Genealogy notes 10-14 Feb 2013 Days 1-5 of the Genealogy Cruise

Well I'm now safely home from the 2013 Unlock the Past genealogy cruise and I've been pondering the best way of writing up all my notes. Early on I decided to leave the laptop at home and I put the IPad and phone in the room safe so I was strictly a pen and notebook person on this cruise. Why? I do like a break from technology every so often and also this cruise was so packed with sessions, I wouldn't have had time to attend everything and then do daily blogs and experience life on board.

I will blog the genealogy part of the cruise in this Diary over two blogs and then do an overall review of the cruise in my SHHE Genie Rambles blog in a few days time. Just before we left for the airport on Day 1, I left a quick paragraph explaining my absence over the next ten days.

It was a good trip to Brisbane airport and no delays so we soon found ourselves in Sydney airport. We had planned to take the train to Circular Quay but due to maintenance over the weekend, the train was not running but there were free buses, first to Central Station and then on to Circular Quay. It took a bit longer but we were still three hours before boarding time. I hate last minute panics!

There didn't seem to be any queue at The Voyager of the Seas so we wandered over and handed in our bags and proceeded to go through customs and before we knew we were on board the ship. In fact lunch was just starting so we went up to Deck 11 (15 decks overall) and enjoyed lunch while overlooking the Sydney Opera House. After lunch it was a stroll around Deck 12 (the jogging track) where we could almost see all of Sydney from that height. I wonder what the people who live in units close to the Quay think when their view is suddenly blocked by this huge ship.

After a delicious dinner we watched the ship leave Sydney Harbour and then went down to the Meet and Greet where Alan introduced the various speakers. Having been up since before dawn, I will confess to nodding off during this session and as soon as it was over, I dashed off to my room for a good night's sleep. Sadly I missed the geneablogger photo opportunity although there was another one taken on the last day as well.

Day 2 was full on with three concurrent streams for most of the day. The first two speakers were Stephen Dando-Collins and Paul Milner who I missed as I slept in and then got delayed at breakfast. However I did make it to my first of nine talks at 11am but this meant I missed Carol Baxter talking about NSW research and Neil Bradley on Western Australian research. Mine was on Victorian research so very much a State based theme!

After an hour for lunch the three streams continued (including the Research Help Zone). I went to Jan Gow's session on Getting to Know Legacy but missed Helen Smith talking about Queensland research and Rosemary Kopittke talking about Australian Government, Police and Education Gazettes. My next choice was Louis Kessler talking about Choosing and Using Genealogy Software as I'm thinking of swapping over from Legacy. This meant that I missed Linda Elliot's talk on What to Do With The Body: A Victorian Solution - a very intriguing title so I hope someone else blogs about that session.

My next session was another Jan Gow session on Creating Your Own Reference Library. I've heard Jan talk about Treepad many times and she always makes it look so simple but then I suspect she has every aspect of her life and research well documented! The thought of cataloguing all my library books is daunting but I know that it would make life much simpler for me. Jill Ball advised that she uses Library Thing so I need to check that out and I know others use Collectorz.  A definite rainy day job.

One overseas speaker I didn't go to was Bob Velke who did a variety of sessions on The Master Genealogist and as I'm not interested in that program I missed hearing all of his talks. Rosemary Kopittke demonstrated the Flip Pal Mobile Scanner and Family Photo Book both of which I was familiar with.

The last afternoon session was me again with my Family History on the Cheap talk but this meant I missed Jill Ball's GeneaGoogling: Effective Google Searches which was disappointing as I think the more we can learn about using Google effectively, the better. Like other speakers, Jill's slides/handouts will be available on the Resources page of the Unlock the Past website in a few days time. Mine are on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.

The after dinner session was Paul Milner on Finding Your Ancestors in Scotland: The Big Five which I missed as we were going to the ship's evening show in the La Scala Theatre.

Day 3 was another packed day of talks, you didn't have to go to every session but from what I saw most people seemed to attend quite a few sessions each day. I was first up with my talk on Trove and Paul Milner followed with a talk on the English Parish Chest. Then the sessions divided into three and I selected Linda Elliott's talk on Researching NZ Ancestors from a Distance but missed Carol Baxter talking on Writing Family History. I've heard Carol speak on that before and I wanted to attend Linda's talk as her online name is Mad About Genealogy and that's also where you will find her talk handouts. I believe she is going to PDF her talks like me and put them on her website.

