Where do I start?

A week ago I was in cold wet Birminghmham, England preparing for my first talk at THE Genealogy Show 2019. How and why did I get to be on stage preaching to an audience of mostly British Genies?

GeniAus presents at #THEGenShow2019

Roll back the clock to a morning late in March 2018 when I was sitting in bed enjoying my coffee. My phone pinged with a Facebook message followed by a chat. It was my young genimate, Kirsty Gray, telling me of her latest project. She had realised that since the WDYTYA Live Show was not longer being held there was a space for a new geneaconference to fill the gap. Kirsty is always up for a challenge so she decided to stage THE Genealogy Show, she had booked the venue and organised the money side of things. She invited me to be involved. I had a chat with Mr GeniAus (who is always keen to take a trip to England) and let Kirsty know that I was up for it. An invitation to join the Show Board followed.

Kirsty pulled together an international team of genies to be members of the Board and organised the wonderfully efficient and calm Kat to be the Conference organiser. This group from three continents and many countries communicated by email and in a private Facebook Group; some of us met in person at various events but our communication was mostly online. I was also part of the program committee that was chaired by Canadian genealogist, Ruth Blair.

The main role of members of the board was to advise, discuss and comment on all matters relating to the Show, this wasn't an onerous task but we were made to feel that our contributions were valued by those at Show headquarters. Wasn't the Green Carpet a good decision! I enjoyed this process immensely as I am opinionated plus I got to know a new group committed genies from all over the world.

Build day at THE Show

We board members all volunteered to work on the show. John Boeren, DearMyrtle and I also nominated our partners to work at the event (love in action) thanks to Matt, Gordon and Robert. We arrived at The NEC on the Thursday before the conference and with a few extra volunteers, some of Kirsty's staff and her Ma and Pa set our minds to all the tasks that had to be done prior to the Show.

Busy hands make light work - the day prior to THE Show

On Show day we volunteers worked to a roster,  I had great fun selling merchandise and tickets with my genimate Pat, aka DearMYRTLE. Both of our husbands worked tirelessly doing ticket collection and other duties for all of the two days. The volunteers are now our TGS Family, we all worked together filling gaps in the roster as they appeared. While it may have appeared chaotic to us behind the scenes it has been wonderful to hear and read all the positive comments congratulating Kirsty and the Board on the smooth running of the show.

The TGS Family minus DearMYRTLE and Gordon and Kirsty's Ma and Pa - didn't we look smart in our Tshurts!

In between my rostered duties I gave two presentations and took part in two panel presentations. While I enjoy my individual presentations I love participating in the less formal presentations that give me an opportunity to work with and learn from fellow genies. While I had presented with Kirsty previously I hadn't joined DearMyrtle, Mags Gaulden or Janet Few on stage, what an honour it was to be up there with these geneastars. I hope that we can schedule more panels in the program for #THEGenShow2020.

Panelists DearMYRTLE, Kirsty (back) Mags and GeniAus (Front)

There was something for everyone at THE Genealogy Show, there were big name speakers from the US, there were speakers from  all over Europe and one from Australia giving talks on research and resources in their countries and there were many family history societies and small vendors available. One could even buy a DNA kit from MyHeritage or LivingDNA. The Wizards who gave free genealogy advice were most appreciated but they were worked off their feet.

One of the many Groups represented at the Show

Best of all there were plenty of chairs inside the hall where genies could rest, chat and network. Watching the delight on an English visitor's face when she realised that she was chatting to THE Blaine Bettinger, was priceless. My only regret is that I didn't have much time to sit and chat but experiencing the good vibes from the sidelines gave me an enormous sense of pride.

Towards the end of the the event Kirsty asked my husband who had worked all day (mind you he got to see 5 excellent talks from his post at the door)  if he would come again next year for #THEGenShow2020. His immediate response was "Yes". That a non-genie from halfway across the world would proffer such an immediate and positive response says so much about THE Genealogy show. It was a friendly, affordable, accessible and polished event.

I was proud to serve on the Board for 2019 and look forward to working with Kirsty and her team on planning #THEGenShow2020.

A Visit to FWL

On our recent holiday I took a little time off from touristing to catch up with some genimates.

As we headed to Bristol to visit the SS Great Britain we detoured via Calne in Wiltshire to call at the offices of Family Wise Ltd to have a cuppa with Managing Director, Kirsty Gray and her crew.

