My focus in 2024 was revisiting my British families after the WWI and finishing off a few loose ends. I researched the 1921 census (English) extensively when I got the opportunity to research for free for four days straight in November. This was the most generous offer from Find My Past and I certainly made a pig of myself, screenshotting at least 50 family relatives and researching for other projects. The 1921Scottish Census was also systematically searched on Scotland’s People.
I finally managed to attend the Kingswood Archives Centre or
the New South Wales State Archives. You sign up, order your documents in
advance and “go for it” when you arrive. My husband and I did speed
screenshotting of the multiple pages of about eight divorces, land titles and
other random records. I was just being nosy but the domestic violence cases hit
me where it hurts and were quite sad. I can't wait to go again because I've got
a few more cases I'd like to snoop around.
A social media post I am most proud of.
A couple of blog posts have drawn people's attention.
Tagging posts with things like Kerr family history, Murphy family history, etc.
seems to be the way to go. One post led to a two and a half hour FaceTime with
relatives in Ontario. The blog about
Elizabeth Kerr Revington Tinman has been of interest to people lately.
A history book I enjoyed was … A friend gave me the
rough draft of a book she is having ghost written. Such a privilege. My third
cousin is included in this book as well as lots of research we discovered in
the Schweidnitz POW project we worked on during COVID. She is writing her
grandfather and parent’s story and my involvement is via the research we did on
the POW escape by 24 men via a tunnel which came up in a pigsty.
My most valuable subscription is Ancestry.
Still, but … During the year, if you look around, you can
get quite good specials. I've taken up subs in a couple of places such as Newspapers.com.
I'm the master of the speed search when I can get short subs such as Irish
Roots. With a handy list compiled on the Plan section of my Family Tree Maker,
I just go for it.
I'm still making Scotland's People rich because of the
instant gratification of the low cost certificates. Besides the 1921 Census, a few police and prison records made for good
reading. Secrets my relatives wouldn't be proud of, I would guess.
I paid for an app called Whisper Memos. I think its origins maybe a bit shady (something to do with dating?) but
it's the best $60 I've spent in a long time. I dictate my drafts and it
transcribes my work in 15 minute blocks and emails it to me. It's extremely
accurate and it saved me hours of typing which is not one of my strong points.
It is great that more records are coming available. Photographs of Grace
Gadsby and Betty Whitcomb when they briefly signed up for the cause in World
War II and their records add insight into where they lived, their occupations,
etcetera.
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| Grace Day Gadsby |
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| Betty Whitcombe |
The genealogist of the future will despair at the
ever decreasing death notices and non-existent birth and marriage notices.
I finally settled the probate for my aunt's will. It was deemed intestate
and 25 certificates and multiple identifying documents and JPs later I was
allowed to distribute.
In 1925 I plan to rewrite the stories of various family
lines after the war. As the census information has become available, it's a
period of mass movement overseas after the upheaval of the war. I believe there
was a recession in the early 20s as well as the aftermath of the Spanish flu
has turned up a couple of deaths.
A useful website I found While trying to piece together the life of my
husband's great grandmother I had been networking with a lady in the UK. She
had been using a site called Genealogy Specialists. I stumbled upon her
discussion thread she had started. It
was full of people's generous suggestions and research. I came away with pages
and pages of information/ assumptions/ suggestions. I could see what had been
covered, uncovered, discarded and discovered in the forum discussion. A bunch
of obsessive amateur genealogists helped a heap. Genealogy specialists, tracing
our past, discovering our genes.
https://genealogy-specialists.com
I've written a lot but I hate the tidying up process.
I got a few posts published and some are still a work in progress. Some were
part of my writing group tasks. After reading our piece to the group, mine
always seems to be a little bit long. There is amazement at times at my
interesting family and what they got up to. Most were reflective posts but the
writer's story in the format of a gossip column was challenging and fun as it
was to write in the form of a list. Ancestor Trivial Pursuit, Who's Got a Ghost,
Royalty, etc. was another favourite story. I might have been down on my blog
count this year but I got distracted by wanting to follow up on a few families
that needed recording and re-recording.
