15 April 1912 – The Day the “Titanic” Sank...

It was a disaster like no other at that time. The world’s biggest (and self-proclaimed ‘unsinkable’) ship set off from Southampton on 10 April 1912, bound for New York. It was her maiden voyage, and the crowd seeing it off was huge. Little did they know that just 5 days later all onboard would be fighting for their life, with the vast majority not making it. 2.20am, 15 April 1912, just a mere 2 hours and 40 minutes after hitting an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, the unthinkable happened to the unsinkable. The Titanic sank. total capacity: 3547 passengers and crew total onboard: 2206 passengers and crew total survived: 703 passengers and crew  That was 105 years ago, and it still has an impact. The movie below is from British Pathè’s collection, and is just one of the 85,000 old movies they have made freely available. Showing actual footage of the ship, the rescue ships, together with interviews of some survivors, it is chilling. There’s no doubt that the Titanic has become the stuff of legend. I remember asking my grandma about it though she wasn’t born at the time, but her older sisters were, and they remembered it, being aged 11 and 12. So I decided to see what the local South Australian newspapers wrote about it. The following was the first report of it in South Australia’s “The Advertiser”, was was dated 18 April 1912. Not too bad considering that communication back then wasn’t as instant as we have today. It didn’t make front page like it did in the US or England, but it did make a big article on page 9. The article blow is just a small portion of it. And as you would expect, every...

10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Day 12 Behind the Scenes...

Day 12 – at Sea (Thursday 25 February 2016) Our cruise continues, and this post is part 1 of my report of Day 12 of the 10th Unlock the Past cruise. I spent the whole morning of this day exploring the ship. And I don’t mean the regular public areas (any of the 16 decks), even though there are areas of this ship I haven’t seen yet. But in this case I’m meaning the areas that passengers normally don’t get to see. I was fortunate enough to be able to take part in a “Behind the Scenes” tour of the ship. The rest of Day 12s happenings will follow in a separate post. The day was sea day, so it was a full day of talks, but I skipped the morning ones to take part in the tour and to say it was fascinating is an understatement. We were taken to the bridge and met the captain, the stage and costume area, the mooring station (where the ropes and anchors are) – they are beyond HUGE, the recycling area (they recycle nearly everything), the food storage and freezer areas, the wine and beer storage room, the engineering room, one of the nine or so galley (food preparation areas), the crew “mess hall” meal area, the crew bar and their shop, the main hall way (highway I95). Two places that I was hoping to see, that wasn’t on this tour was the laundry and printing areas – they are fascinating. Oh well. The tour was followed by a special lunch at the Silk Harvest Restaurant (the asian specialty restaurant onboard), however I didn’t stay for that, as I needed to get back to the conference. Anyway I wanted to share...

10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Days 7-10 Chocolate, Bagpipes, Mountains and Talks Galore...

It’s hard to believe that a week on the 10th Unlock the Past cruise has passed by already. But what’s harder to believe is how many more days are still left. So the adventures continue with the ship stopping at Dunedin and Fiordland where we saw Dusky Sound, Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound (ok, technically it didn’t stop, but we gently sailed through them) and then it was time to leave New Zealand and head for Australia. Day 7 – Dunedin (Saturday 20 February 2016) While I have visited New Zealand previously, I hadn’t been to the South Island at all, so everything there was new to me, including Dunedin. This was also the next stop for shore seminars for the Unlock the Past team, but for me it was a day to explore again. We docked at the freight yard and were bused into Dunedin city. The city map I was given showed that there was a Cadbury Chocolate Factory in the city centre, so being the chocoholic that I am, that’s where I headed first. Not only do they have a shop with “Cadbury” everything, but I was able to do tour of the factory, getting samples along the way … of course. After exploring a few more streets and shops I headed back to the port, after which I then decided to walk up a big hill that overlooked the harbour the dockyards. Why I still don’t know – but  I did. And the view was spectacular, which was just as well, after all that effort. The ship left Dunedin at 5pm and headed for The Sounds, but at around 7pm we were turning around and the Captain advised that there had been a medical emergency...

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...

8th Unlock the Past Cruise: Only 6 Weeks Away...

