Audrey at Rootstech

In a blog post on March 8 I asked my readers for suggestions of people to interview at Rootstech I only got one specific suggestion from Jenny who said "You should interview Audrey Collins - since you know her you will be able to relax and should be able to get a good interview!" 

Not wanting to disappoint I emailed my mate Audrey asking for an interview and, as I knew she would, Audrey agreed. We got together on the second day of Rootstech to have our on-air chat. Those Australians who went to Audrey's talks on her 2012 Australian tour will be interested to hear how Audrey became involved in genealogy and landed her "Dream job" at The National Archives in Kew.

I have been uploading my Rootstech videos and scheduling blog posts relating to them to appear every few days so some savvy people have already found the following video on Youtube, viewed it and mentioned it on social media.

Those who haven't yet seen it and those who don't know Audrey you may wish to watch the following clip and meet my mate Audrey.

6,800 - that's some party

With 6,800 attendees the Rootstech Conference will not be a boutique event. I will count myself lucky if I get to meet, chat with and remember 68 of the people that are attending.

I don't believe in jet lag but have been suffering from a bit of insomnia since I arrived in Salt Lake City so after midnight I decided to take a sleeping pill and it worked. I was intending to attend a lecture at the Family History Library this morning but slept in so I thought I had missed it.

When I huffed and puffed into the venue for the next talk I discovered that the speaker's plane had been delayed and that the talk had been cancelled - I'm glad I had that good sleep and didn't set an alarm to arrive on time.

As the second speaker was also delayed my mate, Audrey Collins, stepped in and presented a talk "There and back again" in which she told us that our ordinary ancestors often travelled far and wide. She demonstrated, with a range of examples, that if we can't find our ancestors in local records we should cast our net wide and we might be rewarded with surprising results.

Audrey's title slide

Since Audrey's talk I have been down on B2 working away on my research while Mr Geniaus (who doesn't do genealogy or research) is looking for his ancestors on the library's collection of subscription databases.

Shortly I'll be heading off to The Lion House for the Rootstech Official Bloggers Dinner where I'll renew friendships with old bloggers and meet the new bloggers.  Once the Conference starts my blog posts may not be so frequent.

More Reading Matter

I just caught up with my mate from The National Archives in the UK, Audrey Collins on B2 the British  (and Australian) Floor of The Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Audrey knows that I am big kid who likes surprises especially if they are in the form of a book.

When I visited the National Archives a couple of years ago I bought a couple of family history guides published by The Archives but I didn't buy David Annal's "Easy Family History" because it was labelled Easy but Audrey had told me it was a great little book so I thought it would be a good addition to my collection. Unfortunately the book went out of print so I didn't get a copy.

Audrey (right) and I with my new book

My surprise today was a signed copy of the newly published second edition of Easy Family History: the stress-free guide to researching your family history by David Annal ISBN 9781408175705. The book can be purchased online from the Archives Bookshop.

David says in his introduction "in the eight years since the first edition of Easy Family History  was published, the world of genealogy has changed almost beyond recognition."  This second edition  has been rewritten to take account of the technological changes that have impacted on the way we conduct our family history research. In addition to 14 chapters that cover all common categories of resource the book has a glossary, useful addresses, useful websites, further reading and an index.

From my quick scan of its pages this morning I can recommend this book as an excellent guide for beginners and a good reference for those of us who have been plugging away at our research for a while. One of the speakers on the recent Unlock the Past Genealogy Cruise suggested that we would all benefit from reading a beginner's guide on genealogy; this book would be an excellent one for this purpose.

A British Feast

This small poster shared on Facebook by Sonia Meza Morales gives details of the feast of learning I will enjoy next Wednesday in Salt Lake City prior to Rootstech. The correct details for these talks does not yet appear on the Family History Library Site.

I hope to see meet some fellow Rootstech attendees at this event. I'll be in The Church History Library Auditorium (next door to the Family History Library...

at 9:30 am for Else Churchill's talk
at 10:45 to hear Alec Tritton and
at 1:00 pm to listen to Audrey Collins.

