Grateful Grandson

Same grandson perusing the family tree back in 2016

 We spent a lovely few hours with three grandchildren and their parents today. It's always great to catch up on their news.

The fifteen year old filled me in on his latest history assignment researching and preparing a Powerpoint on a serviceman. 

Grandson told me that some of his mates were having difficulty finding information but he had no trouble. Knowing where he could find information he selected, as his subject, an ancestor about whom I written on my blog. I got a big thankyou for my research that he can use in his presentation

This young chap has always shown an interest in family history, stories and heirlooms and he reads my blog - how good is that?

No wonder I came home with a big smile on my face. 

Facebook Memories

Most days I look at my Facebook memories and share a few as posts on my personal blog. I date these posts retrospectively on the day they happened. This is my way of leaving a record of my antics for those descendants in the future who may want to know about my life.

I thought that this memory which popped up today was more appropriate for this genealogy focused blog.

_____________________________________________________________________

21 April 2016

My geneassistant is hard at work in the geneacave.

From the mouths of babes

I tidied up my physical desk as per the guidelines from Drew and  George in their current 31 Days of Getting Organised Challenge  and unearthed a few treasures.  Among them was a piece of paper on which my grandchildren recorded a few thoughts about me that my husband solicited when preparing his speech at my last birthday party.

A Dozen of the Best

This is what was said about me:

• She likes parties
• She likes coming to Grandparents' day at school
• She likes holiday time
• Takes us out to dinner
• She's going to take me on a cruise (not sure about that one)
• She's very funny
• She's very helpful
• She takes lots of photos
• She takes us on holidays
• She keeps old stuff.

10th Consecutive Year

In the mail today I received an invitation to be a @RootsTechConf Rootstech Ambassador from Australia for the tenth consecutive year. Of course I accepted this immediately - it is such an honour to be able to promote genealogy downunder to the Rootstech Family while learning about our field from the world's best presenters.

I will be attending virtually this year. I will miss seeing my genimates in the flesh in Salt Lake City but I will take advantage of the virtual offerings from Salt Lake City and join in on social media with the many other #notatrootstech genies who attend virtually. 

The theme for Rootstech 2020 is “The Story of You.” This is  fitting and important for those of us who spend so much time concentrating on our ancestors. We must also remember to record our stories for future generations.

This was brought home to me last weekend when my 10 year old granddaughter said "Why do you have a laptop Gummy?" The 12 grandchildren call me Gummy, but that's another story. I pulled out my laptop and proceeded to show her some of the things I had there. We looked at my blogs that recorded some stories of her ancestors, we looked at some of the powerpoints I had prepared for the presentations I give and some of the Facebook pages I manage. 

What really captured her imagination was my family website, GeniAus Family Site. She enjoyed playing around with the interactive tree in public mode. When she asked about the nameless people on her tree we got into a talk about privacy on the internet. Although she could work out which Living female she was she wanted to see her name displayed so I logged in we looked at the Private View where she could see the details for her parents, siblings and cousins.

Public view of tree on GeniAus Family Site

We played around for nearly half an hour but I shut down before boredom set in. Granddaughter sat back and said "Gummy, I didn't know you did all that."

Do your granddchrilden know all about the things you do? 

If you want to be in on the Rootstech action and learn about sharing "The Story of You"you can register for Rootstech 2020 in Salt Lake City here https://rootstech.org.

On World Genealogy Day....

I am sitting with my grandson and telling him about some famous Aussies he is related to.

I think he is more impressed with being the 3rd cousin once removed of Darren Middleton from Powderfinger than being 2nd cousin three times removed of Football legend Arthur Beetson. Unfortunately I could only think of these two famous people. I didn't want to bore the grandson lest I turn him off so I only shared one more ancestor story, that of his 3xGreat-Grandfater, James Pusell, who bit off a chap's ear in a drunken brawl.

1896 'Biting off an Ear.', Goulburn Evening Penny Post (NSW : 1881 - 1940), 25 July, p. 4. , viewed 09 Mar 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98568791

As my Grandson was strumming his guitar earlier I showed him the video of Jake Shimabukuru at Rootstech, I thought he would enjoy this maestro's skill with the ukelele. The Grandson thought Jake was "awesome".

We also watched a Facebook live video I made at Rootstech and worked out a way to download it in MP4 format. These techie things come so naturally to 12 year old boys.

Talking about family history with a young descendant is a satisfying way to celebrate World Genealogy Day.

