Lilian's Tree

 I spent a fantastic day at the Botany Bay Family History Fair. I came home very tired but thrilled with the feedback we got.  It was great to catch up with Cassie and Ben from Inside History magazine, Alan and Joy Murrin and Jill Ball. It was an experience to 'sell' our group but people were thrilled with the fact that someone started a new group.   We have even been booked for next year! BBFH did a fantastic job in organising the fair. They had a raffle, talks, through out the day and a diverse range of stalls. The Spinners and Weavers were there along with a quilting group and a pottery group. All three on the New South Wales transcription agents were there, Unlock the Past, Family Search, Inside History and State Records were also there. The special interest groups, from the Society, also has stalls and were eager to help solve problems. I had Carmel helping out and she enjoyed herself, taking in two of the talks. I did one on writing up your family history. Below is a

Some events that are coming up;  29 March Botany Bay Family History Society Fair, Tradies, The Kingsway, Gymea. 10.00am to 4.00pm We have a table. I spent time, this morning making sure things had labels on them, that we had enough flyers and that everything was in one box.  1 April Bankstown Family History Group. meeting Panania Diggers, 7.00 - 9.00pm. Bring your laptop or similar as I am going to show 4 free to use web sites.  5 April St Peters Church. Princes Highway, St Peters. 2.00pm Victorian Cemetery. The cemetery is 175 yrs old.  6 April the Opening of the Bankstown Library & Knowledge Centre. 11.00am - 4.00pm .  9 April UWS Milperra, 5.00pm Book launch on the history of the Uni. We will have a table, to hand out flyers. The group was found through this blog, in a Google search.  12 April Kiama, Family, Local and Social History Expo, Kiama Pavilion, Bong Bong St, 9.30am - 4.00pm. Not sure if I'll get to this one as there is a family birthday, that day. The three

This group stated because we had attended a series of talks on writing and publishing our family histories. We had 25 members at first and now have 40 attending and more on the waiting list. I presented last month, on the topic of Indexes and next month will talk about appendixes. We have show and tell, where we present what we are working on, ask for advice or even show what we have had published. I'm writing, at the moment but want to keep it quite for a bit. I've done the first hand written draft, 10,000 words. What I'm doing with it is typing it up and editing as I go. As I wrote I would add arrows, lines or (sp) so I knew that I had to either add sections, check spelling or reword bits. Are you writing? What?

Three committee members went to the bank to set-up the groups account. I can see the reasoning behind what they asked for but we don't have it. Minuets of the meeting 'electing' us to our positions! We had people volunteer or be asked to join the committee and no-one else offered. Elected unopposed, is how it was. Then I got home and opened my email and blew a fuse.  I'm trying to be nice and have the overseas members, another group, pay by direct deposit. One has done so and while it took several days to get it all together it was ok. Another is complaining that I don't know what I'm doing. Shouldn't have sent the reminder letter but emailed it to her! Now saying her bank wont let her direct deposit and I should set-up PayPal!  if this keeps up they will have to find another treasure/membership secretary and I know no-one else wants it. That will teach me to duck quicker, next meeting! I did enjoy sometime with girlfriends, knitting and chatting. Have

Well where did the last week and a bit go? I am starting to wonder if someone has cranked up the turntable to 78rpm from 33rpm! Not sure what I'm talking about think back to pre CD times. The Bankstown Family History Group is going ahead in leaps and bounds! We had our meeting on the 3rd and the constitution was accepted, with a 27/1 vote. The 1 didn't think that they would be the only one opposed and they did try to halt the vote. The other members were happy with what had been presented.  Fair Trading has sent us the Certificate of Incorporation, which means we can now get a bank account and pay the room fees. We have the ABN and Tax File Number too. The Group has joined 3 societies, The Royal Australian Historical Society, the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations Inc. and the  NSW & ACT Association of family History Societies Inc. This gets our Group 'out there', so people can find us. I hope that this leads to an increase in membership.

What are your plans for this weekend? I hope they are exciting. Me? Well  it is raining here and I won't be able to get out into the garden, so it looks like I will have to do some family tree research. I have a few things that have been simmering away and TROVE is looking like a good place to start. Then I have a jumper I'm knitting and some things I videoed to watch, that will keep me busy for awhile. Enjoy your weekend.