Following from my post last week summarising the information available from the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, this week I’m going to take a look at the New South Wales Registry.
While my research hasn’t been as involved in NSW as it has in Victoria, to date I have 7 resources in my family tree from the NSW Registry spanning all three event types giving me some experience using this registry.
I started researching my family tree at the beginning of last year. During my initial research I spent a lot of time searching the various state Birth, Death and Marriage indexes. I’ve decided to write a series of blog posts summarising the information available in each registry and tips I’ve picked up along the way for getting the most of out the registries. For more information on my research and links to the other posts in this series as they become available, head to my Family History page.
I’ll be starting with the Victorian registry since that is where my research began. This post also comes at a good time because a significant changes have recently been made to the Victorian registry online.
Wow! The Evermore concert was awesome!
First off, the seats were great. I haven’t been on the floor for a concert before, but it was amazing! I don’t think I’ve been that close to the stage either. We were in row E, so only five rows from the front! The only slight problem was we were kind of off to the side, but otherwise they were great!
The first support act was Kate Miller-Heidke. I’d heard a few of her songs before, but she was so funny on stage! At times quite and ‘proper’, but other times loud and angry. She would just be sitting at her keyboard singing away, then suddenly her tone would change and would get a lot louder all of a sudden. Her lyrics were quite amusing as well, in particular one about ‘Australian Idol’. After her performance she was in the foyer signing albums, so I bought one (yes…I bought it) and got it signed!! My first autographed CD! Woohoo!
The next act was Aqualung. They’re a UK group, and their music was pretty good too. Unfortunately they’d just gotten into Melbourne from Japan, and were pretty tired. And, they were missing their drummer and CDs to sell! I felt kinda sorry for them, because they did seem a bit disappointed. The singer warned us at one point that the song mightn’t work without the drummer, but a few bars in the crowd started clapping to the beat, and he gave a smile. So that was really nice.
And then Evermore came on. The show was great! Being on the floor meant we could stand up for a few of the songs, and we were really close so I got some great photos. There was a security guard about 2 metres away, but they weren’t stopping photos at all – not even with flashes! (thanks Palais!)
So we sung to most songs, and danced to a few. The show was recorded, and were on sale after the show! Unfortunately the burner broke…but I bought one anyway and they’re going to post them out later this week. I bought their normal album on the night as well and have added it to my fast growing collection. They were signing afterwards as well. We went for cake after the show, and came back about 45 minutes later and there was still a huge queue so we didn’t wait. Would’ve been cool, but not sure I could be bothered hanging around.
So yeah – it was a great night! No more concerts coming up soon…time to start looking again! Some pics online here as well.
On Wednesday night I went with Nick, Andrew, Ryan and Amy to see Missy Higgins at the Palais. It was a much better night than I had expected!
First off, Nick, Ryan and I went to ‘Soul Mama’, a vegetarian restaurant in the old St Kilda Baths. It’s a buffet type meal, except that rather than helping yourself you choose a particular sized plate and then they serve a set number of dishes for you (but you get to choose from a rather wide range). It was good to try something different for a change. The food was quite nice, and I’d probably go back again.
The show started (or, more correctly, the doors opened…) at 8:00pm. We didn’t get in until about 8:20 and by then the support act (the winner of JJJ Unearthed – no idea who it was!!) had already finished.
Missy came on stage just before 9 and was on until almost 11! She sung a good mix of songs from both her new and old album. While the crowd was a lot more subdued than at Eskimo Joe, it was definitely more fitting to the show. With a “loungey” kind of feel, it was a relaxing performance (although there are a couple of songs you just can’t help clapping along to!)
The set was really nice, with the instruments arranged in a semi circle on a pretend hill in front of a city back drop. There were even real potted gum trees on the sides! It gave a feeling of being in a quiet park, but at times with the lights it looked like a clearing in a forest with the sun shining between the leaves.
Our seats were in row X, which as you can imagine is a long way back. But being a music performance as long as you could hear it didn’t really matter. I managed to snap a few nice pics, and have uploaded some to my album.
Just got home from the movies with mum, my brother, my aunt and cousin. We went to see “Pirates of the Caribbean – At World’s End”
Like the second film, it was no comparison to the first, but still it was an enjoyable film.
Was good to see Johnny Depp back in the role of Jack Sparrow, although his lines weren’t quite as witty as the original. Lots of action, and clever special effects, helped bring the pirate world to life.
The plotline felt a bit confusing, and a little vague at times, but if you don’t analyse it too closely everything falls into place nicely.
I’m glad I saw it, but probably wouldn’t race out to see it again.
For anyone planning to see it, hang around ’til the end of the credits – there’s about 20 seconds of extra footage. It’s not particularly exciting, but you’re there anyway so might as well stick around!