A little push...

I used to be a somewhat active researcher, in genealogy and in the history of education, but burnt out from academia I put aside my PhD and all other historical stuff and started on a Master of Information Services (Archives and Records) which I do love and am enjoying immensely. But I did miss the historical stuff. The interesting tidbits about life as well as the historiography. I do so adore historical theory. Yet still, there wasn't really an impetus to take it up again. Until I was given a little push.

See, in the last two weeks of September I was on practicum placement in a Library Service. It was wonderful from an Information Services point of view but also as a researcher. You see, the library service I was with has two very passionate research librarians and as part of my program I spent time with them,  attended (and helped with) two of their organised talks. One of these was a presentation with the lovely Emma Kelly of findmypast.com.au and the other was on Social Media and the Family Historian by someone I had been twitter friends for a significant amount of time, the delightful Jill Ball aka Geniaus.

Both of these talks reminded me how much I enjoyed researching (South Australian indexes now available on findmypast you say? Sign me up!) and missed sharing with history-minded people. It didn't take much to send me back into the arms of BDM indexes and Trove. And within moments I found something new. Something I didn't know. And I got that happy 'new thing excitement' that only people who love researching know. A very heady experience.

So really it didn't take much of a push to make me leap head first into the abyss. I'm rather happy here :)

P.S. the something 'new' will of course be the subject of a blog post, but right now I'd better go finish an Information Services Management assignment

Comments

Post a Comment

Hey, thanks for commenting - a lot of the time blogger doesn't tell me I have a new comment so I often don't see them, and if I do I don't get your contact details so please feel free to email me as well smuffett@gmail.com or contact me on FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/sharon.muffett/ Slightly more reliable!

Popular posts from this blog

The elusive John Green

Image
Last night I was fortunate enough to be a participant in the first GeniAus Hangout on Air , it was a lot of fun and will be a great collaboration and learning resource. One of the questions I got to throw out into the ether was what do you do when you come across an absolute bog standard name, in my case John Green. So what do I know about John Green. John Green is   the father of Louisa Green (b. 21 Jul 1821 - d. 27 Jun 1897) Before he passed away, I was fortunate enough to be in contact with Ken Muffett  who had devoted a lifetime to researching the descendants of Louisa and her husband Charles Robert Muffett in Australia. He had passed along some images of a Family Bible. Muffet Family Bible, from the collection of the late Ken Muffet Someone, and it appears to be a similar hand to that of the Family Register, has kindly written on the death information page. Starting then with the information given about Louisa, there is a Louisa Green christened in Oakley,...
Read more

Software Frustrations

Image
One of the big topics in genealogy across the web this year has been the Genealogy do-over . While I am not participating, I have - like many others - decided that it is a good idea to do some general housekeeping and making sure that my research is up to snuff. I am generally pretty good at recording sources and such due to all those years in an academic environment so I am adding detail. Well attempting to. I keep running into a persistent problem. Genealogy Software .  It just doesn't do what I want and need it to. Whether this is a function of the adherence to the dinosaur that is GEDCOM or the direct familial relationship model of genealogy I don't know. But it frustrates the crap out of me. I know I am not the only one, Tony Procter over at Parallax View  and Louis Kessler of Behold Genealogy  have written some marvelous posts on the subject. So want is it exactly I want my genealogy software to do? I want it to look beyond familial relationships . I'm a big ...
Read more

Geneameme: Australia Day 2014

Pauleen Cass over at Family History across the seas has challenged Aussie geneabloggers to an Australian themed geneameme  for Australia Day/Invasion Day/Survival Day, The questions are really interesting so I hope my answers are as well :) The Family Tree: My first ancestor to arrive in Australia was the convict William Chapman aka Peter Brett Adnum on the Neptune in 1818 I have Australian Royalty , the above mentioned William Chapman, John Fibbens Marquess of Hastings 1825, Robert Muffett Bussorah Merchant  1828, John Brown Asia 1828,  Mary Ann Holgate Roslyn Castle  1830, Sarah Ann Watkins  Burrell  1832 and Robert Bird Bengal Merchant  1838. James Fibbens the brother of John was transported with him, the pair having engaged in a spot of unsuccessful highway robbery and Robert Muffett's younger brother James was sent out on the James Pattison  in 1837 for theft. My research so far also indicates the increasing likelihood that J...
Read more