A Decade of Digging

My poster girl moment at The National Library of Australia's digital launch (watch the full launch here) of the revamped Trove Australia lasted for 24 seconds as a video of me declaring my love for our national treasure was played. 

I was honoured to receive an invitation from a PR company inviting me to participate in the launch. They wrote several weeks ago  "We're looking to gather short 20 second vox pops from a range of Trove users giving a quick snapshot of why they love Trove and what they use it for.....The library recommended that we get in touch with you to see if you'd be keen to participate." As am not shy about sharing my love for Trove I replied YES immediately. I don't know why I got a chance to be part of this event but I was absolutely thrilled to be asked. I was chuffed to represent the army of amateur genealogists whose daily activities include digging on Trove.

In my clip I mentioned fishing for ancestors on Trove and getting a small bite or a big haul of ancestor stories to add to my personal history. To suppport that analogy I selected, as a background for my clip, Lake Macquarie which is known for its many great fishing spots. In conclusion I said that my reason for loving Trove was because it breathes life into my ancestors. 

My Clip recorded at  Lake Macquarie

My relationship with Trove goes back to before its birth in 2009 when I would use the Picture Australia and historic newspaper collections from The National Library of Australia. The first instance I can find of myself promoting Trove was in a blog post in February 2010 when I said "I am a regular user of this site, the information found there adds some flavour to the rather dry facts in my family tree. I have found birth and death notices, sickly sweet in memoriams, saucy divorce proceedings and articles that give places and times to ancestors." I followed that with "I exhort those who use Trove to consider adding to the treasure there by correcting lines of text in articles you read."

From ten years of digging in Trove I have 190 blog posts in which I have mentioned Trove, I have given many presentations to genealogy groups and at conferences in which I sing Trove's praises. I have created many lists and tagged articles but my record at correcting text is not outstanding. When I am not travelling I am a regular Trove user.

As I have only scratched the surface of the treasure there I look forward to many more years of Digging on Trove.