Genealogy Notes 27 Aug - 4 Sep 2014 NFHM 2014 ends

Sorry Diary is a couple of days late but my internet had a melt down (too much use over National Family History Month) but full service now restored. Plus I have been super busy notifying all the prize winners and letting the sponsors know too.

The NFHM sponsors prize draw was done after my talk at Redcliffe Library. Here is a happy snap of the audience listening to my talk on the Golden Rules of Genealogy and Demolishing Brick Walls.  After the talk we had a lucky door prize draw for one of my books and some Inside History Magazines and Australian Family Tree Connections magazines and then some of the audience stayed to assist with the NFHM sponsors prize draw. Good fun all round. Photos courtesy of Moreton Bay Region Libraries.

I received some very excited emails from the lucky winners and some thanks and feedback on organising the whole month for AFFHO. You can read about the winners in my NFHM wrap up blog and it also includes some statistics on number of events and participating organisations. I thought it was a bigger month than last year and the numbers proved that. 

Then the next big thing I had to do was a report  for AFFHO and already I am thinking about what we can do next year to continue to build on this success. All suggestions welcome. 

I am still adding some items to the NFHM Pinterest board when people draw my attention to activities that I haven't picked up myself yet. 

Tomorrow I am heading to Brisbane to give a talk on Ancestors in Church to the North Brisbane Branch of the Genealogical Society of Queensland. I have known some of them for decades so it will be a good catch up. Then I am planning a few days of rest!

I also hope to get back to my personal genealogy blog 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2014 which I had to suspend due to all my NFHM activities. It will be nice to get back to some research and writing just for my own pleasure. 

One blog that was brought to my attention was John Reid's Canada's Anglo Celtic Connections. John does the Rockstar Genealogists survey and you can see the 2014 nominations here. Other nominations/suggestions welcome but close 6 Sep 2014. There are quite a few Aussie speakers and bloggers that I like here as well as some that I have cruised with on Unlock the Past Cruises.

NFHM wrap up has consumed most of my time this last week so nothing much else to report but my genealogy life should go back to normal in the next week or so. Happy researching while I lose myself in a good novel or two and the odd nanna nap!

Genealogy Notes 20-26 August 2014 - National Family History Month nearly over

It seems to have been a really good National Family History Month so far. I have seen lots of reports on various social media sites with people sharing what they have done and learnt at the various events around the country. Make the most of the last few days of August by reading some of the blogs and follow up on the tips. One that I am going to be looking at this week is from one of my favourite online resources. Trove Tips for Family Historians by Catriona Bryce from the National Library of Australia is a must read and it was great to see that the tips came from a brainstorming session with Liz Pidgeon from Yarra Plenty Libraries.

Liz was one of my geneabuddies when I was living in Victoria and her enthusiasm for family history is fantastic and she is a source of lots of great tips. The beauty of the internet is that I can still keep in touch with Liz (and others) by simply following their blog, or on Twitter, Facebook or wherever. In some ways once we embrace social media it does not really matter where we live.

In the first two days of this week I have done three talks in three libraries and while I am starting to feel a bit all talked out, I still have one more talk to do for National Family History Month. Today I am at the Redcliffe Library and afterwards we will be drawing the sponsors prizes giveaway which closed yesterday. We are all organised and with the help of attendees I will have some good news for the lucky winners tomorrow. Good luck to all those who entered for the various prizes and thanks to Moreton Bay Region Libraries for their fantastic support in NFHM.

There is still time to register for one of the three online genealogy courses offered by the National Institute of Genealogical Studies. You can choose from Google for the Wise Genealogist or Social Media Tools for the Wise Genealogist or Connecting Family: Online and Virtually. To register for your complimentary course send an email to info@genealogicalstudies.com with the following details - your name, mailing address, email address, course name and start month. The courses start the first Monday of each month and you can select which month best suits you eg September, October etc.