The after lunch sessions were almost like a marathon from 1-5pm with four talks unless you skipped one or two. I missed Jill Ball's Google Tools for Genealogy as I was having a one on one session with a cruise attendee and Louise Kessler was talking about Behold and Bob Velke ran two sessions on The Master Genealogist. In the second session I chose Helen Smith's talk on one name studies (the GOONS) and missed Rosemary Kopittke talking about Find My Past Australasia and Jill Ball talking about Social Media for Genealogists. My third session was with Jan Gow talking about using Ancestry in Your Pyjamas (I'll confess that I do too) and missed Rosemary Mackenzie talking about the next NSW/ACT genealogy conference in Canberra in September and the next AFFHO Congress also in Canberra in 2015. Alan Phillips also spoke about what's coming up for Unlock the Past with cruises, webinars and ebooks all sounding very exciting. The last session was Paul Milner on English Parish Registers.

The evening was free to allow attendees to go to the Ship's famed ice shows but as it turned out, these ended up being held in the day time so roster changes were made so that people didn't miss out. We went to the La Scala Theatre again and I think most people appreciated the night off.

Day 4 was in Noumea and there are no sessions while we are in port. We were supposed to leave by 4pm so I did my Ancestors in Church talk up against Jill Ball on A Genealogist's Toybox which was another talk I wanted to go to as Jill always amazes me with all her gadgets and how she uses them for genealogy. It was during this session that we found out that the ship had some technical troubles and would be staying over in Noumea for another day while repairs were made. I suppose it is always better to break down in port rather than miles out to sea but it was disappointing. It meant that we could no longer make it to Fiji and I was so looking forward to going there again. My last visit was in 1976 so it's been a while!

Paul Milner did another evening session with Scottish Kirk Session and Poor Relief Records. All of Paul's handouts are on his website under the aptly named button Handouts!

Day 5 we were still in Noumea so this meant a major roster change so we swapped the program for Day 6 when we were supposed to be in Fiji. The 4pm talks were Jill Ball talking about the Flip Pal Mobile Scanner and Picasa (which I have heard before and I love Picasa's facial recognition software) and Paul Milner talking on Welsh Ancestors. After dinner Paul did Irish Land Records.

Not going to Fiji meant that we ended up with four solid days of talks on Days 6-9 so I'll do those days in a separate blog tomorrow as this is getting quite lengthy. The good thing about most of the speakers is that they will be putting their handouts or slides online and those not fortunate enough to be on the cruise might still be able to follow the talks and take note of the various websites mentioned by everybody. I have the usual list of sites I want to visit! Part Two will be tomorrow so stay tuned.

Genealogy notes 6-10 Feb 2013 Bon Voyage

After a hectic few days finalising my presentations I'm up early this morning to catch our flight to Sydney to join the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise. I'm not sure if I will do daily posts or every few days or even wait till the end. This cruise has two session streams from morning to night so not a lot of spare time for us genealogy tragics. So stay tuned as I will be learning lots over the next 9 days at sea!

Genealogy notes 1-5 Feb 2013 online newspapers

Well my genealogy year has started with a great online newspapers seminar organised by Queensland Family History Society with speakers Sue Reid and myself. I missed Sue's two talks on online newspapers and how to search them more strategically when she gave them at last year's Unlock the Past expo in Brisbane so I was really glad to finally here them. Sue also mentioned that the talks are also the basis for an upcoming article in Inside History magazine so watch out for that.

The day started with my talk on Trove and Other National Library of Australia Treasures and the slides can be viewed on my website Resources page (scroll down to Presentations). No matter where or how often I give this talk there are always lots of people who don't have an NLA library card for e-resources or aren't members of Trove so that they can do comments, tags, lists and so on. No doubt quite a few went home to investigate these wonderful free resources further! I don't do handouts (saving a tree or two plus paper weighs a lot and is one extra thing to carry when I travel to talks) but by putting the slides up on my website attendees can go home and relook at the talk and study the slides in greater detail.

Sue did have handouts for her two talks and these were included in the Queensland State Archives goodies bag given to all attendees. Sue's first talk was an overview of the big four which are all free - Trove, Papers Past,  The Times London (via the NLA's e-resources) and the London Gazette. She used a case study to highlight the wealth of information that can be found and the second part of her talk was focused on why you might not be able to find what you are looking for.

Sue's second talk was a round up of other online newspaper sites, some free and some pay to view and I found this part really interesting as some of her portal sites for America will probably useful for my own research as a GGG grandfather went to Minnesota in the USA in 1850. I've never looked for the family in US newspapers so it's now on my to do list when I get time!!

