Quantum Reading Learning Vision comes to ParraPals

Despite the miserable weather, about 55 members came along to our August monthly meeting.  Our guest speaker was Tim Connell at Quantum RLV, which sells and distributes equipment and software to make life easier for people with vision impairment.
Quantum RLV has been around for 25 years - it

Dolphin Easy Text software

used to be at Rydalmere and known as Quantum Technology but is now based at Thornleigh.
Tim demonstrated a range of products - optical magnifiers; hand held electronic magnifiers; text to speech equipment; and specialised software such as Dolphin EasyText.

Tim surrounded by members

When John announced morning tea, Tim was rushed by members wanting to look at the equipment and ask him questions.

But morning tea was worth waiting for too.  In the absence of Hazel G. and her sister Beryl, Lyndell managed the morning tea, with plenty of willing helpers.

John Moxon presenting Bev Pieremonth with a ParraPals mug.

The volunteer of the month was Bev Pieremont, one of our many willing buddies, catering assistant and office worker.  Congratulations Bev.

Jim and Rosa are now computer savvy

Husband and wife members Jim and Rosa recently joined our ComputerPals club to learn together how to use computers.

Now, after undergoing a five week course Beginners 1 Windows 7, both Rosa and Jim are much more confident and competent in the basics of understanding and using computers.

Although they presently share a home computer, I suspect it wont be long before they each have their own computer!

Following completion of their first course, Jim and Rosa  attended our ComputerPals club meeting yesterday, and sampled the very social atmosphere and spirit of our club meetings, held monthly every third Friday.

Welcome to Parramatta ComputerPals and the world of computing Jim and Rosa!!!

Using Family Tree Maker Course

I have been a user of the Family Tree Maker Genealogical programe for some years, and when Trainer Deborah announced a short course featuring FTM I decided to enrol . I have attended other family history courses run by Deborah and was impressed by her knowledge and professional presentations.

So, this morning I drove to my cousin and club members Ron Taylor's nearby home and picked him up. Ron is also a reguler user of FTM. On arrival at our ComputerPals club training rooms, we found that we were amongst 9 members attending that course, but we all squeezed together in the training room. We were too many for the six computers, but Deborah told us that would be ok, as she had brought her laptop along, and her course would be presented by way of the screen, using her laptop containing her personal family history.

Deborah's short course, over two hours, covered how to -

• identify the benefits of using genealogical software
• enter data into Family Tree Maker and also, importantly, to record sources
• create reports from FTM
• use FTM to plan and follow up our research
• connect to Ancestry.com to match people on our family tree to Ancestry records
• export our family tree to a GEDCOM file and upload it to Ancestry.

Deborah's knowledge of FTM was excellent and she imparted her knowledge to us in a clear manner. Although I regularly use FTM I learned a number of things that made my attendance at the course worthwhile. Short courses of two hours on one day are ideal for family historians.

I  recommend members watch for future family history courses to be run by Deborah, and get on the waiting lists early.

Apple Mac enthusiasts joining up

About a month ago, we bravely held an Apple Mac information day at ParraPals.  We already had three MAC enthusiasts amongst our membership, and we knew there had to be more out there.  So we sent a community notice to the Parramatta Advertiser, inserted a snippet in ASCCA's newsletter, and asked our members to spread the word.

About a dozen people turned up, and this resulted in a Special Interest Group being formed.  The first meeting was held yesterday.  Just about everyone from the information session turned up, plus more.

Three or four participants were experienced MAC users, five were inexperienced users, and another three were PC users who were "just interested".  This was a good balance since the experienced members were able to answer questions and demonstrate programs.  One member was just about to travel to the UK for a family reunion, and so we asked her to tell us what applications she intended to use whilst travelling.  Judy showed her Picasa, and also demonstrated iPhoto.

Hopefully the group will become better known and will grow large enough for us to run more courses - we only have one short course at the moment.  And then we'll need to worry about space!

Members visit Hyde Park Barracks

Hyde Park Barracks

Our Genealogy and Digital Photography Special Interest Groups decided to join forces for a field trip last Friday.  We set off by train from Parramatta to visit the historic Hyde Park Barracks.  Twenty four of us turned up for the guided tour at 1pm, after most of us had lunch, either take away, home made sandwiches or dining in style at Hyde Park.
Our guide Margot was very friendly and enthusiastic, and showed us the many different layers of building over the nearly 200 year life of the building.
Governor Macquarie commissioned convict architect Francis Greenway to build many of the colonial structures that remain today in Sydney.

The Hyde Park barracks was built to house the many convicts working on government projects - roads, buildings, brickworks and other infrastructure in old Sydney Town.  Prior to its opening in 1818, most convicts slept rough, and it was considered better to house them in the Barracks so that they could be better supervised.

On the top floor, we were able to see how the convicts slept.  It would not have been very comfortable.

Stonemasonry tools from Colonial Sydney

There is a very good exhibition showing at the moment, with lots of artifacts from the convict days, including tools, kitchen items and even rat remains!

The painting to the right shows Parramatta in its early days.  Parramatta of course was the second settlement in New South Wales, where the soil was so much better than at Sydney Cove.  It was a thriving settlement from its very beginning.

Thanks Deborah for organising this day out - we had a great time, and the only costs apart from lunch were $5 admission and $2.50 for transport.  What a deal!