T is one of the few letters that I knew right from the beginning what I wanted to right about – annnnd have stuck to it. So for T in the Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge, I would like to say that

T is for TEDDY BEARS

I don’t there’s too many of us that weren’t given a teddy bear, or something similar as a baby. But how many of you still have your treasured teddy? I know some would, but in asking that question an awful lot of hands would have gone down.

I wanting to share two very special teddy bears with you today – these are heirloom teddy bears.

As has happened many times throughout this Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge already, I changed my mind of what to write about for this letter. I was going to write about the Star of New Zealand ship, but have decided to save that one for another day. So now …

S is for SEARCHING

Putting it simply genealogists are searchers. We are detectives, we hunt down all the clues and piece them together one by one, which ultimately makes our family history, and to help us do this we use the internet, naturally. But with the many, many millions of genealogy websites, big and small, together with all the message boards, forums, blogs out there just how do you find what you’re looking for? The answer is to learn the art of searching … that’s how. Because HOW you search can radically change the results you get, and help narrow your focus.

Behind every researcher there is a great big, huge, pile of reference books that they constantly use to help them along the way. This pile of reference books can start right from the beginning when you are an amateur researcher, and continues right through to the professionals. And just to be clear, I’m not confining this habit of collecting reference books just to family history researchers … but shall go as far as saying that it encompasses ALL researchers, in ALL fields. So for R my post in the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge

R is for REFERENCE BOOKS

Now to bring this topic back to genealogy … well, I for one know that I would be lost without my reference books.

While I have generally used this blog to talk about my family history and genealogy, today I’d like to take a moment to remember Gizmo. He was one of my cats, but he was not just ‘a cat’, he was a member of my family. Giz was just a few months old when he joined us, and has been there everyday since for the past 12 years.

Yesterday started with trip to the vet for Giz, and it ended with Mr Lonetester and I having to make the decision that all pet owner’s dread. While I know we made the right call, sadly it did result in Gizmo, also known as the world’s friendliest cat no longer being with us.