Census Sensibility

This is a continuation of my post Who Do We Think We Are? I fully expect some feathers to be ruffled by the following but also truly believe that without some harsh comments and discussions, true progress (in any field) cannot be made. I also want to preempt this all by underlining that the work of people and organisations in the previous WDYTYA? Live shows was really wonderful and everyone should be proud. Shows like WDYTYA? Live and RootsTech need to be "shows" (to an extent). The life-blood of such events is not those of us who are already in the industry. While it is a great opportunity for us to network and meet up with friends and colleagues, in order for it to be a success, there needs to be some "layman" bums on seats and so the appeal needs to be broad. What this means is that it needs to draw a crowd and how do you do that? By having fun and appealing things at the event.  WDYTYA? Live  attempted this by having "stars" from the show ap...

It's now been a month since Who Do You Think You are? Live was held at the NEC in Birmingham. I attended all three days and got to see and experience the event from a number of perspectives - as an attendee, as a student/professional genealogist and as a speaker. My biggest take aways from the show this year were that attendance was clearly down, some big names were missing (The National Archives, for example) and local genealogical societies were a bit thin (where was Sussex and Kent, and also Scotland was not very well represented). As Steve mentioned on his blog  and Jane mentioned on hers , there was a high number of non-genealogical stands at the show and I felt quite sorry for the women trying to give away free wine samples at 10am. Also, while the free massage was nice, the number of orthopedic and life insurance stands was a bit of a concern. As someone who's recently turned 40 I don't like being reminded of such things. As a genealogy nerd I loved wander...

Well, WDYTYA? Live 2017 is now over and most of us are back home, resting (well, as there's no rest for the wicked, I know this is not the case for most of you). This year I had to pleasure of presenting a talk about how to get kids into genealogy. This was for the Society of Genealogists and I'd like to thank Else Churchill for the opportunity. I really enjoyed it, and my audience smiled and laughed in all the right places. For those of you who missed it, here are my slides ... they're rather, erm, loud. Just like me. If you have any questions, please get in touch!

I have been rather neglectful of my blog, my last entry was around the time I moved from France to England, so I'm going to firmly blame the move for the lack of posts for the past 7 months. There, blame shifted nicely. This is a blog, so it needs a nice reflective writer-type-picture and thoughtful caption. I have continued my studies with the University of Strathclyde, and am now onto the Postgraduate Diploma year. Unlike the Certificate year, the Diploma focuses on a mix of learning modules and smaller assignments with larger etudes and an over-arching research project at the end. The idea is to move as seamlessly as possible from "classroom" learning to academic research - something which is essential for those of us planning on progressing to the MSc year, which is exclusively based on a dissertation. One thing which I have noted this year, as my circumstances have changed and I am no longer working full time, is this - I HAVE NO IDEA HOW PEOPLE WHO WORK ...

Have Swedish family history and not sure how to get started? I share how to get started in this guest blog post for MyCanvas ! Learn common Swedish genealogy words, and tricks to untangling Swedish family names.

Some months ago I posted about the mystery in my family of my grandfather who discovered he was adopted when he was in his 60s. As a genealogist, I had been researching his birth family to no avail for a number of years. I finally had a breakthrough last year when I found evidence of his (alleged) birth father's subsequent marriage, children and so on. After being in touch with my (alleged) great-grandfather's descendant, Paul, for some time, he finally did an Ancestry DNA test and we've been waiting for the results to come through. It's been quite a nervous wait - what if I was wrong? I was in a business meeting the other day and got onto the topic of DNA testing and genealogy with the client. I decided to show them my research and also my DNA test results (I am always  happy to talk about genealogy, especially if there's a chance I can give someone else the bug). Logging into Ancestry DNA I saw there was a new match and that this match was listed as being a p...

The big news today being talked about on social media by pretty much everyone involved in genealogy is the announcement by Ancestry about the end of Family Tree Maker. It's not the most popular of decisions, and as the day progresses the levels of anger are increasing. I was at first surprised by the news. I received the email from Ancestry at around midnight Paris time and spent about 5 minutes wondering what I will do with my genealogical research in the future before I remembered that I actually run two pieces of genealogy-specific software, and have the information in these also saved in other formats (.doc, .xls, etc). I stopped worrying about myself and my own research - knowing I will still be able to save my research if I am working offline (I also use Family Historian ). Roll around to this morning and I find myself thinking about this more (thanks to coffee, the neurons are firing and I can actually form coherent arguments and questions) and the impact of this de...

I like to think of myself as relatively widely read, somewhat intelligent and borderline academic. The reality is I can easily become obsessed by a book/books/journals/articles/other ready-type things, I am probably more smartarse than smart and have delusions of grandeur when it comes to my academic capabilities. I like writing, but I'm not a prolific or fluid author. My writing is a lot like my thoughts - random, haphazard, often long-winded and sometimes very confusing. Editing is difficult because I always want to move onto the next big thing . I'm definitely more of an orator. If you put me in a room in front of hundreds of people and ask me to read something or talk freely on a subject, I'm in my element. Ask me to write a paper of tens of thousands of words and I'll attack it with gusto, but will probably lose steam some point around the 35% mark, get frustrated and end up handing in something that probably could have been a lot better. So, why in the hell am...

One hundred years and ten days ago, my great, great uncle Olaf Milford Johanson enlisted for service abroad with the Australian Imperial Force. He enlisted at Claremont in the state of Tasmania, which is 26km from the town of Cambridge, where he lived. Both towns are now suburbs of Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. He was 21 (and 1/2, by his own hand) on the date of enlistment and, thanks to the records I have, I know he was 5'9"/1m75cm tall, weighed 193lbs/86kgs and had brown hair and light brown eyes (like me!). Under "Distinctive Marks", the following is written: "Tattoo Heart cross and anchor on right forearm. Anchor & ribbon on front of left forearm. Anchor on back of left wrist." It comes as no surprise that next to "Profession or Calling" he has written "Sailor". Olaf was assigned the service number 3483 and initially served in the 11th Reinforcements of the 12th Batallion. (The 12th Batallion were originally r...

This is the first part in a multi-part blog series about DNA testing and genealogy. After 20+ years of genealogical research, I like to think I know my family history pretty well. As an Aussie, I am a big of a genealogical mongrel, or as my nan used to refer to her dog, Cindy, a “bitsa” as in “bits of this and bits of that”. It’s pretty simple, really: Lots of Scots Lots of Irish Lots of English A smattering of Swedes Four convicts So I was relatively certain of the results of any genealogical DNA test I would do. I imagined it would look something like this: Source: Ancestry.com When I decided to try the Ancestry DNA test, I was a bit put off by the fact that I’d need to gob into a test tube. Someone as classy and sophisticated as me simply does not spit, regardless of the scientific results. But for the sake of science, history, genealogy and my own bloody curiosity I built a bridge and got over this particular wave of discomfort. (This is proof that I am a...