Last week I was on a high because my Diary blog was listed in Randy Seaver's (Geneamusings) best of geneablogs and I am really happy to say that my SHHE Genie Rambles blog on The Future of Genealogy on my website also made his weekly list - details of Randy's weekly list here. I am also pleased because that blog article has attracted more readers than my blogs usually attract so that means it is a topic of great interest to many people. I think it is a great time to be researching family history with online resources and the ability to use social media making it easier than ever. But we should still use standard research methodology and remember that not everything is online.
I have also accepted two more talks. Due to illness of another speaker, I have been asked to do a second talk at the Inverell Family History Group seminar in April. They have asked me to do something on blogging and why you should do it or not. This is a great topic and I am looking forward to convincing them why I think it is a good thing! Unlock the Past have asked me to do a talk on newspapers and their use for family and local history research at a Research & Writing History Seminar in Adelaide in May. This is a seminar being conducted by Carol Baxter over two days with a couple of other speakers as well. Normally I would not go to Adelaide for one talk but we were planning a visit to the grand kids so it ties in nicely with that. Details of talk dates etc are on the Events page of my website.
My personal blogging challenge, 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2014, is progressing and in Week 7 Local Histories I showed why it is important to check all information, even if it is published in a local history. and Week 8 was on diaries and how they can give you an image of daily life for our ancestors. I do not have any family diaries in my records, I use other peoples diaries so if you have not considered the idea before, have a look at Week 8 Diaries.
My newspapers talk at Bribie Island Library went well and tomorrow it is Narangba Library on Google Tools for Genealogy. Moreton Bay Region Libraries run a fantastic program of talks for genealogists and family historians in the shire. We went to the exhibition launch for Blood Brothers: an ANZAC Genesis at the Pine Rivers Heritage Museum and we will have to visit again as it is quite a substantial place (part of Old Petrie Town) with lots of buildings to see.
The Queensland BDMs have been adding new products over the last few months including the Australian Imperial Force and WW2 images. If you have not had a look for a while, it might be worthwhile to see what the site looks like now. See here for their family history information. They are also conducting a survey to see how they can further improve their services. It is refreshing to see that they actively seek feedback and perhaps more importantly, actually then make changes based on that feedback. If you would like to do the survey, click here.
We have agreed to host a meeting of the Professional Historian's Association (Queensland) (PHAQ) at our place in just over two weeks time. As well as providing lunch we are also giving them a tour around the historic places on Bribie Island before taking them to the Bribie Island Seaside Museum for a talk and tour of the museum. It is a good way for us to become familiar with the Island's history and I am putting together a leaflet in case anyone asks us to do the same again. The Bribie Island Historical Society (BIHS) do have a leaflet but we do not have time to do all of those things plus there are some sites that I want to take PHAQ to that are not on the BIHS leaflet.
My talk at the BIHS is now only a week away so I have visited their room at the local library and checked the database for what they have on my Carnegie and Davis families. I have lots more information so I think that the members will be interested in my talk on the Carnegie family plus I mention the oyster industry and other families in the Toorbul area. It is the first time that I have done a talk based solely on my own family history so I am a bit nervous and hope I don't put too many people to sleep on the night!
This week copies of my two new publications arrived - Tracing Mining Ancestors: a brief guide to resources in Australia and New Zealand and My Ancestor was in an Asylum: brief guide to asylum records in Australia and New Zealand. Both are published by Unlock the Past and are available from Gould Genealogy & History or I have them for sale at my various talks.
With all the talks I have not had too much time for my own research but I do try to do examples from my own research in the talks so I guess that is one way to extend my knowledge of the family a little more. Happy researching until next time.
I have also accepted two more talks. Due to illness of another speaker, I have been asked to do a second talk at the Inverell Family History Group seminar in April. They have asked me to do something on blogging and why you should do it or not. This is a great topic and I am looking forward to convincing them why I think it is a good thing! Unlock the Past have asked me to do a talk on newspapers and their use for family and local history research at a Research & Writing History Seminar in Adelaide in May. This is a seminar being conducted by Carol Baxter over two days with a couple of other speakers as well. Normally I would not go to Adelaide for one talk but we were planning a visit to the grand kids so it ties in nicely with that. Details of talk dates etc are on the Events page of my website.
My personal blogging challenge, 52 Weeks of Genealogical Records in 2014, is progressing and in Week 7 Local Histories I showed why it is important to check all information, even if it is published in a local history. and Week 8 was on diaries and how they can give you an image of daily life for our ancestors. I do not have any family diaries in my records, I use other peoples diaries so if you have not considered the idea before, have a look at Week 8 Diaries.
My newspapers talk at Bribie Island Library went well and tomorrow it is Narangba Library on Google Tools for Genealogy. Moreton Bay Region Libraries run a fantastic program of talks for genealogists and family historians in the shire. We went to the exhibition launch for Blood Brothers: an ANZAC Genesis at the Pine Rivers Heritage Museum and we will have to visit again as it is quite a substantial place (part of Old Petrie Town) with lots of buildings to see.
The Queensland BDMs have been adding new products over the last few months including the Australian Imperial Force and WW2 images. If you have not had a look for a while, it might be worthwhile to see what the site looks like now. See here for their family history information. They are also conducting a survey to see how they can further improve their services. It is refreshing to see that they actively seek feedback and perhaps more importantly, actually then make changes based on that feedback. If you would like to do the survey, click here.
We have agreed to host a meeting of the Professional Historian's Association (Queensland) (PHAQ) at our place in just over two weeks time. As well as providing lunch we are also giving them a tour around the historic places on Bribie Island before taking them to the Bribie Island Seaside Museum for a talk and tour of the museum. It is a good way for us to become familiar with the Island's history and I am putting together a leaflet in case anyone asks us to do the same again. The Bribie Island Historical Society (BIHS) do have a leaflet but we do not have time to do all of those things plus there are some sites that I want to take PHAQ to that are not on the BIHS leaflet.
My talk at the BIHS is now only a week away so I have visited their room at the local library and checked the database for what they have on my Carnegie and Davis families. I have lots more information so I think that the members will be interested in my talk on the Carnegie family plus I mention the oyster industry and other families in the Toorbul area. It is the first time that I have done a talk based solely on my own family history so I am a bit nervous and hope I don't put too many people to sleep on the night!
This week copies of my two new publications arrived - Tracing Mining Ancestors: a brief guide to resources in Australia and New Zealand and My Ancestor was in an Asylum: brief guide to asylum records in Australia and New Zealand. Both are published by Unlock the Past and are available from Gould Genealogy & History or I have them for sale at my various talks.
With all the talks I have not had too much time for my own research but I do try to do examples from my own research in the talks so I guess that is one way to extend my knowledge of the family a little more. Happy researching until next time.
