World Class Event in Sydney

I am still on a high after spending three days at the DNA Downunder event in Sydney last week. It has taken me a while to pen this last post because I have so much to say about this event which was world class. I wore my Ambassador Badge with pride during the event.

Kudos for taking a risk and staging such a professional event must go to Alan Phillips from Unlock the Past. Alan has been staging genealogy roadshows for several years but with DNA Downunder he took this event to another level. Right from the start the event promotion, including the appointment of Ambassadors, was top notch. 

Alan Phillips directing proceedings at DNA Downunder

 The venue in Sydney was excellent and only the most persnickety could find fault. The little things that make a great conference stand out from a good conference like smooth online registration, name tags, lanyards, programs (both online and in hard copy), signage, a strict timetable that was adhered to, opportunities to spend a few $$$ and get advice from vendors and societies coupled with an amazing star presenter, Blaine Bettinger, with solid supporting acts made this conference a success. Without the support of Alona and Anthea, the two family members and co-workers who are Alan's right hand women, this show would not have been such a fantastic event.

Alona and Anthea 

On a personal level I got so much from the feast of lectures on the program and took away a Doggie Bag full of ideas and tips to apply to my DNA research.I always enjoy geneaevents while I am there; I find many talks interesting and entertaining with content that is nice to know but they are not educative or inspiring.  DNA Downunder was an educative experience of the highest calibre.

Eager genies - Ready to learn

I attended every one of Blaine's 14 lectures, I had many items reinforced and learnt something new from all of them. As I predicted I am suffering from Blaine Overload but that is a positive outcome. As well as learning about methodology and resources I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on the ethics of DNA use and the constant reminders of the emotional effects that DNA discoveries can have on those involved. 

Blaine, a a genuine nice guy, spent so much time chatting with attendees

Shelley Crawford

I must apologise to the other speakers on the program as, because I went to all of Blaine's talks, I only managed to go to two other presentations. There was no way I was going to miss my genimate Shelley Crawford's talk so I was lucky she spoke when Blaine was having a break. Shelley was one of the first Australians to enter the world of genetic genealogy.

Shelley had a full house

One of the first people I encountered when I went to take my seat was Blaine. Getting  a hug and a hello from him set the scene for a super event. 

Blaine and GeniAus

I revelled in the out of school opportunities that a face to face conference offers. I caught up with some of my dear online pals, genimates from all over the place, loads of geneabloggers and met several genies for the first time.

Geneabloggers at DNA Downunder 

I just hope that Alan hosts a similar event in the future. These events educate, energise and enthuse our family history community.

Grumpy Old Genie

Grumpy Old Genie

This morning I was wondering if I would blog today....then I looked at my RSS feeds.

I read quite a number of posts and shared a couple to my GeniAus Facebook page . Something I saw annoyed this Grumpy Old Girl. One blogger who has three blogs had posted exactly the same article to those three blogs. Each of these blogs is targetted at a different family group so I guess the blogger thought the message important enough to share to the three different audiences...but what of people like me who follow all three blogs?

The purpose of each of those blogs appears to be to share and record stories from a branch of the bloggers family. The blogger struck a problem when she had something general to say.

Was it really necessary to post the same article in those three places?  Would it be a better strategy to use other social media channels to share the message widely?

That blogger could have one blog for all posts and label and categorize them carefully so that her different audiences could find articles of interest to them. This could even bring more readers to the blog as readers would be exposed to articles outside their area of interest. Such a blog could have a broader purpose - ie to share the stories of my ancestors, connect with cousins and discuss issues in genealogy.

Another alternative would be to have multiple blogs - one for each family line plus a general general genealogy blog for discussion of news, issues, resources etc. This would benefit those readers who are only interested in hearing stories of one family line.

Another approach is to have a general blog and then other blogs for niche subjects. Prominent Australian bloggers who take this approach are Alona Tester and Pauleen Cass.

So what I am really thinking about today is recognising your audience and having a clear purpose for your blog/s.

Which approach do you take?

