Week 4 (Jan. 22-28): Witness to History

Just as we research our ancestors, one day (hopefully) our descendants will research us.  What do we have to tell them?

Over the past few years we have all lived through historic times.  Have you recorded your feelings and impressions?

The Covid19 pandemic has been a major historical event.  For all of us who have lived through it, there will be memories of Covid, both positive and negative, that stand out.  There are new routines, changes in how we live, work, communicate, shop, relax, learn, and more.  We all have seen stark images of police blockading state borders, empty streets at midday in our cities, supermarkets during panic buying or opening with stripped shelves.  Then there are the more personal experiences - business closures and work stand downs, learning to work from home or change our daily routines.

There have also been the positive experiences.  Teddy bears and rainbows in windows, people standing at the end of their driveways on ANZAC Day, clap for carers, support we have received from friends colleagues and neighbors, the joy of getting out and about after lockdowns ease.  For many of us the simple pleasures in life have taken on new significance as we rediscover them after the trial of lockdowns.

Here are a few questions you might consider when recording your personal experiences of Covid-19.

• What are you most grateful for during this covid-19 crisis? 
• What are some of the images that will stay with you of the pandemic?
  
• What have you missed most during full or partial lock-down? 
  
• What changes have you seen in your life over the last few months? 
  
• Have you been participating in virtual gatherings with friends or family?
  
• Have you taken up new hobbies during the lockdowns? 
  
• Are you cooking or gardening more? 
  
• How have the closures affected your local community? 
  
• Have in-person meetings been replaced with virtual meetings via Zoom, Skype etc? 
  
• Do you enjoy the virtual meeting format? 
  
• Are you working from home instead of in your usual place of work?
  
• Have you had to cancel travel plans for pleasure or family? 
  
• Have you/others been wearing masks when out and about in your area?  
• Will you change your lifestyle after this experience? 

Locally, I have also experienced a historic flood that heavily impacted my local community.  Many homes in the district were flooded, businesses closed, people evacuated, roads cut.  The community pulled together magnificently to help each other sandbag and protect properties whenever they could.  The impact was still enormous, especially in the small community of Rochester which saw the majority of homes and businesses flooded.  15 months later a significant proportion of residents are still living in caravans and temporary accommodation as they struggle to complete repairs to their homes.  Again, the memories of this disaster need to be recorded. 

We have all been witness to history, and we should all be considering how we will record our memories and reactions to these events.

WikiTree

There is always something new to discover in Genealogy, and today I stumbled across WikiTree, a site I have somehow managed to never encounter before but one which definitely seems worth further investigation.

 
So what is WikiTree?  According to the website, Wikitree is a community.  

"Our mission is to grow an accurate single family tree that connects us all and is freely accessible to us all, forever.

WikiTree balances privacy and collaboration so that living people can connect on one world tree to common ancestors.

We privately collaborate with our close family members on modern family history. As we go back in time, the privacy controls open up. Collaboration on deep ancestors is between distant cousins who are serious about genealogical research, careful about sources, and willing to see their research validated or invalidated with DNA.

Because all the profiles are connected on the same system our collaboration is creating a single family tree that is connecting us all, preserving our history, and making our shared genealogy available for the world to access, for free, forever."

The WikiTree tree includes 32,059,521 profiles (10,525,200 with DNA test connections) edited by 944,653 members from around the world.

On the 4th - 5th November, the site will celebrate WikiTree Day with a number of speakers.  The site is currently open for registration and have more information about the day available, along with a list of speakers and their topics.

So take a look at WikiTree and see if it is for you.

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.

Genealogy Expos Coming Up

I think I'm going to be covering a few kilometers on October this year, with some great Genealogy Expos coming up.
The first takes place in Deniliquin on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th October.  The Deniliquin Family History Expo has been an annual event for a few years now - I've been to several and they just keep getting better. 
The list of exhibitors is impressive - their flyer lists over 30 - and there are a number of speakers to listen to across the two days of the expo.  They include : Jason Reeve from Ancestry, Doug Elms from Victorian GUM, Andrew Gildea from Finders Cafe, Neil Smith from Mostly Unsung, Joy Roy from the Scottish Ancestry Group, Ann Burrows from the State Library Victoria and Kaye Vernon from Teapot Genies.
The Expo takes place at the Deniliquin RSL and admission is just $10 per day.
This is quickly followed by the Colac & District Weekend of Family History on Friday 20th, Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd October.
The event kicks off on the Friday afternoon with sessions on researching, writing printing and publishing your family history, lead by the wonderful Hazel Edwards.
On the Saturday is the main Family History Expo, with exhibitors, demonstrations, talks and competitions - I'll be following their website for more details about exhibitors and speakers.
The event finishes on the Sunday with cemetery tours, history walks and sessions on organising a family reunion.
Some wonderful events to look forward to - and hopefully I'll be able to fit in a little sightseeing while I'm there!

Deniliquin Genealogy Muster

Did anyone out there manage to get to the Deniliquin Genealogy Muster last week??  For those who didn't, you missed out on a great opportunity for those of us in a country area without easy access to all the city repositories and resources to meet, chat about genealogy and learn more about the resources available to us.  For only $10 entry each day (it ran on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th October) you had access to a number of exhibitor tables including several regional genealogy groups and representatives from places like PROV, State Records NSW, Charles Sturt University Regional Archives, the First Fleet Fellowship and many more.  Each table was staffed by people ready and willing to tell you about their services and resources, and I spent a great deal of both days learning about several resources I had either been completely ignorant of, or had not used to their full potential.
On each day there was also several speakers scheduled, so besides chatting to stallholders I also spent my time listening to speakers on regional repositories, Government records, military history and Irish research, to name a few.
This is the first Muster I have made it to, but I'm definitely planning on it not being the last.  Well done to the Deniliquin Genealogical Society for all their work in planning the Muster - I'll look forward to the next one.