Judy's coming to my neck of the woods

Judy Webster (photo Jill Ball)

I was excited to learn that Judy Webster, a generous and very experienced professional genealogist and geneablogger from Queensland will be speaking at The Lake Macquarie Family History Group next Saturday.

Judy is also the founder of Genealogists for Families, a Kiva Group, that has 364 members supporting families in third world countries. (Join the group via this link).

Although I can't find mention of this talk on the Lake Macquarie Group's website Judy has posted details on her website plus Facebook page and I read of the event in the Lake Macquarie FH Group newsletter.

Knowing that Judy doesn't cross the border to come south too often  (I last saw her at Congress2018) and that she is a speaker of renown I thought that I'd let my readers know of this opportunity to hear Judy speak on "Look Beyond the Border! Archival records with data for interstate and overseas folk.".

Visitors are welcome at Lake Macquarie FHG so, if you would like to hear Judy speak it would be an idea to let the people at The Lake Macquarie Family History Group know that you are coming.

101 Reasons to Attend #congress_2018 - Genealogists for Families

Several members of the Kiva "Genealogists for Families Group" will be in attendance at Congress. Our motto is, 'We care about families (past, present and future).'

Our international group which was started in 2011 by Queensland Genealogist, Judy Webster, has  over 350 members. We first met as a Group at Congress in 2012. I wrote about it here: http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/congress-genealogists-for-families.html

We have made over 9,460 $US25 loans to people in third world countries.

• What is Kiva? https://www.kiva.org/about
• What is Genealogists for Families? http://genfamilies.blogspot.com.au/p/about.html
• Meet the team members https://www.kiva.org/team/genealogists/members
• Follow this link to join the Team: https://www.kiva.org/invitedto/genealogists/by/jill4772?

Team members will be wearing blue ribbons (kindly supplied by team Co-captain Pauleen Cass). Please say G'day and ask us about 'Genealogists for Families'.

Family History Through the Alphabet – K is for …reaching out

Kiva Genealogists for Families team members come from many countries including Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Scotland, Spain and the United States. Our team motto is "we care about families (past, present and future)."

On our team blog http://genfamilies.blogspot.com.au/ that is maintained by team founder and leader, Judy Webster, you can read all about the project and its history. There you will also find some biographies of team members. Please take some time to read these and discover why genealogists have joined our group.

Kindness of team members has resulted in over $20,000 dollars of loans being made to members of families in third world countries.

Team impact as at 21/7/2012

The benefits of participating in the Kiva project cannot be underestimated. I have met a whole new group of genealogists via the Kiva project, our team spirit is buoyed as we read about the loans other members make and hear of how they raise funds to commit to Kiva loans. There can be unexpected benefits as Dianne indicates in her Facebook post:

Kudos to our leader, Judy, who is the lynchpin that ensures the success of our team.

This is a post about technology. It demonstrates how social networking can be harnessed for good, team members have used Facebook, Blogger and the social functions of the Kiva site to reach out to others.

If you can rustle up $US25 please follow this link and join the Genealogists for Families team on Kiva . 

It's taken me a while

Genealogist, Judy Webster in Australia, set up the Genealogists for Families Project through Kiva. Joining up has been on my 'to do' list, I feel bad that it has taken me taken me four weeks to get my act together and get behind this worthy cause. This afternoon while babysitting (I do a lot of that) I was reflecting on how fortunate I and my family are to live in the 'Lucky Country' and my thoughts turned to Kiva and those who are less fortunate.

Today I finally joined the group that so far has 24 members from  Australia, Canada, England, Scotland and the US. As of today the group has made 35 loans of $US25 to people in countries that include Bolivia, Mongolia, Palestine and Zimbabwe.

For about the cost of one birth, death or marriage certificate you could also help families in other countries wit a loan.

Click here to join

From the Genealogists for Families blog:

"We care about families (past, present and future)

Genealogists worldwide, plus family and friends, are working as a team to help families and small businesses in low income areas. Through Kiva, a nonprofit organisation, we make $25 loans that enable borrowers to expand their businesses, support their families and raise themselves out of poverty. When the loan is repaid, the lender can withdraw the money or lend it again."

On this blog you will find answers to any of the questions you may have about the project.

Sometimes less is more.

 Follow Friday posts that are generated by some sort of automated program have been annoying me for quite a while. I thought it may have been because I am getting old and crabby but thanks to Carole Riley who directed her readers to a blog post, Please put a stop to the mass Follow Friday tweets, on this subject I realise that I am not alone.

This article clearly echoed my feelings and set out some guidelines fo Follow Friday posts. I am posting the rules put forward by the author (full details can be found in the post) as I believe that they are eminently sensible:

1) If you’re going to Follow Friday someone, make it just ONE person per #FF tweet per week. 
2) Say why you recommend them.
3) Just do it Friday.  

Joseph Ranseth says:
" The Right Way…

Follow Friday is an opportunity to share with our friends the people that we value. We are saying “this is someone that I get value from, and I want you to enjoy what they have to offer as well”. It’s about sharing, giving and providing value to others.

…and the Wrong Way

Follow Friday is NOT about getting more followers. Some people (either ignorant of the law, or possessing a lack mentality) will recommend as many people as they can for #followfriday in hopes that some of them will feel obligated to reciprocate that gesture. By accomplishing this, they hope that they will attract new followers. Sadly, they just don’t get it…"

A lot of my Twitter pals from the world of genealogy just don't get it either. After Judy Webster from Queensland  posted the following on Twitter last Friday there were a few tweets around the topic.

Bravo, Judy. I never take any notice of  my mentions in Follow Friday posts that resemble shopping lists and are produced by some automated service. It was pleasing to see a number of people adopting Judy's policy last week.

I was bowled over by a tweet from Shauna Hicks, who last week also abandoned the automated style and opted for just 1 descriptive #FF post. Shauna selected @geniaus as the one person for her #FF tweet. Thankyou most sincerely, Shauna, this Follow Friday post meant a lot to me.

Follow Friday - Australian FamilySites

A popular Geneabloggers blogging theme is "Follow Friday" in which bloggers "simply create a post in which you recommend another genealogy blogger, a specific blog post, a genealogy website or a genealogy resource."

I was rather chuffed last Friday when Judy Webster nominated my blog in her post.

I have been toying with blogging about and highlighting some sites where Australians have placed their family trees on the web. There are some fantastic sites around that probably don't get any recognition. I will endeavour to show some of these through a series of Follow Friday posts.

Those who are considering placing their family trees on the web might find guidance on what to do and what not to do from this series of posts. As I have several hundred sites bookmarked on Delicious it won't be an onerous task to find some. I want to show the good, the bad and the ugly; the workhorses and show ponies.

I will develop a basic rubric against which to measure the sites so that I will have a consistent approach. I just need to learn how to insert a table into blogger! Hopefully, in a few hours time, I will have made my maiden "Follow Friday"  Australian Familysite post.