101 Reasons to Attend #congress_2018 - Lonetester

Lonetester, a young Australian geneablogger, who is co-sponsoring the ribbons for Geneabloggers with me, has a busy time ahead of her at Congress as she will be attending as an exhibitor.

Although the list of exhibitors has not yet been announced by the organisers Alona Tester aka Lonetester has said that she will be working there. Alona not only works in the genealogy field she is a passionate genie who busily chases ancestors in her free time. You can get to know Alona in this interview, http://hackgenealogy.com/alona-tester-hack-genealogy/, which is an oldie but a goodie.

Alona Tester at work

Meanwhile if you haven't read her blogs it's time you did. Lonetester is her main blog; I also love her Memorabilia House blog which has unique content.

You will have to visit the Unlock the Past/Gould Genealogy stand throughout Congress if you want to say G'day to this friendly Nextgen genie. 

The Ancestral Places Geneameme

Thanks to my genimate, Alona, for coming up with the The Ancestral Places Geneameme Challenge.

I'm late to the party but I've had a ball. It was so much fun that I might prepare one for Mr Geniaus'ancestors too.

I have enjoyed this exercise immensely as it has forced me to focus on my direct ancestors instead of engaging in Tangential Genealogy. It has made me realise that while it's a good idea to search laterally and apply the FAN Principle it is vitally important to fully research and document the lives of our direct ancestors. It's a while since I have concentrated on these lads and lasses.

Here comes a resolution - I am going to spend dedicated time over the next few months (in between travelling) looking at the records of each of my direct ancestors and adding to their stories.

Sometimes we need to have a focus - thanks again Alona for forcing me to focus.

A
Aberdeen, Scotland (Duncan)

B
Ballyfoyle, Tipperary, Ireland (Bowe, Kealy)
Bathurst, NSW, Australia (Hayward, Pusell, Tucker, Westbrook)
Brighton-le-sands, NSW, Australia (Curry)
Broadmeadow, Victoria, Australia (Duncan)
Burraga, NSW, Australia (Pusell, Tucker)
Burragorang, NSW, Australia (Curry)
Byrock, NSW, Australia (Duncan, Magick)

C 
Camden, NSW, Australia (Curry)
Canowindra, NSW Australia (Curry, Tierney)
Carcoar, NSW, Australia (Aspinall, Molloy)
Carrawa, NSW, Australia (Aspinall)
Cawdor, NSW, Australia (Curry)
Clare, Ireland (Moore)
Cobar, NSW, Australia (Duncan, Magick, Pusell)
Cobbity, NSW, Australia (Curry, Tucker)
Cobbora, NSW, Australia (Hayward, Magick)
Concord, NSW, Australia (Molloy)
Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia (Hayward, Sergeant)
Cowpastures, NSW, Australia (Curry)
Cowra, NSW, Australia (Curry)

D
Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia (Curry)Datchet, Buckinghamshire, England (Eyers, Tucker)
Denison Town, NSW, Australia (Magick)
Diamond Valley, NSW, Australia (Homer)
Down, Ireland (Maxwell)
Dungog, NSW, Australia (Kealy, Tierney)
Dunns Plains, NSW, Australia (Pusell)

E
Enniskillen, Fermanagh, Ireland (Cregan/Criggan)

G
Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland (Maxwell)
Glen Logan,, NSW, Australia (Curry)

H
Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia (Duncan)
Holborn, London, England (Fitchett)

I
Ireland (Gleeson, Harrington, McKeon, Wade)

K
Kensington, NSW, Australia (Curry, Duncan)
Kilbeggan, Westmeath, Ireland (Ryan)
Kildery, Kilkenny, Ireland (Kealy)
Kilkenny, Ireland (Bowe, Byrne, Connolly)
Kirkconnell, NSW, Australia (Pusell)

L
Liverpool, Lancashire, England (Pusell/Pusill)
Liverpool, NSW, Australia (Hayward)
London, England (Phipps, Westbrook)
Long Swamp, NSW, Australia (Aspinall)
Longbottom,NSW,Australia (Molloy)

