Aug 202011
 

Have had a great weekend giving two presentations in Coffs Harbour.

The first on Friday evening was at the Coffs Harbour City Library on Next Steps in Family History, looking at a number of sites of interest and some research methods. The Library has a nice selection of family history resources. They have set up a good gateway site on their links webpage.

Light refreshments were provided (thank you for the ginger kisses which were delightful!). The audience were great and the talk went well.

On Saturday it was the Coffs Harbour District FHS and the presentation was in a nice size room at the Botanic Gardens.This presentation was on Death Certificates, Archaic Medical Terms and Headstone Symbolism. The forty plus audience were enthused and asked interesting questions.

It was good to meet up again with people who I had initially met on the Unlock the Past Cruise and also at the Unlock the Past NSW Expo. One person whom I had helped  at the NSWExpo, with some ways on breaking down her brick wall, had followed my advice with great results. Always nice when people are successful.

Another had heard my pleas to talk to their relatives about the stories to show why they are interested in family history. She was rewarded with a pile of old books “that she might as well have, as they were of no use to them”. Among that pile was an old Birthday book from around the 1880s with birth-dates of the family listed from the 1830s onwards including some death dates and causes of death. A happy dance was done by all.

Having Judy Webster’s company and expert knowledge along on this trip has also made this a great weekend.

The next trip on my agenda is the Unlock the Past Victorian Expo in Geelong in September. Apart from the many speakers and wide range of exhibitors of interest to me, the area is particularly interesting  as three brothers of my Esther Plumridge (my great-great-great-grandmother) emigrated to Victoria.

Henry and William and their families settled in the Geelong area while Frederick and family settled in Ballarat. So while I am there I will be speaking to the Geelong Family History Group and the Geelong Heritage Centre.