May is the month that all South Australian history-lovers and genealogists look forward to, as it is South Australia’s History Festival, which really is just a month-long history-fest!

And this year we get a whole month PLUS a few days, as the History Festival kicks off this coming weekend, (Saturday 27 April) with the Open Doors weekend which gives you a choice of 50 places to check out.

This is then followed by over 700 events from 400 organisers held all over the State throughout May.

Every year is BIG, but even before this one has begun, the organisers have announced that this year’s history month is offically the BIGGEST EVER.

South Australia’s History Festival is presented by the History Trust of South Australia, and began its life as South Australia’s History Week back in 2004, and changed to a month-long event in 2011, and what a great move that’s been. Though seriously a month STILL isn’t long enough to cram in all the events I want to get to, but I won’t complain, as I know we’re very lucky.

Anyway the program that is jam-packed with events, covering all corners of the State, and there’s oodles for the genealogy and history buff to enjoy, and even those not so much into history as well.

There are tours galore (bus tours, guided walking tours, self-guided tours, even ghost tours), open days, seminars, displays, workshops, exhibitions, book launches, workshops, treasure hunts and so much more … even an escape room!

This year I’ve booked in for 10 events, and am looking forward to those. I have some archive tours, a few talks, a day seminar, a book launch, an escape room, and a treasure hunt too. As I’ll be cramming these around my day job, I have had to stop looking at the program, as there is just too much I want to go to. But 10 events isn’t too bad an effort, and I’ll write about all in due course.

One great thing about the South Australian History Festival, is that it really is State-wide and not just Adelaide. You’ll find oodles of events on in the Adelaide Hills, the Barossa, the Peninsula’s, and even on Kangaroo Island, all of which all so many more people to learn about the history of this beautiful state of ours.

My advice to you if you’re in South Australia, do yourself a favour, check out the South Australian History Festival website, and I bet you’ll find something you’d love to go to. Browse by date, or type of event, or simply search and see what you come up with.  You’ll find something, I guarantee it.

All 700+ events are listed there, and they have a planner so you can keep track of what you’re wanting to attend. I find that very handy indeed!!

Anyway, for more on South Australia’s History Festival, check out their website, and elsewhere on social media!

Web: www.historyfestival.sa.gov.au
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HistoryFestival
Twitter: @historyfestival
Instagram: instagram.com/historyfestival
Hashtag: #SAHistoryFest

Have you taken a DNA test, and apart from seeing your ethnicity estimates, you wonder what’s next? Have you tried to get in contact with a ‘DNA match’ and not got a response? Have you found ‘surprise matches’ and are unsure what to do about that. Or maybe you haven’t even taken a test, and wonder what all the fuss is about? Or you’ve heard about DNA tests being used by authorities to catch criminals and it’s made you wary. All of these aspects and plenty more will covered at Unlock the Past’s upcoming event “DNA Down Under“.

Blaine Bettinger, author of the best selling book “The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy”, heads a lineup of world-class genetic genealogists, who are touring Australia during August 2019, holding 1-day seminars in most cities, and culminating in a 3-day DNA-fest in Sydney.

The dates:
Brisbane – Wed 14 Aug
Perth – Sat 17 Aug
Adelaide – Tue 20 Aug
Melbourne – Fri 23 Aug
Canberra – Mon 26 Aug
Sydney – Thu-Sat 29-31 Aug

The speakers:
These speakers will take your understanding of DNA to the next level, no matter what level you’re currently at. The team brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in family history and in particular DNA and its usefulness as yet another tool to help you in your research:
– Brad Argent
– Blaine Bettinger
– Fiona Brooker
– Louise Coakley
– Gail Edwards
– Kerry Farmer
– Mike Murray
– Michelle Patient
– Jason Reeve
– Helen Smith
For more on the speakers, click here.

The options:
Book for a 1-day event in your own city, or head to Sydney for a 3-day DNA-fest. … OR do ‘DNA to the MAX and book for your city AND Sydney and save. Note: Sydney’s 3 -day program is different to the other cities, so you won’t be overlapping in the talks offered.

Early Bird Prices End Soon
Whatever you choose, be sure to book before 30 April 2019 to take advantage of their early bird rates, and save. Save $30 for a one day event, $60 for Sydney (3 days), or $80 on DNA to the MAX (Sydney+1 other city).

