Back in the saddle

All set for a whitewater rafting expedition in Mexico

After a wonderful eight weeks travelling around Bermuda, The Bahamas, North and Central America with a transit of the Panama Canal thrown in I have come down to earth (there are a few reports of this on the jillballau blog). The bags are unpacked, the clothes have been washed and put away and I have settled back into my domestic routine.
Bahamas

Although it was mostly a holiday I had a few family history moments. Firstly there was the Rootstech Conference in Salt Lake City where we had a ball meeting up with many of my online pals. Being able to use the Familysearch facilities to record a series of interviews with people at the conference was a great learning experience. I am sad that I won't be at Rootstech next year because I had made a commitment to speak on the 4th Unlock the Past Genealogy Cruise.

In Chicago we were treated royally by genealogist Paul Milner and his wife Carol. I was in seventh heaven when Paul invited me to his basement - it is a real treasure trove that contains Paul's comprehensive genealogy library; I could have spent days there. In Boston Heather Rojo and her husband Vincent took us out and about. Being in the company of Heather, a Mayflower and Civil War descendant, as we toured around historic sites north of Boston made our excursion more meaningful. Heather wrote a delightful report, Familiar sights through foreign eyes, of our visit.

Our next stop was New York City where we got on the trail of Mr Geniaus' 3x Great Uncle, John Gowans. We were able to find his house in NYC and final resting place (together with several family members) in Green-wood Cemetery and the probate papers for Anna Regina Bouton, John's widow. These gave us names of more family members and further clues to follow up.

Being written up on the Familysearch blog was a lovely surprise that preceded a nasty one came in the form of a blog post by a blogger not chosen to be an Official Blogger at Rootstech. This blogger criticised myself and the other bloggers chosen by Rootstech to act as their Official Bloggers, this attack was unwarranted and hurt not just me but others maligned in the post. Dear Myrtle's response to this person sums up my feelings. I am bouyed by Maria from Australia's comment on Amy Coffins blog post "If someone treats you like s*!t, just remember that there is something wrong with them, not you. Normal people don't go around destroying other human beings". Thanks, Maria.

Karaoke Queen

After our New York excursion we indulged ourselves in holiday activities but these did include a Terry Bishop in which our scant knowledge of history was expanded in an entertaining and informative way.
series of lectures on board Seven Seas Navigator.

So what's on the agenda for Geniaus? I have a couple of talks to give this month and a few planned for the future. I need to indulge in a bit more CGD by enrolling for a few webinars and attending some talks; I have a book to write before the end of the year and a journal article due in tomorrow; I am working on two projects at my local historical society that should keep me busy for eons; and,  when I have time, I might even do some personal research and tidy my study.

I do realise that life must have balance so I will be having a short holiday in Europe at the end of next month where I will watch my granddaughter perform and create future family history in The New Prague Dance Festival.

A Dear Mate- DearMyrtle

It was more of a gigglefest than an interview.

When there was a quiet time in the video studio on the Friday at Rootstech Rob Goates, Familysearch guy and video studio gatekeeper, asked if I had someone to interview. Across the media hub I spotted my mate, Pat Richley-Ericson, aka DearMyrtle, a potential interviewee. Gracious lady that she is Myrt immediately agreed to an impromptu interview.

After seeing this interview those readers who have not met one of my favourite geneabloggers, Myrt, in person will appreciate what a sweet and generous lady she is.

Youth at Rootstech

In his address to the Official Bloggers at their pre Rootstech dinner Familysearch CEO, Dennis Brimhall, emphasised the need to get young people interested and involved in family history. To that end the Rootstech organisers nominated Day 3 of Rootstech as a youth day.

Nearly 2,000 young people aged between 12 and 18 registered to come along to the conference on Saturday. My mate DearMyrtle was so proud to have some of her grandchildren visit, I saw a mob of youngsters in Scout uniforms wandering around and observed Paul Nauta nattering with a group of teens in the media hub. The average age of Rootstech attendees plummeted on Saturday.

Proud Grandmother DearMyrtlewith her granddaughter

I had met a young man, Eli, earlier in the week and was pleased to see that he had come along for the Saturday activities. I asked Eli and his Dad if I could conduct a video interview with Eli and I was thrilled to be able to have a quick chat with hin. You will be as impressed as I was with this confident and eloquent 13 year old genealogist. Please take a look at my interview with Eli.

Technology envy

I want a portable collapsible screen just like DearMyrtles that she is using for the Mondays with Myrt Hangout on Air.

Hint , hint Mr Geniaus.

Myrt's Big Screen

For Liz, Jenny and other Geneabloggers at Rootstech

How did I miss this?

GeneaBloggers Members at RootsTech 2013 – Are You In?

It's a list of Geneabloggers who will be in attendance at Rootstech. I notice my Aussie friends Liz and Jenny are missing from the list. Girls, if you want to be adorned with the beads being supplied by DearMyrtle, you had better hop over to this link and register your details.

Thanks to the vigilance of my friend Amy Coffin, who noticed that my name was missing and let me know via a message on Facebook,  I am now registered.

