Conference 2013-29th Annual Conference of the NSW & ACT Association of Family History Societies

Multi day blog because I can't blog from my phone!

Friday September 20, 2013
Arrived at the History Fair with plenty of time to look around at all the exhibitors and catch up with a couple of my genealogist friends. Lovely venue, lots of exhibitors including Inside History Magazine, Trove, Marilyn Rowan Transcriptions, Joy Murrin Family History Services, Family Search, National Institute Genealogical Studies, Unlock the Past, plus a lot of others including a great representation of various family history societies.


I went by the Trove table......I am very fortunate to now have a great 'I love Trove' pin AND a Trove coffee mug...(highly sort after items) THANKYOU TROVE!

The meet & greet was a great chance to catch up with more of my friends & meet some new people & catch up with lovely ladies I met last year at conference, Jo & Nan!

I also got my first set of blogger beads from Geniaus
who also has some great photos of the conference visit her blog Geniaus
So to feel worthy of them, I'm determined to revive the blog and attempt to find something to blog about on a regular basis!




Saturday September 21st, 2013
Great start to the day with Dr David Headon giving the John Vincent Crowe Memorial Address, speaking on how Canberra came about, its foundation story...very interesting!
This was followed by Chris Boyack from FamilySearch who posed the question 'What would your great great grandchildren wish you would have done' and then informed us about what is new at familysearch.org with their up to 5000 photo storage, ability to add stories as well as add sources and collaborate with others. He also spoke about the Discovery Centres that are to be built, the first is to be at Seattle Washington and will include a free to use HD Studio to video stories in!
Also reminded us to check their records WEEKLY as they update the indexing weekly!
If you want to assist in the indexing or want to see what will be available when indexing occurs go to their site and download the indexing program!
Rootstech is on in February next year...for more information go here https://rootstech.org/

Cora Num them spoke about Research Tools for the Digital Age, her website http://coraweb.com.au/
is excellent if you have not yet visited! She also has a new book out eRecords for Family History

Cora & David Num 

The next session I attended was by Martin Woods from NLA and was all about maps - very informative and thought provoking, I had never considered how they could be used in family history research or that there was so many different types of maps, with so much different information...definitely worth more investigation.

Then it was time for Gail Davis, NSW SRO, who spoke about Education Records, again another avenue I had not considered, even for the social aspect of the relatives in days gone by.



Conference Dinner was the end to a great day, with great people at the table which had a lovely centrepiece and wonderful entertainment by Carl Sampson & Anna Brown and members of the Canberra Philharmonic Society, very enjoyable.

All seated and waiting on dinner

Carl Sampson & Anna Brown

Now I do have a OMG wonderful moment to share about today, but it shall wait till after I've finished the conference!