On January 1, I accepted a challenge: to accentuate the positive parts of 2014, c/o a wonderful Geneameme suggestion from Jill Ball. Many other geneabloggers also took the opportunity to reflect on ‘the year that was’ and Jill has posted the many ‘Glorious Geneayears’ written to date in a compilation post. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the posts from my geneacolleagues across the world and to hear of all their great achievements. Hopefully, more people will take up Jill’s Geneameme suggestion over the forthcoming weeks.
The New Year has certainly driven bloggers to reflect on the past year and I have been sad to see that some people have focussed on the negative aspects of their past year rather than the positive. Dirty laundry – however it is masked – is best left in the laundry basket or put through the wash. There are plenty of times in 2014 that I could easily have blogged about issues going on in my genearena but I personally don’t think it’s a good idea to air dirty laundry in public ever. Perhaps that is just me though. Each to their own.
When I was writing my ATP Part 1, I found I had written more than I am asked to when writing magazine articles and I had only answered a small number of Jill’s questions! So, here goes Part 2 and I will still be missing some questions out, even doing it twice. But this is it. It’s not going to be like the Rocky films….
6. A geneasurprise I received was
I was a relative newbie to the international genearena last year and was delighted to have the opportunity to speak at a few international conferences (Australia and twice in Canada) as well as both Who Do You Think You Are? Live (WDYTYA) events and numerous others. Walking back to my hotel rather late one night during the course of WDYTYA in Glasgow, I received an email asking me if I might be available to be a keynote speaker at a large and very prestigious event in mid-2015, a long way from England. Renowned for quick email responses, this reply may well have broken even my records! You can guess the content, I am sure….! So, watch this space!
13. A journal/magazine article I had published was
This year, I have published several articles for Family Tree and Discover Your Ancestors, as well as blogs and articles on criminal ancestors for The In-Depth Genealogist (IDG). There are fewer genealogical magazines/journals being printed now than ten years ago it would seem, and more of us geneauthors about. Reflecting on 2014, the array of topics I have turned my hand to this year has been varied and I was particularly pleased with the Dartmoor Prison series of posts I penned for IDG – great reviews from readers and also generated some correspondence from the geneapublic.
14. I taught a friend how to
During the course of 2014, my friends seem to be starting up the geneaconversation with me more readily/regularly. Before, the topic of our discussions would usually be my fairly entertaining stories about the things children I taught had enlightened me with! Now, my job is being a full-time genealogist, researcher, author, lecturer, whatever you want to call me this week …. and my friends seem to prefer hearing me regaling stories of interesting cases I’ve worked on, how much probate cases have been worth, etc. etc. The icing on the cake for me though is when people want to learn how to do family history themselves. Much as I like presenting people’s ancestry to them on a plate, teaching them to do it is equally (if not more) rewarding. Sometimes, it can be what I consider to be ‘the simplest things’ – like the best sites to use for certain types of research – that make people’s eyes light up. Showing several friends this year how to find the bride’s maiden name by clicking on the page reference in FreeBMD, helped each and every one of them to add leaves to their trees where they would otherwise have twiddled the fingers wondering how to find the answer, without spending £9.25 each time!
20. Another positive I would like to share is
The geneaworld is a wonderful place. Most of the people I have met during my geneacareer to date will do anything for other people. I cannot count how many individuals I have met over the years through genearesearch who I would consider great friends.
I am not a religious person in any way, shape or form but there is definitely sense in some of the ‘biblical principles’, proverbs, whatever they are called, like ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you‘…. Other more modern ones are just as suitable, like ‘What goes around comes around’ ….and it’s fairly obvious but ‘Givers Gain’…. If I help you in some way, you will want to help me too.
So, here’s to 2015 where positively rules!
