Local & Family History Go Together - Genealogy Notes 3 - 9 Oct 2015

What a fantastic week starting with the History Queensland In Time and Place conference in Brisbane. The conference was excellent and there were a number of geneabloggers there and I have listed some of the reports below. There may be more coming or I haven't picked them up yet. Some of the other bloggers went to different sessions so I think we have captured most of the sessions and different aspects of the conference.

Reports on the Time and Place Conference so far:

Alex Daw (Family Tree Frog)  In Time and Place - Just Right 

Caitlin Gow (Genealogically Speaking) In Time and Place

Fran Kitto (Travel Genee) Queensland's First Local, Family and Social History Conference 

Shauna Hicks (SHHE Genie Rambles) Review of History Queensland Conference 3-4 Oct 2015

As well as my blog post on the conference I  kick started my 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2015 again. Week 40 is on Company Records and my focus was mining companies given my families' mining background but there are company records for all kinds of things. Given all the lessons learnt in last weekend's conference, company records should not be overlooked for what they might tell you about the local community and the people who lived there.

While visiting the Queensland Family History Society display at the conference I picked up their beginner's course flyer and was pleasantly surprised to see that they are using my Where Do I Start? research guide as the text book for the beginner's course. We had chatted about this earlier in the year before the guide was even printed but I hadn't realised they were going ahead with it. My broken right elbow has kept me out of the loop with lots of things so lots of catching up to do.

Myself and another committee member of the Bribie Island Historical Society have set up a new blog (Bribie Island History blog) for the Society although some members of the Committee are not convinced it is a good move or necessary. To me blogging is such an obvious way to spread the word about whatever you are researching and as a blog is searchable by Google it is ever so much more effective than having something published in a local newspaper which has limited readership.  Hopefully the blog will see some results quickly which will help to show people why blogging can be good for societies and individuals.

Having two hands to type again certainly helps with my writing and I finally finished my book review of Carol Baxter's two new Help! books - Help! Historical and Genealogical Truth: How do I separate fact from fiction? and Help! Why Can't I Find My Ancestor's Surname?  Read my review here.

I am also excited to have been asked to review Nathan Dylan Goodwin's new book The America Ground (another Morton Farrier forensic genealogist adventure). While I wait patiently for that to arrive (still a paperback girl), I have to do my review for the Australian Society of Archivists on Personal Archiving: Preserving our digital heritage edited by Donald T Hawkins. So lots of reading ahead.

My next piece of writing is an article for Going In-Depth, The In-Depth Genealogist's digital magazine. I will be continuing my Australian series for them again from the December issue. It seems simply ages since I wrote the last article but I couldn't keep with my injured arm and fortunately they have been very understanding.

As usual I am behind with my emails, enewsletters and even my print journals. We have had some lovely weather and I have been out and about now that I can drive again. I have even started exercising in the pool again but nothing too ambitious yet. The gardening had also been sadly neglected so a few hours were also spent getting rid of weeds.

With no more talks for 2015 I am also hoping to do some more of my own family history research. Until next time, have a great genealogy week.

Look Two Hands - Genealogy Notes 25 Sep - 2 Oct 2015

This is my first blog post using two hands since early July. I now have the go ahead to use my right arm but it is a bit weak from no usage and aches a bit if I overdo things. But I can type ever so much faster.

During the week I did a catch up on some of the WDYTYA episodes in Australian season 7 and I think it is one of the best series so far. Also noted quite a few geneafriends helping the celebrities which was fantastic. Some great stories and even a bit teary eyed in some episodes. You can catch up online if you missed any of the episodes.

Gordon Price in Syria 1941

I am all set for the History Queensland conference this weekend and I hope people like what I have done for my keynote address. It is a bit different from what I usually do but then it is a keynote. I am also looking forward to hearing the other speakers but there are two streams outside the keynotes. One with a local history focus and the other a family history focus. As usual it would be good to be two people and go to both. I will have a blog report next week.

The tidy up of the study went well - now I have neat piles of stuff to read and file. My trouble is that while reading or filing/entering data I get bright ideas and hive off to do a spot of research which is of course more interesting than just straight filing/entering data. Some of the websites I read about in magazines or see talked about on Facebook can lead to hours of research. For example, I read in an RSL newsletter about the Rats of Tobruk Association Victoria website and as my Uncle Gordon was a Rat of Tobruk I had a quick look. There is lots of information about Tobruk and members of the Association.

Regular readers will know that at the beginning of the year I took on Thomas MacEntee's Genealogy Do Over challenge to relook at some of my family lines which I first started nearly 40 years ago. I was making great progress until family medical dramas overtook the year. Cycle 4 has just started and Thomas has a new workbook on the horizon. Read about the changes here.

I have to also get back to my own blog challenge 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2015. I am up to Week 40 so 12 blog posts to go and only 12 weeks to the end of the year. I need to get my skates on if I want to wrap this challenge up.

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies have just asked me to do another online course for them on Australian church records which will be interesting. I give talks on this topic as I believe church records are an underutilised resource. My Unlock the Past research guide on Finding Ancestors in Church Records: a brief guide to resources highlights some of these resources. It will be good to do a much deeper look at church records for family history.

Now that I have the use of both hands again I really do want to get back into more blogging, writing up my own stories and tidying up my research. There are no more talks for the year so I can concentrate on my projects, get back my fitness after three months of little activity and tame the garden again!

Have another great genealogy week. Until next time.

Rockstars, Gems & Reviews - Genealogy Notes 15-24 Sep 2015

Still using only one hand so more reading than doing again this past week. I do like Geniaus' Gems or GAGs as she calls them - basically a weekly round up (when she has time and is not travelling) of interesting blog posts that she has read or seen in the past week or so. I usually find quite a few interest me and I might not have found them apart from Jill's round up. This link is to the GAGs post on 18 September. There should be another one soon.

A highlight has been the announcement of the 2015 Rockstar Genealogists - an annual listing by John D Reid (Canada's Anglo Celtic Connections). This year I was honoured to receive the Bronze medal for Australia and New Zealand and the top 10 for our area has an impressive list of speakers and bloggers. I was delighted to also find that I have personally heard 6 of the top 10 international Rockstar Genealogists right here in Australia. Great to see so many of them now travelling downunder. The Australia/New Zealand top 10 are here. Congratulations to everyone who made the top 10 lists and thanks to all those who appreciate the hard work that goes into giving presentations.

My review of the Port Macquarie genealogy conference is now online on my website and I have almost finalised my keynote paper for the History Queensland conference on 3-4 October in Brisbane. That will be a good catch up with all my Queensland geneamates and perhaps a few others from south of the border. Sadly it is the last conference for the year.

Family History Fair at Port Macquarie, 2015

On a brighter note I do have the 10th Unlock the Past genealogy cruise to look forward to in February 2016 which goes to New Zealand and the southern Australian capital cites ending in Fremantle, Western Australia. One of the key presenters I am looking forward to hearing is Judy G Russell (The Legal Genealogist) from the United States and also catching up again with Louis Kessler and some of the other regular UTP speakers.

This afternoon I am helping the Bribie Island Historical Society set up a blog so that will be interesting. There is a basic website but I think we can do more with a regular blog to share stories of the Island's fascinating past.

The study needs a bit of a tidy up. I seem to be able to pull books down from the shelves but getting them back up is a bit more tricky. The table has piles of stuff on it - lots of new info from Trove waiting to be data entered into my genealogy program and then filed in my family history binders. But that requires two hands! When I do get the go ahead, I will have to be careful not to overdo it but ease back in gently.

Have a great genealogy week - until next time.