Last year Unlock the Past held two History & Genealogy Expos around Australia. This year we’re holding four, this means we get to see many more of you around this big country.  All who pre-book by the Monday before each Expo will get into the Expo FREE. This will increase the number attending and your exposure. A modest charge will apply to those who come on the day. Every attendee gets a Registration Kit.

Here are the results of our 23rd Unlock the Past poll - What is the earliest known arrival date of any of your ancestors? Votes were cast by 458 people. The results are summarised in the table below - most people responding had an ancestor arrive before 1860 though some are very recent arrivals.

Professional Scottish researcher Chris Paton recently came to Australia and spoke at meetings in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Australian genealogy blogger, geniaus reports on his talks at the History & Genealogy Expo in Sydney in her blog. Feedback from others was just as glowing for Chris.

My partner Max's grandfather was a real mystery man. Unfortunately Max's father knew very little about his father so we only had vague family stories to follow.

What we did know was that Max's grandfather, Henry Spencer was from West Bromwich in Staffordshire and it was relatively easy to identify him and his parents and siblings in English census records and to trace them further back. Where we had a brick wall was how and when Henry came to Australia and where he died.

My two previous blogs on my gg grandmother Helen Carnegie were on 28 November 2009 and 28 January 2010. When we left the story, I was waiting for an email from a Chick descendant who was going to give me some information on Helen's second husband Charles Wademore Chick.