The Tree of Me

This is the second post highlighting photographs of the headstones of direct ancestors on my husband's mother's line.  Grandparents Albert Gustav Scheef & Julia Waters Armidale Great grandparents Jakob Scheef & Christina Glock Armidale Robert Waters & Ann Dawson Armidale Great great grandparents Georg Ludwig Glock & Barbara Rosina Wägerle Uralla No known headstone Andrew Silas Waters & Margaret Doherty  Armidale, NSW Elis Hare Dawson & Mary Richardson (may not be buried here)  Armidale, New South Wales Great, great great grandparents Thomas Dawson & Betsy Hare Armidale district (Unmarked grave)

Like thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people around the work, I have been playing with the new addition at MyHeritage  - My Heritage in Color. I want to share one of the photos I uploaded. It came from my mother-in-law's collection and I believe from her father's German side of the family. I feel that this photo was not taken in Australia but am prepared to be proved incorrect. Unknown gentleman from my image collection Some of the points of interest: the timber house has no eaves 2 bicycles beside the house wooden barrel on the left hand side of the path the brick? house in the background, appears to have some sort of carving on the second story above the door his cap may be an identifying feature he is smoking a pipe The building in the background makes me think this is not from the Armidale area. Who are you?

This is week 17 of   Shauna Hicks  challenge for 2014.  Shauna said that t his blog challenge is to stimulate my own genealogy blogging efforts in 2014 by focusing on a different kind of genealogical record each week. I wanted a challenge that reflected my own archival background as well as my own genealogy interests and there are probably lots of other records that I could have included. The challenge has an Australian focus but most of these records will be found just about anywhere in the genealogy world. This week's topic is Court Records. In my research my main contact with court records that I have is via a secondary source -  what is reported in local newspapers. Since the advent of Trove this has become a relatively easy task.  The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser, Saturday 18th April 1874, p. 4 Ludwig Glock found himself the victim of a robbery. George Parker was convicted of stealing £2, two boxes of matches, a ...

This post is a thank you to Geniaus and her blog Genimates . I was profiled on this blog in March 2011.  Earlier this year I was contacted by a Glock (Uralla) relative of my husbands. I was overseas at the time and promised to make contact when I returned. It turns out that this gentleman was going on holidays and would speak to me upon his return. He said he was coming to Coffs Harbour for his holiday which is actually where I live. To cut a long story short we arranged to meet and swapped some information. I asked him how he had found me and was shown the copy of my information on Genimates. So thank you Jill for Genimates.

Happy fathers's day to all my husbands "fathers" who have lived in Australia. Father James Jeffery Brennan (1930 - 2001) Grandfathers Patrick Brennan (1898 - 1975) Albert Scheef (1876 - 1953) Great grandfathers William Brennan (1851 - 1928) Alexander Kerr (1875 - 1960) Jakob Scheef (1835 - 1904) Robert Waters (1855 - 1932) Great great grandfathers James Ryan (c1840 - 1922) Alfred Kerr (1845 - 1918) Thomas Squires (1855 - 1906) Georg Glock (1806 - 1883) Andrew Silas Waters (c1814 - 1870)  Elis Dawson (1822 - 1888) Great great great grandfathers Robert Kerr (1803 - 1853) William Spatch (c1816 - 1864) Thomas Dawson (1801 - 1863) Great great great great grandfather James Key (c1788 - 1875) My husband's oldest "father" was his great, great, great, great grandfather, James Key who died at Stonehenge near Glen Innes in 1875 aged approx 87. His youngest "father", great, great, great grandfather William Spatch, also d...

After blogging about my great great grandparents I though I should add those of my husbands. Thomas Brennan is presumed to have been born and died in Ireland. He married Margaret Tobin on 18th February 1846 at Leafe Hill, Muckalee, Co Kilkenny, Ireland. Margaret Tobin is presumed to have been born and died in Ireland. James Ryan , son of Daniel Ryan and Anastasia Deeves was born c 1840 at Kilcooley, Co Tipperary, Ireland. He married Catherine Cleary at Uralla, NSW, Australia. James died in Uralla 20th September 1922 at Uralla, NSW, Australia Catherine Cleary , daughter of John Cleary and Catherine Heffernan was born c1846 at Cashel, Co Tipperary, Ireland. She died on 3rd April at Kentucky, NSW, Australia. Alfred Kerr , son of Robert Kerr and Ellen Smail was born on18th June 1845 at West Maitland, NSW, Australia. He married Mary Ann Spatch on 3rd July 1864 at Glen Innes, NSW, Australia. Alfred Kerr died on 26th March 1918 at Glen Innes, NSW, Australia Mary Anne Spatch , daughter ...

For many years I had put research on my husband's twenty-five percent German ancestry into the too hard basket. His great grandfather's name Jacob Scheef wasn't on the shipping list indexes. It wasn't until I found the name of the ship on his naturalisation papers and then went directly to the shipping list that I found Jacob Scheef. He arrived on the Grasbrook on 26 September 1865 aged 20. I couldn't read the name of the town where he was born on the shipping list so I was still lost. It wasn't until many years later I happened to be in Sydney at a SAG event and I went to the German stand and someone said with only a quick glance that it was Untertürkheim. Armed with that information, a quick search of Scheef and Untertürkheim revealed many treasures. Someone had already transcribed many Church records and I could now progress a few generations further back than my husband's great grandfather. I was soon in contact with a few people over the world. This...

Amanuensis Monday  was started by John Newmark in his blog  Translyvanian Dutch  and encourages family historians to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes and other historical artifacts. An amanuensis is a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another. My husband's family are very fortunate. They have a series of letters written from Germany to Jacob Frederick Scheef who lived at Rocky River, near Armidale and later at Tilbuster and Puddledock. These letters date from 1859 until 1894. It's a shame we can't read German! There is also a diary Jacob kept and the letters he wrote home when he returned for a holiday to Germany in 1885. At least these are in English! Currently these documents are housed at the University of New England and Regional Archives , in Armidale, New South Wales. Letter sent from Stuttgart to the Rocky River diggings. It went around the world! Appears to have been writte...