Genealogy notes 18-24 June 2012 - Getting Expo Ready

The last week was the usual mad blur of too many things happening at once. As I'm in Brisbane for the Unlock the Past history and genealogy Queensland expo, I also had to leave the house neat and tidy for the real estate agent to show people through. Apparently they don't like seeing bits and pieces around (this includes kettles, toasters, salt & pepper and other things I leave out for daily convenience) so trying to think about potential buyer need was a distraction.

An exciting interlude before I left was an interview with Michael Lund from Brisbane's Courier Mail who was doing an article on family history to be published on 23 June. We seem to talk for ages and he had lots of questions but it's a really good article and you can read it here. I managed to finish my talks and I always print a copy, save to two USBs as  well as the copy on my laptop and the master on my remote back up drive.

As well as getting used to my new laptop, I also decided that I really did need an IPad to help me report on the Expo as the laptop is to heavy and big to carry around the exhibitor tables as well as take notes during sessions. Not to mention any social media activity! So that meant setting it up which wasn't too bad but I still haven't worked out how to transfer my calendar and contacts to it and I also discovered that my IPhone doesn't seem to talk to the new laptop so I haven't been able to sync that either.

The technology is great but for non techno people like me it always seems to be a little bit trickier. Luckily the Expo gives me three days to ask questions with a whole range of experts. Setting my new Telstra wi fi was not so straightforward either but thanks to the two technicians at the local store they sorted out my problems and I'm all systems go with that and it talks to the IPad and laptop so I'm happy.

Lots has been happening on my personal genealogy front with certificates arriving from the UK and I've ordered some wills too which should get here soon. The only trouble is that I don't have time to sit down and process all the new information. When I get home I've got to finalise talks for National Family History Week in just four weeks time, including State Library Victoria's Family History Feast and five talks with the Yarra Plenty Regional Library. Still it's going to be an exciting time.

Over the next three days I hope to do a daily blog of the expo and at the end my usual overview blog of the entire event. It doesn't finish until late tonight and I have to be up early and get across Brisbane in the morning so getting Day 1 out on time might be tricky but we will see how we go. I'm also looking forward to catching up with Geneablogger friend (and I remembered to pack my genealogy blogger beads) and also the Genealogists for Families Project members.


Stay tuned as the next three days are going to be full on genealogy. So excited!

Genealogy notes 4-17 June Brisbane genealogy expo next!

Almost two weeks of being frantic - photos with the real estate agent, people walking through the house, just keeping the house neat and tidy while at the same time trying to finalise my talks for the Unlock the Past Queensland genealogy expo in Brisbane on 25-27 June, finishing some complex client reports, putting the finishing touches to a new research guide and my poor old laptop decides its had enough!

Just what I needed, a few days without my laptop but I've got it back but I also took the opportunity to get a new one which is a lot faster - maybe I'll work faster too! But there has been the added time to set up this new one and move my data across and all that goes with making new laptops look like your old one.

Other distractions were the arrival of my new Flip Pal mobile scanner from Gould Genealogy & History which is another thing I have to learn how to use effectively but I'm hoping for a few lessons from my friend Jill at the Brisbane expo. She will be talking about it and doing live demos so that should help. A more worrying distraction was that I realised that I hadn't received my latest issue of Inside History Magazine and on checking with them, I found it had been dispatched but not arrived. They said another copy would be in the mail but over a week later it's still not here. I know it's a good read but I hope it hasn't been waylaid again!

I've been trying to get my other half to go to Bali with me again for some time out and he keeps saying no we've been there and we don't have time etc etc. His son rings up and says 'Dad you want to go to Bali with me' and you guessed it, the other half said yes straightaway! While I think it will be good for the two of them to spend time together, it couldn't be at a worse time for me as it is during National Family History Week 2012 (NFHW) and I have so many events scheduled where the other half was going to be doing my book selling. It really is too hard to give talks, then take questions and try and sell books at the same time so I'm missing him already. Plus I will still be here in chilly Melbourne and he will be lazing on a Bali beach eating seafood.

Still I think NFHW this year is going to be fantastic - I've been asked to do the opening at the Victorian Archives Centre on 27 July where Hanifa Deen is talking about her new book. I'm also speaking at the State Library Victoria's annual Family History Feast (bookings open 18 June) plus Yarra Plenty Regional Library have got me giving presentations at five of their libraries. So that's a few more talks I've got to start thinking about!

