Tuesday’s Tip ~ Getting to Grips with Google+

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Julie Goucher

Anyone who regularly reads this blog might have noticed that during the course of the last 10 days or so, I have switched my profile across to that of Google+. Now Google+ was a mind field for me and I am not too sure that I understood it, but with the view of nothing ventured nothing gained I persevered and so far, so good.

Then following a Google Hangout with Tessa, who mentioned the Foodies Online Community was very active and shared lots of tips, I joined. Here, I came across two posts that presented a huge amount of information to those who are, like me getting to grips with Google+

Written by Chef Dennis, there are two incredibly informative posts. Post 1 is about setting up your profile and why completing the various sections is a real help to budding G+ fans. Post 2 is about posting and getting the best out of posting.

Furthermore, I came across a YouTube video by Chef Dennis and that in turn lead me to a blog by Martin Shervington, which I equally recommend.

Google (and Google+) is about engagement. The concept was built as a moving social media format that evolved in time with technology. A profile on Google+ needs to say a little about you in addition to your name. I am not suggesting the fine details of your life, but what you do, what sort of posts are likely to come through your Google stream.

You can link to other social media, Twitter, Librarything, Facebook and of course your blogs, especially those on the blogger platform which is part of the Google family. Like any social media, you need to keep it active and to be consistent.

Google+ takes time to develop and to build upon, in the similar way to networking within a profession does. It is about long term investment rather than instant rewards.

The way to be successful online is to evolve and embrace the never ending features and development of social media.

If I can, so can you!

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Tuesday’s Tip – Hay Festival Audio Library

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Julie Goucher
Castle Bookshop – May 2006

I had always wanted to go to Hay-on-Wye, a book lovers paradise and I did in 2006, twice. For a weekend in May and for a week in October.

There is something rather innocent about the ethos of the Castle Bookshop and the outside bookshelves, open to the elements.

Castle Bookshop Honesty Box – May 2006

The books here are not free, but 20p a book and are what I would call disposable. They are a wacky decoration meanwhile, available should someone want to by one as they stroll the streets on a spring evening. They probably don’t sell that many although I bought 3 books from these shelves!, but in case they do they can leave payment in the honesty box. See what I mean about innocent?

I digress.

The book festival, which takes place in Hay during the Spring is famous and every now and again a newsletter plops into my inbox.

The latest edition directed me to the podcast page where you can download a variety of the informal events held during the festival week. Here you can listen to or download for free an amazing amount of fascinating accounts by some leading and not so leading authors. I caught up with the podcasts of Bill Bryson from 2010 for example.

There are more recent podcasts available. Use the filter function and you can go back to 1995 for the UK Festival and there are overseas festival available too.

What I hadn’t realised was that the Hay Festival is in fact replicated around the globe, including one in Kenya which is where one of my book loving genealogy friends will be during the festival. Now, far be from me to suggest they attend……but why not?

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Accessing Early Personal Material

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Julie Goucher

Having just responded in part to the second prompt in the Book of Me project. I thought I would share with you some factual details, which may be worth noting for those of you in the UK (and I suspect other Countries will have similar issues).

In 1989, the Children’s Act was passed through Parliament. That act came into force in 1991. As part of that Act there was no obligation for social services departments to retain old case files. This means that those files may have been destroyed with a potential a loss of private data.

The disposal of early files will depend on the social services department involved and the criteria that each individual department had. The rule of thumb is typically, 6 years from the last case entry or when the individual became 21 years of age.

There is an exception with adoption cases, but that is not the case with those who were almost adopted – for example those who were going to be adopted and then were not.

The message here is in essence if there is a social services file (or indeed any file) about your early years make an application to receive copies. In the UK there is a fee for data protection access, but do it before it is too late, and is shredded, as I said previously, there is no legal obligation for record to be retained.

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Announcing the Society for One-Place studies

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Julie Goucher

The following announcement was written by the Society for One-Place Studies:

Pne_Place-Studies“We, the founder members are proud to announce the launch of the ‘Society for One-Place Studies’, a ‘not-for-profit’ organisation for individuals and societies with an interest in family history and local history.

The Society has used the websites of John Palmer and Alex Coles’ websites as the foundation for this new organisation. The aims of the Society are to encourage and assist those involved in one-place studies and to advance the education of the general public in these types of studies. The newly designed website shares good practice, ideas and methodology, promoting the research principles and problem solving techniques required in historical and genealogical research on a particular locality.

