Every year around this time, FamilySearch hosts RootsTech, the largest genealogy conference in the world. This year RootsTech 2024 promises to deliver on a huge range of topics, both live and online. Those lucky enough to be in Salt Lake City at the time will get the full conference experience, but for the majority of us, the free online access makes it so accessible from wherever in the world we are.
Remember…
…is the theme of RootsTech 2024, but the most important things to remember right now are:
take a look at the schedule and mark which presentations you are most interested in. This creates your own personalised playlist.
consider signing into ‘Relatives at RootsTech‘. This is available every year for free, and lets you see how many of your cousins are also registered for the conference. A great way to find others who are researching the same family lines!
keep your diary free for February 29th-March 2nd (or March 1st-March 3rd depending on your timezone!). This one isn’t crucial, since if you have created your playlist, it’s so easy to go back later and catch up. I spread my viewing out over the full year since I always pick so many of the presentations!
Keynote Speakers
As always, as well as live and recorded presentations from genealogists and family historians, RootsTech 2024 is hosting live keynote speakers, some from other professions, to talk about what remembering family means to them.
This year the keynote speakers include Lynne M. Jackson (Dred Scott Foundation), Henry Cho (comedian), and Nancy Borowick (photographer)
RootsTech 2024 – Prepare, Attend, and Enjoy!
As with anything in life, a little preparation is key to getting the best out of it. Follow the tips above and you’ll be well-armed to get the most out of your time at RootsTech 2024!
The Accentuate the Positive Geneameme, created by GeniAus is something I really enjoy taking part in each year. It’s an awesome opportunity to reflect on the year past and what has been achieved. I find it helpful in channelling my thoughts for goals for the upcoming year as well!
I’ve been a little bit slower than usual in posting my responses this year. Just as with my activities on the genealogical front (including maintaining this blog!), the year was overtaken on the personal front – deaths in the family, illness, you name it! I’m very much hoping for a less eventful 2024. Accentuating the positive is more of a challenge than usual for 2023.
Anyway, here goes…
Let’s Accentuate the Positive!
1. On revisiting some old research I found … newspapers to be especially helpful in filling in the gaps in the stories – two of which I wrote about this year, the Millen Murder and the suicide of John Rigby. I am such a newspaper junkie, and I heartily recommend going back to old research and seeing if the newspapers can illuminate the stories of your ancestors.
2. In 2023 I hooked up with a new (to me) living cousin … none I’m afraid, quite the opposite. An old to me living cousin who I’d been in contact with for about 15 years and met on a trip to England suddenly passed away. But lest that be seen as an answer that doesn’t accentuate the positive, I will say that he added so much laughter to my life in those 15 years that I’m really glad we met.
No, really, positivity…!
3. I’m pleased I replaced a tool I had been using with … Goldie May. Research logs are so essential to our genealogical work but let’s be frank…so tedious. Goldie May automates the process with one click and has saved me hours of manual labour. Another super-useful tool has been Cite-Builder. Source citations are so essential to our genealogical work but let’s be frank…so tedious (I’m sensing a pattern here!). Cite-Builder has also saved countless hours by allowing me to enter the information required into a template for each record type and generating the citation. Sometimes they need a little tweak, but still it’s been hugely labour-saving.
4. My sledgehammer did great work on this brick wall … finding the origins of William Townley and who his mother was. This came out of thinking I was disproving an Ancestry hint, which turned out to be valid even though it looked improbable! Building out the family and checking probate documents turned out to be the key.
5. I was pleased that I finally read … The Floating Brothel by Sian Rees. It had been on my bookshelf for years but I’d never got around to reading it.
Getting more sociable…
6. I enjoyed my geneajourney to … a behind-the-scenes tour at the Public Record Office of Victoria. When we go to the archives, we’re in the reading room, being served up documents from the mysterious depths ‘back there’. It was great to actually see ‘back there’. Nerdily delightful.
Visiting the depths of the PROV!
7. In 2023 I finally met … many of my fellow Genealogical Society of Victoria volunteers in real life. I really only got involved with helping to run the Midlands and East Anglia Discussion Group during the pandemic so our Volunteers’ get-together early in 2023 was the first time I’d met many many people in 3D!
8.I was the recipient of genearosity from … someone who is not a relation but who has been researching the lives of all the Parkhurst Prison juvenile offenders, one of whom was someone in my extended tree. He sent me everything he’d discovered, and I was able to add further details to help him in return. We ultimately found that three children from the same family had been sent to Australia as convicts!
