Australia Day Blog Challenge: My Earliest Australian Ancestor

Australia Day is here, and I’ve just finished working on my post for the 2013 Australia Day Blog Challenge which is to write about my ‘earliest Australian ancestor’ as suggested by Helen V. Smith.

So I’ve spent two weeks pondering just WHO to write about. And you know when you get married the whole “what’s-yours-is-mine- thing”, well that means I’ve adopted all of my hubby’s reli’s too, so I’ve decided to write about Mr Lonetester’s earliest Australian ancestor, his 5x great grandpa (which makes Mr Lonestester a 7th generation Aussie). Anyway meet …

Can You Spare $25?

On occasions I might blog about something other than genealogy – this is one of those times. Today I’m talking about Kiva.

As tough as times are this economic climate, $25 isn’t really a huge amount – we’ll not for most of us. And wouldn’t it be good if you could do something really good with it like loan it to someone who really, really needs help ? “You said loan right”? That’s right … you loan $25 and your money is paid back to you.

So let me tell you about Kiva …
Kiva (www.kiva.org) is a company that allows you to do “micro-loans” (ie. $25). Its tagline is “loans that change lives”, and it really does, and I’m proud to do my bit towards that.

Time to Pack My Bags … well Almost!

You know it’s just over 3 weeks and I’ll be on this boat. Yes that mega-ship that’s pictured below.  Yes, it’s true. Unlock the Past’s 3rd History & Genealogy Cruise which has always ‘next year’ is actually only literally days away. So now I’m trying to get my head around what to pack for a 9 day cruise (and a geneacruise at that) from Sydney to Fiji and back.

So it’ll be me and about 4000 others on the boat. But of those there will be about 150 other genealogy nuts to hang out with, not to mention share research tips and stories with. So it’s a huge boat, and between all the seminars that are scheduled, and my desire to walk everywhere rather than use the lifts (that’ll be my exercise while onboard)

Trove Tuesday: If Only They Were All Like That

Ever since Amy Houston from the Branches Leaves and Pollen blog started her Trove Tuesday theme last year, it has been something that I wanted to participate in, but time hasn’t permitted me until now. So for my very first Trove Tuesday post I would like to share with you the amazing obituary I have found for Edward Curran.

Let me state that Edward isn’t anyone that I am related to, I was simply looking him up when I was helping a friend with some further leads. And I must say that I’ve seen obits before, but this one is seriously good stuff “if only all obituaries were like this, it would certainly answer quite a number of questions”.