Bridging the Past and Future

Bridging the Past and Future - Congress 2018

Congress 2018

Finally I have time to sit and reflect on a fantastic four days last week. I am very pleased with my decision to take two days LSL and attend Bridging the Past, the 15^th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry. I was always going to wait until I retired to do something like this.

My takeaways and homework include:

Avoid being sucked into the never-ending hole - only when you start writing do you see the gaps in your research
Don't forget about the Government Gazettes and Journals on Trove
If we don't tell the stories of those who came before, the history will be lost in just three generations
Don't forget to revisit the Historical Land Records Viewer
Phase my DNA to work out maternal and paternal lines
Check our Scotland's Places in more detail
Download Phillamore's Atlas from archive.org
Learn more about clandestine marriages
Check out Dusty Docs
Add more of my family images to Flickr and add to Trove group
Revisit Griffith's Valuations
Fix up this blog - it looks very ordinary! (Must have been going through a minimalist phase when I last updated its look.)
Look at the Glasgow Poor Law Records
Check out mapping on Google Earth Pro

I hope there is another congress in three years time. I'll be there!

Caroline Chisholm

I am currently in England visiting my daughter who is working in London. Naturally I decided I would have to spend some time on genealogical pursuits. The problem was where would I choose for a few day's retreat from London? In the end I decided to go to Northampton to visit the grave of Caroline Chisholm. Caroline is known as the immigrant's friend. She was a well known social reformer of her day. Why is Caroline significant to me and my family? You may recall that Caroline Chisholm was on the original $5 note in Australia. As well as her image there was a picture of a ship. That ship was the Waverley . Caroline agitated at the Home Office to reunite the wives and families of convicts with their husbands and fathers. On 22 June 1847 she wrote that she ‘had just left the Home Office and had obtained a passage per Waverley for forty-nine souls.’ SMH 9 August 1847, extract from letter 30 March 1847. My great great grandmother Matilda Agnew, her older siblings James, Joh...

Family Homes - No 3 - Moolan Downs, Queensland

My previous Family Home post showed the childhood home of Catherine Ellen Dawson . After leaving Tasmania Catherine moved to Melbourne with her mother and siblings after the death of her father Dr William Lee Dawson. Catherine married Gustav Baumgarten in Melbourne on 30th November 1876. They lived at Pleasant Bank Vineyard at Barnawatha. According to the Cyclopedia of Victoria they had 180 acres of vines, 465 acres of agricultural and grazing land and a further 300 acres under cultivation. During 1908 the Baumgarten family moved from Barnawatha to Moolan Downs, near Meandarra west of Dalby. They left a thriving business with an established homestead and moved to western Queensland. One of their first tasks when they arrived was to build the dwelling shown below. Original dwelling at Moolan Downs - c1908 The second house at Moolan Downs The final homestead at Moolan Downs One can only admire our early pioneering families. Gustav died at Moolan Downs...

The Tree of Me

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