9. I am pleased that I am a member of … so many family history societies. I can’t choose just one, because they all provide so much value for the small amount of money it costs to be a member. Supporting the family history societies for the areas of your research helps to ensure that they can keep on going, and their resources and journals are invaluable to our research.
Getting some research done…
10. I made a new DNA discovery … when I dug into a line where the documents made sense but there had been no DNA matches generated with any of my family members anywhere over many years. There’s a blog coming on this one so I shan’t say much more other than a revisiting of some mystery DNA matches provided the answer and corrected the line.
11. An informative journal or newspaper article I found was … I found an excellent thesis online (do you check for theses about the people or places you’re researching? You can strike gold!). It gave a full and in-depth history with maps, photos and records of a rural area of Victoria where my client’s family went on their immigration. It opened up so much further research for me, and provided a great background.
12. I enjoyed my wander around … cemetery. I didn’t actually get to do any cemetery wandering this year other than on a personal level, which was not enjoyable. That’s one to pick up again for fun this year I hope.
13. AI was a mystery to me but I learnt … the value of using it for transcribing, summarising, extracting and tabulating those long handwritten documents like wills that are so essential to our research. Upcoming blog on this!
Giving…
14. The best value I got for my genealogy dollars was … so hard to choose just one. I subscribe to all the major and several smaller genealogy websites for the areas I research. They all have their own strengths. I’d hate to do without any one of them.
15. It felt good to contribute to … the Midlands and East Anglia Group at the GSV. I love giving presentations, and as someone born in the Midlands, it’s nice to be able to share context with those who have the ancestry but have never been there.
17. I got a thrill from opening someone’s eyes to the joy of genealogy … with a client who was so thrilled with what was being found that the original project got extended, extended, and extended until it filled most of my year. It’s now continuing with another family member’s branch into this year. It’s been thrilling to bring so much enthusiasm and joy to someone just by doing what I love to do!
Finally…
18. Another positive I would like to share is … no matter what hurdles get in the way, the research is always there to come back to when the time is right. And it’s therapeutic!
RootsTech24 is coming around quickly. Has anyone got through all the wonderful content from RootsTech23 yet? Me neither! There are about 3 1/2 months to go till even more marvellous genealogy information and tools begin flooding into our grasp. So don’t panic, there’s still a bit of time to catch up with what’s there now. Preparing for RootsTech is all part of the buildup to the main event!
The theme this year is ‘Remember’ and as part of that theme, RootsTech will be producing a cookbook of old family recipes. They invite you to submit your own for inclusion. If you would like your Grandma’s special cake recipe preserved for all time, here’s your opportunity! Submissions are open till December.
RootsTech24 will be held both in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA and virtually around the globe from February 29th – March 2nd 2024. As always, it is totally free to register for the virtual event (and registration is already open so why not register today?).
Attending RootsTech24 in person gives you a whole lot more. There are many extra classes and activities, and of course, the legendary Expo Hall is way more fun to visit in person!
If you’re lucky enough to be able to get there, it’s certainly the best way to experience the atmosphere and catch up with friends old and new. Although it is very competitively priced, it is not free to attend. Currently, the early bird price is $US99 for the full 3 days.
RootsTech24 Pass Sweepstakes
Here’s where the RootsTech24 Pass Sweepstakes comes in! Every year there is a giveaway of free passes for lucky winners to take away that cost of attendance and allow you the added experience of being there for the cost of virtual entry…nothing!
For the whole of October, the QR code below will take you to the entry page. (Don’t worry if you’ve already paid for registration – if you win, it will be refunded). 20 winners will be drawn from around the world on November 1st.
As they say, you gotta be in it to win it! Good luck to all!
Well here we are, it’s the middle of March already, and RootsTech is done and dusted. But is it? Is it really? No. It’s not too late to RootsTech!
Even if you didn’t attend either in person or virtually between March 3rd and 5th, it’s not too late to participate in RootsTech 2023.
Why get involved now?
RootsTech is the largest family history conference in the world.
It’s totally free!
The on-demand sessions remain on the site for easy access whenever you need to learn (or just feel like learning) something new about genealogy.
There are currently more than 1,500 sessions on 185 topics in over 30 languages in the On-Demand Library, so you’re sure to find something of use and interest to you.
