The Tree of Me

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather, Jacob Scheef travelled on holiday to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting remaining members of his family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time away from home. Jacob Scheef - personal collection John Elder Aden the 8 June 1885 My Dear Wife and Children I am having the chance now to let you know how I am  getting on since I left Adelaide where I sent my last  letter from. First my health and appetite is very good  and in general I am well placed with the eating on the  ship board as we have always fresh meat and potatoes  the bread is even new and of first class quality Now I am going  to let you now about the progress we made and the sights  we have seen. Adelaide is a very nice Town but a good  deal smaller then Melbourne it has a splendid Botanical  Garden but the harbour where we laid on was the open sea  We ...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather, Jacob Scheef travelled on holiday to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting remaining members of his family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time away from home. Jacob Scheef - personal collection John Elder    Adelaide the 17 May 1885 My dear wife and children I wrote to you from Melbourne and also I received a letter from you of the same same content as the one I got in Sydney when I wrote last I was  not yet in the city so could tell you nothing of it since I have  seen a good deal of it Directly we were on the wharf I went and  posted my letter and had one or two hours in the city the Sydney is a fine city but is not a patch to Melbourne because the  street are all two chains wide and are all straight the next  day I went again and seen the Exhibition Building as well  as the aquarium with all the fishes also the Museum...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather, Jacob Scheef travelled on holiday to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting remaining members of his family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time away from home. Jacob Scheef John Elder Melbourne the 14 May 1885 Dear Wife and Children! I am in receipt of your letter which I received in  Sydney just half an hour before we started from  which I see that you are all well except David and  I trust you will take good care of him with his cold  and am glad that you had some rain the white  bullock you can either kill or sell him if you can get  £5 - 10s for him and break the Strawberry or roan bullock  in with Glover. We left Sydney on the 12 this month at 1 1/2 clock and the  Sydney Harbour I can give you no idea for his beauty  and grandeur every half hour of steaming it presents a fresh panorama after coming outside on th...

This is week 16 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 Naturalisation & Citizenship Records. In all my research of direct line ancestors there are only two families who were not from England, Ireland or Scotland. Members of the Glock family do no appear to have become naturalised. However, naturalisation papers are available for Jacob Frederick Scheef. It would be more than twenty years since I first discovered Jacob's naturalisation papers. They provided a significant breakth...

Week 4 of   Shauna Hicks  challenge for 2014.  This 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 weeks challenge is Memorial Cards. I am fortunate to have three memorial cards and the original photographs which were used in these cards in my possession, each coming from my husband's family.  Jacob Frederick Scheef 1835-1904 Christina Jacobina Scheef nee Glock 1842-1912 Margaret Waters 1879-1905 Shauna's post  set her off in the direction of finding out how the little boy died. However, as I know the life stories of these three people I have decided...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled back to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the day they were written. These letters can be seen at the University of New England (UNE) Archive in Armidale, NSW, Australia.   Biographical Entry Hamburg the 13 Aug 1885 My Dear Wife and Children Last week I sent you a letter informing you that I thought I would be unable to go through America home. Now I must inform you that I could get no passage in the ship Austral which I was intended to do because it is full and that a full week before she is ready to sail and there would be no other ship leaving before the 5 September so I took passage through America to Sydney which cost me £32.5.0 and am leaving tomorrow evening from this port for Philadelphia. I hope this will find you all well the same as it leaves...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled back to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the day they were written. These letters can be seen at the University of New England (UNE) Archive in Armidale, NSW, Australia.   Biographical Entry Beilstein  Marbach the 24 July 1885 My dear Wife and children I have received 3 letters from you since I am in Germany the last two dated the 31 May and 2 June and I received the letter of recommendation from the Lodge as well as the 4 Expresses I see that you are all doing well and get on with your work well as for giving you any instructions or advice is of no value now because we are too far apart and I see through the letters that you manage right enough. When I wrote my first letter to you from here I was only 3 days here and they were wet so I could tel...

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 ...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled back to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the day they were written. These letters can be seen at the University of New England (UNE) Archive in Armidale, NSW, Australia.   Biographical Entry Beilstein the 1 July 1885 My Dear Wife and Children I have arrived safely in Germany and I found a very great change among my brothers and sisters as they are all dead except my sister Rosina but I would not have known her and she would not have known me if we did not know that we were brother and sister by our name and still we always keep looking at one another and fancy that we must be mistaken the way I got myself known to Schantz our brother in law was through saying that I had a message from myself and that I wished to see him. Well we were almost talking a half h...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled back to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the day they were written. These letters can be seen at the University of New England (UNE) Archive in Armidale, NSW, Australia.   Biographical Entry John Elder    Aden the 8 June 1885 My Dear Wife and Children I am having the chance now to let you know how I am getting on since I left Adelaide where I sent my last letter from. First my health and appetite is very good and in general I am well placed with the eating on the ship board as we have always fresh meat and potatoes the bread is even new and of first class quality Now I am going to let you now about the progress we made and the sights we have seen. Adelaide is a very nice Town but a good deal smaller then Melbourne it has a splendid Botanical Garden ...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled on holiday to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting remaining members of his family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the date they were written. European Hotel 90 Castlereagh Street Sydney the 7 May 1885 My Dear Wife and Children I am glad that I feel in good health and believe far better than in New England. My knees do not trouble me at all since I left home and neither do I feel anything in my inside since I left but my new boots give me a good deal of trouble so I bought a pair of shoes as well as my other clothes. My passage I paid for yesterday and have seen the vessel I am going in it is a grand ship when I was in it I found scarce my way out of it again. Yesterday there came two German warships into the Harbour so is also the English warship Nelson and they are anchored side by side there...

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...