gathering dust

On the train home from work tonight I checked my email and was happy to see that the NAA had finally completed digitisation of the Naturalisation papers I requested. When I got in I immediately fed the cat (I value my life too much to not feed her straight away) and then grabbed my laptop.  Happy became grinning stupidly. Then ringing my mother at quarter to nine at night to inform her that grandpa doesn't really look like her grandpa. Which she knew. But anyway. A nice chat later I've hung up and looked at my grandpa (her dad's) papers.  Yep. Back on the phone. "Grandpa's mum's name is Francesca Josephina and she was Maltese"  Sometimes, it is the little things that make you ridiculously happy. Like working out your Mum was kind of named for her grandmother :)

I've just been a little busy what with my new job and all. Yes that's right, I started a new job at the end of March working for a transcription company who does court reporting etc, and I love it. Generally it is only a part time role but there was a big project I was assigned to so for five weeks I left home at 7:30 in the morning and got home at 8:30 at night completely exhausted. Weekends I slept, or this last weekend, threw myself head first in to getting the project done by Monday as it was due on the 1st. What has this got to do with genealogy, history or research you ask? Well it has had some flow on effects: Disposable income. I've ordered my AncestryDNA kit and have been splashing out on BDM transcriptions. I've also brought a lot of books because, well I like books.  A renewed interest in legal proceedings and associated records. Perfect timing considering the release of all those juicy criminal records on FindMyPast this month. I'm learning a l...

Um hello. Yes, it has been awhile, but my Masters project was submitted last week and suddenly my time is once again my own. Well except for job hunting and hausfrau-ing, the latter of which I am unbelievably terrible at.  It runs in the family ;) Of course now that I am ready to pick up my research again I have found myself in a bit of a pickle. My notes are in absolute chaos and I cannot remember exactly what it was I was working on. Not to mention the build up of untagged and unfiled documents and photos. And my favourite genealogy program; The Master Genealogist becoming obsolete. Where should one start?

Was the topic of last nights "I can't get to sleep and my brain insists on being ridiculously chatty even though I am really tired" ramble. So I was pleased that when I googled it this morning bunches of articles came up. XML Data Migration Case Study: GEDCOM GRAMPS XML for Genealogists Since I'm studying for my Masters in Archives & Records, XML is something I've come to be pretty fond of and honestly GEDCOM has always seemed unnecessarily complicated and inflexible. Is it enough however to convince me to change genie software?  At the moment I switch between TMG and Family Historian , TMG for my 'serious' research stuff and Family Historian for when I am showing non-technical, non-historians my research. Cause it's prettier. TMG is for me, by far the better program. But I haven't tried GRAMPS and the open source nature of it does appeal being in general easier to migrate and preserve over a longer period of time than proprietary ...