Some of the sponsors still have conference deals and offers running for another week or so.
‘Relatives at RootsTech’ is also still available until March 28th. Connect with family!
You can create your own personal playlist of presentations you are interested in. That saves you from having to remember which ones grabbed your fancy!
It’s NOT TOO LATE TO ROOTSTECH!
My favourite session this year
There were so many to choose from, and I’m still working my way through them, but my favourite has to be Jonny Perl’s presentation on third-party DNA tools. He didn’t just talk about his own site, DNA Painter. He spent an hour taking us through a huge swathe of different tools available on different sites. It was a great summary of what’s available to help people who want to do more with their DNA results than their original testing company can offer. It was a really good overview of what each tool does, how it might help, who it might suit… There’s just so much around and we’re spoilt for choice, really!
I still have an awful lot to watch. Family ‘stuff’ is currently taking a lot more of my time than family history. But that’s okay. That’s how RootsTech works. It’s NEVER too late to Rootstech!
PS: Mark your calendars for RootsTech 2024! February 29th-March 2nd…counting down! Maybe next year I can actually be there…like in 2019 in London…a girl can dream…
Welcome to 2023 everyone! I finally succumbed to Covid on New Year’s Eve after avoiding it for three years, so this will be the shortest-ever blog. But I just had to let you know…. I have a 3-day in-person pass to RootsTech 2023 to give away to one of my lucky readers!
Please note, this ticket is for those intending to attend the conference in person in Salt Lake City. The virtual event is free to attend from anywhere in the world. But I know many people are beginning to emerge, travel and attend events in person again – why not begin the year with the biggest and the best?
The 3-day pass is valued at $98 and includes:
access to all on-site classes
keynote and general sessions
access to the Expo Hall (ooooh bargains!)
If you’ve already purchased a ticket, don’t worry. If you win, you will be refunded what you paid so it’s still worth entering!
So, how can you get your hands on this giveaway for RootsTech? Easy. Drop me a message via the ‘Contact Me’ area on this page, and answer this simple question…
‘IN WHICH CITY IS ROOTSTECH 2023 HELD?’
Entries close at midnight AEDT on 26th January 2023 and a winner will be randomly chosen on the following day. Good luck!
It’s been two weeks since RootsTech 2022, so I’ve decided it’s time to come out of RootsTech Recovery mode and tell you a little bit about my experience. Well, so carried away by the excitement was I that I basically went nocturnal for the entire time! I got up at 3 in the mornings to catch the live sessions, because I live in a very unfriendly time zone for things that happen in the US. But it was worth it. See here for some of the highlights!
There was a LOT going on! Live sessions, the Expo Hall, Relatives at RootsTech and of course over 1500 pre-recorded lecture sessions as well as cultural education through food and dance. In my last blog, I stressed the need to pre-prepare to keep the FOMO in check, and I’m very glad that I took that time to know what my priorities were.
I remained super-focused on what was live during those days only. This meant I could really relax and get into the moment, without panicking that I would never get to everything I wanted to see.
RootsTech 2022 Keynote Speakers
The keynote speakers were inspiring as always. The way they told their stories, interweaving the importance of their families’ influence and often learning something new about them (courtesy of FamilySearch) was both exhilarating and moving. I especially enjoyed Maysoon Zaid, Matthew Modine and Diego Torres.
RootsTech 2022 Sponsor talks
It was also great to hear of some of the new tools and resources available from companies. There is a new DNAPainter tool from Jonny Perl ‘Shared cM Investigator’, which predicts how much DNA your parent would share with your DNA match. Ancestry is collaborating with Photomyne to improve the gallery experience. MyHeritage has released Live Story (your ancestors narrating their own life story!). The Society of Genealogists gave a wonderful presentation about the exciting Roll Pedigree project. They are scanning, indexing and placing online the beautiful collection of roll pedigrees in their collection, some dating back several hundred years.
Other RootsTech 2022 Live Sessions I especially enjoyed…
I made sure to attend all three of the Talking Family History sessions. I’m already a subscriber to Talking Family History which is run by Michelle Patient and Fiona Brooker. Therefore I knew the time would be well worth spending here. They ran Q&A sessions on DNA, Australian and New Zealand research and Brick Walls, with lots of discussion.
