Marco Polo 11.8.08 0007I owe the title of this blog to Dick Eastman, as whenever he goes away he lets his readers know where he’s off to. That is what I’m doing in this post. Though technically it should probably be called “On the Sea Again … ” as I’m off on another cruise again, and hoping for some warmer weather.

A number of our staff (myself included) are heading off to England on Wednesday this week for Unlock the Past’s 5th cruise which leaves from London. We’ll be arriving a few days before the cruise departs, so we hope to get into the right timezone, and may even get to see some London sights. The cruise goes for 10 days, and after that, our staff will be staying on for a few more days to see some sites. So all up, we’ll be away for three weeks!

We will have Steve and Steph manning our shop every day (9am-4pm M-F) except for Wednesday 16th July when we’ll be closed, and Beth will be dealing with our mail order department. They will do their best to deal with everything, but as with all places that are short-staffed there is likely to be some delays. So please be patient.

Unlock the Past’s 5th cruise has an amazing range of guest presenters (as has every cruise I’ve been on to date), and I’m expecting lots of learning on this one as well. Afterall we have Paul Blake and Jackie Depelle both from England who are full-time genealogists, Marie Dougan is a full-time Scottish researcher, Eileen and Sean Ó Dúill from Ireland who run Heirs Ireland which specialises in legal and probate genealogical research. From the US, Lisa Louise Cooke who is the lady behind the Genealogy Gems podcasts, and Australians who are making the trip as presenters for this cruise are Rosemary Kopittke, Helen Smith, Mike Murray and Lesley Silvester. So with a total of 40+ presentations, there’s going to be oodles to learn.

As I tend to manage all of our social media accounts (blog, Facebook, Twitter and Google+), things might be a little quiet there for a while.

I shall endeavour to do some posts along the way – but with dodgy internet and limited time, they may not get done till later. So can I suggest keeping an eye on the Unlock the Past Cruises Facebook page, as pictures will be put up there from time to time.

In the meantime all the best with your continued research, and I look forward to reporting what I have learned when I return!