I knew that Kirsty had a thriving People Finding business but I was blown away by the size of the enterprise I found in a quaint heritage building in this quiet corner of Wiltshire.

FWL Headquarters

Beavering away in this open office were seven researchers busily tracking down  ancestors and heirs. And this is not the full complement of the Family Wise Ltd  team, they have a team of researchers who work off site in many corners of the world. Both Mr GeniAus and I were impressed by the FWL set up. With the way this business is growing I fear it may soon have to find more spacious premises.

Kirsty and GeniAus

FWL Wall of fame - Difficult mysteries solved

Kirsty and her Mini Me companion

From this office Kirsty with the assistance of Katherine Harrison, Event Planner, and the Board for the event is coordinating the organisation of THE Genealogy Show 2019. With the energetic Kirsty at the helm this event promises to be a huge success. I'll be heading to Birmingham for the show in June 2019.

Event Planner, Katherine

Birmingham here I come...

I'm allowed to spill the beans. My energetic and go get 'em genimate, Kirsty Gray let me into her big secret a while ago, it's something she has been working on with co-conspirator Sylvia Valentine since Rootstech 2018. I am thrilled to be supporting these two women who are taking such a bold step with this venture. I'll be in Birmingham with them in June 2019, I'm so excited that I'll be booking my hotel as soon as bookings open. Read on:



The demise of the Who Do You Think You Are? Live show has left a hole in the genealogy
calendar of UK-based events with many attendees commenting on the loss of a ‘big’ annual gathering.

Headed by Kirsty Gray and Sylvia Valentine (Show Directors), an international group of genealogists has been diligently working since the US-based RootsTech Conference, to get THE Genealogy Show on the road. The Board includes Jill Ball aka GeniAus (Australia), Liv Birgit Christensen (Norway), Ruth Blair (Canada), Mags Gaulden (Canada), Pat Richley-Erickson aka DearMYRTLE (US), John Boeren (Netherlands) and DM Walsh (UK).

This two-day event will take place at the NEC (National Exhibition Centre) in Birmingham on June 7th and 8th 2019, in the same hall as WDYTYA? Live was held in previous years. The Board members are dedicated to providing outstanding educational opportunities through talks and stands, as well as creating an environment where family historians from beginner to expert can network together. Even at this early planning stage, many international genealogists are making travel plans to attend the event.

More information will be released on the website over the next month, though you can register your interest as an exhibitor, speaker or sponsor on the website right now - www.thegenealogyshow.uk.

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/THEGenShow2019
Like the event Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/THEGenShow2019/

Open letter to Commercial Genealogy Companies

My genimate, Kirsty Gray, has given me permission to share this letter she posted on her blog today.

I share her concern about the generous people who offer, via online groups, to do free lookups on genealogy subscription websites. I might add that those who can't afford subscriptions can make use of the free access provided at public libraries and family history societies.

Judy G Russell, in this video, eloquently explains why this sharing is illegal.

Open letter to Commercial Genealogy Companies

To whom it may concern:

I am writing today in the hope that you can take action over a very important issue. As a subscription-based service provider, your company has invested time and money digitising, transcribing and indexing records for the benefit of those of us who are keen (whether it be amateur or professional) family historians. We – a large proportion of the genealogical community – very much appreciate and value the work your companies are doing on our behalf to make more recordsavailable to us online (whilst continuing to enjoy the times when we have to ‘get our hands dirty’ with original documents and sources which are not available on our new-fangled gizmos). The rate at which you are adding resources is simply staggering and well worth the subscription fees we pay to access these records.

However, some people appear to have access of these records we pay for, without paying. How, you may ask? And you would be right to ask….! Do these characters have clever ways of hacking into your sites without paying? Are there flaws in your security systems? No and no.

These individuals are far from clever. They neither value nor respect the work that you are doing for the genealogical community and consider it their right to have free access to what they want. I wonder – would they expect to have a case heard in court, be represented by a solicitor and pay nothing? I am sure their plumbing and heating engineer would not turn up, fix their boiler and walk away without being paid. So, why is your service any different?

