On Rations

I have been hit by a first world problem. I have to ration my data.

As many of you know we are living between two houses at the moment. At our old house I have a ginormous data allowance and can spend my days playing in cyberspace without having to worry about how much data I consume. My problem is when I am at the old house I need to devote my time to clearing out a life's worth of stuff and getting the place tarted up for sale so geneactivities take a back seat. I have emptied my study ready for its transformation into a home theatre/media room and have moved most of my technology, files and my desk and office chair to their new home.

Up at the new Lake House where I have set up my new geneacave I use my smartphone as a hotspot for internet access. Although I have 40gig of data per month on the phone I find that I can devour several gig  a day when using it as a hotspot for the laptop (a data hungry beast). I can keep up with social media, email, blog reading via Inoreader and checking new DNA matches  on my smartphone where these activities appear to use little data.

Data Rationing here at The Lake House

I can blog on the phone using an external wireless keyboard but I don't enjoy doing it that way so I don't blog (it has to be fun not a chore - right?). I can't update my websites on the phone and I find it very difficult to research promising DNA matches as I need to have several windows open to do this efficiently. Similarly when writing my sometimes weekly GeniAus Gems posts I need to have several apps and windows open at once, I missed posting last week because doing this via smartphone would have been an exercise in frustration.

In the next month or so I will transfer our landline, internet service and Foxtel service to the new home. I could throw more money at my data provider but am loathe to do this so in the interim I will be quiet in the blogisphere. 

Now, while my asthma is forcing me to rest, I am off to do some work on my FHG website, try to place some new DNA matches in my traditional tree, respond to some messages from potential DNA matches and follow Shelley's instructions for Visualising Ancestry DNA matches (until that does my head in!).

World Poetry Day passed me by

I missed World Poetry Day because it fell on a Saturday and my Saturday was spent with our living family.

This is why I missed World Poetry Day

I started Googling around to see what I could post about the day and came across this post that my Genimate Shelley wrote in 2011.  Her poem is so apt as more and more people undertake genealogy testing for DNA.

You can read Shelley's geneapoem here: http://twigsofyore.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/world-poetry-day.html

Australia Day 2012: Wealth for Toil

My mate Shelley over at TwigsofYore has issued a challenge for Australia Day 2012.

Australia Day 2012: Wealth for Toil

To participate, choose someone who lived in Australia (preferably one of your ancestors) and tell us how they toiled. Your post should include:

1. What was their occupation? 
2. What information do you have about the individual’s work, or about the occupation in general?
3. The story of the person, focussing on their occupation; or
   The story of the occupation, using the person as an example. 

Responses may be as long or short as you like, and as narrow or broad as you wish.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frank Duncan - Soldier

Unfortunately in spite of all of their toil none of my ancestors was rewarded with wealth in the monetary sense. Rewards came in the form of happy lives and healthy families.

My grandfather, Frank Duncan, seemed to move from job to job in the country town of Cobar. As a young man he worked as a miner in Cobar's copper mines. After returning from World War 1 he purchased a station (very large farm) of 32,000 acres, Elsinore, outside of Cobar. He walked off this farm sometime during the Great Depression. 

From that time on he tried a few jobs. He had a catering truck that  he drove around the countryside to feed the crowds at race meetings and other gatherings. From this van he sold his home made pies and the ginger beer he brewed.

Together with my grandmother, Ethel Jane Pusell, Frank ran a cafe in Cobar. I am not sure how long this venture lasted. Frank eventually went to work at the Post Office. He rejoined the Australian Army in 1940 but did not see active duty. When the family moved to Sydney in the 1940s Frank worked at the Kensington Post Office. I am not sure what work he did there but I think he may have driven a van.

Frank Duncan's Catering Van

Frank was a proud man, the major source of his pride was his five daughters "The Duncan Girls" who were very fond of their "Dadda". What they lacked in material wealth was made up by the richness of the happy family life that they enjoyed up until Frank's early death at age 53.

Frank, Ethel and The Duncan Girls, members of the Junior Red Cross c 1936

Wonderful surprise for the returning traveller

Mr and Mr Geniaus have been off globetrotting for the last few weeks.Although it was not a genealogy field trip I managed to visit a few institutions, see some distant cousins and collect a few new resources on our round the world journey.  Over the next few weeks I will blog about some of my experiences and finds.


After our 20 hour journey from New York I was feeling a little flat on my return home yesterday. In between loads of washing I managed to log into my email where I found a great surprise.There were two emails with the subject line "RootsTech Proposal Accepted".  My spirits immediately soared; I will be presenting in two sessions at Rootstech 2012 in Salt Lake City.