This is an amazing opportunity to hear from a group of British experts.

Friends at Rootstech - This one's for you Audrey

I can't wait to catch up with my blogging friends at Rootstech when I get to Salt Lake City in around eight weeks time.

I was just browsing the Rootstech site when I found spotted this photo of my mate, Audrey Collins, in one of the images that scrolls across the front page of the site. As the Rootstech home page is subject to change I captured the screenshot of Audrey (looks like she's busy on her iPad) before it disappears.

Audrey is the redhead on the left

I know that Audrey like me is returning to Salt Lake City for her third Rootstech Conference.

It looks like one can still grab an Earlybird Registration - how about doing this and joining Audrey and me for some geneafun.

My mate - Audrey the author

A review of Audrey Collins and David Annal's new book, Birth marriage and death records : a guide for  family historians,  on the Pen and Sword website says:

"The book covers all the well-known resources such as parish registers and civil registration and also includes non-parochial registers. There are interesting chapters on military and information about overseas registers. Scotland, Ireland, the Channel Islands and Isle of Man are included.
The book is written in a lively, interesting way which makes it very readable and it would be a useful addition to any family historian’s bookshelf."
FFHS

On our recent visit to London Mr Geniaus and I caught up with Audrey who travelled all the way in from Kew to meet us for dinner. Dear Audrey had a surprise for me - a copy of this book.  I was stoked as I love getting new books to add to my genealogy collection however, as we are still travelling I haven't had time to read this book from cover to cover.

I can report that it is user-friendly with good explanations, friendly vocabulary, interesting illustrations, helpful screenshots, useful weblinks, a solid index and a bibliography. I know that when I sit down to read this thoroughly (probably on my long flight home to Australia) I will have a rich learning experience.

My Australian mates who met Audrey on her recent tour downunder may be interested in buying this 184 page tome. I see that it is available online from several outlets in the UK including Pen & Sword and the National Archives Bookshop in the UK. I note also that Gould Genealogy have it available for $34.95

The Presentation- Geniaus and Audrey Collins

Nearly missed my day....

Thanks to all those genimates who have sent me Blogiversary wishes via Social Media. It is still some minutes away from midnight here in London so it's still my party day. I realised earlier this week that my blogiversary was approaching and then promptly forgot about it. Thomas, you are so sweet for getting the word out.

It seems fitting that tonight Mr Geniaus and I had dinner with a friend that we made through the world of genealogy, Audrey Collins. Audrey travelled across London to spend a couple of hours with us and came bearing gifts (more on that later). Earlier today I attended a lecture at The Society of Genealogists in London followed by a spot of research in their library.

Through blogging about genealogy during the past four years I have made many new friends who share my obsession. Thank you all for your friendship.

For old times sake I am pasting below a copy of my first tentative post from 7 November 2008.

Why add yet another blog to the crowded blogisphere?

I thought I would like a place to share progress, reflections and resources as I solve my genealogical jigsaw so here goes - another blog is born.

I've been researching the family on and off for the last 20 years and, with retirement looming, hope to finally get organised and solve some of my mysteries.

London Genie Days

I am sitting at my computer preparing for my two research days in London. I had planned on three research days but The London Metropolitan Archives which I planned on visiting today is closed for stocktaking.

As I get ready to visit and join The Society of Genealogists tomorrow I am reacquainting myself with the English ancestors, having a look at the SoG OPAC and drawing up a list of resources to consult tomorrow and Wednesday.

Mr Geniaus and I are also looking forward to meeting up with our mate, Audrey Collins, a Family History Specialist from The National Archives at Kew.