There were about 150 people from all over south east Queensland so that was a great start to QFHS's seminar program for 2013. Most people returned the evaluation forms which were mostly positive with the negatives such as signage something that the organisers can do better for the next seminar. During the morning tea break I sold copies of my books and I certainly missed Max doing this for me. It's really hard trying to answer people's questions, say hello to people welcoming me back to Queensland and sell books and give correct change all at the same time. I had to sneak morning tea during the first part of Sue's second talk I was that busy. The QFHS sales table was also kept busy so the printed book is still in demand!

Their next seminar is on Military Records for Family Historians on 20 April and the third seminar is on Convict Lives: Finding Our Founders on 1 June. Both seminars have great speakers on a range of topics withing those themes so definitely not to be missed.

I've just completed my application form to join the Cornish Association of Queensland and unfortunately their first meeting for the year is on 9 March and I am returning from Bali that day. The date is the closest they could get to St Piran's Day, Cornwall's national day but hopefully I'll be able to get to their next I'meeting. It's not that far to Brisbane and traffic is not too bad at the weekends.

Today there is a meeting of the Bribie Island Family History Group (an informal meeting group) which I will go along to. I missed the last meeting last year as I was in Brisbane but I'm hoping to attend most meetings if I'm on Bribie. The other thing I'm working on today is my next article for Irish Lives Remembered as the deadline falls while I'm away on the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise. I'm continuing with County Waterford examples as I found so many in my last search for interesting examples to write about. The free January issue is now online.

Well must go as I've still got some unpacking and sorting to do before I head off to my meeting. Happy researching till next time.

Genealogy notes 24-31 Jan 2013 genealogy talks coming up

Well last Diary entry I said that things were getting back to normal now that we had moved into our new home on Bribie Island. Silly me didn't factor in ex cyclone Oswald heading down the coast and hovering over us for nearly 30 hours of relentless wind and torrential rain. I don't think I've even seen a 'weather event' that went for so long and travelled all the way down the Queensland coast and on into New South Wales creating total destruction along the way. Bribie was lucky in that we mostly had beach erosion, downed trees and palms, some roof and rain water damage and of course loss of power. Others were not so lucky especially all those within river flood plains.

We were extremely grateful for the SES coming out on the Saturday night to help secure a front section of our roof otherwise we would have suffered a lot more rain water damage than we did. So glad (in a way) that it happened last weekend and not when we are away next weekend on the genealogy cruise - we would have come home to a house completely swamped as the rain was also coming through the front door or under it I should say, as well as all the windows on the sides the wind was blowing from, not to mention the leaks from the roof in two rooms. At least the study doesn't leak and is sheltered at the back of the house.

Apart from all the mopping up over the weekend we managed to continue unpacking and it's almost finished now - the trick is to remember where we have put everything! I've tried to keep things similar to the old house and that helps. My books are everywhere but I thought it was more important to get things out of cardboard boxes and onto shelves where I can at least see them. Rearranging them can come later and this time (as this is our final move, fingers crossed) I am going to use software to catalogue and make them really easy to find! Any suggestions for a good, easy to use system?

Yesterday I realised that the Queensland Family History Society online newspapers seminar is this Saturday so it was a frantic run through of my Trove and Other National Library of Australia Treasures updating where needed. QFHS have over 130 people booked so far so that is fantastic and a great way to start their education program for the year. I also have to talk to them about when we can redo the session for the Chinchilla Family History Group (at their request) but it looks like mid year now. Stay tuned for the date if you live out that way.

Of course the other thing I have to do is check my 9 talks for the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise which is now only a week away. January was a blur with moving and everything else but I did manage to do a run through of most of them. Hopefully not too many websites have done major changes over the last month. I'm so looking forward to the cruise - I love anything genealogy so with our own conference centre on board Voyager of the Seas it will be fantastic and I also love cruising so hopefully there will be a bit of relaxation on board as well not to mention catching up with lots of genealogy friends.

No doubt there will be lots of blogs coming out of the cruise so stand by for them but with limited internet coverage that may be after the event although I do know some really keen bloggers will be doing 'live' blogging. Geniaus aka Jill Ball has asked Helen Smith and myself to be part of a social media panel to discuss why social media can really help your genealogy research. So looking forward to that as I've had so much success with people finding me via my website and my family blogs.

