How did five days slip past? I'm on a mission to clean up my study which houses all of my family history material accumulated over the last 34 years. A good friend when she moved from Brisbane to Canberra a couple of years ago said be ruthless. I have moved four times in the last 12 years so I have tried to keep the clutter down but we are facing yet another move and the time to be ruthless is upon me.
One easy win is that many things I printed out or photocopied years ago are now freely available online so I have made the decision to not keep the paper copies - amazing how much paper weighs. Mostly this is BDM indexes, IGI printouts, electoral rolls and so on. The family information is of course already captured in my Legacy Family Tree database.
Another easy win has been giving away my genealogy journals from the two Brisbane based societies. Both the Genealogy Society of Queensland and the Queensland Family History Society have digitised back issues of their journals, respectively Generation (1979-2008) and Queensland Family Historian (1979-2010). I came home from my recent trip to Brisbane with a copy of both and it is a much easier way to search through old journal issues. The only other Australian society that I am aware of which has done this with their journal Descent (1933-2008) is the Society of Australian Genealogists based in Sydney.
However I still can't resist flicking through everything and that is what is taking the time. I also made the mistake of looking at all my boxes of family photographs and after many trips down memory lane, I put all the boxes back in the cupboard or I was never going to get anything done. I have been scanning my photos as well but that also takes time. Don't worry, I won't be getting rid of original copies but it will be good to have backup copies.
I have two more talks in September so I spent some time updating Archives You May Not Know But Should for the Genealogical Society of Victoria and I am also giving that talk to the Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies together with It's Not All Online: Where Else Can I Look? To see what else I am doing Oct-Dec 2011 see the Events page on my website.
Some of my online reading so far has included September issues for Genes Reunited, Ancestry.com, Public Record Office Despatch (Victoria), Lost Cousins and my daily doses of Dick Eastman. It is good to see Channel 9 showing the US series of Who Do You Think You Are? on Wednesdays at 10pm (starting tonight so don't miss it). However I do wish it was on a bit earlier - I'm not a tape and watch later person so a late night for me!
Now back to my clean up!
Tuesday 13 September 2011
Thursday 8 September 2011
Genealogy notes 5-7 September 2011 A Bit of Everything
Time flies when you are having fun and it is certainly flying at the moment. I seem to have a small mountain of reading to do - and that's only the paper based reading. This week I have received my quarterly magazines from the Genealogical Society of Victoria and the Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies, the September issues of Australian Family Tree Connections (AFTC) and Victorian GUM News (there is a handy index to past newsletters on their website) and Issue 6 of Inside History. All now piled up on top of the 'waiting to read' pile.
One thing I forgot to mention earlier was that I received a complimentary copy of State Records NSW 1788-2011 by Peter J Tyler which was written to celebrate the 50th anniversary of State Records Authority of NSW. This history is also available online free and it is great to see a history of the archives which also incorporates the time before the Authority was established in 1961. It should be an interesting read.
I also received a copy of Goldie Alexander's Mentoring Your Memoir to review and this is a 'how to write and a personal memoir all in one' so I am looking forward to reading that. I'm still very conscious of the fact that one of my 2011genealogy aspirations for this year is to 'publish' one of my draft family histories. Basically the drafts need tidying up, add a few photos, pick a title (hardest part I think) and then decide on published format (probably a bit more involved than that but you know what I mean).
With all that reading temptation, I still had to write Part 11 of my mining ancestor series for AFTC, my guest blog on News from Australia for MyHeritage and I accepted a commission to write for a UK magazine (with a short deadline) so the last few days have been busy writing and I even managed a research report for one of my long term clients.
I also accepted a blog challenge from Geniaus to do My 99 Things Genealogy Meme - Aussie Style which was a lot of fun and did make me think about all the things I have/have not done. Other Australian bloggers (11 when I looked) joined in and Geniaus has compiled all the responses into a single blog. I would also like to see Geniaus add her original post to this list too - then we could all be the Aussie Genealogy Dozen!
