World Indexing, DNA, NFHM & New Publications - Genealogy Notes 1 - 8 Jul 2016

This Diary is a day late due to a research trip to Brisbane and the National Archives of Australia Brisbane office. Again I was amazed to see that there were few other researchers but I have decided that's OK. It simply means that I get the staff's undivided attention and records get delivered quickly.

While waiting for the files, I used the old microfiche electoral rolls for a query. What a pain, a different fiche for every year then finding the right spot on the fiche. How much easier is it now just to type in a person's name. By the time I finished looking, my files were ready to collect.

Vincent Carnegie 1946 

I had already worked out what I wanted to look at - six files located using name searches and the files were all who I thought they would be. One document, an application for a seaman's document of identity, had a photograph of the person I was researching. I only have vague memories of Dad's Uncle Vince and an older photo of him. I had not seen a photo of him as a young man so I was very happy. He was a seaman and the document was part of his application to leave Australia. My digital camera came into use again capturing key documents.

I had also promised a friend a look up in return for an earlier favour. Her document was an Italian passport, complete with photo and of course all in Italian. I took a few photos but have no real clue as to what the pages mean.  I hope she has some experience reading Italian.

It is really amazing the diversity of records within the National Archives of Australia. It was a great visit and I'll have to plan another trip soon.

A trip to the post office was also rewarding with new Unlock the Past publications:

• Neil Smith - Understanding Australian Military Speak
• Noelene Kyle - Researching Your Ancestor's Childhood
• Janet Few - Harnessing the Facebook Generation

So some reading to catch up on. 

The NSW & ACT Association of Family History Societies next conference is in Camden on 9-11 September and the program is now up on their website Cow Pastures and Beyond. I had been thinking of going but it is a long road trip from here and even if I fly, I can only get to Sydney or Canberra and then have to hire a car to get to Camden. If I still lived in Canberra I would definitely be going as Camden is a lovely little town. I hope somebody will be tweeting, blogging or posting on Facebook highlights from the conference.

FamilySearch have a World indexing event for 72 hours from 15 - 17 July and anyone can participate. The more records indexed, the easier it is for us all to find our ancestors and knock down brick walls. They are hoping to get 72,000 team mates and you can do as few or as many batches as you want or have time for. I've joined the team and put a note in my calendar so that I remember on the day.

I was pleased to see that my blog post for The Indepth Genealogist on the State Library of Queensland made That Moment in Time's Friday Fossicking 30 Jun 2016. It is always good to know that people benefit from reading a particular blog post.

Finally my big news is that my brother's DNA results are back from FamilyTree DNA so now to get my head around what the results tell me and to see if we match up with anyone.

National Family History Month is continuing to keep me busy approving events for the website and organising the launch which is now only three weeks away. I have entered my two regular NFHM online events - 31 Activities for Researchers and 31 Activities for Societies. With 18 talks during August I suspect there won't be much time for me to blog my own activities but I hope to do some. For a full list of all the talks and where I am speaking see the Events page of my website.

This coming week will be processing all my new information into my files and database. I also have a new tablet to set up - it is smaller than my I Pad and will be easier to travel around with. And of course NFHM is going to get busier as we are now only three weeks away from one of the most exciting months of our genealogical year. Until next time happy researching.

5 Years of Genealogy Notes 23-30 Jun 2016

Tomorrow 1 July marks the 5th birthday of this blog. Five years have gone incredibly quickly and there are so many new resources available online. Like any Diary it is good to go back and see what has happened and there have been lots of fantastic genealogical adventures and discoveries. I have made some wonderful new friends both in Australia and overseas and lots of happy memories are captured within this blog.

I am also grateful to the National Library of Australia who in 2013 selected this blog for permanent preservation within the Library's web archive Pandora . Thanks to the Library's wonderful Trove, my blog posts are searchable through Trove and Archived Websites (Pandora). This is in addition to Google so more people can find my family stories.

This blog started as a result of my telling others that blogging was easy and anyone could set up a blog in half hour. It was easy to set up but thinking of a name was much harder. In some ways I didn't really expect it to continue but it has grown into a real genealogy diary. Some of Australia's biggest genealogy conferences, seminars, cruises and library talks are all recorded in its pages. As well as my own genealogy success stories and discoveries.

Where to next? I still have a week to decide if I want to change what I am doing. If anything I would like it to be more than once a week but some days fly past so daily is probably too optimistic. Of course some days nothing exciting happens and I don't always do any research. Hopefully inspiration will come just as it did 5 years ago.

