

Deniliquin is also famous for its Ute Muster
- our favourite from last visit

For those in western New South Wales or norther Victoria, or perhaps even Adelaide you might want to note that Deniliquin Genealogy Society is having another one of their famous Family History Expos on 13-15 October 2017. They have some fantastic exhibitors already lined up and some speakers over the weekend. I went to the first one back in 2012 and had a fantastic time. Just a pity that Bribie Island is so far from Deniliquin. Almost makes me wish I was back in Victoria.

The University of Tasmania is offering a unit entitled Convict Ancestors and it is covered by a full HECS scholarship, meaning that you will not incur a tuition fee or debt for study of the unit. See the home page for more information.
Have a look at the old woman on that page - her face has just so much character and you can't help thinking what stories could she tell.

I'm tempted to do some of their courses myself but I have just agreed to run an advanced family history course at the local Bribie U3A in second term. There will be dedicated subject areas for the first six weeks and then for the remaining four weeks we will look at Australia, England, Scotland and Ireland. We will look at topics that students suggest over the course. Should be good. I've attended local history courses but this will be the first time as a U3A tutor.

My blog writing has been a little haphazard of late and I have been asked to do a guest blog for Outback Family History which is one of my favourite sites. Anyone with mining ancestors who went to WA should really look at this site. With all the rain forecast, now might be a good time to start that. I have a number of families who chased the gold so I might write about them. Coming up with the catchy blog title is always the hardest part.

Although Trove Tuesday blog challenge comes around every week, somehow I always seem to miss Tuesday. Must be Island time but my aim is to at least write one a month so next Tuesday is now a yellow post it note on my desk!

It's a busy week coming up with a couple of trips to Brisbane, assuming all the roads are open again on Monday. There are two talks coming up in April which I have to prepare not to mention the U3A course. Maybe I should try and get more done over the next few very wet days, assuming we keep the power on. Stay safe everyone in SE Qld and good luck with any genealogy searching in the coming week. Until next time.

Scottish discoveries, Adelaide Expo, Book review,& Other News - Genealogy Notes 15-21 Sep 2016

It's been a week of catching up on lots of things. My reading pile has been reduced and lots of journals and magazines neatly filed on the bookshelves. Just about everyone one that I read had an idea to follow up or URLs to check out. Which of course then leads to those distractions as you check out new information. For example, a site that I had not come across previously was Scotland's Places which searches three national databases to access historical resources for places in Scotland.

My great grandfather James Carnegie -
his mother Helen was born in Montrose

Looking for Montrose, Angus where most of my Scottish families were from led me to maps, photographs and references to various resources . I hadn't seen horse tax rolls before, not that I think my ancestors had horses but lots of people seem to have. In fact under historical tax rolls there were male and female servant tax rolls, cart tax rolls, dog tax rolls, clock and watch tax rolls, and all kinds of other tax rolls mostly for the 18th century but some earlier or later. Some documents you can see but others you need a Scotland's People subscription. You can also offer to help transcribe some of the documents! Lots to explore and do in Scotland's Places if you haven't already done so.

My two talks for the Unlock the Past history and genealogy expo in Adelaide next month are now done. Every time I look at the program and list of exhibitors it has grown and it will be a mega geneaevent. Lots of friends are also planning to travel there and it seems a few of us have booked into the same motel, the closest to the venue. It's an easy walking distance so I get some exercise as well!

If anyone else is going, let us know and perhaps we can organise drinks or a dinner on Friday or Saturday night.

I've finished reading Me & My Family Tree by Jackie Moss and my review is on the Resources page of my website - direct link here. With Christmas coming up, it would make a nice present for any young grandchildren who share a love of books and are interested in the family. If they are not already interested, they will be afterwards.

I'm making good progress on the Education Records module for the Australian certificate offered by the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. It's amazing what I learn myself along the way, especially what is available online. Until you actually go looking for something you don't always know that it is online. Students should find it quite interesting (available early next year).

At the AFFHO Skype meeting on Monday night I gave my final report on National Family History Month 2016. I hadn't realised that the June issue of AFFHO's Newsflash had not gone out. This meant that societies were not given my final reminder to get their events into the web calendar and to remind members to enter the prizes giveaway. It probably explains why our numbers were a little down on last year's.

Adkins Robert Spencer via Trove

Next month's meeting of the Bribie Island Historical Society will be where I present my research on the early Presidents of the Amateur Fishing Association of Queensland which has its headquarters at Bongaree on Bribie Island. Max's great uncle Adkins Robert Spencer was the 3rd President so there is some family history in my talk. I've also looked at the families of the other Presidents up to 1950 and it is wonderful what you can learn about people when you only know a name and a place. Trove has given me clues that were easily followed up in other resources and I've been able to find out quite a lot about most of those early Presidents.

There's a nice quiet week ahead and I'm hoping for some research time possibly on my Cornish families - a bit of a review before the Adelaide Expo. One of the key speakers that I really want to hear is Philip Payton an expert on Cornish history and the Cornish in Australia. So it would be nice to have all of my Cornish research fresh in my mind before attending his talks. Otherwise it is back to some serious writing time.

Until next time, happy searching. 

Genealogy notes 4 - 13 Oct 2012 Deniliquin Genealogy Muster

Well we made the trek back down the Newell Highway for the 5th time in the last few months. Instead of staying at Toowoomba and Goondiwindi like we normally do, we did a bigger day and stayed at Yelarbon for two days. Yelarbon is a very tiny town not too far from Goondiwindi and used to be on the now closed railway line. The local council has set up the old railway station with toilets and a shower and the town are trying to attract caravaners and motorhomers to stay there for a night. At only $10 a night with power it's a good deal and it certainly brings revenue into the town as most of the people staying there also go to the shop, the pub for a great meal (we had one of the best ever pizzas), and buy petrol. A great way to try and keep some of these small country towns going!

From there we moved on to Narrabri again (so that we could have dinner again at the RSL's wonderful Outback Shack restaurant) and Forbes where the temperature dropped to zero and we realised we had left all our warmer clothes and blankets back in Queensland. Amazing the difference in temperatures within a few days of travel! From Forbes it was an easy drive on to Deniliquin for the genealogy muster.

