Accentuate the Positive 2012 Geneameme
Fellow Aussie genealogy friend, and geneablogging extraordinaire Geniaus, has come up with a wonderful way to review the past year of genealogy. And she’s done it so that you don’t focus on the ‘I didn’t get to do this … or look for that’, she’s decided to focus on the what you did do though her Accentuate the Positive 2012 Geneameme.
Geniaus writes:
“I feel that a lot of my geneablogging friends are too hard on themselves; several have reported on their successes this year but quite a number have lamented that they haven’t achieved as much as they set out to do or that they haven’t blogged with the frequency they envisaged. Â I invite you to take part in this activity by responding to the following statements/questions in a blog post. Write as much or as little as you want. Once you have done so please share your post’s link in a comment on this post or to me via social media.
As this applies to research that I’ve done in 2012, and sadly life has been rather busy with little time for it, my responses are sparser than I’d like, but still some is better than none. And I did have a big genealogy happy-dance find so that was useful.
So from the original 20 questions, here’s my responses:
1. Â An elusive ancestor I found was …
I can’t say that I found anyone that was elusive, but I did find a very elusive record so does that count? My genealogy happy dance moment of 2012 happened back in August when I found the discovered the Iron Era newspaper online. This is a small local area newspaper in New Jersey. Through this I found not only Samuel Trewartha’s obituary (husband of my 4x great grandma) that’d I’d been looking for, for several years, but also one for his wife, Charlotte Trewartha (nee Phillips). I didn’t even know she had one, so that was a bonus. But the happy dancing continued when I then discovered that the Dover Area Historical Society had her death record online. You can read my post about both of them here.
2. Â A precious family photo I found was …
An afternoon spent scanning at my grandma’s place revealed a lot of old photographs that I’d never seen before, but here’s two that I wish to share.
– the first is a baby photo of my grandpa Horace ‘Ron’ Phillips born 1921
– the second is the earliest known photograph that I have of my grandma Valda Phillips (nee Winter). She’s here with her 3 sisters (Mavis, Joyce and Betty)
Horace Ronald ‘Ron’ Phillips, age 7 months in 1922
Joyce, Betty, Mavis, Valda Winter, c.1935
3. Â An ancestor’s grave I found was …
I didn’t get to any cemeteries in 2012, maybe 2013
4. Â An important vital record I found was …
Now that would have to be Charlotte Trewartha’s death record (see Question 1)
5. Â A newly found family member who shared …
Out of the blue I had a new person contact me through finding my blog post relating to the Randell Family Bible. Deb is currently researching the Sinkinson family, and my Randell married a Sinkinson. And while the Sinkinson line isn’t one that I’m currently researching she’s happily shared information with me. One day I’ll pursue that line. So many branches, so little time 😉
6. Â A geneasurprise I received was …
How many convicts my hubby is related to, which is 16 so far. Now that’s just fun for me! Love those convict records.
7. Â My 2012 blog post that I was particularly proud of was …
That would have to be my Family History Through the Alphabet: C is for Convicts post as well as the Family History Through the Alphabet: P is for Charlotte Phillips post.
8. Â My 2012 blog post that received a large number of hits or comments was …
My post Facebook and Genealogy: 100 links for Australian Researchers attracted a whole heap of hits. This post started out as an idea on a much smaller scale, but as I kept finding sites, I kept adding them, so it grew to 100.
9. Â A new piece of software I mastered was …
I would say far from mastered … but I have started tinkering with is TreeDraw, lets hope I get some time in 2013 to master it.
10. A social media tool I enjoyed using for genealogy was …
I’ve narrowed it down to three (sorry too hard to pick just one). It has to be Twitter for all the latest genealogy goss and news, my blogs to be able to personally tell the world what I have to say, and Facebook for staying in touch with near and distant reli’s.
11. A genealogy conference/seminar/webinar from which I learnt something new was …
Working for a commercial genealogy company (Gould Genealogy & History) I don’t actually tend to go to a lot of the events, rather I’m left behind to man the shop or the mail order department while others go. However I did make it to Congress which was held in Adelaide, and also to the Queensland Expo in Brisbane. Yes I was there exhibiting, not sitting in on the talks, but you can still learn a lot from chatting to others, including other exhibitors.
