Pages

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Trove Tuesday - Keep your Head Down

Last night I was Troveing away when I came across a lengthy report on Mr GeniAus' grandparents' wedding. I noted that Harriet Parkinson was given away by her brother Mr R. Parkinson. That's a bit funny I thought, I knew there was a brother George in Australia but I thought Robert was with the rest of the family in England.

I hopped over to Ancestry and in a public tree I found mention of Robert's marriage, checking this out on the NSW Registry site I confirmed that as well as the birth of a son to Robert and his wife (other facts! in the Ancestry tree were inaccurate). Back to Trove I went where I found several articles about Robert and family, these articles were peppered with other names from my tree and confirmed that I was on track. I think that Robert, Annie and their family may have gone back to live in England but I need to follow that up.

I had a field day on Trove and have gathered a swag of clippings that I must extract details from and add to my database. In the meantime I am sharing this one clipping that appeared in quite a few Australian newspapers.  It refers to yet another Parkinson sibling Harry.

1916 'I'VE GOT A WIFE IN ENGLAND".', Sunday Times(Sydney, NSW : 1895 - 1930), 23 January, p. 6, viewed 29 September, 2014, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121338775
I wonder what our chances are of finding some Parkinson cousins on our next trip to The Old Country?

Monday, September 29, 2014

Contact Forms - Am I missing something here?

Reading through my RSS feeds this morning I came across a blogger (by following a link form someone else's blog) that I wanted to contact so I went to her/his contact page to find her/his email address but there wasn't one there. There was one of those contact forms.


Blog Contact Form

I didn't fill this in:

1. Because I didn't know who the blogger was, the about me page didn't give a name .

2.  I didn't know what would happen to my message once I submitted it.

Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

Does one get a notification back to one's email address when one submits the form?

Does one have to take a screenshot of the message so one has a record?

I would prefer to contact someone by email so because it is easier for me to keep a record of any conversation that may ensue.

What do my blogging mates think?

Sunday, September 28, 2014

One Lovely Blog Award

I have watched the One Lovely Blog Award doing the rounds over the past few weeks and have seen it travel from Australia to the US and now like the boomerang it has arrived back on my doorstep downunder.

This third nomination that I have received is very sweet because it comes from across the seas from someone that I didn't know was a reader of my blog. Thanks to Beverly McGowan Norman who blogs at Roots, Branches and a Few Nuts for this nomination. I really appreciate your nomination and am flattered to be in such esteemed company.

Here are Beverly's nominations - some geneastars I am familiar with and  some new to me bloggers are on the list.

  1. Geneabloggers by Thomas MacEntee
  2. Opening Doors in Brick Walls by Cathy Meder-Dempsey
  3. One of my favorite food blogs, Plain Chicken by Stephanie Parker
  4. Maybe Someone Should Write That Down by Kassie Ritman
  5. Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog by Jana Last
  6. The Legal Genealogist by Judy Russell
  7. No Story Too Small by Amy Johnson Crow
  8. Genealogy Circle by Cindy Freed
  9. Conference Keeper and Ancestral Breezes by Jen Baldwin
  10. Strange Alabama by Beverly Crider
  11. GeneaDictionary by Jill Ball 
  12. Branching Out Through the Years by Fran Ellsworth
  13. Parallax View by Tony Proctor
  14. Dispatches from the LP-OP by Lee Peacock
  15. A Southern Sleuth by Michelle Ganus Taggart
  16. (bonus) Worldwide Genealogy by a collaboration of authors

Here are the rules for this award: 
  1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to that blog 
  2. Share Seven things about yourself 
  3. Nominate 15 bloggers you admire (or as many as you can think of!) 
  4. Contact your bloggers to let them know that you’ve tagged them for the One Lovely Blog Award
Now as I have already been nominated and have shared the award I am going to direct you back to that post.



11 Tickets Left

I just checked the calendar of the Hills Shire Library Service to see how bookings are going for my talk there on 8 October and note that there are 11 tickets left. I'd love to see some of my geniemates at this event so if you're within cooee of  Baulkham Hills on that day I'd love to see you.