M 
Maitland, NSW, Australia (Kealy)
Malabar, NSW, Australia, (Curry)
Mandurama, NSW, Australia (Molloy)
Marylebone, London, England (Phipps)
Meath, Ireland (Molloy)
Mooney Ponds, Victoria, Australia (Duncan)
Mountain Run, NSW, Australia (Aspinall)

N 
Narromine, NSW, Australia (Duncan)

O
Oxfordshire, England (Hayward)

P
Parramatta, NSW, Australia (Moore)
Penrith, NSW, Australia (Tucker)
Potts Point, NSW, Australia (curry)

R
Randwick, NSW, Australia, (Curry)
Richmond, NSW, Australia (Magick, Phipps, Westbrook)
Rockley, NSW, Australia (Homer)
Roscrea, Tipperary, Ireland (Tierney)

S 
Shoreditch, London, England (Harris, Phipps)
South Creek, NSW, Australia (Tucker)
Southwark, Surrey, England (Phipps)
Sussex, England (Homer)
Sydney, NSW, Australia (Molloy, Westbrook)

T
Templemore, Tipperary, Ireland (D'Arcy, Tierney)
Thompsons Creek, NSW, Australia (Pusell)
Tipperary, Ireland (Wade)
Trunkey, NSW, Australia (Pusell)

V
Victoria, Australia (Connolly, Molloy, Ryan)

W
Wahroonga, NSW, Australia (Curry)
Warrington, Lancashire, England (Pusell, Rothwell)
Wigan, Lancashire, England (Aspinal)
Williams River, NSW, Australia (Tierney)
Windsor, NSW, Australia (Phipps,Westbrook)
Wongajong, NSW, Australia (Curry)

Are you following @Congress_2018

I was surprised, when I looked at Twitter today to find that there are only five people (including Alona from @GouldGenealogy https://twitter.com/GouldGenealogyand me) following Tweets from the Congress organisers.

In case you had missed it the the Twitter hashtag for Congress 2018 (The 15th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry. 9 - 12 March 2018 http://www.congress2018.org.au/ ) is #congress_2018 and the Twitter handle is @congress_2018.

If you have a Twitter account how about showing your support for Congress?

When I Was Young Geneameme

From Alona at Lonetester HQ comes this Geneameme.

Alona Said: "So if you’d like to record a little of your own childhood history, feel free to take part in my “When I Was Young” geneameme."

---

I'm calling this the When I Was Younger Geneameme because, although I am quite old,  I still feel young.

1. Do you (or your parents) have any memorabilia from when you were a baby? (ie. baby book, lock of hair, first shoes etc.)
I have my Baby Book from the Truby King Clinic, the congratulatory cards and telegrams my parents received on my birth, my teddy bear, my gold golf bangle and a couple of dresses. There are a few photos of me around too.

The earliest photo of me. Dad wouldn't let Mum carry me in case she dropped me.

2. Do you know if you were named after anyone?
My mother ignored tradition and gave me a name that was fashionable at the time of my birth.

3. And do you know of any other names your parents might have named you?
The other name my parents considered was Julie. I have never really liked my name and regularly asked Mum if I could change to my second name.

4. What is your earliest memory?
A holiday to Adelaide and first aeroplane ride with my Mum when I was around three.

On holiday in Adelaide 

5.Did your parent/s (or older siblings) read, sing or tell stories to you? Do you remember any of these?
My Mum read to me and instilled me with a lifelong love of reading. We started visiting a subscription library at Kings Cross when I was very young. I still have some little fairy tale books from my childhood but I have never forgiven Mum for passing most of my books on to distant cousins.  I loved Milly-Molly-Mandy, Noddy and Big Ears and Enid Blyton

6. When you were young, do you remember what it was that you wanted to grow up to be?
A nurse. I started nursing when the training was done in hospital, I lasted about 15 months. Night shift did get in the way of my social life.

Nurse Jill

7. Did you have a favourite teacher at school?
No, some were kind, some were cruel and some were generous - especially The Sisters of Mercy who regularly gave me 6 cuts when I was in primary school. The Sisters of Charity when I was in secondary school were not into corporal punishment, they just banished me from class to to the library. No wonder I ended up being a librarian.