The old saying goes “time flies when you’re having fun”, but I also say time flies when you’re busy. And unless you’re a kid, lets face it … time just flies!! I mean, does anyone really want to know that JUNE is only says away? How can it be, when Christmas just last month, right? Anyway, after having been coming for so long, the 8th Unlock the Past Cruise is almost here. It is just a mere 6 weeks until we board (or as my little app says 1 month, 1 week, a few days). And I have no doubt those 6 weeks will fly by. While this is Unlock the Past Cruises 8th cruise, it is their first one to the Scandinavian and Baltic region of the world. And for me, this will be the trip of a lifetime –  for a whole bunch of reasons. And let me tell you why! REASON ONE Firstly it will my first time to any of the destinations it stops at: – Southampton, England – Bruges, Belgium – Berlin, Germany – Tallinn, Estonia – St Peterburg, Russia – Helsinki, Finland – Stockholm, Sweden – Copenhagen, Denmark While there are a heap of organised tours at every one of these destinations, I think I’ll just do what I usually do, and that is simply head ashore and wander around, and see what I see. REASON TWO Secondly there is a seriously awesome list of guest presenters on this genealogy cruise! – Carol Baxter (Australia) – Carol Becker (United States) – Tony Beardshaw (England) – Chris Braund (England) – Tricia Fairweather (Australia) – Janet Few (England) – Caroline Gurney (England) – Shauna Hicks (Australia) – Cyndi Ingle (United States) – Eric Kopittke (Australia) –...

5th Unlock the Past Cruise – The First Couple of Days...

In my last post I told you that we’d arrived in London, and the fun and traipsing we did around London, so now I’d better tell you about the cruise itself. DAY 1 – TILBURY, LONDON Let me start off by saying that Unlock the Past’s 5th cruise (the British Isles one) has been “coming” for so long, that it really didn’t seem real when it actually arrived.  But Saturday the 19th of July finally came, so myself and the UTP team packed up at our London hotel, and taxi-d to the cruise terminal at Tilbury, London. Once there, our big suitcases were labelled with room numbers, and were taken aboard. Meanwhile we were introduced to Julie Thompson, the Guest Services Manager on the Marco Polo who’s looking after our group (as well as everyone else) onboard. She took us aboard, and gave us a tour of the rooms we’re having the meetings in: the Marco Polo Lounge for the bigger talks, the Conference Room for smaller talks, and Scotts Bar for a few – all looked very nice. Cruisers boarded the ship during the afternoon, and then wandered around checking out what was where. During this time, we set up the Unlock the Past Cruise registration tables for our geneacruisers, so they could collect their name tag, lanyard, and registration kit. The only thing we had scheduled for the first day was the Meet & Greet which is always nice as it allows people in our group to meet others in out group. During this session Alan also introduced each of the guest presenters as well. Attire for dinner in the formal dining room (the Waldorf Restaurant) was ‘casual’ which was just as well, as I don’t do...

4th Unlock the Past Cruise: Day One, 4 February 2014...

Believe it or not, I have a little time to blog!! I know, I’m geneacruising so how did I manage that? Well, actually I’m in port at Melbourne today, so rather than sightseeing the city, I’m making use of the non-“ship-priced” wifi! Well I’m part way through Unlock the Past’s 4th Cruise, and wanted to start my rundown of the happenings. My week started on Monday with a of airports and taxis, and Sydney’s humid weather, and a late dinner meeting up with Thomas MacEntee and Chris Paton and the Unlock the Past team. Tuesday 4th February was more taxis to get us to Sydney’s Circular Quay where the cruise terminal is, and where the Voyager of the Seas had docked. As part of the Unlock the Past organising team we were able to board by about 1.30pm. First up we found our cabins and dropped off our hand luggage, then headed up to Deck 11 to the Windjammer Cafe which has the most amazing buffet you can imagine. After that I was involved with setting up the conference room, and getting people’s registration kits and name tags organised. That kept me (and the rest of the team) busy until dinnertime, where we made our way to the formal dining room. Dinner was very formal style with snazzy menus, waiters for the food, and waiters for the drinks and I was on a table with a bunch of others from the Unlock the Past cruise, which was nice, but as formal dining is really not my style, may not go back. But since it was the first night, so figured I’d better go. During dinner the ship left port which was 7pm, and at 8pm there was a Meet...