A Late Night Night or an Early Morning

In a recent post I shared my excitement about being chosen as a subject for a Wikitree Challenge. 

As the event, The 2024 WikiTree Challenge 11,  will be launched on zoom at 2am tomorrow (my time in Australia). My immediate issue is do I go to bed early and set an alarm for 1:30ish or do I try and stay awake? I'll see how my day pans out. 

Promo for the WikiTree Challenge

I'm now sitting in my geneacave dealing with a range of emotions:

* Gratitude for the invitation to have my family chosen as the focus of this project

* Delight to have a light shone on my band of ordinary ancestors and forebears that includes labourers, convicts, indigenous Australians, Irish immigrants, sportsmen and a pioneering priest.

* Appreciation for the Wikitreers who have signed up to work on my tree

* Apprehension as my sometimes dodgy research will be on show to a band of experienced genealogists

* Embarrassment that my Wikitree is not too deep or wide

* Pride that Australian Genealogy research is the focus of the eventt

* Excitement that the volunteers may learn a little about Australian History as they climb my tree

* Joy that my tree is receiving the love it deserves

* Suspense as I ponder on what the volunteers may dig up

Roll on 2am.

CareyBay2283

I know a time-poor genealogist who is easily drawn into undertaking new projects. Sounds like me!

It's ten years since I joined the Society for One-Place Studies (SOPS). This is a niche online society for those who have a passion for a particular place be it a road, a cemetery, a village or a town and wish to undertake a project that studies both the family and local history of their place/s. I have admired these researchers, some of whom study more than one place and feel One-Place Studies are a worthwhile exercise. Family and Local History go together like a horse and carriage.

It wasn't until I moved to Carey Bay seven years ago that I found my place. I cannot find any books, publications or websites dedicated to this small suburb on the shores of  Lake Macquarie, New South Wales. Carey Bay deserves to have a home for its where its history can be collated, hared and preserved.

While I have been gathering material on the past and present residents of Carey Bay since Covid times. I only recently sought out information about its environment and history. I now have quite a collection of newspaper clippings , photos and stories that I must put into order and share with the community. My project will also give me a place to share some of the hundreds of photos I have taken from our pad on the Lake.

I finally bit the bullet and registered a study in April this year. You can see its profile on the SOPS website here. There's no going back.

I hope that some of my GeniAus friends will pop over and pay a visit to my project at https://careybay2283.blogspot.com/. 

I will announce new posts on my social media platforms and, when I have published a reasonable chunk of information to the site I will share it on local platforms

Much needed help coming my way

This blog has taken a back seat while I was out of the country in May and June. As part of our holiday we took a five day BackRoads tour of the WW1 Battlefields. This was our second such tour but it was superior to the last one we took. With its focus on Australian involvement in the conflict it was a wonderful learning experience that gave us much insight to the bravery and sacrifices young people and their families back home.

Since arriving home I have been sorting our travel photos, working on my family history and one-place study and hosting and attending a few genealogy events.

I was thrilled to see a notification from Wikitree appear on Facebook this week about an event that will have a focus on my family. A few months age I was invited by the genies at Wikitree to be a participant in one of their 2024 Wikitree Challenges, I sat on this information until I saw the announcement. 

Announcement from Wikitree

I am a little apprehensive as my Wikitree has been suffering from a lack of nourishment. It is not my main tree and does not include all the distant cousins I have in that tree on my laptop. 

A kind Australian Wikitreer looked over my tree yesterday, made a few cosmetic changes and fixed a few references. I'm grateful for her arboreal efforts. I am extremely pleased to have been chosen for this challenge and look forward to seeing what the volunteers dig up. Meanwhile I will make sure I have included the recently deceased and a few extra aunts and uncles on my tree.

I think that I am the first Australian who has been a focus of this challenge so, as well as helping me find cousins, the volunteers on my case will have an opportunity to use Australian records and learn about genealogy downunder. 

Roll on July 25.