A Fair Day

Even if I get nothing else out of the remainder of Conference presentations I have learnt enough at The Family History Fair today to last me for quite a while. I chose well with the two workshops I attended: The Trove Materclass and The Writing a Non-boring Family History Workshop were both excellent with personable and competent presenters who shared their information well.

There were so many stands at the Fair that I did not get around to taking snaps of them all but I will do so tomorrow. As is my practice I won't be writing a lot during the course of this event but I will share a few photos for those who weren't able to travel to Canberra for the event.

A Purple shirt provided a warm welcome and directions as we arrived.

Earlybirds arrive

First stall I visited

Enjoyed meeting the people from Ryde where I'm presenting next month

Purple shirts on the job

Smooth registration process

The Trove team

Helen Smith grinning like a Cheshire Cat after winning a coveted Trove mug

Rosemary Kopittke at Unlock the Past's huge stand

Pretty Chart Templates here

Joy Murrin had a discount for attendees

Exhibitors from North

and exhibitors from the south

Familysearch offering assistance

Hazel Edwards

Hazel's first slide - her presentation was definitely non-boring

Hazel in Canberra

When I worked in libraries one of my favourite Australian children's authors was Hazel Edwards not just for her great picture books but for her engaging personality and the wonderful stories she shared when addressing groups of adults and children.

Hazel also has an interest in Family History and has written a popular book "Writing a non-boring family history". Whenever Hazel travels to Sydney to give a workshop it seems that I am not around so I was excited to see that she is to be giving a workshop on September 20 at the Family History Fair that precedes the 29th Annual Conference of the NSW & ACT Association of Family History Societies in Canberra.

The Conference blog tells us that places for this workshop are limited, I am so glad that I have booked and confirmed my place.

I'm looking forward to my date with Hazel. Conference attendees can find details here:

Write a non-boring family history with Hazel Edwards – Conference 2013

Geniaus in Print

Inside History Issue 7

Travelling down the freeway to the South Coast a number of weeks ago I was having a chat online via my android tablet with Cassie Mercer from Inside History magazine. I mentioned to her that I wouldn't mind writing for the magazine. Within the week  I got a message from Cassie asking me if I could write an article within a few days. Of course I could; I immediately set to tapping out some notes on my keyboard. As much as I love my android I don't have a plug-in keyboard for typing up long articles on it so always turn to my laptop for long writing assignments. I edited my 1800 words down to just under the required 1200 and emailed it off.

During my career as a teacher, librarian and IT guy I wrote many articles for journals and newsletters and when I was president of my professional association I seemed to be always writing. This new assignment was my first foray into the world of genealogy writing so I was understandably nervous.

I so enjoyed working with Cassie who kept me in the loop at all stages of the publishing process, provided lots of positive reinforcement and lavished me with praise once my task was completed. Since I bumped into Cassie last week at State Records Open Day and she told me that the magazine had been delivered to her I have been anxiously waiting its arrival in my mailbox. On Tuesday and Wednesday others tweeted that they had received their copies and I received messages from Twitter Pals that they had read my article.

Snippet from My Article

The Inside History magazine was waiting for me when I got home this afternoon. I was thrilled to see my article in print and was delighted to be published in the same edition as Hazel Edwards who was one of my heroes with her "Hippopotamus books" when I was a children's librarian. I have heard Hazel speak on a number of occasions and particularly enjoyed her Antarctic stories. If you ever meet her ask about her parcel collection experience.

I love my Android tablet and will be talking about it at the Rootstech 2012 Conference in Salt Lake City. Fellow genies Shelley from Canberra and Tanya from the North Coast have generously helped me with material for that presentation.

If you are an Android user or would like to know more about my Android Adventure I'd love to hear from you. Meanwhile, might I suggest that you visit your local library or newsagent and grab a copy of the Inside History magazine that is brimful of great reading. Here's a sneak peek.