More from Parramatta

Yesterday I posted a couple of photos of Audrey Collins in action at the Parramatta Unlock the Past Roadshow. Around 100 family history enthusiasts came along to hear Audrey, Carole Riley, Carol Baxter and Rosemary Kopittke speak.  Also along to add a bit of colour to the show was Heather Garnsey from SAG, the two Vickis from Findmypast, members of the Gould Genealogy team, Allan Murrin and Heather Clarey from the organising committee for this year's NSW State Genealogy Conference and yours truly providing demonstrations on the Flip-Pal mobile scanner.

As it was in my hometown, Sydney, I saw a few familiar faces from the genealogy scene plus I met up with Wendy who I knew when I lived in the Eastern Suburbs and whom I hadn't seen for around 20 years, Annette who I worked with at Waverley Library too long ago to mention and Pat who I knew from my days working in school libraries. It was pleasing to see members from The Hawkesbury Family History Group and The Ku-ring-gai Historical Society, two genealogy societies of which I am a member, in attendance at the event.

I was pleased to be able to hear two of Audrey's talks at this event. I was most interested in the first talk about records for Irish research in the National Archives in Kew. I now have a lot of leads to follow when next I visit there.

Following are a few more snaps from the event.

Carole Riley demystifies Land Records

Carole dispenses advice

Non-Conformist Religions from Audrey

  

Time for a chat

Anthea from Gould makes a sale

Carol Baxter explains how to write Interesting Family Histories

Lots of Notetaking

Audrey Collins in Sydney

As part of her Australian Unlock the Past Tour Audrey is performing at Parramatta RSL today. If you miss her today you can catch her in Canberra and Melbourne.

Raring to go

Sharing Irish secrets from The National Archives, Kew

Recycling - Re Twitter

As I have gathered a few new readers since writing some of my early posts I will be recycling some from time to time. Fittingly the first post I will be recycling from June 15, 2011 is entitled "I'm into recycling"

I'm into Recycling

Hopefully my blog has gathered a few new followers since June 8, 2010 when I posted an article "Methinks some people tweet too much" in which I outlined some points that genea-tweeters should keep in mind when using Twitter. As I haven't seen any other post on this subject I am recycling this post with a few alterations and additions:

Twitter is a wonderful resource for learning about current news and new resources. My problem is how to use Twitter for family history responsibly.

I don't want to clog up the tweet streams of my followers with useless tweets so I don't retweet items that a number of my followers who have the same follower base have already retweeted.

Neal Chambers says that "The most important thing about your Twitter account is your username. This will be used to identify you in the Twitter stream and how people will find your account (http://twitter.com/username) It's best to choose something easy to remember/spell. A perfect example of this is your real name (gasp!)." I chose Geniaus as I wanted something short and easy to remember that indicated my interest in genealogy (Geni) and my location and interest in Australia (Aus). If you do not want to use your own name think of a short username that somehow describes you. I particularly like @infolass, @geneabloggers, @genebrarian and @geneaphile. This username can be used across a number of social networking sites to give you a brand name.

The nine essentials of Twitter etiquette includes the advice "Don't feel compelled to tweet regularly. I promise that if you take a personal tweet-free day, your audience will understand." One does not need to tweet every day, interesting news does not arrive at regular intervals but in waves, one's pattern of tweeting can reflect these peaks and troughs. Less is more.

Some Twitterers with a commercial affiliation use Twitter as a marketing tool and seem to retweet endlessly; I am tempted to unfollow them but I might miss some of the original snippets they post.The Search Marketing Spin Blog warns against being "Re-tweeting Machines: If all you do is re-tweet, that can get annoying as well. I definitely encourage re-tweeting articles and thoughts that are deemed important, but keep that as part of the overall mix." I wish Twitter had a facility where one could select individual settings for those one follows ie so one could select to see just a user's original tweets, retweets, replies or any combination of these. 
"Don’t RT Yourself  If you have multiple Twitter accounts, for example one for personal stuff and another for work, please do not Retweet what you said on another account. If people want to follow both, they will.  
There’s a reason you have two accounts: not everyone cares about both of your online personalities." This advice from "Online etiquette: Tweet with care" should be heeded by some genealogy Tweeters.