On a sad note we came across an injured emu and called the local wildlife rescue who were very prompt coming out but unfortunately couldn't do anything for the poor emu. At least it didn't continue to suffer in the cold and wet conditions. The bird life out in western NSW is amazing and we have seen so many baby birds but of course not all make it. We've even discovered babblers who are really cute and have a very distinctive call.

But on to the muster. There was a welcome function for speakers and exhibitors at the council library on the Thursday night which was well attended and it was great to catch up with quite a few old friends and colleagues. The Friday was full on with speakers during the day and the evening plus all the exhibitors to wander around. The venue (Deniliquin RSL Club) was great as there was lots of room and even with a couple of hundred people each day it never seemed really crowded and with meals onsite it was a good choice. We even had dinner there both nights as it was two for the price of one if you ordered before 6pm and the meals were huge and great value.

In fact it was a very cheap genealogy event all round as it was only $10 to get in each day and you could attend all the talks if you wanted to. Ancestry and FindMyPast were available free for the two days and lots of the exhibitors had records and resources that you could use not to mention asking them questions. There were lucky door prizes every so often and the big raffle drawn at the end. I didn't win anything but then I never do so I wasn't too disappointed.

I went to Joy Roy's talk on Scottish emigration which was a wide ranging historical account of why the Scots left their country which was interesting but I prefer talks which have a more direct relevance to my own research. From searching in Scottish newspapers I know that my Carnegie ancestors came to Queensland because the Emigration Commissioner had been over in Scotland telling everyone about the free acres of land they would get if they came to Queensland. It was a deal they couldn't refuse!

I had heard Mark Grealy from Archival Access Victoria before so I wandered around the exhibitors before heading to lunch with some Yarrawonga friends. After lunch it was Rosemary Kopittke on the world collection of FindMyPast which I heard in Townsville the previous week so I skipped that one too and spent time talking to David Evans from the Guild of One Name Studies (GOONS). I got so caught up in our chat that I missed John Cann's talk on court and prison records held at State Records NSW. However I did end up joining the GOONS and registering one of Max's family names (Burstow) as a one name study, something that I have been wanting to do for some time.

After dinner I went to David's talk on how to do a one name study while others went to the Family Tree Maker workshop.  The last speaker of the night was Neil Smith on an overview of Australia's military heritage. It was a very big day but I think everyone went home quite happy.

The Saturday followed the same pattern with speakers and exhibitors keeping the crowds interested. I started with Anne Burrows talk on genealogy at the State Library of Victoria and my talk on Google Genealogy:Are You Making the Most of Google?  was the second talk of the day. This received really good feedback and attracted a very full room which was great. In the afternoon David Berry from State Library NSW was on but I unfortunately missed his talk as I was trying to sort out a problem with my Legacy Family Tree program with Rosemary (I was doing something silly but then it's always easier once you know how). The final talk of the muster was Wayne Doubleday on the Charles Sturt University Regional Archives and I've always been a fan of regional archives and I have even been there a few times too so it was good to see Wayne promoting the amazing range of records they have there.

The only hiccup I noticed was the laptop going out during Rosemary and Anne's talks on both Friday and Saturday. This was a technical issue with the battery going flat so it pays to make sure the laptop is actually connected to power! From my own recent experience I know how disconcerting a flat battery can be to a speaker trying to give a presentation.

 It was a really great two days and as always I've learnt new things, made new friends and want to know when the next Deniliquin Genealogy Muster will be! The organisers did a fantastic job and are to be sincerely congratulated. They also brought a fair bit of revenue to the town too I suspect with people paying for accommodation, food, petrol and so on. Well done everyone involved!

As this Diary entry is getting a bit big I'll save all my comments on the exhibitors for another Diary entry, hopefully tomorrow. We are off to Yarrawonga to stay with friends before heading to Wagga Wagga where I am speaking at the monthly meeting of the Wagga Wagga & District Family History Society. Happy researching!

Genealogy Notes 28-30 June 2012 - Expo exhibitors

The last three Diary entries, (Day One, Day Two, Day Three) have described what was happening over the three days of the Unlock the Past genealogy and history expo in Brisbane. This blog will have a look at all the exhibitors although I didn't get that much of a chance to look around because of all the good speakers and sessions.

This list is in no priority order just how I walked around the exhibition area. First up I saw the Royal Historical Society of Queensland of which I was a member for many years before moving south. They had their journals and publications on sale and tempting to many visitors. Next was the Genealogical Society of Queensland and their special interest group Convict Connections was especially eye catching and selling almost everything from soaps and Tshirts to publications including their latest release on the prison hulk Phoenix.

History Queensland was next and promoting the various member societies and around the corner was the State Library of Queensland with an array of their very useful and free guides on a wide variety of subjects of interest to genealogists. Find and Connect Queensland was next helping people who may have been separated from families in the past for a variety of reasons. Next door was Queensland State Archives and they had some interesting banners outlining German and Chinese history in Queensland as well as their handy fact sheets.

The National Trust of Queensland had quite a few interesting handouts on various buildings and I was particularly interested in the Queensland at War exhibit and was not aware of the website (so something else to follow up when I get back to Melbourne). As most of my ancestors were in a number of Brisbane's early gaols and prisons I have always had a fondness for the Queensland Prisons and Penal Historical Association and it was good to see their new publication and they even have a Facebook page.

The Friends of Toowong Cemetery Association were promoting their ghost tours and if I ever get back to Brisbane for a holiday then I will definitely try and do one of their tours. The Australian Scottish Community Association was a drawcard for anyone with Scottish ancestors and I particularly liked talking to the ladies from the Caloundra Family History Research Inc because Caloundra is one of the places on our short list of places to move to. I couldn't possibly live anywhere that didn't have a family history society close by.

