GOONS Conference

Friday 11 Apr

After breakfast, packed & then took off for the Justice Courts to collect my 16 wills. The other seven are winging their way to NZ, as I won't be working on those families this trip. I was so lucky to get in before the price increase - they are going up from $12 to $20 in about ten days time! There was nothing very long or thick, which was probably a good thing since I have to carry them around, but was also a bit disappointing. 

Back at Paddington I bought a Red Bull & flapjack (cheap lunch), then drank the can dry before getting my bags downstairs and to Paddington. Bakerloo line to Waterloo, which still looks much the same – the Guildford train to Oxshott, Cobham and Stoke D’Abernon was due to leave at 12.03, but I did not wait to see which platform or I might have been tempted to get on board. I still remember that getting into the first carriage by the second door put me right beside the stairs to cross to the other side, where Lloyd was usually waiting for me.(That was just a little trip down memory lane - we house-sat in Cobham for four months in 2010-11, and I caught that train often after a trip away or a day at the SOG.)

Up hill and down corridor to Waterloo East, station C, and a 15 minute wait for the next train. Not too many passengers, so got a table seat to myself. Worked on blog. Taxi to the Hotel as I had no real idea where it was. The Conference organisers were happy to collect us from the station, but since I had no idea when I would arrive …

Got there about 2 pm, & they were just setting up, so I signed in at reception & found my room 

(352, second floor). Nice and big for a change. Unpacked and settled in, caught up with emails etc, then wandered back down, collected the goody bag from Goons, found no-one I knew so went up & had a rest. Later found Sue Mastell and Kim Baldacchino  & we went in to tea together. Nice buffet meal, & lots of laughs.

There were two events scheduled after dinner, but no way could I stay awake that late, so an early night was the only possible answer.

Reading: Mrs Jeffries Speaks Her Mind

Evening: Forward to the Past, the second book about tracing her family by Rae Collins. Still blown away by how much research she got done before the days of online records and good indexes.

Saturday 12 Apr

Fantastic buffet breakfast, and I indulged to the hilt after the meagre rations I have been living on in London.  

First up was the welcome and AGM. Chairman Kirsty Grey gave a good round-up of the year, and announced the results of the election. I won't go into details, as even Goons members could get bored.

After a coffee break, Dick Eastman gave us his view of the future of genealogy and family history for one-namers. I don't know how much of it was the same as what he said three years ago, but I decided that the future probably hadn't changed that much in such a relatively short time, so I skipped that talk and just reappeared in time for lunch. (Did I mention how great the food is here?)

I reappeared for the next talk from Dr Paul Cullen - definitely the most easily recognised speaker of all, with his red-dyed Mohawk. He is part of the team working on the Family Names of the UK, or FANUK project, finding the origin and meaning of the more unusual names and the first recorded documentation of each. I recall Pat Hanks talking to us three years ago at my last conference on the same topic, and was fascinated then, so it was great to hear an update. (Pat also looked up some of my more unusual names, which was fascinating.) They are now 96% complete, and have just got funding to carry on and do another 15,000 of the rarer 'established' names.

At 2 pm we reconvened for a panel discussion on 'How I run my Study', with a good mix of folk. We had big and small, British and American, different programs and ways of doing - in fact we probably could not have had a more diverse range. One member joined us on Skype from America (Tessa Keough), the Regional Rep Co-ordinator Paul has a very large Howes study, Bob Cumberbatch's name is from Barbadoes. Tessa is fairly new, Bob is an old-timer, and Colin Lefever is the Regional Rep for Europe. Actually Tessa is an RR too, and Bob might also be. So it was a brilliant discussion, and I think everyone learned some new tips and tricks.

Next up I heard Miriam Silverman from Ancestry.com give us some hints and tips about getting the best out of the site, and took a few notes, which I must make time to go back & revise.                        


Just before the conference banquet, the committee announced the results of their meeting and appointment of officers. The new Chairman is Corrinne Goodenough, and Kirsty has resigned. Obviously there are lots of politics in the home country that we don't get involved in.

Grand dinner, all very delicious, quick delivery, hot plates, and great company.

Reading: Mrs Jeffries Forges Ahead

 
Sunday 13 Apr


Sunday morning David Gynes gave an excellent sermon - brief and to the point (Palm Sunday), while giving us a few things to take away and ponder on. He is a very good preacher indeed (but don't tell him I said so <g>)

 

I skipped the first talk, although I 'should' have gone, the options were Family Search or Find My Past, in both of which I could have learned heaps, although since FMP have just upgraded their site, with disastrous results, that might have been more of a moan session!

The presentation by Jayne Shrimpton on dating photographs was cancelled as her son was involved in an accident this morning (he was later confirmed to be ok), so Dick Eastman stepped into the breach by pulling one of his talks from the cloud and hurriedly updating it for an English audience - he did forget one or two spelling changes, which amused everyone. Aptly enough, the talk was entitled 'Cloudy, with a chance of Genealogy.' He is a firm devotee of keeping everything in the cloud, since it gives you unlimited disk space, computing power and access from wherever you are. 

Cloud providers supply all the maintenance, infrastructure,software upgrades, repairs, backups, and meet most surges in demand. 

He also mentioned some of the totally cloud-based websites that many of us use, for example Billiongraves, Findagrave, We Relate and Wikitree. It was an interesting talk, and he is a very relaxed speaker.  Handouts for this talk, if anyone is interested, are at www.eogn.com/handouts/cloud

After our final meal <sob>  Tyrone Bowes spoke on mapping surnames - he uses land records in Ireland, which is certainly a different take on the subject. 

The last speaker of the conference was Bob Cumberbatch (did I mention that we have a connection with a Cumberpatch family in NZ?), on his Top Ten Free Tools & Techniques for Your ONS

They are, in no particular order, Evernote, Outwit Hub, Google+, Wordpress or Blogger, Google Sites, Google Docs/Google Drive, Google Fusion Tables (are you seeing a theme running thru these?), Picassa, Dropbox and Flikr.

 

Others worth considering include Facebook, Last Pass and Google Authenticator. 

 

A lot of the members here are seriously techno-savvy!

After the closing speeches and final coffee I got a lift to the station with Peter Haggar, then train to Folkestone and bus to Dover (as they are working on part of the line). My new home, only 100 yards from the station, is the Alma Hotel. Doesn't look much from outside, but the manager carried my bag up the steep & narrow winding staircase to the second /top floor - something I sure do appreciate. And, I have a desk! Just have to remember not to bang my head on the sloping roof. Kitchen is available to use on the first floor. So some positive stuff, and not too expensive. Flapjack for tea, and an early night.

Apologies for the lack of pics to break up the text, but I forgot to take any over the weekend.