Full details and booking instructions (it is a free ticketed event) can be found here on the Library website.


Today I am plan work on updating my talk, I will try not to get distracted by things that come through on Social Media.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Advice for a Schoolfriend

Two days ago I received a text message from a very dear schoolfriend who has been dabbling in family history for quite a few years. Now that she has joined the retiree ranks she will have more time to get into research.

Her text message said: " Can u recommend a prog for family tree stuff so I can digitize all the records, certificates, letters etc that I have. I have so many unwieldy folders."

Rather than only write back to her I will offer some thoughts here on my blog and send her the link. What I say may not be relevant to all but parts of it may be useful to more than just my friend.

Friend and GeniAus 1961
Dear Schoolfriend,

So pleased that you want to get all your family history stuff organised, your kids may not be interested now but when they are old and gray like us they may become interested in their backgrounds. I think there are a few things you need to do.

Firstly you need to get a genealogy management software program into which you can record all the names, dates and details that you will find on all those documents you have. Secondly you need to organise all your digital and hardcopy files.

1. The software I use is Family Historian, an English product. You can download a trial version and use it for a month before you need to part with any cash. The benefits are:

* If you need help I am at the end of the phone,
* It manages multimedia well,
* It is an English product and your ancesstors come from that neck of the woods,
* It is eminently customisable but you can use it out of the (virtual) box,
* There is great support from the user group,
* You are one smart cookie so you will have no trouble using it,
* It uses native gedcom. don't worry about what this is, but it means that your data will transfer smoothly to another platform/program in years to come.

There are many software packages on the market and they will all do the job to a greater or lesser degree. If you don't want to spend any $$$ at the moment I would suggest you use the free pruned down version of Rootsmagic, Rootsmagic Essentials, it is available as a download. Quite a few of my friends use the fullblown version. I have installed the free one on my computer so I can help people at the Society and it does a good job of managing one's data, I can probably give some assistance with this too. Once you really catch the genealogy bug you will probably want more bells and whistles in your software. From either of these you can import your data into an app on your iPad and take it around with you.

You can print all sorts of reports and trees from your software package (not so many from a freebie one), having stuff organised into a database in your software package also helps you see where there are gaps in your information.

One thing to note is that you can store all of your documents in your genealogy program or you can store them elsewhere on your computer. I keep mine on my hard drive, I can explain why down the track.

2. With your documents it's a case of what comes first the chicken or the egg? Do whatever you feel comfortable with but you should aim to:
* Record all the information from them into your software program and make sure you add source information as you go even if your source is a person or an email (I learnt my lesson the hard way and have quite a few unsubstantiated assertions in my database). You must record where you found the information or you will have a fairytale on your hands.
* Start with yourself and husband then go on and add the descendants and ancestors.
* Scan all of your documents, toss out the more ephemeral things, keep the important certificates and original documents and store them away safely.
* Organise all your documents into a logical order, it doesn't matter how you do it but you must be consistent. It is a good idea to replicate the filing method you have for your hardcopy documents in your digital files.
* FYI I have a set of Family History folders on my hard drive, in Family History - People I have one subfolder for each surname I am researching. Where there are people with lots of documents I make personal subfolders within each surname folder. You can throw all sorts of files in together: sound, images, docs, pdfs, videos. Some people keep Paternal and Maternal lines in separate folders, others file by document type putting all Birth certs together, all newspaper clippings together etc. Others do it differently.
* I also have a folder for Family History - Places where I put stuff about various ancestral towns, I have a subfolder there for each town. I may put maps, photos, news articles, cemetery info into these folders.
* I also have a Family History - Sorting folder where I park newly digitised stuff  from which I need to extract data prior to filing. You could actually start by putting everything in something like this and move each file to an appropriate folder once you have dealt with it.
* My hardcopy files are organised by Surname and Forename just like my digital stuff and then chronogically so Birth comes before Baptism and Death before Burial.
* It is important to have some sort of file naming convention that you use consistently. For people I use Surname, Forenames dates and some sort of description eg Duncan, Francis 1900-1963 Birth Certificate or Curry, Thomas William 1877-1954 Obituary SMH 19540832.
* Once you've organised all that you have you will need to have a Research Log to keep track of what you need to do next and what you have done already. Family Historian can deal with this or you may consider Evernote that we talked about the other day or you could use a spreadsheet.

