Three Aussie Genies on The Program

Together with my Genimates Shauna Hicks and Sharn White I will be taking to the stage at THE Genealogy Show - Winter Event next weekend. 

We are thrilled to be bringing an Australian perspective to this international event once again after the success of the last event held earlier this year in June.

We hope to see many of our Aussie friends at THE Show which also features a cast of speakers from the UK, Europe and The Americas. The event will open in the early hours on Friday 3rd December in the UK which I guestimate to be 11am Sydney time and runs continuously for 48 hours. You will then be able to access the recordings for a month after the event.

Earlybird registrations at £15 (less then $30AUD) close on the 30th November; closer to the show the cost is still reasonable at  £20. Similar events in Australia cost much more than this. Buy your tickets here: https://www.thegenealogyshowlive.com/plans/show-tickets/

Ball Bounty

Although Mr GeniAus (my husband Robert) is not particularly fond of research he loves making connections with distant cousins and sharing stories and photographs with them. He will and has travelled to the ends of the earth to meet up with them. We have travelled to Rochdale Lancs., the town of his Ball line on several occasions and visited local archives, churches, cemeteries and homes of the Balls. The British Newspaper Archive has recently enabled us to add to the Ball story.

In the early 1800s the Balls lived at Wolstenholme Fold near Rochdale

Way back, when DNA was the new research tool on the block Mr GeniAus took a Y-DNA test which hasn't really helped us make any connections. Then in 2015 we added an autosomal test from FTDNA followed by an Ancestry test. Through these we have identified several matches and connected with a few on his Ball line but to date haven't added to our knowledge of the family until this week. 

I recently received an Ancestry  message from Alli in the UK relating to three kits that I manage so I promptly messaged her back to confirm that the relationship she asked about was indeed correct. Alli who is Mr GeniAus' third cousin was as excited as Robert and I were to make this connection. It was easy to work out the connection because both Alli and Robert have trees attached to their DNA accounts.

Ancestry message from Alli

 

Alli kindly responded with a copy of a document recording notes on family members written by her grandmother whose grandparents James Ball and Betty Clegg are also Robert's 2xGreatGrandparents. 

James Ball and Betty Clegg's grave in Rochdale Cemetery 

The information in the document filled in many gaps for us and provided some clues for further research. The icing on the cake was being sent a copy of a photo of James Ball held by Alli's branch of the family. It was the first image we have ever seen of Robert's ancestor. 

I wrote to Alli "We have just sat and read through your grandmother's account. Even though I am not related to the Balls it brought tears to my eyes as I read James' story, having researched them for eons I am quite fond of them.

This is the best and most valuable geneasurprise I have had in years, thank you for taking a DNA test."

As we are visiting the UK in June 2022 we are making arrangements to meet up with Alli and her family. Alli has also agreed to upload her results to Gedmatch so I can examine her chromosome matches with Robert, James and Norma.

It's been an exciting geneaweek for two distant Ball families. Isn't DNA just grand!

Booked out

Over the past 12 months I've been busy cataloging books for my local family history group. As a former librarian I am rather disappointed at the way so many groups have their Library catalogues/holdings lists locked away at their premises or online in documents that do not give much information about the books. Being able to prepare for visits to societies by perusing an online catalogue is such a boon for researchers.

When I became President of the Lake Macquarie Family History Group I decided to follow the lead of other groups such as Cooroy-Noosa and Cairns in Queensland who used the Librarything application to manage and share the resources at their societies online. Recently I have seen a number of other similar Groups join Librarything. I have been using Librarything  as my personal reading log and catalogue for fifteen years so was confident that it was a worthy solution for this task.

This project has taken way longer than I thought it would because Covid has prevented me from accessing the books in our library at a local community hall. As we can once again return to our Group's home in the hall I took Mr GeniAus and his muscles along to our last opening and we filled several boxes of books for me to bring home and catalogue. Being able to read and discover new old titles as I work has been an unexpected but delightful reward.

I'm thrilled to say that we now have over 2,000 titles catalogued on our Group's Librarything account that gives our members and other interested community members access to our collection from wherever and whenever they are. The best thing about Librarything is that it has a facility to download professionally catalogued records from a huge range of international libraries so professional cataloguing skills are not needed to create a good catalogue. One only has to add some extra information, like a category, shelf location or number, to these records for them to be relevant to the local collection. 

Lake Macquarie FHG Profile at Librarything

I spent a couple of hours this morning putting these catalogued books back into order so that they will easily slot back on the library shelves and now I am pooped but oh, so proud that I can see the finish line for this project in sight.

Our dining/book sorting table

With the assistance of our Group's Librarian, Linda, I can see the finish line in sight. It's been a marathon run but I am such a proud old librarian.

2008-2021: Posts from the Past

Thirteen years ago on this day I wrote the following here" http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2008/11/why-add-yet-another-blog-to-crowded.html.

Why add yet another blog to the crowded blogosphere?

I thought I would like a place to share progress, reflections and resources as I solve my genealogical jigsaw so here goes - another blog is born.

I've been researching the family on and off for the last 20 years and, with retirement looming, hope to finally get organised and solve some of my mysteries.

____________________________________________________________________________
 

So here I am 13 years later reflecting on my life as a geneablogger. 

My original purpose to share progress, reflections and resources as I solve my genealogical jigsaw remains but my posts are fewer as I now use other platforms, currently Facebook and Twitter, to share short newsbites. Although I don't post so often I am committed to blogging as a means of recording family stories, reflections and opinions.

As my blog is preserved in The Australian Web Archive at Trove Australia I can indulge in a trip down memory lane and view posts from the past. Please join me as I meander down memory lane.

The header image is missing from this capture. If I remember correctly it included a photo of a family wedding.

From 2017 those lovely green notices have disappeared from the results of my Trove searches, maybe I worked some magic to make it disappear!

I also note that the header on my blog is the same one I still use - perhaps it is time for new branding. That's one of the advantages of blogging - it is a dynamic platform that one can adjust to reflect current times and trends.