I have also managed to complete Nos 16-31 of my 31 Activities for Researchers in National Family History Month. You can read Nos 1-15 here and it has been good to see others also blogging what they have been doing. A couple of examples include Geniaus with her #NFHM2014 Report Card and TravelGenee has been blogging each of the challenges.

There hasn't been much time to do anything else except NFHM related things and I will probably find myself at a loss of what to do next week. Not really because the next Unlock the Past cruise is looming - a 3 night cruise out of Sydney and the genealogy sessions without the distraction of foreign ports. It will be just like a genealogy conference and I am really looking forward to it. It is also a great opportunity to simply have a fantastic long weekend on board a luxury ship with no cooking, no housework and you don't have to make your own bed!

But for now it is time to get ready and head off for Redcliffe. I must add up how many kilometres I have travelled this month around South East Queensland and of course if I add in the trip to Canberra for the launch it will be in the thousands. Enjoy the rest of National Family History Month. Until next time.

Genealogy notes 13-19 August 2014 - More National Family History Month news

Another busy week with one talk for Moreton Bay Region Libraries and a webinar (my first ever webinar presentation) for MyHeritage. I found it a bit strange just sitting in my study talking to my laptop knowing that there were about 120 people out there listening to me. More new technology mastered or at least experienced!

My experimenting with a NFHM board on Pinterest has been working really well (if I can say that) as I did a Google trawl looking for items about NFHM and found some interesting pieces which I was able to pin to the board. Quite a few people are following and some have even pinned my pins on to their own boards.

This week was the deadline for my next article for Irish Lives Remembered and I was sent a proof of an article I wrote for Inside History Magazine which is looking good for the next issue.

I have added a few more events to the NFHM web calendar and continue to add individuals into the sponsors prizes giveaway. There are a fantastic list of prizes to be won by individuals including 10 Ancestry subscriptions, 2 Findmypast subscriptions, 2 MyHeritage subscriptions, 2 AFFHO Congress 2015 registrations, 2 $100 genEbooks vouchers, 3 NSW transcriptions from Joy Murrin, 1 Momento photo book valued at $150, 2 Unlock the Past cruise vouchers at $200 each and $150 research services with yours truly. How to enter is on the home page of NFHM and please read the terms and conditions. The prize giveaway closed in one week - 26 August at 5.00pm. Links to all the sponsors are on the Sponsors page.

Also on offer is a free online genealogy course with the National Institute of Genealogical Studies. There are three courses to choose from and instructions on how to enrol in the course of your choice is on the Sponsors page of NFHM.

There are still lots of events to go in the last two weeks of NFHM so check out your local area and remember to see what is online as there are some interesting offers there too.

My 31 Activities for Researchers and 31 Activities for Societies in NFHM is on my Resources page and I did manage to write up my first 15 activities and you can read it here. The other 16 will hopefully be later this week.

I also managed to take up another 3 Kiva loans with my repayments from previous loans, all part of the Kiva Genealogists for Families project. That is also a good activity to do during NFHM and I must remember that for next year.  You can join me at http://www.kiva.org/invitedto/genealogists/by/shauna1522

Tomorrow I am speaking at the Deception Bay Library on Family History on the Cheap and I have not been to that Library before so probably all new people. Next week I have four talks to finish off NFHM and of course the sponsors prizes giveaway draw on 27 August at Redcliffe. I really like that I can spread some of my major NFHM  activities around - launch in Canberra, talks throughout Moreton Bay Region and the prize draw at Redcliffe. Just as well I don't mind a bit of travel.

For those not familiar with Redcliffe it was Queensland's first European settlement and September 2014 marks the 190th anniversary of settlement in the area. So a nice historical place to end my NFHM! For those reading this overseas, we really are a very young country.

I think that is all I have done the last week but then I am a bit weary! Planning a nice week off post NFHM with a week's holiday at Surfers Paradise. I haven't been there since I was a teenager so it will be interesting and something a bit different, not our usual exotic places.

Keep on enjoying NFHM and happy researching.