09 March 2010

Mellbourne Conference: Day Two

Although it rained heavily all night, the morning was bright and sunny. Conference sessions began at 8.30am.

I've known Bubbles Segall (right) for many years. She lived in a remote area of Australia for some three decades and recently moved to Melbourne. Her excellent program on "Writing Family Newsletters" inspired several attendees to begin such a venture. (See a separate Tracing the Tribe post on her presentation)

Other concurrent sessions were Czech research and beginning genealogy.

The second plenary session featured three archivists from local and national archives: Kim Burrell (National Australian Archives), Anne Burrows (State Library of Victoria) and James McKinnon (Public Records Office of Victoria). Each provided information on what the institutions hold and what researchers might find. Tomorrow (Tuesday), we will tour both the NAA and the SLV.

The most moving session was with Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem (Frenkel), who described his family history search (see separate Tracing the Tribe post), which all began with his son working on a family tree project, and Australian author Arnold Zable who spoke on "Writing Our Ancestral Stories."

Following lunch, there were concurrent sessions of the Israel SIG (with Sallyann Amdur Sack-Pikus, Ziva Fain and myself), "Caring for Your Family Records" (Shauna Hicks) and "Jewish Naming Traditions" (Lionel Sharpe).

At a combined session, Sallyann presented "Resources for Holocaust Research," covering resources at Yad Vashem, USHMM and ITC-Bad Arolsen.

An "Ask the Experts" closed the second day with some good audience questions on dating photographs, Austrian military uniforms and more.

On Tuesday, we're off to visit archives and libraries.

No comments:

Post a Comment