I would be distraught if I had to go beadless at Rootstech.

Learning from the Experts at Rootstech

Although he doesn't do genealogy Mr Geniaus is tapping the brains of the many expert genealogists who are at the conference. Here he is deep in conversation in the Media Hub (Official Bloggers' Hangout) with Dear Myrtle.

Geneabloggers Blogtalk Radio

While most of the Americans at Rootstech's "Friday night at the Library" watched the "Who do you think you are?" TV show at 7:00 pm this evening. I took the option of attending the broadcast of the first birthday show of Geneabloggers Blogtalk Radio.

Instead of watching the show at my kitchen table at lunchtime on Saturday in Sydney I joined Thomas MacEntee, co-host, Dear Myrtle, and a couple of other lucky genealogists in a glass enclosed conference room in The Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

During the show I was busy Tweeting, writing on the chatboard, taking photos and, on a cue from Myrt, presenting Thomas with a 'surprise' birthday cake. I promised the people on the chatboard that I would post a few photos to this blog but, as it is easier to upload a set of photos to Facebook, I created a Public Photo Album that you can access here.

Sun's out in Salt Lake City

Readers who are familiar with Salt Lake City may wish to ignore this post. I will be writing a few travel type posts for those people who have not yet made the journey to Salt Lake City and this is one of them.

I think the sun may have been up early in Salt Lake City but Mr and Mrs Geniaus, who as they get older take a while to adjust to a change in time zones, had a comfortable sleep in at their hotel. We have a view of the mountains that encircle the valley in which the city is sited.



We arrived in Salt Lake yesterday around 22 hours after leaving home yesterday. Lubricated by the beverages in the Qantas Club we were happy travellers when we boarded our A380. Thankfully our seats gave us plenty of legroom so we were able to stretch our legs, enjoy the movies and get a reasonable amount of shuteye. Our luck continued on our "full flight" from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City where we had the only empty seat on the plane in our row of three.

We collected our rental car, fired up our US GPS and made it to the hotel without taking a wrong turn. On our short pre-dinner drive around the city I managed to visit Best Buy to look at techie toys and Batteries Plus to source a spare camera battery. These are less than half the asking price of $AU130 in Australia.

I had a peek at the email and Facebook this morning and was perplexed by a message from Dear Myrtle "Jill, Are you on B-2 yet? Cannot spot ya!" All I could think of was Bananas in Pyjamas." All was made clear when I read Audrey Collin's comment " I'll be in the Library (B2) most of today."  B2 is the floor in the Family History Library where the British and Australian records are stored. 


A library visit is on the agenda for this afternoon but now it's time for brunch.

Humbled and Honoured - Thanks, Myrt

Whenever I am able I tune in to Geneabloggers Blogtalk Radio hosted by Thomas MacEntee. When Thomas isn't available DearMyrtle takes the reins as presenter as was the case last Saturday (Friday evening in the US).

I was listening to the program with some GeniMates at SAG when Myrt  moved on to a regular part of the program in which a Geneablogger is honoured. I was thrilled that Myrt's selection last week was the Geniaus blog. She made particular mention of one of the tabs on this blog, My CGD Learning Log,  where I record my learning journey. As a former educator I have a commitment to lifelong learning and use this page to record my Continuing Genealogical Development.

To receive positive reinforcement in the form of blog comments or a compliment from a fellow genealogist always gives one a boost. To receive a public commendation from someone of Myrt's standing in the genealogy world was phenomenal, Myrt's kind words and recognition catapulted me up to cloud nine.

DearMyrtle, thank you so much for the shout out, it was fantastic to have an Australian blogger honoured in an international forum. That the blogger was yours truly made that recognition even sweeter.

6:00 am start with Myrt

I detest early mornings but couldn't resist rising early yesterday for DearMyrtle's webinar, More Blogging for Beginners.

As I have been blogging since 2003 I am not a beginner blogger but I believe that you can always teach an old dog new tricks and that was the case with yesterday's webinar.

I commend Myrt for conducting live demonstrations as well as having a selection of powerpoint slides. Watching a live demonstration of a software application makes for a more meaningful learning experience than seeing screen dumps on powerpoint slides. Myrt and her host/offsider, Geoff Rasmussen from Legacy, worked well as a team to present a professional, informative session in a friendly atmosphere.

As a result of the session:
* I reflected on my blogs and realised that it is time to update the template on this blog so that I can have tabs, twesk column widths and add a print friendly button. I have done this with my new blog, Genimates, but need to work on Geniaus.
* I learnt about great tools from Print Friendly.
* I learnt about disclosure statements, a requirement in the US. I think it would be good if Australian bloggers had these on their blogs.

This webinar provided me with such a valuable esperience that I will be rising at 5:00 am next week for Myrt's Blog Tweaking Workshop Webinar. Will I see you there?

Webinars - Online Learning Opportunities

Living in Australia we are precluded from seeing and hearing many international speakers in the flesh unless we are lucky enough to be able to travel to events like Rootstech and WDYTYA Live.