The most important thing to do is to make a start. I hope I haven't frightened you off.

Love, Jill

GeniAus and Friend 1970

Friday, September 26, 2014

A Bargain for you

Here is a screenshot of an offer that just came into my email box. If you don't have access to The British Newspaper Archive then this is something worth following up.


GAGs - GeniAus' Gems - 26 September 2014

GAGs
Posted for your perusal is my first collection of GAGs or GeniAus' Gems.

1. http://fightingthekaiser.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/another-nurse-at-glenroy-military.html
A short story about a World War 1 nurse in which the blogger Cheryl reminds us that "history is a dynamic thing".


2. http://heritagegenealogy.com.au/blog-3/
Still on the World War 1 theme I selected this post from Carole Riley because, as well as telling a story, it demonstrates the wealth of material that can be found in Australian World War 1 service files.

3. http://www.memorabiliahouse.com/2014/09/the-holiday-to-do-list/ 
From Alona Tester is an image of a note she wrote as a child. We Mums must remember not to toss out treasures.

4. http://lostmedalsaustralia.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/launcelot-owen-mc.html
From Glyn, a beaut story, some determined research and great example of how persistance pays off.

5. http://manlylocalstudies.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/manly-ferry-tokens.html
I took a ride on the Manly Ferry this week so was interested to read about this early version of an Opal Card.

6. http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/leveraging-libraries.html
Carmel sheds light on a resource that I had not thought to use for Genealogy research.

7. http://slwa.wordpress.com/2014/09/18/early-perth-photograph-album-digitised/
Congratulations to The State Library of Western Australia on this new Digitisation project.

8. http://blogs.hht.net.au/cook/fowl-play/
The Cook and the Curator is one of my favourite history blogs. This post resonated as I have on occasion had backyard chooks.

9. http://www.labnol.org/software/quick-access-android-apps/28670/
A post from India for Android users.

10. http://www.thearmchairgenealogist.com/2014/09/expanding-your-genealogy-comfort-zone.html
A challenge from Canadian Lynn Palermo

That looks like a reasonable batch for my first post. I'll be saving any new GAGs I find into Evernote and will endeavour to share them next week.

Introducing my GAGs - GeniAus' Gems - a trial

Today I am having a stay at home, catchup on blog and social media sort of day. As well as writing and scheduling posts I read lots of fab posts in my RSS reader.

I got to thinking how I enjoy reading Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs posts at http://www.geneamusings.com/, Jana Last's Follow Friday - Fab Finds posts at janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com and other such compilations. I get an even bigger buzz (and a spike in my stats) when one of my posts or one from a fellow Australian turns up in such a list.

While Gould Genealogy post a list Inspiring Genealogy Blogs on an ad hoc basis I am not aware of a list that has a bias towards posts and links with an Australian flavour.  I have been flooding social media today with links to things that I have found interesting, educative or amusing and thought it would be a good idea to share them with my readership so will trial publishing a list of reading suggestions provisionally titled GAGs or GeniAus' Gems.


When I collate the list of 50 Blogs You should Read for Inside History Magazine I take pains to be as objective as I can. GAGs or GeniAus' Gems will be different, the choice will depend on factors such as how I feel on a particular day and will be influenced by my personal taste and interests. I will not exclude links from above the equator but will have a definite bias towards things written about or by Australians and our Kiwi Cousins. The items will not be restricted to those from the geneasphere.

I cannot promise to post once a week on a particular day but I will probably lean towards Friday as that ties in nicely with Follow Friday on social media. I will try to let people know of their inclusion on my lists but, if I find it difficult to connect with them I won't. I will probably keep the list to ten or so items but this will also depend on the material I find.