Prerecorded lectures
I have barely scratched the surface here. But you know what? That’s fine. I prepared for this. I have my playlist sorted. My plan is to work my way through those sessions I’ve marked on a needs basis throughout the year. As I work on Irish projects, I’ll go watch the Irish sessions, etc. I can relax.
RootsTech 2022 may be over. But it’s barely begun.
There are so many amazing genealogical events every year that give us all the opportunity to learn, connect and advance our skills from beginner hobbyist to professional. With the challenges of the past couple of years, the genealogical community has pivoted beautifully. Virtual offerings have increased accessibility to all.
The biggest by far has been RootsTech, the annual conference run by FamilySearch. Last year, there were over 1.5 MILLION registrants for over 1500 virtual presentations. This year, the number of registrants looks likely to beat that! The virtual nature of the conference makes it accessible not only because of the comfort of watching without travelling, but you can spread most of your viewing out indefinitely.
I am thrilled to be an Ambassador for RootsTech this year! I’d like to help ensure that everyone gets the best out of this totally free event so that they can climb their family tree more successfully after attending. It was amazing to attend RootsTech London in 2019, but I’ve had equal pleasure and value from attending virtually since.
As with anything though, the key to getting the most out of something is to prepare before going in. So today I’d like to help you prepare for RootsTech. Read on to learn what has helped me navigate this huge and somewhat overwhelming experience so that you get the full benefit!
Preparing for RootsTech – Sessions
Sooooo many sessions to choose from, where do you start? Firstly, when do you start? Now. Sign in to your FamilySearch free account, and register for the conference if you haven’t already done so.
First, let’s tackle the live sessions. At the top of the page is a ‘Main Stage’ tab. This is where all the time-sensitive content is. There are some great keynote speakers, such as Matthew Modine, Azumah Nelson and Diego Torres. There are also presentations on what’s new from some of the key industry players that you won’t want to miss. I’m especially looking forward to hearing about some of Jonny Perl’s new tools at DNA Painter! As a global event, you will be relieved to know that session times will display in your local timezone (so you don’t need to count on your fingers to work out what time that really is for you!). Add the ones you want to see into your diary so you don’t forget to tune in.
Next, check out the list of pre-recorded sessions. Unsurprisingly, it’s under the ‘Sessions’ tab, which will take you to this screen:
From here you can filter in multiple ways to zero in on the sessions that are of most interest and select them. They are then in your own personal playlist. These sessions are all pre-recorded and can be watched at your leisure for at least the next year.
Preparing for RootsTech – Connecting
One of the key themes for RootsTech is connecting with family. This can be achieved by becoming a better researcher through the learning you take away from the sessions. But you can also directly connect with relatives also attending. This can make up for being unable to network in person at the virtual event and in some ways is better. You don’t need to spot them in a crowd, you can find them using the ‘Relatives at RootsTech’ feature.
If you have your ancestors entered on the FamilySearch Family Tree, and consent to being part of ‘Relatives and Rootstech’ when you register for the conference, the tree will be searched to find others who descend from the same ancestors.
Remember this is a collaborative tree, so I recommend checking that you are connected to the correct people. So go check that you’re happy with where you are sitting in the tree first so you get the right relatives on your list. So far I have a couple of thousand relatives identified with a handy summary of how and from whom we connect, with the ability to message them.
You can also see if and how you are related to famous people, for example, Charles Dickens!
Preparing for RootsTech – Research Help
Everyone attending RootsTech has the opportunity to book a 20-minute one on one session with a professional genealogist for assistance with a brick wall. This is great because we all have brick walls in our research!
Preparing for RootsTech – Bargains
And last but definitely not least, don’t forget to visit the Expo Hall to visit the multitude of sponsors. Many of them have special offers available at their stand and people you can speak with to get information about their offerings. For those who are as into further education as me (and of course you are, you’re attending RootsTech aren’t you?), I am especially tempted to pick up more discounted courses at the National Institute of Genealogical Studies, even though I’m already working my way through three certificates at the moment! I can’t wait to see what else I can save money on!
So here we are, two days out. So use the time to get prepared and have a great time!
Every year, Jill Ball, aka Geniaus, encourages us fellow geneamates to do a review of our year in genealogy focusing on the positives. It’s a great idea that I recommend everyone does, even if not as a blog. It’s very heartening to realise that we have all made achievements in 2021 from the countless hours we have spent slaving over a hot keyboard!
