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| Glenelg jetty at sunset |
With the
'Accentuate the Positive' 2012 Geneameme, Jill (Geniaus) encourages us to focus on our recent genealogical achievements, not the things that are still on our To-Do list. If you want to join in,
Jill's blog has the full list of 20 questions. Some were not relevant to me, so my list is shorter.
- An elusive ancestor I found was Mary PEACOCK (nee HUGILL, born c.1813 Hull, Yorkshire, England) whom I finally found in the 1881 British census... incorrectly listed as UPRIGHT, her son-in-law's surname!
- An important vital record I found was the 1841 death certificate of my gr-gr-gr-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Harley WEBSTER nee PORTER (widow of William WEBSTER, a dyer). She died at 5 Lawson Street, Great Dover Road (St Mary Newington, Surrey, England). The informant was Cecelia RUSHWORTH of Lambeth.
- A geneasurprise I received was finding out (via FamilySearch) that Charles Peacock BOWSER (born in Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, England) died in Ontario, Canada. His mother Rebecca was a sister of my great-grandmother, Mary HUDSON nee PEACOCK.
- My 2012 blog post that I was particularly proud of was... hmmm... either B is for Birth Place (a long list of sources that may mention an exact place of birth) or Year 1: Genealogy Benefits and Team Achievements (about the Genealogists for Families project).
- My 2012 blog post that received a large number of hits was J is for Jurors and Justice Department (part of the Family History through the Alphabet series).
- A social media tool I enjoyed using for genealogy was Twitter.
- A genealogy conference/seminar/webinar from which I learnt something new... My top three for 2012 were the webinar Plan Your Way to Research Success by Marian Pierre-Louis; the Society of Australian Genealogists' 'Lost in England' seminar in Sydney; and the Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry in Adelaide.
- I am proud of the presentation I gave to Coffs Harbour Family History Society (Nov 2012). It was the first time I'd done an all-day seminar on my own; and I was pleased to find that many of the sources and research strategies I described were new to my audience.
- I taught a friend how to make the most of a one-day visit to Queensland State Archives.
- A genealogy book that taught me something new was My Ancestor was a Bastard: A Family Historian's Guide to Sources for Illegitimacy in England and Wales (Ruth Paley, 2008).
- A great repository I visited was Queensland State Archives - but I often go there, so 2012 was less exciting than 2011 when I made my first trip to the Borthwick Institute in York, England.
- A new genealogy/history book I enjoyed was The New Findmypast.com.au: Gateway to the World Collection (Rosemary Kopittke, 2012).
- It was exciting to finally meet many members of the 'Genealogists for Families' Kiva team. We held get-togethers for local and interstate members in Brisbane and Adelaide, and I also spent a very pleasant afternoon in Sydney with Julie Goucher before she flew home to the UK.
- A geneadventure I enjoyed was a 'tourist day' after the Australasian Congress, when Sharn White, Helen Smith and I explored the historic town of Hahndorf near Adelaide. Afterwards Sharn and I caught a tram to Glenelg, arriving just in time to see a spectacular sunset. (My biggest genealogy adventure in a long time was in 2011, when I attended Yorksgen - something that I hope to do again in the future.)
- Another positive I would like to share is that more than 16,000 names from three of my indexes to Archives sources will soon be included in the collection at FindMyPast.com.au.
