The Tree of Me

I have written a couple of posts about Samuel Dawson in the past few weeks. After publishing a letter written by him in 1878 I decided to see what else I could find out about him. I have followed up with an email to the Maritime Museum in Liverpool seeking information about Samuel. Last week I received these images from John Winrow, the assistant curator. I now have more information to include in Samuel's story. He attended the Swords Endowed School which I will have to research further. Under terms of admission it states the fees were £42. It looks as though his father Richard Dawson had to pay for Samuel to become a Conway cadet. Both his naval and school reports while on the Conway were outstanding. In one of my earlier posts I surmised that he won a telescope for either the Chairman of the Conway Committee Prize or the Royal Geographical Prize. I now know his prize was in Geography. Samuel's report comments read: 1877 Gained? class prizes in Geography and Histor...

If you have any Scottish ancestors you might be interested in listening to The Scots: A Genetic Journey . In this series Alistair Moffat explores the history of Scotland. In the first episode he talks about the spread of population from Iberia to Scotland and the discovery of possibly the oldest house in Scotland build  around 7600 BCE.  At the end of the episode Alistair has a DNA sample taken to discover his genetic history. This first episode is available to listen to for another couple of days. Episode 2 is also online.

 I have just enrolled in the National Institute for Genealogical Studies Australian Records Certificate course. The first subject I've enrolled in is Australia: Births, Deaths and Marriages. As I have direct ancestors from each Australian state except South Australia, I have searched many different indexes. Last night I was reading the module about Western Australia and although I had heard of the Western Australian Reverse Marriage Index before I had never used it.  I now can't believe I haven't used this index before. I've now filled in a few more names in my family. I did have some of the names after using electoral rolls but didn't know the women's maiden names. So last night was a successful evening.

Last night I ordered a copy of Our Daily Bread: German Village Life, 1500 - 1850 by Teva J Scheer . I'm hoping this book will fill a definite gap in my knowledge of German social history. I know a lot about Irish history but my knowledge of German history is minimal. The book is set not too far from where my husband's ancestors lived so I'm hoping the picture painted by Scheer will be very similar to that of the Scheefs and Glocks. You can read the first chapter  here  online. Will post again after the book arrives.

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...

Last year I was fortunate to be able to visit both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. While there my mother and I went to Cootehill, Co Cavan and were fortunate to be shown through the Church of Ireland at Ematris and the temple on Black Island at Dawson Grove. Looking back towards Inner Lough As I took this photo, looking back towards Inner Lough I could smell something. Our guide said that it was wild garlic. I was certain I had read something about wild garlic in this area. When I returned home I found this reference in Ordnance Survey : 1834 - 38: Cavan, Leitrum, Louth, Monaghan and Sligo. Inner Lake, an arm of the above chain, occupying nearly the centre of Dawson Grove gardens, and rye-grass and clovers have been introduced into several farms around with great advantage.  The rough stalked meadow grass, trefoil and timothy grass, and the sweet scented venal grass, are in full cultivation. The "graumph"a spontaneous garlic, strongly taints the air i...

I was alerted a couple of months ago by Trevor McClaughlin from Macquarie University in Sydney and author of From Shamrock to Wattle about an book Murder Trials in Ireland 1836 - 1914 that had been published in 2009 by an Irish colleague, W.E. Vaughan. Trevor thought I would be very interested in the book as my ancestor James Agnew and his brother Henry had been convicted in Londonderry in July 1836 for having employed Patrick Toghill to take away the life of Henry McWilliam. I immediately ordered the fairly expensive book from The Book Depository and eagerly awaited its arrival. I have not been disappointed. Although I haven’t read all the book yet, it is littered with post it notes and markings throughout the book (I never used to write in books!). It has really helped me to gain a better image of Ireland at the time and how the legal system worked. Vaughan’s chapters include: an introduction discussing the scope of the study, apprehending a suspect, committal, indictment and arra...

