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!!

15th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldy

Six years of anticipation led to the most unbelievable gathering in Sydney at the International Convention Centre! 

I first learned of Congress the year it was held in South Australia, it was too short notice to save and pay for an interstate holiday, I would wait to the next one which was in Canberra, but circumstances were that I could not get to that one either! My family were warned - the next one was going to be in Sydney and I WAS attending!

Last year as soon as registrations were opened I registered and booked my accommodation - I let the family know - I was busy March 8th - March 12th inclusive 2018! They would need to sort out how to get the youngest to and from school because I would simply be away!!

I decided to go down the day before it began so I could check in, not be rushed or late for Day One!
What a good decision that was because they had pre registration up at Glover Cottages on the Wednesday and Thursday!! 

Now I realised in the days leading up to the Thursday that I had no real dinner plans and really did not want to eat alone, so I used the Facebook page "Genimates at Congress 2018" to see if others were interested in coming out for dinner - and there were!
Pancakes at the Rocks at Darling Harbour was decided as the place to go and we ended up with about 25 people attend - what a great start to Congress!
The following days did not disappoint, the topics spoken about were informative and interesting, new friends were made and it was lovely catching up in person with those I have met up with before (even though we do chat on facebook)!

The dinner at Rydges on Saturday night was lovely and we had a 'challenge' to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge from a kit! Our table were first to complete it and I will have it up on a shelf once I get my office in my home!

Ribbons were given out during Congress and I was lucky enough to obtain quite a few! A great idea from the US that will make a lovely keepsake of my first Congress!

So what did I learn? - watch this blog, I shall share in the next day or two!!

Surprises! A lesson learned!

I have researched my various lines of family ancestry now for over 27 years. The whole extended family are aware of this.
Recently a close family member came and spoke to me at a family function and showed me a newspaper article relating to an award my Grandmother was given. I had never read the article but was aware of the award. They then continued to share with me details of a collection of things they had from my Great Grandfather, war items like medals, coins, bullet cartridges. I was very thankful as I did not know these existed, they went home and emailed me photos which was wonderful within the email there was a photo of my Great Grandparents I had not seen. You can imagine my happiness. BUT then came the Surprises!!
In the emails that followed they sent me photos of my Grandfather as a child, my other Great Grandparents, at various ages and of a wedding gift my Great Grandfather received from the officers of the ship he had been on in 1902! To say my weekend was made is an understatement.
But it has reminded me that as the ones in the family researching we need to continuously be vocal, especially with the older members of family. Be vocal in what you would love to have - photos, mementos - not to keep but to photograph and/or scan! You never know what is hiding in biscuit tins and cupboards!

Music!

Music is usually passed down the generations, favourtie songs, music etc...it has been part of human existence for all time.
In my family it was a big part of my childhood. Family holidays were full of a car filled with music! When tape players were included in a car our lives were changed! Disney songs were often a favourite!
But singing was important at home too, listened to records, then tapes then CD's we sang along but as a family we would sing together. My family once sang together at church, my sisters and I sang at a couple of school functions and as individuals we took part in school musicals and performances, choirs and vocal groups, I was fortunate to even sing at a wedding service.

For me I loved to perform in the mass choirs, the MetWest festival and the Combined Choir at the Sydney Opera House - for me one of these sticks in my memory as we sang Handel's Messiah and Zadok the Priest - it was fantastic being a part of such an event and then I was fortunate enough to be in a 12 piece vocal group who sang two items arcapella on the stage of the Sydney Opera House during the Combined Instrumental performance.It was a daunting but incredible moment in my life.

Fast forward to having children and I continued to enjoy music and sing, needless to say my children sing. My eldest daughter has enjoyed time with the Australian Youth Choir and in a selective choir at our local school area level. She was able to perform a few times at the Sydney Town Hall.  The youngest daughter is now in her second year with the local selective choir and I am involved in assisting!

I have run a choir at my children's school as noone else was willing, took a group to perform in Starstruck so they had that experience and am now back assisting the current teacher who was willing.

For as long as I can remember the Sydney Conservatorium of Music has been a bit of a 'holy grail' if only I could go there...perform there. The castle built in 1915 has been one of those places I have passed during my life and longed for....well it happened... They ran a course which I could attend because of the selective choir I now assist with....I was excited as I would get to go beyond those hallowed doors finally....BUT it got better....the workshop required us to sing!!  Well the bucket list is ticked off - I have sung at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music!

I know this is a small thing...but to me it solidifies a lifetime so far of singing, connecting with my parents, my grandfather who was a conductor of Leichhardt's Municipal Band - linking the generations to music!!

Click on the link to view the Castle that is The Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Family History - why do it?

I have come across those people who do not understand why I am passionate about the research into family history that I do (shocking I know), but if for no other reason I am often reminded that one good reason to research my heritage is for medical issues.
Genetic issues with health are bound to prepare, warn or assist us during our lives. Some may never affect us but then you will come across something you have that is genetic, that you had no idea of existed in your family until you start to really look!
Recently I was told I have Otosclerosis, the first question the ENT specialist asked was "do you know of any of your ancestors who had it?"  Did I? Well my father has a hearing issue, which I believed (from what he had said) was fluid in his ear. The one defining difference...the pressure test - if there is fluid in your ear the pressure in both ears is different....if it is otosclerosis the pressure is the same! He, by luck was going to a hearing test the next day so I asked him to find out about the pressure - they had done a test on him a year ago...the pressure was the same in both ears! Bingo! As the ENT suspected when I mentioned my father, I have inherited this from my fathers line. I guess the question for my research now is which line did he inherit it from?!
As you do, I have jumped onto Trove - was this a known condition? If so, how far back can I find some detail on it for the common folk  - the answer Yes it was and the earliest mention I found in a newspaper was
1st Feb 1913 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article179871126 they even knew then it was inherited! But no one in my family has passed this information down..3 generations!?
By 10 June 1945 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59334857 a surgeon had perfected a surgery to rectify this form of deafness with great success!
Today, now in this world of technology what can be done?! Well otosclerosis is no longer as common as it once was due to flouride in toothpaste and the water...so there are not as many surgeons performing this operation, in NSW there are about 4 who see approx. 40 patients per year for the whole state! This, I have been told, is a precise operation, although 98% are successful there are risks of losing your hearing in that ear altogether; having the facial nerve damaged, not improving your hearing at all. 
The alternative is hearing aids - this is the path I shall begin with as the less invasive no risk avenue!

Trove Tuesday Post

Given that Australia Day is almost upon us I decided to search for Australia Day in Trove...what I share today has nothing to do with it, but came up in the search!
Read and enjoy! A well written Letter to the Editor (surprised it was published) written by a female in 1823!
Click the link to read -  Letter to the Editor

1823 'To the Editor of the Sydney Gazette.',The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), 9 October, p. 4. , viewed 23 Jan 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2182287