Navel Gazing and Future Proofing

We need to evaluate our practices regularly. The catalyst for my recent navel gazing is the presentation I  prepared for Connections2025, The Thoughtful Ancestor: leaving a large footprint for future generations. I have a big footprint but need to ensure that it's easy for my descendants to follow.

I've been reviewing my practices, the products I use and my genealogy budget and trying to make my genealogy assets easy to access for future generations. Following is a summary of my recent thoughts and actions. 

I am looking at my assets in three categories: Digital, Physical and Cranial and using as a prompt this process.

My process for future-proofing my genealogy assets. 
Evaluation is vital at each stage of the process

Social Media

X formerly Twitter - I am no longer posting there but have kept my account. I have replaced this product with Bluesky where many of my genimates have accounts.  I am @geniaus.bluesky.social.

Instagram - I set up an Instagram for family history purposes after Twitter became unattractive. I'm still on Insta but not actively posing since moving to Bluesky

Facebook - I have a huge investment and history so won't be ditching it at the moment. My GeniAusPage is my main vehicle for sharing family history news and views. 

Family Tree Software

Family Historian. While I still retain Family Historian for my main database I have resisted upgrading to the latest version.

RootsMagic  I started using RootsMagic to manage the people in my CareyBay2283 One Place Study. Although I don't have a handle on its sourcing system I appreciate its fairly seamless syncing with Ancestry, FamilySearch and FindMyPast. This may become my primary tool in the future.

I now have several projects in RootsMagic 10. I find it good for managing the DNA matches of some of the kits I manage. 

TNG  I use The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding to maintain my family website. I can upload a gedcom file from any other product to TNG. 

I am concerned that when I turn my toes up no-one will keep the website going.  Over Easter two of my offspring committed to this task so I won't be ditching TNG or my website in the near future. 

GeniAus Website This is where I host my family site. I will keep it going while I am able but I need to have insurance lest my descendants run out of time or money to maintain it. 

WikiTree I am committed to Wikitree as a collaborative tree. I am working to ensure that my ancestors' and forebears' stories are not lost so I aim to give them all a profile on this platform. It's a future-proofing exercise.

Other Activities

Blogging I am committed to blogging about family history and to record my personal history. I use two free platforms, Blogger and Wordpress.com although I prefer Blogger because it is much easier to tweak their templates and they don't sprinkle my posts with ads as is the Wordpress practice. 

I see that several of my genimates have moved to Substack. I am not convinced that this is the platform for me. I will sit back and see how it progresses. I have seen too many Bright Shiny Objects come and go to move platforms when I am satisfied with what I have. 

FindaGrave In addition to adding details of ancestors' final resting places to the FindaGrave site I have set up several virtual cemeteries on that site. I have one each for biological relatives of  my husband and me. I also maintain one for a Cousin and one to support my One Place Study.

One Place Study I'm not sure I can do this justice but as no-one else was recording the history and  stories of the place where I live I commenced this project last year. 

Surname Study I now realise that I have bitten off more than I can chew with this project I commenced in 2014. I did not realise that Curry, my maiden name, was such a common surname, I should have chosen Pusell, my grandmother's maiden name which is not so common. Currently this project is stalled with a database of several thousand persons in Family Historian. The study blog is still active and will remain so. 

Cranial Assets or What's in my head I'm working on this. Some are things I am not yet ready to share. I keep a diary in an Excel spreadsheet and blog at jillballau but need to do more. 

Money Matters I need to give this some thought and will report in a future post. 

A Snow White Dome

When fiddling on my blog today I noticed that, in my header image, I had brown or pepper and salt coloured hair. Nowadays my dome is snow white.  My branding should reflect the person that I am. 

I liked my old image that showed me waving while frolicking in the ocean. I liken my genealogy environment to a body of water where I can swim - a place where I can relax and have fun, play in the shallows or dive deep, it's somewhere that can throw up challenges and surprises. 

When holidaying in Vanuatu earlier this year I was enjoying a swim in a glorious lagoon when Mr Geniaus snapped a photo of me enthusiastically waving and showing my white hair plastered to my head. The image shows me in a happy place as I am when playing in my genealogy world. 