Sister Eugene (Charity) wasn't a bad old stick

8. How did you get to school? 
In primary school I walked but when we moved house I caught two or three buses depending on if I felt like a one mile walk in addition to two buses. Sometimes my Dad picked me up in the afternoon but I always had to get myself there in the morning.

9.What games did playtime involve?
Brandings, Chasings, Fly, Hide and Seek, Hopscotch, Hula Hoops, Queenie, Simon Says, Skipping,Tennis - if we could get one of the school courts, Yoyos.

10. Did you have a cubby house?
No.

11. What was something you remember from an early family holiday?
Sunburn and mosquito bites. Swimming and sand. Aunts, Uncles and cousins having fun together. Being carsick going to and fro.

Summer holidays with Mum and Aunties

12  What is a memory from one of your childhood birthdays or Christmas?
My friends in second class were impressed when I had a party in the restaurant at Sydney's Botanical Gardens.

A Birthday in the Botanical Gardens

13. What childhood injuries do you remember?
A chandelier light fitting fell on my head. My Mum wrapped my head in a towel, raced out into the street, haled a taxi and took me to St Vincent's Hospital to be stitched up.

14. What was your first pet?
Ethel the goldfish who lived for ages (I thik she may have been Ethel Mark 1,2,3, etc.) Nanna was always disappointed that I didn't name one of my dolls ater her so when I got the goldfish I named her Ethel for Nanna.

Ethel the Fish 1968

15. Did your grandparents, or older relatives tell you stories of “when I was young ..?”
Both of my Nannas told me stories, I spent quite a bit of time with them in school holidays as I had a Mum who went to work and that was unusual in those days. Oh, how I wished I would have paid more attention to my Nannas' stroies.

My Nannas - 1964

16. What was entertainment when you were young?
Family get togethers with singalongs. Movies. Board Games. Reading. Playing Poker and Rummy for money with my Nanna. We visited my paternal grandmother's home for lunch every Sunday until I left school then I was let off the hook.

17. Do you remember what it was it like when your family got a new fangled invention? (ie. telephone, TV, VCR, microwave, computer?)
I remember when we got a fridge. That meant we didn't have to buy ice-cream from the corner shop. Mum then started amking her own ice-cream that was very icy.
We didn't get a telephone until I was a teenager, prior to that I used to phone my friends on a Sunday when I visited my Nanna.
The VCR, Microwave and Computer didn't appear until I was an old married mother.

18. Did your family have a TV? Was it b&w or colour? And how many channels did you get?
I remember watching TV through the window of the electronics shop in Kings Cross. Dad found the Davis Cup fascinating and we stood there for ages watching it. We didn't get TV until I was around ten.  There were three channels in Sydney at the time.

19. Did your family move house when you were young? Do you remember it?
We moved from a flat in cosmopolitan Kings Cross to a house in the suburbs when I was about nine - that was quite a culture shock although it was nice to have my own pink and white bedroom.

Our flat building in Kings Cross

20. Was your family involved in any natural disasters happening during your childhood (ie.fire, flood, cyclone, earthquake etc)
I was the only natural disaster in my family.

21. Is there any particular music that when you hear it, sparks a childhood memory?
Alexander's Ragtime Band. My parents used to play this rousing tune to put me to sleep - there were no lullabies for Jill.
Traditional Irish songs and Catholic hymns that my grandmother used to sing to me.


22. What is something that an older family member taught you to do?
Nanna taught me to crochet and cross-stitch, Mum taught me to sew, Aunty Lil taught me to cook. I was remedial in all of these areas. Aunty Eileen took me to ballet and tap lessons each Saturday. In spite of Mum's best efforts Dad taught me some colourful language. Mum taught me to shop, she was a great teacher.

23. What are brands that you remember from when you were a kid?
Pears Soap, Lux Flakes, Reckitts Blue Bags, Cobbers and Freckles, Cahills Caramel Sauce, Shelley's soft drinks - Snowcap Champagne was a favourite.

