The Ancestors' GeneaMeme

Here is another Geneameme, which originally appeared in Jill Ball's blogpost on her blog Geniaus.  You are asked to complete a list, following these rules:

Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type

So, here are my annotations to her list:

Which of these apply to you?

1.  Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents
2.  Can name over 50 direct ancestors
3.  Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents
4.  Have an ancestor who was married more than three times
5.  Have an ancestor who was a bigamist
6.  Met all four of my grandparents
7.  Met one or more of my great-grandparents
8.  Named a child after an ancestor
9.  Bear an ancestor's given name/s
10.  Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland
11.  Have an ancestor from Asia
12.  Have an ancestor from Continental Europe
13.  Have an ancestor from Africa
14.  Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer
15.  Have an ancestor who had large land holdings 
16.  Have an ancestor who was a holy man - minister, priest, rabbi
17.  Have an ancestor who was a midwife
18.  Have an ancestor who was an author
19.  Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones
20.  Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng
21.  Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X
22.  Have an ancestor with a forename beginning with Z
23.  Have an ancestor born on 25th December
24. Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day
25.  Have blue blood in your family lines
26.  Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
27.  Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
28.  Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century
29.  Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier
30.  Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents
31.  Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X
32.  Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university
33.  Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence
34.  Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime
35.  Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine (Tell us where)
36.  Have published a family history online or in print (Details please)
37.  Have visited an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries
38.  Still have an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family
39.  Have a  family bible from the 19th Century
40.  Have a pre-19th century family bible

Tech Tuesday: The Technical Genealogist Meme

Geniaus built the original 50-strong meme, then it was added to by John Newmark of the Transylvanian Dutch blog.  I have added (JN) at the end of each of his entries.  Unfortunately, his additions mean I have done less and less!   Some of the items I haven't done because they will cost money that I just don't have (like owning an iPad or a smartphone)...


The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
Feel free to add extra comments in brackets after each item


Which of these apply to you?

1. Own an Android or Windows tablet or an iPad [GenWestUK: when I have the money!]
2. Use a tablet or iPad for genealogy related purposes [GenWestUK: when I have the money!]
3. Use a Kindle, Nook, or other e-reader for genealogy related purposes (JN)
4. Have used Skype to for genealogy purposes
5. Have used a camera to capture images in a library/archives/ancestor's home [GenWestUK: when I have the money!]
6. Use a genealogy software program on your computer to manage your family tree
7. Use multiple genealogy software programs because they each have different functionalities (JN)
8. Have a Twitter account
9. Tweet daily
10. Have a genealogy blog
11. Have more than one genealogy blog
12. Have lectured/presented to a genealogy group on a technology topic
13. Currently an active member of Genealogy Wise
14. Have a Facebook Account
15. Have connected with genealogists via Facebook
16. Maintain a genealogy related Facebook Page
17. Maintain a blog or website for a genealogy society
18. Have submitted text corrections online to Ancestry, Trove or a similar site
19. Have added content to a Person Page on Fold3 (formerly Footnote) (JN)
20. Have registered a domain name
21. Post regularly to Google+
22. Have participated in a genealogy-related Google+ hangout (JN)
23. Have a blog listed on Geneabloggers
24. Have a blog listed on Cyndi's List (JN)
    
25. Have transcribed/indexed records for FamilySearch or a similar project
26. Have converted a family audiotape to digital (JN)
27. Have converted a family videotape to digital (JN)
28. Have converted family movies pre-dating videotape to digital. (JN)
29. Own a Flip-Pal or hand-held scanner [GenWestUK: when I have the money!]
30. Can code a webpage in .html
31. Can code a webpage in .html using Notepad (or any other text-only software) (JN)
32. Can write scripts for your webpage in at least one programming language (JN)
33. Can write scripts for your webpage in multiple programming languages (JN)
    
