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. :)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Family Lore

-
Image
Image by hurk from Pixabay Amy Johnson Crow challenges us to write about our Family History again in 2024 using her 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  The theme for Week 1 is "Family Lore." Many of us have heard stories from our grandparents about incredible feats our ancestors did or a famous person we're related to. What's a tale that has been passed down in your family? Did it end up being true or did it turn out to just be a good story? You can join the challenge too her e. The most famous/shocking story handed down in our family was that my father's great-grandfather was meant to have shot himself.  Lo and behold it wasn't the entire truth (he lived to tell the tale) but there was certainly a large kernel of truth in the story handed down by my grandmother.  You can read the story of Edward Conner's life here . Of course there's always more to be done isn't there?  I ordered his death certificate years ago but it was lost in transit so...
Read more

52 Ancestors in 52 weeks - Week 3 - Favourite Photo

-
Image
      The theme for Week 3 is "Favorite Photo." Amy Johnson Crow has devised these prompts and you can participate too by signing up here. Tell the story of a favorite photo: Who is in it, when and where it was taken, and why it was taken. (That last part is often left out!)   Barbara Conner hanging up washing in Edinburgh     This is a photo of my mother hanging up the washing when we were living in Edinburgh in the 60s. I think my father took it to record what ordinary life was like at the time and to send back to the folks at home in Australia.  I'm sure my mother was not pleased but I am so grateful because you can see so much in this photo.  They had a kettle, something like a Sunbeam electric frypan.  I think I can spot a toaster and a radio up on the top shelf.  You can see that the glass came in milk bottles in those days and that the twin tub washing machine was in the kitchen.  There are canisters for things like tea and c...
Read more

Barley Sugar

-
Image
  Photo by Alex Daw Barley Sugar It's been a while since I've blogged and boy do I miss it. Have you received an email from Ancestry lately suggesting you check out new traits?  DNA doesn't lie, so they say, but I beg to differ.   This will probably be an intensely boring post for those of you who don't really know me but I feel compelled to record my responses to the alleged traits for the amusement or interest of posterity and my family. 16 new traits have been identified for me.  There are 56 identified traits altogether. Let's tackle the new traits first: Competitiveness - likely to be competitive - influenced by my maternal side apparently.  Yes I agree but not with the side of the family.  If you'd asked me I would have said the paternal side.  My paternal grandmother was I believe intensely competitive - witness the articles I have written about her swimming prowess.  I'm struggling to recall any competitiveness displayed by my mother ...
Read more