Lilian's Tree

 I have read seven books this month with a new author, Hira Arikawa being my featured author. I didn't have any books by an author, with the surname starting in A, so I asked a good friend, Wendy and she made the suggestion.  The book she suggested was The Travelling Cat Tails,  by Hira Arikawa. Set in Japan, it tells the story of Satoru and his cat Nana. Satoru takes Nana to visit several friends, with the hope that they will take Nana for him. The story is told from Nana's point of view and you learn about Satoru at different stages of his life, through this journey. Beautifully written but have your tissues ready. 84, Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff, was mentioned by a friend, Kerry Farmer and I found my copy and read it. It is a series of letters between Helene and a bookshop at 84, Charing Cross Road. A delightful read. Two more of Jane Bettany's were also read, Murder at Maple Grange and Murder on Bluebell Hill.  Featuring Violet Brewster as the amateur sle...

In spite of the predicted cold temperatures and rain around 400 dedicated genealogists, descended on Castle Hill RSL, for the start of three days of talks on DNA. Registration was a very smooth process and very soon hugs were being collected, from old and new friends. 9.00am had us all settled into the main theater, for the start of the day. Blaine T Bettinger, the overseas guest speaker, started with, 'Understanding and interpreting your ethnicity results.' This wasn't something I fully understood and Blaine's way of explaining it had me going, 'I get it, now!' The rest of the day offered two or three different talks, with a variety of speakers. Kerry Farmer, was my choice, with 'Combining DNA with traditional techniques.'  Kerry is a great speaker and I've heard her give several DNA talks, over the years, all are interesting and today's was excellent. I have only just started digging deeper, with my DNA results and this talk re-enforced t...

Now the title of this post might have you scratching your head and wondering, 'what is she going on about?'  But if you belong to the Society of Australian Genealogists,  https://www.sag.org.au/   you will know what I'm talking about. Twice a year the Society has 'Lost In' weekends, covering a wide range of topics, some are face-to-face and some are webinars. Both are great. This past weekend was held at the Portside Conference Centre, Sydney, on Saturday and Sunday. Some of the group, early on Saturday morning. The room was filled, both days. The topic for the weekend was DNA and whilst we aren't NCIS Agents, looking for a killer, we are still trying to find that elusive ancestor, who is just out of our reach. Or so they thought! Saturday was a warm, humid day in Sydney, just the sort of day you want, when digging for ancestors. The Society had put together a varied program, so that novices and experts were covered. Martyn Killion was our chair and sta...

Today was day one of the Unlock The Past, sponsored genealogy feast. Part of the audience. Today was German research, with Dirk Weissleder presenting four informative talks. I have German ancestors and the information Dirk gave, will help me go further with my research. Giving us the German words for the different records will be very useful. Dirk is the President of the Federation of Family Associations. He is also a genealogy consultant and national chairman of the Deutsche Arbeisgemeinschaft genealogischer Verbande  www.dagv.org   This society is the umbrella organisation for genealogy and heraldry for Germany. Kerry Farmer gave a great talk on DNA. I have heard Kerry give similar talks but today it started to sink in. While I don't know how many connections I will find, I'm am going to try another company and compare my results and maybe make a connection. Rosemary Kopittke gave a presentation about My Heritage. I haven't look at this site but it soun...

The sky was a beautiful blue, the sun was shining and here I was, with around 90 other people, embarking on a weekend of genealogy! The Society of Australian Genealogists, run these 'Lost In' weekends, most years, either in the Dixson Room, in the Mitchell Library or in country NSW. The last one was a weekend of webinars, several months ago. After Martyn Killion welcomed us to the day, our first speaker was Michelle Patient, with the topic, Exodus to the South Seas. With so much to cover, it was done in two sessions, with morning tea in between. This is Michelle, getting into her talk. I love attending her talks as she presents in an engaging way. This was taken, just before the day began. Jill Ball is in the front.     Emily Hanna was after Kerry but I've got the photos in the wrong order! Emily is from NSW State Records and she explained what types of records were held and how to access them. Another lot of information, I didn't fully know a...

I'm still very new to the world of DNA but I did enter my results on to the GEDmatch site and have made a distant connection. Well he found me. We are very, something like 6 generations ago, related. That does take it back overseas, somewhere. We will both have to do some research on it. The person I though might be related, isn't but we do share a surname, in the ancestors. Again more digging. So while I was in the mode for DNA(ing) I did a one-to-many search and have found a closer match, only 4.5 generations back. I'm now working up the courage to contact him to see if there is a solid connection. Must re-read Kerry Farmer's book, DNA for genealogists, from Unlock the Past. (Gould Genealogy are the supplier). Bye for now, Lilian