A truly global organisation from the outset, the Committee members are situated around the world from New Zealand to England and the USA and in the first week since its announcement, the Society has nearly forty enthusiastic members who represent studies in eight different countries.

The cost of membership to the Society is just £10 per annum with the option of registering your place of interest for a further (one-off) £10 fee per study. This can be a road, hamlet, village, town ….whatever! The Society provides an online study profile and a dedicated email address for registered studies and a plethora of resources including a fascinating quarterly newsletter in the Members’ area of the website. We have many other developments in the pipeline to expand the service we offer to our members.

So, what are you waiting for? Take a look at the website and if you are interested, join!”

The Society for One-Place Studies may be found at:http://one-place-studies.org.

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Book of Me, Prompt 2 -Your Birth

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Julie Goucher

Prompt 2 went live earlier today. You can read the details HERE.

I am keeping my Book of Me as a private blog, but each week I will share some of my details within this blog.

Here is part of my responses for prompt 2.

This is one of two baby photos that I have. This is me, taken aged 9 months old, which puts the photo in July 1970. I had been born in the October of the previous year, although my due date was 27th September, so I was about 2 weeks late. A trend that continues, I hasten to add.
The photograph when Mum and I discussed it earlier in the year I think gave rise to some memories for her. I think my birth was a bit of an ordeal. 
Mum had been in hospital, at Guildford Surrey for two days prior to my birth. This is confirmed by, what is described as a “Co-Operation Card for Maternity Patients” record.

I arrived in the early hours of a Friday morning, and rather thoughtfully I received that as a reminder within my second forename. My name was selected by my maternal Grandmother. I was born with jet black hair, a legacy of my Italian heritage, although it gradually dropped out to be replaced with dark brown hair, although now tinged with grey.


Apparently I had been sat initially wearing blue shoes. I was given the ball and was unimpressed. Mum said to me that I displayed that look that I still use now, of when I am less than impressed.

The shoes were taken off and Mum said this look is classic, to her it says “…am I supposed to be impressed?…..”

I sat and obliged and when I had, had enough I cried. The whole event apparently took several hours as I was not overly helpful. I have to say, even now that brings a faint smile to my face!

I have in my study an old suitcase that had been my Grandfathers. Inside in tissue paper is a really soft and smooth wool blanket given to me by my Great Grandmother, my maternal Grandfather’s mother.  At the time I was born I was not her only Great Grandchild, and wonder if she purchased a similar blanket for my cousins. I must ask them. I have kept the blanket in the hope that I might one day use it for my own family. This has not been the case and I shall pass this on to my Cousin’s daughter who is currently only 11 and that way it will hopefully provide a link between the past and future.

Over the years I have periodically looked at this photo. It has appeared once on this blog previous, as part of the February Photo Collage Festival. When I was typing this up yesterday in order to post for today I looked at the blanket. I suddenly realised that I still have this blanket. It is not the one my Great Grandmother gave me, but another apparently, purchased especially for the photograph ordeal event.

A little detail about the Co-Operation Card for Maternity Patients. This details my Mum’s age, name and address. It shows her doctor and details of past illnesses. It shows her blood group and the responses of the various checks that were done; blood pressure, weight, tests for sugar in the urine and the position that I, as an unborn baby was in. It then gives some detail of the post natal care and Mum’s condition on discharge. It also confirms that I was female, satisfactory and weight at birth was 6lb1oz and that I was being fed Cow and Gate every four hours.

Another little fact. My Mum’s first cousin was on the same ward, having given birth to her third child, and first son at the beginning of the month.

The last line on the reverse of the card in small print reads “This card when completed should be returned to the family doctor”. Mum was a rebel, which explains lots!

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The Book of Me, Written By You, Prompt 2

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Julie Goucher

Today is week two of what is going to be a 15 month project. Each Saturday, at around 12.30am UK time I will release the prompt for that week’s Book of Me, Written by You.

 If you are new here, welcome! The details, background flyer and Face Book link to the Book of Me can be found HERE. 

The prompt for week 2 is Your Birth

  • Do you have any baby photos?
  • Where were you born?
  • Who was present at your birth?
  • Dimensions?
  • What day was it? Time?
  • Did you have hair? Eye colours
  • Are you a twin?

