Genealogy Notes 21-26 Aug 2013 Last week of National Family History Month

It's unbelievable how fast August has gone - we are now into the last week of National Family History Month. I hope everyone has been attending events, doing blogs, following people on Twitter or Facebook, finding time for some of their own research and anything else remotely genealogy related! Check out the National Family History Month web calendar and home page for ideas this last week. The Momento photo book competition closes today so it's not too late to put in an entry - details on the NFHM home page. I'm getting some great suggestions for NFHM 2014 so if you want to suggest something, enter the competition!

My last talk for NFHM is on this coming Friday at the Bribie Island library, this will be my first talk on Bribie so it will be interesting to see what the turn out will be. That's where I will also be doing the NFHM sponsors prizes draw and then contact all the winning societies and of course, promote the prize draw winners in the hope that we get even more genealogy and family history societies hosting events next year. Sponsors are also on my list to follow up and I'm even hoping to attract some new sponsors for my new ideas in 2014!

After that I have to write up a report for AFFHO on NFHM 2013 and include recommendations for 2014. I would like to see a whole 12 month awareness campaign so that everyone finds out about it in plenty of time to either host or attend an event. Many libraries and archives plan their event calendars twelve months in advances so we need to make it easier for them to participate.

History is in the air here on Bribie Island at the moment. At the Bribie historical society meeting the other night I bought the new book on the Bribie Bridge which turns 50 in October and at the weekend I bought another book on the Bribie Surf Life Saving Club which has just turned 90. We found lots of entries for Max's Burstow and Eldridge families as they were involved with the club back in the 1930s. The Club had a lot of its photos and other memorabilia on display at the clubhouse and a steady stream of visitors over the weekend.

I've received two UK certificates this week which confirmed what I knew but gave me details to go back another generation but still finding it a bit tough to find them in the census - common surnames should be banned! Still I keep chipping away at it. Every time I look at Trove I find new stories on the family and with new digitised newspapers coming online all the time, it's really worthwhile.

As part of my ongoing rearrangement of my new study, I'm going through all my old paper files and its amazing what I have forgotten I have on file (but it is 36 years this month since I bought my first filing cabinet so maybe it's just old age rather than too much stuff). Not everything has been entered into my genealogy software (mostly the basics) and I'm starting to realise I need to capture all the other bits and pieces of information as well. I've rearranged all the old photos and albums into a scanning priority order, another job I need to get back to now that we have resettled.

So that is my dilemma - I want to do more research on my families using all the modern resources (I can easily spend all day on Trove alone) but I really need to get e-control of all my paper based 'stuff ' before it's too late. Being surrounded by filing cabinets and book cases is a little intimidating not to mention overwhelming. It's not too hard, I just need to do it file by file, album by album (but the tricky part is that each one triggers new ideas to search and I get side tracked). The only good part is that I know I'm not alone and that others share this burden. I'm going to try for an hour a day (or at least 7 hours a week) - wish me luck!

Enjoy the rest of National Family History Month 2013!

Genealogy notes 13 - 20 Aug National Family History Month good news update

This Diary update was meant to go out last Friday but I lost my connection to the internet and it has taken five long days to get it back. It's been really frustrating with an upgrade of infrastructure here on BribieIsland. The Telstra tower is moving from 3G to 4G. We even put in a few, time consuming calls to their overseas call centre and it was only when we went to the local shop that we heard about the upgrade.This morning I checked with the shop again to be told it would be finished by tonight but as luck would have it, the call centre people gave us a follow up call and we found that coverage was back in our area and they helped us to tweak our wi fi to the new system and I'm back online. We don't realise how much we rely on the internet until we don't have it eg we needed a phone book at the weekend but we don't have paper copies as I simply look it up online!

Normally the downtime wouldn't stress me so much but as we are in the middle of National Family History Month and I've been trying to keep momentum going via various social media forums as well as answering enquiries and other emails which is a bit tricky without the internet. I probably should upgrade my phone too.

My two blogs on 31 activities for NFHM (researchers) - the first fifteen and 31 activities for (genealogy/family history) societies - the first 15 are now on my website and I should get the remaining 16 activities for both done before the end of August. I wonder how many other people have decided to do some of my suggested activities as part of NFHM? Full details on both lists here.

The weather here on Bribie Island has been simply amazing and I'm swimming most days with a pool temperature that has increased to 24 degrees and rising. Hard to believe this is winter! But I've discovered there is an advantage to swimming and getting wet - I'm not allowed back in the house until I'm completely dry as my little wet puddles through the house make the floor slippery and dangerous. So I have to take reading material up to the pool so that I can read and dry off at the same time - this is really a clever way for me to catch up on my genealogy journals and magazines!

