The Tree of Me

 Among our family treasures are a number of letters which were sent to my great, great grandfather, John Charles Ryan. John was born in Portlaw, Co. Waterford, Ireland in about 1837. He died in Sydney on 15th November 1910. The letters were written from Portlaw, Co. Waterford, Toowoomba, Laidley (both in Queensland) and the property Yanga in Balranald, New South Wales. Various names and places are mentioned in the letters. My aim is to work out the connections between the letter writers, those mentioned in the letters and John Ryan. I've written about the first letter here . The next letter is from Portlaw, Co Waterford, Ireland. It was written after John sent money to the doctor to pay for his mother's medical expenses before she died. It may have been written in the last half of 1883 or 1884.        Miss  Charlotte is                                   ...

Among our family treasures are a number of letters which were sent to my great great grandfather, John Charles Ryan. John was born in Portlaw, Co Waterford, Ireland in about 1837. He died on Sydney on 15th November 1910. The letters were written from Portlaw Co. Waterford, Toowoomba, Laidley and the property Yanga in Balranald. Various names and places are mentioned in the letters. My aim is to work out the connections between the letter writers, those mentioned in the letters and John Ryan.  The first of the letters was written in Toowoomba in 1883.                                            Toowoomba                                                        you that your dear    ...

This is my first Trove Tuesday post. I have been so busy at work that my genealogical pursuits are being pushed further and further behind. As you can imagine this is something that I am not happy about. However, as I am on holidays for two weeks I hope to have a few posts ready to post during the coming weeks. I have discovered many great finds from Trove but today I decided I needed to find something new. One of my families lived at 21 Cambridge street, Rozelle and/or its semi-detached neighbour for over 100 years. In fact they rented from the same family for all that time. I must remember to blog about this story. I decided to see if Cambridge Street, Rozelle ever featured in one of the Sydney papers. So today here is my first find. Sydney Morning Herald, 22 January, 1904, p. 3 My great, great grandfather John Charles Ryan lived at 21 Cambridge Street. Depending on the street numbering it is quite possible that Walter Jones would have lived in the next semi-detached hous...

Amongst the treasures at my nanna's house is a renewal of a Dray Proprietor's License dated 28th January 1892 belonging to my great, great grandfather John Ryan who lived at 23 Cambridge Street in Balmain. A simple google search for "dray proprietor's license" Sydney came up with the 1854 Act for the Licensing and Regulation of Carters plying for hire with in the City of Sydney. It is a 9 page document which sets out the terms and conditions that were expected to be met by license holders. Section 4 stated that the license would only be granted if the proprietor or driver was of good name fame and character. The vehicle could not be unsafe or in bad repair or unfit for the conveyance of goods or merchandise. The vehicle also had to have its number painted on a plate or plates and affixed to wherever the Commissioners saw fit. I assume 184 must have been John Ryan's number. Unless the charges had been increased he would have paid £2 annually for his licens...

In this series of posts I will highlight former family residences. The first is one of the childhood homes of my grandmother Elsie Ryan. Although born in Smithfield in Sydney she moved to Kyogle with her family when she was about 3. She lived with her parents Michael and Sarah, sister Mary and brothers Bert and Jack at Groom Street in Kyogle. Groom Street, Kyogle, probably 1910's On a recent visit to Kyogle, I photographed the house. 2011 It looks like the fence is still standing after one hundred years. The roof has been redone and the bullnose verandah has gone and has now become part of the roofline. I wonder who planted the tree behind the house?

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...

Each time I go to vote I simply go to a polling booth, give my name and address, state that I haven’t voted previously in this election and I’m given a voting paper. I don't need to give any identification. One hundred and ten years ago, my great grandfather Michael Patrick Ryan and his father John Charles Ryan had to produce their New South Wales Elector’s Right Residential Qualification papers to vote. The Wikipedia article The Electoral Atlas of New South Wales states that the 1893 Act had adopted a Voter’s Right document that a voter presented to be checked off the roll before a ballot paper was issued. In 1900, the compilation of annual rolls was made a function of the local police and Elector’s Rights were abolished in 1906. Amongst our family papers are another pair of treasures, original Elector’s Rights of John Charles Ryan, carter and Michael Patrick Ryan, storeman of 23 Cambridge Street, Balmain. If enrolled they were entitled to vote at Elections of Members of the A...

This is the first in a new series titled Family Treasures. A couple of weekends ago, I went to my nanna's old house and scanned everything of genealogical value in the house. I scanned this watch warranty. My great great grandfather John Charles Ryan purchased a watch from Evan Jones Jewellers in the Royal Arcade in Sydney on 24 December 1885. He paid £2-15 for the watch and it was guaranteed for a period of 3 years. (Unfortunately the link to the image has disappeared.) Who was Evan Jones? Evan Jones was born in England and according to the About NSW website he was a leading silversmith, watchmaker, medalist and jeweller in Sydney from 1873 until 1917. I was quite excited to see this guarantee. Imagine my surprise when about half an hour later my uncle produced the pocket watch. It is engraved with J.C. Ryan on the outside and is in perfect condition. A true family treasure! I don't know when John Charles Ryan arrived in Australia from Portlaw, Waterford, Ireland. ...

Last weekend I went to visit my uncle and spent a lot of the weekend scanning everything of genealogical value in the house. Fortunately for me my great grandparents lived with my mother, aunt and uncle and their parents for a number of years and all the precious family history has been preserved. My aunt, who was interested in family history back in the early 1970s got my nanna to write on the back of all the old photos, so we know who everyone is. There are no surprises. There was only one missing photo and it has been missing for many decades. It was one of my great great grandfather John Charles Ryan taken in a buggy outside W.H. Ariel and Co in Kent Street, Sydney where he worked. Perhaps someone has it! Over a number of years my aunt has filed and labelled everything. My only problem was that we didn't have a digital copy of any of it, so for a long time I have have been worried about the safety of these treasures. I had a busy weekend. I scanned letters, receipts, guar...