Oh Adelaide

You can’t go anywhere in Adelaide without seeing someone you know or someone seeing you! Yesterday I got a message from my cousin asking if I attended the Australasian Genealogy and Heraldry Congress a couple of weeks ago because she thought there was a photo of me in her work newsletter.

Pic of me at genealogy congress

Me at Genealogy Congress

That’s me sitting in the front row wearing a bright orangey brown skirt and brown top. Kelly works for the Public Trustee’s office. They had a stall at the Congress and their genealogy officer Suzanne Maiden gave a talk. This is one of the photos which was taken to mark that occasion. Thanks for sending it to me, Kelly!!

Day Four – Thirteenth Australasian Congress on Genealogy & Heraldry

My notes grew less and less as the Congress went on.  In Stephen Young‘s keynote Descendancy Research; when you can’t climb up your family tree, branch out I did make a note to ask my Mum about a conductor’s baton she has which used to be mounted on the wall of the house I grew up in.  I’m not sure where it is now and I also don’t know whose it was and what its importance is.  When I find out from Mum I’ll post it here.

I said hello to John Kitzmiller on the escalator going home Friday and he made this observation about Adelaide, “There aren’t many police cars driving around” which struck me as an unusual observation at first.  I’m just used to there not being many police cars around but I guess being from the USA John isn’t.

Over the three days I was at Congress I bought a nice bunch of goodies.  I like to buy a number of small things rather than one big thing so here is my list.

Forensic Genealogy by Colleen Fitzpatrick

Forensic Genealogy by Colleen Fitzpatrick

 

Car sticker - Caution I brake for cemeteries

Car sticker - Caution I brake for cemeteries

 

Uleybury School and students

Uleybury School and students

I don’t remember which stand these were on but they had packs of cards for sale.  I was looking at one with a picture of Uleybury School, here in South Australia, and the lovely lady at the stall said that they had a card with a picture of school students.  In the bottom picture are two of my great uncle’s sisters in law Kathleen and Doris Taylor.  I am thrilled to have found this!!

 

South Australian Government Gazette 1851

South Australian Government Gazette 1851

 

Cousin Jacks and Jennys - The Cornish in South Australia

Cousin Jacks and Jennys - The Cornish in South Australia

 

Inside History Magazine

Inside History Magazine

I subscribed to Inside History for 6 months.

Finding Your German Ancestors - A Beginners Guide

Finding Your German Ancestors - A Beginners Guide

 

The Annals Of Bendigo Vol 3 1892 - 1909

The Annals Of Bendigo Vol 3 1892 - 1909

I also ordered Volume 1 of the Annals of Bendigo but unfortunately Volume 2 isn’t available on cd.  I had only ever seen these in Bendigo Library so I’m thrilled to be able to own them even if it’s not the full set……yet.

There was also another copy of Inside History and Australian Family Tree Connections magazine in our conference bags so I’ve got stacks to read and enjoy!!

Day Three – Thirteenth Australasian Congress on Genealogy & Heraldry

Day Three

International Symbol for Deafness

International Symbol for Deafness

Unfortunately in his keynote talk John Kitzmiller spent most of his time reading from the big screen instead of the smaller one next to him on the podium.  I’m sorry John but I can’t lip read your ear!  The convention centre’s audio people tried to compensate however it wasn’t enough.  When he finished his on screen presentation he faced the audience and spoke directly into the microphone which was great!!

 

I don’t want these posts to sound like a whinge session.  I am sharing from the point of view of a person with a hearing impairment in the hope that those who read this will think about what I’ve said the next time they’re organising conferences or talks or speaking in public.

Names of records in various countries

This will be handy for researching my German ancestors.  It shows the names of genealogical records in German also French and Japanese.

John's list of top records to use

John's list of top records to use

As well as listing the records available on FamilySearch.org John spoke about the Oral Histories recorded by the LDS church which are here: http://histfam.familysearch.org/oralhistories/oral_index.php  I’ve listened to a couple today but the recording quality was poor.  I hope that  was only for the ones I chose.  This is a fascinating area of genealogy which I hadn’t given much though to.  I asked John about Indigenous Australian genealogies being recorded but they haven’t started a project here yet.

 

Colleen Fitzpatrick – Forensic Genealogy

Colleen’s talks were my favourite of the whole Congress!!  I bought her book Forensic Genealogy which she signed for me.  The picture below is of one of Colleen’s photo quizzes, the audience had to work out what medical condition was suffered by one of the people in the photo.  I happened to pick what it was because I know several people who have had strokes.  The older woman in the middle at the front has had a stroke and is partially paralysed.  There are more quizzes on Colleen’s website.

Colleen Fitzpatrick

 

Ergot is a fungus which grows on rye (see picture below) In the 1600s in Alsace, the village of Colleen’s ancestors, it was abundant.  So much so that it caused the women to have miscarriages and stillbirths for over ten years.  It was also responsible for the Salem Witch Trials in that some people suffering from ergotism experienced convulsions and were thought to be witches.

 

Sue Reid – Online Newspapers For Research

Sue was well spoken so there were no hearing/understanding issues.  She gave lots and lots of free online newspaper websites to search.  Here are some which I noted.  I haven’t got the urls for lots of them but they shouldn’t be too difficult to find.

Australian Periodical Publications 1840 – 1845

Nambour Chronicle

Victorian Government Gazettes 1836 – 1997 at the State Library of Victoria

Gale News Vault at the National Library of Australia

Irish Newspaper Archive

Genuki – http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/Newspapers.html United Kingdom & Ireland newspapers

Cyndi’s List newspapers

Wikipedia – list of online newspaper archives

Google – news.google.com/newspapers

Newcastle Morning Herald

The Argus (separate from what’s on Trove)

Nick Reddan’s Irish Newspapers

 

Vicki Eldridge – Keynote Talk – Find My Past

Vicki was extremely well spoken!!  I only made a couple of notes in this talk and now that I’m reading back over them they don’t make a lot of sense, oh well, I’ll have to do better next time.

The 13th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry

The 13th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry is on in my home town of Adelaide in just over two weeks, the 28th to 31st of March.  I’ve booked the days I can attend and selected which talks I’d like to see as well.  They are:

Word Picture

Barbara Baker – Scottish Research Online

Stephen Young – Family Search Indexing

Noeline Kyle – Finding Women In The Records

Heidi Ing – Light Literature & Strawberry Fetes

Colleen Fitzpatrick – Forensic Genealogy

Sue Reid – Online Newspapers

Jan Gow – New Zealand BDMs

Noeline Kyle – Writing Your History

Mike Murray – 10 Top Tips For Finding UK Ancestors

Roger Kershaw – Getting The Most Out Of nationalarchives.gov.uk

Colleen Fitzpatrick – Curious Case Of James-Jake Smithers-Gray

 

I think this will keep me out of mischief for the three days!!  I’m really looking forward to meeting fellow bloggers and Genealogists For Families members too.