Well National Family History Month went quickly with lots of events and activities. If you missed the report on the NFHM launch in Canberra you can read about it here. I am pleased to report that we had more events and more organisations participating than last year. Overall  there were 349 events hosted by 139 organisations and in 2013 there were 244 events hosted by 91 organisations.

In order of the most events to the least in Australia, the figure in brackets is 2013.

In order of the most events to the least in Australia
State/Territory        No of Events      No of Organisations
Victoria                        94 (80)                 30 (26)
Queensland                 79 (26)                 27 (12)
New South Wales      77 (77)                46 (35)
Tasmania                      27 (20)                  7 (3)
Western Australia    27 (17)                    6 (5)
South Australia         20 (11)                  11 (6)
Online events             13 (0)                       9 (0)
ACT                                   8 (3)                       3 (2)
Northern Territory    4 (0)                       1 (0)
Total                           349 (244)             139 (91)

I also noticed other events under the banner of National Family History Month which were not in the NFHM web calendar so it was a lot bigger than the statistics above indicate. But you can still see the growth over the last 12 months.

We also saw the introduction of an online events category with webinars, offers from sponsors, Google Hangouts and so on. I expect that category will be bigger again next year. Another new feature this year was extending the sponsors prizes to individuals as well as societies. For the record I will include the winners here as once the NFHM website is updated for 2015 the sponsors page will change.

As national coordinator I would like to thank our major sponsors Ancestry.com.au, FamilySearch and MyHeritage for their support for NFHM 2014 and all our prize sponsors listed below in alphabetical order with the lucky winners.

One 12 month membership of AFFHO for each State/Territory (for societies not already an AFFHO member)

• Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory for the NT
• Dublin History Group for SA
• Holroyd Family History Group for NSW
• Gladstone District Genealogical Society for QLD
• Gisborne Genealogical Group for VIC
• There were no eligible societies from WA, TAS or the ACT

Two Congress 2015 registrations (for individuals)

• Liz Pidgeon VIC
• Jackie van Bergen NSW

Ten World Heritage 12 month subscriptions to Ancestry.com.au (for individuals)

• William Dudley ACT
• Kylie Willison SA
• Helen Davey QLD
• Carmel Galvin QLD
• Jan Whiteway QLD
• Gerard Flannigan VIC
• Linda Albertson NSW
• Alicia Kinsey NSW
• Janice Lawrenz NSW
• Marion Starr NSW

One twelve month subscription to Australian Family Tree Connections magazine (for societies)

•  Wyong Family History Group NSW

One twelve month subscription to the Biographical Database of Australia (for societies – to be used on one computer terminal only)

•  Hawkesbury Family History Group NSW

Calligraphic prize by Family Tree Scriptorium (Patricia Barth) ‘What Makes a Good Genealogist’ written by American genealogist George Henry Preble in the 1850s – unframed (for societies)

• Winner is Queensland Family History Society QLD

Two twelve month subscriptions to findmypast.com.au (for individuals)

• Lindsay Graham ACT
• Misha Lewis SA

Two $100 vouchers for GenEbooks (for individuals)

• Jeanette Hahn ACT
• Phillip Cole QLD

One $200 voucher for Unlock the Past publications from Gould Genealogy & History (for societies)

• Bankstown Family History Group NSW

One twelve month subscription to Inside History Magazine (for societies)

• Tweed & Gold Coast History & Heritage Association NSW

Three vouchers for a full NSW transcription from Joy Murrin (one prize of 3 vouchers for an individual and one prize of 3 vouchers for a society to be used as a raffle prize)

• Josie Smith VIC
• Casino & District Family History Group NSW

Two full access 12 month subscriptions to MyHeritage (for individuals)

• Cheryl Gribble QLD
• Kim Liddell NSW

One $150 voucher for a Momento photo book (for individuals)

• John Force ACT

Three Gift Certificates for the winner’s choice of any online course from a choice of over 200 courses offered by the National Institute for Genealogical Studies (for societies  to be used for fundraising eg raffles, door prizes etc)

• Adelaide & Northern Districts Family History Group SA
• Logan River & District Family History Society QLD
• Griffith Genealogical & Historical Society NSW

One 2014 ACT/NSW conference registration, not including dinner (for NSW/ACT societies or individuals)

• Wagga Wagga & District Family History Society NSW

One $150 voucher for research services from Shauna Hicks History Enterprises (for individuals)

• Jan Whiteway QLD

Two $200 Unlock the Past cruise vouchers (for individuals)

• Judy Webster QLD
• Jenni Gay SA

To capture some of the highlights and publicity I established a Pinterest board for NFHM and you can see it here. Notices throughout the month were put on the NFHM Facebook page and shared by others. I would have liked to make 2000 Likes but we only got to 1990 Likes which was still a fantastic effort. There were lots of tweets with the hashtag #NFHM2014 and of course many without and posts on Google + and videos on YouTube. I would like to thank all my geneafriends in cyberspace for their help in spreading the word through their own channels.

I am already starting to think about NFHM 2015 and will be incorporating where possible feedback received this year. I would really love to see more genealogy/family history societies participate and add their events into the NFHM web calendar (which will open for 2015 events in November). Also the continued support of National and State archives and libraries along with public libraries, historical societies, Family History Centres and everyone else. Without these organisations hosting their events, we would not have such a smorgasbord of family history events to attend.

Thanks everyone for a fantastic NFHM2014 and why not start planning for NFHM 2015 now!