South Australia’s History Festival 2019 – Let the Fun Begin!!...

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...

South Australia’s History Festival 2017 in Review...

Well May came, and May went … and to say it flew by is an understatement. So that means bye, bye to South Australia’s History Festival for another year. As far as attending events, I did better this year than I have in the past, as I planned ahead and made sure I booked into things early, and I even managed to get a little time off to go to some but I had to stop looking at the program, as I was just getting annoyed at all the awesome things on, that I couldn’t get to. Anyway I promised a mini review of the events I went to, so here goes … Friday 5 May 2017 & Saturday 6 May 2017 Exploring & Writing Family & Local History seminar organised by Unlock the Past This seminar was organised by my work, so I was partly working at the event (manning the Gould Genealogy display tables). But as our tables were in the same room the talks, I got to hear them too. There was 16 talks packed into 2 days, so it was pretty full on, but the talks were great, and much was learned. There was a great turnout for the event with a number coming from country South Australia, and even a few from interstate. I’m not going to write a review of each talk, but there was many great points gained from them. House history, maps, DNA, writing your history, oral history, photos, black sheep and so much more was covered. As a bonus I got to catch up with two fellow geneabloggers, and that’s a real treat as there doesn’t seem to be too many of us in South Australia. Monday 8 May 2017 Meet...

South Australia’s History Festival 2017 is Coming!!...

May is the month that all South Australian history-lovers look forward to, as it is South Australia’s History Festival, which really is just a month-long history-fest! To say that I was excited to get a copy of the SA History Festival program guide last weekend is an understatement. I’ll admit that I’ve already gone through it all (only once so far), and have put post-in notes on a heap of events, and even printed out a calendar for the month so I can keep track of what’s on when, and hope that not too many double up. South Australia’s History Festival is presented by the History Trust of South Australia, and it began its life as South Australia’s History Week back in 2004, and changed to a month-long event in 2011. This proved to be a good move, as it has grown in popularity every year since. And with over 600 events from 340 organisers this year, the interest continues to grow. With events held not only in Adelaide city, but also Adelaide Hills, the Barossa and rural regions of the state, even Kangaroo Island, more people are learning about the history of this beautiful state of ours. There’s an absolute overload of events on for history-lovers, and even non-history lovers. From talks and seminars, to guided walks, and bus tours. There’s workshops and exhibitions, open days at various places, and more. From making jam the old way, to walks in cemeteries and Adelaide’s old buildings. From learning how to create audio and visual presentations with oral history recordings, to learning the stories of South Australia’s pioneer settlers, seriously there is something for everyone. I have so many events I hope to get to, but unless I can take...

The Australian Expo 2016: Geneabloggers and Sore Feet!...

It’s been a few weeks since Unlock the Past’s Australian History & Genealogy Expo, so I apologise for the lateness of this, but I’ve been playing catch up ever since. Anyway back on October the 7th and 8th, I was involved with Unlock the Past’s Australian Expo. This was South Australia’s first major genealogy event for a number of years, and it was the biggest genealogy event in Australia for 2016. As part of the organising committee it meant I was up at crazy hours all week getting things ready, not to mention getting to the venue by 6am on Friday morning ready to start setting up. Held in the sports centre at Immanuel College, Novar Gardens, it was a good venue – not too far from the city, not too far from the beach, and quite a lot of parking onsite … and Adelaide even put on awesome weather just for the event (unlike the torrential downpours it had in the weeks leading up to it). As I was there as an exhibitor (on the Gould Genealogy/Unlock the Past stand) it meant that I didn’t get to go to any of the talks which is a shame as there were a heap of fabulous talks … and from reports from those who did go, found them awesome! But that’s the life of an exhibitor. Instead myself and co-workers were kept busy super on our stand. So as I can’t report on the the various talks, or event other exhibitors as unfortunately I barely saw them, I shall tell you about the geneabloggers. I did manage a 5 minute break at Saturday lunchtime, and we got as many of the geneabloggers there as we could for a group photo....

Unlock the Past’s Australian History & Genealogy Expo 2016...

