Bridging the Past and Future

Bridging the Past and Future - Congress 2018

Congress 2018

Finally I have time to sit and reflect on a fantastic four days last week. I am very pleased with my decision to take two days LSL and attend Bridging the Past, the 15^th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry. I was always going to wait until I retired to do something like this.

My takeaways and homework include:

Avoid being sucked into the never-ending hole - only when you start writing do you see the gaps in your research
Don't forget about the Government Gazettes and Journals on Trove
If we don't tell the stories of those who came before, the history will be lost in just three generations
Don't forget to revisit the Historical Land Records Viewer
Phase my DNA to work out maternal and paternal lines
Check our Scotland's Places in more detail
Download Phillamore's Atlas from archive.org
Learn more about clandestine marriages
Check out Dusty Docs
Add more of my family images to Flickr and add to Trove group
Revisit Griffith's Valuations
Fix up this blog - it looks very ordinary! (Must have been going through a minimalist phase when I last updated its look.)
Look at the Glasgow Poor Law Records
Check out mapping on Google Earth Pro

I hope there is another congress in three years time. I'll be there!

Caroline Chisholm

I am currently in England visiting my daughter who is working in London. Naturally I decided I would have to spend some time on genealogical pursuits. The problem was where would I choose for a few day's retreat from London? In the end I decided to go to Northampton to visit the grave of Caroline Chisholm. Caroline is known as the immigrant's friend. She was a well known social reformer of her day. Why is Caroline significant to me and my family? You may recall that Caroline Chisholm was on the original $5 note in Australia. As well as her image there was a picture of a ship. That ship was the Waverley . Caroline agitated at the Home Office to reunite the wives and families of convicts with their husbands and fathers. On 22 June 1847 she wrote that she ‘had just left the Home Office and had obtained a passage per Waverley for forty-nine souls.’ SMH 9 August 1847, extract from letter 30 March 1847. My great great grandmother Matilda Agnew, her older siblings James, Joh...

My WW1 soldiers (2) - Ernest Lee Dawson

Ernest Lee Dawson (500) (1885 - 1968) This is the second post in a series of posts over the next few years to remember all the men in my extended family who enlisted in World War 1. So far I have identified 26 soldiers who enlisted between 20 August 1914 and 2 November 1918 and I feel sure I have missed some. Of the twenty six, five were killed overseas or died here in Australia. My aim is to publish these posts on the 100th anniversary of their enlistment. Ernest Lee Dawson (my great uncle) was the eldest child of William Henry Dawson and his wife Bridget Mylan. He was born in the Cooma district of NSW in 1885. On 25th August 1914, less than three weeks after the outbreak of the First World War Ernie, a farmer who lived at Old Bonalbo enlisted in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment in Lismore. Ernie had previous military experience. In 1906, he answered an advertisement to join the Shanghai Municipal Council Police Force, as a recruit. He ...

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