In Mind your twitter manners Jacqueline Whitmore says: "Don’t spam. If people are following you, they are going to want real content that matches their interests or teaches them something new. If you are sending out numerous tweets that are trying to sell your products, you will quickly lose your following. People have enough spam through e-mail and don’t want this to be another source of excess clutter."

I sometimes unfollow and refollow some people while they are at events and conferences if I don't have an interest in the event they are attending (of course major genealogy conferences are an exception).

A PCWorld article "Twitter Etiquette: How to Tweet Politely" states "Reconsider the running commentary. Live-tweeting sporting events or conference speeches may seem like a public service, but who's listening? If you normally use Twitter to post once-a-week status updates but then abruptly let fly with 80 tweets in a day, you'll aggravate followers who aren't expecting their account to be inundated by your sudden outpouring. Consider composing a blog post instead, or offer a single succinct observation each hour".

"Don't bother re-tweeting the big dogs" is more sage advice from The nine essentials of Twitter etiquette  includes the advice "Most people interested in genealogy will follow Ancestry and FamilySearch and other major organisations in their countries, don't retweet what most of your followers will have already read."

Recently I have received a few tweets containing a link to a website that  requires a  usernmame and password to access the information being recommended. It is extremely frustrating to follow a link and then be thwarted by such a request. I suspect that sometimes people tweet without actually checking out the site they are tweeting. Always check a link before tweeting or retweeting it.

Hashtags (#) are an important element of Twitter use. As well as giving readers an idea of the relevance of tweets to their interests they can be important for marketing and promotion. I would suggest using between one and three descriptive hashtags with each tweet.  Additionally these descriptors help people conducting searches on Twitter to find relevant information. If you are tweeting about genealogy add the #genealogy hashtag. If you are at an event use the hashtag assigned to that event eg #rootstech2011.

One of my pet peeves is the Follow Friday (#FF) post where one thanks followers. These posts seem impersonal to me and clog up tweet streams. If a thank you is warranted one can send a private thankyou via a direct message. It is important to build relationships on Twitter; this can be done by sending public individual thankyous, using the reply function and retweeting followers' posts. Following the lead of @JudyQld a number of other genealogists embraced a policy of one #FF per week. This sensible policy makes one think very carefully about who will receive that one precious follow. I have relished those follows I have had from the people following this policy.

Like Audrey Collins I too was taken with the badge Thomas MacEntee gave me at the Rootstech Conference earlier this year. (You can buy one here). That little red badge simply says "Keep Calm and Cite your Sources".

I don't mind what method one uses to cites one's sources but it should be done whenever one quotes another's words in any form of media. With the 140 character limit on Twitter this may be difficult but, as I used to say to my students, "plagiarism is stealing."  Taking the words of another and passing them off as your own is unethical and should not be done even on Twitter.

When I wrote my post, "I'm into recycling" yesterday about Twitter etiquette I did not mention plagiarism. This morning I saw a thoughtful sentence posted on Twitter that did not sound like the language normally used by that tweeter. I put the sentence into Google and within a few seconds found that sentence on a genealogy blog post written yesterday. The tweeter in question was obviously also captivted by the sentence and shared it without attribution. It has been retweeted a couple of times with kudos going to the tweeter not the blogger who appears to be the original creator of this piece of text. I am now wondering about the credibility of the tweeter and the organisation this person represents.

Plagiarism does not belong on Twitter.  It may be difficult to cite a source in 140 characters but it must be done. Plagiarism is akin to stealing; using the words of another without attribution is unethical, whenever one publishes in any format one must give attribution to an original author. Plagiarism is easy to detect. Tweeps who are found to have plagiarised lose credibility for themselves and the organisations they represent.

Remember that your Tweets are in the public domain. If you say something on Twitter you are potentially telling the world. Your tweets can be read by everyone.

