The Tree of Me

I have written three previous posts about Samuel Cuming Dawson of Cloghran, Swords, Co Dublin, Ireland. The first discussed a letter he posted to Autralia in 1878 when he was a cadet aboard the Conway. The second  showed the honour board when he won the Queen's Medal. The third post discussed information from the Maritime Museum in Liverpool. Today I write what may be the final post for Samuel Dawson. Last year, I visited Swords and found Samuel's headstone at St Columba's Church of Ireland at Swords, Co Dublin. Unfortunately, I couldn't read the date of his death. Headstone of Samuel Cuming Dawson - St Columba's Swords. Today I have been using my NLA card and have been trawling the Irish Newspaper Archives with great success. (However, it's a shame the site is so slow to move to the next result page.) A search for Dawson and Cloghran has come up with 598 results and one of the first ones was an obituary for Mr Sam C Dawson. Of course, his ob...

Deserted area and dirt road in front of Royal Hotel and other buildings at Wallangarra,  c1909. I love looking at the images on the State Library of Queensland website and those on Picture Australia . The photograph above is one of my favourites as it is of the small country town in Queensland that I grew up in. The dirt road is now the New England Highway which passes through Wallangarra. I grew up just around the corner. However, the main reason I love this image is that my grandfather was born in Wallangarra. So this photograph shows me what Wallangarra looked like in 1909 when he was born. Even better, my grandfather was born at the Royal Hotel. So this photograph shows me exactly where James Malcolm Moore was born. My grandfather always said he was born on the billiard table. I never knew if he was joking or not! Have you looked at Picture Australia to see what images there are for the town you or your ancestors grew up in? You never know what treasures you m...

Over the past two days I have attended talks by Helen Smith . Last night’s talk Where to From Here was at the Coffs Harbour City Library and this afternoon’s session Death Certificates and Archaic Medical Terms was hosted by the Coffs Harbour Family History Society . Both talks very well presented. Although I have been researching my family history since the late 1970s there is always something new to learn. What am I going to do as a direct result of these talks? I had not thought of trying to trace some of my gggg grandmother Anne Moylan’s children using the surname of their stepfather. 2 sons, Thomas and John kept the name Moylan/Mylan and I have traced their lines. However, I can’t find James or William. I’ll try and look for them with the name Powell. 2. I’m going to buy a copy from Abebooks of an old medical dictionary. Many years ago I had taken a few notes about the causes of death of the inhabitants of Franklin in Tasmania. My great great grandfather was the doctor and the...

The next of my family treasures is a cylinder originally owned by my great great grandfather Dr William Lee Dawson. Dr William Lee Dawson 1819 - 1871 Two weeks ago I bit the bullet and undid the precious cylinder. I’m not sure how many times it has been opened and the contents removed. However, I don’t think it would have been all that often. Cylinder containing medical certificates dating from 1845. The cylinder probably was purchased some time between 1845 when my great great grandfather began his medical training at St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin and 1853 when he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. Almost immediately afterwards he sailed for New York aboard the Asia steam ship and afterwards he joined the Dee , sailing round the Carribean. His diary tells us that he resigned as he was not satisfied with the conditions for Surgeons as they did not have the same privileges as other officers. In 1854 William Lee Dawson became the surgeon ab...

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...