24. Did you used to collect anything? (ie. rocks, shells, stickers … etc.)
Autographs, Stamps, Beatles memorabilia. Mum also threw all my Beatles scrapbooks out but I saved my Autograph Book.

25. Share your favourite childhood memory.
My childhood is one big happy memory.

Myrt's Mission Control Center

Like many of my readers I am a member of the DearMYRTLE Community on Google+ and a regular attendee (when the time is right) in her Google Hangouts on Air.

After the recent Rootstech Conference I was invited to an after party at Myrt's house just ouside Salt Lake City. Her gracious husband, Mr Myrt, took some of us on a tour of their house and showed  me Myrt's Study from which she broadcasts her regular hangouts.

I couldn't resist the opportunity to try out Myrt's recliner from which she often broadcasts.

GeniAus finds Myrt's recliner extremely comfortable

When my friend Alona aka Lonetester arrived at the party I showed her Myrt's study and encouraged her to try out Myrt's office chair.

I don't know how Alona felt but I felt just like Goldilocks, Myrt's chair was "just right".

Accentuate the Positive 2014 Geneameme

Let's do it again!

In 2012 and 2013 I invited other family historians to take part in an Accentuate the Positive Geneameme because I felt that a lot of my geneablogging friends were too hard on themselves. Quite often  they lament that haven't achieved as much as they set out to do or that they haven't blogged with the frequency they envisaged.

Yesterday I read a post from Alona Tester that mentioned those geneamemes and that prompted me to run it again. Thanks, Alona.

Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2014

I invite you to take part in this activity by responding to the following statements/questions in a blog post. Write as much or as little as you want or just answer a few questions.

Once you have done so please share your post's link in a comment on this post or to me via email to Jillballau@gmail.com. I will, in due course post a list of links to your contributions on this blog.

Remember to accentuate the positive 
Please delete the items that are not relevant to your situation.

1.  An elusive ancestor I found was

2.  A precious family photo I found was

3.  An ancestor's grave I found was

4.  An important vital record I found was

5.  A newly found family member shared

6.  A geneasurprise I received was

7.   My 2014 blog post that I was particularly proud of was

8.   My 2014 blog post that received a large number of hits or comments was

9.  A new piece of software I mastered was

10. A social media tool I enjoyed using for genealogy was

11. A genealogy conference/seminar/webinar from which I learnt something new was

12. I am proud of the presentation I gave at/to

13. A journal/magazine article I had published was

14. I taught a friend how to

15. A genealogy book that taught me something new was

16. A great repository/archive/library I visited was

17. A new genealogy/history book I enjoyed was

18. It was exciting to finally meet

19. A geneadventure I enjoyed was

20. Another positive I would like to share is

Aussies at Rootstech - Save the Date

When I was last at Rootstech in 2013 I organised a casual dinner for my genimates from downunder and anyone else who wanted to join us. As well as Aussies we had US Kiwi Roger Moffat and Lisa, Australian  Kiwi Michelle Patient, Audrey Collins from England and Marie Dougan from Scotland.

Alona Tester and Liz Pidgeon at the 2013 Dinner

My Aussie Genimates Alona Tester and Jenny Joyce have already indicated that they will be available on Tuesday 10 February, 2015 so I have set that as a date for a pre-Rootstech get together, for arrival no later than 7:00pm We shall return to The Californis Pizza Kitchen at The Gateway Center as it provides many menu options for an economical meal, is just a couple of stops from The Plaza, Radisson and other hotels on the free Trax tram and is not as crowded as the restuarants in the newer City Creek Center. I will warn CPK of our impending invasion.

Please let me know if you can join us and I'll keep you in the loop.

I'll blog further details closer to the time but please Save the Date

Alona, you make me feel like dancing...

...a Genealogy Happy Dance.

Early this week Alona Tester, one of a small band of young enthusiastic Australian geneabloggers, nominated me for a One Lovely Blog Award. Thank You Alona for selecting my blog; knowing that a fellow geneablogger appreciates my efforts provides great encouragement to keep on blogging.

