GeniAus - #AtoZChallenge - X is for Xerarch

During April 2020 the month of this #AtoZChallenge I will be sharing short posts on some of the 2,000+ descendants I have identified of my 3x Great-Grandmother, Elizabeth Phipps. 

Elizabeth Phipps 1785-1869 was a convict who was transported from England to New South Wales in 1814 per Wanstead. 

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I haven't yet found a Xavier, Xanthe or other X named individual among Elizabeth's descendants.

Various online dictionaries tell me that Xerarch relates to living things that develop in a dry habitat. I therefore contend that Elizabeth Phipps descendants who mostly grew and flourished in the Colony of New South Wales and after the Federation in Australia are Xerachs. That's the best I can do with an X word!

During my preparations for this challenge I have looked at scores of Elizabeth's descendants. Many are ordinary folk who embraced the opportunities that arose in this new land and have lived happy and fulfilling lives, some have become famous in various fields of endeavour. They have thrived in the harsh environment that Elizabeth was transported to in the early 19th century.

I am proud to be one of our community of Xerachs. 

I love to connect with cousins and fellow researchers. Should you find any errors in my post or have additional information please contact me. 

Don't bore their socks off

In response to a post from Carmel Reynen on Facebook recently.  Lisa Vassallo in a comment said "I would like to know what people are doing to keep it all going." The conversation was all about our family history research and passing it on. 

My lengthy response was along these lines (I have edited and formatted it since I posted on Facebook).

A favourite picture of my Mum

Interest waxes and wanes. With 16 descendants I hope someone inherits the geneabug. My children all follow my blog and are most interested when I share an ancestor story. 

I let grandchildren enter data into my family history program (after I have backed it up) and I let them search it. They love looking for people with their own forenames or funny names, those that share a birthday or seeing how many people come from a certain town, country or village. 

The kids have enjoyed looking at my family website and creating the ancestor and descendant charts available there. 

Two of my children and two of my teen grandchildren have done DNA tests. They enjoy hearing about the results after I have done the hard slog of working out the matches.. 

Ancestor and old photos are another turn on, I have them all digitised and sit at computer with kids and go through them. I find anything we can do together at a screen piques their interest. 

Clock made by an ancestor

We have obtained three grandfather clocks made by an ancestor. These are each in a family home and are a constant reminder of the kids' heritage. 


We willingly lend precious artefacts to grandchildren to take to Show and Tell at school (it's always a relief when the items are returned). 

Stories of our 10 naughty convict and other black sheep ancestors give them a giggle. They are also impressed by the few famous cousins in our tree.

Sharing family snippets from Trove gets a  response. 

I try not to bore the socks off family members but to create an environment that provides opportunities for them to learn about their heritage.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink!

Who wants memories?

"Nobody else will want them let's face it."

I happen to vehemently disagree with this statement made by a friend yesterday when we were discussing recording our memories. She has cleared the decks at her house so there will be no "rubbish" left for her children to deal with when she leaves this mortal earth.

I was telling her that I was finally going through and tossing 35 years worth of tickets, pamphlets and programs from 35 years of overseas travel..... BUT before I tossed them I scanned all that could be scanned. I am going to put all of those digital images on my hard drive in the photo folders to which they relate. I'm sure some of the kids will enjoy them. Of course I have saved hard copies of some important documents like the luncheon menu from when I dined in The Strangers' Dining Room at the House of Commons in London.

I have a bad  case of Hoarditis  and find it difficult to part with ephemera but I just don't have the physical space to store it all.

What's Next?

Although I have transcribed all of the entries in them into my online diary I still have a collection of my old physical diaries. Today I took a giant leap forward and tossed out all my old work diaries (I have been retired for nearly 7 years). I don't think I'll be quite brave enough to part with personal diaries ....just yet.

Maybe nobody else will want them but I'm giving my descendants the option of saying Yes or No.

Will you leave plenty of memories behind?