The next part of the exhibition area was devoted to other local and family history groups including the Centenary Suburbs Historical Society, Ipswich Genealogical Society, Toowoomba & Darling Downs Family History Society, Nepean Family History Society (they were probably the ones that had traveled the greatest distance to be there), Baptist Heritage Queensland, the Gold Coast Family History Society, the Moreton Bay section of the Fellowship of First Fleeters, Genealogy Sunshine Coast, the Brisbane City Council Archives, the Professional Historians Association (QLD), Brookfield Historical Society, Coopers Plains Local History Group, Judy Webster (professional researcher), Genealogists for Families Project, and Graham Jaunay and his research business Adelaide Proformat.

On the Research Help Desk were Kerry Farmer, Eric and Rosemary Kopittke, Carole Riley and Helen Smith fielding questions most of the time and in that same space were Gould Genealogy and History with all their tempting publications including the excellent range of Unlock the Past publications. Jill Ball also had a table in that area where she capably demonstrated how easy the Flip Pal mobile scanner was to use and I saw lots of people walking around with them. At the end was Clean Cruising a partner in the Unlock the Past genealogy cruises.

Another area busy every time I looked was the Find My Past tables with Find My Past UK, Australia and New Zealand, Scotlands People and the British Newspaper Archive searches and questions. Inside History Magazine and Irish Wattle were also kept busy and I was interested to chat to a new group (for me). Blackbird reunites descendants of South Sea Islanders in Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Samoa and Peru. Foto Masters were helping people with photo restoration queries and I finally got a chance to see the new History Queensland magazine that I had heard about.

FamilySearch also helped people with on the spot questions and searches, Stephen Dando-Collins talked about his books and willingly sold and autographed copies to new fans, and the National Institute of Genealogical Studies was there promoting a range of courses (which reminds me that I need to finish my Google course before 15 July). Customised Heritage Tours were there and I was interested to see that they are taking a tour to WDYTYA Live Event next February and I would love to go but the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise doesn't really get back in time for me to get there.

OpenBook Howden was there for anyone interested in publishing their research, the Ryerson Index (deaths and obituaries) is always worth a look and finally Johansen Systems for anyone with European ancestry. As you can see there was something for everyone and I think most people bought at least one book and everyone took home lots of flyers, leaflets and guides. I know my suitcase is going to be heavier when I pack it later tonight.

For me the value of a genealogy expo is not only the speakers and the exhibition area, it is also the ability to talk to and meet new friends and colleagues and to be part of the overall buzz that always seems to be present at a genealogy event. Now that I have done all my reporting type blogs I will start to think about my overall review of the expo and that will get finalised after I return to Melbourne tomorrow.

On Monday I'm participating in the Audrey Collins tour event at the State Library of Victoria so I'm looking forward to that. Some months I just seem to be on a never ending family history merry go round! But I love it!

Genealogy Notes 27 Jun 2012 - Day 3 Unlock the Past Expo Brisbane

Well the first  two days of the Unlock the Past Brisbane expo went amazingly quickly and the cold rainy weather has continued but that hasn't stopped all the eager attendees who are swarming around the exhibits and waiting outside presentation theatres. Day 3 was also a full on day with presentations in all three theatres and the Research Area going all day.

I had heard Carole Riley's talk on social media for genealogy before so my first session was Stephen Dando-Collins talking about his books including 'Captain Bligh's other mutiny' the Rum Rebellion. He's an interesting speaker and makes writing books sound very easy!

For my second session I decided to go to one of the free sessions and I'm glad I did. Jill Ball gave a great three part presentation on webinars (GeneaWebinars), Flip Pal mobile scanners and Picasa for genealogists. It was a practical session with Jill taking the mystery out of these areas and showing how simple it really is to use these great tools for our family history research. My only gripe was that it should have been longer and part of the paid talk series so that more people could have had the opportunity to attend. The great news is that Jill's slides for all three talks will be on the Unlock the Past Resources page soon.

Other sessions were Audrey Collins on the English census, Rosemary Kopittke on government, police and education gazettes and in the Research Area Kerry Farmer was demonstrating Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic.

Session 3 I gave my mining ancestors talk so I missed another Dan Lynch live from the USA talk on Google,  Pauline Williams from the Genealogical Society of Queensland on writing your family story, Lee Butterworth spoke about Find and Connect, and in the Research Area Graham Jaunay helped date photos and Rosemary Kopittke demonstrated Family Photo Books.

If I wanted lunch and  a bit of a break I had to skip the next session and the lure of those potato pies was too great so I happily settled down to one of those and a jumbo size latte to help keep the cold at bay. The great thing about the lunch area was that you were able to talk to others at the table and some people seem to have travelled quite a distance to attend. Just a pity that the weather wasn't more friendly!

Lunch meant that I missed Paul Parton talking about Family Search, Stephanie Ryan from State Library of Queensland on military records for WW1 and WW2, Sue Reid from Queensland Family History Society on finding people who died in Queensland and Clean Cruising talking about the Unlock the Past genealogy cruises. Jill Ball was in the Research Area giving all kinds of techno advice to people.


My sixth and last talk of the Expo was next with It's Not All Online with the other sessions being Graham Jaunay on old handwriting, Dan Kelly on book typesetting and printing, Rosemary Kopittke on Scotlands People and Carole and Helen demonstrating The Master Genealogist in the Research Area.


The final session was Audrey Collins talking about will forgeries, organised crime and identity theft in the 1840s and Eric Kopittke on internet resources for German research. I opted for Eric's talk which came with a useful handout of resources and as always Eric makes it all sound quite simple if you approach it in a logical fashion. Some of his online map sites were amazing.


I went back into the Exhibition area to say goodbye to people and while it is sad seeing everything packed up, it's also good to know that you will probably see them all again next year or every second year depending on how often a particular event is held. As we are genealogical gypsies/grey nomads we are able to attend more of these events than others plus it gives us the opportunity to visit families in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory. Yes that's right, we have family and friends in every state which is probably why we can't pick a place to settle down ourselves!