Unlock the Past’s Australian History & Genealogy Expo 2016 is coming and it’s big … ok, it’s not to the size of RootsTech or Who Do You Think You Are? Live! … but it’s big by Australian genealogy conference standards. In fact, it’s the biggest we’ve had. For anyone who’s into genealogy particularly those in Australia (or anyone who wishes to visit from overseas, you’re more than welcome to come and visit my beautiful home city of Adelaide), this really is something you won’t want to miss. The Expo is being organised by Unlock the Past, who along with being one of Australia’s leaders in promoting history and genealogy, have organised Expo’s and other events around Australia and as well as held genealogy cruises over the past few years. Firstly a few numbers and details Let’s start with a few stats – held over 2 days – 100+ exhibitors (with many coming from interstate or overseas) – 90 talks – 35+ speakers There will be workshops, getting started talks, advanced talks and one-on-one Research Help Zone sessions with experts, and a large Expo hall. The Where: Immanuel College, 32 Morphett Road, Novar Gardens, South Australia The When: 7-8 October 2016 The Time: Friday 10am-5pm, Saturday 9am-4pm The Admission Cost: $15/1 day; $20/2 days, 18 and under free The Speakers The speakers are coming from all around Australia with a few from overseas too: – Dr Tom Lewis (author and military historian) – Philip Payton (well-known authority on Cornish history, and Australia in WW1) – Brad Argent (Ancestry UK) – Jeremy Austin (Australian DNA Database Project) – John Donaldson (Family Tree Maker specialist) – Greg Drew (South Australian mining history) – Andrew Gildea (from Finders Cafe) – Jan Gow (well-known...

In May’s Gone By …...

Believe it or not May is here. Which means that June is almost here. Which means the middle of the year. Already! But we won’t dwell on that. Apart from a couple of birthday’s, and Mother’s Day of course, May is a pretty quiet month for me. So I thought I’d take a look back through the history books and see happened in May … and as you’ll see there’s a heap a fascinating events that occurred during May. 1770 (17 May) – Lieutenant James Cook discovers and names Queenland’s Glass House Mountains 1813 (11 May) – Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth set out to cross the Blue Mountains in Australia’s first major exploration venture 1829 (2 May) – The city of Fremantle, Western Australia, is founded as Captain Fremantle hoists the Union Jack 1837 (23 May) – Streets and squares in Adelaide, capital of South Australia, are first named 1838 (24 May) – The first in what was to become a chain of David Jones Department stores opens 1840 (22 May) – New South Wales ceases to be a convict colony as the Order-in-Council ending transportation of convicts is issued 1852 (4 May) – The Second Gold Escort arrives in Adelaide, returning wealth from the Victorian goldfields to the colony of South Australia 1854 (18 May) – Australia’s first horse-drawn railway line commences operations in South Australia 1861 (30 May) – Wills returns to the Dig tree to see whether a rescue party has arrived 1870 (25 Mar) –  Notorious Australian bushranger ‘Captain Thunderbolt’ is shot dead 1884 (31 May) – Kellogg patents the cornflake 1894 (5 May) – The Australian slang term ‘fair dinkum’ appears in print for the first time 1900 (15 May) – Women win the...

Open House Adelaide 2015...

Back in 2012 and 2013 Open House Adelaide was a part of the About Time History Month celebrations, with one weekend in May being when all the “Open House” events were on. I noted that they were not part of this year’s History Month celebrations, so I have been keeping an eye out for when they were on, and have discovered that Open House Adelaide will be a part of the Festival and Architecture and Design (FAD) which runs from 8-13 October 2015. This Festival is said to … “… deliver a fun, engaging and informative program of architecture and design talks, forums, exhibitions, performing arts, children’s activities, guided walking tours and the return of Open House Adelaide program”. For those not familiar with what Open House Adelaide is, it is a weekend where businesses, buildings and historical places around the city open their doors for you to wander through, look at the history and architecture and enjoy seeing parts of Adelaide you may not have seen before. If you visit the FAD website, you can find details of all 40 or so events, tours, talks, workshops and more including all the Open House Adelaide ones too. Adelaide is just one of four Australian cities that have taken on the”Open House” idea, which is actually a global idea, and continues to grow each year. Adelaide – http://www.fad.org.au/ Brisbane – http://brisbaneopenhouse.com.au/ Melbourne – http://www.openhousemelbourne.org/ Perth – http://www.openhouseperth.net/ To see what other cities around the world that are taking part, visit the Open House Worldwide website http://www.openhouseworldwide.org/. Do yourself a favour, and explore the buildings in your city. You’ll be surprised what you don’t know, and how cool they really...

