Deniliquin Family History Expo

I was fortunate to spend last weekend in Deniliquin at their Family History Expo, spending a lovely two days visiting the many exhibitors, picking up flyers and buying books, chatting to many stall holders and listening to a number of wonderful speakers.  Every speaker had useful information to use in my family history research, and I am still sorting through all my notes - and the big bag full of goodies I happily carried home.
For those of you who could not attend - a brief summary of the speakers.

Friday
10.00am-11.00am Jason Reeves, Acquisition Manager for Ancestry Australia and New Zealand
Jason discussed searching the Ancestry database, using both the general search and the card catalogue, including optimising wildcard searches and using the search filters.
11.15am-12.15pm Anne Burrows, State Library Victoria
Using Susannah Nicholls as a case study, Anne showcased the records available through the various SLV collections.
1.30pm-2.30pm Andrew Gildea, creator of Finders Cafe
Andrew discussed the issues of sharing our research, documents and photos online, including plagarism, unfounded claims and lack of source citation and recognition, and the solutions to these issues offered by Finders Cafe.
2.45pm-3.45pm Joy Roy, fellow of Genealogical Society of Victoria
Did your ancestors swim to Australia?  Joy explored the sources available to research our ancestors' shipping records and how to access them.
7.00pm-8.00pm Dr Tim Sherratt, University of Canberra
Tips and tricks for researching the collections available through Trove, including refining searches and building an online collection.
8.15pm-9.15pm Lt Col Neil Smith from Mostly Unsung
Neil spoke about sources for researching the military service of Australians in World War 2, moving beyond basic military dossiers to more in-depth research of unit histories and each soldier's individual experiences.

Saturday
10.00am-11.00am Jason Reeves, Acquisition Manager for Ancestry Australia and New Zealand
Jason spent time charing more tips for searching Ancestry's many databases, then covered the details of taking an Ancestry DNA test and analysing the results.
11.15am-12.15pm Dr Kate Bagnall, University of Woollongong
Kate discussed researching Chinese Australian families, including understanding Chinese names and tracing families back to China.
1.30pm-2.30pm Suzanne Voytas, family historian
Despite the growth of records available on the net, not everything is available online and not everything online is correct.
2.45-3.45 Debra Parry, Melbourne Conservation Services
Debra showed how to preserve and protect our collections, including safe handling and storage of documents, photographs, memorabilia, artwork and other items.  She also horrified us all with images of the results of incorrect handling and storage.

This was the third Family History Expo I have attended in Deniliquin, and I congratulate the Deniliquin Genealogical Society on organising a wonderful weekend.