It’s geneameme time, but I can’t take any credit for this one as it began by me sharing post from The Family Curator blog, on “Top 5 Family Heirlooms They Actually Want to Inherit” … if you haven’t read it, take a moment to do so, as it’s a great post. Anyway a comment on that from fellow geneablogger Jen of the Conversations with Grandma blog said …

“An idea for a Geneameme Alona? “Five heirlooms in my family”? Or similar.”

So wallah … we have a new geneameme.

For the “Heirloom Geneameme” simply pick 5 of your family heirlooms, and write a post about them. Sounds easy? I found it harder than I expected.

Well firstly let’s define what an heirloom is. The dictionary says it’s “a valuable object that has belonged to a family for several generations.”

Now those who’ve been following me for a while, will know that one side of my family are hoarders. But in the good ‘everything is an heirloom sense’, not in the ‘junk piled to the ceiling sense’, so we have a house FULL of heirlooms. The other side  of my family … well, we have a couple of photos. Anyway having so many, certainly makes it challenging to choose … and I changed my mind about fifty two times (before, during and even after writing this). But here are five of my family’s heirlooms (in no particular order) …

RANDELL FAMILY BIBLE
This bible was owned by my great grandparents Ella Alice Sinkinson and John Beavis ‘JB’ Randell who married in 1899. It is huge, it is heavy (I’d guess about 15kgs), and is starting to fall apart … so great care is needed when handling it. The publication date of the bible is 1881, but going by the handwriting I’d say the bible was either obtained in the 1910s-1920s, or else they had it earlier, and just didn’t write it it until later. As far as family bible’s go, we’re fortunate that they actually filled it in AND even added in some photos (though sadly we don’t know who they all are). For more on the Randell Family Bible, click here.

the giant Randell family bible

and here’s me photographing it (as you do)

the Births page in the bible

GRANDMA’S BRIDESMAID’S DRESS
My grandma (Evelyn Randell) was one of the many thousands who were war bride. My grandpa (Cec Hannaford) signed up to fight in WW2 and In May 1941, when he had a few days leave, they got married, before he headed back to the barracks for more training, and headed overseas shortly afterwards. While I don’t have my grandma’s wedding dress … I do have one of her bridesmaid’s dresses. And since times were tough, and everything was being rationed and clothing was shared – it’s surprising that we even have that. I’m pretty sure this would have been belonged to her sister (Dorothy Randell), the one second from the left in the photo below … and boy she was a stick. I’m not large, but there’s no way I can fit into this dress … not without forcefully giving it new seams in the process. Anyway we found someone of similar stature, who was happy to ‘model’ it for us. The dress is starting to show its age, but being 76 years old – it really is in pretty good condition. I wrote about Evelyn and Cec’s wedding here.

the whole wedding party, 31 May 1941

the bridesmaid dress in 2017

THE TREASURE TIN
I don’t know about you, but I love looking in boxes and containers, and albums and everything … you just never know what you’ll find. And I must say there have been many surprises. However probably none quite as much as finding old tattered looking tin (“treasure tin” as I call it), that belonged to Phebe Randell (nee Robbins) – my great great grandma. This tin is choc full of letters, cards, some photos, store receipts, newspaper cuttings etc … in other words, lots of ephemera, and much of it is from the 1860s-1870s.

I’ll admit I still haven’t read all the letters, but there is one fascinating one from her brother who was on a voyage to the Northern Territory, to look for a suitable place the for the capital – and it wasn’t going to be Darwin. You can read more about that here.

So I need to make time, to go through each and every item. Document them all, as well as scanning them of course. So who knows what else I’ll discover in these letters. Fun times ahead!

Phebe’s treasure tin

this is some of what’s in the tin

letter from Gumeracha (Gumeracka) dated 16 September 1865

more ephemera from the tin

EVA’S BIBLE
Another heirloom that my family has, is a bible. Actually to be perfectly honest, as many of my relatives were ‘godly’ folk, we have many bibles. However this one was special, as it was also a wedding present. Born in Ireland, Robert McCullough studied to be a minister at Charles Spurgeon’s “Pastor’s College” in London, and then emigrated to Australia in 1879 where he ministered at Fitzroy, Victoria, and then subsequently Longford and Hobart in Tasmania, and the Mount Barker, in South Australia. Eva Richardson was said to have been his first convert, and who became his wife on 18 May 1881.