I still have to write up the exhibitors and doing my overall review but hopefully that will be in the next day or so. Today is a rest day and we are taking my mother and my ex mother in law to lunch for a catch up chat and last night we visited Max's Aunty Mavis who has just turned 101 and is still up and about and loving life in Sinnamon Village. Truly inspiring and the stories she tells! Until next time.

Genealogy notes 26 Jun 2012 - Day 2 of Unlock the Past Brisbane Expo

Well Day 2 of the Unlock the Past expo was another full on day and I had trouble finding time for lunch and the group Geneabloggers photo.

My first session was Audrey Collins talking about online newspapers and periodicals and I just love the information you can find in digitized newspapers these days. The other session was Graham Jaunay with an introduction to family history research.

From Session 2 there were 4 choices for the rest of the day making it hard to decide what to go to. I had no choice as I was doing Family History  on the Cheap with other options Cassie Mercer talking about Captain Starlight, John Graham on the Ryerson Index, Geoff Morgan on Finding Frank and Horace and Graham Jaunay helping to date photos.


I missed Session 3 as I was chatting to people after my talk and I was also a bit desperate for a cup of tea (all that talking). Choices were Rosemary Kopittke on Find My Past Australia and New Zealand (and I had wanted to hear that as the site has changed considerably recently but I will probably catch that talk elsewhere on the Audrey Collins tour); Carole Riley on Australian land records; Jill Ball talking about Google+ and Blogs (and some expo photos are now appearing in her blog)  and I really would like to learn a bit more about how Google+ works and finally in the Research Area Kerry was demonstrating Legacy Family Tree and Eric and Graham were doing Reunion for Mac.


With no scheduled lunch break in the program attendees had to decide which of the next two sessions they would miss if they wanted time out. I went to Graham Jaunay's sesson on Irish genealogy but other choices were Kerry Farmer on convicts, Alan Phillips on the next Unlock the Past genealogy cruise and Saadia Thomson-Dwyer on immigration records at Queensland State Archives.


Session 5 for me was an Ask an Expert hour which turned into 90 minutes with 3 people asking me about various things. I was especially pleased to be able to tell one woman the name of the ship and date her ancestor arrived on as she had been unable to find it. As he was of Swiss origin and had arrived in Victoria, I thought of checking the National Archives of Australia naturalization records. There was a reference to him and even better they had digitised the memorial (5 pages) and it gave her all the relevant details. It's really nice when you can do that for someone on the spot.


However I missed the live presentation on Google your family tree from Dan Lynch in the USA, Eric Kopittke on German ancestry, Neville Buch on writing professional history and Jill Ball on Picasa and Flip Pal mobile scanner. As my expert session went over time I also missed the next session with Audrey Collins talking about the London Gazette (which I have used myself), Jack Ford on Brisbane in WW2, Stephanie Ryan on family history at the State Library of Queensland, Paul Parton on Google Earth for family historians and in the Research Area Graham Jaunay was again doing dating photographs.


I couldn't miss the last session because I was giving my talk on the National Library of Australia and using TROVE but that meant I missed Judy Webster on Black sheep and vanishing relatives, Helen Smith on online learning and Rosemary Kopittke on MyHeritage. I received some lovely feedback on my talk as people left and I wandered out to find that it was still chilly and still raining. It seems the weather will start to improve at the weekend but by then I will be on my way back to really cold Melbourne!


Throughout the day I managed to say hello to various people and even made one of the Geneablogger photos. Hopefully we will link all our various expo posts so that you can see what other bloggers thought of sessions I missed. Day 3 is starting in a few hours so I need to get my skates on, get dressed, breakfasted and through the Brisbane traffic in time for Stephen Dando-Collins talk at 9.30. Max told me his first talk was good so I don't want to miss this one. 


As well as writing up Day 3, I have to do a round up on the exhibitors and as usual I will do an overall expo review which will be posted on my website. Stay tuned.


  

Genealogy Notes 25 Jun 2012 - Day 1 Unlock the Past Queensland Expo

It's hard to believe that I'm sitting here in the pre dawn hours writing up the first day of the Unlock the Past history and genealogy expo in Brisbane. Yesterday went so fast and it's only the chilly room around me that tells me that I'm not dreaming! Even my cup of tea is cold already!

After arriving at the Expo yesterday about lunch time, I wandered around the exhibitors for a couple of hours, not only seeing what was there but catching up with many old friends and colleagues. As I have to get ready and go to today's sessions soon, I will leave talking about the exhibitors to when I have more time. We didn't get home from the expo until late last night so there wasn't time to start writing this blog then.

I didn't attend the first session of lectures for two reasons - one I was so immersed in the exhibition area I forgot the time and two, both sessions I had heard previously. Kerry Farmer spoke on DNA and Genealogy and Stephanie Ryan from the State Library of Queensland talked about immigration records for Queensland.

I followed Stephanie in the main theatre giving my Warning Warning talk which is about the basics and remembering the golden rules of genealogy to avoid creating brick walls and what to do if you end up with one. (There are earlier versions of my talks on the Resources page of my website and PDF copies of these expo talks will make their way soon too). The other main session was long time friend Ann Swain talking about Scottish ancestors. In the free talks theatre another old colleague Niles Elvery talked about Queensland State Archives and Helen Smith spoke about the Guild of One Name Studies. In the Research Area Graham Jaunay was helping people date their photographs. So lots of choice in that session and not an easy one to make!

In the third session I opted to hear Audrey Collins from the National Archives UK talk about the GRO indexes and this interested me from an archival view point as she talked about the history of the indexes and how they were created, transcribed and indexed from returns sent in. I couldn't help thinking that there was lots of scope for errors to creep in and in the last section of the talk, Audrey highlighted error rates so no wonder we can't always find something. Other choices were Rosemary Kopittke talking about the Find My Past World Collection, Steinar Johansen on Scandinavians and Ancient Genealogy, Dan Kelly on publishing your book and Jill Ball aka Geniaus demonstrating Family Historian.