DNA Down Under Ambassador
I’ve been chosen to be one of the DNA Down Under Ambassadors, and I will be attending both the Adelaide and Sydney events, so I hope to see some of you there.

I’ll admit I’m almost a ‘total newbie’ to DNA. I’ve done the tests, but am really still working on the papertrail of genealogy, rather than focusing on the DNA side of things at present, so no doubt there will be plenty for me to learn. Anyway I shall be reporting on the events, and what I’ve learned from them in due course.

More information:
For more information and booking head on over to their website, and follow the event on Facebook

www.dnadownunder.com

Next week the genealogy world converges on Salt Lake City, Utah in preparation for the world’s biggest genealogy conference, RootsTech 2019, which runs from Wednesday 27 February through until Saturday 2 March 2019.

With an expected attendance of around 25,000 people coming from 37 different countries, there’s 300 classes on offer, and over 200 exhibitors to check out – RootsTech really is something else, and nothing I’ve been to compares.

Sadly, I’m not going this year. I did make it in 2013, 2015 and 2017 (you can read about them here), and considering my first time was a “once-in-a-lifetime-bucket-list-thing”, I can’t believe I’ve made it there three times already.

Anyway, this year I’ll be a part of the #NotAtRootsTech crowd. And while I know it won’t be the same, I’m determined to still make the most of it, and ‘participate’ from home. At least when I’m not working anyway.

So how can I (and you) participate in RootsTech when we’re not at RootsTech? There are a few options.

WATCH THE LIVESTREAM LIVE
Firstly, you can watch the Livestream Live. There’s 22 presentations being livestreamed, but if you’re on Australia, you;’ll need to be dedicated as due to the time difference the streams start at 3.30am (Sydney time) and go through till around lunchtime.

Here’s a link to the list of livestream talks with both the US time, and the Australian time for each, and click here for more details on each of the talks.

It is expected (although not 100% guaranteed as I can’t find it written anywhere) that these talks will all be available to watch later in the video archive.

WATCH RECORDED CLASSES
The RootsTech website lists the following classes as being recorded (but not live streamed). they say that recordings of these will be posted shortly after RootsTech 2019 concludes and will be available in the video archive.
– Blending Family History and Technology with the Art of Storytelling
– Descendancy Research: Another Pathway to Genealogy
– Making Memories of You
– New York Research Essentials
 – You Can Do DNA
– How to Write Your Life Story in Five Pages or Less
– Heirloom, Documentation or Junk: What to Keep or Toss
– S.O.S. (Save Our Stuff): Stories and Heirlooms
– Families Discovering Family History Together
– Writing and Publishing a Family History: Ten Steps
– Artificial Intelligence in Photo Management (and How It Can Boost Metadata)
– Breaking through Brick Walls in Scottish Research

If you’re super excited for RootsTech and can’t wait for it to start, why not watch the recorded and keynote sessions from RootsTech 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. They’re all there!

BUY A VIRTUAL PASS FOR EVEN MORE ROOTSTECH
This a new feature they’ve brought in this year. For US$129 (which is approx AU$180) you can buy a Virtual Pass, and this gives you access to 18 presentations. From a look through the topics they are different from the Livestream ones, and different from the “recorded classes” sessions – so it would appear that these are EXTRA ones, just for those who pay.  They say “with the virtual pass, you’ll have access to the online recorded sessions from the conference. You can watch playbacks from your laptop, tablet, or smartphone device whenever and however you’d like!”