34. Own a smartphone [GenWestUK: when I have the money!]
35. Have a personal subscription to one or more paid genealogy databases
36. Have a local library card that offers you home access to online databases, and you use that access (JN)
37. Use a digital voice recorder to record genealogy lectures
38. Have contributed to a genealogy blog carnival
39. Have hosted a genealogy blog carnival (JN)
40. Use Chrome as a Browser
41. Have participated in a genealogy webinar
42. Have taken a DNA test for genealogy purposes
43. Have a personal genealogy website
44. Have found mention of an ancestor in an online newspaper archive
45. Have tweeted during a genealogy lecture
46. Have tweeted during a family reunion (JN)
47. Have scanned your hardcopy genealogy files
48. Use an RSS Reader to follow genealogy news and blogs
49. Have uploaded a gedcom file to a site like Geni, MyHeritage or Ancestry
50. Own a netbook
51. Use a computer/tablet/smartphone to take genealogy lecture notes
52. Have a profile on LinkedIn that mentions your genealogy habit
53. Have developed a genealogy software program, app or widget
54. Have listened to a genealogy podcast online
55. Have downloaded genealogy podcasts for later listening
56. Backup your files to a portable hard drive
57. Have a copy of your genealogy files stored offsite
58. Know about Rootstech
59. Have listened to a Blogtalk radio session about genealogy
60. Use Dropbox, SugarSync or other service to save documents in the cloud
61. Schedule regular email backups
62. Have contributed to the Familysearch Wiki
63. Have scanned and tagged your genealogy photographs
64. Have published a genealogy book in an online/digital format
65. Brought a USB device to a microfilm repository so you could download instead of print (JN)
66. Have a wearable USB device containing important files. (Watch, keychain necklace, etc) (JN)
67. Created a map on Google Maps plotting ancestral homes or businesses (JN)  
68. Recorded the GPS coordinates for a tombstone, or ancestral home  (JN)
69. Edited the Wikipedia entry for an ancestor, or their kin (JN)
    
70. Created an entry at FindAGrave for a person (JN)
71. Created an entry at FindAGrave for a cemetery (JN) 
72. Uploaded the MediaWiki software (or TikiWiki, or PhpWiki) to your family website (JN)  
73. Have downloaded a video (for genealogical purposes) from YouTube or other streaming video site using KeepVid.com, or in some other fashion (JN) 
74. Have transferred a video from a DVR to your computer for genealogical purposes (JN) 
75. Have participated in a ScanFest (JN)
76. Have started a Genealogy-related meme at least one other geneablogger participated in (JN)
77. Have started a Genealogy-related weekly blogging theme other geneabloggers participated in (JN)
78. Have used Photoshop (or other editing software) to ‘clean up’ an old family photo (JN) 
79. Done digital scrapbooking (JN)
80. Printed out a satellite photo from Google Maps of a cemetery, and marked where a tombstone was located on it (JN)
    

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Teachers

There were several teachers on whom I had mad crushes - I won't reveal their names to avoid my own embarrassment (!) - but there were also teachers to whom I owe my foreign language accents.

I was fortunate enough to have a Spanish lady as one of my Spanish teachers and a French lady as one of my French teachers.  They developed my accent so it was much purer; so that I didn't sound like an English girl speaking a foreign language.

In my second year of a bi-lingual secretarial course at college, part of the curriculum was to take a job for three weeks in France.  I was fortunate enough to be offered one of the top jobs: three weeks at Laura Ashley's HQ in Paris.  While I was there I got my ears pierced.  My mother wouldn't let me get my ears pierced in our local town, so I figured that Paris was far enough away from her to get my ears done... The jeweller was very kind, but afterwards asked me where I came from.  When I answered that I was English, his face cleared in relief, and he said (in French, of course) that he thought I sounded French, but a French girl would have screamed and had hysterics; when he understood that I was English, he understood that of course I would be stoic... So my French accent was good enough to fool a Frenchman.  Now that was a high compliment, I felt, and I was so grateful to my French teacher.

And I found that it works both ways: when you are taking French or Spanish dictation and writing in French or Spanish shorthand, it helps to have a good accent because then you can understand whatever you are hearing.