This week has been super busy with lots of people adding events to the National Family History Month web calendar. The early bird prize for genealogy/family history societies closed 30 June so I will be sending out the National Institute for Genealogical Studies gift certificate to them this week. The certificate can be used for fundraising during NFHM or to reward a society volunteer.

Plans for the launch in Perth are progressing. While over there I am participating in the Western Australian Genealogical Society's Making History seminar. One of NFHM's major sponsors Finders Cafe will also be there.

My next task is my regular article and blog post for The In-Depth Genealogist and I have a few research enquiries keeping me busy. Doing research for others can be fascinating as you often have to look at resources that you don't use for your own research. Never boring which is why I like genealogy so much I suspect.

The warm sunny blue sky winter days have seen me out and about in the garden. Two full trailer loads of palms and other foliage have gone to the tip but looking at our backyard you would never know. It's still a jungle but at least some of the taller palms leaning over sheds and fences have gone. The last storm saw a lot of trees come down on Bribie so best to tidy up before the next one. I would really like to remove the really tall palms between the house and pool but that would take away the tropical ambiance somewhat. Why do they have to lean towards the house?

Until next time, have a great genealogy week.

An ANZAC Experience, National Family History Month 2016 & Other News - Genealogy Notes 16 - 22 Jun 2016

A few days spent in Brisbane gave us the opportunity to visit the Spirit of ANZAC Centenary Experience which is a travelling exhibition touring Australia. It is currently in Brisbane for two weeks, finishing 30 June. Tickets are free but you need to book, probably to keep control of numbers at any one time.
Everyone is given a headset and you wander through listening to the commentary or background sounds. Max's distant cousin Archie Barwick is one of the soldiers who features in the exhibition as his war diaries are very detailed. The diaries have been digitised by State Library of New South Wales so I have looked at them before and it was good to see them used again in this context.

The combination of sound, visual and props makes this quite a moving exhibition because you can almost imagine yourself at Gallipoli or the Western Front.

At the very end there is a section with all the countries that were involved in WW1 and the number of their military war dead. Staggering and that didn't take into account any civilian casualties.

One of my distant cousins Frederick Trevaskis was killed in the 3rd battle of Ypres. I found this part of the exhibition extremely sad as over 6,700 Australians died alongside of him.

Very glad we made the effort and if it is coming to a city near you, make it a priority. The next stop is Mackay so heading up the Queensland coast. Book early as some times were booked out. We ended up late afternoon and went to dinner afterwards at South Bank at the historic Ship Inn built in 1865.

If you can't see it in person there is an interactive virtual tour that you can do. Full details on the website.

While in the South Bank area, we also popped into the Queensland Museum which is another place to spend a good few hours. I can never go past the Queensland dinosaurs and they seem to have added quite a few since I last took my young son there over 25 years ago! Wandering around South Bank also reminded me of Expo 88 which I also took him to, but at 12 months old I suspect his memories of that are a bit vague. Hard to believe that was almost 30 years ago.

After returning home I had to spend quite a while adding lots and lots of events to the National Family History Month website. At the moment there are 98 events across Australia with no events yet in South Australia, Northern Territory or the ACT. Hopefully we will get some soon for those three states and even more events for the other states.

The early bird prize for genealogy/family history societies who add an event to the NFHM calendar closes on 30 June so only one more week. The prize is a gift certificate for any online course from the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, from a choice of over 200 courses. The certificate can be used for fundraising eg raffles or lucky door prizes during August or can be used to reward a society member for their volunteer work and presented to them during August.

The NFHM Facebook page is also getting lots of visits but we would always love more Likes. If you haven't visited yet, pop over now and have a look. More information about NFHM and our sponsors and prize giveaway are on the NFHM website.

On 1 July 2016 this blog will be 5 years old. Where did that time go? I've been browsing some of the old posts and its been an amazing few years with lots of new personal genealogy discoveries. Technology and social media are definitely changing how we do family history. This time last year I was talking about changing the format of this blog but that never happened. You may remember I broke my right elbow last July and managed to complicate my life for just about the rest of 2015.

I'm still thinking of a revamp but don't want to tempt fate again this year. With a week to go to my blogiversary I'll give it some more thought. This coming week I have a few work jobs on so not that much time for personal research but there will be a visit to the Brisbane office of the National Archives of Australia coming up in early July. There are quite a few items I want to look at and given my success at Queensland State Archives the other week, I'm looking forward to it.

Until next time, happy genealogy researching.