Last Day of the Conference!

Well what a wonderful last day to a great conference!

The first talk on Royal Commissions and Legislative Council Select committees by Angela Phippen was a real eye opener, who would even consider that these 'boring' papers could assist a family historian!

But by going through some examples and showing how they could indeed assist, if not to discover an actual fact about a person, may shed light on their locality,surrounds, occupation.

Robyn Van-Dyk then gave us a sneak peek into what will soon be released online! So the word of advice is Check out the War Memorial Website from 30th September this year and then stayed tuned from December as you see a new platform emerge and then more private records coming online fully digitised.
A good thought/word of caution to note to as these become available - Unpublished diaries have copyright in perpetuity unlike published works....
Also keep an eye on the site for the ability to assist transcription from home.....

Rosemary Kopittke then assisted in sharing techniques for making the most of research when using findmypast.com.au/uk/and the usa site!

Women in Records was the next topic and three interesting subjects were covered by three equally interesting women! Cora Num spoke & gave us some great websites & books to refer to including: www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au.

Angela Phippen returned to the podium and spoke about Women and Divorce highlighting the changes to the laws for divorce before Megan Gibson (http://www.familytreetime.com.au/)  spoke about Women creating records, which is what I am doing right now here! Some quick points from her talk
Get your copyright - right
List your sources if leaving records   and
'Research like EVERYONE will fact check it and write like EVERYONE will read it!'
Have you not left a record...then start writing here is your writing starter.....'Why did you start family history?'

There was a call to Illawarra for the 30th Conference next year 'Illawarra Remembers: 1914-2014' to be held from Friday 12 to Sunday 14 September 2014 at The Fraternity Club at Fairy Meadow... for information their website is up www.conference2014.org.au

The outgoing President Joy Vost then handed over to the new President, Gail Hanger (I think) and then the new committee was called to the stage

The Conference ended with a lovely lunch and a chance to chat and say goodbye to friends old and new!

The OMG Conference Story....tomorrow!