Genealogy notes 21 May - 3 June Moving & Genealogy Talking

Well it's amazing how much time it takes to get ready for a monster moving garage sale, then there were the two days (cold but not wet) that we lived in our garage watching other people snap up our preloved items, then the trip to the Salvos with what was left. We hadn't even had a chance to relax when the real estate agent said he wanted to show someone through and of course we have boxes of books and other 'clutter' all over the place. I still had to finalise my talks for the Yarrawonga GMAGs seminar and we were leaving on the Saturday.

Somehow we managed it all and the seminar went well. I gave four talks - Ancestors in Church, Australian Government Archives Online, Resources for Photographs, and PROV's Nooks and Crannies plus I staffed a small books sales table with Unlock the Past publications. Archival Access Victoria was the other speaker and Mark gave lots of examples of the types of records that can be found at PROV and the copy services they offer.

With approx 50 people I was kept busy selling and talking but still managed to eat some of the wonderful country cooking that is always on offer at these events. But that night I was more that a bit weary so it was just pizza with the chardy and an early night.

As usual people asked me to put the talks on my website so I still have to PDF the talks and place them on the Resources page under Presentations. I've allowed myself a few days to do it just in case it takes longer than I anticipate or I get distracted with other priorities!

It was great to see so many people from Deniliquin and I'm looking forward to their Deniliquin genealogy muster in October. It's a first for them so I'm hoping that it is going to attract lots of people from surrounding areas. We're taking the caravan up and will spend a few days exploring the area as usually we are just passing through on the way to someplace else.

There's no rest for the wicked and tonight I'm the guest speaker at the Yarrawonga Family History Group meeting doing a Q&A session. Some members have already sent their questions via email so I will spend today doing some preparation. From tomorrow I get to relax for a few days and hope to go on a cruise of Lake Mulwala in a paddle steamer. I have to be back in Melbourne by Friday as there is a meeting of the Victorian Association of Family History Organisations and I'm on the committee.

I have so many emails and enewsletters in my inbox I don't think I will ever catch up plus I have to check/amend the talks I'm giving at the Unlock the Past Queensland Expo in Brisbane in a few weeks. That will be a great event and a chance to catch up with some of my favourite speakers.

If our house sells quickly and we become homeless (apart from the caravan) life will become really interesting. At least most of my family history is now on the laptop although I still have a lot of documents and photos to scan. I'm sure it will work out eventually. Until next time.

Genealogy notes 10-20 May 2012 - blogging challenges

Well another ten days have passed and our 'monster' garage sale is next weekend plus we have continued to give items away to our families and friends. This will be our fourth move since we met in 2001 so it's probably time that we combined our belongings and have only one of everything! Of course the danger is that when we finally arrive at our 'new home' we will probably want something we have given away thinking we would never have a need for it again. It's also amazing how much time can be taken up talking to banks, real estate agents, friends and family members who want us to move near them and people telling us where they would retire too. I think we really do need to 'do it now' as I don't think I could stand to have this hanging over my head for another year.

Anyway, in our rest breaks I continue to try and keep up with my emails, e-newsletters, Twitter, Facebook and bloggers I like to read but I am very aware of how much I am missing out on logging in sporadically. There are three blogging challenges this year I would have liked to participate in - 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy (now into Week 19), Beyond the Internet (now into Week 18) and the Family History through the Alphabet (only up to B so maybe I can catch up) challenge. These are all weekly themes which in past years I would have contributed to but at the moment I'm flat out keeping this Diary going. I still like to try and read the various posts to these challenges as we can learn so much from what others write and share with us.

One thing that I have committed to is a National Institute of Genealogical Studies (NIGS) course on Google for the Wise Genealogist (I wonder which other Congress attendees are doing this in May or have already completed it). This is a free course that I signed up for when I visited the NIGS display stand at the AFFHO genealogy congress in Adelaide back in March. At the time I elected to do it in May as I had thought this month would be relatively free so I'm a bit behind with that and the next week's lectures and assignments are due to tomorrow. So I simply must catch up this afternoon.

The other exciting thing that happened in the last week was that I received an invitation to speak at and launch this year's National Family History Week from 27 July to 5 August. The launch will be at the Victorian Archives Centre in Melbourne on 27 July so I hope to see a few people there and I encourage all genealogy and family history groups to add their events to the 2012 calendar.

Plus I'm trying to finish a few genealogy reports for clients, do a new talk on resources for identifying photographs for the GMAGS Day on 3 June, revising my talks for the Queensland Genealogy Expo in Brisbane 25-27 June and finalise a couple of publications I have pending for Unlock the Past.