It isn’t. You have terms and conditions, fair usage policies, copyright restrictions and more, all available on your websites. Recently, two of The In-Depth Genealogist team interviewed Jill Ball, Judy G. Russell and I about exactly this topic. We expressed our concerns about Facebook groups offering look-ups from your websites and today, a vocal few tried to educate members of one Facebook group about the T&Cs they signed up to when they paid for their membership. It was clear that our comments were not welcomed by certain members of the group and a few individuals appear to think that they are ‘providing a service’ to the genealogical community by giving others free access. An interesting perspective when they are breaching the conditions of use…. When these individuals were politely directed to these conditions, they seemed to think that the appropriate course of action was not to read the conditions and consider their obligations, but to criticise the people who were trying to assist in the group, before removing their posts and then blocking the vocal members of the community.

The problem is, my dear Commercial Genealogy Company, that none of you jump up and down and do anything about these breaches. OK. I get it. You want all the genealogists to use your websites. You want us all to be your friends out here in genie-land. BUT, you are losing revenue because these individuals are providing copies of your records to others for free. If you banned a handful of people for ‘misuse of their subscription’ (or whatever you want to call it) and named and shamed them, more people would use your sites because they can no longer get what they want for nothing.

We – the respectful genealogical population – are trying to support you out here. I would urge you to get your moles out as well as listen to and act on the issues reported by the community. Join these Facebook groups and flush out the people/group who are breaking your rules. If you don’t, we will all suffer and the only winners in this game will be these who are getting their research done for nought.

Yours sincerely, A Seriously Concerned Genealogist.

What is TapGenes? - A Rootstech Interview

 FamilySearch describes TapGenes, winner of the $45,000 cash prize in the Rootstech Innovator Challenge:

TapGenes provides the tools to identify the genetic thread that ties a family together. Founder, Heather Holmes, got the idea for TapGenes after her father became very ill and the family struggled with multiple roadblocks to share his family medical history that impacted his treatment, care, and recovery. Heather made it her mission, if her father got well, to make sure this kind of frightening and desperate episode would not be faced by other families.

Because I had other commitments at Rootstech I was unable to attend the finals of the Innovator Challenge so, while I had played with some of the entries, I didn't know much about the eventual winner, TapGenes.

When I was hanging around in the Media Hub on the last day of Rootstech, the lovely Chad Schumaker from Familysearch asked me if I'd like to interview a representative from Tapgenes... in five minutes time. I asked Kirsty Gray who was with me at the time if she'd like to join in and we quickly prepared our interview approach. We asked very simple questions and just let the interview flow. If you, like me, don't have an understanding of TapGenes and what it offers then take a look at our video.

That's Kirsty not Kristy

As a Rootstech Ambassador I have a chance to interview attendees at the event. I got to chat with Kirsty Gray from Wiltshire on Thursday.

Great Teamwork

Thanks so much to my fellow panelists, Christine Woodcock, Kirsty Gray and Roger Moffat who joined me today at Rootstech to discuss Ëthical Dilemmas in an Online World. Although our audience was small exclusive it appeared to be a positive experience for those who joined us. One benefit of a small group is that one can actively involve audience members in the conversation.

A few attendees approached me afterwards to say that they had enjoyed the session, no-one went to sleep and no-one walked out. One person commented on Facebook "They had great hypothetical issues to discuss! Well done."

Thanks also to the many people from The British Commonwealth who came along to support our International Panel.

Following are some pictures of the event snapped by our official photographer, Sharn White. 

L-R Chriatine Woodcock, Roger Moffat, Kirsty Gray, Jill Ball

A Mansize Lectern

The Rootstech Photographer

Tricky Stuff

In just four weeks I will be taking to the stage at Rootstech with three of my genimates to discuss, in a panel session, some tricky topics in Dealing with Ethical Dilemmas in an Online World. 

Unfortunately one of our panelists, Pauleen, is no longer able to make the trip to Rootstech. I am delighted to announce that Canadian genealogist (and Scottish expert), Christine Woodcock, has agreed to join Kirsty Gray (England), Roger Moffat (proud Kiwi living in in the US) and me (flying the flag for Australia) to make up an international panel that represents five countries. Thank you so much Christine for agreeing to join us.

I do hope that some of our Genimates will join us in Room 151 of the Salt Palace (just across from the Exhibit Hall) at 4:40pm on Friday 2 February as we offer some suggestion for dealing with sticky situations.

Should you have some issues you would like us to discuss please contact one of the panelists and we will try to weave your dilemma into our chat.