World wide

As General Editor of the Biographical Database of Australia, Carol Baxter edited every baptism, marriage and burial entry found in every surviving NSW church register for the years 1787 and 1830.  As a historian and researcher with more than 30 years experience in the industry, she has used church registers from all over the world. This seminar provides you with the skills to get the most out of these important registers, and helps you to learn the tricks and overcome the traps in their usage.

- 45/60 minutes – Powerpoint presentation

Have you a topic you would like to write about? Perhaps you are a “how to” expert. Perhaps you give seminars and would like to write a back-up book. Perhaps you wish to write a history of your local school or church or hospital, or a building or other physical structure, or anything else that might interest you. This talk will provide you with simple guidelines to follow, and direct you to more detailed sources.

– 45/60 minutes – Powerpoint presentation

Narrative non-fiction is a writing genre that is rapidly growing in popularity. Carol Baxter is the author of three works of narrative non-fiction – in her case, history told as a gripping story rather than a dry analysis – with more to be published in 2013 and 2014. This seminar provides guidelines to help you write books or articles or stories for family members that you can be proud of and that others will want to read.

– 45/60 minutes – Powerpoint presentation

Most of us have heard stories that have been passed down through our families, sometime for one or two generations, sometimes for many. This seminar takes a look at family stories, and provides strategies for determining whether they are true or not. Attendees at longer seminars are welcome to provide a brief account (under one minute) of their own most outrageous and fallacious family story.

– 30/60 minutes – Powerpoint presentation

Have you come across people desperate to have a famous or infamous ancestor, people who will sometimes manipulate information in order to achieve their dream? This case study examines the families of three early colonists with the surname Douglass, one a First Fleeter, and shows how researchers can misinterpret documents with dire consequences. It also reveals that much pre-twenty-first century research needs to be redone because old claims – including those regarding descent from First Fleeters – do not necessarily stand up to careful scrutiny.