The Bucket List - Geneameme

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Happy domesticity (1936)
Real photo postcard. Postally unused.
Found at the Camberwell Markets, Melbourne, Australia.
From Pellethepoet on Flickr

Jill from Geniaus suggested this meme.  Here are the guidelines:
 
The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you would like to do or find: Bold Type
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments after each item


  1. The genealogy conference I would most like to attend is...
This may seem a little ethnocentric but I would like to attend the 13th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry so I can catch up with old friends in Adelaide.

  1. The genealogy speaker I would most like to hear and see is...
It’s a toss up between Jenny Higgins and Paul Nixon.  Jenny works at the National Library of Australia and I am really interested in the family history reference training courses she has developed for National reader services library staff.  Paul works for findmypast and also has an interest in military history so I think he would have lots of useful tips and advice to give.

  1. The geneablogger I would most like to meet in person is...
 Now see this is tough because I would like to meet all my fellow Australian geneabloggers particularly Jill and Pauleen but I confess I would really like to meet Thomas MacIntee because he is so amazing in terms of productivity and I would like to thank him for all he has done.  I would also really like to know how he self-organizes because it must be poetry in motion to watch!!

  1. The genealogy writer I would most like to have dinner with is…
 Dan Lynch…he sounds a really nice guy….

  1. The genealogy lecture I would most like to present is….
Well I don’t know that like is really the operative verb…..like most people I find public speaking a challenge and seem to discover a new speech impediment every time I have to present in public – but – if I had to do it – I would probably feel most comfortable with Beginning Your Family History….

  1. I would like to go on a genealogy cruise that visits….
I really don’t care where it visits though if I am to be realistic about what I could afford we’re probably talking New Zealand or the Pacific.  I live in eternal hope that one day I will be able to go on one of these cruises…..

  1. The photo I would most like to find is…
Hmmm, that’s a tough one…for a while there it was a photo of Thomas Daw, my husband’s great-great-grandfather but now I reckon I would know what he would look like…the Daw men tend to be peas in a pod.  I would like to find a copy of either of my grand-parents wedding photos but I’m not holding out much hope as I was an only child and my mother was an only child and my paternal grandmother was famous for popping stuff in the incinerator to clean stuff up when people died….sigh.

  1. The repository in a foreign land I would most like to visit is…
 Ooh the Archives in Barbados  or the Museum and Historical Society please…..

  1. The place of worship I would most like to visit is...
I confess that this is not really a priority for me.  I’ve been to many many places of worship over the years.

  1. The cemetery I would most like to visit is ......
Once again…not a huge priority for me though I would like to get down to Ballina and check out Martha Sarsfield Johnson (nee Donovan) and William Johnson’s graves.

Stirling Scotland
Valentine's postcard of Stirling, Scotland, c1940
from Adelaide Archivist Jenny Scott on Flickr

  1. The ancestral town or village I would most like to visit is......
I am a complete sucker for Scotland so let’s say St. Ninian’s and Inverary.  Though I really would like to go back to Portsmouth again.

  1. The brick wall I most want to smash is...
 Whatever happened to Robert James Daw - my husband's great-grandfather?  After he spent some time as a guest of His Majesty....where did he go - leaving three sons behind him in an orphanage?  What did he do?  Where is he buried?

  1. The piece of software I most want to buy is....
 I think I’m all softwared out at the moment….

  1. The tech toy I want to purchase next is .....
Oooh – tough one….maybe a portable recorder for recording oral history interviews would be the most sensible…though a portable scanner is tempting too…

  1. The expensive book I would most like to buy is...
So many books and you ask me to choose one????  Tracing Your Ancestors in the NationalArchives or Ancestral Trails.

  1. The library I would most like to visit is.....
Can I only pick one library?  Really?  Well….this library has absolutely nothing to do with my genealogy (to my knowledge) …I’d just like to visit it because it looks fabulous – Trinity College Library Dublin.  If you want to waste some time check out this blog.

  1. The genealogy related book I would most like to write is....
 A history of Robert’s or my family.

  1. The genealogy blog I would most like to start would be about....
Another blog…..noooooooo!  Okay let’s be serious for a second and say that I would like to write a better looking blog….I suspect this is only possible with WordPress but I love the ease of blogger…..I need to read Thomas MacIntee's hints more closely here..and also read the e-book I bought from Amy Coffin here.

  1. The journal article I would most like to write would be about...
Well there’s a bit of me that thinks I should write one about my research in Barbados because there isn’t much on that and other researchers might think it is impossible to do…and then there’s another one that I think I could write about which is being a teacher in country Queensland in the late 19th and early 20th Century.

  1. The ancestor I most want to meet in the afterlife is....
KateAmelia Forfar (nee Ellis) – I reckon she was one helluva character!

Is there anything else on your Genealogy Bucket List?  

No, I think I’d better get a bigger bucket if I want to put more in it!!

Comments

GeniAus said…
Thrilled that you took up the meme challenge, Alex.

I am enjoying all of your blog posts - thanks for taking up geneablogging.
January 28, 2012 at 1:57 PM
Ann ODyne said…
I do love your husband's names list with Proverbs, Pill and Rock.
I was born an adjective, and married a noun.
My Brick-Wall is the McDonalds who had their son in Karrachee 1847 while stationed there in an army regiment. William McDonald is such a common name I could scream at them for not calling him Elvis.
If I could talk to some of my ancestors it would be to scream "What! were you thinking?" I want to talk to that GGGfather I posted on, as he too has not got a good parent trail and I don't know his father's name. Good luck with yours
January 30, 2012 at 11:18 AM
Helen Connor said…
Hi Alex
From your blog I guess you are related to Martha Sarsfield Donovan Johnson - she is my 3rd g grandmother - I would love to get in touch with you - I live in Brisbane
November 22, 2013 at 2:07 PM
Paul Cox said…
Do you have any detail as to if the grave of Martha Sarsfield Donovan is visible in Ballina?
She is my grandmother x 5 generations. I am also in Brisbane and we pop down to Ballina now and then.
November 30, 2013 at 7:18 AM
Alex Daw said…
Hi Paul

I'm sorry I don't know if there is any visible gravestone....hence the desire to go and have a look. If I went that way I would want to pop into the local family history society as well and see what, if any, information they had. There seems to be a number of us in Brisbane. Perhaps we should have a combined excursion ?
November 30, 2013 at 8:07 AM
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