So here is my contribution…
1. I got the most joy from…
…finally identifying the last of my 3 x great-grandparents. This was the father of an illegitimate son who became my 2 x great-grandfather. It’s been decades but finally, I have a name…and it’s not the rumoured name that made it down through several generations. An entire complex cover story took several years to be systematically disentangled and disproved. Now I realise why it was constructed. This was absolutely one of my biggest achievements for 2021.
More to come on this one, I can’t NOT blog it, but it may take a while to find the time to devote to the telling of this saga! it could even end up as long as the Vaughan story…
2. The Covid situation gave me an opportunity to…
…get more involved in local family history societies that weren’t at all local to me. Most of them opened up Zoom meetings instead of their usual face-to-face ones 12 000 miles away from me. Often the timezones were challenging, but it has been especially nice to put faces to names of members that I’ve heard of but never seen for up to 35 years!
Photo by Francisco Javier Martinez Navio on Scopio
3. I managed to attend a face to face event…
…nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. Everywhere I had booked for this year cancelled their face to face events and for much of the year, we were in lockdown. Luckily, they were often replaced with online versions!
4. My main focus this year was…
…my Dad. Getting him home from Ireland after an ill-timed holiday in early 2020 was a 14-month marathon effort. He left just before Covid struck and international borders closed while he was away. That was followed by 5 months this year living with him in Tasmania on his return. I packed up his home and life around him whilst providing the 24/7 care he needs and brought him back to Victoria to be closer to family and quality care. This was a single-handed task and is definitely my greatest achievement of 2021. He’s now settled and happy again. Family is everything. It evens trumps family history, though I couldn’t abandon that entirely!
5. A new piece of technology or skill I mastered was…
…I don’t know if this counts as ‘mastering’ or just ‘discovering and making use of’! But I’m gradually working my way through the list of things to look up if I’m ever again in an FHC affiliate library by using the new FamilySearch Record Lookup Service.
Have you found an index entry for your probable ancestors but need to see the original image? This fits the bill perfectly. I’ve found it especially useful for my Worcestershire ancestors while I continue to wait for Ancestry to put the Bishops Transcript images online. It’s free, it’s fast and it’s a whole lot cheaper than paying 16 pounds per image to get it emailed from the Archives!
6. A geneasurprise I received was…
…the sudden and almost simultaneous purchases of the two main French genealogy sites by the big guns! MyHeritage purchased Filae, and Ancestry purchased Geneanet. In a year when my Huguenot heritage was confirmed this is perfect timing! I’m already a Geneanet subscriber but was tossing up whether to join Filae. Now I don’t have to, the records are appearing where I already have access!
7. A Facebook Group that helped me was…
…The Genealogy Squad. I learn something new on a regular basis from the friendly conversations amongst the 45 000 global members (the Squad’s achievement for 2021!)
Confession – I’m also a moderator there and this is a shameless plug for people to come join the party!
Photo by Francisco Javier Martinez Navio on Scopio
8. My 2021 social media post that I was particularly proud of was…
…the one where I unravelled the mystery of where my Morter family came from before arriving in London, I knew it was likely to be East Anglia somewhere given the surname distribution, but it’s been a needle in a haystack until DNA knocked down the brick wall.
Since then I have had more and more DNA matches also turn out to be descended from the Norfolk family a further generation before my London ancestors. The hypothesis just keeps on firming up.
I love how technically the subject of genealogy is finite, but there was never a presentation that I didn’t take away something useful from.
11. A great journal or newspaper article I found…
…was not a big one, not a particularly complex one, but a very enlightening one. It reported the 1844 death of James Underhill, father of my newly identified 3 x great grandfather Samuel Underhill (unnamed father of Frederick George Seal). This newspaper article added a layer of context that linked the Underhill and Seal families directly, not just by locality and occupation, but by specific workplace and hierarchy.
12. I got the most value from this subscription…
…oooh, this is a tough one. There are very few subscriptions I have that I would willingly give up. They all provide value in their own way.
Naturally, I am subscribed to the major sites for accessing records – Ancestry, FindMyPast, MyHeritage, TheGenealogist, but I’ve also increased my society memberships to 10 (doubled!) to cover the main geographical areas of research, and I am a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists.
A little hint though…check each of your society membership benefits, they may offer significant discounts to other subscription sites which will save you some significant outlay!
