Day 5 of the Unlock The Past history and genealogy Roadshow saw a big turn out of Canberrans for another excellent program of speakers and talks. There seemed to be a higher ratio of males to females at this venue than at others which was interesting. Must be the dynamics of Canberra’s population.

As I have seen all the international speakers’ talks now  I only attended those in the local stream. Starting the day was Cora Num‘s excellent presentation Irish Research in the Electronic Age which was broad ranging with lots of links to follow up. As usual Cora put a handout on her website.

Next was Tom Foley from the National Library of Australia (NLA) speaking about the treasure of the Library and I was a bit surprised to see so many Canberran genealogists attend this as I would have thought they would almost live at the Library. It repeated a trend I have seen at other venues when I have given a similar talk – genealogists don’t seem to be aware of what the NLA has online free through TROVE or their e-resources service.

The Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra (HAGSOC) were going to give a talk on Beginning Your Family History but there were only a few attendees who also wanted to see Dan Lynch’s Google Your Family Tree: The Basics so the session was cancelled and everyone moved in to hear Dan. So he is the only speaker to have spoken to all attendees at a roadshow event. As usual he gave heaps of tips which people were writing down so that they could try it out at home.

I missed Cora’s second talk on How Did They Get Here?: Locating Shipping and Immigration Records as it was scheduled at the same time as my talk on Archives You May Not Know But Should. I will be able to follow up Cora’s by looking at her handout and of course my handout on my roadshow talks is on my website under the Resources page.

After dinner Elaine Collins from FindMyPast UK, Louise St Denis from the National Institute of Genealogical Studies and Dan Lynch all presented their talks which I have commented on in earlier blogs. Rosemary Kopittke also talked on FindMyPast Australasia.

Someone staying at the venue took the opportunity after dinner to ask me about his own rather complicated family situation and how he might research his history.

Local exhibitors were HAGSOC as mentioned above and also the Canberra & District Historical Society.

While in Canberra we also took the opportunity to visit the Canberra Museum & Art Gallery, Old Parliament House where I visited the Prime Ministers exhibition area which brought back memories of my time with National Archives of Australia on the Prime Ministers Papers Project and lastly some of us went to the Australian War Memorial.

I also took time out to visit former colleagues at the NAA and also at the Noel Butlin Archives Centre. Now quite nostalgic about my time in Canberra 1999-2003. Flying out to Brisbane my home town this afternoon. Till the next Roadshow, happy ancestor hunting.