A little later I will stop by with my answers.
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Blogging to become an author……

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Julie Goucher
Two of the three ‘R’s’ have been classed together in educational terms since the 1700’s when, in 1795 Sir William Curtis used the phrase, “Reading Writing & Arithmetic” during a speech. In 1818 it appeared as space filler in the ‘Lady Magazine’.
Is anyone else struck by the irony that education was not compulsory in the UK until the Education Act of 1870. Prior to that typically the wealthy, and especially boys received an education of some sort.  Indeed, many of the poor families who did manage to send their children to school typically and repeatedly removed their children from school at particular times of the year. It was these periods that gave the historical grounding to the still used school holidays, such as spring for lambing and harvest during October.
Reading and writing quite naturally go together and very often there is natural movement between the two in a two way flow process.
Samuel Pepys.jpg
Portrait of Samuel Pepys by J. Hayls.
National Portrait Gallery, London

The moment we put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) we essentially become an author. In former years those key historical figures who kept diaries such as Samuel Pepys (1633 – 1703) never really expected their diaries to survive and become a testament to their very existence.

Fast forward to the internet years and every one of us has a medium for being an author of sorts with the creation of blogging. Just as in the early stages of writing, blogging evolves with practice, time and interaction with others. 
The internet has completely revolutionised the way in which we purchase, read and write books. Indeed, it is no longer the serious and devout academics that produce books. The playing field had been opened up and everyone can not only write, but publish their creation.
Furthermore, there is something rather appealing about creating your own personal space, in which to say exactly what you think, feel and wish to share with others. Those familiar with London will know of Hyde Park Speakers Corner, in which anyone of us is free to stand and lead a discussion in the confines of leafy and probably wet suburbia.
Blogging can therefore be what ever you want it to be. It can be a space where you can share your inner thoughts and as an anonymous person, or you can share your thoughts, comments and plans about any subject or various subjects as you wish.  A blog is effectively your own creative sandpit, an open space, a place where you can share your creativity and explore. The world of creativity has taken the whole concept and process a stage further and there are now companies and sites that will allow you to create books of your blog posts.
The technology and internet has enabled each of us to produce whatever we want. We can write and self publish. It is quite possible to self publish and use all the best bells and whistles that would be used if the routine publishing route had been taken. The contemplation that self publish means last resort has gone, as several well know American actors take to the self publishing platform; their plan has just raised the bar again.
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Response to Genealogy: A House Divided or A House With Many Doors?

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Julie Goucher

These badges are all the rage just now and I rather like them. This was produced using an iPhone app, called ironically, Keep Calm!

A week or so ago Thomas at Geneabloggers resurrected the subject matter of the state of the genealogical community in his recent post Genealogy: A House Divided Door.

When Thomas mentioned it a few months ago, I read the post, and thought I would write something then everything kind of went mad….life happened and the post was not written. That does not mean I didn’t think about it or reflect upon it. I did, and with this follow up post I did the same, determined that I would respond, albeit, rather late.

For me this issue is broken down into several points –the opinions reflected here are mine, so if you don’t agree, play nice!

