Genealife in Lockdown - 2021 A Year of Online Conferences.

2021, A Year of Online Conferences January - June

                                         

 My RootsTech Ambassador Bag, Beads and Badges from a previous year

2021 began as a blue sky summer and with few Covid restrictions in NSW, Australia where I live. The year has definitely been a valuable year of learning with a wealth of online genealogy  conferences taking place. The first family history conference for 2021 for me was the first ever virtual RootsTech Connect in February. 

I was privileged to be an Ambassador for the virtual RootsTech Conference held 25 -27 February. Although it was disappointing to be not catching up with genea-friends in person in Salt Lake City, I was thrilled to help promote RootsTech Connect 2021 which, delivered online, reached a previously unimaginable number of people from all around the world.

Social media was abuzz with what people were enjoying about the conference and expo hall and although I was attending RootsTech from home, I felt connected to other attendees through social media and the chat hubs RootsTech made available. Excitingly, several of my #RootsTechConnect tweets featured live on the FamilySearch website as I participated in the world's largest family history conference. Above is my granddaughter Clementine, 13 months, watching RootsTech with me. 

                               Genea-friends and Ambassadors ready for the Opening Ceremony at RootsTech 2020

Watching from the comfort of my home and not having a long overseas flight made attending RootsTech 2021 much easier but I did miss catching up with the many wonderful people I have met through attending RootsTech each year since 2015. 

RootsTech Ambassadors in Salt Lake City

The RootsTech presentations were very generously made available for the rest of the year which made it possible to listen to many more informative speakers than I would usually have. I am thrilled that recently it was announced that the dates for RootsTech 2022 have been announced. If you are as excited as I am about attending another amazing virtual RootsTech conference you can read all about RootsTech Connect 2022 here. 

An exciting new Australian family history conference, which was originally planned to be held on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, was held virtually in March 2021. You can watch one of the Promotional videos  here. Speakers from Australia, new Zealand and around the world gave presentations on a wide range of topics at this first international Australian Conference and I was delighted to be one of the presenters.

                                                        Family History Downunder Presenters2021

I delivered two presentations during the Family History Downunder conference. One was about House History Research and the other was entitled Using Google Earth Tours and Movie Maker to Tell Your Immigrant Ancestors' Stories. Pre-recorded presentations and others delivered via Zoom became the new way of delivering family history content during 2021. While I very much missed seeing genea-friends in person, online genealogy events were a wonderful way to stay connected in a time when getting together in person was difficult or  impossible.

Watching Family History Downunder in March 2021

Easter family plans were happily not interrupted by Covid restrictions and my whole family was able to come together for a wonderful family gathering. Considering the severe lockdown that NSW has been experiencing for almost two months now, I look back on Easter as a very special family time. 

                                              Sharing my love of cows with a granddaughter after Easter

May 2021 brought with it a visit from a friend who I have known since we were teenagers living in Queensland. We share a love of walking and during her two week visit we walked the 9 km Boxvale Tramway track , the historic Berrima River walk which features the ruins of a WW2 German Internment Camp and other walking trails. I had a two week break from my computer, presentations and research while I enjoyed lunches, visits to antiques stores, drives to scenic National Parks along with a great deal of conversation and much laughter. 

                                                         Walking the wet Boxvale Tramway Trail which follows a disused 1890's railway 

                                                           Reaching the old rail tunnel on the Boxvale Tramway trail

                                                           A drive south to Braidwood near Canberra for lunch 

June brought with it another much anticipated Family History event - The Genealogy Show. This conference has been the mastermind of Kirsty Gray from the UK and I was honoured to be accepted to deliver two presentations for The Genealogy Show. One was entitled Murder in the Red Barn - Finding Ancestors in Newspapers and the other was Using Google Earth Tours and Movie Maker to tell Family History Stories. The Genealogy Show's interactive website was fun to navigate and June was another month of excellent learning and putting into practice newly acquired knowledge.

                                                     Preparing my Murder in the Red Barn powerpoint  presentation 

Social media, especially Twitter and Facetime, family history events held online and zoom  have made staying connected possible during this trying time that has been the Covid Pandemic. I am grateful to live in an age where technology keeps me feeling connected when isolation and sudden lockdowns have become a way of life. 

(Image: courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C., United States.) Wikipedia, Creative Commons

Looking back to times when my ancestors faced the challenges of pandemics such as the Spanish Flu and The Bubonic Plague I admire that they had to cope without social media news updates and check in QR codes for Government contact tracing, the availability of masks and importantly the connectivity of social media and the internet. 

Next week: 2021 June through to Lockdown.