13. I progressed my DNA research with …
…a return to network graphing after a couple of years break from it. I always loved how visual it is, but I needed to familiarise myself with all the new DNA tools appearing on the testing sites as well as 3rd party tools continually popping up. With limited time, network graphing was shelved for a while. But I’m pulling on my wellies, wading back in and finding clear confirmation of conclusions drawn as well as some further intriguing ‘clumps’ to explore.
Photo by Francisco Javier Martinez Navio on Scopio
14. A DNA discovery I made was…
…a couple who are repeatedly popping up among US DNA matches, and are clearly connected to one of the branches of a certain pair of great grandparents. I must find time to build out the tree of this couple and see where and how they fit in. It could set a load of dominoes falling to parse this branch more effectively.
15. A newly found family member shared…
…photos of her family members that showed we were definitely of the same line. Then the same thing happened on another branch of the same line, from another relative who didn’t know the first. We’re all so similar, the Seals definitely have a ‘look’.
16. I splashed out and purchased…
…a package of 40 courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies which will keep me busy for the next year or two! The perils of being the ‘lifelong learner’ type, it keeps you poor!
17. Another positive I would like to share is…
…a really helpful side effect from what has been such a tragic and challenging couple of years is the number of records that have been digitised and indexed and are now available to us via home access. So many long-term projects sped up, so many ongoing projects were completed. This has to be the greatest global achievement for 2021 in the genealogical world. I am so grateful to all those who have made this possible.
So how about you? What will you remember as YOUR genealogical achievements of 2021?
Memorial card for the 15 victims of the Whittall St explosion who were buried together at St Mary Whittall St.
This week marks a new beginning for me. I have decided to take part in the 52 Ancestors event, attempting to tell a story on a different theme every week. Hopefully, that will get me back into the swing of regular blogging. Let’s see. This week’s theme is ‘beginnings’, which seems a sensible place to start.
The Whittall St explosion of 1859 may sound more like an ending than a beginning. But it so shocked the people of the UK, that it helped bring in the Act of 1860. This governed the way that firearms, ammunition, and fireworks were manufactured and their components stored. In essence, it was one of the first occupational health and safety acts to be enacted. And at a personal level, there were new beginnings in the Groocock and other bereaved families as a result of this disastrous accident.
The Whittall St Explosion
Pursall and Phillips was a percussion cap factory located at 22 Whittall St in the heart of Birmingham’s Gun Quarter. Birmingham was one of the major centres of the global gun industry, employing thousands in the manufacture of guns and ammunition. In 1859 guns had largely moved from using flintlock to percussion caps to ignite the gunpowder. Percussion caps, however, were extremely dangerous. The fulminate of mercury used in the caps was very sensitive to sudden movements or pressure and extremely explosive. Factories in Birmingham at the time were usually small and jammed closely together.
On the 27th of September 1859, the unthinkable happened. A huge explosion tore through Pursall and Phillips mid-morning, reducing the entire factory to flames and rubble. There were around 70 employees at the factory. Many were women and children, who were often employed to do the small fiddly work. Indeed of the 20 people known to have died, 19 were female, ranging in age from 10 to 31 years. The one man who died, Humphrey Wood, had initially survived but ran into the aftermath to rescue his wife Elizabeth who also worked there. He was crushed when the building collapsed on top of him.
The Whittall St explosion captured in an engraving in the Illustrated London News, 8 October 1859
The cause of this (inevitable) explosion was a broken gas main in the basement, which added to an already volatile atmosphere. The three-storey building exploded, burned and collapsed around the unfortunate workforce, many of whom did not stand a chance of escape.
The Whittall St explosion made huge news all around the country, with a collection taken up for the families of those bereaved. The local community gathered together too. Most of the victims ended up being buried together on the same day at the local parish church, St Mary Whittall St. They only remained there until the 1950s however, as they were amongst the many who were exhumed and reinterred at Warstone Lane Cemetery in order to expand the grounds of the Birmingham General Hospital. Ironically, this was where most of the victims had died.
Martha Groocock
Martha Groocock was born Martha Benton around 1829 in Birmingham. She was one of the two eldest to die in the explosion. The other was Fanny Dollman, nee Earp.
