Genealogy notes 30 Aug - 3 Sep 2013 Last days of National Family History Month

Friday was a big day with the exhibition launch of the Bribie Bridge exhibition at the Bribie Island Seaside Museum in the morning and my last talk for NFHM at the Bribie Island Library in the afternoon. There was a great turn out for my talk on It's Not All Online: Where Else Can I Look? which is based on my book It's Not All Online: A Guide to Genealogy Resources Offline. As usual I have put a copy of the slides on the Resources page of my website - scroll down to Presentations. There were lots of questions and the Library provided afternoon tea.

But before that I took the opportunity to draw the NFHM sponsors prizes draw and the Momento photobook competition and the winners were:

Winner of the Momento Photo Book competition - Melissa Haddon, VIC

Winner of a Findmypast.com.au one year world subscription - Newcastle Family History Society, NSW

Winner of an Ancestry.com.au one year subscription - Botany Bay Family History Society, NSW

Winner of an Ancestry.com.au one year subscription - Yarrawonga Family History Group, VIC

Winner of a Gould Genealogy & History voucher - Port Macquarie & District Family History Society, NSW

Winner of a 2 year subscription to Inside History Magazine - Holroyd Family History Group, NSW

Winner of a 2 year subscription to Inside History Magazine - Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra, ACT

Winner of a 1 year subscription to Australian Family Tree Connections - Genealogy Sunshine Coast, QLD

Just so those in the audience didn't feel too left out, I had a lucky door prize with a copy of my last book Finding Ancestors in Church Records: A Brief Guide to Resources and some copies of Inside History Magazine.

Saturday was the last day of National Family History Month and I took Geniaus' Bloggers Geneameme challenge. Here is my response here - all about how we got into blogging in the first instance and how and why we do it. For the full list of those who took up the challenge click here and it was great to see and read so many responses.

Sunday was Father's Day and both our fathers have passed on and Max's kids live in SA, NSW and the NT so there were phone calls, Skype talks and text messages. What did we do before technology? To amuse ourselves, we went to various markets open and doing good business by the number of people around. I did try to take him to lunch at the RSL but it was bookings only and then we thought fish and chips on the beach, but all the take aways had queues out the door!  There were more people than we have ever seen at all the beaches and picnic spots on both sides of the Island. Who would have thought Bribie Island got that busy?

Monday was spent contacting the various NFHM sponsors and prize winners and putting them in touch with each other. There were some very happy and excited winners and not everyone seems to have caught up with the various changes I've made to NFHM this year. I'm currently writing an evaluation for AFFHO and making some recommendations and once that is all approved I will start promoting NFHM 2014 so that sponsors, individuals and researchers can put it in their diaries.

Today I have spent time looking at the proofs of the first part of my new article series for Irish Lives Remembered. I've also done some brief reports on NFHM for Inside History Magazine and Australian Family Tree Connections, both sponsors of NFHM. The rest of the day I'm going to finalise my report to AFFHO as I'd like them to discuss it at their next meeting.

Tomorrow I hope to get back to working on my next couple of books. I've got two on the go and they've been seriously interrupted first by our big move and second by NFHM which took up more time than I originally thought but it has been worth it.For those who like stats, there were 244 events held by 91 organisations listed in the NFHM web calendar - I know there were other events as well but there is no easy way to identify all of them. I hope everyone enjoyed the month and remember August 2014 is NFHM next year and the new URL is www.familyhistorymonth.org.au. Happy researching until next time!

Genealogy notes 27-29 August 2013 - 31 activities for NFHM & more

On the news last night I was shocked when the weather person announced only 3 more days of winter (what winter here in the ever sunny blue skies north) but that means only 3 more days of National Family History Month! So I put my skates on and finished my blogs based on my 31 activities for researchers and 31 activities for genealogy/family history societies challenge during August. The final 16 challenges for researchers will give everyone something to do way past August as will the final 16 challenges for genealogy/family history societies.

I would have liked more time myself to actually do some of the challenges I posed for others but keeping up the social media promotion of NFHM during August has kept me busy as well as the odd publicity opportunity. My talk at the Bribie Island library tomorrow made the Bribie Island and Mainland News including a photo of me and a blurb about NFHM and that it is all going to happen again in August 2014!

Well known geneablogger Geniaus has drawn up another geneameme to finish up National Family History Month - see The Blogger's Geneameme. I'm planning to do it on Saturday when I have my talk and the NFHM sponsors prize draw all finished and I can relax a little more.

Back in July I completed the Unlock the Past genealogy cruises survey and that entitled me to a 50% discount of an ebook purchase from their Gen-ebooks before 31 August.  As that date is fast approaching, I looked at their ebooks this morning and made my choice and even ordered their current free ebook offer. Within minutes of placing the order I had all my new ebooks (now safely placed on my virtual to read shelf)!

Now off to practice my talk for tomorrow and make sure I have everything I need for tomorrow. We are going to an exhibition opening at the Bribie Island Seaside Museum tomorrow morning so I need to be organised today. Enjoy the last few days of NFHM 2013.

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!