8th Unlock the Past Cruise: So. Much. Choice.

I’ve written before about how excited I am about going on the 8th Unlock the Past cruise to the Baltic. With just a few days until I hop on a plane and head to England, that excitement hasn’t diminished one bit … in fact it’s getting super exciting.

As I’ve already written about the Celebrity Eclipse ship and so forth, but I wanted to share with you one of the key factors that made me choose to go on this cruise. And that is the speakers and their talks. Afterall I am going for the conference. The ship and the touristing is in fact secondary – well sort of.

Anyway the group of speakers on this cruise is awesome, and their combined knowledge is mind-blowing. Just check out the list of what they’ll be speaking on:

CAROL BAXTER (Australia)
Crafting a good book
Gripping writing
Help! Which information is correct? Strategies for determining historical truth
Publishing options
Sensory writing
Solving the ‘unsolvable’
Structuring a family history or other work of non-fiction

CAROL BECKER (United States)
So you are married to a genealogist?

CHRIS BRAUND (England)
An evening with Master Christopher: 17th century barber surgeon

TRICIA FAIRWEATHER (Australia)
Bride ships in all but name: Miss Monk and the servant girls

JANET FEW (England)
A to Z of family history: some less well known UK sources
Coffers, clysters, comfrey and coifs: the lives of our 17th century ancestors
Farm, fish, faith or family?: emigration from North Devon 1830-1900
Putting your ancestors in their place: a guide to one place studies
’Til death us do part: causes of death 1300-1948

CAROLINE GURNEY (England)
Tracing merchant seamen
Using manorial & parochial records to trace agricultural labourers

SHAUNA HICKS (Australia)
Caring for your family archives
Diaries and letters: fleshing out the family history
Family history on the cheap: tips and tricks
Military ancestors: discover their stories
Skeletons in the family: looking at convicts, prisons and asylum records
What was the voyage really like

ERIC KOPITTKE (Australia)
German family history in the ‘Information Age’
Locating your ancestor’s place of origin in Germany
Researching in German civil and church records

ROSEMARY KOPITTKE (Australia)
Directories and almanacs
Getting the most out of Google
TheGenealogist.co.uk: what’s the difference?

CYNDI INGLE (United States)
A guided tour of Cyndi’s List 2.0
Building a digital research plan
Evernote for every genealogist
Foreign language tools for English-speaking genealogists
Maintaining an organised computer
Pin your ancestors down with Google Maps & Google Earth
The internet: lower your expectations to raise your research potential
Timelines: the straight line between you and your ancestor

PAUL MILNER (United States)
1914: tracing your British WWI soldier
Are you lost? Using maps, gazetteers & directories for British Isles research
Buried treasure: what’s in the English parish chest
Discover English census records
Discover English parish registers
Occupation and Guild records
Tracing your pre-WWI British soldier
What were our ancestors really like?

GORDON NUTTALL (United States)
Creating videos for online (YouTube)
Rescuing water-damaged photos from Hurricane Sandy … in the US
The story behind the birth of the Flip-Pal mobile scanner

CHRIS PATON (Scotland)
British and Irish newspapers
Discover Irish land records
Discover Scottish civil registration records
Discover Scottish land records
Down and out in Scotland
Genealogy without borders
Irish records online
The Godly Commonwealth: discover Scottish church records

HELEN SMITH (Australia)
Ask grandma: getting the family stories before it is too late
Making genealogical research time
Researching Australian and New Zealand Great War soldiers
Researching your health history
Using DNA to solve genealogical puzzles

JANE TAUBMAN (England)
Family Historian: general introduction
Family Historian: entering information Focus Window and Diagrams
Family Historian: creating and customising reports and books
Family Historian: creating and customising diagrams
Family Historian: using queries and plugins
Scanning and restoring old photographs

BARBARA TOOHEY (Australia)
Chart your family history

 

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I won’t be getting to every one of them, as some are on in parallel. But on a previous cruise I did get to about 50 or so, and I must say that I was completely brain drained by the end of it. But there’s no doubt I certainly learned a lot. The beauty of an Unlock the Past cruise is you can simply pick and choose what you want to go to. One or two in the morning, then do your own thing for the rest of the day – or have a whole day of conferencing, followed by none for a few days. You get to pick and choose what you’d like to attend.

So geneacruisers (or those who hope to one day)… which talks would choose to go to? As I said in the heading SO. MUCH. CHOICE.

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And for those that love your numbers and facts, here’s a few interesting tidbits about the ship and this Voyage

1 – it is the first Unlock the Past cruise to the Baltic region
8 – this cruise is the 8th Unlock the Past cruise
16 – the number of presenters
68 – the number of talks in the conference on this voyage

8 – the number of metres the ship is underwater (27ft draught)
17 – the number of decks on Celebrity Eclipse
24 – 24 knots is the cruise speed (44 km/h; 28 mph)
37 – the ship is 37 metres wide (121ft)
61 – this is how many metres high the ship is (200ft)
317 – the length of the ship in metres (1041ft)
1250 – number of crew
2010 – the Celebrity Eclipse was first launched in 2010
2850 – passenger capacity
122,000 – the ship weighs an immense 122,000 tonnes (or 122000000 kg)
750,000,000 – this ship cost US$750 million, – that’s a whole lot of money … but it’s also about how many steps I’ll probably have done by the end of this cruise!!

4 Responses to “8th Unlock the Past Cruise: So. Much. Choice.”

1. Jennifer Jones says:

   July 6, 2015 at 10:53 pm

   The quality of presenters is awesome! Very jealous. I did the 1st UTP Cruise. It was great. Enjoy and learn lots. Looking forward to the reports

   Reply
2. Fran says:

   July 6, 2015 at 11:00 pm

   No wonder you are excited. A great selection of speakers and WOW range of topics.

   Reply
3. Crissouli says:

   July 6, 2015 at 11:23 pm

   Have to agree with Fran… One day.

   Reply
4. karen nuttall says:

   July 7, 2015 at 6:40 am

   We are so excited for the time we get to spend sharing the flip-pal with you all. It is truly a wonderful tool and so portable. See you soon! Karen Nuttall (gordon’s wife!!!)

   Reply