On the Road Again

I've been neglecting the blog for a few days but have been very busy discussing and sharing family information with various members of my husband's family.

Around eight years ago we connected via Genes Reunited with a branch of the Gowans family from Scotland. We have visited our new cousin in England on a number of occasions and he has finallly made the trip down under. We have been dragging this poor chap all over the countryside to meet cousins and see the sights. We are now en route to Melbourne for a very exciting meeting before we pass him on to his friends.

I have previously blogged about my husband's ancestor, James Gowans, who was a clock and watchmaker in East Linton, Galashiels and Hawick. A serendipitous result of a Google search for "Gowans clock" a few months ago was the discovery that there was a Gowans longcase clock in The Scienceworks Museum in Victoria. So today I am accompanying two rather excited gentlemen on a journey to meet the clock made by their direct ancestor around 170 years ago.

Hopefully I will be back in the bumpy backseat this afternoon blogging about the meeting.

Geniaus is back

After a relaxing few weeks floating around the Adriatic and Mediterranean with Mr Geniaus on two very different cruise vessels I have returned to Australia and am ready to get stuck into family history once more. The only spot of family history I did was a catchup with a distant cousin in Horningsham, Wiltshire,whom I had initially discovered through Genes Reunited.

I have many News and RSS feeds to go through and will share any relevant gems with you on this blog. Please take a look at the shared items box on the left hand side of the blog to see some news and info I have found..

ITV's Genes Reunited site adds Virtual Earth maps function - Marketing news - Marketing magazine

ITV's Genes Reunited site adds Virtual Earth maps function - Marketing news - Marketing magazine

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I've found two siblings I never knew I had (From Billericay Weekly News)

A Genes Reunited success story:

I've found two siblings I never knew I had (From Billericay Weekly News)

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Genes Reunited Facelift

I just logged in to Genes Reunited to reply to some messages. As the page was loading I thought that I'd made a mistake with the URL as it looked different. Since I last logged in the site has had a facelift, gone is the crisp white background to be replaced by a dull blue wallpaper. Apart from cosmetic changes the only thing I noticed that was different was the loss of the ability to sort Hot Matches by date.

Genes Reunited - Good value for $19.95

I've had a subscription to Genes Reunited since 2004. For only $19.95 per annum I have been put in contact with around 200 persons on three continents who have links to my tree. The security on the site appears to be excellent with one's personal details kept private. Subscribers are able to control how much or little information they share with others. I am once again renewing my subscription and look forward to meeting more distant cousins over the coming year.

A highlight was linking up wiht my husband's Gowans cousins in the UK. We have visited twice and been able to view their extensive collection of family memorabilia.