The last session before dinner I missed as I was at the Ask an Expert table but only had one person seeking help. Not surprising given that the talks were Graham Jaunay on identifying photographs, Helen Smith on talking about what our ancestors died of, Pauline Williams on researching at the Genealogical Society of Queensland and Jill Bill demonstrating the Flip Pal Scanner and Picasa and the final choice was Rosemary Kopittke demonstrating Family Photo Book.

I don't think anyone can complain that there wasn't something of interest for everyone. Then there was a dinner break and the local school canteen catered with a variety of simple hot meals, sandwiches, cakes, cold drinks and tea and coffee. Over my pie I caught up with Cassmob from Darwin who is down here on family business but was still able to attend the Exp which was great.

The evening sessions were also full on with Audrey Collins talking about scandals in the family, but I listened to Beryl Roberts and Cassie Mercer from Inside History Magazine talking about writing local and family history books, magazines and newspaper articles. This was full of practical advice and it really does pay to write about your ancestors stories as it is amazing who contacts you with more information on them.

I gave my Ancestors in Church talk at the next session and so had to miss Stephen Dando Collins' talk on Crack Hardy: From Gallipoli to Flanders to the Somme which I really would have liked to hear. My partner Max said I missed a really good talk which didn't make me feel better but I will  be able to hear Stephen again as he is also a speaker on the next Unlock the Past genealogy cruise in February 2013.

The final talks for the night were Helen Smith talking about breaking down brick walls and Paul Parton on Family Search, both talks I have heard before. Over in the Exhibition area the Research Help Zone was answering questions from those who didn't attend talks and there were attendees still going round the various displays and chatting with exhibitors.

It was a full on afternoon/evening and it starts up again in just a few hours. So time for me to have breakfast, get ready and brave the Brisbane traffic as I head out for another great genealogy adventure in my home town!

Genealogy notes 18-24 June 2012 - Getting Expo Ready

The last week was the usual mad blur of too many things happening at once. As I'm in Brisbane for the Unlock the Past history and genealogy Queensland expo, I also had to leave the house neat and tidy for the real estate agent to show people through. Apparently they don't like seeing bits and pieces around (this includes kettles, toasters, salt & pepper and other things I leave out for daily convenience) so trying to think about potential buyer need was a distraction.

An exciting interlude before I left was an interview with Michael Lund from Brisbane's Courier Mail who was doing an article on family history to be published on 23 June. We seem to talk for ages and he had lots of questions but it's a really good article and you can read it here. I managed to finish my talks and I always print a copy, save to two USBs as  well as the copy on my laptop and the master on my remote back up drive.

As well as getting used to my new laptop, I also decided that I really did need an IPad to help me report on the Expo as the laptop is to heavy and big to carry around the exhibitor tables as well as take notes during sessions. Not to mention any social media activity! So that meant setting it up which wasn't too bad but I still haven't worked out how to transfer my calendar and contacts to it and I also discovered that my IPhone doesn't seem to talk to the new laptop so I haven't been able to sync that either.

The technology is great but for non techno people like me it always seems to be a little bit trickier. Luckily the Expo gives me three days to ask questions with a whole range of experts. Setting my new Telstra wi fi was not so straightforward either but thanks to the two technicians at the local store they sorted out my problems and I'm all systems go with that and it talks to the IPad and laptop so I'm happy.

Lots has been happening on my personal genealogy front with certificates arriving from the UK and I've ordered some wills too which should get here soon. The only trouble is that I don't have time to sit down and process all the new information. When I get home I've got to finalise talks for National Family History Week in just four weeks time, including State Library Victoria's Family History Feast and five talks with the Yarra Plenty Regional Library. Still it's going to be an exciting time.

Over the next three days I hope to do a daily blog of the expo and at the end my usual overview blog of the entire event. It doesn't finish until late tonight and I have to be up early and get across Brisbane in the morning so getting Day 1 out on time might be tricky but we will see how we go. I'm also looking forward to catching up with Geneablogger friend (and I remembered to pack my genealogy blogger beads) and also the Genealogists for Families Project members.


Stay tuned as the next three days are going to be full on genealogy. So excited!

Genealogy notes 4-17 June Brisbane genealogy expo next!

Almost two weeks of being frantic - photos with the real estate agent, people walking through the house, just keeping the house neat and tidy while at the same time trying to finalise my talks for the Unlock the Past Queensland genealogy expo in Brisbane on 25-27 June, finishing some complex client reports, putting the finishing touches to a new research guide and my poor old laptop decides its had enough!

Just what I needed, a few days without my laptop but I've got it back but I also took the opportunity to get a new one which is a lot faster - maybe I'll work faster too! But there has been the added time to set up this new one and move my data across and all that goes with making new laptops look like your old one.

Other distractions were the arrival of my new Flip Pal mobile scanner from Gould Genealogy & History which is another thing I have to learn how to use effectively but I'm hoping for a few lessons from my friend Jill at the Brisbane expo. She will be talking about it and doing live demos so that should help. A more worrying distraction was that I realised that I hadn't received my latest issue of Inside History Magazine and on checking with them, I found it had been dispatched but not arrived. They said another copy would be in the mail but over a week later it's still not here. I know it's a good read but I hope it hasn't been waylaid again!

I've been trying to get my other half to go to Bali with me again for some time out and he keeps saying no we've been there and we don't have time etc etc. His son rings up and says 'Dad you want to go to Bali with me' and you guessed it, the other half said yes straightaway! While I think it will be good for the two of them to spend time together, it couldn't be at a worse time for me as it is during National Family History Week 2012 (NFHW) and I have so many events scheduled where the other half was going to be doing my book selling. It really is too hard to give talks, then take questions and try and sell books at the same time so I'm missing him already. Plus I will still be here in chilly Melbourne and he will be lazing on a Bali beach eating seafood.

Still I think NFHW this year is going to be fantastic - I've been asked to do the opening at the Victorian Archives Centre on 27 July where Hanifa Deen is talking about her new book. I'm also speaking at the State Library Victoria's annual Family History Feast (bookings open 18 June) plus Yarra Plenty Regional Library have got me giving presentations at five of their libraries. So that's a few more talks I've got to start thinking about!

