Opening a can of worms or two?

I had a loooong chat with Alan Phillips from Unlock the Past this week, I was thrilled to hear that 230 people (genies and a few partners) have booked for the 4th Genealogy Cruise out of Australia in February - what a genealogy feast it will be. If you have been thinking about joining this cruise you had better do it now as there are very few cabins left.

I am excited that I will be presenting/moderating a new session on the voyage around the topic of ethics in genealogy. I am working on a set of questions/scenarios that I will open to discussion by a panel of experienced genealogists on the cruise. We will cover issues such as publishing sensitive information and how to decide what to include, the right of descendants to know the truth, borrowing other peoples photos and plagiarism and copyright.

Louis Kessler, Shauna Hicks, Alona Tester and Helen Smith in the Social Media Panel  I moderated on the 3rd UTP Cruise

Social Media Panel

I am so cranky with myself.

I didn't think to record the audio from the Social Media Panel I moderated on the 3rd Unlock the Past Genealogy Cruise so  I have no record (apart from my dottery memory) of the responses that were made to the questions I posed.

I couldn't have wished for better panelists than Shauna Hicks, Louis Kessler, Helen Smith and Alona Tester who shared their thoughts and opinions with the disappointingly small audience we had for this session. Because of the panelists' contributions and the differnet format this was one of the best sessions on the cruise program (IMHO). Quite a few who were there asked if can it be repeated in 2014.

L-R Louis, Shauna, Alona, Helen

In the meantime I have realised that the questions I posed would make a good little Geneameme so I will  get around to posting that soon and hope to hear how you would answer the questions.

And the Rootstech winner is....

.... an Australian, Helen V Smith.

Helen at work

Helen is one of Australia's foremost Geneabloggers and Genealogy Presenters. Although she has previously travelled to Salt Lake City this will be her first experience of a Rootstech Conference.

Now this may look as if it smacks of favouritism but I only had a small number of entries for my Free Rootstech Registration and Helen's was the most thoughtful response in the competition.

This is what was required of entrants:

For your entry in this competition:

1. In an email to jillballau@gmail.com  please suggest one of the people who will be at Rootstech 2013 that I should try to interview, why I should do so and suggest at least three questions I should ask them. Your entry is not to be a treatise but a concise piece of writing.

2. The subject of your emailed entry should be  "Rootstech Giveaway". Your contact details are to be included in the email.

Helen replied:

Elaine Collins

Representing BrightSolid

1.      Are there any plans to allow searches by collection as previously available eg search just the Plymouth and Devon collection or the Westminster collection?
2.      Are there any plans to develop further into continental Europe records as many Australian and American ancestors were from these countries?
3.      Have you any special clues for advanced searches?

Thomas MacEntee

Well known social media guru, Geneablogger extraordinaire and announced speaker on 4^th Unlock the Past Cruise

1.      What do you think is the number one positive to becoming a geneablogger?
2.      Twitter, Facebook, Google+, blogging where should someone start?
3.      We have seen the rise of Twitter FaceBook, Google+, Pintertest, YouTube etc, what do you think the next “Big Thing” we could use for genealogy will be?

Janet Hvorka

The “Chart Chick” recently published a book ‘Zap the Grandma Gap’ about getting your family involved willingly in family history

1.      Just how do you get younger people in the family interested in their family history?
2.      Can you  give some examples of how you have integrated your family history into daily life?
3.      Have you some suggestions for integrating family history into family or special occasions such as Christmas?
4.      Your company produces a range of family history charts. Is there a any restriction on what family history program is used?
5.      How is the information sent to you?
6.      How do you send the chart back?
7.      Is there a restriction on size you can send?
8.      Are you able to print a range of images on the charts as well as a range of fonts in different colours?
9.      What is the average turn-around or how long should one allow from the idea of printing a large chart to getting it done? Is now too soon to be getting organised for Christmas?

There are so many people that it would be good to show to Australian audiences.

Lisa Louise Cook is known to some here with her Genealogy Gems. A chat with her talking about Google Earth would be interesting and may give people more ideas.

Geoff Rasmussen about his Legacy webinar series and what makes a good webinar.

Thomas Jones about advanced research techniques.

How many interviews did you want to do?

Helen, I'll try to do as many interviews as I can.  Thanks for the suggestions.

Sightseeing - Geniaus Style

So what does a genealogist do on a free day in Adelaide? I passed on the organised tours for Congress as I wanted to spend the day with Mr Geniaus before abandoning him for the next four.

The first site I visited was South Australia's Migration Museum. I won't rabbit on about that institution because fellow geneablogger, Helen V Smith, has done a superb job of that on her blog. I concur with all the positive things Helen says about the Museum in her blog post. The things that made this Museum so special to me were the artefacts and stories from immigrants that added context to the topic of migration. Below are some images from the exhibition.

The next stop on our meander down Adelaide's North Terrace was The State Library of South Australia. I was underwhelmed by the architecture and decor in this new addition that is stuck onto the historic Institute building. The three staff who helped me in the library were delightful and a credit to the Institution.  I have an inlaw in my tree who died in South Australia in 1902 and I was keen to see if I could find mention of him in any local indexes. Sadly, in spite of the best efforts of the library staff members i did not find anything. Thanks to Librarian Maureen, who is attending  Congress, for graciously posing for a photo and to the other female librarian for producing, in around a minute, a CD that was labelled in the catalogue as needing 48 hrs notice for retrieval. Librarians Rule!

Historic Institute Building on North Terrace

New SLSA Entrance (Right)

Librarian, Maureen

Family History Section, SLSA

A SLSA Librarian helping Geniaus with a CD