Blogger Bling coming to Brisbane

Travelling in my luggage to the Unlock the Past Queensland Expo will be my Blogger Bling.
I hope to meet many Geneabloggers from Queensland during my time at the Expo. So that it is easy to recognise other Geneabloggers in the crowd I will have a supply of blogger beads for them to wear. Is common at overseas conferences for bloggers or members of other groups to wear some identifying paraphernalia so that they are easily recognisable. At the recent Congress in Adelaide a small but enthusiastic group of Geneabloggers stood out in their beautiful beads from New Orleans.

Geneabloggers at Congress 2012 -  Adelaide

A number of the Geneabloggers who were in Adelaide will be at the Brisbane event. I hope they remember you bring their beads along. If you are a blogger attending the exhibition please seek me out so that I can festoon your person with some Blogger Bling. Hopefully we can organise a Geneabloggers or Social Media Mob photo sometime during the Expo. 

Star attraction of the event Audrey Collins from England loves her Geneabadges and Geneabling - I do hope she remembers to bring some downunder.

Guess who is coming to Town?

Audrey Collins and Jill Ball - Rootstech 2012

I am thrilled that Audrey Collins, my mate and Family History Specialist at The National Archives in Kew, is coming to my town. She has an incredible amount of knowledge and genealogy related trivia filed away in that head of hers. Into the bargain she is an entertaining and down to earth presenter with a terrific sense of humour. Audrey's presentations will eclipse the keynotes I have heard recently. Audrey's blog posts on The Family Recorder give some indication of her areas of expertise and her subject knowledge; they are must reads in my RSS feeds.

If you don't live in Sydney there is no cause for despair; Audrey is also visiting Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne during her tour. Dates and details can be found here on the Unlock the Past site. I am going along to hear Audrey in both Brisbane and Sydney.

You'd be crazy to miss an opportunity to hear Audrey.

Disclosure: Audrey is a mate of mine whom I first met at Rootstech 2011. I caught up with her again at The National Archives in Kew last year and at Rootstech 2012 we co-presented on an international panel. 

A Surprise from Audrey

In a blog post last August I lamented that I didn't purchase a little book from the  TNA  when I  bought a few last year. I didn't buy it because it was a beginner's book. I regretted this after reading the other titles in the series as they contained valuable practical information and tips for English research.

When I first caught up with Audrey Collins from TNA at Rootstech this year she said she had a surprise for me. When next I ran into her she produced  from her handbag a copy of "Easy Family History" - a gift for me. Audrey had recalled my regret at not purchasing this title.

Now that I am back home and the bags are unpacked I want to thank Audrey for her thoughtfulness. I have scanned the book and learnt some things I didn't know, it will be travelling with me on my road trip to Adelaide, I will plenty of time to digest its contents fully on that long drive.

I am thrilled that Audrey is coming to Australia in June for a speaking tour where I will catch up with her at the Unlock the Past Brisbane Expo. Audrey will also be doing a speaking tour of the Eastern States, I can recommend Audrey's talks - as well as being thoughtful she is a knowledgeable and funny lady.

Genealogy 2.0 Session at Rootstech

On with the show

In full flight

Audrey Collins

Amy Coffin

Jill Ball

Listening is thirsty work

Sun's out in Salt Lake City

Readers who are familiar with Salt Lake City may wish to ignore this post. I will be writing a few travel type posts for those people who have not yet made the journey to Salt Lake City and this is one of them.

I think the sun may have been up early in Salt Lake City but Mr and Mrs Geniaus, who as they get older take a while to adjust to a change in time zones, had a comfortable sleep in at their hotel. We have a view of the mountains that encircle the valley in which the city is sited.



We arrived in Salt Lake yesterday around 22 hours after leaving home yesterday. Lubricated by the beverages in the Qantas Club we were happy travellers when we boarded our A380. Thankfully our seats gave us plenty of legroom so we were able to stretch our legs, enjoy the movies and get a reasonable amount of shuteye. Our luck continued on our "full flight" from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City where we had the only empty seat on the plane in our row of three.