Hopefully the GAGs or GeniAus' Gems will lead you to some new reading.

Watch out for the maiden post.

Interesting Libraries

In a recent post on Facebook Shauna Hicks indicated that she had joined Librarything and was having fun entering her books.

I have previously blogged about Librarything, those posts are here, here, here and here. I am always excited when one of my genimates shares my excitement for this product which is a super tool for managing one's personal libraries, books and reading.

Librarything is not just for individuals it can be used to record, catalogue and share the holdings of society and institutional libraries. Some Australian and NZ ones that I have found are:

ANZAC Room Library - RSL Tweed Heads - Coolangatta Sub-Branch  http://www.librarything.com/profile/ANZAC_ROOM_TT

The Bishopdale Branch of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists
http://www.librarything.com/profile/bishopdalenzsg

Cairns & District Family History Society
http://www.librarything.com/profile/cdfhs


Cairns & District Family History Society on Librarything

Cairns and Far North Environment Centre
http://www.librarything.com/profile/CAFNEC

Lake Macquarie & District Historical Society
http://www.librarything.com/profile/lmdhs

Museum of Chinese Australian History Research Library
http://www.librarything.com/profile/MCAH

Stockton Historical Society
http://www.librarything.com/profile/stocktonhistsoc

Tamborine Mountain Family History Group
http://www.librarything.com/profile/TMFHG

Why don't you hop over and explore Librarything. You can visit the links above or visit my account here while Shauna's very new one is here

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Australian Genealogists Daily

Several years ago (I can't remember when) I set up a Paper.li Paper "The Australian Genealogists Daily. I was reminded of the usefulness of this little experiment by Shuana Hicks in her blog post this week.

What is Paper.li ? Their website states "Paper.li is a content curation service. It enables people to publish newspapers based on topics they like and treat their readers to fresh news, daily. We believe that people (and not machines) are the ones qualified to curate the content that matters most."

How do I manage the Paper? I set up an "Australian Genealogists list" on my Twitter account and then went over to Paper.li and chose "Create Paper" from their menu, I followed their instructions and from the options selected "a twitter name or list" from the options displayed in  "Choose your paper’s content", I used my "Australian Genealogists list".  "The Australian Genealogists Daily". was born. Apart from adding new people to the list I do nothing, it is an automated service.

Where does the content come from? It is randomly selected by Paper.li from the tweets of the 89 people and organisations on my list. If you take a look at the list you will notice that there are no commercial organisations there, it is composed mostly of Australians individuals (including expats) or societies who identify as having an interest in family history. As I find someone new I add them to the list. I need your help to let me know of any person or society I may have missed and I will add them.

How do you get the Paper? Both Shauna Hicks and I have a daily automated tweet that lets one know when the paper is delivered or you can subscribe to updates by email here: https://paper.li/geniaus/australian-genealogists.

Front page of today'sedition
If you want to keep abreast of genealogy news downunder then "The Australian Genealogists Daily is a good place to start.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Trove Tuesday - Windsor visits

I visit Windsor, home to some of my convict ancestors,  each month (when I am around) for the meeting of the Hawkesbury Family History Group so I was interested to find on Trove a report of a visit to Windsor in September 1947 by members of another society of which I am a member, The Society of Australian Genealogists.

1947 'Genealogists Visit Windsor.', Windsor and Richmond Gazette (NSW : 1888 - 1954), 24 September, p. 11, viewed 1 September, 2014, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85787233

Monday, September 22, 2014

Disappointed with this tome

A couple of months ago I went to a talk by William Cox's descendant, Anne-Maree Harriet Cox Whitaker at Hawkesbury Family History Group. I quite enjoyed her talk (see my report) and lined up afterwards to purchase her book William Cox and Cox's  Road; a bicentenary souvenir as I was keen to learn more about the road and the story of its construction.

