Auckland Family History Expo on this weekend...

11 - 13 August 2017 at the Fickling Convention Centre, Mt Roskill

Looking forward to taking my class on another research fieldtrip this weekend to the Auckland Family History Expo which this year is hosted in Mt Albert. It's a 3 day event with over 40 seminars and family history/historian guest speakers from all over.

I'm particularly interested in exposing my class to Western Research/researchers in action and particularly in regards to whakapapa (Maori word for genealogy), gafa (Samoa word for genealogy) which is so important as often names have of mana (esoteric power and prestige) of themselves and are often associated with land, whenua (Maori), fanua (Samoan).

For my students, I'm particularly interested in exposing them to the many tools and graphic/software displays that are used and the various ways of documenting genealogy digitally, within a family history book or videography etc.

This is going to be quite exciting for me too, as a writer, as I'm particularly interested in researching and to write stories related to my earlier ancestors and parents, some stories of which I've gathered over the years and would like to incorporate into a novel/s. This is going to be a great platform to learn from...