If you’re lucky enough to live in (or near) Seattle, Washington, USA, and are totally into genealogy you probably already know about this event, and already have your tickets. But for the sake of those who don’t, please bear with me.

Australia’s Unlock the Past are heading to Seattle for their Alaska genealogy cruise shortly, but before they board, they’re holding a one day genealogy seminar in Seattle with four of the world’s best genealogy speakers:
– Blaine Bettinger (USA)
– Cyndi Ingle (USA)
– Maurice Gleeson (England)
– Wayne Shepheard (Canada)

The conference is divided into two streams with a total of 10 talks on throughout the day. There will be DNA, Irish and General topics, and Wayne Shepheard, author of “Surviving Mother Nature’s Tests: The Effects Climate Change and Other Natural Phenomena have had on the Lives of our Ancestors” will be talking about the “Genealogy and the Little Ice Age ” You can view the full program here.

Now obviously, not everyone can get to Seattle, but you can pretend you are, as Unlock the Past have just announced that they will be LIVESTREAMING the conference, so you and everyone else around the world can tune in live (or at a later time) to watch the talks. And as they will be available to watch for a while after the event, for those in Australia you don’t have to stay up to stupid o’clock to watch.

As I am going on the Alaska cruise, I will be at the Seattle conference, so will write about it in due course. But I hope that some of you take the opportunity to tune in and hear these world-class speakers as well.

ATTEND IN PERSON:
Cost: US$45
Date: Thursday, 6 September 2018
Time: 9am-5pm
Venue: Seattle Public Library, 1000 4th Ave, Seattle, WA, USA
More info and bookings: https://www.utpinseattle.com/booking/

LIVESTREAM:
Cost: US$65
Time: whenever you choose
Venue: your own home
More info an bookings: https://www.utpinseattle.com/livestream/

The months are flying by, and there’s now just two months until we set sail on Unlock the Past’s 14th cruise to Alaska.  61 days allowing for the timezone changes.

If you need proof … check my countdown app …

So after flying to Seattle, Washington, USA and having a full-on genealogy seminar the day before … we’ll be boarding on the 7th of September.

Myself and all the other geneacruisers then get 7 fun-filled days of genealogy learning combined with seeing the incredible sights that Alaska has to offer. Don’t you think that’s an awesome combination?

The itinerary takes us from Seattle, to the Inside Passage, to Juneau, Skagway, and Tracy Arm, then to Victoria, Canada before we head back to Seattle.

The ship we’re cruising on is the magnificent Explorer of the Seas from Royal Caribbean. Great ship, and great conference room facilities.

So we have a great ship, great itinerary, and trust me it’ll be a great conference as the range of conference presenters is incredible.

THE PRESENTERS
Susan Brook (USA) – Chasing Your Ancestors
Dick Eastman (USA) – Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter
Dr Janet Few (England) – The History Interpreter
Dr Maurice Gleeson (England) – DNA and Family Tree Research
Jan Gow (New Zealand) – Hooked on Genealogy Tours
Caroline Gurney (England) – Historical Research Services
Shauna Hicks (Australia) – Shauna Hicks History Enterprises
Cyndi Ingle (USA) – Cyndi’s List
Eric Kopittke (Australia) – German Family Matters
Rosemary Kopittke (Australia) – Rosemary Kopittke Genealogy
Kae Lewis (USA / New Zealand) – Goldrush Online
Mike Murray (Australia) – Time Trackers
Michelle Patient (New Zealand) – The Patient Genie
Pat Richley-Erickson (USA) – Dear Myrtle
Teri Schaller (USA) – History Speaks, a division of Mile High Transcripts
Helen Smith (Australia) – Dragon Genealogy
Mary Stutters (Australia) – bio here
Ed Thompson (USA) – Evidentia software

Just think of what you can learn from all of these incredible presenters.

THE PROGRAM
The program is largely finalised, and currently there’s 43 talks scheduled. And as with all Unlock the Past cruises they will offer Research Help Zone sessions. These give cruisers the opportunity for one-on-one time with an expert to help you with your brickwall. They’ll also have a panel discussion which this time will be on “DNA ethics and more”, so no doubt there will be lots of interesting comments on that one. And new to this cruise, they are also offering DNA one-on-one sessions. So if you have done a test and want help interpreting the results, or even have questions about testing – be sure to book into one of these. You can download the program from here.

Just some of the topics on offer are:
– Going nearly paperless
– Finding pictorial sources online
– Why transcripts are essential to include in your family records
– ScotlandsPeople
– England’s Poor Law and her misfortunate outcasts
– DNA testing plan
– Hidden secrets in our DNA
– Using the Irish census and census substitutes
– Extracting evidence from photographs
– Using Evidentia to organise your research and analyse your sources
– German maps and gazetteers
– Seven habits of highly effective genealogists
– Is it true? The facts, fun and fiction of family history
– Genealogy treasures inside The Internet Archives
– Cornwall’s people and emigration
– Are you related to royalty?
– Begotten by fornication
– Remember to WWW No, not the world wide web, but the who, where and when
– Use Evernote for genealogy and nearly everything else

The above list are just a few of the wide range of topics on offer. So I believe there’s something that everyone will enjoy and learn from. And remember it’s a cruise. You don’t HAVE to go to everything. If you’re going with family or friends, you’ll have time to go do stuff with them, and you can pick and choose which talks you want to go to.