I believe that my convict ancestors, James Westbrook amd William Magick had earned their freedom in 1818 as a result of the work they did making bricks for the road.


I read the book when I got home and have had it sitting on my desk for six weeks as I ponder what to write about it. It was attractively presented, well laid out, competently written, had some pertinent images and was well sourced. Although there is nothing wrong with the book I felt disappointed after reading it. Why?

* From the title I thought there would be more emphasis on the building of the road and I was hoping to discover new information about the road and its construction.

* About 59 pages are devoted to Cox and his family, I didn't realise that this was a major focus of the work but should have realised as in the title the words  William Cox are in bigger font than And Cox's Road.

* The author recognises in the short four page chapter on "Cox's Road Party" that not all the names of those who worked on the road are recorded. I wonder what research was carried out to identify others. I would like to have seen a bit more information on the other members of the Road Party but this book's focus was definitely just Cox.

* 34 pages of the book are devoted to a reprint of the Journal Cox kept during the road's construction. This together with Governor Macquarie's instructions to Cox (also reprinted in the book) is freely available here through Project Gutenberg. I was annoyed that I had purchased a book told me no more about the building of Cox's Road than what I can find freely available on the internet.

Do go ahead and  purchase this book, it is a good souvenir. My disappointment is personal,  I had great expectations that just weren't realised.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

No photo

My Great-Grandfather, Francis Duncan, who died 93 years ago today is a bit of a mystery man to me.

The only photo I have relating to him is one of his headstone in Cobar Cemetery.

Frank Duncan and Harriet Magick are buried in Cobar Cemetery
When I started writing this post an hour ago I decided to see if I could find any new information on Francis who had been born in Victoria and who died in Cobar. As he never "married" his wife, Harriet Holmes (nee Magick), I don't know when or where he met her and as the births of his children weren't registered I cannot confirm their birth places and discover where frank and Harriet were living at that time. I have visited the Museum in Cobar but they have no information on Frank.

Where did I turn? Trove of course. In a short time I have placed Francis in Cobar from 1900, discovered that he was a carpenter, lived in Prince Street, leased land and ran sheep on it, did contract work for the local council and that his estate was probated (I hadn't found this at State Records - time for more investigation there). Two In Memoriam notices confirm the names of some of his grandchildren.

This post did not go where I expected it to go thanks to Trove., I am excited and on the hunt. The source of my joy today is The Cobar Herald (NSW : 1899 - 1914 that must have been recently added to Trove. I must away aand thoroughly read the articles I have found and conjure up a few more search strings to test out The Cobar Herald.

Maybe one day I'll find a photo of Francis and Harriet.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Signed up for Two Courses

I moved my family tree data over to Family Historian nearly two years ago now but I still class myself as a beginner with this versatile software package.

I learnt a lot from Family Historian expert, Jane Taubman, on the Unlock the Past Genealogy cruise in February when she presented a series of lectures on the package. Jane indicated that several times a year she conducted full day courses for Family Historian users at Dillington House in Ilminster, Somerset in the UK. When I expressed an interest in these courses Jane asked when I would be in the UK and said she would try to schedule some courses when I would be there. She was as good as her word.

Tonight I have signed up for two full day courses in November. Hopefully by the time I return to Australia I will be an intermediate user of the Family Historian software.

These are the courses I will be taking
You can read all about the courses here: http://courses.rjt.org.uk/wp/category/family-historian-courses/.

Rootstech Checklist

It's five months until I return home from Rootstech 2015 so in thinking about my preparations for the big event I am compiling a checklist. I have travelled to Salt Lake City several times so I have a fair idea of what I need to do.


GeniAus Checklist

International return flight Australia - LAX - Booked

Domestic return flight LAX - SLC Need to get on to this. There are no reward/points flights available do I need to purchase this one. Thinking I will fly South-West asthey will let me have two suitcases.

Airport transfers in SLC - Shuttles/taxia can be organised at airport in SLC

Hotel Accommodation - Booked (early to ensure I get a convenient hotel).