I'm leaving for Brisbane on Thursday which is a few days before the Expo so that I can catch up with family and friends. Mum's looking forward to seeing us and I'm hoping to try out that Flip Pal scanner on some of her old photo albums which she doesn't want me to take away. I'm also staying a few days after the Expo but have to be back in Melbourne for the Audrey Collins Australian tour on 2 July.

The next few weeks are going to be full on genealogy (half of me is hoping the house won't sell just yet) and as usual, I will be blogging events and sharing the experience with readers who can't get to the talks themselves. I hope to meet a few people in Brisbane and catch up with other UTP speakers and as always feedback is appreciated. Enjoy your research time!

Genealogy notes 28 Mar 2012 - Day One at AFFHO Congress

Well Day One is over and already my notebook (still paper and pen I'm afraid) is starting to fill up with new ideas and things to follow up. The day started with John Bannon's opening address which recalled my years with the National Archives of Australia. John is the Chair of NAA's Advisory Council and he is a good spokesperson for their achievements and future directions. It was a good introduction to the AFFHO Congress and touched on many topics that I think will be mentioned again and again in other presentations.

Colleen Fitzpatrick, a forensic genealogist, was the first keynote speaker and I really liked her dry sense of humour that came out at various times even though she was largely dealing with a very sad topic - the death of nearly 1500 people when the Titanic sank in 1912. Colleen was involved with the identification of The Unknown Child on the Titanic and it was fascinating to see what steps were involved including exhumations and tracking families backwards to find common ancestors before tracking forwards to find living descendants. For a fleeting minute or two I wondered if I could exhume a few of my more difficult to trace ancestors but I suspect it's not that practical! It was a great talk and I'm now keen to read some of her publications as were others judging by the lineup of people waiting for her to sign their copies.

Just as I was about to go in for morning tea, one of the conference organisers grabbed me and said that they didn't have a copy of my two talks and as I had previously sent copies in separate emails I was a bit puzzled. Checking with the technician my talks were indeed missing in action. This was a bit deja vu as I had got up in the middle of the night looking for my spare USB stick when I realised I had left my USB with the copies of my talks on it, in my other handbag in the caravan down at Brighton. I always have a copy with me in case something goes wrong. To my horror, I found that I didn't even have a spare USB as I had cleaned out my laptop bag. Borrowing a USB from the technician I quickly went back to the hotel, did another copy and then raced back to the speaker's room and had my talks uploaded. At least it was sorted out before my first talk later that day!

However it did mean that I missed morning tea and the first twenty minutes of Kath Ensor's presentation on Unlocking Ancestors' Stories from Mental Asylums which is a topic that I give talks on too. Many of my ancestors were in various institutions and the records are fantastic as they usually have detailed biographical information. Kath's talk was on Victorian mental asylums and Public Record Office Victoria has many of the asylum admission books and case books digitised on their website.

Then it was lunch time and a chance to chat with people and it is great to see so many Canberrans here that I knew while living in Canberra a few years back. The strong contingent is because the next AFFHO congress is in Canberra in 2015. They have already done a lot of planning and have a website up and are starting a free e-newsletter to keep interested people informed of progress. Of course, I signed up there and then!

There is also plenty of time to wander round the exhibits and I managed to chat with a number of people, Ben from Inside History magazine, Paul from FamilySearch, Vicki from FindMyPast Australasia, Alona and Anthea from Gould Genealogy and Kim from MyHeritage to mention just a few. I will do a better list of exhibitors when I'm not racing the clock in the early hours of the morning! So far I've only bought one book but temptation is strong!

After lunch Daniel Horowitz was the keynote speaker on How we Share and Preserve Memories in a Digital Era and he is the founder of MyHeritage so basically the talk was about how MyHeritage lets people record their family history and share it with other family members. I'm always a bit wary about having major sponsors give keynote addresses as it can tend to be just a promotional talk for their products which some attendees may not want to listen too. Of course the reality is that congresses need sponsorship and if it was in a concurrent session, they wouldn't get as many people. Having said that, I did enjoy Daniel's presentation and it was good to see how MyHeritage operates and while I have a few family names in it myself, I realised I am not making full use of all the social networking facilities.

I missed the next session as I always like to review my talks before giving them and take time just to gather my thoughts. I also spent a bit more time going round the exhibits before I wandered over to the room where my session was. I was pleased to see that the Chair of the session was Don Mountain a long time friend from Canberra and a fellow HAGSOC committee member back then. I hadn't done Ancestors in Church before so I was a bit nervous as to how people would receive it as it is so broad ranging and I can't cover in detail all religions and denominations. I was pleased with comments afterwards when people said it had given them new ideas to follow up which is exactly the type of feedback I like.

I also used my session to give a plug to Geniaus' blogging beads and to raise the profile of the various Geneabloggers present at this conference. We are the ones with the bright, colourful, maybe small or large, beads hanging around our necks and we are all writing up our thoughts and comments on the various speakers and other activities. I'm amazed at how quickly Geniaus (perhaps that's why she's called that?) gets all her congress photos up - see her blog for all the latest photos!

I also missed the opportunity to get together for dinner with other members of the KIVA Genealogists for Families project (founded by Judy Webster) due to other commitments but there are a few of us at Congress as well. Geniaus even has those photos up - check it out here. It's a great way to help other people in mostly developing countries to set up or run their own businesses. I've got six loans and most of those are almost paid off and with the repayments I use them to finance another loan to someone else. If you haven't heard of it before have a look!

Today is another big day starting at 8.30am so I better finish this off now and get moving!

Genealogy notes 22-27 Mar 2012 - At 13th Australasian Genealogy & Heraldry Congress

The trip over to Adelaide was great and as usual we wandered from our original itinerary and it's just as well we always give ourselves more time! We ended up staying a night at Dimboola in western Victoria (still trying to get over recent flooding), then onto Kingston SE on the South Australian coast (home of Larry the Big Lobster) where we couldn't resist a fresh cooked lobster and of course the obligatory champagne to wash it down and then we went to Goolwa, a very historic town at the mouth of the Murray River. From there we went up to Brighton and the nearest caravan park to where our family live. It was great to spend some time with them before I moved on into the CBD to be close to all the action at the 13th Australasian Genealogy & Heraldry Congress.