And it's my son's 25th birthday today so I'm a bit nostalgic and wondering where the last 25 years have gone! I still don't think I'm ageing as much as he has in the last  25 years. We will catch up and celebrate when I'm in Brisbane next month. My niece turned 18 last Friday and again I can't quite believe that.

Time to finish this Diary update and get back to crossing off at least some of those things on my to do list for this glorious autumn day in Melbourne! If it all gets too hard, I'm going out for a nice walk and soak up some Vitamin D which my doctor tells me I'm deficient in (last time he told me to stay out of the sun and I had skin cancer surgery on my face). I'm happy to say that scar is healing quite nicely and is mostly hidden by my hair. Until next time.

Genealogy notes 24 Apr - 9 May 2012 Top 50 genealogy blogs

Wow can't believe it's over two weeks since I sat down to write this Diary. Getting ready to move is taking up so much of our time - we've been gardening, painting, moving furniture, steam cleaning carpets, sorting items for our huge garage sale in a couple of weeks and so on. I've been squeezing in a bit of genealogy along the way and managed to get my ANZAC Day tribute on my SHHE Genie Rambles blog done on my Uncle Gordon, a Rat of Tobruk.

I've also accepted a number of opportunities to give genealogy talks for the Society of Australian Genealogists in Sydney, various talks for the Yarra Plenty Regional Library in Melbourne and another all day seminar for the Goulburn Murray Association of Local and Family History Groups. For dates, venues and presentation titles see my Services and Events page on my website. The second half of this year is starting to look quite busy but by then we should have got the house ready for sale (assuming we can never decide where we are going to move to)!

I have stacks of genealogy e-newsletters and blogs to catch up on but one that caught my eye on Twitter the other day had the hash tag #50bestblogs and I started getting mentions and congrats. So today I said to the other half I simply must sit down and have a read and write the next instalment of this Diary. I'm very pleased to see that I have been included in the Top 50 genealogy blogs penned by blogger friend Geniaus and published by Inside History magazine in their latest issue. I haven't got my paper copy yet and that's always an occasion to put the kettle on and sit down to have a good read. Perhaps I can send the other half out to Bunnings when it arrives! You wouldn't believe how many trips we've made to Bunnings over the last couple of weeks as we do little touch ups here and there, both inside and outside of the house.

Doing a bit of painting and minor repairs is really the easy part of moving. By far the hardest part is sorting out all our stuff. I live with a hoarder and I've always been a collector (more selective in my hoarding for those wanting to know the difference). I was a stamp collector as a child and since 1977 I've been actively collecting ancestors and their stories. What I hadn't realised is how collecting is a theme in almost everything I do. For example, my sock drawer was always just a sock drawer until last week when I put all my socks out on the bed with the aim to throw out the 'daggy' ones. My socks actually tell the story of my life and my travels with socks from Tasmania with their smiley Tasmanian tigers, my kiwi socks from New Zealand and my sheep socks from Hamilton in Victoria, the sheep capital of Australia. You get the picture.

My nightie drawer was not much different. There was the nightie I bought to go on a five week overseas trip to Europe in 2000, quite a few from the Victoria Markets here in Melbourne and then there was my fav nightie, but it's looking a bit the worse for wear. So much so my partner said why didn't I just chuck it out (after all this is what we are supposed to be doing, minimising what we are moving with). My response was that I could still  remember buying it as I was pregnant with my son at the time and I wanted something nice for the hospital. My son is turning 25 this month which means my fav nightie is older than my son! Perhaps it really should be 'retired'!

Do others find that basic clothing can generate memories and lifetime attachments? I can understand it with wedding dresses and perhaps more formal outfits but the humble sock and nightie?

Then there are all my travel souvenirs starting with the first turtle I ever bought in Fiji in 1975 on my first ever overseas trip - yes I collect turtles and have many in varying shapes, sizes and formats. Then there is my cat collection, and I have a fondness for camels especially one I picked up in Upper Mongolia back in 1996. Don't get me started on my fridge magnets which are all over the fridge, freezer, filing cabinets and other metal surfaces around the house. Somewhere deep inside me I know that they should go but each one has it's own memory and story to tell.

Well I have to get back to tidying up, as much as we can with all the boxes and stuff piled up everywhere as there is a real estate agent coming this afternoon to give us the latest on selling in this area. More than half a dozen houses have sold in our surrounding streets in the last month so it's not going to be hard to sell should we put it on the market. It's a high demand area but without somewhere to go to, we would be left with living in the caravan and we still have too much stuff for that! Wish me luck and I'm hoping for more genealogy time next week!