Conference Registration - Done

Passport - Valid

ESTA (Visa) - Need a new one

Create a Google+ circle with names of others attending - Set up

Find out names of Aussies who are travelling to Rootstech - Only know 6 so far HELP Needed

Set a date for a casual pre-conference dinner with Aussies and friends - Tuesday 10 February

Aussie pins/stickers/badges to hand out -  a task for 2015

GeniAus Business Cards to hand out - watch out for specials on Vistaprint

GeniAus HOA Cards to hand out - watch out for specials on Vistaprint

Start gathering up my Geneabling to wear at the event and put it all in one place

Geneabling
Compile list of Familysearch films to check in Family History Library - In progress in my Family Historian Database

Check Familysearch site for pre-conference talks in the Family History Library - Too early for this yet

Compile a packing list - a task for 2015

Get started on writing the syllabus for my presentation - Do it now!

What preparations are you making?

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Just what is Kiva?

You may have noticed the Kiva page on the menu bar of this blog and wondered about it. It is hard to explain what Kiva does in just a few words, this  new video from Kiva gives a clear explanation of the project.



Together with a few hundred genealogists from around the world I am a member of The Genealogists for Families team on Kiva, We loan because...we care about families (past, present and future).

For the cost of half a dozen cups of coffee you can make your first Kiva loan.

Your invitation to join our team is here

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Not a Green Leaf in Sight

Just a few weeks ago I wrote about all the shaky green leaf hints that I had for my Ancestry private tree. Once I cleared these hints I deleted that tree that was waaaaay out of date and uploaded a new one.

Now I have a leafless tree. Every few days I go into Ancestry in case there is a little green leaf waving at me but in the three weeks since I planted that new tree on Ancestry it has remained leafless. It is spring down here in Australia and all the deciduous trees are sprouting new growth. I hope my Ancestry tree follows suit.

Why isn't my Ancestry tree leafy like the trees in my garden?

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Unbreakable

As you may have previously read Mr GeniAus and I are in the process of decrapifying our home. After nearly 45 years of marriage and with few moves we have acculumated a lot of stuff. 

As I was packing our green and white kitchen dinnerware into a box today my mind wandered back to its aquisition. Quite a number of years ago my Aunty Kath, my mother and mother-in-law were  decrapifying so they passed on their collection of Grindley Hotelware to us. As this stuff is virtually indestructible we still have 36 dinner plates (3 sizes), coupes, bread and butter plates and cups and saucers in the set. I never use my other everyday plates, my fun chicken dinnersets or my four posh sets. 

Family members all had sets of this crockery because my Uncle Jack imported and sold the  Grindley Hotelware through his hotel supplies firm so they got it at a good price.

As I was packing the stuff into boxes this morning I pondered on the thirty odd years of good service the plates have given us and the many family celebrations that they have witnessed, I guess they could tell some tales. In a way I am sorry to see those plates go because of the memories they dredge up and I know that their pristine white replacements will not survive as well in my kitchen and dishwasher. 


I am pleased to report that the plates are moving on to another family home where I know they will give many more years of faithful service.

Friday, September 12, 2014

People Places Stories

Our state family history conference commenced today and is on over the weekend but I am not there. I had a more important appointment with two of my Grandsons at Grandparents' day at their school this morning.
With the boys at school today

We had a fantastic concert from the boys and then we were invited to the classrooms to see their work before we had a picnic lunch with them.

When I checked out one of the classrooms I was reminded of my last visit to the school. I was thrilled to find a report of that visit on a notice board, I could hardly contain my excitement as it brought back memories of a happy hour I spent with the Year 1 classes in April this year.

Report on school notice board
 In our state of New South Wales the children study family history in Year 1 and again in Year 6. I was privileged to be able to tell the boys about genealogy and family history.

I dug into the family photo archives (my son came along to watch and take pictures) for some more memories of the day, see them below.


Family History is about People Places Stories



Baby brother wasn't too impressed with my talk
Should you get a chance to get into a classroom and share your passion for family history then I suggest you grab the opportunity.