We collected our rental car, fired up our US GPS and made it to the hotel without taking a wrong turn. On our short pre-dinner drive around the city I managed to visit Best Buy to look at techie toys and Batteries Plus to source a spare camera battery. These are less than half the asking price of $AU130 in Australia.

I had a peek at the email and Facebook this morning and was perplexed by a message from Dear Myrtle "Jill, Are you on B-2 yet? Cannot spot ya!" All I could think of was Bananas in Pyjamas." All was made clear when I read Audrey Collin's comment " I'll be in the Library (B2) most of today."  B2 is the floor in the Family History Library where the British and Australian records are stored. 


A library visit is on the agenda for this afternoon but now it's time for brunch.

Rootstech News - International Panel: Genealogy 2.0

My friend, Joan Miller of the Luxegen Blog, has indicated that she is taking a healing hiatus from genealogy to concentrate on recovering from an illness. I am saddened to hear of her illness and wish her well as she travels the road to recovery.

Since meeting Joan at Rootstech last year I have kept in constant contact with her via email and social media and was looking forward to co-presenting with her at Rootstech 2012. Unfortunately Joan, who coined the term Genealogy 2.0 for our presentation, will not be able to join Amy Coffin, Audrey Collins and me for the presentation. I thank you,  Joan, for all of your assistance with preparation for the gig, we are most indebted to you.

It was an easy task for us to decide on another foreigner to invite to take Joan's place on our panel. We four agreed that another Canadian and an Official Rootstech Blogger, Lorine McGinnis-Schulze, would be the perfect candidate.

We were thrilled and relieved when Lorine graciously accepted our invitation. We welcome Lorine to our panel and look forward to getting together at the Salt Palace for our presentation in Room 225B at 11:00 am on Friday February 3rd.

The Heat is on...

I'm a procrastinator, I don't work well until a deadline is drawing near. I was reminded yesterday in an e-mail from Joan Miller, one of my co-presenters at Rootstech 2012, that I must get cracking with our syllabus document that is due on November 1. Joan was too polite to say "get your act together Jill" rather she just sent me a chatty e-mail asking how things were going. Thanks, Joan, for the reminder I'll get onto the job as soon as my babysitting charges go home tomorrow.

We are using a Google doc to plan our presentation and write the syllabus outline that is required by November 1. I might propose to Audrey Collins, Amy Coffin and Joan Miller, who are presenting with me, that we use the new GoogleDocs Presentation tool to collaborate on preparing our presentation slides. I must admit that I have only had the briefest of looks at this tool, I'll leave it until after we submit the syllabus document to see if it will suit our purposes.

I was also reminded about the conference this morning when I found my registration receipt in my inbox; Mr Geniaus also received his receipt. Although he is not into genealogy he is interested in family history; there is such a variety of talks on offer at Rootstech that I am sure  he will find plenty to pique his interest.

If you have been thinking about registering for Rootstech it would be a good idea to do so now at the earlybird rate which is available until November 30. You can check out the schedule here.

We'd love to see you in our session:
Genealogy 2.0: international panelists discuss their use of social media to connect with cousins, collaborate on projects, discuss issues, market and promote genealogy services and perform acts of genealogical kindness.

Wonderful surprise for the returning traveller

Mr and Mr Geniaus have been off globetrotting for the last few weeks.Although it was not a genealogy field trip I managed to visit a few institutions, see some distant cousins and collect a few new resources on our round the world journey.  Over the next few weeks I will blog about some of my experiences and finds.


After our 20 hour journey from New York I was feeling a little flat on my return home yesterday. In between loads of washing I managed to log into my email where I found a great surprise.There were two emails with the subject line "RootsTech Proposal Accepted".  My spirits immediately soared; I will be presenting in two sessions at Rootstech 2012 in Salt Lake City.