After checking in, I went down to the Migration Museum for a quick meeting with Catherine curator of their exhibition Who Are We Now? and to see how they had used one of my blogs on my Irish ancestors. The social media aspect of the exhibition was quite small but when it eventually moves online there will be more scope for online involvement. Still it was a thrill to see a page from my website blog and a small quote on why I think blogging our family histories is so important. I had an even quicker look at the other  non permanent exhibition outlining the life of a Japanese woman (Portrait of My Life: Tomono Wynn's Story) and it was a really interesting way to tell a person's life story. In the same building is Behind the Wall, the story of the Adelaide Destitute Asylum and some of the unfortunate people who lived there at various times. I've always been fascinated by asylums (several ancestors were inmates for various reasons) and am always drawn to photos and stories of inmates - there really is so much history inside asylum walls (same for prisons where even more of my ancestors resided)!

From there it was a quick dash back to the registration centre at the Adelaide Convention Centre where I collected my congress satchel and its various goodies (I always love taking it back to the hotel room and spreading the contents out to see what I've got). It was also a chance to have a quick look at the exhibitor stalls although some were still busy setting up and there were lots of faces I knew so quick chats here and there. One of the advantages of staying close to a congress venue is that you can duck back to your room and leave the satchel before heading back over for the welcome reception. The other advantage is that you generally run into other congress attendees, and I met lots of people in the hotel lift as well!

I'm not sure how many people are attending the congress, but there were lots of people at the reception and I managed to say hello to old friends from my former home towns of Brisbane and Canberra, while catching up with people from current home town Melbourne and Sydney, not to mention Adelaide and Perth. I didn't see anyone I knew from Darwin or Tasmania but with so many people it's hard to know who's there and who isn't. I love conference attendance lists so that you can find out who's there and actively look for them but so far I haven't seen one for congress.

While there were nibbles and soft drinks at the reception, I joined Kiwi  friends (New Zealand for American readers) Seonaid (Auckland City Libraries) and Robyn for dinner and international speaker David Holman (from Cornwall and Chairman of the Federation of Family History Societies) also joined us. Over a wide ranging discussion I enjoyed a soft shell chilli crab which was to die for and washed down by an equally good Margaret River semillion sav blanc. David made us all envious when he brought out his iPad to show us various apps and tell us about his travel plans while here in Australia.

Despite a much later night than I usually keep, I still woke up at 5.30am this morning all eager to get to Congress. The official opening is at 9.00am with an address by John Bannon AO, Chair of the National Archives of Australia Advisory Committee and former Premier of South Australia. At the reception last night, Geniaus (aka Jill) handed out her blogger beads (an innovation she brought back from Rootstech 2012) to a number of us who will be tweeting and blogging about the congress over the next four days. The Twitter hashtag is #AFFHO12 and I will try to pull some of the blogs together in this Diary and I will use AFFHO12 as a tag for this blog as well.

I always enjoy the congress which only happens every three years, and this one already seems bigger with its four days and four concurrent sessions plus plenary sessions, but there are congress proceedings so for all those talks I miss in person, I can still read the paper. Although often it's not quite the same but you can't be everywhere at once! And if I don't hurry up, I'll miss the opening. Stay tuned for congress updates and perhaps even breaking news!

Genealogy notes 9-21 March - getting ready for genealogy Congress

This Diary has been a bit quiet for a number of reasons. Our friends came for the Labour Day weekend so it was really good showing them around Melbourne and we had fish and chips down at Williamstown and explored all the old buildings. It's amazing that the main streetscape is very much as it was back in the 1800s. They ended up going home a bit earlier than planned as their first grandchild decided to arrive earlier and quicker thank everyone expected. So the champagne flowed and we shared in their excitement. But I still would have liked to take them to Werribee Open Range Zoo as I want to go back and see the silver back gorillas they have now.

The next week was quiet as I had a basal cell carcinoma (one of the better kind of skin cancers you can get) removed from the right side of my face, leaving a bit of a hole and ten rather ugly stitches. A few days later the doctor called to confirm that the biopsy showed that he had got it all and everything should be ok in the future. But I do need to look for any more that might pop up which is a legacy of growing up on the Gold Coast in the 1960s and 70s and slathering ourselves with coconut oil!

I did manage to finish sorting out my professional library and archive books and took three big boxes to one of the members of the local branch of the Australian Society of Archivists Religious Archives special interest group. Most of these people are part time or volunteers and don't always have access to professional libraries. I'm hoping that everyone will be able to select a book/s that will continue to help them with their work. I'd rather give my books to people I know who will use and appreciate them than sell them to a book dealer - it's like an ongoing legacy. I mentored many people during my career and it's one of the things I miss in retirement.

The other major thing I did was to finalise my two presentations for the 13th Australasian Congress on Genealogy & Heraldry and sent them to the conference organisers. It starts next Tuesday night with the welcome reception which is always a good opportunity to catch up with friends and colleagues from other States and New Zealand.

I've also made arrangements to visit the Adelaide Migration Museum to visit their exhibition Who Are We Now - last year I was privileged to be asked to contribute one of my blogs - Letters Home - My Irish Families to the exhibition. Due to timing and distance I wasn't able to get to the exhibition opening so I'm going on Tuesday to have a look and also chat to the Curator and find out how the exhibition has been received. I hope some of the other Congress attendees also make it to the Migration Museum as it's is definitely worth a visit.

We are driving over to Adelaide and taking the caravan so we will be doing some sightseeing along the way - going via the Coorong (vast unspoiled ecosystem of freshwater lakes, wetlands, ocean and saltwater inlets) and returning via Berri on the Murray River (where Max grew up) and should be home for Easter. Where is this year going - seems even faster than last year but then I say that every year lately. I will be blogging and tweeting from the Congress so if you can't make it, you can at least follow what's happening as there will be a few of us trying to capture everything through our tweets and blogs. Stay tuned.