7 September saw my 11,000 tweet on Twitter which is amazing. I originally thought I wouldn't benefit from Twitter but now find it really good for up to date genealogy news. In fact I don't think I could manage without it as it also links me to many overseas genealogy friends that I would never have known otherwise.
Anyway if I am going to get any reading done today, I better stop writing now!
One thing I forgot to mention earlier was that I received a complimentary copy of State Records NSW 1788-2011 by Peter J Tyler which was written to celebrate the 50th anniversary of State Records Authority of NSW. This history is also available online free and it is great to see a history of the archives which also incorporates the time before the Authority was established in 1961. It should be an interesting read.
I also received a copy of Goldie Alexander's Mentoring Your Memoir to review and this is a 'how to write and a personal memoir all in one' so I am looking forward to reading that. I'm still very conscious of the fact that one of my 2011genealogy aspirations for this year is to 'publish' one of my draft family histories. Basically the drafts need tidying up, add a few photos, pick a title (hardest part I think) and then decide on published format (probably a bit more involved than that but you know what I mean).
With all that reading temptation, I still had to write Part 11 of my mining ancestor series for AFTC, my guest blog on News from Australia for MyHeritage and I accepted a commission to write for a UK magazine (with a short deadline) so the last few days have been busy writing and I even managed a research report for one of my long term clients.
I also accepted a blog challenge from Geniaus to do My 99 Things Genealogy Meme - Aussie Style which was a lot of fun and did make me think about all the things I have/have not done. Other Australian bloggers (11 when I looked) joined in and Geniaus has compiled all the responses into a single blog. I would also like to see Geniaus add her original post to this list too - then we could all be the Aussie Genealogy Dozen!
7 September saw my 11,000 tweet on Twitter which is amazing. I originally thought I wouldn't benefit from Twitter but now find it really good for up to date genealogy news. In fact I don't think I could manage without it as it also links me to many overseas genealogy friends that I would never have known otherwise.
Anyway if I am going to get any reading done today, I better stop writing now!
Saturday 3 September 2011
Genealogy notes 2-4 September 2011 The Geelong History & Genealogy Expo
Well the last two days went very quickly as I was at the Unlock the Past history and genealogy expo in Geelong, Victoria. I gave 3 talks, attended lots of other talks, browsed the 70+ exhibitors, caught up with friends and enjoyed myself a lot. My review of the whole expo is here for those who would like to know more.
Today I have been catching up with emails, tweets and blogs as I didn't take my laptop with me - I didn't want to be too distracted from the attractions of the expo and talking with real people in person.
It still surprises me how few Australian genealogists have embraced Twitter and blogs - I keep telling them how much they are missing out on. It will be interesting to see how many take up my invitation to look at my blogs over the next few days or even follow me on Twitter.
I also have to sort out all my notes from the lectures - lots of new ideas and URLs to follow up which might lead to some new family information. The big question is where to start as I want to do everything at once - and that's just what is online!!
Today is Father's Day and my partner and I have been remembering our fathers and sharing stories. It's funny some of the things you remember when prompted by other people's experiences. I hope everyone else is having a good day with their fathers or remembering them as we are. Until next time, happy researching.
Today I have been catching up with emails, tweets and blogs as I didn't take my laptop with me - I didn't want to be too distracted from the attractions of the expo and talking with real people in person.
It still surprises me how few Australian genealogists have embraced Twitter and blogs - I keep telling them how much they are missing out on. It will be interesting to see how many take up my invitation to look at my blogs over the next few days or even follow me on Twitter.
I also have to sort out all my notes from the lectures - lots of new ideas and URLs to follow up which might lead to some new family information. The big question is where to start as I want to do everything at once - and that's just what is online!!
Today is Father's Day and my partner and I have been remembering our fathers and sharing stories. It's funny some of the things you remember when prompted by other people's experiences. I hope everyone else is having a good day with their fathers or remembering them as we are. Until next time, happy researching.
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