Martha was born to John Benton and Mary Ann Wainwright. This Benton family originated from Kings Norton, as in ‘All roads lead to…’ if you are a regular reader! She used to be one of a handful of people in my tree who I was related to on both sides. Or more accurately her children were. She’s still related to my (now half-)uncle, but due to an unfortunate ‘Misattributed Parentage Event’ uncovered by DNA after my first 25 years of traditional research, she is now only related to me by marriage!
Martha married Henry Groocock, who to the best of my knowledge is still a blood relative(!), on Christmas Eve, 1848 at St Philips Cathedral in Birmingham. Henry was a cooper, born in Gilmorton, Leicestershire in 1827 to William Groocock and Betsy nee Boulton. Henry and Martha went on to have two sons, Henry (1853) and Joseph (1856). The marriage was not a successful one. How do I know this? Because Henry was already making new beginnings before the Whittall St explosion even happened.
Henry Groocock’s new beginnings
By the time of the Whittall St explosion, Henry had already bigamously remarried over two years earlier. His second wife was a young woman by the name of Emma Mason. She was in the very early stages of pregnancy with their first child when Martha died. Henry almost immediately married Emma again, legally this time and they went on to have four children together over the next 17 years.
He was not the only one to quickly make some new beginnings following the tragedy though. Remember the other ‘senior’ victim of the explosion, Fanny Dollman? Her husband William George Dollman remarried on Christmas Day 1859 – one of those oh-so-common Christmas weddings of the era. This was to be forgiven, and possibly expected in those times, as there were children who needed a mother. It was common practice to marry again without a long courtship. And at least he didn’t ‘pre-marry’ like Henry did. Although, wait…his bride was none other than the widow of the loyal Humphrey Wood who had died trying to save her from the explosion!
Goodbye 2020! It’s time to love you and leave you! Image by Hebi B. from Pixabay
Here we are at the end of 2020. It feels like it’s lasted a decade! Time to reflect on the year and complete Geniaus‘s ‘Accentuate the Positive’ Geneameme again. It’s a bit of a tougher task to complete this year in comparison to last year. We’ve all been challenged in many ways by the year that was. I’m still half-expecting to do a Bobby Ewing-style wake-up to find that it was all a dream. I hope you and yours have made it through 2020 relatively unscathed, if mightily inconvenienced. Here are my thoughts on my genealogical year…
Accentuate the Positive!
Find a way to smell the roses! Photo by Maksim Chernyshev on Scopio.
1. An elusive ancestor I found was: Hanora Vaughan, my great-great-grandmother. This is the single greatest highlight of my year, as her origins were so difficult to find for several decades. You can read about her arduous journey and what it took to piece it together here.
2. A great newspaper article I found was: The several I found detailing the unfortunate death of my great-uncle Alfred Mario Barnett, struck by a train as a teenager. I told this tale just a few weeks ago when his ‘rare-in-Edwardian-England’ middle name led me to find his story.
3. A geneajourney I planned but didn’t take was: Regular trips into Melbourne’s CBD to visit the State Library and Genealogical Society of Victoria‘s library to further my research. Lockdown meant they were each 15km further away from home than I was allowed to venture…and they were closed. They will be sick of the sight of me in 2021 (I hope!), there’s so much I need to do there. Thank goodness for partial access from home (remembering to ‘accentuate the positive’!).
4. I located an important record: in the home of a third cousin, 12 000 miles away. Without wanting to spoil the Vaughan story, the family bible was a critical though indirect factor. It was also one I did not know still existed. Moral of the story – ask even your distant family what they have!
5. A newly found family member shared: hmmm, this one is wishful thinking. I located a previously unknown half first cousin recently. He is sure to have photos of our shared grandfather who I never knew. I have written to him in the hope that he will share one with me. Goodness, I hope he does!
6. A geneasurprise I received was: having a word I coined (‘UnProvid‘) as a bit of whimsical wordplay for a blog added to the Geneadictionary!
7. My 2020 social media post that I was particularly proud of was: the one where I identified my Edward Girling, railway porter in Rugby as Edward Horatio Girling, boozy snakebite victim at London Zoo. This has since been verified via DNA too! I love a good silly family story, and my family provide so many…
Keep on smilin’. Photo by Devin Avery on Unsplash
8. I made a new genimate who: has inspired me to keep on writing outside of this blog, thanks Robbie!
9. A new piece of technology or skill I mastered was: Evernote. I’ve been kind of using it in a basic way since 2012. But this year I’ve spent some time learning how to wring out every drop of functionality to assist with my genealogy research. I’ve also taken on Trello to organise the to-do lists I live and die by, and I’m working my way through learning Scrivener to facilitate my writing.
10. I joined: several additional family history societies, genealogy organisations, Facebook groups and specialist subscription databases. Some of these I will definitely continue on with. Some I can just say I’ve fully tried out (but let’s just accentuate the positive!). One of my favourites leads me to the next question…
11. A genealogy education session or event from which I learnt something new was: Legacy Family Tree Webinars. They lured me in with lots of exposure to free webinars during the first part of lockdown. I’m a lifelong learner so I found it a great stress relief to just binge on webinars. I’ve now taken out a subscription and really enjoy dipping into learning more about specific niche topics, and also seeing case studies (I love a good story!)
12. A blog post that taught me something new was: I’m going to be a bit vague on this one, basically because I subscribe to a lot of really fantastic blogs. The best of them regularly have some new snippet of wisdom to offer. Even when there’s nothing exactly new to me, there’s often a new perspective offered which is just as valuable. For new information, the blogs that discuss new tools, such as those to help us with our DNA analysis are especially useful. Rather than name a single blog, I will recommend subscribing to Jonny Perl’s DNA Painter monthly newsletter – he provides a great summary of the best of the recent DNA blogs from leaders in the field.
13. A DNA discovery I made was: identifying the origin of Mary Bytheway, my 4 x great-grandmother who I’d been stuck with in Kidderminster for over 20 years. Thanks to a sudden influx of three DNA matches all descending via different routes from a Bytheway couple over the border in Shropshire, my Mary was ‘orphaned’ no more. Of course, it’s kind of turned into a bit of a one-name study as usual. I ended up ploughing through records tying all the Bytheway branches in with one another to eliminate all other possibilities!
14. I taught a genimate how: to access some records she needed via a different route. Sometimes we get used to a particular source used via a well-worn path of bookmarked sites or venues, we are all creatures of habit. Often if we lose access via that route there are alternative (and just as kosher!) ways of getting to that information. So much is to be found in more than just one place these days.
15. A brick wall I demolished was: Since I’ve already mentioned the major ones in my own tree, I’d have to say a highlight was scoring a ‘PB’ in speed to identify a client’s birth parent! Less than 24 hours to answer her lifelong question beyond a shadow of a doubt. However, I do need to acknowledge that she had some helpfully large DNA matches! It was certainly a wonderful feeling to be able to call her and say that I had found his name after warning her it could potentially take many months for the right combination of matches to align!
16. A great site I visited was: soooo many to choose from, but here’s one I haven’t mentioned before and just kind of stumbled across when doing some Irish research. It seems to be way more obscure than it should be. But let’s accentuate the positive. If you have Irish Catholic ancestors it is brilliant for identifying which Civil Parish their Catholic Parish was in and identifying the contiguous parishes. It even provides direct links to the relevant parish registers at the National Library of Ireland!
Screenshot from Swilson.info showing details for the Catholic parish of Passage in Cork (where my Vaughan family originated).
17. A new genealogy/history book I enjoyed was: ‘A Country Merchant, 1495-1520‘ by Christopher Dyer. This is a marvellous piece of social history around Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire using the account book of John Heritage who was a merchant-farmer in the wool business. It is a very engaging and informative read.
My favourite history book read in 2020
18. Zoom gave me an opportunity to: get to meet other members of the societies and associations that I am a member of and to continue to meet with my genimates regularly. It has been my social lifeline! A special highlight that ticks all my happy boxes was Talking Family History fortnightly on Friday nights. I absolutely recommend this to anyone who wants to keep up with what’s happening in the genealogy world and have a relaxed time with delightful people!
19. I am excited for 2021 because: THIS year will be the one in which I finally crack the mystery of Frederick Seal’s father (my last remaining unknown great-great-great-grandparent)! I’ve recently identified a DNA match at 23andMe as being of that line, which takes me another step closer, I’m getting quite a group of matches across the various platforms. I am determined…
20. Another positive I would like to share is… This year has been a year of consolidation and settling into my new era. In a way it has forced me to do it very thoroughly and without the distraction of ‘normal life’. Seven months of lockdown, when it had to happen, came at the perfect time to have had almost as much of a positive impact as a negative one personally. Onwards and upwards from here for all of us I hope! Let’s continue to ‘accentuate the positive’!
