GAGs - GeniAus' Gems - 4 March 2016

I've spent quite a deal of time at home recently trying to fight off a chest bug (a lasting souvenir of my trip to Salt Lake City). The doctor's orders to rest have created an opportunity for me to spend plenty of time sitting at my computer reading up on blog posts and doing a spot of research.

I am looking forward to presenting a webinar as part of the Your Family History Online event for The Society of Australian Genealogists tomorrow. My topic is "Blogging for Genealogy" (I hear there are still spots for members).

As is my practice each week I'll open my my GAGs folder in Evernote and select some Gems to share.

1. I wish my convict ancestors had been as skilled as Francis.
http://arc.parracity.nsw.gov.au/blog/2016/03/03/st-johns-parsonage-parramatta-1816-1909/

2. Lise writes to Senator Fifield
https://inthemailbox.wordpress.com/2016/02/26/an-open-letter-to-senator-fifield/

3. Tribute to a loved pet.
https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/farewell-ellie-mcpelly-belly-a-tribute-to-a-little-black-and-white-dog/

4. Alex's weekly series is so useful for Queenslanders.
http://familytreefrog.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/whats-on-friday-4th-march-thursday-10th.html

5. A cemetery excurison for Jen.
https://jfawcettblog.com/2016/02/28/lost-in-the-afterlife/

6. I share so many of Carmel's posts because she is awesome.
http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/trove-teetulpa-exhibition.html

7. Tina finds two people who were disinherited.
http://gransdenfamily.com/?p=289

8. You've got to have heart.
http://rootsbid.com/blog/6-ways-in-which-genealogists-have-a-servants-heart/

9. Having recently been to Durban I was interested to compare photos. BTW this is the only African geneablog I follow.
http://molegenealogy.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/durban-bluff-lighthouse-signal-station.html

10. James asks "What is genealogy?"
http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/what-is-genealogy.html

11. Bankstown president Lilian uses her President's page to connect with members.
http://bankstownfamilyhistorygroupinc.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/our-march-meeting.html

12. And I am on the move.
http://worldwidegenealogy.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/from-cave-to-chapel.html

A Real Gem
I need to mention GSV who do a fabulous job communicating with their members via their "next week at the GSV" series of posts. What a great service to members.
http://genealogyworld.blogspot.com.au/

New to Me Blogs
Brady Family Tree Blog (from Western Australia)  http://bradyfamilytree.org/genealogy/wp/
Discover Genealogy (from Wayne in Canada) http://discovergenealogy.blogspot.com

HAPPY BLOGGING

Bankstown to Bolivia

It took me an hour and forty minutes to navigate through Sydney's peak hour traffic to visit Bankstown Family History Group on Tuesday but it was worth the effort and the drive home was a little under an hour.

It's always interesting to visit a new group to meet the genies, see how they conduct their meetings and what they have on their program. The meeting was similar to most of those I have witnessed  and there was evidence of camaraderie among the members. I was made very welcome.

It was the first meeting in a smart new venue for the Group, it is commendable that Bankstown Sports Club are providing this facility to the Group. President Lilian has some photos of the venue and me in action on her President's Page blog.

Highlight of the night was the unveiling of the Group's new website, http://bankstownfamilyhistorygroup.org.au/. Congratulations to the member responsible for getting it published, I'm sorry I didn't catch her name.

I was there to talk about my experiences as a Rootstech Ambassador and Presenter, it was pleasing that after President, Lilian Magill (a first-timer at Rootstech) and I gave our presentations a few people around me said the event sounded tempting.

At the conclusion of the meeting I was presented with a thank you card containing some paper money. I did not expect payment, it was my pleasure to visit and share my experiences. As a result I have invested the money in my Kiva account and through the Genealogists for Families Group I have made a loan to an entrepreneur in a third world country.

If you would like to join me in making a loan on Kiva please follow this link.

From Cave to Chapel

This post first appeared on The worldwide Genealogy blog on 3 March 2016.
In one of my early posts on this blog I talked about W's, Who, What, When, Where and Why.

Today I am returning to Where, but not the where of my ancestors, it's the where of the place where I do most of researching and connecting, I call it my Geneacave. My issue is that I need a new name for my hideout.

We are empty nesters so I have a few choices for an office. For several years I used the small fourth bedroom but, after a while I found myself drowning in a sea of paper, files and techno toys so Mr GeniAus suggested that I move into bedroom 3 which is slightly larger. Bedroom 3, however, while it had more space only had a small window and didn't have much natural light (no good for webinars and hangouts). I worked happily there for a few years.



2013 - the move to Bedroom 3


Paddy the Pup was happy in Bedroom 3

Late last year, as we were getting rid of the paraphernalia that comes with small grandchildren I thought about the living room off the kitchen which we had dubbed the toyroom. It's a big room with two large windows and natural light, it's away from the bedroom zone and near the living end of the house, the router, kitchen and over a hall from Mr GeniAus' study and an external door. I made an executive decision that I would move on to there.


Mr GeniAus Painted the new digs while I was at Rootstech

I am loving my new accommodation although it's taking me a while to move and sort my gear. I have set Easter, when the family visits, as the time I will be done. Paddy the pup who used to sit in a bookself in the last Geneacave has happily found a nice spot at my feet under the desk.

My problem is that the term Geneacave. just does not fit. I am wondering what I should call my light and airy new digs.


Moving in


Moving in

What is your Where? A Geneacave or a Geneacorner or a Research Zone???

I may call my new room the Chapel because Genealogy is my religion!

Trove Tuesday - Welcome Back Trove

After a couple of days offline our national treasure, Trove, is back on line with some beaut new features, an updated look in the newspaper area and one major new resource that has yielded quite a few snippets of information on family members.

Covering the period from 1832-2000 the New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900) and Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 2001)  provide full text of :

• Government Gazette Notices
• Government Gazette Private Notices
• Government Gazette Proclamations And Legislation
• Government Gazette Appointments And Employment 
• Government Gazette Tenders And Contracts 
• Government Gazette Index And Contents
• Government Gazette Budgetary Papers Government Gazette 
• Freedom Of Information
• and probably some other cateories I have missed.

I carried out some preliminary searches to see what I could turn up for family members although I cannot find any results prior to 1880 (must check further to see what the actual coverage is).

Firstly I searched for Pusell  a family name and I came up with 12 hits, one of which was very promising while the others added snippets of information to build out the profiles of family members. The James Pusell mentioned in the following is my great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather. I need to chase up the probate file to see what I can find.

1885 'In the Supreme Court of New South Wales. ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION.', New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900), 30 October, p. 7077. , viewed 29 Feb 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219880784

My next search was for Tierney, another family name, with Dungog (the town). I got 78 hits which I was able to narrow down to the time my ancestors were living in Dungog. I looked at these decade by decade and found a couple of things to add to my great-great-grandfather's  story. I need to play around more with searches for this branch of the family.

I did a simple search for the word Curry, the surname which is the subject of my surname study. I will need to narrow down the 1,903 hits I got for this term and slowly work through the results.  The first page of hits promises to be most useful:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/gazette/result?q=curry&l-state=New+South+Wales (accessed 29 February 2016)

There is an over abundance of Treasure for me on Trove and quite a bit of text to correct!