31 Things to do in August for National Family History Month

 

Goodness me!  There's only a couple of weeks to go before it is August and National Family History Month.

Here's a list of 31 things you can do to celebrate National Family History Month in Australia and New Zealand.

Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart

Andrew Redfern

1. Join us for the Opening Ceremony with speakers Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Andrew Redfern looking at the pros and cons of using Artificial Intelligence in researching your family history.  Please register and request the Zoom login details via this website's contact form, or Email jan@jansquire.com directly. Details will be sent 24 hours before the event.
2. Check out the NFHM events calendar and book to attend an event. You can find the calendar here.
3. Write a blog post with regard to the theme for NFHM - Secrets and Lies: using AI responsibly in family history research and handling sensitive material in research and publication.
4. Read someone else's blog post and comment on it.  There's a great blog post here as part of the State Library Tasmania and Archives exhibition called Duck Trousers, straw bonnets, and Bluey: Stories of Fabrics and Clothing in Tasmania 
5. Step outside your comfort zone and visit a new library and check out their local history section.  While you're there borrow a book about genealogy or local history.  Or if you can't get out, check out a library's online collection.  Ipswich Libraries has a great photo collection online here. 
   
   
   
6. Volunteer for your family history society in some capacity - it doesn't have to be anything too demanding - perhaps some indexing you could do from home or perhaps you could help with purchasing supplies to keep the society ticking over e.g. tea bags, milk, toilet paper.  Maybe you have some awesome design skills or teaching skills and could edit the newsletter or website or teach a workshop.
7. Join one of your society's special interest groups. QFHS has plenty on offer here.
   
   
   
8. Start writing your family history today.  It doesn't have to be a whole book or a chapter.  Commit to writing even just one biography or story about one of your ancestor's lives.  Maybe signing up to something like Amy's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks could be your goal for next year. Or write an article for your society's journal.
9. Login into Trove today and find a new article or some item of interest in relation to your family history.  Tell us about it.
10. Login in to Papers Past and search for articles of interest that relate to your family tree.
11. Find out about the Genealogical Society of Victoria and its resources by attending their free orientation session online on 12 August. Register here
12. Attend the Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria day at the Chinese Museum.  Details here.
13. If you live in Adelaide, take advantage of the NAA talk on how to make use of PhotoSearch.  Register to attend here.
    
    
    
14. Record an interview with an older relative.  Don't know where to begin?  Plenty of suggestions in this RootsTech YouTube video here.
15. Watch a webinar on Legacy Family Tree Webinars here.
16. Commit to preserving a family heirloom now, whether it's framing old war service medals or buying archival storage materials to preserve a christening gown. Great tips for preserving heirlooms are here.
17. Enter the NFHM competition to win some awesome prizes from our sponsors.  Details of how to enter are here.
18. Teach a friend or a relation how to do a particular aspect of family history e.g. using a database, searching a catalogue, how to scan a document.
19. Digitise/scan photos and documents. Not sure how?  These sites will help. Digital NZ and MyHeritage
20. Find out how to research your Huguenot ancestry by attending this webinar here.
21. Learn how to trace South Sea Islander ancestry at the State Library of Queensland.  Register here. 
    
    
    
22. Take your convict ancestry research further with Stephanie Ryan at this webinar.  To register go here.
23. Discover your Irish family history at this webinar here.
24. Learn a new family history tool - software or MyHeritage's Reimagine app or a new database.
25. Do some filing.  Go on. You know you have to and you will feel so virtuous when it's finished and gasp! - you will be more organised and able to find those certificates so easily :)
26. Craft some family history gifts for your relatives now - calendars, a memory book, a framed family tree, or a framed heirloom.  Looking for ideas?  Etsy has some great ones here.  FamilySearch has some ideas too.
27. Go on a cemetery excursion with a buddy and find that grave or tidy up your ancestor's grave.
28. Book your next genealogy exploring trip with your genea-mate now - be it near or far it's more fun going with a mate.
29. Watch an episode of Who Do You Think You Are and write down one thing you learned from the show that you didn't know or hadn't thought of before or thought made the story interesting. Share it
30. Plan a family reunion. This article will help you.

Anita Jacoby

31. Attend the Closing Ceremony for NFHM on Thursday 31 August with author Anita Jacoby at State Library of NSW Metcalfe Auditorium. Please register and request the details via this website's contact form, or Email jan@jansquire.com directly. 

If you're interested in finding out about how to blog your family history I will be speaking at North Lakes later this month.  For more info click here.

I hope you make great progress with your family history research during August.  If you would like to share any ideas of what to do during NFHM,  please include them in your comments below. :)