So this bible is a real treasure. Without the inscription this bible would be ‘just an old bible’. With it, I now know that my great great grandpa, the Reverend Robert McCullough gave this bible to his wife Eva Richardson on their wedding day back in May 1881, and doesn’t that make it so much more special.

it really is an ordinary looking bible – albeit well used

and inside

ooh an inscription …

Robert’s inscription in Eva’s bible

OTTO’S WW1 MILITARY PHOTO
The photo below is one of my great grandpa (Otto Winter), and is from the side of my family that has very few heirlooms, which I guess is partly why it is a real treasure. Otto was born in Finland, but left as he refused to join the Russian army which was compulsory at the time. After sailing the world on merchant ships for a number of years, he jumped ship in Australia he became naturalised, and when the call for men to join the war was issued, he signed up and fought as an Australian soldier. For more on Otto Winter click here. He was injured, but survived, and even signed up for WW2 when that began.

Otto joined the Australian Army in 1916

So why not take part in this geneameme, and share some of your family’s heirlooms.

And thanks again to Denise and Jen for providing the inspiration.

Every year we spend who knows how much on ‘stuff’. Stuff for ourselves during the year, and stuff for friends and family at birthdays and Christmas time. I’m not saying this is wrong, or even useless … but maybe you could consider giving one extra gift this year.

At just $25 it’s not expensive, and you can help change someone’s life.

Kiva is a non-profit site that offers microloans to people. Someone might need money to help put a roof on their house, to buy a cow or chicken, or seeds so they can plant and get food, money so they can get supplies for their shop, or even just get clean water … all things we take for granted. But it means the world to people elsewhere. Your $25 goes towards what they need.

I was introduced to Kiva through fellow Aussie genealogist, Judy Webster, who created the Kiva group “Genealogists for Families“. Judy has continued her father’s tradition of lending money to hard-working people who want support but not handouts. Your $25 can be loaned over and over again, and as it is repaid, it does more good than a one-time donation to charity. Judy created this group in September 2011, has since then it has continually grown. Currently the Genealogists for Families group has 351 members (made up of geneapeeps from all around the world) who have collectively supplied loans to 9455 people. Impressive isn’t it!

Here’s some other impressive figures …

But it’s not so much the amount lent, or even the numbers of those lent to … but rather the fact that these people have then been able to continue on with life a little easier thanks to the loan.

So while you’re out and about Christmas shopping, and wondering decorations you need to buy for the Christmas table, take a moment to think about those who need basic supplies to live, and see if you can spare $25 for them as well.

To loan to someone you simply go to www.kiva.org, choose a borrower, say how much you’d like to loan, and click on loan. After that you’ll then get payment repayments and updates each month.

Note: Anyone, anywhere can loan on Kiva. You do not have to be a genealogist. But if you are, and love the idea, why not join Judy’s Genealogists for Families group? Every loan helps.

Further information …
Kiva website – http://www.kiva.org
Genealogists for Families group on Kiva – http://www.kiva.org/team/genealogists
Genealogists for Families blog – http://genfamilies.blogspot.com/

Eight years ago, the way of historical and genealogical research in Australia changed forever. Trove went live.

Created by the National Library of Australia, the Trove website is a portal to their absolutely incredible collection of records.

By “absolutely incredible”, I’m talking millions of records. But not “just” millions. How about 554,000,000 of them? That’s right, over HALF A BILLION of them in fact! All online and all free to search. So how lucky are we?

There’s no doubt that Trove is Australia’s number 1 website for research. If it’s not yours, it should be! So go and bookmark it www.trove.nla.gov.au now.

If you’re not familiar with Trove, take a quick look at the videos below that give you a quick overview, of what it is, and the different facets to it.

So you’ll find photos, journals and articles, archived websites, government gazettes, music, sound and video recordings, diaries and letters, maps and books, even vintage issues of the Women’s Weekly magazine. They all make up the phenomenal collection of Australian history that the National Library of Australian (NLA) looks after. For more a detailed analysis on using Trove and all it’s facets, check out Shauna Hicks’ “Trove: Discover Genealogy Treasure in the National Library of Australia“.

the stats as at 1 December 2017

However what most researchers (myself included) head to Trove for, is their historical newspaper collection. And why wouldn’t we, they are so fun. And with over 200 million pages of old newspaper online already – there are so many stories just waiting to be found.