I was absolutely stoked to get this news but now have tummy butterflies. I don't think there will be many other Australian presenters at this international event so I feel a responsibility to do Australia proud. This will not be too difficult for the first session "Genealogy 2.0: international panelists discuss their use of social media to connect with cousins, collaborate on projects, discuss issues, market and promote genealogy services and perform acts of genealogical kindness" in which I will be joined by esteemed genealogists Amy Coffin (USA), Audrey Collins (UK) and Joan Miller (Canada). I was thrilled when these genealogists whom I met at Rootstech 2011 agreed to my proposal to form a panel to discuss Genealogy 2.0. We should have lots of fun collaborating with Web2.0 tools to prepare our presentation.


Although my second gig "The Galaxy Girls –three genealogists and their Android tablets" will be a solo performance I have the support of two Australian genealogists, Shelley from Twigs of Yore and Tanya Honey from My Genealogy Adventure who also purchased Samsung Galaxy Tablets not long after I did. Via email, blog posts and more recently through a Huddle on Google+ Shelley, Tanya and I have been discussing our tablet use. I am indebted to The Galaxy Girls for agreeing to allow me to report on their tablet experiences.


The generosity of the genealogy community is demonstrated by the willingness of these five genealogists to support my proposals for Rootstech 2012, I am most grateful to you.

Planning for Kew

Seems like yesterday but it is around nine years since I last visited The National Archives (UK)  in Kew. I have been to the UK on a few occasions since but because Mr Geniaus isn't too keen on genealogy research I haven't made it to Kew again. By hook or by crook I was determined to get to Kew on my forthcoming trip.

When Mr Geniaus indicated that he'd like to attend the cricket at Lords some time I planned our London visit to coincide with a cricket test match -that's him sorted.As our ancestors are English, Scottish and Irish The National Archives holds quite a few resources of interest to me. Mr Geniaus is always interested in what I find - he just doesn't enjoy the hunt.

Next step was accommodation - I have booked a hotel that is only a few minutes drive from TNA.

Now I must plan to maximise the time I spend at the archives. I have already read their excellent guides on the Visit Us Page and noted the various rules and regulations so that I do not blot my copybook. I've downloaded a copy of their guide and map to help you find your way around  onto my netbook and tablet. I see that I cannot use a scanner in the Archives so am leaving my Flip-Pal in Australia and will rely on my digital camera and the camera stands provided by the archives to take images of resources. I have the required forms of identification ready for my Reader's Ticket application. My pencils are packed and I have a copy of my database on FamilyBee on my Android tablet, TMG on my netbook and my Geniaus Family site - I should be able to access my tree from the Archives!

I have drawn up a list of my direct convict ancestors and the names of the ships on which they journeyed to Australia. The high spot of my last visit to the Archives was holding in my gloved hands the original surgeon's journal from  Patrick Curry's trip to Australia on the Hooghley. I got goosebumps when I read the entries noting his problems with scurvy. I was so overcome that I didn't take good notes that day. As well  as taking another look at this document I will  try to get access to the other 6 surgeons' journals that I have found  in the TNA Catalogue for my 12 convicts. Similarly I need to make a list of the immigrant ships of our free settler ancestors to see if I can find any records of their journeys.

Mr Geniaus' ancestor,  James Ball, was a deserter from HMS Forte before he made his way to join his family in Australia. Another of  today's jobs is to see if I can identify some records that may have information on James' Navy service. I'll also try my luck with "Places, prominent people & subjects" searches for .ncestral villages and ancestors' names. The fantastic  "Looking for a Person" page gives me with lots of memory joggers for places where I might find pertinent info on the ancestors.  By the end of this week I hope to be armed with details of more documents to consult than I will be able to see during my two (maybe I can stretch it to three) days at the Archives.  

As well as seeking ancestors I will be meeting up with a living treasuere at the Archives. I am having a break for a cuppa with Audrey Collins, Family History Records Specialist at the Archives. I met the bright, bubbly and knowledgeable Audrey at Rootstech 2011 and look forward to seeing her there in 2012.

If you've been to Kew lately and have any tips for a fruitful visit I'd love to hear them.