Geniaus has asked geneabloggers to accentuate the positives of our blogging year that was 2012 with the help of a geneameme she  devised.  I  jumped at the chance because everything about my 2012 blogging year has been positive.  During a year where I struggle to draw many positives on a personal level, Western District Families has been both uplifting and a great escape thanks to the wonderful feedback I have received and friends I have made in 2012 thanks to blogging.  I have excluded a couple of the points as there were not applicable to my year but maybe next year.

Accentuate the Positive 2012 Geneameme

1.  An elusive ancestor I found was Rosanna Buckland.  Well, I had already knew about her but I found the elusive information I have searched high and low for.

2.  A precious family photo I found was of Susan Harman and another of my great-grandmother Edith Diwell and her sisters as young girls.  Thank you to newly found family members Janine and Judy for sharing these with me.

3.  An ancestor’s grave I found was Rosanna Buckland, well at least I now know which cemetery she was buried in, but a missing headstone, like so many other graves at the Old Cavendish Cemetery, stops me from pinpointing her grave.

4.  A newly found family member who shared – there are so many.  One of the great positives of blogging this year was the number of new family members I found (or who found me) and I intend to post about my new cousins in 2013.

5.  A geneasurprise I received was from Daryl Povey with an early Christmas present, Rosanna Buckland’s obituary

6.   My 2012 blog post that I was particularly proud of was Everybody Happy, about my third cousin 1 x removed, Rupert Hazell.    Two posts that were not genealogy related but I am equally proud of were about Western District racing history.   They were  Alice Hawthorne – The Western Mare and a post about The Parisian, the 1911 Melbourne Cup winner with a Western District owner.

7.   My 2012 blog post that received a large number of hits or comments was Alfred Winslow Harman – Stepping Out of the Shadows.  This post was assisted by a much appreciated mention in a Trove News forum of April 24 .  According to WordPress, the post which received the most comments was William Hadden – Wealth for Toil – Australia Day.

8.  A new piece of software I mastered was – The closest I came to new software was my recently updated Family Tree Maker software.

9. A social media tool I enjoyed using for genealogy was Google +

10. A genealogy conference/seminar/webinar from which I learnt something new was at the 2012 Weston Bate Lecture at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat.  The topic was the  Lost Soldiers of Fromelles presented by Tim Whitford and Lambis Englezos.  I have an interest in the Lost Soldiers which I can hopefully revel in 2013 and I found Lambis and Tim’s presentation incredibly moving.  Their fantastic style of presentation also made it interesting, amusing and thought-provoking.  If you get the opportunity to hear Tim and Lambis speak, take it.

11. I taught a friend how to – It was a work friend actually.  I must bore them sometimes, but I helped one girl find her grandfather’s WW2 service records and request a copy.

12. A genealogy book that taught me something new was Unlock the Past’s Digital Imaging Essentials.  To tell the truth I bought it for Mum for Christmas but I did sneak a peak before I wrapped it.

13. A great repository/archive/library I visited was Hamilton History Centre…fantastic.  A new one was Portland’s History House

14. A new genealogy/history book I enjoyed was a 2004 publication, but new to my bookshelf, The Potato Village, Mount Eccles near Macarthur by Beverley Ross.

15. A geneadventure I enjoyed was a trip to Hamilton which included research at the Hamilton History Centre and the Old Cavendish Cemetery

16. Another positive I would like to share was Western District Families inclusion in the Inside History Magazine Top 50 genealogy blogs which was a thrill.  Also, the interest in Western District Families in 2012 has been really encouraging with 25,000 views this year and 55 followers.  Thank  you to everyone.

To top it off,  last week I received the results for the Certificate of Genealogical Research I have studied with the Society of Australian Genealogists and I passed with a distinction.  I’ll be starting the Diploma of Family Historical Studies in 2013 which I’m looking forward to.

I almost forgot,  Trove Tuesday has been great fun – thank you Amy for the idea.