On 1 September 2025 we moved into a new phase of our business. Gould Genealogy began in 1976 and will continue. But there are changes.

What is finished

• events and cruises - Since 2003 we have run 140 events under various brands
  • Gould Genealogy
  • Unlock the Past
  • Unlock the Past cruises
  • DNA Down Under - a 6-city roadshow in 2019
  • Family History Down Under
  • Family History Down Under Online

Events have included

• • roadshows - around Australia & New Zealand
  • expos - eight expos in all in four states
  • genealogy cruises - 19 cruises in all
  • conferences and seminars - in all states and territories, New Zealand and the US
  • Australia's first ever battlefield tour - Northern Territory

Most have been in Australia and New Zealand, but a highly successful conference was held on Seattle prior to our Alaskan cruise. We have done 19 conference cruises, six of them in the northern hemisphere.  We have had over 16,000 bookings for these events, including over 1800 on our genealogy cruises. Sadly in many ways our events have come to an end with our 19th and final cruise in August 2025.

• Gould Genealogy shop - our retail services have been primarily by mail since 1976, but at various times since 1991 we have had actual stores in suburban Adelaide. Our last closed in April 2023. The larger number of our products now are ebook downloads - over 2400 in all. But we will continue to offer a reduced number of books and growing range of USB products by mail, as we have done ever since 1976.

Scaled back

• books - 10-15 years ago we had what we believed to be the widest range of worldwide genealogy books (available anywhere). There were larger genealogy retailers in the US and UK, but they did not have the worldwide range we did. Books sales have declined 80%-90% in the last 10-15 years, in part but not wholly due to the emergence of so many resources online. We will continue offering our own books and some from a small number of other suppliers
• publishing - Unlock the Past has published around 150 guide books, handy guides and other miscellaneous books - in both print and ebook form. Some of these have been discontinued (mainly due to dated content). Most ebook versions will continue, as will the more in-demand printed books. There may be occasional new products or updated editions.
• genealogy software - as with books, the number of genealogy programs on offer has declined and sales are only a fraction of what they were 15-20 years ago. We will retain a small number of programs for at least the nearer future
• data CDs - 15-20 years ago CD sales rivalled books in sales revenue for us. Those days are past. Many people do not even have a CD/DVD reader now. We have converted all 2500+ of our own CD products to ebook and USB products. We only retain a small number of CDs from other publishers, but these will be progressively cleared in the coming months
• hours of business - although semi-retired we will still be available to respond to calls and emails most days during the week. However there will be some days or part days when we will be away from the office - doing some genealogy and other "semi-retirement things". Orders may of course be placed online 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year

Continuing

• ebooks - we have converted most (2400) of our data CD products to downloadable ebooks over the last two years. This is pretty much complete, though there may be occasional additions
• USB products - some data CD products too large for ebook downloads are now available on USB, as are a number of special large collections of products. There are now over 180 USB products, with a few more to come in the next year or so
• books - we will continue to offer our own books and some from a small number of other suppliers
• events sponsorship - for many years we have supported events by others - by exhibiting, publicity, and special event offers and prizes. We no longer run events of our own and may not exhibit again at other events. But we will continue - and increase - or sponsorship and support of events by others. See Upcoming Events below for more on this.

Clearance products

In September 2025 we began to demolish the room that has been our office and book room for 42 years - for the site to be used for other purposes. In clearing this out we are finding a good many books we will add to our current products to clear lists - including:

• remaining stock of out of print or discontinued products
• stock of some out of print titles we had forgotten we had
• previous editions
• stock reduction
• used books from various sources

We will regularly add more clearance titles most weeks until cleared.

Alan Phillips
Gould Genealogy & History

---