Don't forget that Paul Milner one of the international speakers on the cruise is doing a British Isles genealogy tour to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra so you may be able to attend one of those if you live close enough to a capital city. I always feel sorry for Hobart and Darwin as they miss these kind of tours and yet they have some of the more wonderful Australian scenery. I could probably throw in just about any major town in North Queensland there too but I guess it is a question of distance and cost recovery. Maybe in a few years, or maybe not even that long, everything will be virtual!

Well I haven't done too much else on the genealogy front except stockpile paper genealogy magazines to read and red flag e-copies I receive so that I can go back and read them. I haven't even kept up with Dick Eastman this week so that's not good! I did take time out to read the National Archives of Australia's e-magazine Memento Jan 2013 and noticed that Shake Your Family Tree Day is on 16 April 2013 (usually it's in February) so put that date in your diaries. I will be in Maryborough (QLD) that week so looks like I'll miss the Brisbane event unless I travel back down.

I may be tempting fate again but I'm going to predict that things will return to normal on my genealogy desk again over the coming week. Happy researching.

Genealogy notes 10-23 Jan 2013 Back to normal

Just as I was getting back into genealogy blogging and interacting with all my genealogy friends on various social media sites, and enjoying it immensely, we slipped back into the big black 'moving' hole. We are out of our caravan and temporary unit and into our new home at last. Overall it's been a good two weeks as I think we will be very happy here but I have to say that I'm disappointed at how much of our furniture was damaged or even totally destroyed and I suspect that happened going into and out of storage for five months.

The removal guys in both Melbourne and Bribie were excellent and so careful and helpful so the damage either occurred during transit or storage. Of course this is also where you enter the murky world of insurance and find out that your understanding is different from their understanding. Of course the company was sorry to hear that we would never use them again but I don't think they are in a hurry to find the missing wheels to our bed, or the missing TV remote or any of other missing items, not to mention fixing/replacing any damaged items.

Surprisingly there was very little damage to boxes that I had packed but then I have had lots of practice at packing over the last decade or so! But Murphy's law was in operation and the only coffee cup to break was the one Max treasured most as it was a special gift from his son. After a mild panic about not finding the filing cabinet keys we remembered we had taken them with us in the caravan which is still parked down at Burpengary. So there was a quick trip back to the mainland and thankfully the keys were there. I'm still slowly unpacking all of the study stuff and all of my books! After a week we still don't have TV, seems we need a booster whatever that is but the TV technician will be here tomorrow. But after a day of unpacking and racing around we are usually too tired to watch anything anyway but I do miss the news and weather.

Our stuff was only in storage for five months but even within that time it gets a musty smell so although people say sell first and then buy a new place, I think that only works if it is done quickly. In our case the house sold quicker than expected and before we even knew where we were going! However now that we live in Paradise I can't see us moving any time soon!

So now back to my genealogy world - during all this chaos I still managed to write Part 7 of Missing Irish Loved Ones Down Under for Irish Lives Remembered so look out for that next month. In just over two weeks  we leave on the third Unlock the Past genealogy cruise so I have to finish two more talks and then just recheck the other nine for any website changes. And thinking of those dates reminded me that I will have to write Part 8 of my Irish series as I will be away when the deadline happens!

Helen the Queensland chair of the Guild of One Name Studies is having a meeting this Australia Day weekend in Brisbane and I would love to attend but I suspect that it will be more unpacking - I would hate to go away on the cruise and come back to cardboard boxes and all that work! The meeting is at a Sizzlers and I don't know what it is with Queenslanders and Sizzlers but I know I'm home!

Helen has also issued a 2013 Australia Day blog challenge and I've accepted so I'll have to give myself a wee break time to do that. It's on first ancestors here but I've already written about mine in other blogs so I'm picking my two Cornish ancestors to write about. Hopefully those files will surface before the weekend is over.

We've been asked to repeat the Queensland Family History Society February seminar on online newspapers and Trove out at Chinchilla so that will be a good opportunity to visit Miles which is where Max's parents met during World War 2. His dad was in the army and his mother in the air force. Max hasn't been out that way before so it will be a nice opportunity to do some touring in south western Queensland.

Well I'd better get back to the unpacking but I thought I should let everyone know that the move is over and we survived and things are heading back to normal! Until next time.

Genealogy notes 8-9 Jan 2013 blogging awards

Well this morning we woke up to a blanket of smoke as the Bribie Island fire is into it's third day but this is the first day where the smoke has not been blowing towards the mainland. It's in the national park so campers have been evacuated and for the moment it's under control with back burning and eleven fire units. The cool breeze seems to have given way to the higher temperatures but we still have quite windy conditions.

