Picture this

A view of Noosa river at sunset

Each day in April I posted a picture along with my short recollection for the day over on Earlier Years. Many of those pictures I had sourced throughout the year from my own files and some from Pixabay. I created the daily graphics in Canva, Pixlr, Over, WordSwag or Haiku Deck. Some of these are available as apps on both iOS and Android, some have a web interface and all require minimal skill to output an acceptable graphic.

Now as the cooler weather of winter bids me spend more time indoors, I’ve sorted many digital snaps taken on my daily walks around the local area along with some photos from trips we’ve taken. I’ve  added some generic text that may focus my thoughts on a particular area of family history.

Dead palm frond

So far I’ve uploaded 35 of these pictures to Flickr in this album Images for family history blogposts. They are in a variety of sizes and shapes and will load quickly on any page. Some of these may prove useful for my readers, so I’ve made them public and set the date on all of these as June 2017, not the original date these photos were taken. If you have suggestions for further graphics along these lines, please add your ideas in a comment.

For those who will be attending Congress 2018 in Sydney next March be sure to get along to Jill’s session on Beaut Blogs: Ideas for Tarting up your Geneablogs. She will have lots more, ideas galore, for you to explore.

Introduction to Family History

Heritage month

During May the local library has been celebrating Heritage Month with a range of events. On Thursday I attended an informative talk by Judy Webster on Ancestors who Moved or Vanished.

This week it is my turn to present a session entitled An Introduction to Family History. Last year I collaborated with the local heritage librarian on this session. Here are my updated, revised slides.

Essential Australian resources

Archives - States WA, SA, Vic, NSW, Qld, Tas, NT, ACT National - NAA

Australian Births, Marriages and Deaths WA SA , Vic NSW Qld Tas NT ACT

National Library of Australia - Family History guide, Trove
Each State library has a guide to researching your family history. Sign up to obtain a card for both your State library and the National Library of Australia to gain free access to their eresources.

Additional places to find lists of resources
CoraWeb Helping you trace your family history
Cyndi'sList Australia

Family History forms and charts Free from Family Tree magazine
Free forms and charts from Ancestry

There are a wealth of resources digitised online and so many more offline. Join your local family history society for some expert help and guidance.


This post first appeared on http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com/2017/05/introduction-to-family-history.html

Android phone 2

This second 2 hour workshop for Android beginners at Noosaville Library covers the functions within these basic apps.

• Clock
• Google app
• Chrome
• email and 
• note taking with Google Keep

How to add and manage apps and widgets is also covered. Time is allocated to helping individuals with the wide range of different Android phones and to answering queries generated since the previous session.

Useful everyday apps

• Books and reading - BorrowBox, Kindle, Google Play Books, Overdrive, Scribd, Feedly
• Documents - Adobe reader, Docs, Sheets, Slides
• Listening - ABC radio, TuneIn Radio, Google Play Music
• Notetaking - Evernote, Google Keep
• Online storage - Dropbox, Google Drive, Photos (Google), Flickr
• Phone calls and messaging - Viber, Skype, Whats app
• Photography - Aviary, Photos (Google), PhotoFunia, Photoshop Express, Pixlr, Prisma, Snapseed
• Scanners - Camscanner, Photoscan, Scanbot
• Social - Instagram, Pinterest, Flickr, Google+, Twitter
• Tools - Maps, Calendar, Calculator, Smart measure, WiFi transfer, Airdroid, Photosync
• Video - YouTube
• Voice recording - Evernote, Google Keep, Easy voice recorder

To use magnification in any app, including using the camera as a magnifying glass go to - Settings, Accessibility, Magnification gestures to turn it on. Triple tap in any app to activate. 

Drop in to Tech help - 2 pm on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month at Noosaville Library for more friendly assistance.

 This post first appeared on https://librarycurrants.blogspot.com