I'm leaving for Brisbane on Thursday which is a few days before the Expo so that I can catch up with family and friends. Mum's looking forward to seeing us and I'm hoping to try out that Flip Pal scanner on some of her old photo albums which she doesn't want me to take away. I'm also staying a few days after the Expo but have to be back in Melbourne for the Audrey Collins Australian tour on 2 July.

The next few weeks are going to be full on genealogy (half of me is hoping the house won't sell just yet) and as usual, I will be blogging events and sharing the experience with readers who can't get to the talks themselves. I hope to meet a few people in Brisbane and catch up with other UTP speakers and as always feedback is appreciated. Enjoy your research time!

Genealogy notes 21 May - 3 June Moving & Genealogy Talking

Well it's amazing how much time it takes to get ready for a monster moving garage sale, then there were the two days (cold but not wet) that we lived in our garage watching other people snap up our preloved items, then the trip to the Salvos with what was left. We hadn't even had a chance to relax when the real estate agent said he wanted to show someone through and of course we have boxes of books and other 'clutter' all over the place. I still had to finalise my talks for the Yarrawonga GMAGs seminar and we were leaving on the Saturday.

Somehow we managed it all and the seminar went well. I gave four talks - Ancestors in Church, Australian Government Archives Online, Resources for Photographs, and PROV's Nooks and Crannies plus I staffed a small books sales table with Unlock the Past publications. Archival Access Victoria was the other speaker and Mark gave lots of examples of the types of records that can be found at PROV and the copy services they offer.

With approx 50 people I was kept busy selling and talking but still managed to eat some of the wonderful country cooking that is always on offer at these events. But that night I was more that a bit weary so it was just pizza with the chardy and an early night.

As usual people asked me to put the talks on my website so I still have to PDF the talks and place them on the Resources page under Presentations. I've allowed myself a few days to do it just in case it takes longer than I anticipate or I get distracted with other priorities!

It was great to see so many people from Deniliquin and I'm looking forward to their Deniliquin genealogy muster in October. It's a first for them so I'm hoping that it is going to attract lots of people from surrounding areas. We're taking the caravan up and will spend a few days exploring the area as usually we are just passing through on the way to someplace else.

There's no rest for the wicked and tonight I'm the guest speaker at the Yarrawonga Family History Group meeting doing a Q&A session. Some members have already sent their questions via email so I will spend today doing some preparation. From tomorrow I get to relax for a few days and hope to go on a cruise of Lake Mulwala in a paddle steamer. I have to be back in Melbourne by Friday as there is a meeting of the Victorian Association of Family History Organisations and I'm on the committee.

I have so many emails and enewsletters in my inbox I don't think I will ever catch up plus I have to check/amend the talks I'm giving at the Unlock the Past Queensland Expo in Brisbane in a few weeks. That will be a great event and a chance to catch up with some of my favourite speakers.

If our house sells quickly and we become homeless (apart from the caravan) life will become really interesting. At least most of my family history is now on the laptop although I still have a lot of documents and photos to scan. I'm sure it will work out eventually. Until next time.

Genealogy notes 10-20 May 2012 - blogging challenges

Well another ten days have passed and our 'monster' garage sale is next weekend plus we have continued to give items away to our families and friends. This will be our fourth move since we met in 2001 so it's probably time that we combined our belongings and have only one of everything! Of course the danger is that when we finally arrive at our 'new home' we will probably want something we have given away thinking we would never have a need for it again. It's also amazing how much time can be taken up talking to banks, real estate agents, friends and family members who want us to move near them and people telling us where they would retire too. I think we really do need to 'do it now' as I don't think I could stand to have this hanging over my head for another year.

Anyway, in our rest breaks I continue to try and keep up with my emails, e-newsletters, Twitter, Facebook and bloggers I like to read but I am very aware of how much I am missing out on logging in sporadically. There are three blogging challenges this year I would have liked to participate in - 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy (now into Week 19), Beyond the Internet (now into Week 18) and the Family History through the Alphabet (only up to B so maybe I can catch up) challenge. These are all weekly themes which in past years I would have contributed to but at the moment I'm flat out keeping this Diary going. I still like to try and read the various posts to these challenges as we can learn so much from what others write and share with us.

