The Tree of Me

After a very meagre year researching and blogging the holidays are here and it's time to make amends. The first thing I did today was to take a month's subscription to The British Newspaper Archive . My first find today was the reporting of the marriage of Richard Cecil Dawson  to Dorothy Davies-Gilbert on 31st July 1916.  Richard was my great grandfather's first cousin. Sussex Agricultural Express, Friday 4 August 19196, p.  4. Of note is the fact that their honeymoon was held at the Lake House at Highclere.  A search on google maps reveals two lakes, Duncs Mere and Milford Lake just to the north of Highclere.  Highclere nowadays is famous as  Downton Abbey is filmed there. For some time Richard (Dick) Dawson was The Earl of Carnarvon's horse trainer. Most of his early successes were with horses owned by the Earl. 

I am currently reading Elliot Perlman's The Street Sweeper . A passage early on in the book resonated with me. "History can provide comfort in difficult or even turbulent and traumatic times. It shows us what our species has been through before and that we survived. It can help to know we've made it through more than one dark age. And history is vitally important because perhaps as much as, if not more than biology, the past owns us and however much we think we can, we cannot escape it. If you only knew how close you are to people who seem so far from you......it would astonish you. Also, it's a way of honouring those who came before us. We can tell their stories. Wouldn't you want someone to tell your story? Ultimately, it's the best proof there is that we mattered. And what else is life from the time you were born but a struggle to matter, at least to someone?" There are so many stories to tell about our ancestors to show that we do honour them and...

Last week I wrote a post about a photo I had found in amongst a collection from one of my mother's cousins. I had tried to read the writing on the back of the photo but couldn't make out the first word. I had made an assumption that the children may have been orphans but thanks to the Facebook group Australian Genealogy I now have an answer. The first word was crucial. Sharon Brennan Personal Archive. KIDNAPPED! This word quickly came in a reply to my posting a link to the blog post on the Facebook group. I looked carefully at the word and yes it appears to be kidnapped. One of the next comments then gave me a link to a newspaper article from The Straits Times , titled Kidnapping Children dated 24th May 1909, p. 10. It appears that trafficking in children was rife at this time. I have not copied the article as there were various copyright notices before I could access the article but it can be read online and I urge you to do so. Complaints are fairly rife amo...

4th birthday card from my grandparents, Jim and Esme Moore. Time certainly flies. Four years ago today I started my genealogy blog. Like my second and third blogiversary I have rummaged through my archive (read boxes of stuff) and found my childhood birthday cards. There was an initial panic as I couldn't find the bag from a Fijian trip in 1971 which contained the cards. I had my husband looking in the roof only to later find the said bag inside a box in my study (where they should have been). This one was from my grandparents Jim and Esme Moore. The only things that ring true about this card are that I love red and have curly hair. I have never been as close to a dog as the little girl in the card! Looking for the cards has once again reminded me that this year I need to:  concentrate on sorting and scanning my research instead of collecting more. (I still have boxes of information to sift through) finally make a decision about how I am going to organise my...

Yesterday I was checking out some folders in my genealogy cupboard when I came across a bag with some photos that came from my great uncles Peter Dawson's house. There were many that I had previously seen, some that I knew about and ones that were a complete surprise. This photo was one of the latter.   Sharon Brennan collection from Peter and Pauline Dawson. Before I looked at the back of the photo, I wrote down what I could ascertain from the photo. The children in the photo are Chinese. There are 2 westerners in the photo. One of the men has a queue (plait).  According to Wikipedia it was compulsory for the men to wear a queue until the 1910's. I'm unsure about what is in the sack. Initially I thought it may have been food for the children, but I'm not sure. On second thoughts the sack may in fact be part of the clothing of the woman? whose hand is outstretched. Some of the children appear to be wearing a name tag. The writing on the b...