So What Did I Learn At Congress!! (This was all done and not published last year! )

Congress is a great place to hear great speakers on great subjects

Paul Milner; Judy G. Russell; Kerry Farmer; Pauleen Cass; Angela Phippen; Helen Smith; Lisa Louise Cooke; Paul Blake; Jill Ball to mention a few!

• There were 620 delegates and 309 pages in the speaker notes pdf that we were sent (what a fantastic resource)
• It was worth the six year wait!
• Society for Australian Genealogists can do an amazing job of organising a Congress!
• There is not another Congress planned as noone has said they will host! Someone needs to!!!!
• The ICC at Darling Harbour make a great morning/afternoon tea!
• Doing a course online does not mean you do not connect to other students! I met up with fellow UTAS and NGIS students.
• Geneabloggers are a great bunch of people!
• In the US you can collect ribbons on your name tag - some lovely Genies had some organised for Congress here - it was fun and has made a lovely keepsake of my first Congress

But what did I learn in relation to the nuts and bolts of genealogy??

• Phillimores Atlas is a must use tool (if I can get a hard copy I will, but it is also available through Ancestry)
• Understand the people who were writing the legal 'stuff' at the time it was written. Find out what the legal 'stuff' meant at the time it was written!
• Google Earth Pro is a wonderful tool and I need to download it 
• Family search is free and has a great app for finding relatives that are near you (within 100mtrs I think) as long as they too have it turned on! Family search has a lot of records you can utilise! We are matter! We want to matter! We do matter! 
• Make your blog a beaut one! Don't post after everyone else has (well I am not keeping that part of my blog up with this post lol). I also learned I need to work a little on the look of my blog!
• DNA should supplement your research and you need to link the DNA back to your research to see where matches really fit in.
• Read other Genies blogs! There are a heap of them out there!!
• Dusty Docs is a great site that I need to explore!
• Meeting up with people I have seen on facebook for a long time can mean that you become real friends! (Hence my facebook friends number has grown a little since the Congress)
• I am blessed and thankful to all the Genies I have met during the last 10 years and now call friends!

Life Gets In The Way....

Let's admit it, when you have a young family time flies...
Last year began so well..and then I dropped off the blog earth! The reason was due in part to my children, one headed overseas mid year for 3 months and the prep assisting in the departure took a bit of time...but simultaneously an elderly cousin died. The cousin had no spouse, no children...just my parents...so I supported them...and time just got away...
Here we are nearly a whole year since my blog post and feeling very down that I never shared what I had learned at Congress....which in all honesty seems almost a lifetime ago..I will see if I can share some notes about that this year.
BUT..this year I have an ambition ... to do more family history wise..to research; blog and be involved...
So to begin I have finally joined a family history society...and now school is underway and programs etc are in place and I know what time I have....I am determined to schedule research and blogging into my time...
Oh and I intended on attending the 3 Day DNA Conference at Castle Hill in August and the 35th Annual Conference NSW & AFHS too!
If you do not know about these 2 exciting events, click on the links!! They are both sure to be exceptional!!
Fingers crossed this is the year I get into gear!
For those who have stayed subscribed - thankyou for your patience...I will get there!!