Tweet your Thanks and Praise

Before I removed the feed of National Family History Month tweets with the #NFHM13 hashtag from this blog I copied and saved them into a document. It will be interesting to compare this 2013 list with what may be posted in 2014.

Twitter is the tool that is commonly used to message from events, Twitter is a tool used by those we want to attract to join our family history groups and societies, ie younger people. If we want to broadcast and share our enthusiasm for #NFHM or other events with youngsters we must use the media they use.

Scanning the Tweets posted during National Family History Month I noted that only a couple of institutions and commercial organisations or their members tweeted about the events they hosted or attended. Twitter provides an easy mechanism for thanking and praising those who organise events on our behalf.

I estimate that a few thousand people attended #NFHM13 events and that many of them enjoyed and learnt something from those events. Did those who attended send a thank you note or a message of praise to the organisers of the events? Did they blog about the events?  Did they put a thankyou message on the National Family History Month Facebook Page? I wonder how many thankyous Shauna Hicks who devoted so much time and energy to the event received.

My mother always impressed upon me the importance of saying thankyou. I find that Twitter enables me to tell not just the organiser of or presenter at an event about the great work they have done but it allows me to broadcast my praise.

Twitter is too busy a place for me to spend time every day but it has its uses. When I attend a great event it is a tremendous tool for sharing my enthusiasm, thanks and praise with the world. And, as I can't be everywhere, it is also my window to other events.

Open Day - State Records NSW (@srnsw)

The Bambino delivered me safely to Kingswood on the western outskirts of Sydney in plenty of time for the open day at State Records NSW yesterday.

It was easy to identify the State Records NSW staff in their red T-shirts. Visitors formed a tidy line at the registration tent where they were issued with their tickets for the talks and tours of the day. That I had brought my tickets and their QR codes along on my tablet proved to be a little bit of a challenge for the lady who helped me but once she got the knack of scanning the QR codes with her iPad we were in business. Perhaps next year the techno-whizzes at State Records might come up with some method of automating the printing of tickets so that the poor people at registration do not have to write tickets out by hand.

As I was bright and early I took the opportunity to wander around the exhibitions and stands that were set up in the grounds at State Records. The first people I came across were from the Australian Ex-military Vehicles Collectors Society. When I asked these two larrikins if they had a website they replied in the negative and told me they were looking for a volunteer to set one up. I took off before I became that volunteer.

I had packed a peanut butter sandwich for my lunch but when I rounded the corner and saw the food stalls I decided to be a naughty girl, ditch my sandwich and buy a gozleme.

When I returned to the gozleme stall at lunchtime and saw the huge queue I realised how wise I had been to pack my peanut butter sandwich. It was yummy.

Further on in a marquee were tables with representatives from a number of relevant institutions and organisations.

The man from Charles Sturt University Regional Archives was impressed but I was already following their new blog.

There were people from the National Archives in Canberra on hand to give advice.

The smiling ladies from the Nepean Family History Society were busy fielding enquiries.

Michelle Nichols from the Hawkesbury Library and Jonathan Auld from the Hawkesbury Family History Group gave me a warm welcome. I love visiting the society for the monthly meetings and listening to the excellent speakers in their program.

The staff from the University of Western Sydney Archives Collection only had to cross the road to take part in the days activities.

FindMyPast Australia were in attendance but their major competitor was nowhere to be seen. 

The delightful Cassie Mercer from Inside History Magazine is a great supporter of family history events.It was lovely catch up with her.

I was able to renew my acquaintance with the members of the Central Coast Family History Society where I presented a talk on blogging earlier in the year.

Another familiar friendly face was that of Heather Garnsey from The Society of Australian Genealogists where I am a member. I parted with a bit of my pocket money at this stand.

I caught up with the group from Wyong Family History Group and was pleased to hear that one of their members will be joining the Unlock the Past's 4th genealogy cruise in February. 

The first talk I attended was "Distant and Dangerous" with Professor Gary Sturgess who read a beautifully written and well researched paper in which he challenged us to think about the ships that brought our early convicts to Australia and the journeys they made as they attempted to travel back to England.

Janette Pelosi, a Senior Archivist at State Records, read us her paper about the "Sentenced beyond the Seas" project at State Records. She explained the scope of the project and demonstrated how one could access it.

For the next session we were lead into the bowels of the State Records building along a corridor past lots of archival storage material to the Digital Preservation area where Peri Stuart and Paul Elliot co-presented "More for Keeps: Digital Recordkeeping". Although they mostly spoke about government records the principles they discussed were relevant to the management of personal digital collections. I found the content of this talk particularly useful.

I spent my long lunchtime looking at the secondhand book sale; I was strong and resisted. I was also pleased to catch up with Judy, a mate from Hornsby Library and another former librarian Judy who was in my course at The University of Technology when I studied for a library degree many years ago. It's amazing how many library types are into genealogy. So many of my former colleagues have the bug.