After a brief excursion to the shops I'm now bunkered down for an afternoon of genealogy and working on the last four talks for the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise in just four weeks time. I'm past the half way point with five talks already finished. So far I've still got the windows open and the fan on but I'm starting to look at the air-conditioner.

Yesterday I was honoured to receive a nomination for Blog of the Year 2012 Award and you can read how I was nominated by Geniaus and my response on my website here. As part of the Award I had to nominate some blogs that I thought worthy of the Award and this was hard to narrow down as there are so many good genealogy and family history blogs out there. Also some had already been nominated by other recipients and I always think it is good to spread the encouragement around as I can't be the only blogger who wonders if anyone reads what I write. So be sure to read my response and check out those I nominated and also those nominated by other recipients.

Today's surface mail brought my copy of the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly journal which I always like reading. It can be a little US centric but there aren't that many Australian members I don't think. A lot of the articles are quite global and one article that I'm keen to read is Harold Henderson's Genealogy Education on a Shoestring as most of us try to do things as cheaply as possible. A quick scan of the article looks like he is using the internet as a basis which is great as most of us have access to that eithr at home, work or the local library.

I'll finish up this blog on a sadder note as yesterday I made two more loans to the Kiva Genealogists for Families Project started up by Judy Webster and later co-captained by Joan Miller in Canada. The loans were in memory of Joan who lost her fight with cancer last week. If you would like to join the project you can click here and remember to link to the Genealogists for Families project.

Joan was one of the first people I started following on Twitter three years ago as my GGGG grandfather's Carnegie family went to Canada from Scotland and I was looking for Canadian research tips. I also liked reading her Luxegen blogs and we exchanged tweets and emails and she gave me some good advice on locating those Scottish ancestors. So I'm sad to see one of my earliest cyber geneabuddies gone but I'm glad to see so many people have taken the opportunity to take up a Kiva loan in Joan's memory which was at the suggestion of her family.

Tomorrow is the final inspection of our new home and settlement is on Monday then we have to move out of this unit and get ready for the delivery of our two container loads of furniture and other worldly goods on Wednesday. I'm going to be very relieved to see all my books and family history records again. Though I'm not looking forward to all that unpacking. Until next time.

Genealogy notes 4-7 Jan 2012 Reading catchup time!

As I'm still recovering from my recent fall, I've spent the last few days propped up on the lounge surrounded by books and magazines (heaven)! I've managed to finish Children of the Occupation: Japan's Untold Story by Walter Hamilton (his own website dedicated to the project) and my review is here.

I'm now onto Hazel Edwards' Authorpreneurship: The Business of Creativity which is aimed at authors and so far it looks like it was almost written for me and other similar writers.I think I'm going to learn a lot from this book. Stay tuned for a review soon.

Every so often our surface mail catches up with us (only one more week till we move into our new house and no more delayed mail). This time I was especially pleased to see the latest issue of Inside History Magazine which includes an article I wrote Crime Does Pay: At Least in Genealogy It Does which is all about having criminal ancestors. It's almost hard to believe that this is Issue 14, seems like only yesterday Cassie was talking to us about starting it up! There's lots of other great articles so that kept me happily entertained for a few hours.

My January 2013 issue of Australian Family Tree Connections also arrived and that's always good for finding out what talks and other events are coming up. It was also good to see in Letters to the Editor AFFHO seeking feedback on my article about making changes to National Family History Week and also advertising the Nick Vine Hall Awards. All genealogy and family history societies should consider entering their journals - after all you can't win it if you aren't in it!

My old printer up and died the other day so I had to install a new printer. This one is wi fi so we can use it in the caravan when we are travelling or according to the literature I can also send print jobs to it via my phone or iPad. All sounds very futuristic to me but at least I can print in the kitchen while writing this in the lounge room.

I was at a bit of a loss on Sunday afternoon when Trove was down (thankfully back up again today) so I started to look at some of the websites listed in the Top 100 Genealogy Websites for 2013 according to Genealogy in Time Magazine. This is UK/US centric so you won't find Trove and other good Australian sites on it but it is still worth a browse. Some of my favourites are there and some I'm familiar with it but don't visit often, and then I'm amazed at how much new information has been added since last time. The internet is great for genealogy and family history but keeping up with it is almost impossible.

Well time to get back to that reading so until next time, happy ancestor hunting!