Over I went to Canva where I created a new header using their Blogger Header template. I've uploaded the completed image to the blog. While I may tweak it over the coming days it will remain basically the same until I next fiddle with my branding.  Next task is creating a new header for the Geniaus Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/geniauspage

The new header - created with Canva

Exodus and Emigration

As soon as Twitter changed hands I noticed an exodus of genealogists from Twitter. While I haven't left Twitter yet I set up an insurance policy two weeks ago. 

When I joined Mastodon I joined the @mastodon.scot instance (server) as a handful of genealogists were there and the @toot.community where most of the genies were hanging was closed to new members. After a few days @toot.community opened up to more members so I emigrated there to be with the bulk of my genealogy contacts. 

Things have been moving quickly on Mastodon as many Tweeps are joining the exodus from Twitter and emigrating to various Mastodon instances (servers). Several genealogists recognised the need for an instance just for genealogists and last week, About 10 days ago David set up @genealysis.social, "for anyone who is interested in Genealogy." see https://genealysis.social/about. I was interested but didn't emigrate immediately.

@genealysis.social

I watched and waited and observed as quite a number of  genies or Geneadons (as they are called on Mastodon) emigrated to this new server.  While there is still a reasonable number of genealogists on the @toot.community server they are just a small percentage of the total membership. Genies are to be found on many other servers as well. While genealogists can connect from many of the instances (servers) at Mastodon I like the idea of hanging out with my tribe.

This morning, as I had time on my hands and realised that I mostly post about family history matters I noted that the membership @genealysis.social was approaching 500. I decided that it was time to emigrate once again so I made the move (a painless process). I don't plan on emigrating again any time soon. I am pleased that I have found an instance for my tribe and look forward to the fellowship I enjoy with the genealogy community on other social media platforms.  

How about joining me on @genealysis.social ?

Meanwhile I am still active as @GeniAus on Twitter - it's all about insurance. 

Tooting

Since Twitter's recent purchase by Elon Musk I am wondering what lies ahead for that platform. Many people in the Twitterverse are predicting dark days ahead for this platform. I hope these predictions are baseless and I can keep tweeting.

I'm a believer in INSURANCE (car, health, house, travel etc.). It didn't take me too long to arrange some insurance in case I find that changes that will come to Twitter under its new ownership unpalatable.  

Yesterday Daniel Loftus in Ireland was recommending  Mastodon as a viable Twitter alternative in his Twitter feed. As I know Daniel is a cluey chap who is on top of tech issues I joined up to one of the Mastodon servers. I discovered that several of my genimates had already joined the #TwitterExodus or put a contingency plan in place by setting up an  account on Mastodon. 

My Profile needs some more editing

It didn't take long for me to join up and get the hang of this new-to-me platform, I've still a lot to learn but I think I'm going to like it. I have been working on my laptop with the desktop app but last night I also installed the Android app on my phone. 

By this morning I had built up a small list of interesting folk to follow. Once I found some people that I knew on Mastodon I checked their lists of followers/following to add people to my list - easy. 

If you join up to any Mastodon server you can follow me via this link : @JillBallAu@toot.community

If you are on Twitter and need an Insurance Policy how about Tooting with me?

From the archives: The Earliest Social Network Ever Discovered

I first published this post on 23rd May 2011. Even more pertinent today now there are more free image sharing options available. 

How's your Footprint?

I was shocked to learn over the weekend of the death last month of my 3rd cousin, Michelle Gilliver-Smith. at the age of 55. Michelle was one of the first genealogists with whom I collaborated in snail mail days. We reconnected through DNA in 2017.

I had learnt of Michelle's death via the Facebook page of the Tomaree Family History Group Nelson Bay Inc. where Michelle, a longterm member, had been responsible for the website and newsletter. 

By putting her name into a Google search I found Michelle's death notice online and copied the details into my genealogy software. While at Google I found more mentions of Michelle including a comprehensive work, education and volunteering history she had entered on her LinkedIn Page, I made a note of this information. Michelle also had a summary of her career posted on a Wix site she had created. The LG Professionals page had a page long profile of Michelle in which she talked about her interest in Genealogy.

I looked at my DNA matches on Airtable where I record matches of kits I manage, I could see that Michelle had first tested with FTDNA and uploaded those results to Gedmatch, she later tested with Ancestry. On each of these sites Michelle had uploaded comprehensive family trees. Michelle was also a contributor to the Familysearch Family Tree. Geni.com and Wikitree.

