Genealogy notes 1-7 Jul 2014 NFHM & obituaries

Well another week has flashed by and National Family History Month is fast approaching. I have been busy adding events to the web calendar (over 200 events so far) and organising the launch. I also have to report two more sponsors. MyHeritage is now a major sponsor as well as a prize sponsor which is fantastic news. Patrica Barth from Family Tree Scriptorium is now a prize sponsor and it is great to see her association with NFHM continuing. Patricia is the widow of Nick Vine Hall after whom the AFFHO awards for best genealogy/family history society journal is named.

Hazel Edwards (author of How to Write a Non Boring Family History) let me know of an interesting idea that she picked up at a recent Victorian GUM Non Boring Family History Writing workshop. The attendees had to be their ancestor and were interviewed in an oral history type situation. I have often wondered what it would be like to have been one of my ancestors but I have never actually answered questions from their perspective. An interesting concept as thinking is one thing and actually writing down or verbalizing is another. Another thing on the 'to do' list.

Week 21 of my personal genealogy blog challenge 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2014 was on obituaries. I don't have many in my own research but when you do find one, these records can break down records. Read about it here.

This week I am at the Australian Historical Association annual conference which is conveniently in Brisbane this year. I am also going to an all day session with the Professional Historians Association of Queensland and they have some nice little side trips organised. Tours of the John Oxley Library and the Fryer Library will be interesting as it is over 20 years since I worked at JOL and more than that since I visited Fryer as a uni student.

I am still immersed in a big writing project that threw me a few curved balls at the last minute so I really haven't had a chance to do much else as I definitely want to finish it before the start of NFHM. I know James Bond said 'Never Say Never' but I don't think I will go this path again. The whole point of my writing is that I enjoy it and I need to get back to that point again.

So look forward to all sorts of news from the AHA and PHAQ conference sessions in next Diary. Until next time happy researching!

Genealogy notes 23 - 30 June 2014 NFHM and writing blogs

Well the last week did not go as planned.Mum's birthday party went well and we had our little trip to Sea World and unbelievably the baby polar bear came out to play when I was standing right in front of his enclosure thinking I was going to miss him. Mum polar bear wasn't far behind him and the Dad polar bear was in another enclosure where we saw him swimming and having a good time too. So all up an excellent few days of family fun.

Then I made the mistake of deciding to rearrange some book cases and the layout of the study. I am happier with this rearrangement but it does take time regrouping and reshelving hundreds of books. We are definitely never moving again! Of course I also found books that I had not yet read so a nice little pile of them to look forward to. The other thing is that I have too many genealogy magazines and I can't bring myself to part even with the very outdated ones. I find that flicking through them gives me ideas or reminds me of things that I have forgotten about. Yet space and storage is a factor.

Some of my genealogy society memberships and genealogy magazines are only digital these days which saves space but out of sight out of mind. I need to write myself reminders to read these digital copies.

I think all of this was a bit of procrastination as whenever I get towards the end of a big writing project I always seem to find other things to do rather than tackle the fiddly bits and pieces to finish a job. Still it won't go away and that is the goal for this week.

There are two new posts in my personal genealogy blog challenge - 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2014. Week 19 is Family Bibles and Week 20 is Mining Records. I am finding it hard to keep up the weekly blogs but it is really good to look at each topic and then to think about what ancestors I want to write about or look up new information on.

National Family History Month is still taking up time with new events being added all the time. I posted an update on my website - read the update here. Invitations to the launch have gone out and I have booked my flight and accommodation for Canberra. I think next year it has to be a warmer launch (but I guess that will be determined by whoever the voluntary coordinator is).

My findmypast.com.au subscription allows me to access British newspapers online and in another obvious display of procrastination I spent a lovely afternoon finding interesting bits and pieces in UK newspapers. I often do this with Trove or Papers Past so it was interesting to spend more time exploring the UK equivalent.