One thing that I have committed to is a National Institute of Genealogical Studies (NIGS) course on Google for the Wise Genealogist (I wonder which other Congress attendees are doing this in May or have already completed it). This is a free course that I signed up for when I visited the NIGS display stand at the AFFHO genealogy congress in Adelaide back in March. At the time I elected to do it in May as I had thought this month would be relatively free so I'm a bit behind with that and the next week's lectures and assignments are due to tomorrow. So I simply must catch up this afternoon.

The other exciting thing that happened in the last week was that I received an invitation to speak at and launch this year's National Family History Week from 27 July to 5 August. The launch will be at the Victorian Archives Centre in Melbourne on 27 July so I hope to see a few people there and I encourage all genealogy and family history groups to add their events to the 2012 calendar.

Plus I'm trying to finish a few genealogy reports for clients, do a new talk on resources for identifying photographs for the GMAGS Day on 3 June, revising my talks for the Queensland Genealogy Expo in Brisbane 25-27 June and finalise a couple of publications I have pending for Unlock the Past.

And it's my son's 25th birthday today so I'm a bit nostalgic and wondering where the last 25 years have gone! I still don't think I'm ageing as much as he has in the last  25 years. We will catch up and celebrate when I'm in Brisbane next month. My niece turned 18 last Friday and again I can't quite believe that.

Time to finish this Diary update and get back to crossing off at least some of those things on my to do list for this glorious autumn day in Melbourne! If it all gets too hard, I'm going out for a nice walk and soak up some Vitamin D which my doctor tells me I'm deficient in (last time he told me to stay out of the sun and I had skin cancer surgery on my face). I'm happy to say that scar is healing quite nicely and is mostly hidden by my hair. Until next time.

Genealogy notes 24 Apr - 9 May 2012 Top 50 genealogy blogs

Wow can't believe it's over two weeks since I sat down to write this Diary. Getting ready to move is taking up so much of our time - we've been gardening, painting, moving furniture, steam cleaning carpets, sorting items for our huge garage sale in a couple of weeks and so on. I've been squeezing in a bit of genealogy along the way and managed to get my ANZAC Day tribute on my SHHE Genie Rambles blog done on my Uncle Gordon, a Rat of Tobruk.

I've also accepted a number of opportunities to give genealogy talks for the Society of Australian Genealogists in Sydney, various talks for the Yarra Plenty Regional Library in Melbourne and another all day seminar for the Goulburn Murray Association of Local and Family History Groups. For dates, venues and presentation titles see my Services and Events page on my website. The second half of this year is starting to look quite busy but by then we should have got the house ready for sale (assuming we can never decide where we are going to move to)!

I have stacks of genealogy e-newsletters and blogs to catch up on but one that caught my eye on Twitter the other day had the hash tag #50bestblogs and I started getting mentions and congrats. So today I said to the other half I simply must sit down and have a read and write the next instalment of this Diary. I'm very pleased to see that I have been included in the Top 50 genealogy blogs penned by blogger friend Geniaus and published by Inside History magazine in their latest issue. I haven't got my paper copy yet and that's always an occasion to put the kettle on and sit down to have a good read. Perhaps I can send the other half out to Bunnings when it arrives! You wouldn't believe how many trips we've made to Bunnings over the last couple of weeks as we do little touch ups here and there, both inside and outside of the house.

Doing a bit of painting and minor repairs is really the easy part of moving. By far the hardest part is sorting out all our stuff. I live with a hoarder and I've always been a collector (more selective in my hoarding for those wanting to know the difference). I was a stamp collector as a child and since 1977 I've been actively collecting ancestors and their stories. What I hadn't realised is how collecting is a theme in almost everything I do. For example, my sock drawer was always just a sock drawer until last week when I put all my socks out on the bed with the aim to throw out the 'daggy' ones. My socks actually tell the story of my life and my travels with socks from Tasmania with their smiley Tasmanian tigers, my kiwi socks from New Zealand and my sheep socks from Hamilton in Victoria, the sheep capital of Australia. You get the picture.

My nightie drawer was not much different. There was the nightie I bought to go on a five week overseas trip to Europe in 2000, quite a few from the Victoria Markets here in Melbourne and then there was my fav nightie, but it's looking a bit the worse for wear. So much so my partner said why didn't I just chuck it out (after all this is what we are supposed to be doing, minimising what we are moving with). My response was that I could still  remember buying it as I was pregnant with my son at the time and I wanted something nice for the hospital. My son is turning 25 this month which means my fav nightie is older than my son! Perhaps it really should be 'retired'!

