Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2022

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Alex and her bestie Loani showing off the quilt made for Caspar's birthday


1. I was happy to go back to ... after a Covid absence

Face-to-face conferences, meetings, and workshops.

2. In 2022 I was particularly proud of writing ...

as many of my 52Ancestorsin52week blog posts as I could. 36 in total.

3. A new software package or web application I embraced was ...

I kept going with PowerPoint in terms of presentations and was very brave and did a presentation at a SAG hangout in March.  I had lots of egg on my face in terms of working out the sound but the SAG convenors were just lovely and very encouraging.  Onwards and upwards.  

I also set up a Mastodon account for both myself and QFHS late in the year.  






I played with the MyHeritage DeepStory tool and the AI Time Machine™.  (see photos above)

I never knew my maternal grandmother as she died before I was born.  Many people find DeepStory a bit creepy but I found that it engaged my adult children more than conventional tools. You can see it in action here

I also loved attending an introduction to podcasting session at Brisbane City Council libraries and look forward to acting on that one day.

I had a crack at downloading and using Scrivener but I'm not a convert yet I'm afraid.

At QFHS we purchased a Meeting Owl or voice-activated 360-degree camera and microphone system to try and improve our Zoom sessions in terms of both sound and vision.  It's a learning curve but I think it has helped.

Last but not least, the lovely Sue Reid, introduced a group of us to Zotero which I look forward to using for my citations in the future.




4.  My sledgehammer did great work on this brick wall ...

I found a townland for one of my Irish ancestors which is just brilliant.  The Mulhollands 

5. A new genealogy/history book that sparked my interest was ...

Ooh so many - I purchased, borrowed and/or read for my own collection:

A History of Brixton by Alan Piper

Mastering Genealogical Proof by Thomas W Jones on Kindle

The Big Genealogy Blog Book by Amy Coffin on Kindle

Declutter Your Photo Life: Curating, Preserving, Organizing, and Sharing Your Photos by Adam Pratt on Kindle

The Asylum by Nathan Dylan Goodwin

Urban Development In 19th Century London: Lambeth, Battersea & Wandsworth 1838 1888 by Janet Roebuck (an inter-library loan)

Writing True Stories: The complete guide to writing autobiography, memoir, personal essay, biography, travel and creative nonfiction by Patti Miller

Of bricks and men: Recollection of Handley's Woodside Brickworks, Croydon and of local historian John Gent

The London Encyclopedia by Ben Weinreb

River Dreams: the people and landscape of the Cook's River by Ian R Tyrrell

 the A-Z of Victorian London by Ralph Hyde

The Wilson Mills of Bannockburn, 





Brighton through Time by Judy Middleton

Below Stairs: The Bestselling Memoirs of a 1920s Kitchen Maid by Margaret Powell (for the mention of my ancestor's bakery - Forfars)

Hove & Portslade through time by Judy Middleton

Lost Brighton by Christopher Horlock

Tracing Your Sligo Ancestors by James G Ryan and 

The Good Genealogist by Danielle Lautrec.

The Sawtooth Slayer (Venator Cold Case Series Book 2) by Nathan Dylan Goodwin

Purchases for QFHS were on the slim side this year because of our relocation but I really loved seeing our new copy of 

Dating by Design by Steve Gill - I highly recommend this to everyone.  A very beautiful and easy-to-read production and a great reference tool.


6. A geneasurprise I received was ....

To be asked to speak at GSQ's Writing Seminar in June.  A very great honour. And also SAG asked me to speak as part of their Let's Talk About session on publishing in March. 

7.  In 2022 I finally met ...

Helen Cossins the Local History Leader at Moreton Bay Libraries.  She kindly asked me to do a talk on family history blogging at Arana Hills Library during August our National Family History Month. Do browse their local history collection.  It's just brilliant.


Arana Hills Library looking more beautiful than ever


8.  Locating ... gave me great joy

The Family Search Remote Access Request service

9.  I am pleased the Covid situation caused me to change ...

into retirement last year.  I now have way more time to spend on family history.

10. I progressed my DNA research by ...

Giving my son an Ancestry DNA test for Xmas

11.  An informative journal or newspaper article I found was ...

I loved finding Lieut J. Cook R.N. of Coshams' obituary in the Hampshire Telegraph 3rd February 1928

12. I was pleased I could contribute to ...

QFHS as part of the management committee when elected in June.  I also hosted a Talking About Libraries session for QFHS in May and wrote a research guide to QFHS Resources for researching naval ancestors. 

I was also pleased to coordinate National Family History Month in August which was generously supported by so many sponsors and wonderful speakers. 

I continued to contribute to the fabulous #ANZAncestryTime Twitter session once a month on a Tuesday night.  This series has now finished its course but you can catch up on the summary of the last chat and others here on Sue's blog.


Allana, Pat and Alex at Government House


It was fun representing QFHS at the Governor's Open Day at Government House with President Allana and my beautiful sister-in-law Pat and then again a week later with a band of volunteers at the Sands of Time Conference.


Alex at the stand at Sands of Time Conference at Redcliffe


And did I mention we relocated QFHS in the latter half of the year?  Does anyone want a box?????



13.  ... taught me how to ...

SAG, GSQ and QFHS seminars kept me in the loop with all manner of workshops, special interest groups and events including creating a heritage cookbook, historic ordnance survey maps, the new SAG Scottish Research group, life in Victorian Britain et al..  

14. I got a thrill from opening someone's eyes to the joy of genealogy ...

see Point 10 and also working with a student placement at QFHS for two weeks.

15. The best value I got for my genealogy dollars was ... 

being a member of QFHS and SAG

16. A DNA discovery I made was ...

This is my weak area of family history research and much more needs to be done in this area.

17. I enjoyed my first post-Covid face-to-face event because ...

There is nothing like talking to people face to face.  You get stuff done so much quicker.

18. A fabulous event I attended was ...

The Opening Ceremony of National Family History Month.  Larissa Behrendt's talk was so inspiring.

19. I'm happy I splashed out and purchased ...

Quality framing for Dad's grandfather's medals.


Edwin Conner's medals - for bio go here


 19. I got the most joy from ...

Giving an heirloom quilt to my son which features some of my grandmother's stitching on the label on the back as well as the original medal ribbons from my great-grandfather's medals.

20. Another positive I would like to share is ...

My cousins and I were very brave and engaged an AGRA-registered researcher to conduct more research into our FOYNE's for us.  We each contributed to 6 hours of research and were very happy with the report presented by Phil Brown which took us back to the 18th century.  We still need to do more research in this area.


I hope you had a productive year and made some good headway with your family history in 2022 and discover even more exciting history in 2023. If you'd like to read other blog posts in this meme or join in, read the instructions at Jill Ball aka Geniaus' blog here. 

Comments

GenieJen said…
Sounds like you had an amazing year. Hope this year is just as amazing.
January 20, 2023 at 5:26 PM
Alex Daw said…
Thank you dear GenieJen. You too!
January 20, 2023 at 9:18 PM
Anonymous said…
You were busy in 2022! I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog Alex, well done on the various points. Yes, DNA is well worth investigating more fully, I’m always sad I don’t seem to spend much time on it lately either, although I did heaps years ago on the many kits I manage.
Bobbie
January 30, 2023 at 10:48 PM
Alex Daw said…
Thanks Bobbie. On another matter, I wonder if ChatGPT will help or hinder with genealogical research. What do you think? Or even blog post writing!
February 1, 2023 at 11:22 AM
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