Michelle was active on social media with accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. My Google search returned a comment from Michelle to Princess Cruises telling them how much she enjoyed her cruise on Diamond Princess in 2013! Also on the Google search I learnt of Michelle's donations to charity, found a couple of photos of her and some journal articles she had written.

Michelle who died at a relatively young age has, because of her commitment to her family history and use of online resources and social media sites, left a valuable footprint for future generations of our family to discover her story. As this blog is preserved in the Australian Web Archive on Trove (where there are already several mentions of Michelle) I have written this post to add to that footprint.

https://pixabay.com/photos/beach-sea-footprints-sand-water-5455896/
How's your Footprint?

My Road to RootstechConnect

Fellow Official Bloggers - Rootstech 2011 - The Beginning of my Rootstech journey

My journey to RootstechConnect has taken 11 years so far. I have been an Ambassador for each of the previous Rootstech events and I have attended 9 out of the 11 face to face events in person. I'm very excited about the prospect of attending Rootstech from home and avoiding the long journey to Salt Lake City or London but I will miss seeing the friends I have made in the Rootstech family during that time.. 

I am delighted that I will be able to gain entry to all of the sessions at this online event as there will be no restriction on class sizes as there are at the face to face events. I will also be able to avoid the brain overload that I suffer  at each conference as I will be able to access the learning activities on demand over the next 12 months until RootstechConnect 2022.

In years gone by I would have written many blog posts in the days and months leading up to the Rootstech conference but times have changed and I don't blog as often as I once did. In the past week many other bloggers have written excellent guides about the activities at the event. I don't need to reinvent the wheel. 

These bloggers have written some informative posts: Sue at https://kindredpast.com/2021/02/17/ready-set-go-rootstech-connect-2021/, Fran at https://travelgenee.com/tag/rootstechconnect/ are just two of those.

One of the responsibilities of a Rootstech Ambassador is to spread the word about the event. In 2011 when I was first an official blogger/ambassador the folk at Rootstech wanted us share to via blog posts (we were called Official Bloggers then) but times have moved on and the people at Rootstech recognised that there were more avenues available for sharing information about their event so we became Ambassadors who used multiple platforms.

I'm still spreading the word about Rootstech but through those different avenues. I have been sharing and retweeting on Twitter and my Facebook page and  other Facebook groups to which I belong. At the grassroots level I have bombarded the members of our local and other societies with information about Rootstech.

Unfortunately my GeniAus page has been taken down by Facebook as they must deem it to be an Australian news site!!! I don't know whether to be flattered because  my page has value as a news source or to be annoyed because Facebook has taken down a page where a little old volunteer grandmother shares information about family history with her genimates.

With two other Australians who are passionate about the RootstechConnect conference and I have administered for the past five months a Facebook page Australians at RootstechConnect where those who have registered for the event can meet other attendees, chat, ask questions, and share information about the event. I hosted a zoom session last night for members of this group where I shared information I had learned from the ambassadors briefing and we had an opportunity to meet up prior to the event.

Tonight I will be hosting another zoom session for the members of the Society of Australian Genealogists where I will once again share information and answer questions about the RootstechConnect which kicks off on Thursday Australian time.

During the three days that RootstechConnect has a live programme I will be sharing via Twitter as I just won't have time to blog. You can follow me on Twitter with my handle @geniaus, the official hashtag for tweeting about RootstechConnect is #rootstechconnect.

I may not blog again until after the event so I wish you all an inspiring and exhilarating learning experience at  RootstechConnect. 

Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2020 - The Responses

When I posted this challenge I was wondering what sort of responses would come my way. I wasn't at all surprised with the number of positive responses that were posted on our Genimates' blogs. We are a resilient mob! 

A consistent theme in the posts was Zoom, most of the respondents wrote about the value of this tool.  

An important aspect of any activity is reflection and evaluation. The Accentuate the Positive Geneameme provides an opportunity for this vital activity. It's never too late to join this challenge, if you wish to blog about your experiences you will find the discussion points here. http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2020/12/accentuate-positive-geneameme-2020.html. 

I am so grateful to those who participated in this challenge, thank you all for taking the time to play along. 