On Twitter I have been following all the new indexes on the Claim a Convict website. They are doing really good work and it is a must go to website for anyone with convicts. Deceased Online is another website that I follow on Twitter for updates on UK burials and cremations and of course FamilySearch is always adding to their website. Then there are all the nice links I pick up from Facebook genealogy friends and sometimes I go on Google + but keeping up with everything is tricky.

Genealogy friend Geniaus speculated in a blog post How Do You React? if anyone ever reads what we write and should we even keep writing. While I do write to share bits and pieces with my genealogy cyber buddies, I also write for myself. It is a way for me to record what I am doing, to write down ancestor stories, and to look back on what I have done over the past few years of having a website and blogging. The Wayback Machine (part of the Internet Archive) has captured snapshots of my website over the years and this Diary is archived in the National Library of Australia's Pandora web archive accessible through Trove.

So yes I do think people should keep on blogging and imagine if every genealogist and family historian blogged their family stories. We would be finding cousins all over the place and brick walls would come tumbling down which are some of the positives I have seen so far in my own writing.

And on that note I have to get back to some serious work! Until next time happy researching.

Genealogy Notes 17-22 Jun 2014 - National Family History Month 2014

This past week has been busy with lots of preparation for National Family History Month 2014 which is an initiative of AFFHO (Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations). I am the voluntary coordinator so I have been making arrangements with the National Archives of Australia for the launch. NAA have hosted the launch since 2006 so their support is really appreciated. Ancestry.com.au and FamilySearch are our two major sponsors this year and their is a long list of prize sponsors on the NFHM website.

Here is an image from last year's launch with Professor Cliff Pollard who spoke about WW1 nurses. Our 2014 keynote speaker is Dr Richard Reid on the Western Front 1914-1918.

Apart from launch arrangements I have also been busy checking events that ate being put into the NFHM web calendar. Spam is a problem for everyone so each event has to be approved before it becomes visible and lots of events have gone up over the last week. Any genealogy/family history society, library, archives or similar organisation can put their August events up in the web calendar. It is a great way for more people to see what events you hold.

I have also been doing a bit more promotion on the NFHM Facebook page and as of this morning there are 952 Likes so it definitely looks like we are going to hit the 1000 Likes before the launch of NFHM on 1 August. My thanks go to all my cyber buddies who help promote NFHM in their various social media circles.

I forgot to mention last time that Inside History Magazine asked me to do a guest blog on 'how to ask an expert'questions you have on your genealogy and family history research. You can read the blog post here. It is based on my own experiences trying to help people and the more clear and concise you are, the more likely someone will be able to give you the answer or suggest other things to look at.

It was a forgetful week last week as I also neglected to say that I met Rebecca Wheatley at the National Archives of Australia advisory meeting on the centenary of WW1. She is working on the Monash University One Hundred Stories Project and we were shown some very moving and emotional stories about soldiers who came home from the war. These are being put on YouTube and the link is here. Penguin is planning to publish a book of the One Hundred Stories in November 2015.

One of my favourite online newsletters is Lost Cousins which comes out every week. Another is Snippets from Queensland Family History Society and I am a subscriber to Dick Eastman's newsletter (plus edition as I like the longer articles as well as his short news stories). Dick also suggested that I put the NFHM event up on his web calendar which I have done and I must remember to check that more often myself.

My talk at the Caloundra Family History Research group went well and I was showing them some of my favourite Google tools for family history. As usual I have placed a copy of the talk on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations. Google is always changing so I need to update the talk every time I do that presentation.

I have got another busy week planned with lots of writing - there are a couple of jobs that I simply must finish before we get too close to NFHM. From 7-11 July I am attending the annual conference of the Australian Historical Association which is in Brisbane this year. There is also a Professional Historians Association Queensland day in conjunction with the AHA conference so I am going to that as well. Should be a stimulating week of history and networking.

Today we are finally getting to celebrate Mum's 80th birthday (having had to delay it several times due to her not being all that well). So I must dash as I don't think she will want to be kept waiting (we are the ones picking her up and taking her to the venue). Final thoughts - not genealogy I'm afraid but I am finally treating myself to a trip to Sea World to see the polar bears so an exciting week coming up. Happy researching.