  • Genealogy is about understanding your line of descent, and family history is about taking that line of descent and fleshing out the bones. Discovering through whatever sources possible what your ancestors did and when they did it. It is also good to understand the history of the time, which might indicate why they did, what they did.
  • Genealogy is a the fastest growing hobby. I can’t give a source for that fact, because I didn’t know when I read it I was going to cite it!
    • This is because the internet makes accessing data easier
    • We can contact archives in a speedy manner and thus receive an email (hopefully) in response to our inquiry without the need to pay for postage. Remember those days of stamped addressed envelopes or international reply coupons?
    • Genealogy has got on the television – shows like Who Do You Think You Are and Heir Hunter and now the new show hitting the US screens Genealogy Roadshow (very envious!). Those shows, rightly or wrongly make genealogy look easy. In someways they have to….the production team are making an hour program, incorporating research which took many hours, so sadly, we see a succession of snapshots in these programmes rather than the succession of historical research which took anything from the click of a button to many, many hours.
Do we need such books? To me it is common sense that if you are researching and you plan on producing a piece of work you need to reference where it came from…the paper trail. Otherwise you are at risk of committing and being accused of plagiarism. I wrote about my concerns here, however, look at Ancestry. It is littered with trees with no source material. Does that mean they are worthless? Perhaps, perhaps not. My tree on Ancestry is private. Should someone hack into the account they will have a tree with no sources. The tree is there for my benefit which is why it is private. If you believe that someone shares a connection to you and there are no sources, you can always trace the possible paper trail and drop them an email.
Sources are important. If you are a serious researcher you MUST reference where you found material. Not just for the benefit of others, but for yourself too. How many of us see something, note it down and forget where we saw it? Ironic given my statement above, but that is perfectly true.
Image from NGS
Then we have the newly released book Mastering Genealogical Proof by Thomas W Jones. This book took the US genealogical world by storm. There have been read-a-longs and discussions on Google+ as we, as groups of genealogists seek to ensure understandings within the genealogical field.
These two books have attempted to raise the bar of genealogical research and understanding. 
Are they elitist? I do not believe so. I believe that these two books have a real place of worth within the genealogical arena. They are seeking to educate the novice genealogists, and act as a handbook and professional text for those who are advanced researchers or professional researchers.
Societies and Organisations are another string to the bow of genealogists. It is not just about paying your fees, receiving a journal of some kind and accessing data. Perhaps that is how it was when I started researching in the mid 1980’s. Societies and organisations exist, as a way of bring like minded people together. At the start there were transcribing projects and many thousands and thousands of hours were invested in projects. Those projects are almost ignored these days because of the corporate enterprises that have sprung up.

Is Genealogy elitist?  Perhaps and perhaps not. Societies, forums, books and alike exist to enable the coming together and the sharing of data, best practise and standards. What is the point of investing in hours of research, if once you are no more, your descendants can not make head or tail of it?

Qualifications – Do you need them? This is a tough question. Not necessarily is my answer, however, undertaking a type of course, whether that be a certificated course or simply for your pleasure will make you more knowledgeable. That knowledge will then enable you to join the dots when it comes to understanding things within our ancestors lives.

I have spent the last 20 odd years within pharmacy and management, and have qualifications that relate to that. I also have a diploma in Counselling and a history degree. In addition it makes me more informed and unless I tell you those things you won’t know, nor did the person who spoke with me last week, who attempted to indicate that they were more knowledgeable in the genealogical arena in an attempt at one-up- manship, but should I need to tell you? No. Just because I do not shout from the rooftops does not mean it isn’t so.

Genealogy is for everyone. We all have our families and line of descent. Our knowledge will make that genealogical journey more meaningful and worthwhile, but there is nothing that can’t be learnt reading a book, a blog or a journal. It is about taking part, being part of a friendly, (on the whole) group of people from across the globe. That interaction is possible because the Internet has revolutionised the way we can interact with each other and undertake genealogical research whether it is for ourselves or for paying clients.

As I said at the beginning, the opinions reflected here are mine, so if you don’t agree, keep calm!

Mentioned by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings  – Best of the Genea Blogs 1-7th September 2013

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What does this say to you?

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Julie Goucher

A little earlier this week, I met with one of the two groups who are physically completing the process & workshops of the Book of Me (meet with me in person). After a few minutes of the usual banter – how was your week? and alike, the group started to talk among themselves on their previous prompt and pondered what the next one was. As I listened to them, whilst getting the new prompt ready I suddenly changed tactic and instead gave them this quote

• Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside awakes. ~ Carl Jung

The group were surprised but embraced the sudden change with gusto. We proceeded through our workshop discussing and writing about what that quote said to them as individuals.
Meanwhile, the Book of Me Facebook group are going great guns on the first prompt. Just yesterday I read a comment from a participant who said they were looking forward to the next prompt. This sentiment was echoed through the group, which is a fantastic response. 
This morning I was reflecting on the group response, the subsequent discussion and the activity along with the content of the Facebook group. Therefore this morning I shared the quote above and asked the question 
What does this quote say to you?
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Who Do You Think You Are ~ US Style!

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Julie Goucher
Image courtesy
of DearMyrtle
I stayed up very late last night and joined the Google hangout after the show of the American series of Who Do You Think You Are. The show airs at Central US time of 8pm, which equates to 3am here in the UK.

Those of us in the UK get our own (original) version of the show, but can not see the US show, sadly. I have below shared the trailer but viewers in the UK you will need to click the link in this article

The show was recorded if you were not able to see the hangout and is presented here for your viewing pleasure!

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