Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2017...

The end of 2017 has arrived, and as this will be my last post for the year it’s the perfect time to take a look back over what I’ve accomplished genealogy-wise during the past 12 months. Personally I wouldn’t say I’ve done a lot, which is why I love GeniAus (aka Jill Ball’s) Accentuate the Positive Geneameme.  Not only is it a wonderful way to review your past year of genealogy, but it’s done in way so that you don’t focus on the ‘I didn’t get to do this … or look for that’, but rather focus on what you DID do. Previously Jill has used the following words as an intro to the Accentuate the Positive Geneameme, which explains it well: “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.  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 2017, and life has been rather busy with little research done throughout the year, my responses are less than I’d like, but still some is better than none. Accentuate the Positive 1.  An elusive ancestor I found was … This would have to be my (yet-to-be-100%-proven-but-95%-sure) convict , William Cosgrove. ‘My’ William Cosgrove turns up in Adelaide, South Australia, and...

A Review of 2017 and my Top 5 Posts for the Year...

As the end of 2017 draws near, I like to take a few moments to look back over what I’ve written throughout the year, and remember. For Australia Day I wrote about one of my emigrating families, I wrote a few more Trove Tuesday posts, I took you with me to various events like RootsTech in the US, a number of events held during the South Australian History Festival, Unlock the Past’s Researching Abroad Roadshow, and even on my holiday to Finland, that was fun wasn’t it! I’ve told you about two awesome events that are happening next year … Congress, the big genie conference in Sydney, and the next genealogy cruise, which is an Alaskan one, which will be totally incredible with the scenery, and also the conference (the speakers on it are AMAZING)! I wrote about the amazing story of Mr Lonetester’s great grandpa for Anzac Day, and updated my list of Australian history and genealogy groups on Facebook several times, which grew exponentially over the year. I wrote about copyright, and blog tips and issues, as well as research practice, and what DNA proved for me. And I even made some confessions, including the bright shiny objects (BSOs). Remembrance Day was a post highlighting the honour boards for the men who made “the ultimate sacrifice” from my home town. For something totally different, I wrote about the origins of the top hat, shampoo, and even barber poles. I discovered convict wine (yes, truly). During the year I took part in some blog challenges and geneameme’s, like Genealogy Close Calls from Nutfield Genealogy, and the Five Faves Geneameme from Geniaus, and my own Ancestral Places Geneameme., and the National Family History Month blog challenge. I was honoured to have been nominated in the...

2014: What Are You Thankful For?...

With only a few days until we reach the end of 2014 it seems timely to do a little review. For those who might be new readers here let me tell you that I’m not a resolution-maker. No-sir-ee. In fact I think for many people they do more harm than good by creating a burden. Think about it. If you make a list, revisit it later, and find that you’ve only done half (if that) of what you’d hoped to achieve, that would bum you out, right. And fair enough. While that approach may work for some people, but it’s just not my style. Instead I prefer the approach that Jill Ball took with a geneameme she made in 2012 titled “Accentuate the Positive”, which as you guessed it, focusses on highlighting what you had achieved throughout the year. And another favourite was Judy G. Russell’s Thanksgiving post on “Giving Thanks in 2014” as well. Judy not only writes really well in her posts, but she has a knack of putting things into perspective, which in today’s crazy world can be something we forget. So my aim for this post is the take a look back over the past year, and note what I am thankful for … – I am thankful for my wonderful family: Mr Lonetester who has been with me many years, and is still my best friend. My parents and brother who I work with each day, and we still mostly get along. And my fur-family of cats, who I miss every time I  go away. Life is just not the same without cats. – I am thankful for my job. I really do love my job, afterall I am surrounded by genealogy stuff all...