Well that's a wrap. Family History Month in Australia and New Zealand is over for another year. As usual August went incredibly fast. AFFHO Closing Ceremony  This was hosted by President Sonia Russell and featured David Barnes talking about the AFFHO Congress in 2025. This is in Brisbane next March. Check out the website here. The conference venue is modern and a bit of a distance from where I live. So accommodation is booked as the drive up and down the highway is not worth thinking about. All right if you live on the south side of Brisbane. It will be excellent and I am looking forward to catching up with genie friends from all over. Sonia also announced all the winners of the various sponsor prizes and it was nice to hear the names of many genie friends around the country. Nick Vine Hall Awards This kept me busy sending out all judges feedback to each of the societies and contacting the winners and runners up with the good news. Society journals are a wealth of advice on all topics and a great resource for family stories.  Check them out at your Society Library and I noticed that some Societies are now sharing journal exchanges online with their members, usually in the members only section. This is exciting if you find it hard to get to the library in person. Bribie Family History Association Book Club and Genie Chats This month we discussed Judy Nunn's Khaki Town based around Townsville in World War II.  I will miss the next meeting as I will be in Brisbane at Government House accepting my OAM award. That will be exciting as I have never managed to visit there before.  Another two sessions looking at social media for family history research and an Irish brick wall for one of our members. Brisbane History Group Went down to Brisbane for their Welcome to Brisbane afternoon seminar on immigration. It was part of the various events to celebrate the bicentenary of the founding of Brisbane in 1824. Papers on immigrants from Lebanon, Greece, Germany, Russia, and Jewish immigrants. Brisbane History Group have some interesting events so check out their website here. Talks A trip up to Noosaville Library to give a presentation on Sporting Ancestors. They have such a lovely family history search room which is separate from the main library area. Nice and quiet with a computer and access to Ancestry and Findmypast and they are an affiliate for FamilySearch. Plus lots of great genealogy books and local history books. I also did a live webinar for Legacy Family Tree Webinars on using MyHeritage to research family history in Australia. That went well and by preparing the talk I learnt a lot more about some of the features of MyHeritage. The webinar can be viewed for free here. What's Coming Up? Sadly we have to wait a whole year for Family History Month to come around again. However, in the meantime check out local and online events as there is usually something on each month. Your local genealogy society is a good place to start. Until next time, happy researching. Shauna

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