In recent months I have taken part in a number of free webinars on Google, DNA, FamilySearch and Blogging. I have been able to take part in these sessions from the comfort of my kitchen table and wearing my night attire. Although some of these events, that are aimed primarily at US users, are in the early hours of the morning (Australian time) they have made leaving my bed at dawn worthwhile. I have heard from speakers who will probably never make the journey downunder and have gained new perspectives and understandings on topics related to genealogy. 

Webinars present a unique opportunity for Australians to seek learning beyond our shores. 

I was lucky enough to attend the recent Rootstech Conference where webinars were a hot topic of conversation. There was also a Roundtalble discussion on Virtual presentations.

As a result of those discussions, American Genealogist, DearMYRTLE, took the initiative to set up a blog, Geneawebinars, "a calendar and blog devoted exclusively to coordinating online genealogy seminars." Full details about this most useful site can be found in the introductory post.  A calendar on the site lists in various views the details of forthcoming presentations. Some of these are free, some have a small cost attached but these costs are minimal.

March Geneawebinars Calendar

Now that we have webinars it doesn't matter if we live in Bourke, Brewarrina or Bondi we can all have access to world  class learning opportunities. Thanks, Myrt for making it easy for us to connect with Webinars via Geneawebinars.

Blogging is a two-way street

The blog is a social medium; a collaborative tool that enables people to communicate and share information; it gives  consumers/readers an opportunity to communicate back through the 'Comments' feature that is enabled on most blogs. Blogging is a tool not just for communication but for conversation.

The genealogy blogging world is full of generous souls who believe that "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). These people blog because they have something to share and they don't want anything in return. People use blogging software because it provides an easy mechanism for online publishing.

As a blogger I try to blog 3-5 times per week whenever I have something that I think is worthy of sharing, that I want to record for posterity for the family or to take part in online festivals etc. If I didn't ever get a comment I would still blog.

I get a buzz whenever someone makes a comment on my posts - I am human and love a bit of reinforcement be it positive or negative. I wonder if other bloggers feel the same?  

Last night I received an email from an old mate, Carolyn, who said " I was elated to find such a wealth of information on the Geniaus Site with quick links to my favourite sites. I read today’s blog about your Christmas loot and note that Perry McIntyre is related to me...I will follow your blogs and wealth of info to see what I can do to pin down the John and Caroline xxx family." Getting this email that also gave me information about Carolyn's research was a welcome belated Christmas present. 

My blog statistics tell me that I have several hundred visits each week  but yet I may only get one or  two comments. It could be that my posts are not relevant to others. I think, however, it is that  many people miss the point about blogging being a social or collaborative tool. Maybe bloggers see it as a publishing tool and  their consumers treat it in the same way as they treat a magazine article or ebook as something to be consumed fullstop. I have looked at the blogs of some top bloggers and have noticed that, most of them too, don't seem to get many comments from their huge readerships.

As a consumer I subscribe to numerous blogs via RSS and read them religiously each day.  As I believe that "Blogging is a two-way street" I regularly comment on other bloggers posts. This morning I posted a comment on Dear Myrtle's post"Ancestor Approved - Thank-you"    and Shelley's "Twigs of Yore" post "In genealogy, the smallest discoveries can make your day". I found one post quirky and interesting and I agreed with the content of the other - so I told the writers.

As part of my genealogy resolutions for 2011 I am going to recognise that "Blogging is a two-way street" and commit myself to using the comments boxes on genealogy blogs for conversation.

How about joining some conversations in 2011?

Whither shall I wander? or Rootstech here I come

Previously I have blogged about genealogy cruising options and wondered where I should spend my genealogy travel budget this year.

I am so excited because, this morning, I have decided to go to Salt Lake City for the Rootstech Conference. I cannot wait to hop on The Flying Kangaroo and make my way to Salt Lake City all by myself. I've booked a return flight to San Francisco and have registered for the conference. I just need connecting flights and a bed for a few nights.

10 Reasons why have I chosen this event

1. I am interested in the application of technology to genealogy and this conference will satisfy my needs. I cannot even understand what some of the topics are so there is lots of scope for learning.
2. The program has been published well ahead of time so I knew what was on offer before I made my booking.
3. Many of my geneablogging mates including Thomas MacEntee and Dear Myrtle will be at this conference and,having been their virtual mate for a couple of years, I will relish the opportunity to see them in the flesh.
4. The conference represents excellent value for money. I have only invested around $AU150 for three full days of sessions and two lunches, coupled with a cheap airfare and single accommodation in a Radisson Hotelat around $AU90 it's great value.
5. I am within cooee of The Family History Library and its resources and can stay on for an extra few days to use their facilities.
6. I'll get to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir again.
7. My boss is going overseas at this time so my absence won't disrupt his business too much.
8. My husband is having problems buying me a Christmas present so I offered him the option of sending me to Salt Lake City.
9. I might be able to buy an Android tablet computer to bring home at a reasonable price.
10. I can have a day and night in San Francisco on the way home and help the US economy through visits to my favourite haunts Macys and Ross Stores.

Watch out, in February there'll be lots of blog posts and tweets from Geniaus, the connected granny from downunder.