Please follow the links below to read the posts from genies in Australia and overseas and, if something they have written resonates with you, tell them by leaving a comment on their post. 

Alex Daw  https://familytreefrog.blogspot.com/2020/01/accentuate-positive-geneameme-2019.html

Anne Young https://anneyoungau.wordpress.com/2020/12/29/2020-accentuate-the-positive-a-year-of-family-history-progress/

Bobbie Eades https://gsq-blog.gsq.org.au/remember-to-accentuate-the-positive-2020/

Dara McGivern  https://blackravengenealogy.blogspot.com/2021/01/2020-in-review-accentuate-positive.html

Jennifer Jones https://jonesfamilyhistory.wordpress.com/2020/12/30/accentuate-the-positive-geneameme-2/

Jill Ball (GeniAus)  http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2020/12/accentuate-positive-geneameme-2020.html

Lilian Magill  http://researchbylily.blogspot.com/2020/12/accentuate-positive-2020.html

Linda Stufflebean  https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2021/01/accentuate-the-positive-geneameme-2020/

Lisa Gorrell  https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2021/01/accentuate-positive-geneameme-2020.html

Mel Hulbert  https://www.itsallrelative.com.au/post/accentuate-the-positive

Patsy Daly  https://www.patsyspaddocks.com/accentuate-the-positive-geneameme-2020-patsys-paddocks/

Pauleen Cass (Cassmob)  https://cassmobfamilyhistory.com/2021/01/07/accentuate-the-positive-2020/

Robbie Stockfeld  https://robbiesspot.wordpress.com/2020/12/29/accentuate-the-positive/

Samantha John  https://lyfelynes.com/accentuate-the-positive-2020/

Shauna Hicks  https://www.shaunahicks.com.au/accentuate-the-positive-geneameme-2020/

Sue Donaldson (ScotsSue)  https://scotsue-familyhistoryfun.blogspot.com/2021/01/accentuate-positive-2020.html

If I have inadvertently missed any responses to the geneameme please notify me and I will rectifiy. 

Twelve years and smiling

Twelve years ago I was recovering at home from ankle surgery and on the verge of retirement. I had been blogging for work and wanted to keep up the blogging habit once I retired but I needed a focus for my blogging efforts.

Twelve year old Jill

I chose to blog about genealogy in which I had an interest. In the twelve years since I started this blog my interest has become a passion which Mr GeniAus would call an obsession. When I started this blog I was like the twelve year old Jill who was setting off for secondary school in her hat and white gloves and carrying her precious new briefcase. I did not know what lay ahead of me.

Over the years I have started several blogs for myself and for organisations with which I am involved. I have given up on some of my blogs. Others I set up for organisations  have languished in the hands of their new keepers. Although my posting schedule has been erratic at times I have nurtured this GeniAus blog for twelve years and am committed to seeing it through its teenage years.

The GeniAus blog has opened many doors for me. It was through my early blogging efforts that I was invited to be an official blogger for the first Rootstech Conference and I have served as an Official Blogger or Ambassador for each Rootstech event. The blog also has brought me invitations to speak at many events and to join genealogy boards and committees. I am a committed Lifelong Learner!

What I treasure most about the bounty the GeniAus blog has delivered are the friendships with a collection of dear Genimates. Mr GeniAus and I have made  friends around the world through my involvement in geneablogging and social media. 

Initially my blogging focus was news and resources, while I still share some of these items on my blogs I now use my Facebook GeniAusPage to share topical news and events and use the blog more for reflections and family stories.

In my very first post I said "I thought I would like a place to share progress, reflections and resources as I solve my genealogical jigsaw so here goes - another blog is born."  One thing I omitted is that now an important part of my purpose is to preserve the stories of my ancestors and my living family for future generations. The importance of this element was brought home to me when I received the following comment on my blog in 2012.

I accepted that invitation which reminded me of the importance of recording our social and family history in Australia. I am honoured that, as a result, the posts I write will be preserved for the future in what is now called The Australian Web Archive at Trove Australia, https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/collection. 

As I reflect on the GeniAus blog and my other blogging activities I have a smile as broad as that of the 12 year old Jill soaking up the Australian sunshine in her new swimsuit. 