I was absolutely stoked to get this news but now have tummy butterflies. I don't think there will be many other Australian presenters at this international event so I feel a responsibility to do Australia proud. This will not be too difficult for the first session "Genealogy 2.0: international panelists discuss their use of social media to connect with cousins, collaborate on projects, discuss issues, market and promote genealogy services and perform acts of genealogical kindness" in which I will be joined by esteemed genealogists Amy Coffin (USA), Audrey Collins (UK) and Joan Miller (Canada). I was thrilled when these genealogists whom I met at Rootstech 2011 agreed to my proposal to form a panel to discuss Genealogy 2.0. We should have lots of fun collaborating with Web2.0 tools to prepare our presentation.


Although my second gig "The Galaxy Girls –three genealogists and their Android tablets" will be a solo performance I have the support of two Australian genealogists, Shelley from Twigs of Yore and Tanya Honey from My Genealogy Adventure who also purchased Samsung Galaxy Tablets not long after I did. Via email, blog posts and more recently through a Huddle on Google+ Shelley, Tanya and I have been discussing our tablet use. I am indebted to The Galaxy Girls for agreeing to allow me to report on their tablet experiences.


The generosity of the genealogy community is demonstrated by the willingness of these five genealogists to support my proposals for Rootstech 2012, I am most grateful to you.

The Galaxy Girls

My experiences with my Android gadget, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, have been documented in a few blog posts:

Connecting with the Galaxy

The shiny new toy - Carnival of Genealogy

Genealogy True Confessions: I take the tablet to bed

 Addicted to the Tablet 

These posts only describe one person's experience. I have read and reread yesterday's posts by two of my Genimates, Shelley (Life in the clouds and across the Galaxy) and Tanya (Using a Samsung Galaxy Tablet for genealogy, and other things), who blogged about their experiences with the Tab. These posts demonstrate the benefits of collaboration through blogging. We three all have the same little gadget but have taken different approaches to customising our gadgets with apps and widgets.

I burnt the midnight oil last night investigating, downloading and playing with some of the apps that Tanya  had suggested. This morning I woke to Shelley's post and, having read that, have more things to explore.

As a cheapskate I had stuck with free apps and not yet purchased any but, on the recommendation of my GeniMates, I'll now buy Family Bee. Although I can access my tree on the web it will be handy to have all of my data available on the tab for times when I don't have a connection or simply in the interests of economy so I don't need to use my data plan to access the family info.

I selfishly look forward to following Shelley and Tanya's journeys with their Tabs so that I can learn more tricks to play with mine.

Thanks to those who joined me on on the two-way street

In her New Year post Cheryl Palmer of Heritage Happens recognised those people who had posted comments on her blog during 2010. Cheryl awarded a prize to the person who was her top/most prolific commenter for 2010.

As I believe that "Blogging is a two-way street" I would like to recognise my commenters. Alas, I do not have a prize to hand out but I would still like to thank those people who have taken the time to post comments on my blog. Apologies in advance if I miss someone.

I am thrilled that 5 out of 6 of my top commenters are from Australia.

My top commenter Shelley lamented in her recent 2011 genealogy goals post "My current level of giving back is minimal. I have tried in the past to participate in indexing projects but have had great difficulty getting pages back within the allotted time. I find getting out of the house difficult while I have little children which rules out more possibilities. I would like to find some way of making a contribution. Text corrections on Trove are looking like a possibility, but I will remain open to other ways of making a contribution.". Don't be so hard on yourself - you have made a fantastic contribution to my blog.

Carole Riley  in a recent comment on this blog said of commenting on blogs "I agree, it's always a bit of a thrill when someone leaves a comment, but it is all too easy to just consume and move one. I too will make a commitment to comment more often."

Thank you Carole and Shelley - you are  stars at commenting and sharing.

Feedback is a vital part of the communication process - I sincerely thank all in the following list who have made the effort to post a comment on my blog.
 
Geniaus' Blog Commenters for 2010 with Number of Posts:

Shelley - 18
Carole Riley - 16
Judy Webster - 13
Amy Coffin - 6
Sandra - 6
Aillin   - 5 
DianaR - 4
Elizabeth O'Neal - 4
Kylie Willison- 4
2bald - 3
Chris Paton  - 2 
Geneabloggers - 2
J.M. - 2
Nancy-2
Rosemary - 3
Steven Lewis -2
Thomas MacEntee - 2
Tonia - 2
YP Local History -2
Alex
Alona
Ancestry.com.au
Bernard 
Betty 
Brenda
Brian Anderson
Carolyn
Dr Bill Smith 
Fairhall
Granny Pam 
Harry
Heather Rojo
Hummer
Hurstville City Library, Museum & Gallery
Infolass
jan
Jasia
John
Kerryf
Laren
Louise St Denis
Miriam
Morgan Williams
myheritage
Randy Seaver
reh ncw
RickK
Scottish Genealogist
Tamura Jones
Tina Lyons
Wattlebird
Zibe