Thursday, September 11, 2014

Likeing Wordpress

Although I have had some Wordpress blogs for a few years I had not seriously strayed into Wordpress territory until I set up the Geneadictionary last month.

While it takes a while to get used to a new interface I am becoming more comfortable with Wordpress. I have banged on quite a bit about Blogging being a two-way street ie not just a publishing medium but a means of communication between two or more people; I like the way that Wordpress facilitates that communication with its Like button that appears at the bottom of each Wordpress blog post.

Wordpress Like Button

In Blogger we can give a quick Google +1 to a post we like but I don't get notified of any +1s my blog receives. Do you? So unless we go back to each post we have written we cannot see if anyone has quickly communicated that they have read/liked our posts.

I much prefer the Like button on Wordpress because when someone likes one of my posts I get a notification,  You can turn this off if you are overwhelmed with Likes but in my case I get so few Likes so it is great to get that positive reinforcement

Next time you read and like a Wordpress blog  remember to let the blogger know by pressing that little blue star.

This Blogger is Liked a lot.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Aussies Rock

Reading Rocks and so does Genealogy
There is a healthy number of nominations for Australian Genealogists in the third annual Rockstar Genealogist Award organised by Canadian genealogist John D Reid

There is no way that we can bump the Americans off the top ten list but we should still cast votes for our fave Aussie and International stars. John will be publishing an Australian awwards list as he did last year

To cast your vote (it ionly takes a minute or two) this year (you need to do it this week) go to:
 http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/rockstar-genealogists-2014-voting-now.html

I'd be thrilled if I got a few votes again this year.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Today is International Literacy Day

You can read all about  International Literacy Day on the UNESCO website.

Those of us who are involved in family history research possess reasonable levels of literacy that enable us to hunt down our ancestors. There are many people who because they do not have our levels of literacy would never be able to get involved in genealogy.

The theme for  International Literacy Day is Literacy and Sustainable Development. 

The website explains "Literacy is one of the key elements needed to promote sustainable development, as it empowers people so that they can make the right decisions in the areas of economic growth, social development and environmental integration. Literacy is a basis for lifelong learning and plays a crucial foundational role in the creation of sustainable, prosperous and peaceful societies"

Reading this made me think how I, as a genealogist, could help on this day. The answer came to me within seconds, as a member of the Genealogists for Families Group I could make a Kiva Loan to a person in a third world country that might go towards helping them improve their literacy.

I logged into Kiva, topped up my funds to $US25 so I had enough for a new loan and sought out an appropriate person. I am hoping my new loan will help Lileth in Beirut"who left her hometown in an attempt to improve the poor living conditions of her family there and to provide her daughter with a better life and education. She requested a loan, which she will use to pay for her daughter’s increasing school tuition fees." 

How are you marking International Literacy Day? 

You could join me on Kiva and make a loan. Together we can make a difference.


Sunday, September 7, 2014

Basking in the Glory

On Friday in my post "Alona, you make me feel like dancing" I accepted  Alona Tester's nomination for a One Lovely Blog Award and nominated some other bloggers for the award.

Well, blow me down, today I find that I have another reason to dance. Queensland geneablogger, Alex Daw in a post on  the Family Tree Frog blog today nominated me for this award. In part Alex said "Yes, she's been nominated already but I can't not nominate her. But don't worry Jill you don't have to do this exercise all over again - just bask in the glory."

Thank you, Alex, for the nomination, I am humbled by your kind and generous words. Reading your seven things about yourself I find that quite a few apply to me - kindred souls?

Now I am off to aquaint my self with some of the blogs nominated by Alex, it's an interesting collection that is worth perusal.


Father's Day

Today we celebrate Father's Day in Australia and my thoughts turn to my Dad, Allan John Curry.


This photo shows how protective my Dad was of me. When they took me on their regular outings to visit my grandmother my Mum had to carry the bag while Dad carried their precious little bundle.

Dad demonstrated this level of care to me right throughout his life.

Friday, September 5, 2014

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
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 !