 

Twelve year old Jill 

Value from our Vaults

Image by kalhh from Pixabay

Many longterm geneabloggers have a huge vault of interesting and valuable past posts. The value of these is, that if someone is searching on Google for a particular person, place or topic mentioned in our posts, the posts will be found. We all get rather excited when we reel in a contact with our "Cousin Bait". Are you getting more value from your posts?

Instead of leaving our posts to languish on some distant server and relying on Google to attract new readers for us we should be proactive in focusing attention on our earlier writing.  This was brought home to me this week when I read and enjoyed old posts from two of our fellow geneabloggers who have used other social media platforms to share links to their posts.

I had not previously read the Milo post posted on The Dusty Box blog by Jess in 2016, I somehow missed reading it until I saw her recent tweet with the post's link on Twitter. As I was captivated by this story about an Australian icon I shared Jess's post on my Facebook Page and was pleased that it initiated a conversation about Milo. 

Canadian Geneablogger, Lorine, today posted a link on Facebook to the first in a series of four posts she wrote mentioning her Australian links (You can see all 4 posts here http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com/search/label/Abandoned%20in%20Australia). I had read these posts back when they were posted in 2009 or when Lorine posted them again in 2016 but I am sure that many Australian genies who would have been interested in their content may not have been reading blogs or even interested in their family history then. 

Lorine and Jess have this week demonstrated how easy it is to get more value from the blog posts in our vaults. 

How about going through your past posts, updating them if necessary and sharing links to them on your social media channels? 

Virtual Genealogical Association - Free Conference Registration Competition

I have been an enthusiastic member of this online genealogy society since its inception in April 2018. The Association was founded by Katherine R. Willson, Christine Woodcock, Terri O’Connell, Tami Mize  and Lisa Alzo and now has an impressive membership list that reads like a who's who in the genealogy world.  

The Virtual Genealogical Society is a global organisation for the 21st century that fulfils the needs of family historians:

• whose circumstances make it difficult to attend local genealogical society meetings
• who prefer online presentations, special interest groups (SIGs), conferences, and socializing
• with an interest in connecting, networking, and mentoring with global genealogists.

The Association has announced its VGA virtual conference to be held from November 1-3, 2019! 

Speakers include Judy G Russell and Blaine Bettinger from the US,  Fiona Brooker from New Zealand, Ursula Krause from Germany, Audrey Collins from the UK and Helen Smith from Australia. 

Australians who may be sleeping while the live sessions are broadcast will not miss out on any of the sessions. Attendees will have access to recordings & handouts for all sessions for 6 months following the event - watch any time, any place, on any device. 

Closed captioning via Rev.com will be added to all sessions and made available to attendees within 7 days of the event. 

Cost is reasonable at $US59 for VGA members & $US79 for non-members. 

Details at https://virtualgenealogy.org/2019-vga-conference/.

You have a chance to win a Free Registration to this event. 

 

As the Convenor of the New South Wales Chapter of of the Association I have a FREE Registration Code to share with one of my genimates.

* This competition is open to both members and non-members of the Association

* Entries are restricted to one per person 

* The prize is not redeemable for cash

* The winner will be contacted by email and subsequently announced here on the Geniaus blog

* All entries must be received by Midnight (AEST) on Sunday 15 September

* The judges decision is final

To enter the competition you must:

* 1. Share this blog post with a comment in a public post on either your Twitter account, on Facebook or in a blog post. I must be able to access and share your posts.

* 2. Using the subject line "VGA Competition" Email jillballau@gmail.com with a link to your social media post.

Good Luck

How's your brand?

This morning I read an interesting post from a school librarian who was talking about social media and branding. So much of what she said is also true for genealogists and family historians.

Ashley Cooksey said in her post Social Media Profile and Branding  "One of the most important things a #ConnectedEducator can do is to build a stellar profile and create a social media brand. You may currently be thinking, “a brand is for a company, fast food restaurant, or shoe, not for a teacher.” Well, my friend, I disagree. Your profile gives followers a quick snapshot of who you are as a professional (and a person). Your posts will develop your brand. Think of this as your digital footprint."  The same goes for a Connected Genealogist.

In the article Ashley answers to three questions:

• What do you need to include in your profile?
• What should you post? And how often?
• Why is it important to brand yourself?