As I want to encourage some of those bloggers I love to read but whose blogs for one reason or another (they may be very new) do not appear in the Must Read list with which I am connected I will nominate them. Their blog addresses are in my Inoreader RSS feed and I love it when they post. I hope that you will take a look at these blogs and add them to your RSS feeds.

===========================================

Here are the rules for the One Lovely Blog Award:
• Thank the person that nominated you and link back to that blog.

• Share seven things about yourself – see below.

• Nominate 15 bloggers you admire – also listed below (or as many as you can think of!).

• Contact your bloggers to let them know you’ve tagged them for the One Lovely Blog Award.

===========================================

Seven (Bloggy) Things About Me

• I have been blogging since 2003
• I chose the nickname GeniAus years ago because I was frightened of  revealing my true identity on the evil internet
• My profile picture drawn by a grandchild seven years ago was also chosen because I was frightened of revealing my true identity on the evil internet
• I have been geneablogging since 2008
• I have a few dormant and practice blogs
• After 11 years as a Blogger girl I am getting to know Wordpress
• I have a new blog, geneadictionary.wordpress.com, that I hope you will read.

Now for some nominations (Ten is enough for me)

Please don’t feel under any obligation to carry this forward; I am just using this opportunity share some blogs that I enjoy.

Eliot Ball (No relation)  North Sydney Family History Group

http://northsydneygenealogy.blogspot.com.au/

Janelle Collins  Janelle's Family Addiction http://janellestree.blogspot.com.au/
Shelley Crawford  Twigs of Yore  http://twigsofyore.blogspot.com.au/

Carmel Galvin Library Currants  http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com.au/

GSQ Tapping your Roots @GSQ  http://gsqld.blogspot.com.au/

Sandra Lees Random Meanderings  http://invokinglibitina.blogspot.com.au/

Jenny MacKay Caddy Scrapbook  http://caddyscrapbook.wordpress.com/

Lilian Magill  The President's Page  http://bankstownfamilyhistorygroupinc.blogspot.com.au/

Kevin Matthews Tracing our History  http://tracingourhistory.wordpress.com/

Sharon Muffett  Gathering Dust  http://missmuffett.blogspot.com.au/

Society for One Place Studies Blog  http://one-place-studies.org/blog/

So, I can't count - that was eleven.    E N J O Y !

Opening a can of worms or two?

I had a loooong chat with Alan Phillips from Unlock the Past this week, I was thrilled to hear that 230 people (genies and a few partners) have booked for the 4th Genealogy Cruise out of Australia in February - what a genealogy feast it will be. If you have been thinking about joining this cruise you had better do it now as there are very few cabins left.

I am excited that I will be presenting/moderating a new session on the voyage around the topic of ethics in genealogy. I am working on a set of questions/scenarios that I will open to discussion by a panel of experienced genealogists on the cruise. We will cover issues such as publishing sensitive information and how to decide what to include, the right of descendants to know the truth, borrowing other peoples photos and plagiarism and copyright.

Louis Kessler, Shauna Hicks, Alona Tester and Helen Smith in the Social Media Panel  I moderated on the 3rd UTP Cruise

Alona at Rootstech

One of the Australian contingent at Rootstech was young Australian geneablogger, Alona Tester, author of the Lonetester blog.

In this interview Alona told me how she came to blogging and about the three blogs she writes. I had a fun time interviewing Alona, one of the fresh young faces of geneablogging.

Aussies at Rootstech

I was thrilled to have company from home at Rootstech this year. Mr Geniaus and I finished our time at Rootstech tonight with a quiet dinner with Margaret and Geoff Doherty from Queensland .

Margaret is the President of the Genealogical Society of Queensland while Geoff has an interest in social history and interesting stories of quirky forbears.  Next stop for the Dohertys is Victoria on Vancouver Island in Canada where Geoff will present a talk at the local Genealogy Society. I was fortunate in being able to conduct a video interview with Margaret while at Rootstech that I will post to this blog in the coming days.

