Lilian's Tree

#Congress_2018 has been and gone and I'm only just getting around to blogging about it. So lets rewind to Wednesday 7 March. I was asked to be the 'Welcome Person', as people arrived for early-bird registration. This was set-up in Glover Cottage, next door to Richmond Villa, home of the Society of Australian Genealogists. It was very slow, with only around 50 people taking advantage of this, by the time I left around 2.00pm and Jill Ball took over. There was early registration on Thursday 8 March, as well but I didn't go into the city until lunch time. This was very busy and Jill Ball's blogs GeniAus    http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/   has all the gossip. Once ensconced in my hotel room, I was joined by Alison Wolf and Ruth Standring for afternoon tea. Discussions about what sessions we wanted to go to, dinner, on both  Thursday and Friday nights, plus catching up with each others news. Ruth and I walked down to Pancakes at The Rocks, Darling Harbour, (very...

Under overcast skies I walked to the station to catch the 8.21am train to the city. As I got to the top of the ramp, the sun was trying to break-through. My destination was Richmond Villa, home to the Society of Australian Genealogists. The topic that Michelle Patient was presenting, was Breaking Down Brick walls. No, not construction one but the ones we discover , when tracing our ancestors. Michelle's presentation  was full of interesting, helpful ways to try and breakdown our wall. One useful hint was to do a timeline . Something I had thought about but hadn't followed though with. Michelle advised us not to have to narrow a focus but to look at the bigger picture as to what was happening, in the timeframe of our brick wall. If you ever have the chance to hear Michelle present this talk, go and absorb it. While I have been researching, for over 30 years, I learnt new things. A day well spent. Now to apply what I've learnt....