And no need to feel like you’re missing out, as all talks are scheduled while the ship is at sea, so you still have plenty of time to go ashore and see the sights along the way.

So come and join me and a heap of others who have already booked for this awesome cruise, or just follow along online (I’ll blog about it as I always do) on what will be a trip of a lifetime.

For more info about the Unlock the Past Alaska cruise, visit their website here.

USEFUL LINKS: 
If you’re new to genealogy cruising, here’s a list of 13 tips for first time geneacruisers. I do need to update this list, but most of it is still relevant. Helen V. Smith has written tips for those interested in making the most of the Research Help Zone. And if you needed a reason (or two, or more) to go on an Unlock the Past genealogy cruise… here’s 20 reasons

MORE GENEALOGY CRUISES:
If Alaska isn’t your cup of tea, but Singapore, the Mediterranean, or an Australian cruise is, check out Unlock the Past  cruises 15th, 16th and 17th cruises.

One of the big pluses for me attending a genealogy conference is that I get to catch up with my genimates.

Australia is a big country, and we don’t have many ‘national’ (big genie events), so therefore we don’t see each other often. But Congress brought people from interstate, and even some from overseas as well, and it was great to catch up with them all, and meet some others as well. Some who I’ve known through social media, and others I know of by name.

As I was an exhibitor at Congress and didn’t get to any of the talks, I can’t write any report on those for you… but based on what the other geneabloggers have written they were awesome. GeniAus (Jill Ball) is collating a list of all Congress related blog posts, and you can check them out here.

So for me when I wasn’t at my stand, I was off chatting to other exhibitors and asking them if they’d be kind enough to sign my autograph book (yes, I did take it with me), and also catching others for a quick pic when they were nearby. So my post here is simply pics of some of the genimates that I caught up with there.

afternoon tea with by good friends and roommates, Judy Russell and Helen Smith, combined with a view from the 35th floor … what a way to start my trip in Sydney

dinner with friends

L-R: Ruth Standring, Sharn White and Shelley Crawford

myself with Lilian Magill, with the collection of teddy bears behind

geneablogger friends L-R: Fran Kitto, Jenny Joyce, myself and Jennie Fairs

I was excited to meet Eden and Simon from Traces Magazine

it’s always wonderful to catch up with my wonderful friends Lee-Anne and Rob Hamilton

young Aussie genies and geneabloggers: Tania and Shelley

myself with Thom Reed from FamilySearch. Ok I’m short, but he is TALL too

the whole FamiilySearch team at Congress 2018

genimates Pauleen Cass and Jill Ball

I finally met the one and only, lovely Danielle from SAG

this is my GeniAus and Lonetester photo

more young genies and bloggers: Angela and Caitlin

a quick selfie with fellow geneablogger Alex Daw

I managed to grab Paul Milner long enough for a pic

a quick selfie with two Aussie geneabloggers: Ruth Standring and Emily Peace

it was fabulous to finally meet Tara, one half of the “Family Discovery Show” team

the always lovely Lisa Louise Cooke

Eric and Rosemary Kopittke

the official geneablogger group photo at Congress 2018 (with a few known to be missing)

So Congress came, and Congress went. It was a busy 4 days. It was a fun 4 days. And let’s hope that a group takes on Congress for 2021, and then we’ll see you all again in 3 years time.

Three long years after we were all in Canberra, and an even longer week this week (don’t ask, it’s a long story) … Congress (Australia’s big genealogy event) is finally here.

It’s no RootsTech by any means. But then again NOTHING is like RootsTech other than RootsTech. But Congress is THE BIG genie conference for Australia. It’s the event that brings people from all across the nation, and even across the ditch, together to, as Mr Lonetester says, “geek out on genealogy” for 4 whole days.

The conference began on Friday, so I arrived Thursday afternoon, which was timely as I was able to have a very lovely afternoon tea with my roommates (Helen Smith and Judy Russell), and then headed out to dinner with a bunch of others for a pre-Congress get together. It was great to catch up friends who I’ve not seen for ages, and make some new ones too. There was laughs, there was photos, and there was ribbons, beads and geniecards.

Judy G. Russell, Helen V. Smith and the afternoon tea view!!

some of the group that went out for dinner

myself, and Lilian Magill

Friday started early for me, as an exhibitor we had to get in early to set up! And even at that time of day (just on “light-o-clock”) the International Convention Centre (ICC) was packed. Was this a heap of eager genies? Well yes … but not that many. It turned out that there were a number of other events being held at the ICC on that day as well … an aromatherapy conference, a tattoo expo, an orthodontic conference and more. So yes, there were literally thousands of people around for a while, till all the events started.

Sydney’s International Convention Centre

the events on in the ICC on Friday

and even more ….

So after 2hrs of lugging boxes in, and setting up the our stand, the exhibition opened at 9am, and for a change we (the Gould Genealogy/Unlock the Past stand) were pretty much good to go.

our Gould Genealogy / Unlock the Past table is ready to go

Alan and Anthea are ready to go

Friday was “Family Finder Day” which meant that there was a bunch of day-only visitors. This was a great option for those who couldn’t attend for the whole for days, or who just wanted to see the exhibition. It also meant it was a busy,busy day for most exhibitors.

I can’t say anything about the Welcome address and function, or the talks from Friday as I didn’t go to any of them, but I guarantee other bloggers will write about it, so seek an eye out for their reports.

I’ve got plenty more photos from Congress so stay tuned for the next post.