Family Tree Frog

Can you guess where I am? Canberra..my old home town for the 14th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry. It's a bit chillier than Brisbane...but nicely so. Yesterday I attended 7 sessions. Josh Taylor was first up with a keynote address. Josh is the President of the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the Data Strategy Manager US and Canada for findmypast.  What an engaging speaker he is. He spoke about how to engage 21sters in family history. The answer? Share your stories. Make it social. Next session was with Carole Riley about following the gold. I suspect that my ancestors were at the diggings in some capacity...either digging or profiteering from those who were digging.I learned the importance of investigating place names and going wider in your research rather than just your direct ancestors. Cora Num's session on workplace choices was pre-recorded due to last minute misfortune and Cora's inability to attend in person. W...

Tee hee!  I can almost smell the Congress now!  Networking cards have arrived from Vistaprint.   And whilst they didn't arrive in brown paper parcels, the links to my requested files arrived from the National Archives this week. They proved very interesting reading but I need the weekend to digest them and work out how best to present the information.   There was no mention of my grandfather but it is definitely around the time he was retrenched from C.A.C.  Stay tuned.

Alex standing outside the bookshop at the National Library of Australia 2013 Well, first of all I must apologise for the lack of activity on this blog.  I have been consumed with finishing my Introduction to Family History course through UTAS and all things World War I at work.  I've barely time to scratch myself. However, duly nudged by Jill Ball of GeniAus  I have decided that I really must do a Pre-Congress blog, one if possible during Congress and a post-Congress blog.   "What is Congress?" I hear you cry from the interweb ;) Congress 2015 or the AFFHO Congress is in Canberra from Thursday 27-Monday 30 March .  It is a triennial event - a hobnobbing if you will of genealogists and the like.  The next one will be in 2018 in Sydney. It's been two years since I've been to Canberra.  The last time was when I graduated with my Master of Information Studies in Librarianship from the University of Canberra in the Great Ha...