The blog theme “Trove Tuesday” was started back in 2012 by Amy Houston of the Branches Leaves and Pollen blog, [note, I know the link has changed, but I still wanted to give her the credit], and through its creation, has inspired so many to find and share their amazing discoveries using Trove.

Just having a quick look through my own Trove Tuesday posts, and I’ve done articles on obituaries, the opening of a butter factory, drink ‘driving’, a hanging, a duel, several WW1 and WW2 related entries, local football match, Adelaide’s water supply, gold, South Australian pioneers, an earthquake, Christmas, the plague, a sudden death, a ploughing match … and so much more.

None of this would have been easily accessible without the online newspapers on Trove. The detail in a newspaper article is often better than you’ll find anywhere else , so it is a valuable source of information.

So I wish to say a huge CONGRATULATIONS to the National Library of Australia team for Trove’s 8th birthday, and THANKYOU, THANKYOU, THANKYOU for giving us the present of Trove.

And one last note, if you come across the following terms, here are their definitions:
– BT – before Trove
– pre-Trove – life before Trove
– post-Trove – life after Trove went live
– Troveite – a person addicted to searching Trove’s newspapers
and for even more Trove related lingo, be sure to check out a heap more at Carmel’s Library Currents blog

Related Articles:
13 Tips For Searching Trove’s Historical Newspapers

While I know of a few couples who both research their family history, I believe that most of us have non-genie partners.

Putting it simply, our partners have to put up with a lot. Our excitement at finding something. Our frustration at not! Our telling the latest story about great aunt so-and-so who went to jail. The detours we make them take so we can visit a cemetery on the way … and so on.

While they may not understand us, or want to do research themselves, we should be thankful for our non-genie partners as they accept us as we are.

While I’m sure it’s obvious enough, here’s a list of 21 signs to show that your partner just isn’t into genealogy as much as you.

1. They believe that your dining table is to be used as a dining table, not your genealogy storage desk
2. For a day outing they suggest going to the zoo, where as you’d suggest going to the archives
3. The places they suggest for a holiday include camping, resorts or theme parks, rather than ancestral towns and cemeteries
4. They simply don’t share your excitement at finding your great great grandpa’s immigration record
5. Or that someone has contacted you via DNA connection, which shows you have a whole new branch to explore
6. To them an ‘old photo’ is an old photo. To you it’s a mystery to discover (the who, when, where, and why)
7. They don’t understand your complete horror when they throw out photos and documents!!
8. They don’t understand the phrases “download a Gedcom” or “upload raw data”
9. For a present they give you a CD and box of chocolates, when you’ve been hanging out to get another DNA kit, and the brand new genealogy book
10. Still on presents and everyone loves birthday money. But while they birthday money for something on the garden or car, yours goes towards buying more certificates!
11. Scroll through the pics on their phone and it’ll show scenery, friend pics and food pics, while yours largely consists of headstones, photos of old family pics, and pics of documents from a recent visit to the archives
12. Their bookshelf consists of lots of novels, while your bookshelf consists of lots of family histories and genealogy magazines
13. You can name their family lines going back 5 generations, but they can only name back to their grandparents
14. They don’t appreciate the effort you put in to making your grandma’s favourite cake. From translating the recipe from old-school measurements, to even finding the ingredients (or the current day equivalents)
15. They believe you when you say ‘just 5 more minutes’
16. Their social media friend list consists of friends they know from work and study, your friend list consists of people your know through genealogy
17. They get excited about a new movie that’s just been released, while you get excited about a new batch of new records that’s has just gone online
18. Their eyes glaze over when you tell them about your latest find on the old newspapers site
19. Their dream house has a sunroom and pool, while yours has a library and your very own genealogy room
20. A brickwall to you is very different to a brick wall to them.
21. You ask them to read your latest genealogy writing – and they take one look and say ‘done’

So thankyou to the long-suffering non-genie partners, who simply let us do our thing, and in doing so we get to dig all the dirt in their family tree.