My prize for speaker of the day goes to Senior Archivist, John Cann, for his talk "Cars, Cars, Cars". I went along even though I wasn't convinced that this talk was for me. John was an excellent speaker who engaged his audience with humour, mystery and fabulous information in two great stories about men and their cars, one a Premier of NSW and one a gangster. 

John told his story without notes; he used his excellent slide presentation as a scaffold to tell the stories. His talk demonstrated that, with some concentrated research and a lot of effort, the resources found at State Records can be put together to tell an amazing story. If you get an opportunity to hear John speak do take it; I note that John will be presenting at Tuggerah Library on a couple of occasions in 2014.

The audience was spellbound by John's presentation.

Last speaker of the day, Senior Archivist Gail Davis, dressed for her talk "I've been working on the Railroads" in a smashing skirt made from transport related fabric. As well as discussing the Railway worker's record series held at State Records Gail highlighted some of the other occupational records that are held in the archives.

Feeling the Love - Responses to The Bloggers' Geneameme

Overnight I had some responses to the geneameme I posted yesterday evening and some comments and promises from others on social media who will complete the meme in the near future.

An unexpected bonus is that I discovered a new to me Australian blog, Anne's family history, that I have now added to my RSS feed reader. I am impressed that I already have responses from England and Canada. Julie from England got an idea while completing the exercise and is proposing a Global Genealogy blog that you can read about here. THANK YOU ALL.

Whenever I set a challenge like a geneameme I have moments of self-doubt. Will anyone respond to my meme? Will people think that the idea is silly? Do the questions appear shallow? In addition to satisfying my curiosity about others who blog the purpose behind this Geneameme is to give bloggers an opportunity to indulge in a spot of reflection. I hope that this meme encourages them to stop and reflect on their geneablogging activities.

Perhaps my idea is silly and the questions shallow but, this morning, I have been buoyed by the responses and comments from members of the Geneabloggers community. Following is a list of those who have responded to the geneameme. I will continue to add links as I am notified so please come back to this post again (and again).

Jill Ball Geniaus
Boobook  Backtracking
Pauleen Cass  Cassmob
Janelle Collins Janelle's Family Tree Addiction
Jason W Crews  Genealogy Sphere
Alex Daw Family Tree Frog
Daniel Dillman Indiana Dillmans
Sue Donaldson Family History Fun
Erin Know their Stories
Sharon F Strong Foundations
Frances A Rebel Hand
GenXalogy
Julie Goucher Angler's Rest
Caitlin Gow Genealogically Speaking
Sara Greenleaf  My Mouse is Broken
Karin Hadden The Art of Genealogy
Charles Hansen Mikkel's Hus
Shauna Hicks  SHHE Genie Rambles
Julie Family Tree of the Silverstein and Waters Family
Louis Kessler Louis Kessler's Behold Blog
Emily Kowalski-Bellan The Spiralling Chains: The Kowalski Bellan Family Trees
Elizabeth LaPointe Genealogy Canada responded by email. Have sought permission to share her answers.
Melody Lasalle The Research Journal
Celia Lewis Twigs and Trees
Sharon Muffett  Gathering Dust
Kathleen Scarlett O'Hara Naylor  You are where you came from
Merron Riddiford My Western District Families
Delbert Ritchard Del's Genealogy Ramblings
Randy Seaver GeneaMusings
Eileen A. Souza Old Bones
Alona Tester Lonetester HQ
Jackie van Bergen Jax Trax
Bill West West in New England
Sharn White  Family History 4U
Anne Young Anne's Family History

And a Food Blogger took the meme and adapted it for Food Bloggers
Jenny Cookbook Fetish

If I have missed any geneameme responses please let me know (jillballau@gmail.com) and I will add them to this list. 

The Bloggers' Geneameme

The Bloggers' Geneameme

It's NationaI Family History Month here in Australia and I have been procrastinating about hosting an online activity to mark the event. 

I am very interested in hearing about the practices and thoughts of fellow Geneabloggers so thought I'd dream up a little geneameme on the topic. You are invited to respond to the questions in this short geneameme via a post on your blog. I'd love to hear from people in the Northern Hemisphere as well as those downunder.

Please write as little or as much as you like and don't feel obliged to answer all the questions. Once you have posted your response please share your link on the comments section at the bottom of this post or send the link to bibliaugrapher@gmail.com. Once I have a few replies I will compile a hit of responses on this blog .

1. What are the titles and URLs of your genealogy blog/s?
2. Do you have a wonderful "Cousin Bait" blog story? A link to a previous blog post might answer this question. 
3. Why did you start blogging? Is there someone who inspired you to start blogging?
4. How did you decide on your blog/s title/s?
5. Do you ever blog from mobile devices? What are they?
6. How do you let others know when you have published a new post?
7. How long have you been blogging?
8. What widgets or elements do you consider essential on a genealogy blog? 
9. What is the purpose of your blog/s? Who is your intended audience?
10. Which of your posts are you particularly proud of?
11. How do you keep up with your blog reading?
12. What platform do you use for publishing your blog/s?
13. What new features would you like to see in your blogging sosftware?
14. Which of your posts has been the most popular with readers?
15. Are you a sole blogger or do you contribute to a shared blog?
16. How do you compose your blog posts?
17. Do you have any blogs that are not genealogy related? If you wish please share their titles and URLs.
18. Have you listed your blog/s at Geneabloggers?
19. Which resources have helped you with your blogging?
20. What advice would you give to a new Geneablogger?