School Holiday Fun...

...or the way to a grandmother's heart.

Eight year old grandson interrogating my family history website yesterday. He even found an error.

We followed this up with an inspection of Great-Grandpa's military medals. 

Then later when Grandson was scavenging in a coat cupboard he found his 4x Great-Grandfather's shillalegh which we were able to relate to the Irish side of the family previously found on the family website.

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.

Trove Tuesday - Grandchildren

It's winter school holiday time for some of my grandchildren so that means that we get to see them a bit more then when school is in session. That means that those who live far away will come and visit for a few days  and those that live closer will pop in for morning tea or lunch  and a play. In fact I have just waved three off after a lunchtime visit.

I was wondering what I could find on Trove on the joys (or otherwise) of these visits and hit the jackpot with this collection from The Australian Women's Weekly that have been written in response to an earlier article.

1962 'Grandchildren.', The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), 25 July, p. 25, viewed 24 June, 2014, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46242893

A bit of family History from the US

My eldest grandchild is presently on a Music tour of the United States with her school orchestra. I am embedding this unlisted Youtube video of a nnippet of their performance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library here on my blog so that I have a reminder of her excursion.

Emily is the small, dark-haired viola player in the centre of the screen between the clarinets or oboes (hard to identify what they are).

Sshh!

Baby Nicholas is Christened

You may have noticed that Geniaus has been rather quiet.

Firstly I have been busy with the family. Our Father's Day celebration yesterday was enhanced by the Christening of our 9th grandchild (the 10th grandchild will be Christened later this month and number 11 should arrive around Christmas).

Secondly I'm having a temporary return to the workforce. A family member's secretary has resigned so it's a case of Mum to the rescue. I do enjoy the interaction with the lovely people I meet during the course of my (temporary) work and would happily work on except that it gets in the way of our globetrotting.

Upsizing

I'm on the move.

For a few years now I have had difficulty negotiating the boxes in my study to get to my desk, filing cabinet and shelves hence I have lots of filing to do and my study is a big mess. I had taken to doing my genealogy "work: on the kitchen table and that had become quite cluttered. The space situation hasn't been helped as my study doubles as the babies' room with a cot and change table.  Sometime last year Mr Geniaus suggested that we move the twin beds out of our 3rd bedroom and put them in my small study (Bed 3 is only used by the Grandkids when they sleep over) and that the cot, change table and I move into the larger room. I didn't say no.

Yesterday Mr Geniaus had finished painting the new shelves he bought for me on eBay so the big move was on. Already I have emptied a couple of boxes and sorted through some papers. The folders that I organised and labelled last year are all arranged on the new shelves and  my genealogy books have been moved off our regular shelves and are in my new study with me.

I was concerned that our wireless internet wouldn't reach my new digs which are at the end of the house but thankfully I have a reasonable signal. I cannot get over how much space I have even though I am surrounded by cartons of photos and travel trivia that will take me ages to sort. After the weekend and the Hoo-Haa of Mother's Day we'll bring in another large shelf which will hopefully house all the photo albums.

Thanks to Mr Geniaus for organising my genealogy cave. I love it.  I was feeling guilty that I have so much space and he has a compact study but it just struck me that he has his big green shed plus storage under the house for all his toys.

I just hope the Grandkids enjoy their cosy new room when they stay over next week.

Christos Anesti!

Getting Ready to Crack the Greek Red Easter Eggs

Mr Geniaus and I only have proven ancestors from the British Isles although I am about 90% sure that I have some Australian Aboriginal blood. I live in hope that I can one day find evidence, either through DNA or in some records that may come to light in the future, to prove this beyond reasonable doubt.

Since the marriages of our children there is now Dutch, Greek and Maltese ancestry in the family. Some of our grandchildren have one or more of these lines in their trees and this has been providing new challenges for their grandmother who wants to research their ancestry!

Last night we celebrated Greek Easter with some of the grandchildren who had been busy preparing traditional red eggs for our Easter Feast. We learnt from this four year old that one should say  "Christos Anesti!" or "Christ is risen!" and "Kalo Pashcha!" or "Beautiful Easter." We also learnt that these eggs represent the Blood of Christ and rebirth. 


Our lives have been enriched by learning about the traditions and cultures of the lands of our grandchildren's ancestors.

Distraction

This is why I sometimes neglect my blog - I have to play with the grandchildren.
This is Grandchild number 8 of 8 today (age 10 weeks)