I cannot think of many family historians whose content I instantly recognise. Some that I recognise are those with unique usernames/aliases (or as I call them AKAs) like The Chart Chick, Dapper Historian, Lonetester and ScotSue. These unique names have much more meaning than Mary Brown or John Smith. When I enter the search term GeniAus into Google the majority of the results that are returned are about or by me, ie relevant. I imagine that DearMYRTLE has a similar experience but I am sure that poor Mary Brown and John Smith aren't so fortunate. Do you consider the person who may be trying to find your pearls of wisdom via a simple search?

I am astounded when I visit blogs while writing welcome posts for the GeneabloggersTRIBE blog that quite a number of bloggers don't have a Profile or About Me statement. If we want to connect with our readers we must give a little. Have you checked your profile lately? Does it give the reader a hint of your personality and background. Readers like to know a little about those whose ramblings they are reading.

Some genealogists have one photo or graphic across all of their social media channels. Do you recognise these? 

This is a slide from a presentation I am giving at #Congress_2018

EXTRA added an hour later. If you are going to use a photo (unless it's one of you as a child) make sure it is recent and an accurate representation of the everyday you.

The Legal Genealogist has all of this branding stuff sewn up. She has a recognisable AKA, uses the same photo regularly and even wears her pink coat to many geneaevents. I hear that the coat is now threadbare and that Judy has commissioned a replica.

Does your branding need a makeover? Perhaps you should read Ashley's post Social Media Profile and Branding.

Tweaking my Social Media Policy

Way back in 2013 I wrote about my personal social media use after a reading a 2010 post "How Much Social Networking is Too Much?

In the past 4 1/2 years other social media tools have emerged, some have thrived and some withered. I can't keep up with everything so I am reviewing how I use the tools at my disposal. some of these tools are not necessarily social media tools but I am including them because I use them for managing my communication and collaboration.

Below in black font is what I posted in 2013. I will describe my 2018 practices in Red.

Blogger - Essential for my blogging. Still my favourite blogging platform. 

Evernote - My virtual notebook where I store and share all sorts of things. Still my virtual memory/organisation tool.

Facebook - I joined to connect with family and friends and I use it (reluctantly) to connect with the genealogy community. I would rather not use it for genealogy but while others insist on using it I will stay there. Reluctantly I have followed the genealogy crowd to Facebook. I particularly enjoy participating in some Facebook Groups. I also maintain a couple of Facebook Pages.

Google+ - My social media communication and collaboration tool of choice. Sadly other genies haven't shared my enthusiasm for Google+ so although I still announce my blogger posts there I do not share news regularly on Google+ any longer.

Inoreader - The RSS Feed Reader I now use.

Instagram - I have an account but do not use it regularly.

Librarything - I love this tool for managing my reading life and remembering for me what I have read. I remain faithful to Librarything.

LinkedIn - I'll maintain my presence here as it is good to keep in contact with former business contacts. I still have a presence there but I am not an active user.

Pinterest - I have several genealogy boards on Pinterest but I am still just dabbling.

The Old Reader - My new (to me) RSS feed reader. The Old Reader is no longer.

Trello - I came to Trello recently because it is used as a planning/collaboration tool in a group to which I belong.  

Twitter - I have quietened down on Twitter but it is the tool I turn to when at an event and I have something to share. I'm quiet on Twitter but still tweet from events using appropriate hashtags.

Wordpress - I also blog from Wordpress as I thought it useful to be competent in using this platform.

Youtube - A home for the few videos I have made. I have added quite a few videos to my Channel during the past few years.

What do you use? I wonder what we'll be using in 2022?

101 Reasons to Attend #congress_2018

When I was in at SAG the other day I was chatting with a couple of the bods there and they indicated  (probably because they know I am a loudmouth) that I could assist in promoting the 15th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry, www.congress2018.org.au, at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Darling Harbour, Sydney next year.

I jump at any opportunity to promote genealogy downunder and my beautiful city of Sydney so I will use my blog and other social media to share my enthusiasm for Congress. I have only attended the last two Congresses in Adelaide and Canberra (real work previously got in the way) and have found them to be energizing and enriching education events. Since Thursday I have been ruminating on how I can spread the word and decided on a series of blog posts which I will share on social media (it would be helpful if you could share them too and use the hashtag #Congress_2018). I decided on 101 Reasons to Attend #congress_2018  as the header for this topic. I don't know if I'll manage 101 but  I'll give it a shot.