Of the dozen or so interviews I conducted at Rootstech I will tonight share below one recorded with Alan Phillips and Alona Tester from Unlock the Past  in which they talk about their companies, why they travelled to Rootstech and about the exciting program of geneacruising they have planned for the next three years.

Social Media Panel

I am so cranky with myself.

I didn't think to record the audio from the Social Media Panel I moderated on the 3rd Unlock the Past Genealogy Cruise so  I have no record (apart from my dottery memory) of the responses that were made to the questions I posed.

I couldn't have wished for better panelists than Shauna Hicks, Louis Kessler, Helen Smith and Alona Tester who shared their thoughts and opinions with the disappointingly small audience we had for this session. Because of the panelists' contributions and the differnet format this was one of the best sessions on the cruise program (IMHO). Quite a few who were there asked if can it be repeated in 2014.

L-R Louis, Shauna, Alona, Helen

In the meantime I have realised that the questions I posed would make a good little Geneameme so I will  get around to posting that soon and hope to hear how you would answer the questions.

Family History Through the Alphabet – Z is for … Zealots

zeal·ot/ˈzelət/

Noun:

A person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political, or other ideals.  Synonyms: fanatic - bigot - devotee   (Source Dictionary.com)

This is my final post in The Family History through the Alphabet Challenge proposed by Alona Tester of Gould Genealogy. 

I thank Alona for devising and curating this task that has produced a host of interesting and informative reading around the topic of family history mostly from Australian genealogists with the addition of some fantastic contributions from our friends over the seas.

By sharing our stories and data with the genealogy community we can educate, communicate and collaborate with others. The field of genealogy has been enriched by each contribution to this challenge. 

Congratulations to all who have participated in this challenge and added accolades to those who managed to submit 26 posts.

This post is dedicated to the challenge participants, a group of Genealogy Zealots, who are uncompromising in pursuit of your ancestors.

Family History through the Alphabet

Having passed the halfway mark in the Family History through the Alphabet Challenge that was set by Alona from Gould Genealogy I am having trouble remembering what I have written about in my posts.

As an aide-memoire as I continue with the challenge I am posting this set of links to my posts. As I progress towards Z I will continue to add further links.

Family History Through the Alphabet – A is for … Android

Family History Through the Alphabet – B is for …Billion Graves

Family History Through the Alphabet – C is for …it's a no brainer really (Computers)

Family History Through the Alphabet – D is…not for fingers and toes (Digitisation)

Family History Through the Alphabet – E is for …Evernote 

Family History Through the Alphabet – F is for …Greedy (Family Historian, Familysearch, Flip-Pal)

Family History Through the Alphabet – G is For …Shameless Self Promotion (Online Identity)

Family History Through the Alphabet – H is for …When all else fails (Help)

 Family History Through the Alphabet – I is for …where would we be without them? (ICT)

Family History Through the Alphabet – J is for …file types

Family History Through the Alphabet – K is for …reaching out (Kiva)

Family History Through the Alphabet – L is for …Straying (Tangential Genealogy)

Family History Through the Alphabet – M is for … You've got Mail (Email)

Family History through the Alphabet - N is for ... Browser (Browsers)

Family History through the Alphabet - O - is for ... Catalogues (Library OPACs) 

Family History Through the Alphabet – P is for … Images

Family History Through the Alphabet – Q is for … Query

Family History Through the Alphabet - R is for  ... Online (Reading that is)

Family History Through the Alphabet – S is for … Coincidence

Family History Through the Alphabet – T is for … Ten

Family History Through the Alphabet - ... U is for Universal

Family History Through the Alphabet – V is for …Vacation

Family History Through the Alphabet – W is for … Magic

Family History Through the Alphabet – X is for … keep it ...

Family History Through the Alphabet – Y is for …Y not?

Family History Through the Alphabet – Z is for … Zealots

Genealogy Cards for Congress

My New (Business) Genealogy Cards | lonetester genealogy news

From Alona Tester comes this great idea for Congress.

Congress provides an opportunity to meet new people - be prepared with cards to swap your contact details.