12. I am proud of the presentation I gave at/to …
While I’m no public speaker, I do chat one-on-one to many customers at work, answering their questions and giving advice on where to look or what records to look for etc. And when I can feel their excitement, and their eagerness to get home and start searching, Â that’s rewarding and puts a smile on my face for the whole day.
13. A journal/magazine article I had published was …
I’m not a published writer as such, just a person in the background with no formal genealogy training, just a lifetime’s experience of growing up and working in the industry. But my little lonetester HQ that you’re currently reading did make it into Inside History Magazine’s Top 50 Blogs to follow in their Issue 10 magazine. 😉
14. I taught a friend how to …
– There’s two people that come to mind for this question. Firstly I did help one friend start her family tree. This included teaching her how to fill in a family group sheet and pedigree chart, how to make their way around Cyndis List and FamilySearch, and giving her a bunch of good websites to start looking on. It was good for me to get taken right back to the beginning, and give her info in baby steps.
– The other friend I introduced to Trove. And as anyone who looks on Trove knows, what you find is usually quite phenomenal.
15. A genealogy book that taught me something new was …
Honestly every genealogy book I read I learn something from, even to the point of I have a pen and pad when I read genealogy magazines so I can note info and websites. Anyway the latest genealogy-related book I have read is ‘Digital Imaging Essentials‘ by Geoff Rasmussen. In it I learnt about treating my original digital photos as negatives, and as such NEVER EVER alter those, always use a copy. Also that Photoshop Essentials 10 is a great photo filing program [note: I must look at that further].
16. A great repository/archive/library I visited was …
Actually none come to mind, but I really must go visit the lovely people at the Gumeracha & District History Centre, since pretty much everything housed there is connected to my family in some way.
17. A new genealogy/history book I enjoyed was …
See Question 15.
18. It was exciting to finally meet …
My geneablogger friends. Â At the AFFHO Congress in Adelaide we managed to get a geneablogger photo, and also at the Queensland Expo. Since then I have also had the pleasure of meeting Catherine Crout-Habel when she popped in at work.
19. A geneadventure I enjoyed was …
Organising and taking part in the Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge. It was fun, it was a challenge, and it was great to meet so many other geneabloggers from around the world participating.
20. Another positive I would like to share is …
How wonderful it is being a part of the geneablogging and online genealogy community.
9 Responses to “Accentuate the Positive 2012 Geneameme”
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Thankyou lovely Alona for responding to the Geneameme.
You have had a great year and the crowning glory must be The Family History through the Alphabet Challenge – what a great idea that you curated so well.
It’s fab to have a young geneablogging friend like you who is so passionate about her work and hobby.
Aww thanks for the kind words Jill. And I really have to thank you and the 35+ others who took part in the Alphabet Challenge. I guarantee that it it was just me doing it, it really wouldn’t have had the same impact. Here’s to much more geneablogging in 2013!
A great list of accomplishments Alona…you must love genealogy since it’s something of a busman’s holiday for you on top of the day job.nThe FH Alphabet was FUN! Thank you for all you do.
Thank you for your comments Pauleen, and yes I do have a passion for genealogy – just the usual “not enough time”. But I do what I can 😉
Alona, your ‘Family History through the Alphabet’ series was absolutely brilliant. I had to stop half way when Real Life got in the way of blogging, but before too long I intend to resume where I left off. It was lovely to catch up with you at genealogy events during 2012, and I hope it isn’t too long before we meet in person again.
I forgot to say… I used an early version of Treedraw many, many years ago, and I liked it. I really must get around to downloading the latest edition.
Hi Alona I’ve nominated you for Blog of the Year 2012 Award you can see the details here http://www.shaunahicks.com.au/blog-of-the-year-award/
Great article. This is an interesting post, I really enjoyed reading it. BTW, if anyone needs to fill out a Family Group Sheet, I found a blank form here http://goo.gl/PSrK2L. This site PDFfiller also has some tutorials how to fill it out and a few related forms that you might find useful.
Thanks for the comment, and for the link Paul. That looks very cool.