RootsTech 2022 #ChooseConnection

One of the things I look forward to at RootsTech is the new technology and tools that are released.

On a huge scale the various digitising companies are using machine learning to read handwriting - on those documents we love to get our hands on - we had the 1921 UK Census come out in January 2022 and no doubt my USA genie friends are looking forward to the 1950 USA census release later this month.

What about something closer to home?

Researching a number of unknown photographs that had belonged to my maternal grandmother, turned my casual interest in Family History into an addiction. I look back now and see how much I was striving to find connections within those photographs - and eventually to find someone other than my father whom I looked like.

I grew up as an only child of an adopted mother, living with my parents and my maternal grandmother in her family home. Sadly Grandma (Ada Irene Douglass nee King b 1884) died when I was 7 years old. My father had left his home in England years before I came along, I grew up affected by adoption, the tyranny of distance and being an only child due to the loss of my older brothers at birth. I now realise the combination of these disconnections from family, created a yearning for connection.

Over the years family history has brought me a wealth of relatives and friends around the English speaking world and now I feel more centred and in the right place at the right time. No wonder I call three places home! Australia, England and New Zealand.

On 21 February 2022 my father would have turned 97 and this year it will be 30 years since he died on Father's day (the first Sunday in September in Australia and NZ) so I posted the following photograph on Facebook as it is one of my favourite memories of Dad.

I can hear his voice and laughter and see the twinkle in his eyes. Sharing this image and my thoughts and feelings felt important, but I was amazed at the stories and memories others shared in the comments. Including a primary school friend's older brother - I had no idea he met my father! I could never had found out these precious memories if I hadn't shared this one photo.

So imagine my delight when my Ancestry App updated earlier this week - adding the #MyAncestryStory tool. Now I can create a slide show with up to 12 photos from my tree's media gallery - edit them, colourise and share them. The resulting personalised slide show will sit in the Life Story tab.

Today Fiona Brooker is hosting a live Recording Memories Workshop at RootsTech 2022 thought many of you might want to pop along and see what this new feature can do.

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The Wilson Collection, a new free New Zealand Index

Exciting to see this new free index called " The Wilson Collection " launched on 1 March 2021. Thanks must go to Diane Wilson and her "chocolate fish team" who have gathered information from a range of sources around New Zealand for more than forty years, and have decided to share it freely with us all via this website. Those of you that have heard my family history lectures over the years you will recognize my tips for the first time you visit any new site: SCROLL DOWN read THE WHOLE SCREEN move your mouse around to see which images are CLICKABLE find the HELP and read it So bearing in mind that many of you will click straight away on search , here are my three key tips: Search Tips once you have pressed on the Search Index link at the top of the home page 1. Scroll down and read the site help on searching 2. Scroll UP to see the index sources: Clicking on any topic will show the information about the individual indexes within this collection. For instance the NZ ...

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One Otton's Service

Just off the phone from my cousin Warrick - he is the third generation to serve in his family and has been the ANZAC Day march leader in Bega for some years. I had intended on blogging about his grandfather's service this year, but as most of you will have seen I blogged about my husband's HAMBLYN family. Wok had questions about his grandfathers service, which I could not quickly answer over the phone, so dearest Warrick, this is the start of an answer for you. We are lucky in Australia that the only bombing we experienced in WWII did not destroy our early military records as they did in countries Up Over. The National Archives of Australia in Canberra have digitised the records they hold of Australian Military service during the Great War. Back in 2002 I visited my Uncle Keith Edward OTTON and was fortunate to be able to scan the images he held of his father, Edward Thomas (Ted) OTTON - the son of Henry and Elizabeth (Bessie) OTTON (nee JAUNCEY). Henry & Bessie...

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