Many thanks to Geniaus for alerting us to this free course run by the National Institute of Genealogical Studies . I have now enrolled in Social Media for the Wise Genealogist beginning March 15, 2011. The course covers social media tools vital to today’s genealogical research including social networking sites, RSS, bookmarking, and more. This course utilizes Drew Smith’s book Social Networking for Genealogists. The internet is changing rapidly, social media is the mode of communication commonly used to connect genealogy researchers around the world. By completing this course the student should become “Social Media Genealogy Wise”! 

Last week I posted a letter written by  Samuel Dawson  to his aunt Emma Dawson in Melbourne. The letter gives names of many family members but also mentions other significant information. As a family historian I need to examine the letter for information that can fill in more of the story of Samuel and his family. From his letter the key points included: Samuel was a Conway cadet Going into Merchant Service with the ship British Envoy His sister was studying at Queen's University The potato crop failed in Ireland in 1878 Brother George often leads the deer hunt Samuel goes to the races He mentions a rifle match at Wimbledon Two sisters were staying at a fashionable watering place in Ireland Exhibition in Paris HMS Euridyce had recently sunk I didn't know anything about the Conway so last week, I spent some time finding out what I could about HMS Conway and Samuel Dawson. The  HMS Conway 1859 - 1974  website was a gold mine of information.  In 1864 Q...

Last week I took the plunge and enrolled in the Australian Records Certificate through the National Institute for Genealogical Studies   who work in affiliation with the Continuing Education Division of the University of St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto. I have paid for the basic level section of the course - a total of 9 subjects, with another 9 to follow in the intermediate and then 11 in advanced sections. I can then choose several electives. Of course, it is the electives that interest me most, but I thought I should start at the beginning. I have only enrolled in one subject this month - Australia: Births, Deaths and Marriages but think I'll try 2 next month. My Australian research so far has not lead me to South Australia, so already I've learnt a little about the history of South Australia. I hope it does't mean I won't get my own research done!

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. Each Monday I hope to transcribe one of the many letters or diary entries in my possession.  Today's letter was written by Samuel Dawson of Cloghran, Co Dublin, Ireland in 1878 to his aunt Emma Dawson in Melbourne, Australia. Emma's late husband, William was the brother of Samuel's father Richard.  Kilronan House Cloghran Co Dublin Ireland Friday 19th July 1878 Dear Aunt Having your last letter I determined to take advantage of the wish you expressed that some of us would write to you it is indeed with great pleasure I write this my first letter to you with the hope that I will either hear from or see you before this time twelvemonth. I am at pre...

The Waitangi Day Blog Challenge from the Auckland Research Centre challenges us to write a post about your early New Zealand ancestors. What stories can you tell about their lives? I have a few members of my family who have moved from Hobart to New Zealand and will write about one of them today. Charles Thomas Seabrook (1844 - 1912) caused problems for many years as he simply disappeared from his home town of Hobart Town. Eventually I discovered that he hadn't moved very far at all and had in fact left Tasmania in 1865 for the town of Hokitika on the west coast of the south island of New Zealnd The West Coast Times of 26th September 1865 reported that a Mr Seabrook was one of ten cabin passengers on board the William Miskin . Like his father Henry William Seabrook and 3 of his 5 brothers, Charles was a builder and soon entered the building trade on the west coast. He was in partnership for some time with his brother Henry William Seabrook, who later returned to Australia....

Last week when I arrived back from holidays my copy of A Grave Look at History - Glimpses of a Vanishing Form of Folk Art by Lionel Gilbert had arrived from AbeBooks . I am a frequent visitor to AbeBooks both for work and my genealogy research. For those who are not familiar with AbeBooks it is a fantastic source for used, rare and out of print books. Wikipedia states that AbeBooks lists books from 12800 booksellers in 57 countries. I often purchase books for my school library for students who are completing individual research projects, particularly in history. My latest purchase is a book I remember looking at years ago - A Grave Look at History - Lionel Gilbert (1980) ( NLA catalogue ). Of particular interest are the chapters titled, Styles Symbols and Skills,  Letters and Figures, Epitaphs and Rails and Pickets. What clues can you interpret from your family headstones? The Victorians loved symbolism and many headstones in our cemeteries have many symbols in th...