Do others find that basic clothing can generate memories and lifetime attachments? I can understand it with wedding dresses and perhaps more formal outfits but the humble sock and nightie?

Then there are all my travel souvenirs starting with the first turtle I ever bought in Fiji in 1975 on my first ever overseas trip - yes I collect turtles and have many in varying shapes, sizes and formats. Then there is my cat collection, and I have a fondness for camels especially one I picked up in Upper Mongolia back in 1996. Don't get me started on my fridge magnets which are all over the fridge, freezer, filing cabinets and other metal surfaces around the house. Somewhere deep inside me I know that they should go but each one has it's own memory and story to tell.

Well I have to get back to tidying up, as much as we can with all the boxes and stuff piled up everywhere as there is a real estate agent coming this afternoon to give us the latest on selling in this area. More than half a dozen houses have sold in our surrounding streets in the last month so it's not going to be hard to sell should we put it on the market. It's a high demand area but without somewhere to go to, we would be left with living in the caravan and we still have too much stuff for that! Wish me luck and I'm hoping for more genealogy time next week!

Genealogy Notes 17-23 April 2012 - Online or Offline

When you are travelling it's easy to lose track of the days and fall behind if you don't log on everyday. In my last Diary entry I was excited about going to the Society of Australian Genealogists' (SAG) library in Sydney and I did have a great day. What wasn't so much fun was the 'rain episode' Sydney had while I was there and I managed to get quite a bit damp as I walked to SAG and other places around the CBD over those few days.

I found the SAG library fascinating and managed to spend all day there, stopping for some lunch and a coffee with Heather. Like most older libraries SAG still has card indexes that have not yet been keyed into a database (although there are ongoing projects but it takes time and volunteers) so these indexes were a priority for me to check and I found some interesting references. I can't wait until they are all keyword searchable online as cards can only be filed in one place or only under a person's name and not by place or other identifier.

My next activity was to have a look at some of their books which I had previously looked up in the SAG online catalogue and again I made some interesting finds. You can save a lot of time by doing your catalogue searches at home before visiting a library, certainly beats the 'old days'. However for most of the morning I was the only one down that end of the room, everyone else was up the other end on the computers. Not everything is online but perhaps they had already looked at all the non online materials?

After lunch I could stand it no longer and I went down and took up a terminal, only to be surprised that there were over 1100 items to choose from! My purpose was to look at SAG's Australian Genealogical Computer Index (AGCI) four CD ROM's which have a wide variety of material on them but I could see others using FindMyPast, Ancestry, Origins and the older gentleman next to me was even using TROVE - I hadn't thought about those members who might not have a computer at home to do free web searches let alone access all the different subscription databases and material on CD ROMs. Fifteen minutes before closing I made a terrific find but of course there was no time to follow it through so I will need to access the AGCI CDs again either at the Genealogical Society of Victoria (GSV) or perhaps even the State Library of Victoria.

SAG's volunteers on duty were very helpful and as a new (rejoined) member they kept asking me if I was ok or if I needed any help which was great. It always mystifies me that more people don't join their local society as you can learn so much from the library volunteers not to mention all the great resources you can access in the society library. I'm currently a member of three societies, SAG, GSV and the Queensland Family History Society (QFHS) which somewhat reflects my own nomadic lifestyle but also that of my ancestors.

The following day there was even more rain so I bunkered down in the hotel room and consolidated my notes and did some online searching of digitised newspapers on TROVE. It's very easy to lose a few hours of time that way and even when I poked my head outside for lunch and a bit of a walk, my umbrella was not up to the winds whipping down Oxford Street!

Thursday was my flight home to Melbourne and Friday was a catch up with the housework, shopping and washing and all the mail, including a large envelope from London. Rosemary Morgan of London Roots Research has been doing some research for me and she found the death of someone whose death had been eluding me. His wife was called a widow in the 1851 census but not the 1841 census so I had assumed (that often fatal word) that he had died between 1841 and 1851 but without finding him. Rosemary took it back to the birth of his last child and it turned out he died in 1832! Some times it pays to get professional assistance with brickwalls, especially when you have looked at everything you can think off. Someone else's view and approach may be quite different from our own.

