Genealogy Notes 6-12 August 2014 National Family History Month is nearly half over already!

Time does fly when you are having fun! I have given 6 of my 11 talks for Moreton Bay Region Libraries already and there have been some great audiences. Lots of people have gone home to try out some of my ideas for Demolishing Brick Walls or doing Family History on the Cheap. As usual I have put the presentations on my website Resources page, scroll down to Presentations.

At the top of the Resources page are my 31 Activities for National Family History Month (for individuals and societies) and it has been good seeing some people do all or only a few of the activities. One person  I know is blogging all of her activities and Fran (aka Travelgenee) has done some interesting posts on her adventures so far this NFHM. It is always surprising how people interpret a challenge and I usually pick up new ideas as well.

Pauleen (aka Cassmob) has done a NFHM 2014 geneameme challenge and again I find it inspiring to read what others are saying in response to the prompts. Read Pauleen's response to her own challenge here. Geniaus (aka Jill) has introduced us to the concept of 'geneacave' where we do our family history at home. Sure beats 'study'! And she has introduced me to the PIP process - read all about it here. Pauleen will be collating all of the responses so why not give it a go or at least read a few of them. My NFHM geneameme response is here.

Surprisingly I am still adding a few events to the NFHM web calendar and of course I am busy with entries for the NFHM sponsors prizes giveaway which closes on 26 August. So far there are no entries from TAS, WA or the NT and only one from SA - what does this mean?

NFHM is mainly promoted online with events around the country so are those places not following us on Facebook or Twitter or Google +? I have even placed notices on the main mailing listservs for all States and Territories just in case people are not into social media. But very little response for the effort of signing up to post the notice in the first place.

Or is it just because people don't want to win the NFHM prizes? It can't be that because I would love to win some of those prizes but because I am the person running the giveaway I can't enter! Sob. I hope people don't leave it till the last day or I will go demented trying to organise everything before the prize draw takes place at Redcliffe Library.

It is Ekka week here so we are planning a visit to Mum and then on to the Ekka which brings back all kinds of memories of going with my parents as a child and taking my own son to the Ekka too. At least now I don't have to contemplate those rides but I will admit to a certain fondness still for the showbags.

Next week I am doing another talk for Moreton Bay Region Libraries and my first ever webinar with MyHeritage. I am a bit spooked at this stage as I have still to master a Google Hangout so now to get myself organised and cool and collected before Monday. Deep breath needed and maybe even more than one.

The other new thing I am trying for NFHM is Pinterest and I am really surprised at how many people have shown interest in the NFHM board that I have done. The only way to learn and get to know about some of these social media sites is to dive in and have a look. You can't break anything or at least I haven't yet!

My 'geneacave' desk looks like a cyclone has hit it so time for a good tidy up before I move on to my next NFHM challenge. Have a great time this August researching your families in NFHM. Until next time.

Genealogy notes 30 Jul - 5 Aug 2014 Start of National Family History Month

I always knew the lead in to National Family History Month was going to be busy but I have been flat out like a lizard drinking! It was great to be in Canberra for the launch at the National Archives of Australia, sponsor of the launch since 2006. You can read about my report on the launch here. It was also a great opportunity to catch up with old NAA colleagues and friends from HAGSOC (nice to see the PR for NFHM on their home page).

I did not have to remember why I left Canberra as it was a bit snowy on the day of the launch, although I always did love seeing the snow on the Brindabellas and the flight home the next day was pretty with all the snow lying around in southern New South Wales. By the time I got home to Bribie the cold front had moved north and I still needed a cardy!

My 31 activities for individuals in NFHM are now on the Resources page of my website and there are also 31 activities for genealogy/family history societies there too. Nothing is compulsory and you can do as many or as few activities as you want during the month. Remember there are other online events in the NFHM web calendar. Also on the NFHM website are the giveaway prizes from NFHM sponsors and details of how to enter are on the Home Page.

When I agreed to do my 11 talks for Moreton Bay Region Libraries I was only thinking it was one hour talks not factoring in travel time. Moreton must be one of the bigger shires as the travel time varies from 8 minutes to the Bribie Library to almost an hour to the Arana Hills Library where I am speaking today. I am giving 5 talks this week but only one next week as it is Ekka time. The following week is also only one talk with the final three in the last week of NFHM. The giveaway prize draw takes place at the Redcliffe Library on 27 August and I do thank Moreton Bay Region Libraries for their fantastic support during NFHM. As well as myself, they have other speakers giving family history talks too.

