Alaska Update, DNA & Other News - Genealogy Notes 1-15 Sep 2018

Well I am back home after 16 days in Canada and the USA. It was a wonderful trip with some great scenery and experiences. Plus it was a digital detox for the whole time - no laptop, phone, tablet, or social media for 16 days. It is a great way just to be in the present and not miss anything because you are too busy sending Facebook/Twitter posts or writing up blogs. The only negative is that I appear to have caught a cold but then quite a few on the cruise seemed to have a bit of something that was going around. At least I am home and it didn't impact on the holiday.

Explorer of the Seas at Juneau 

Alaska Cruise 
This was 7 days with the Unlock the Past team and attendees from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Had a fantastic time catching up with past cruise mates and making new friends. As usual I will blog the genealogy learnings separately, probably in two blog posts as we had two full genealogy days, a half day plus a nightly lecture. Hope to have them done during the next week. The two talks that I presented - Finding Pictorial Images and Caring for Family Archives are on the Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.

DNA News
There were lots of sessions on DNA as part of the cruise program and one of the things I picked up was that you can upload your Family Tree DNA raw data into MyHeritage for free. To find as many matches as you can you need to have your data placed in all the various sites as you don't know where potential cousins may have tested. So one of the first things I did since returning home is to upload my raw data to MyHeritage. While catching up with my blog post reading, I noticed that The Legal Genealogist wrote MyHeritage DNA Changes - and Deadline and the option will only be free until 1 December 2018. So don't wait.

Seattle's famous Sky Needle

Seattle Conference
This was held the day before the cruise left and it was mostly DNA talks by Blaine Bettinger with some Irish talks by Maurice Gleeson and a how to dig deeper on the web with Cyndi Ingle. Another great day and a chance to meet fellow cruisers and others before we sailed. A blog post on this is also on the way. While in Seattle I also took the opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing and learn more about the First Nations people who lived in the area.

Tillicum Village, Blake Island, Seattle

What's Coming Up?
Back to Bribie U3A on Wednesday for the last class for third term. The 'students' have asked for a free ranging talk on my Alaska learnings so that will be a lot of fun. Should also help me to start thinking about what to include in my blog posts on the cruise.

On Thursday as part of the Moreton Region Older and Bolder program I am on a walking tour of Bribie's World War 2 involvement when various forts and other military buildings were erected as part of the defence of Brisbane. It should be interesting.

Then there are two weeks holiday from U3A although I will be preparing the sessions for Term 4. It is Advanced Family History so I'm planning something a little different for the final term for the year.

No talks until October so that gives me a chance to catch up on other things and to get over the last two weeks of travelling where I did over 25,000 km. No wonder I feel tired although the head cold probably has something to do with that.

Until next time, have a great time researching.

Bound for Alaska & Other News - Genealogy Notes 16-31 Aug 2018

The last day of winter which has been extremely mild here. So perhaps it is good that I am off to cooler places.

Blogs

The Genealogical Society of Queensland have asked me to be a guest blogger in October and the topic will be about the wonders of genealogy cruising using my Alaska trip as an example. My regular blog for The In-Depth Genealogist made the deadline but there hasn't been any other blogging time this month.

Books

Still reading Lynette McDermott's 3rd book in The Garth Trilogy but preparations for the trip have side tracked me so the review will be finished after my return.

Conferences

All booked for the Seattle Unlock the Past conference which is also being live streamed as reported last time in Diary. That should be a great day.

The following day many of us will be going on board the Explorer of the Seas for the Unlock the Past Alaska cruise. This is going to be a lot of fun as quite a few past cruisers will be there plus quite a few newbies so a great opportunity to chat and network. Not to mention shore excursions to Juneau and Skagway in Alaska and Victoria in Canada.

I will be blogging about the Seattle conference and the Alaska cruise on my return. Stay tuned.

Talks

Went to a session on writing memoirs and biographies at the local Bribie Island Library which was motivating. Amazing how everyone says just start writing but of course that is the hardest part. We all have stories that only we know and if we don't put them in writing they will be lost.

I have already started to accept talks for 2019 and it looks like another great genealogy year coming up. Remember Queensland is having its Waves in Time conference next May and there is nothing better than a holiday on the Sunshine Coast combined with a genealogy conference.

Updating my website is another task on the to do list when I return.

What's Coming Up

With all the travel excitement I haven't given the rest of the year much thought but there are a few talks plus my advanced family history class with Bribie U3A.

Until next time, have a great fortnight of research - I certainly will be!