Please feel free to add an extra paragraph or two with extra comments.

The links to responses can be found at : http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/feeling-love-responses-to-bloggers.html

SAG Anniversary Seminar

Thanks to The Society of Australian Genealogists for hosting the anniversary seminar at State Records NSW in Kingswood yesterday. Dynamic duo, Heather Garnsey, Executive Officer and Martyn Killion, Vice President, did an amazing job of hosting, preparing morning and afternoon teas, presenting,  and selling SAG's wares.

The atmosphere was relaxed as we listened to five presentations and chatted amiably with new and old friend in the sunshine during breaks. I also enjoyed being able to attend an event that was free (for SAG members), that was away from the CBD and where I could park within 100 metres of the entrance.

It's getting late on Sunday evening here but I just wanted to put his quick post up and say thanks to Emily, Heather and Martyn for creating such a wonderful event for us yesterday. If I get some time during the coming week I will share a few of the things I learnt (but National Family History Month is keeping me very occupied).

Heather setting up shop

Emily Hanna from State Records was the first speaker

Martyn did a super job of arranging the goodies

There were plenty of customers for Heather

There were some useful tips in Heather's Basics talk

Martyn gave a polished presentation

I learnt a few things I didn't know about Ancestry

Apologies for washed out photos but I didn't use the flash.

My Big Day Out

There were three genealogy related events in my day yesterday and I traversed quite a bit of the northern part of Sydney to attend them.

https://maps.google.com/

My day started with a 9:15 departure from my home in Galston (E on map) to Hawkesbury Library (B on map) for 10:00am, then I drove for about 50 mins to my next destination, Ku-ring-gai Historical Society (C on map) after spending a few hours there I set out for Hornsby Library (D on map) where I arrived at 6:00pm. I finally reached home around 8:00pm. Google maps estimate that I drove around 98 km. and it was worth every centimeter.

So how did I amuse myself?

Siobhan and her book

At Hawkesbury Library  I attended the monthly meeting of the Hawkesbury Family History Group. The guest speaker was Dr Siobhan Lavelle whose talk was about the 1813 crossing of the Blue Mountains. The content of the talk was different from what I expected but was fascinating; I had expected to hear a straight history of the crossing by Blaxland, Wentworth, and Lawson but Siobhan put a different slant on her talk. She discussed the various celebrations that have been held to mark anniversaries of the crossing and demonstrated, with references to books, newspaper articles, pictures and other resources, the influences that society and members of the explorers' families at various periods had on shaping those celebrations. I was most impressed by Siobhan's presentation; she was a lucid and entertaining speaker with a dry and irreverent sense of humour.

I purchased and look forward to reading a copy of Siobhan's book, 1813 a tale that grew in the telling, that is available from the Royal Australian Historical Society and bookshops in the Blue Mountains.

After chatting with a few fellow group members and Michelle Nichols, the local studies librarian, I popped into my Bambino and headed for Ku-ring-gai Historical Society where I spent a pleasant few hours scanning historical photographs and adding them to the Society database. I also managed to have a chinwag with members of the Preservation Group who were beavering away at various tasks.

Because at talks I habitually sit behind tall gentlemen who block my view of slides on the screens I like to arrive early to snag  a seat near the front of lecture rooms. I arrived 30 minutes early for the talk at Hornsby Library and was able to catch up with Peter Booth, Kim and his wife from Ku-ring-gai Historical Society and Neil Chippendale the local studies librarian. Guest speaker at the Hornsby talk was one of my favourite speakers, Dr Carol Liston, whose topic was "The Links between Local and Family History". Carol was in fine form and gave a great talk.

What I found interesting in Carol's talk was that she covered some of the same themes that Joshua Taylor had addressed in his talk last Saturday particularly the importance of Place in family history research.

Thanks to  Michelle and Neil, two of my local history heroes, for organising these great Family History Month events.

Worked out what I can do...

It's National Family History Month here in Australia and there are lots of celebrations hosted by institutions and organisations happening all around the Nation.

I have been pondering what I, as an individual, could do to recognise National Family History Month. I was looking at Twitter this morning before I went out  and it came to me; it had to be something related to Social Media. I could add a widget that shows all the tweets posted using the hashtag #NHFM13 to the sidebar of my blog for the month of August.

As well as keeping me informed about what people have to say about the month and from the events they attend it will highlight the celebration to people who read my blog (most of them are from North America). Readers closer to home might also take a look Twitter feed when they visit my blog.

I did it and it was a piece of cake using the Widgets tool in Twitter. Please remember to use the hashtag #NFHM13 when you talk about National Family History Month on Social Media.

My Twitter Widget tool

If this is not your thing you can find a list of 31 Activities for Researchers & Societies on Shauna Hicks' blog.

What are you doing to recognise National Family History Month?