State Library of Victoria asked me to do a guest blog on their Family Matters blog for NFHM and you can read it here. This will be the first Family History Feast that I have missed since we first started it back in 2004 so a bit sad. But fantastic that it continues even though two of us have retired! And of course they do podcasts of the speakers so I will be able to listen once the sessions go online. Something to anticipate!

Sadly I suspended my own personal blog challenge 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2014 as I simply could not keep it up and still get all the events etc up for NFHM but I will return to it in September. Sharon (The Tree of Me) has been playing catchups with it and I have just put links to her posts on my website. It is always interesting to see how others approach a set blog post and it is great for finding new ideas.

I have promised to blog my 31 activities for the month but haven't done so yet. One new thing that I have done is set up a Pinterest account and have boards for NFHM and Diary of an Australian Genealogist. Social media is amazing and there are so many things you can do to express yourself and your interests online. Not only did I put some NFHM photographs on Pinterest but  I also put some on the NFHM Facebook page. HAGSOC member Jeanette Hahn took some photos of the launch and has given us permission to use them.

Time for me to head off to Arana Hills Library and my third talk for NFHM and I hope everyone else is having a great time this August. Until next time, happy researching.

Genealogy Notes 22-29 Jul 2014 getting ready for National Family History Month 2014

As some of you may know I am the voluntary coordinator of National Family History Month which is an initiative of AFFHO, the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations. As it is only three days to the start of NFHM 2014 just about everything I am doing at present is NFHM related.

I am working on a few things that I cannot put up on the website until 31 July as we do not want people jumping the gun which makes it a bit hard for me as last minute stuff is always tricky. What if my internet plays up or I get sick or my laptop dies? Yes I am a worrier but I do want this NFHM to be bigger and better than previous years.

I did a media interview with the Seniors newspaper so I hope that we get some publicity in their August issue. It is often hard to attract media attention but we send out media notices and hope that it is a slow news day. All of our NFHM sponsors also help promote NFHM through their own enewsletters and social media.

Events are still going up and the launch is all organised. Although last night's weather did not thrill me. There was some talk that it might even snow in Canberra on Friday as a cold front is coming in. It will probably be frosty and that often reminded me of snow when I lived here. But fortunately for me most of the really frosty days seem to be after I leave and return home to sunny warm Queensland.

I came to Canberra early because I was attending the launch of Discovering ANZACs but it was postponed when the Governor General went to the Netherlands following the MH17 air tragedy. So I have some unexpected free time on my hands and a return trip to Canberra at some point.

I have been a member of Genes Reunited for years although I don't often go on and see what's new. So I have been trawling for some of my family names and finding that there are quite a few new people researching the same families. I have sent contact emails and already received some positive responses and when viewing their trees it is obvious that we are descended from the same ancestors just down different lines. A timely reminder to recheck databases from time to time as new material is continually being added.

The closure of State Records South Australia's reading rooms took me by surprise as I had not seen anything about it until after the event. The city search room closed on 18 July and the Gepps Cross reading closes on 1 August which is a bit of a sad start to NFHM. State Records is relocating its public access services to the State Library of South Australia so it will be interesting to see how that works. The State Library has some great events planned for NFHM so perhaps that will help fellow family historians get over their disappointment with State Records. See SLSA list of events on their website here.

I have been following the 5th Unlock the Past cruise with lots of great photos from them on Facebook and the occasional blog from Helen Smith and Alona Tester. It has almost been like I was there but not really. They seem to have had fantastic weather judging by the short sleeves which surprised me as I always think of the north of Scotland as cold and bleak. Too much Hamish Macbeth perhaps!

When I do return home at the weekend there will be no rest as on Monday I start the first of my 11 presentations for the Moreton Bay Region Libraries to celebrate NFHM and they have other speakers too so at this early stage I think Moreton is going to take out the title of most supporting public library for NFHM 2014. This also reminds me that I will need to finalise my talks  between now and then. The Events page of my website has where I am speaking and the NFHM web calendar for Queensland has all the Moreton events listed.

Only three more sleeps to NFHM 2014 - get ready for a huge month of genealogy and family history across Australia and New Zealand. Happy researching everyone.