Over the past few years we have witnessed the rise and rise of Facebook as a communication channel for Genealogy so I  have set up a (Unofficial) Facebook Group for Genimates at #Congress_2018. The main purpose of this page will be to connect and communicate with genies who may be interested in attending or hearing about Congress. It will be a place where we can share Congress related news and ask and answer those questions no-one else has yet asked.

If you can suggest a reason to attend Congress please send me a few lines of text (and maybe a pic or two) and I will turn it into a guest post in this series.

Answer to a Facebook Message

I recently got this message in my Facebook stream:

"Hi Jill! Happy Easter!Have you done any blog posts or instructions about how to start a one name study? A man in Vic &  I have *Surname* from County Clare &  we're keen to start a study, but not sure where to start. Thanks".

Well, I have started a Surname study, CurryAus, but even though I am a beginner I have some ideas to share. I thought it would be easiest to do this in a video where I can share my screen so here goes.

I Learn by Doing

Several weeks ago my genimate Shelley (or was it Carmel?) suggested using Open Live Writer to draft posts for our blogs.
Because I learn by trial and error and resort to instructions or manuals on an ás needs’ basis I decided to try out this tool.
As I had a trip to Rootstech on the radar and I knew I was getting a new laptop I put off my experiment until I got back home and became familiar with my new toy.
So today is the day. I have successfully installed the software and linked it to this blog. Now I’m writing the post.
The interface has familiar icons plus a few that are missing from Blogger. There appear to be more options on the Toolbar, I particularly the ‘Insert’ options. As a fan of tables it appears to be easy to insert tables into a post.  Let’s see if I can do it right now

First Name	Last Name	DoB
Matthew	Page	12/09/2012
Jane	Fowles	02/09/1876
Peter	Royds	26/07/1994

I can even insert Emoticons and Bing Maps (but I prefer Google Maps).   
I think the categories bar is the same as tags in Blogger but will have to confirm when I post.
What has got me flummoxed is that the default font for paragraphs is set a 4 points and that even when I change it to 10 I can barely read what I have typed. I think this may be a Wndows 10 issue as it is happening with some other apps.
This is what my input window looks like.


All in all it's looking promising but I would love some assistance to get an input display I can read.

We stayed in the Green Room

In a new experience for me tonight I demonstrated to a group at The Botany Bay Family History Society how Google Hangouts on Air work. I connected with Heather Clarey and members in the Society rooms in Sydney's far south from my kitchen in Sydney's far north.

Heather, who worked from her laptop, had set up a big screen so that the members could see us hang out. I had anticipated that we would Hangout on Air but, so that we speak candidly, I didn't press the record button and we stayed in The Green Room. We did not go  "Live On Air" and have the session recorded to Youtube as it was better for the newbies that we kept our conversation private. Apologies to those in the GeniAus community who were prepared to join in and say G'day to Botany Bay.

GeniAus hanging out with the genies from Botany Bay tonight

I really enjoyed the experience. Heather moved the camera around a bit so I could see the audience and some brave souls commented and asked a question. It was probably good that my image was grainy on the big screen.

Thanks to Heather and The Botany Bay Family History Society for giving me an opportunity to pay a virtual visit to their rooms to chat about Hangouts on Air. 'Twas a great learning experience for me too.

Just saying

https://mobile.twitter.com/bkmkting/status/482948819823259648/photo/1

Browsers for Work and Play

At times I have made some booboos with  social media when I post something under the wrong identity.

I have a simple solution that others may find useful.

I find that by using one browser eg Firefox, when I am wearing my Historical Society hat and a different browser, Chrome, when I am writing as GeniAus I can cut down on those errors I make.

This is not foolproof but it still avoids most slipups.

Hanging out in 2015

After quite a break I have scheduled the first GeniAus  Hangout on Air for 2015. You are invited to join me on Monday evening, 8:00pm Sydney time, to discuss the topic "To do or not to do (over) - that is the question"

Hangout details and RSVP can be found here on Google+:  https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/c4ormfop18fmnobgp5ght2a5cbg.

If you are not a member of the GeniAus Community at Google+ then you might also consider joining.

I  have plans in train for two further Hangouts this month, I will share details as soon as they are firmed up.