Auckland Family History Expo 2019

My third cousin Maggie - a fellow Burke descendant- has a lot to answer for, and in this case inspired me to toddle off to Auckland for the weekend for a family history expo, organised by the Auckland Council Libraries and many other genealogy volunteers.

Day 1 was intense and useful brain food!

First up the speaker was Cyndi Ingle from the US, who spoke about building a digital research plan to answer a specific research question. This talk will probably have the most long-term influence for me. Cyndi spoke about having a very specific question to start with, then analysing what you already know, and identifying all the possible sources of records that might hold information to answer the question, before making a To Do List and research strategy. She talked about keeping a draft log of what research you complete, and also a report on your findings, and how all these things can be part of one document. I know I am unlikely to do this to the extent Cyndi did, but I am sure I will become more logical and structured in my approach. (OK, so yes, I will probably still go down some fascinating Papers Past rabbit holes!!!)

Raymond Naisbitt, direct from Utah, gave two of the talks I attended about using Family Search.This rich database has always been somewhat of a mystery to me, and I have never used it successfully. But I now understand far more about different ways to access the various records within. Sunday’s session will focus on strategies for using the Big Four record types for Ireland.

Fiona Brooker gave a very informative and clear explanation of how to get more out of your DNA results. I was one of the few in the room who haven’t tested yet, but after attending a day-long workshop in Feilding recently given by Michelle, the Patient Genie, and now attending Fiona’s talk, I think I will test with Ancestry ‘soon’- will just wait for a ‘special’ price to come up. If I can, I will ‘catch’ Fiona tomorrow, as I think we might have some shared Payn-Honey cousins- 2nd cousins for me, not sure which variety for her- and I am not sure how that kind of ‘by marriage’ link would show up in a DNA test.

The last talk of the day was by Dr Nick Barratt from England, who gave a totally engaging talk about how he researched an ancestor of his who turned out to be a ‘spy’. I was in awe of the way he drilled down to get such specific details out of the archival records, and how he then turned all his information into such a wonderful story.

So, a good night’s sleep- and it will time to do it all again...