Louis Kessler’s Behold Blog

The last day of our onboard genealogy conference.

I woke up early, and went to the top deck of the ship and did what I call the Voyager of the Seas marathon. I went through all the decks and all the public spaces, both inside and outside, starting with decks 13, 14 and 15 and working my way down to deck 1. It took 95 minutes. I estimated I covered 9 km and even discovered a few nooks and crannies I didn’t know about in all the previous days on the ship.

At 1 pm was Jan Gow on “Delving Deep in FamilySearch: Let’s Forget About the Old – On With the New”

At 2 pm, I was part of a Social Media Panel with Shauna Hicks, Alona Tester, Helen Smith and was moderated by Jill Ball. There were 7 questions. 1. Your favorite social media tool (My blog). 2. How do you use social media to further your business. (My mailing list and forum). 3. Advice to a newbie. (For genealogy social media – try Google+, which got Jill jumping up and down in support of that). 4. What aspect of Social Media makes you grit your teeth (How to use all the venues without repeating yourself). 5. How does it help with your genealogical development (I follow blogs of those who are technical genealogists). 6. How do you fit social media time into your busy day (RSS feeds help save a lot of time). 7. How social media enabled you to connect to a relation or fellow researcher (Social media hasn’t but my Family Research page has).

At 3 pm, I gave my lighthearted presentation on “Why Genealogy is Everyone’s Solemn Duty”.

At 4 pm, Stephen Dando-Collins presented “Captain Bligh’s Other Mutiny and Pasteur’s Gambit”.

We went to our dining room (at 1,600 seats on three floors, it was the largest dining room in Australasia) for the last time.

In the evening we got together back in the Conference room for our Prize Draws and Windup. I gave away two copies of Behold.

Various groups of us got together for pictures. The shot below is of all the geneabloggers.

Thus endeth a wonderfully successful conference, and an amazing cruise.

Post mortem: My presentations will be available for a short time on my SkyDrive at: http://sdrv.ms/XZJKN2 – Note that I did tell some people that www before the sdrv.ms might work, but it looks like it won’t. You have to leave the www off.

Here’s a few quotes from the conference that I had noted:

A lovely cause of death from a document in one of Paul Milner’s presentations: “gradual decay of the powers of life”.

Bob Velke describing the flexibility of his program TMG:  “I give you enough rope to hang yourself.”

Jan Gow on how genealogists do their cleaning. “They sweep the room with a glance,”

Today, I’m writing this from Sydney, the day after we disembarked. What are the odds that our Blue Mountains tour would include a stop at Featherdale Wildlife Park where my wife and I would run into Bob Velke and his wife? That was a Tasmanian devil of a thing to happen.

At 9 am, Paul Milner’s talk was about “Occupation and Guild Records”.

Paul always talked to a room-full of interested listeners.

At 10 am, we all (145 of us) assembled on the majestic staircase of our ship’s main dining room for a group picture. Below is a picture of the proof, since I don’t have my scanner here with me. Unfortunately, I came from the 4th floor and got caught up at the top of the stairs on the left for the picture, and couldn’t get into a better spot.

After the group picture, they got the organizers and speakers to get together for a picture. We had about 80 people of our groups photographing us for about 5 minutes. You’ll find that picture up on Jill Ball’s Geniaus blog post titled A Canister of Genealogy Speakers,

At 1 pm, I gave my talk about “Using Life Events and Ages to Solve Genealogical Information”.

At 2 pm, Diane Foster, the only other Canadian in our group, presented “Genealogy and Family History, What is the Difference?”

At 4 pm, I gave my 6th presentation: “Warning! Data won’t transfer: GEDCOM Transfers.”

It hasn’t been all genealogy for me. My wife and I have also been enjoying everything the cruise has to offer.

The shows:

The sun:

and the sumptuous delights:

On Day 6, I caught Shauna Hicks’ presentation: “Warning, Warning: Tips & Tricks to Avoid Family History Mistakes”.

At 11 am, I gained further knowledge about writing an interesting family history with Carol Baxter’s talk on “Writing Narrative Non-Fiction”.

My wife and I shared a nice lunch with Paul Milner and his wife.

After lunch at 1 pm, I presented “Jewish Genealogy: What’s Different and Where to Find It”. I had just a small group of 8 for that, which was a nice intimate group that was extremely interested. Did you know, for example, that 16 of the original 1500 convicts that arrived in Australia were Jewish?

Next was Jill Ball giving an overview and demo of Family Historian.

Before I left the room, Geoff Doherty started presenting “Oh, What a Tangled web…”. But as I gathered up my stuff to leave, I was intrigued by his story of an Australian man who enlisted and then defected from the Boer war in South Africa at the age of 45 who happened to have two wives who found out about each other. I stayed to listen to the end.

Next was my 4th presentation, this one on “GenSoftReviews”. Those in the room were very interested in this. It seems everyone wants a suggestion of what the “best” genealogy program is. I of course told them that GenSoftReviews ratings is a very biased online poll, and does not give comparable ratings. But it will allow you pick out programs that its users like, and allow you to see opinions of the good and the bad about each program, including the one you are using today. I found it interesting that no one in the room was familiar with more than a handful of the multitude of programs available for genealogists.

I again neglected to get a photo of myself presenting. I’ve still got a few chances left to do that.

At dinner, the speakers and the Unlock the Past crew got together.

Remember, I’m only picking out what I’m doing at the Conference. We often have 3 lectures going on at once. The sessions are being very well attended, and the quality of the presentations are up to those you’ll see at any land-based genealogy conference. The difference is you get 8 full days of this, plus a cruise to enjoy at the same time.

I heartily recommend you consider one of the genealogy cruises offered by the several companies that do so. It’s a fantastic way to enjoy your hobby.