But the collaboration has been up. It's not so lonely and I
find the results are greater than the sum of the parts. Collaboration brings
local knowledge and perspectives, expanded research and a bigger brains trust.
I'm up 129,057 hits on my Robyn and the
Genies blog and 13,214on my Schweidnitz POW Camp blog.
As usual, my range of Facebook groups has expanded.
I'm trying to get more information on the musical artists in the family. While
there's been a lot of interest in the later comedians and singers, etc. who
successfully moved to TV and theatre, not much has been written or recorded for
the musical artists of the 20s and 30s, etc. So I'm following the Music Hall Facebook
groups and if all else fails, I'll have to write an update on those I can find
in my family. Trouble is, very few had children, so there's not a lot of family
information out there.
I've listened to weekly writing podcasts. One explores writing processes
and the other is dabbling in copywriting and AI. This year I joined a U3A
writing group. They concentrated on smaller and perhaps more reflective types
of writing and I'm adding a few of them to my blog.
I had some fun with... AI. I've been trying to find out more about AI. I
had a play with Meta and after feeding it a few storylines from some recent
research. I quickly had three chapters of a fictitious and scandalous
neighbourhood chronical. I argued with it and it didn't even apologise when I
told it had got the facts wrong. It had mixed the story up so beware. It just
continued on and added more paragraphs.
Another story agreed with my husband that a place we had
visited was unsettling and proceeded to write about it. I'm trying to find out
more about AI's uses. I can see it helps with inspiration, summarising a few
key points, etc. It completely made up information about my music hall family.
A Genie surprise I received. This year my son-in-law did his DNA and got
all interested in building a tree and researching the matches of cousins and
second cousins he didn't even know about. He was surprised to have a small
amount of black African and Jewish DNA. There was lots of discussion in my
daughter's in-law family. The interest in Nan's funny little hobby is building.
Similarly, a niece did her DNA after being gifted it for her
birthday. She discovered my tree and was impressed by what she's found out so
far. Needless to say, I've encouraged the rest of the family to test to help me
with the roadblocks.
A new genealogy history book I’m enjoying.
My kids gave me this book for my birthday. It is far from complete, but babysitting afternoons take on a new interest when they ask questions, like “phrases that were popular when I was a teenager”, “Big world events I remember from the time I was growing up”, “Memories of my mother”, “memories of my father”, “How I spent holidays” etc….. If only they could spell.
An interesting newspaper article I found.
As close as I can get to being a fly on the wall. I found a
newspaper article which included music hall relatives. It was about a
celebration day that had been held in Portsmouth 19th July 1919. I
discovered that about six months after the Armistice, the English government
set down a bank holiday on to celebrate the ending of the war and the signing
of the Treaty of Versailles. I was unable to find out more about the other
towns and their activities that day, but it was great to see the way the town
of Portsmouth rolled out the red carpet for returned soldiers and their
families.
Sharing with my genie mates. I shared a lot of 1921 census findings with
my genie mates. Suddenly everyone was doing a mad look up for the Find My Past
free weekend. A blog post taught me something this year. I've been reminded
that my blog posts are searchable. Families, people have responded to my Rowbotham
and Stewart and Murphy posts.
A new found family member shared … not really.
Occasionally things are reciprocated, but I guess that I mostly get there
before them because I'm so thoroughly obsessed.
Another positive. I printed via Pixie Books my series of blogs on the Schweidnitz
POW Camp site blog. It was quick turnaround and a great record. Maybe next year
it's volume three or maybe even four of my Robyn and the Genies blog. The
quality of these books make it such an asset and the customer service and
turnaround are superb. It is great value for money.
MeRrY ChRriStMaS
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