Adelaide’s “Old Treasury” Building and the Underground Tunnels...

In Australia National Family History Month is held during August, so it was timely that a historical place I’d been wanting to check out had another open day during the month. Not that they had planned it as far as I know, but hey I’m counting it towards my National Family History Month (NFHM) activities. Adelaide’s old Treasury Building (which is now hotel apartments, “the Adina Apartments Hotel“) on Flinders Street in the heart of Adelaide, has a history dating back to the early years of the colony. This former Treasury Building was built in stages from 1839 to 1907, and is a building that has been at the centre of South Australia’s administrative and governmental affairs for more 130 years. And one of the original walls still stands. It housed the Cabinet Room from 1876 until 1968, before that moved to another building. For more on this history of this magnificent building you can read about it here. Anyway it’s been a long, cold winter, so I was pleased that Adelaide put on a blue sky, sunny day (still cold, but sunny) for my day trip to the city with Mr Lonetester to check out this building. Booked in for the 11.00am tour, we were joined by about 60 other people keen to explore the history of this place. Divided into two groups for the actual tour, the group I was with was led by Grant who’s a volunteer at the National Trust, and clearly loves what he does, knows his history, and shares it with enthusiasm. Firstly Grant showed us the “Records Room” that was made as a fire proof room …  which originally had with slate floor, and arched brick ceiling – and held together without any...

South Australia’s History Month in Review...

May came and went. Rather quickly actually. And June is flying by, and hence this is a very belated round-up (or review) of the events and places I visited during South Australia’s History Month (aka the About Time: South Australia’s History Festival), back in May. As usual, I didn’t get to nowhere near as many events as I wanted. But other than taking the whole month off work – followed by the month afterwards to recover – that’s simply not going to happen. Still I got to experience some more of South Australia’s history, and that was the whole point. So here’s a short run down of those that I did attend. GenealogySA Open Day, Unley Road, Unley My first History Month outing was a visit to GenealogySA (previously known as the South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society) at Unley. I admit to having been a member with them for a number of years, but haven’t visited their premises any time recently, so a visit was overdue. After a guided tour around showing me what was where, I hung around for several hours just browsing through their books, and card catalogues. And I didn’t even get on to the microfiche or microfilm on this outing! During my visit I met a number of people that I know from the Society, and noticed that they were being kept busy with other visitors coming in for the Open Day. I was impressed at the number of Society Journals they had from other Societies, including interstate and overseas groups. Having seen what a number of them are like, I’m getting inspired to join a few more societies – though maybe I should wait until I’m focusing on those branches of my family history....

May is South Australia’s History Month!...

May has arrived, and so my copy of the South Australian History Month program guide. This is the month that all South Australian history-lovers look forward to. It is a month-long history-fest. The “About Time: South Australia’s History Festival” as it is officially known, began its life as South Australia’s History Week back in 2004, and changed to a month-long event in 2011 which proved a good move, as it has grown in popularity each year since. With more events (over 500 now), and more time (a whole month), it allows more people to attend – so more people are learning about the history of the beautiful state of South Australia. So I believe it’s a win, win situation for everyone. History-lovers indulge in the events as much as time allows, but trust me there’s also plenty for non-history lovers too. In fact I’ve got my hairdresser, my physio, my chiropractor, and my personal trainer all who are not overly into history, interested. Why? Well, putting it simply there is something for everyone – families included. There are walks around the city talking about Adelaide’s criminals and early pioneers, there are cemetery tours, there open days of historic businesses and museums, there afternoon teas, archive tours, pub yarns, a film day of South Australia’s early railways, tours of the aviation museum, archaeology digs, paddlesteamer cruises and a whole heap more. May is certainly when all types of organisations, archives, museums, societies, churches, cemeteries, history groups, even businesses set out educating the public about the history of South Australia. And the events are not only held in Adelaide, they are statewide, with events being held in the Barossa Valley, the Clare Valley, the Eyre Peninsula, the Fleurieu Peninsula, the Flinders Ranges,...