I've read the last two issues of the Guild of One NameStudies journal and getting back to my own one name study of Burstow is high on my list of want to do things once National Family History Month is over. I've got a lot of data entry to do which is a bit boring but worthwhile if I want to start doing something with all the data I've collected over the years. I've also been reading Inside History Magazine which I usually flick through from cover to cover when I get it and then set aside for a more leisurely read. Excellent pool side reading! My copies of the free Irish Lives Remembered magazine are on my tablet and that is also very easy reading up by the pool.

My last talk for National Family History Month is at the Bribie Island Library on 30 August and it will be a presentation based on my research guide It's Not All Online: Where Else Can I Look? We will also be drawing the NFHM sponsors prize draw and the Momento photobook competition that day as well. One of the reasons I suggested making NFHM a month rather than just a week as it was previously was so that we could do more events but I'm finding that even the month has gone very quickly!

Which brings me to my good news - AFFHO has decided to make the month trial a permanent thing so it will be National Family History Month August 2014 next year and each year thereafter.  This should help everyone with their planning in future years as it will always be the month of August. AFFHO have also asked me if I would like to be the voluntary coordinator again and even though it has been a steep learning curve over the last few months, I've learnt a lot and have even more ideas to make 2014 even better.

I've got lots to catch up on now that I've got my email and internet access back again so until next time, enjoy these last weeks of National Family History Month 2013.

Genealogy Notes 10-12 August 2013 - NFHM update and a new sponsor competition!

I have to confess to a laptop/social media free day on Saturday - it was all building my new vegie gardens and swimming in the pool to celebrate this absolutely incredible August weather we are currently having. You would never know it is winter here on Bribie Island although my memories of Brisbane in August are cold westerly winds especially at Ekka time! So having had a day of relaxation I'm now back in the excitement of National Family History Month.

First I need to share some more news from one of our sponsors, the National Archives of Australia. Regular readers will know that I have just returned from a meeting of the centenary of WW1 advisory committee. I've always been interested in the Boer War as Mum had two uncles who served in both the Queensland colonial contingents and also in the Commonwealth contingents. What I didn't know was that NAA has put the contingent lists for their Boer Ward records into ArcHive their exciting new website that allows researchers at home to help transcribe the documents and make them more accessible to everyone.

Well there are 187 Boer War records waiting to be transcribed! You can search for whatever kind of records that you might like to work on. It's a bit like an Aladdin's cave - too much choice but all good! NAA even gives a rating for difficulty eg easy or hard but looking at some of the 'hard' ones as a long time researcher I can easily read the handwriting (but then I did work in archives for a long time too). Most of these appear to be nominal rolls which make for fascinating reading while you transcribe. Why not register and give it a go!

Now for the National Family History Month update. I've added a few more entries but I think most events are now on the web calendar. I've seen references to events on Twitter, Facebook, Google +, blogs and list servs so it looks like there is a lot of genealogy going on this month! I was going to try and capture all the references but there is just too much but Geniaus aka Jill has added a widget to her blog to show all the tweets for #NFHM13 throughout August. Read her blog post about it here.

There is a late sponsor - Momento which is a online photo book company and they have offered a $150 voucher for a NFHM competition. So I have placed the competition details on the NFHM home page and I've decided to get everyone to help me think of great ideas for NFHM 2014. As national coordinator for the first time this year, it has been a steep learning curve and I've built on existing practices as well as introducing some of my own ideas. But I'm sure that there are lots of other great ideas out there so put your thinking caps on and submit an entry.

I know I have international readers so I'm sorry to say that the NFHM competition is only open to individuals in Australia. If anyone wants to submit an idea/comment please do so but you won't be eligible for the prize this year. Also entries must be within the competition time frame and must include your name and postcode. It will be drawn on 30 August when the NFHM sponsors' prizes for genealogy/family history societies are also drawn.

I rather like the idea of a competition for individuals but at this stage I'm not sure how much work I've just let myself in for. Still it's a learning experience and someone will be an excited winner. I'm looking forward to 30 August and the prize draw and notifying all the lucky winners. But that will also mean NFHM will be over and that's a bit sad but we can all start planning and looking forward to NFHM 2014. (A little birdie has told me that it will be a month again next year so that's fantastic news!)

We have more Melbourne friends arriving for a two day stay so I'm going to be a bit busy entertaining them here on beautiful Bribie Island but I hope everyone continues to have a great genealogy month with all those events across Australia and if you are stuck for something to do, don't forget my 31 Activities for Researchers & Societies for NFHM! Until next time.