The Tree of Me

I lived for some time during my childhood in Tenterfield. Prior to the advent of Trove I  spent many hours trawling though both hard copies of old Tenterfield Stars and digital copies at Dixson Library at the University of New England. The Tenterfield Star is not yet on Trove so many finds are serendipitous. Such was the one about the land sale in the street I lived as a teenager. The Tenterfield Star, undated The Parkfield Estate Land Sale The sale of the Parkfield Estate sub-division, which has occupied public attention for some weeks past, took place yesterday on the ground. There was a good attendance of local buyers, but not so many from a distance as had been anticipated. The large barn fronting Pelham-street, was utilised as a   sale-room, in which also a very substantial luncheon was laid out.   I wonder if the barn was on the block where I once lived? I also query my poor referencing with this undated newspaper clipping. Pelham Street is...

A recent trip to Melbourne saw me visiting The Avenue bookshop in Albert Park. I was looking for suggestions for my choice for bookclub. I ended up choosing  The Book of Dirt by Bram Presser.   A few lines before the story begins had me intrigued. Within a few generations almost all of us will have been forgotten. Those who are not will have no bearing on how we are remembered, who we once were. We will not be there to protest, to correct. In the end we might exist only as a prop in someone else's story: a plot device, a golem. It's got me thinking about my ancestors - those people who were most certainly forgotten before I or other members of my family began our research. People who we have rediscovered in census data, old baptismal records, convict records, newspaper articles, shipping records, letters, military records and much more. People who were born, married and died and left no other records to others who have left a plethora of data for us t...

Recently a DNA match of mine made contact with me.  It appeared that we were both descended from a William Harrison and his wife who lived in Liverpool, England. William and Ann are my ggg grandparents. Family members here in Australia had searched for years to discover the death of both William and Ann. The last record we could discover for them was the 1861 census where they were living at 3 Hornby Street in Liverpool with their daughter Ann Meacock, her husband and family. I was sent a link to a video from the Museum of Liverpool  which talks about Court Housing - small houses build off dark, narrow courtyards which provided cheap housing for the huge numbers of people moving moving to the city. Hornby Street is mentioned at the end of the video. Our conclusion was that William and Ann both died sometime between the 1861 and 1871 censuses. Our only clue to his death was a story told by my nanna that her great grandfather had died after being kicked by his horse. Of co...

Earlier this year my mother wondered if there was a newspaper account of an athletics carnival she attended in the early 1950s. At this carnival the Armidale Teachers College girls team of which she was a member had broken the 440 yard relay record. A little searching and I found the account. Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser ,  Monday 21 December 1953, page 2

It's been twelve months since I first received my DNA results from Ancestry. Since then five more members of my immediate family have tested. Many close results have been people I have met or corresponded with over the years. Another has provided me with evidence that we may have found a descendants from a sibling missing in the late 1800s. However, there are some close matches who we can't accurately place in our family. After a couple of months I decided I needed to work out a system to visualise these results for myself.  (I can't remember if I got this idea from someone or not). I decided to enter details in a spreadsheet with columns headed Match Name, Relationship, MCRA, My ancestor in the next generation, Match's ancestor next generation, Shared CM, Segments and a contact address if I had one. I then had pages for each of my grandparents and their ancestors. As further members of my family tested I also started pages for them. It got very messy! I needed anothe...

Three years ago I posted that I was going to contribute one of the family letters to Letters of 1916. This digital collection includes letters held at institutions in Ireland and abroad alongside those in private collections. There are hundreds of letters connecting thousands of lives commenting a myriad of topics including the Easter Rising, literature and art, the Great War, politics, business, and ordinary life. Letters of 1916 adds a new perspective to the events of the period, a confidential and intimate glimpse into early 20th Century life in Ireland ,  as well as how Ireland was viewed abroad. Letters of 1916 The letter I contributed was written by Maude Dawson (Kilronan, Swords, Ireland) to her cousin Louisa Spinks in Victoria on 9th June 1916. I went back to the website today to check that the letter was on the public site and there it was. Letter from Maude Dawson to her cousin Louisa Spinks, 9 June 1916 My only disappointment is that it says the letter belongs...

Those who know me know that wherever I go I need to check out anything that relates to ancestors and distant family members. A holiday to New Zealand earlier in the year provided me with a few such opportunities. The first was a visit to St Joseph's Catholic Cathedral in Dunedin and St Joseph's Catholic Church in Queenstown. Photo - Paul Kennedy The obituary of Daniel William Woods states that he was the builder of St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin.  Past Papers - Otago Daily Times 17 April 1923 The brochure I picked up at the cathedral states that Mr D.M. Woods built the choir loft in December 1883. The surrounds of the icon of the Our Lady of Perpetual Succour were designed by Mr F.W. Peter and constructed by Mr D.W. Woods. However, nowhere does it give details of the builder of the cathedral.  A trip to Queenstown and a walk uphill to visit St Joseph's Catholic Church which was consecrated in 1898. Daniel William Woods married Cather...

Following on from my previous post, this is a list of the known places that my husband's ancestors have lived. His family haven't moved as much as mine particularly in Australia. A Armidale (Brennan, Scheef) Armley, Yorkshire, England (Spatch, Spetch) B Bedfordshire, England (Bills, Burton,   Holton) Blunham, Bedfordshirek, England (Ingram, Matthews) Booralong, NSW, Australia (Waters) C Cardigton, Bedfordshire, England (Hare, Saunders)  Cashel, Tipperary, Ireland (Cleary) Clophill, Bedfordshire, England (Ellis, Hare) Crail, Fifeshire, Scotland (Kerr) D Donegal, Ireland (Doherty) E Enmore, NSW, Australia (Brennan) G Glen Innes, NSW, Australia (Ker Great Barford, Bedfordshire, England (Smith) Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England  (Lydamore) Großbottwar, Württemberg, Germany (Glock) H Hessigheim, Württemberg, Germany (Veyh) Höpfigheim, Württemberg, Germany (Wagerle) I Ireland (Deeves) K Ke...