It has now been over a year since the emergence of Covid-19 changed our world in so many ways. While here in Australia we have certainly not seen the worst of the pandemic, it has nonetheless had a massive impact on our daily lives. there have been lockdowns, border closures, limits on meeting numbers, business closures and stand-downs at work, and the daily stress of not knowing how long the restrictions will last. Living in a border town, seeing police on the bridge and helping people fill out border passes at the library where I work is something I will never forget.
Genealogically speaking, the biggest impact for me has been the loss of face-to-face meetings. How I have missed chatting face-to-face with Genea-mates and the networking and idea sharing that goes hand in hand with meetings and conferences. Online meetings just are not the same.
Despite the down side of online meetings, however, the rise of virtual conferences has allowed me to attend inter-state and overseas meetings that I would never have been able to attend in reality. The genealogical community has pulled together, made use of the internet like never before, and been a huge step in providing so many of us isolated at home with interest, stimulation and contact.
The list of those who have made information and resources available online during the pandemic seems almost endless. Rootstech went completely virtual last month - not to mention also completely free. Ancestry allowed many libraries and other institutions to allow Ancestry Library Edition to be accessed remotely by members when the normal in-house only use became impossible due to closures. Family History Down Under, an Australian genealogy conference scheduled for later this month in Queensland, has also gone virtual, as has the Really Useful Family History Show in the UK in April. The National Archives UK has made all their digital records free to access while they are closed. The list goes on.
The efforts of all these groups and companies in taking their services online cannot be underestimated, and I would like to send a huge thank you to them all, those I have mentioned in this post and the many, many others. You have helped keep us sane over the past year - kept us researching, learning, chatting and helping each other. Well done to you all.
