Accentuate the Positive 2025 Geneameme

 

Once again, the wonderful Jill Ball from her Geniaus blog prompts us to participate in the Accentuate Geneameme for this year.

Here is the list of prompts and my responses.

1.  I treasured...

being able to attend the AFFHO Congress in my home city of Brisbane - particularly with my family history bestie Pat Gardner (her husband was my husband's best man).  Pat and I lapped up everything that was on offer - unfortunately, that meant COVID for Pat at the end, but boy did we have a great time. 

QFHS Members attending AFFHO Congress in Brisbane

2.  I shared...

Only six posts on Blogger this year. It was a challenging year on many fronts for my little family and so time for family history and blogging was very limited.

3.  I travelled...

to Melbourne at the beginning of the year to attend my best friend's wedding. I wrote up a "down and dirty" family history for her as a gift. Check it out at the link below. I'd embed the video, but for some reason, Blogger wouldn't cooperate. Basically I created a family tree of my friend's ancestors in Family Historian and printed out family group sheets and then copies of anything I could find e.g. birth, marriage and death notices in Trove, electoral roll info, citizenship papers and lots of newspaper articles. I saved all the relevant files onto a USB in case other family members wanted to print out their own copy.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Jza9sv276FhFbtc78

Alex ready for the wedding of the year :)

4.  I learnt...

about Education and Childhood 1820-1920 through Pharos Tutors, which was very helpful for considering the context of my Conner forebears who trained as teachers in England and then emigrated to Australia.

When I travelled to Melbourne again later in the year, I was able to find the centenary history of education in Victoria and research other ancestors - the Ellis family - who were also teachers.

The Ellis family moved around Victoria quite a bit in the 1860s and finally relocated to Sydney. Whilst I did a formal course with Pharos, I was of course playing with AI too and was really excited by the things I could create with Google's NotebookLM. I was really impressed with the slideshow it created from all the documents I had on file.  Here is an infographic which I am sure will appeal to those with a short attention span when it comes to family history ;)

Infographic created using NotebookLM

5.  I changed...

computers this year.  I needed to upgrade to Windows 11 so bought a new desktop and a new laptop. Mamma mia! So many files to transfer from my old computer still. It's a worry. I'm talking old emails - I'll get there.

6.  I received...

an invitation to be on the judging panel for the QFHS Family History Book Award which is presented annually. Five authors spoke about the process of writing their books at a special Family History Month event on 6 August. The winner was Catherine Smith for her book Queensland's Sugar King: The Zammit Legacy.

The books shortlisted for the award were:

• May the Cane Prosper - A Queensland Story by Pene Greet & Avis-Ann Ballard

• Playing a Poor Hand Well - A Family Story Across Several Generations by Anne Hetherington

• Queensland’s Sugar King - The Zammit Legacy by Catherine Smith

• Substance and Shadows by Jennifer Vivian-Smith

and the winner was ....

https://www.qldsugarking.com/

7.  I conquered...

my predictable fear of learning new tools, WeAre.xyz and CiteBuilder.

8.  I found...

a will for Thomas Daw of Ottery Saint Mary, ropemaker from 1822 at the Devon Archives..He names his son John Daw in the will. 

My husband's 3rd great-grandfather Thomas Daw was born in Bradninch in 1848. His father was William Daw and William's father was John. 

Bradninch is only ten miles from Ottery but we have yet to make the connection with my husband's 4th great-grandfather William Daw and his son Thomas. But I'm excited.  I am communicating with other English researchers in Devon to see if we can confirm or deny the supposition. I think I may need to join the Devon Family History Society.

9.  I taught...

as part of the teaching cohort for the QFHS Finding Your Family: the fundamentals of Research course, which is offered twice a year. 

I also spoke with QFHS Vice President Char Sale at the AFFHO Congress in February about the amazing records available through the QFHS Global Keyword Search using a case study based on a real family, 

Later in the year, I spoke to the Bribie Island Family History Association re blogging and why you should do it.

I also conducted Eventbrite training for several volunteers at QFHS and developed a work instruction for same.

10. I cried...

When I caught COVID and couldn't attend my father's 90th birthday. We had been preparing for it all year. Sooooooo frustrating.

11. I was proud...

to have produced an heirloom keepsake book for my father's birthday using MyCanvas. I started working on it in about September or October last year. It measured 13 x 10 inches and because I linked it to my Ancestry account, it was able to create ancestry charts, family group sheets etc.  

In the end there were 146 pages including an index and sources.  The process gave me even greater respect for people who are professionally published.  It was a labour of love and I needed to be very discipline indeed to finish it in time. Of course no matter how many time I proof read it, there were still mistakes which needed to be corrected which required a second printing. Luckily I had planned for this eventuality so I still had time to get it printed before his birthday.

12. I  read....

quite a few interesting books this year relating to family history. As the Convenor of the QFHS Book Club we read the following books: