Article in 'The Scotsman', 29 November 2013.
Article
Saturday, 30 November 2013
Sunday, 28 July 2013
Free genealogy search engine for Google
"...This free genealogy site will help you use Google™ for your research. It will create a series of different searches using tips or "tricks" that will likely improve your results. The different searches will give you many different ways of using Google to find ancestry information on the Internet..."
Choosing a blog/site name
It's always difficult choosing the "correct" title for a website or blog. When I started my original genealogy site, I just called it what was in my head at the time - Lynda's Lot. I created the site before really thinking about the name. Then I began adding extended family names and the site became too full and confusing. I decided to create separate sites for my children and our kin. So now there are several sites all linked to one another. You need to think carefully about the name you give your site or blog. Something descriptive and memorable is always a good idea. Here are some tips and hints from another blogger.
Friday, 5 April 2013
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
Tangata Whenua: To be or not to be
Another Waitangi Day; another "national celebration". To be quite honest, I don't find much to celebrate. I know this is a beautiful country - I wouldn't truly like to live anywhere else - but beauty's just skin deep isn't it? It's what's under the skin that really matters.
As a family researcher, I wonder if I'd think and feel differently if I had Maori DNA? The first time I saw a photograph of one of my great-great-grandmothers, I wondered if she had Maori blood. It was the lips that did it. Turned out she wasn't part Maori at all but an English immigrant with a very distinctive mouth. As a six year-old in the 1960s I was asked by a class-mate if I was a Maori, because I had "big lips".
Try as I might, I can't claim any Maori ancestry. My mitochondrial DNA tells me my ancient ancestors lived in what is now known as Greece, before spreading out to Scandanavia and the British Isles. Before Greece, they were in what is now called Africa, the cradle of humankind. My more recent ancestors were of British extraction. End of.
Did I want to find evidence of Maori lineage? In a way, yes. I already feel a part of this land - I have no other to call home - but even after five generations it's not considered my country. I have relatives with Maori ancestry, even my own grand-daughters. Trying to untangle New Zealand families to make us "one or the other" would be near on impossible.
None of us sprung from the soil; none of us has more right to water and air than anyone else. Yes, there are some genuine grievances and they need to be addressed, but greed, brutality and racism are not traits of any one race. What it comes down to is we are all immigrants to this country and we are all New Zealanders.
As a family researcher, I wonder if I'd think and feel differently if I had Maori DNA? The first time I saw a photograph of one of my great-great-grandmothers, I wondered if she had Maori blood. It was the lips that did it. Turned out she wasn't part Maori at all but an English immigrant with a very distinctive mouth. As a six year-old in the 1960s I was asked by a class-mate if I was a Maori, because I had "big lips".
Try as I might, I can't claim any Maori ancestry. My mitochondrial DNA tells me my ancient ancestors lived in what is now known as Greece, before spreading out to Scandanavia and the British Isles. Before Greece, they were in what is now called Africa, the cradle of humankind. My more recent ancestors were of British extraction. End of.
Did I want to find evidence of Maori lineage? In a way, yes. I already feel a part of this land - I have no other to call home - but even after five generations it's not considered my country. I have relatives with Maori ancestry, even my own grand-daughters. Trying to untangle New Zealand families to make us "one or the other" would be near on impossible.
None of us sprung from the soil; none of us has more right to water and air than anyone else. Yes, there are some genuine grievances and they need to be addressed, but greed, brutality and racism are not traits of any one race. What it comes down to is we are all immigrants to this country and we are all New Zealanders.
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