NFHM, conferences & other news - Genealogy News Notes 1-15 Aug 2018

Wow National Family History Month has simply been a blur and you can read about the events I have attended so far in the link below. Also coming up fast is my trip to Alaska and the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise. Only two weeks away now and I am doing a list of all the things I need to do before I leave and what I want to take with me.

Conferences - Live Streaming of Seattle Unlock the Past Conference
I am going to this Unlock the Past seminar day in Seattle but fantastic news - now it will be live streamed for all those not able to go in person. Plus it will be available as a series of 10 recorded webinars. Here is the media release.

Unlock the Past Cruises announces that the Unlock the Past in Seattle full-day two-stream conference (previously announced) will now also be available to watch live online – and for a limited time after as a series of 10 recorded webinars.

Date & time: Thursday 6 September 2018, 9am-5pm (Pacific Daylight Time)
Venue: - watch in your own home - from anywhere in the world - attend in person at Seattle Public Library, 1000 4th Ave, Seattle, WA
Cost: - US$65 – Unlock the Past in Seattle Livestream - US$45 – attend in-person at Seattle Public Library, 1000 4th Ave, Seattle, WA - US$20 – upgrade from in-person attendance to add access all 10 recorded sessions after
The program will feature 10 presentations in two streams – a DNA stream and an Irish/general stream The presenters 
• BLAINE BETTINGER (USA) – Blaine is a professional genealogist specialising in DNA evidence. He is the author of the long-running blog The Genetic Genealogist and the books The family tree guide to DNA testing and Genetic genealogy.
• DR MAURICE GLEESON (UK) – Maurice was voted Genetic Genealogist of the Year 2015 (SurnameDNA Journal) and Rockstar Genealogist, Ireland 2016 (Anglo-Celtic Connections). He runs a variety of Y-DNA Surname projects and organises the DNA Lectures at Genetic Genealogy Ireland. • CYNDI INGLE (USA) – Cyndi is the creator and owner of the award-winning web site Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet www.cyndislist.com, a categorised index to more than 333,000 online resources. In its first three years, Cyndi’s List was voted the best genealogy site.
• WAYNE SHEPHEARD (Canada) – A retired geologist, Wayne now spends most of his time on family history research. This has resulted in the pioneering publication Surviving Mother Nature’s tests: The effects climate change and other natural phenomena have had on the lives of our ancestors.

For details and bookings go to www.utpinseattle.com.

DNA
As I will be hearing all about DNA in Seattle and on board the Alaska genealogy cruise, I need to spend some time organising myself to maximise any chats I manage to have with people more knowledgeable than me on analysing results.

A cousin on Dad's side has agreed to do an Ancestry DNA test so once the results are in I will know the truth with no shadow of doubt. I am reasonably convinced Mum's story is probably true but after three years of wondering, now is the time to know, one way or the other. At least this time, the result won't be a total shock.

National Family History Month

Talking at FamilySearch Discovery Day
 photo courtesy Pauleen Cass

So far I have attended three events and my blog post Review of Talks Attended  has some of the things I learnt or was reminded of. Sometimes I sit in on a talk thinking there won't be much in it for me and then I am totally surprised at different approaches, things I had forgotten about and new resources. Then there are all the tips that you can pick up talking to others over lunch or tea breaks.

There is one more NFHM event for me before Alaska and that is a session on writing and publishing memoirs and biographies at Bribie Island Library.

Although I have said this before, I want to keep developing all my draft family histories (one for each major family group eg the Carnegie's from Scotland, the Finns and Fegans from Ireland, the Prices from Staffordshire, the Whites from Wiltshire and of course all my Cornish families). These drafts all need a bit of updating with new information plus more context to make them interesting and more readable. So a writing session to finish up NFHM 2018 seems like a very good idea.

What's Coming Up?
Only two more talks at my advanced family history class at Bribie U3A - we are looking at shipping and Trove and then while I am away two other class members will each do a session. For the final talk of Term 3 it will be me talking about Seattle and Alaska and the fun genealogical time had by everyone.

Term 4 will then loom so I'm on the look out for some bright ideas. Ten weeks goes incredibly fast.

In the last quarter of the year I have some talks for Moreton Bay Region Libraries on blogging, a webinar for the Society of Australian Genealogists and I am also talking about Trove to the local Bribie Island Family History Group.

And then it will be Christmas and 2019 not far behind. I often wonder if time goes as fast for those not doing genealogy. But I am getting ahead of myself - still lots of genealogical experiences for 2018 to look forward to. Why not put NFHM 2019 into next year's diary now and start planning a fantastic August of genealogy?

Until next time, wishing you some excellent genealogy discoveries.