Drop Box

One of the new apps that I have loaded onto my Ipad is Dropbox. I am still working out how to use this interesting app and testing the limits of what I can do with it. I have found that I can store photos in there, both that I have found online and also ones that I have taken myself. These stored photos on the Ipad are then available on my home computers Dropbox where they can be taken out of the box and filed or printed as appropriate. They can stay in the box all the time if I want them to. However with 2gb free storage I wouldn't leave them there too long. I can see Dropbox being very useful for when I go to places to do family history research, will save a lot of handwriting.....

The only sad bit is that the bits that are waiting in the box for me to use will have to wait until next month when my internet usage rolls over. Thanks kids!!!!!

IPad Dictaphone

Now that I am learning how to drive my Ipad properly, I thought I could make use of the Dictaphone feature to save heaps of time typing. Good in theory but in reality unless you have a deep male voice, forget it. No matter how hard I tried, it wouldn't listen. Sadly when I asked my children to say exactly the same thing I did, the thing listened dutifully and reproduced their conversations faithfully. However when we read it the obituary of Robert Bennett, it chose to ignore most of the words. According to my wonderful IPad instead of being industrious and hardworking, he was in Russia and far herding!! The only thing that I said that it managed to get right was the spelling of one of my sons names. Mind you it did try for some of the more harder words, had no trouble with unimpeachable....even managed Panmure cemetery without incident but poor old Terang well we had tow rang, toe ring, too wrang just to name a few. Ipad Dictaphone for entertainment
Yes but for transcribing records, maybe not!!

Remember when....

Doing more research about my family history has brought many happy memories flooding back about the happy times spent with cousins and grandparents on holidays etc. Waking up to real Milo made with real warm milk not the business with the kettle and the instant milo, with an open fire going in the kitchen whilst curling up in one of the large chairs in the corner of that same kitchen, wow I had forgotten about that. Melon jam, yes Nana always had the melon jam. Have not had some for years now, must get a jam melon and see if I can replicate it. Playing cricket in the lane where I grew up, start with a few cousins and by the end of the night every kid and quite a few dad's in the lane playing too on a warm summer evening, yes had forgotten about that too. One night we even ventured into the paddock where the old Trufood concrete cricket pitch was (and still is) and played a massive game there that night. No cricket bats for us, we all played tennis so it was cricket with a tennis racquet. Probably not quite as polished as Maria Sharapova slamming that ball into the hole on the golf course with her tennis racquet (did you see that this morning on the telly) whilst poor Djokovic landed in the drink, but you could actually run an eight if you whacked it hard enough.

On the war front

Once again doing research for our family history book. Its amazing what is available out in the wide world. I have just today read the war record for George Bennett. A farmer who decided to join the war effort in 1916 at age 34. And yet the photo we have of George in uniform, well you would swear he was only in his 20's. George saw conflict in France before being so badly wounded in the foot that he was sent home with a permanent injury. George never had a wife or family but he always seemed to have plenty of others around him. He used to go every year to Melbourne to take part in the Anzac Day parade. In 1935 whilst he was in Melbourne he became very ill and died. He now lies at peace in an unmarked grave in the Terang Cemetery.
Thanks George for doing your bit to make our lives that little bit easier. Thanks to all the brave soldiers out there for doing your best to make our lives safer.

Old times in the papers

Have been rereading some of the notes that I made whilst researching my Bennett family links. The newspaper reports make such great reading. The little things that newspapers used to report on made everyone seem connected, pretty much like Facebook and Twitter do now. Funny thing is will we be reading our families' history from Facebook in 100 years time? I rather think not. Rarely do you see an obituary in a newspaper these days unless the deceased was a prominent figure in the community. So many of my great great great uncles, aunts etc lived very interesting lives but by todays standards their lives were ordinary. To me there is no such thing as an ordinary life and rereading my families obits and news cuttings for the book we are researching gives me a window into the lives of the past generations. To have a newspaper report that says ones relative supported the church or played cards or worked for the Blind is a treasure. To have a newspaper report about every single wedding present a bride and groom received with details down even to who made the wedding cake is extraordinary. And yet the newspaper constantly reported such facts and events.

Off on a Bennett hunt

Now that I have set up my blog, its time to get down and do some digging for ancestors. My Bennett ancestors came from Tandragee, Ireland. Robert Bennett died there in 1849, he was a son of William Bennett and Ann Rennie. So far four brothers have been identified. It is amazing how one can build up a tree quickly online but there is so much misinformation out there that it can be easy to get off the beaten track. My find of the day has been a couple of lovely photos of Tandragee in 1865, thanks Paula for sharing.

On a Roll

Yes its me again. Really rolling along now, have added a Cluster Map to show where the hits to my blog come from and also a nice slide show. Wonder what I will do next. It is easy and most of these gadgets have step by step instructions on them. Have a go, you will be surprised at just how easy it can be....

Fine tuning

Did you know that you can fine tune a lot of the areas on a blog so that you can have it they way you want it? I have been playing around with a few templates and think that I really like this one.

Hello world...

Hello world, yes its little old me being very brave and learning all about blogging. After a very interesting PD online with Anne Mirtschin last Wednesday night, I am diving in and having a go.....