The weekend was wet here in Melbourne so I tackled some more decluttering and identifying items for our garage sale at the end of May. We have so much 'stuff' piled up everywhere it will be good to see it go, either at the garage sale or to a charity afterwards. We've also given away a lot to our children, friends and neighbours and also to some charities. Yet there still seems like a lot of 'stuff' left.Wherever we end up moving to, we have to make certain that we don't end up rebuying all this 'stuff'!

Over the last week I've been in discussion with a couple of people about doing talks later in the year so once details are finalised I'll be able to put those up on my Events calendar. I'm also putting some finishing touches to some new research guides for Unlock the Past - I have a tendency to want to include everything but that's not always possible so completing a guide is always hard for me. My ANZAC Day blog this year will be on my mother's eldest brother who was a Rat of Tobruk and he also served in New Guinea as well as the Middle East. Time to get back to work!

Genealogy notes 14-16 April 2012 - Researching in Sydney

It's a very wet start to the day in Sydney so I'm catching up with the Diary while I hope the rain stops soon. The Australian Society of Archivists meeting on Saturday didn't quite go to schedule and I ended up missing my visit to Richmond Villa the home of the Society of Australian Genealogists. However it was good to catch up with many long time archival colleagues at the meeting and during the lunch break, there was an opportunity to dash out and see some of The Rocks famous weekend market.

Afterwards quite a few of us went to the Fortune of War hotel  which was established in 1828 and is reputedly Sydney's oldest pub. It's also where a former NSW State Archivist gave me my first ever glass of Guinness and I've never looked back! Sydney has some fantastic old pubs and on a former visit we did an historic pub crawl which was fascinating and we've also done the ghost tour!

Then I had dinner at Circular Quay with my bridesmaid from 1983 and amazingly we both recognised each other and had a great night catching up with all the news as we haven't seen each other in over ten years. It was so much fun we will be having dinner again tonight.

Sunday was a slow day, a leisurely walk around the city streets near my hotel, reading the Sunday newspaper in Hyde Park and then I spent the afternoon doing some TROVE digitised newspaper searching and preparing myself for the big research trip to the Mitchell Library and the genealogy section of the State Library NSW. When I walked out of the hotel Monday morning I couldn't believe the traffic noise and I thought Melbourne was bad but then I don't go into the city often these days. Perhaps after the quiet of the weekend it just seemed louder!

Anyway to get to the Library I had to walk through both sections of Hyde Park and it was unbelievable how the trees manage to cut down on the traffic noise. Also explains why so many people walk through there on their way to work plus you don't have the car fumes so full on. The tricky bit for me was that this space is also shared with cyclists who do ring their bells but for people who don't hear to well and aren't watching out for cyclists on footpaths, it makes for an interesting time at intersections.

I haven't been to the Mitchell Library (the Australiana section of the State Library NSW) since the early 1990s when I was doing my Society of Australian Genealogists Diploma. It has to be one of Australia's most beautiful libraries and the atmosphere almost makes you feel scholarly. The catalogue is online but only for items since 1992 so there are lots of card drawers with interesting indexes and these were what I mainly wanted to look through for my early research on Sydney. I was pleased to see old genealogy friend Aileen there and in the cafeteria at lunch time with Perry, I ran into my old archival colleague Paul.

I also spent time in the genealogy section of the State Library NSW finally looking at some microfilms I've been wanting to look at. It's not that they aren't in Melbourne, it's more the fact that I never seemed to find time to do it in Melbourne (or perhaps I don't stay there often enough?). I hadn't realised they had an online guide to convicts which is another reason why we should look closely at websites before we do our genealogy research trips. One of my other joys is browsing the shelf as you never know what you will find and I had some success just pulling out books and looking up the indexes. That's something we miss when we only do research online.

The walk back through Hyde Park was equally good and as I had been sitting for most of the day, I kept walking up Oxford Street for a while before returning to the hotel for the evening. The evening weather was all about how wet Sydney was going to be for the next few days and sure enough, I woke up this morning to the sound of heavy rain on the skylights. Walking over to the Kent Street library of the Society of Australian Genealogists is going to be interesting but I have an umbrella and perhaps later this morning the rain won't be quite so heavy. I haven't been to the 'new' library and it should be good. Stay tuned.