People Places Stories

Our state family history conference commenced today and is on over the weekend but I am not there. I had a more important appointment with two of my Grandsons at Grandparents' day at their school this morning.

With the boys at school today

We had a fantastic concert from the boys and then we were invited to the classrooms to see their work before we had a picnic lunch with them.

When I checked out one of the classrooms I was reminded of my last visit to the school. I was thrilled to find a report of that visit on a notice board, I could hardly contain my excitement as it brought back memories of a happy hour I spent with the Year 1 classes in April this year.

Report on school notice board

 In our state of New South Wales the children study family history in Year 1 and again in Year 6. I was privileged to be able to tell the boys about genealogy and family history.

I dug into the family photo archives (my son came along to watch and take pictures) for some more memories of the day, see them below.

Family History is about People Places Stories

Baby brother wasn't too impressed with my talk

Should you get a chance to get into a classroom and share your passion for family history then I suggest you grab the opportunity.

Mixing it up - Effective Presentations

I should have had it recorded or videoed!

Several months ago after Thomas MacEntee, Pauleen Cass and probably some others blogged  about Ethical Dilemmas facing genealogists I pitched the idea of having a panel session on that topic on the program for the 4th Unlock the Past Genealogy cruise. Alan Phillips liked the idea and added it to the program.

My role was quite simple really, I had to think up a few questions/problems, invite some panelists to join the panel, put together a bit of a powerpoint and moderate the session. The panelists I invited were Mixing it up - Effective from my social media contacts that I knew would be on the cruise; from the work they do in the genealogy world I knew that they were top-notch solid performers. I was thrilled that Pauleen Cass, Kirsty Gray and Maria Northcote agreed to join me as panelists.

Kirsty, Pauleen, Jill, Maria

I am just kicking myself that I didn't record the session as I would love the opportunity to sit quietly, listen and mull over the contributions made by the panelists. As I was busy watching the clock and being nervous I wasn't able to concentrate on the session content  as fully as I would have liked. A recording of the session would have been a useful resource for sharing with the wider genealogical community.

After the session I received many compliments,  this was due to the quality of the panelists and the format of the presentation which allowed panelists to bounce ideas off each other. I encouraged some audience interaction during the session and that gave more people opportunities to add to the conversation.

I believe that at such events we need more interactive sessions and more opportunities for group participation than that offered by the lecture or "chalk and talk" format. Someone said to me in an email I received after the panel session " I particularly enjoy conference sessions when there is a bit of interaction so the more sessions like the panel type session, the better."

I realise that "the sage on the stage" approach is necessary when an expert has new knowledge or information to impart but it would be refreshing if conference or event organisers could mix up the type of sessions on offer. Our individual learning styles need to be accommodated.

By adding in more panel sessions, Q&A sessions with an expert and moderator, hands-on workshops (BYOD), poster sessions, sharing circles, jigsaw groups and team games eg Genealogy Trivia a program can be made more interesting. The Bingo method that was used so effectively by Maria Northcote in her podcasts session on the cruise kept the audience engaged and on their toes throughout the talk (and it was fun).

So how about it organisers of genealogy events? 
When you are programming your next event try to add a little bit of variety.

A Fair Day

I took very few photos at the Central Coast Family History Fair yesterday as I was a working girl. My purpose was to assist Alan Phillips on the Gould Genealogy/Unlock the Past tables at the Fair. I took orders for a few Flip-Pal mobile scanners, I even sold a scanner to a member of my Society who had come to the Fair for that sole purpose,  and answered questions about Geneacruising. But I did much more than that. Alan Phillips is rather a generous chap when it comes to supporting genealogy downunder so he was quite happy for me to chat with Fairgoers and answer their questions on any topic. Thanks, Alan, for taking me to the Fair and giving me a chance to meet with so many enthusiastic family historians.

I really enjoyed giving impromptu lessons to people on a few topics (once a teacher always a teacher). There were several enthusiastic Flip-Pal owners there who used their devices for scanning small photos but who had never tried to scan and stitch larger items. I scanned and stitched this photo of Merle Gillespie and her mother Eliza Gowans numerous times during the day as I taught these students. 

In between I answered some questions about Social Media and how one could use Facebook for genealogy, I told people about MyHeritage and its collections and gave advice on how to start one's research. I referred people wanting lookups to the FamilySearch tables as I didn't have good internet access for lookups. I was able to give some advice on researching WW1 ancestors and suggest resources to find details of Australian ancestors and so on and on and on. No wonder I was a little hoarse at the end of the day! 

Taree Family History Inc getting ready for the day 

FamilySearch had lots of giveaways

There was an enormous range of raffle prizes

I sat opposite Ben from Inside History Magazine and watched him dispense advice and information 

The Nepean Group had a steady stream of visitors

There were transcription agents in attendance

Fair Organiser Wendy Condon with Gosford Mayor, Lawrie McKinna who opened the Fair

Great to see Sharon from the Gathering Dust blog at the Fair

There were several Family History groups in attendance, State Records NSW, some commercial organisations, some stalls selling bits and pieces and a great range of refreshments on site. The only downside is that the Fair was a victim of its own success, many people who arrived just after the opening time of 9:30 expressed disappointment that they could not gain entry to any of the sessions as they were booked out. A much larger venue for the talks was needed.

Congratulations to the organisers on a hugely successful day, there must have been several hundred people through the door.