It’s been a week already since we started the Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge, and what a fun week it was. But now it’s time to get on to ‘B’. What will your letter B relate to? An ancestral place, a ship name, an heirloom, or one of your ancestors. Let the creativity flow … the only rule is, it has to start with B.

A BIG congratulations to the 58 Victorian oganisations who have just been awarded Local History Grants. The money used by them will go toward projects which will aid in preserving different aspects of Victoria’s history.

It’s all go now, with the planning for the Unlock the Past History & Genealogy Queensland Expo, which is on 25-27 June 2012 in Brisbane. From those who have attended our previous Expo’s you’ll know how fun and informative they really are, and something not the be missed. But for those that haven’t, here’s 6 reasons you should attend the Queensland Expo …

In this May-June edition of Inside History Magazine (issue 10) you’ll find: Cemeteries, HMAS Kuttabul in 1942, the Australian Women’s Weekly gets digitised, 50 genealogy blogs you need to follow, and discover Historypin.

Last week I announced the idea of the Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge, and got positive feedback, from a number who wish to participate … so now it begins. Without repeating the whole of the original post, which you can read here … we’re looking for genealogists worldwide who are bloggers, Facebookers, and/or Twitterers to join in us in taking the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge.

Issue 10 of the Inside History Magazine arrived this week, as always it is packed with amazing articles. One that I found particularly great was an article written by Jill Ball (aka @geniaus on Twitter), titled 50 Genealogy Blogs You Need to Follow. Reading through the list, I can personally verify that so many of them are a great read, as I follow them myself.

Join us in taking the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge. It’s not hard, you just need to use the current letter for the week (A, B, C etc. whatever week we’re up to, right through to Z), and connect it to someone, something, or a topic relating to your family that you’d like write about.

Have you heard of the BillionGraves Project? If you haven’t yet, you will soon … as they really are leading the way with a new way to photograph and transcribe cemetery headstones worldwide. And in doing so, it’s making millions of cemetery records readily available to the public.

Now the Flip-Pal mobile scanners are starting to get out there … but where can they be used? We need your help as we’re wanting to create a list of organisations (societies, archives, museums and similar – big or small) which do (or don’t) allow use of the Flip-Pal scanners on their premises. This list will make it easier for users.

While it’s not exactly breaking news that the UKs No. 1 selling genealogy software program ‘Family Historian’ released a new version recently (Family Historian 5 was released about a month or so ago). But what is news is that we finally have our first supplies. Version 5 is a major update for Family Historian, as they’ve added a powerful new tool for creating great-looking books and booklets. They’ve added a lot of new features but at the same time worked hard to make the program look better, and be easier and nicer to use than ever …

Let me introduce to you a new magazine that has hit the streets “History Queensland”. Issued quarterly, the first issue came out in November 2011, with Issue 2 released in February 2012. And really, the name really says it all! It is a magazine that contains articles and information about Queensland’s history.

In honour of ANZAC Day, Ancestry.com.au are making it even easier to discover the military heroes in your family. Until Sunday 29th April you can access over 46 million military records from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada and the United States for FREE.

South Australia’s big history event (or should I say history MONTH), officially called the ‘About Time History Festival’ is being held throughout May 2012. From Victorian style funerals, to antique appraisals, even devonshire teas and discovering the meaning behind strained glass windows, and playing curator for a day, it’s all on in May!