Well, I attended the WDYTYALive family history show in London on Friday 26th February. A busy and tiring day, but I managed to visit most of the stalls I had prepared questions for, and received welcome advice, before my first day’s seminar at 12:30am. The remainder I visited dodging between the seminar schedules.

Tony Robinson signing autographs

The actor and historian, and UK face of Ancestry.co.uk, Tony Robinson, presented The Journey of a Record at the Ancestry Academy, and visitors through the day could hear beginner, intermediate and advanced talks, with the main advanced presentation being given by genealogy and history expert Dr. Nick Barratt (personally, I felt a little too much cross-over between content of the latter two that I visited).

Gill Blanchard’s talk on Norfolk ancestors was welcome, since I may have to trace there (as confirmed by a visit to the Norfolk FHS stall).

The talk on the 1910 Valuation Survey (‘Lloyd George’s Domesday’) given by Peter Park was ‘different’ but useful, amongst other things highlighting how the occupier of property is not necessarily the owner, and that occupation could change a lot within a short few years.

All-in-all, another worthwhile visit, and the extra CDs I bought from KFHS have already this weekend yielded tree expansion and clarification around Birchington, Chartham and Challock!

Ancestry Intermediate

Thanks to Roots Television for the suggested Google Scholar search engine (give it a go at http://scholar.google.co.uk), I am finding more sources which reaffirm the link between Sir Robert Baldock and the BACON family.

Now if only I can find a link back to Sir Robert …. I am hoping that I may get some clues from the Norfolk FHS at WDYTYALive show at the end of the month!

I have finally got around to updating my tree on Ancestry.co.uk ! It took a while to merge in (it has been a while since it worked in Family Tree Maker), but I got there eventually, hopefully without mistakes.

I can now make use of the ‘hint’ feature for my new data – something I find to be one of the best things about FTM. It’s a lot quicker than manually searching on their website!

Still, I will be attending some Ancestry seminars at the Who Do You Think You Are Live! exhibition in London at the end of February, so I hope to be better armed with the skills to make the most of their website.

Exhibition review at a later date ….

Well, I attended the show on Friday 27th February, as planned.

I was quite surprised how many people were waiting for the Olympia train on the Earl’s Court platform ! Everyone carrying their bags of files & paperwork to “ask the experts”.

On arrival, entry was trauma-free and straightforward. I had gone with a route planned out on the show map, but this soon went out the window, as I was rushing at the start to make sure I found the location of the 12:00pm seminar and got a ticket! All the rushing around and searching got me very disoriented (as usual at Olympia!), so I threw caution to the wind and just zig-zagged my way between the stands.

 
Generally, I thought the seminar timetable was far too full. I would have liked to hear the “Getting the most out of Ancestry.co.uk”, but it clashed with Else Churchill’s “I’m stuck! Tracing your elusive ancestor“

I picked up some tips, spoke to some useful people, learned of some useful websites (including The War Graves Photographic Project – http://www.twgpp.org/), came away with lots of leaflets, restricted my spending(!) and managed to speak to an Army memorabilia expert who identified the uniforms in a mystery photo which may be linked to Noel HAGESTADT.

If I have anything else bad to say (other than the full timetable), then it might be that it was very commercial. But then I guess that’s what the sponsors expect/want. I was advised to attend The Family History Event (http://www.thefhevent.com/ ) at the Barbican Centre on Sunday 3rd May 2009. You’re more likely to see your local family history society, since the exhibition fees are more affordable!

Hope anyone else who went felt their trip useful. Comments welcome.

It’s all been a bit quiet here – I’ve had other diversions to deal with, unfortunately. However, I am preparing myself (and some material) to take to the Who Do You Think You Are Live! family history show at Kensington Olympia next week!

I’m hoping to speak to the Anglo-German Family History Society for some advice on tracing the HAGESTADT family, possibly the GOONS regarding a BALDOCK One-Name Study, and quite a lot of general info gathering.