The list of talks covered by the Virtual Pass are:
– Chromosome Mapping for Absolute Beginners—Jonny Perl
– Must-Use U.S. Records at Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, Findmypast, and MyHeritage—Sunny Morton
– A Deep Dive into Understanding Your DNA Results—Blaine Bettinger, Angie Bush, Jonny Perl
– The Surname Is Key: History of Surnames and Conducting Surname Research in Germany—Dirk Weissleder
– One Touch Genealogy Research: Handle a Record Once—Thomas MacEntee
– You Need Both! Uniting DNA and Traditional Research—Angie Bush and D. Joshua Taylor
– Chromosome Mapping Tips and Techniques—Blaine Bettinger
– Deeper Analysis: Techniques for Successful Problem-Solving—Elissa Scalise Powell
– The Magic of German Church Records—Katherine Schober
– My Ancestors Are from Germany, and I Don’t Speak German—Tamra Stansfield
– When Details Disagree: 8 Ways to Resolve Conflicts—D. Joshua Taylor
– 20 Hacks for Interviewing Almost Anyone, and Getting a Good Story—Joanna Liddell and Karen Morgan
– Going Dutch: Finding Families in Online Records of the Netherlands—Daniel Jones
– Beyond the Mists of Time: Sources for British Medieval and Early Modern Genealogy—Nick Barratt
– The Combined Power of DNA, Records, and Family Trees—Jen Baldwin, David Nicholson, Diahan Southard
– The Genealogist’s Google Search Methodology—Lisa Louise Cooke
– Jewish Genealogy: How to Start, Where to Look, What’s Available—Lara Diamond
– Slave Traders, Speculators, and the Domestic Slave Trade—Kenyatta Berry

For details on the Virtual Pass, or to buy one, click here.

FOLLOW ALONG ON TWITTER
The geniepeeps who head to RootsTech are a very online social bunch, and you’ll no doubt find them Tweeting, Facebooking, Instagraming, and Blogging all the way through. But my advice is to head to Twitter, (yes, you will need an account, but it’s free) then type in the hashtag #rootstech or #rootstech2019 in the search box up the top and watch the tweets come up. Also type in #notatrootstech and you’ll find others also ‘participating’ from afar.

There’s plenty of tweets going on about it already, here’s a screenshot of a few …

Search results for #rootstech on Twitter

So there you have it. So from Wednesday to Saturday if you’re in the northern hemisphere, or Thursday to Sunday for those of us down south – it all happens. So let’s enjoy it, and learn from so many of the world’s best genealogy presenters.

And don’t forget to share your experience of #NotAtRootsTech with others. You can do this via your own private Facebook page, on public social media, or if you blog, why not blog about your RootsTech experience from afar.

ONE LAST THING
So if you don’t make it to Salt Lake City by next week in time for RootsTech 2019, but you really, really, really wanted to go – you might like to consider going to RootsTech 2019 London in October 2019. While not quite on the scale of their US one, it’s still going to be a huge show, and would be awesome to attend. You can read about that here.

1862.
8 Bushrangers.
77kg of Gold!
The incredible true story of Australia’s Biggest Steal.

Did that get your attention? It sure got mine.

‘Australian Heist‘ is the title of a brand new book written by James Phelps, who is quoted as being Australia’s #1 bestselling true-crime writer. I’ll admit it’s not a name I was familiar with, but I sure am now!!

Written as well as any good fiction book, it really is a non-stop-page-turner, with fascinating characters, and twists all the way through. And yet this is Australian history. It really happened. And it happened in what was our ancestors era.

This isn’t an official book review, and I’m not going to spoil the book for you, but I will give you the speil …

On 15 June 1862, a gang of bushrangers held up a gold escort at Eugowra, just east of Forbes in new South Wales. They escaped with a pile of cash and 77 kilograms of gold, worth about $10 million today.

It remains the largest gold robbery in Australian history.

In this riveting re-creation of the events, James Phelps finally tells the full story of how Frank Gardiner, Ben Hall, John O’Meally, Johnny Gilbert, Henry Manns, Alexander Fordyce, John Bow and Dan Charters planned and executed the robbery – and what happened to all that gold. And the map!

‘Australian Heist’ is a thrilling, fast-paced and thoroughly modern take on one of the most extraordinary episodes in the nation’s history.

Anyway here’s all the relevant book details for you:
Title: Australian Heist
Author: James Phelps
Format: hardcover
Pages: 368 pages
Published: 2018
ISBN: 9781460756232
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

Buy the printed book
Buy the ebook

To give you full disclosure. Yes, I do work in a genealogy bookstore, and this is a book that we do sell. But I bought my own copy as it sounded fascinating. No, I’m not trying to sell you anything, but rather just informing you of a book that is a really awesome read. Ok, disclosure done.

So if you love fast paced-action books, and you get a chance to read ‘Australian Heist‘, I guarantee you’ll totally love it!