Genealogy notes 2-4 September 2011 The Geelong History & Genealogy Expo

Well the last two days went very quickly as I was at the Unlock the Past history and genealogy expo in Geelong, Victoria. I gave 3 talks, attended lots of other talks, browsed the 70+ exhibitors, caught up with friends and enjoyed myself a lot. My review of the whole expo is here for those who would like to know more.

Today I have been catching up with emails, tweets and blogs as I didn't take my laptop with me - I didn't want to be too distracted from the attractions of the expo and talking with real people in person.

It still surprises me how few Australian genealogists have embraced Twitter and blogs - I keep telling them how much they are missing out on. It will be interesting to see how many take up my invitation to look at my blogs over the next few days or even follow me on Twitter.

I also have to sort out all my notes from the lectures - lots of new ideas and URLs to follow up which might lead to some new family information. The big question is where to start as I want to do everything at once - and that's just what is online!!

Today is Father's Day and my partner and I have been remembering our fathers and sharing stories. It's funny some of the things you remember when prompted by other people's experiences. I hope everyone else is having a good day with their fathers or remembering them as we are. Until next time, happy researching.

Genealogy notes 30-31 Aug & 1 Sep 2011 expos & conferences

Not sure where time is going lately. Tuesday was a bit of a loss as we spent most of the day going to various medical appointments - nothing like waiting around and finding the same magazines everywhere. Must remember to take some family history journals next time but I always like to think they will be on time!

Wednesday was spent changing some of the slides in my three talks at the Unlock the Past history and genealogy Geelong expo on 2-3 September. Mostly updating website pages but Google has changed its home page quite a bit since I first did my Google tips talk, so I have reworked that. I also made the discovery that my website counter on a couple of my pages (including the Resources page that I refer everyone to) have not been working for some time. It's now all fixed but I have lost the statistics for those pages although I still have the overall stats via Google Analytics.

In the afternoon I had an exploratory look at the Find My Past Ireland website - I keep hoping that I will progress my Irish lines. I found looking at the Forums and the various questions people ask interesting. When I posted my Norwegian interests to a forum a few years ago I received amazing help so I will post my Irish interests next week when I have more time (she says).

Today I have worked on my guest blog for MyHeritage and realised I didn't include last week's in this Diary. Sometimes I do more than I think  I have - probably should make notes as I go! Anyway it comes out every Friday. One of the things I mentioned in it was the annual conference of the ACT & NSW Family History Societies Association in Inverell on 16-18 September. I usually try to go but as we have been away so much this year and it is a long drive, I'm going to miss catching up with all my old friends.

The next two days will be in Geelong and I will be blogging the expo as I usually do but that won't be out until Sunday. The Expo looks like it will be a big event with over 70 exhibitors so I may not mention them all. It will probably depend on how many are relevant to my own areas of research. I also hope to catch a few speakers that I haven't heard before so that will be good, and on topics I'm interested in. People are coming from all over Victoria so I will also catch up with friends as well. It will be genealogy heaven!

Genealogy notes 23 July 2011 genealogy expos continued

Today was Day 2 of the Unlock the Past history and genealogy expo in Mount Gambier and it was a very cold and wet day. However, there were still enthusiastic attendees arriving as the doors opened and most stayed until the end lecture. I heard lots of positive comments and perhaps the most  negative comment over the length of the expo was the cold!

I attended a number of talks and also gave two presentations - my tribute to TROVE and It's Not All Online, the title of one of my books. I was really pleased with the feedback and one lady said that she was amazed at all the things I had suggested for broadening out family history research and thinking laterally. Which is of course, the whole point of all my talks.

As I mentioned yesterday, I am doing a review of the Expo on my own website so will go into more detail in that. With luck and some hard work, it should be finished either later today or tomorrow. I have returned home with a rather severe head cold which makes thinking harder than usual!!

At the end of the day, my cold was really starting to take hold so we declined offers of dinner with other UTP speakers, settled back with a pizza and were in bed by 8pm. So much for the high life on tour with a genealogy expo. Watch out for the Expo blog due soon.

Genealogy notes 22 July 2011 - genealogy expos

Yesterday was Day One of the Unlock the Past South Australian and Victorian Border history and genealogy Mount Gambier expo so it was a very big genealogy day. I will be writing up a review of the Expo at the end of Day 2 so I won't go into too much detail now. It will appear on my SHHE Genie Rambles blog.

The venue is a very large school basketball centre which is ideal as all the exhibitors have lots of room and there are even breakout tables on the side. So my first duty was to wander around all the exhibitors  and it is a great mix of history, heritage and genealogy with lots of old photos, memorabilia and records and publications to search. The show bag has brochures from most of the exhibitors.

I had two talks during the day - first was my Asylums talk and second was my Google talk - both were well attended and I had lots of questions afterwards. I have another two talks on Day Two.

While I was doing a bit of Tweeting, I was given a handwriting query to solve. It was an entry in the NSW Coroner's Records available on Ancestry.com.au. I couldn't make it out from the photocopy the researcher had but as I have a personal subscription to Ancestry I logged on to see the original entry. It was a long entry of death and the words were all run together - I made out a few more of the words but one word was still elusive.

I asked a few of the other Unlock the Past team but we were all stumped. I then saved the image as a photo and increased the magnification beyond the 200% in Ancestry and that allowed me to easily see what the last word was. It is so easy once you know - the last phrase was 'severe temporary mental aberration' and it was 'temporary' which was the hardest part to decipher. It's always a buzz when you can help someone out.

I attended a few other talks and also did an interview with the local television but I don't think we made the 6pm news. At the end of the day there was a group dinner and an evening musical show with Brenton Manser and the Vanguard. As we didn't get back to the motel until late I didn't have time to write my usual daily blog of an expo. For Mount Gambier it will be a single blog completed after Day Two.

It is now Day Two and I am a little cold here trying to type this blog as the stadium has not yet warmed up. I'm sure today is going to be as good as yesterday. Stay tuned.