The Tree of Me

Thanks to Geniaus who reminded us of this annual blog post. Jill invites us to take part in this activity by responding to the following statements in a blog post. Write as much or as little as you want and complete as many statements as you wish.  So here goes! I got the most joy from what I call Friday night - Genealogy night. I sit down on the lounge with my laptop and I wander wherever my research takes me! The Covid situation gave me an opportunity to get value from a SAG membership. (I rejoined after a long haitus.)  I've enjoyed the Friday afternoon get togethers. It also gave me an opportunity to get some research together for a couple of presentations. I certainly hope they continue in 2022. I didn't get to any face to face events in 2021. However Zoom conferences have been an added bonus. My main focus this year was (still is) tossing multiple printouts of research and scanning, scanning and more scanning. Over the past couple of months, in particular, I have tried...

 I haven't posted a Trove Tuesday post in a long time. However, I came across this very interesting article while I was scanning earlier research. Uralla Times 7 June 1919 A couple of things of note - people may still have been wearing masks after the Spanish flu epidemic and more importantly I wonder who they were? Perhaps someone somewhere knows this story!

Among our family treasures are a number of letters which were sent to my great great grandfather, John Charles Ryan. John was born in Portlaw, Co Waterford, Ireland in about 1837. He died on Sydney on 15th November 1910. The letters were written from Portlaw Co. Waterford, Toowoomba, Laidley and the property Yanga in Balranald. Various names and places are mentioned in the letters. My aim is to work out the connections between the letter writers, those mentioned in the letters and John Ryan.  The first of the letters was written in Toowoomba in 1883.                                            Toowoomba                                                        you that your dear    ...

Tonight I've been exploring further with DNA painter and discovered the BETA version of Dimensions. This handy image shows the county of birth of my ancestors up to my GG grandparents. The following image is the comparison for my husband. I shouldn't have played with the colour generator. It would have looked better if I had the same colours for each of these images. The same information can be shown as above with percentages.               There are some inconsistencies in the BETA version. The letters with diacritical marks are missing, e.g. Wgerle instead of Wägerle. In one image it is spelt Wegerle and the other Wgerle.  I can easily see that I haven't assigned a place of birth to 8 of my ggg grandparents and 13 of my husband's. I could make an assumption about all of these but I wouldn't recommend it. I recently discovered that one set of gggg grandparents had children born in Scotland but they themselves were born in Ireland.  I'm looki...

This is the second post highlighting photographs of the headstones of direct ancestors on my husband's mother's line.  Grandparents Albert Gustav Scheef & Julia Waters Armidale Great grandparents Jakob Scheef & Christina Glock Armidale Robert Waters & Ann Dawson Armidale Great great grandparents Georg Ludwig Glock & Barbara Rosina Wägerle Uralla No known headstone Andrew Silas Waters & Margaret Doherty  Armidale, NSW Elis Hare Dawson & Mary Richardson (may not be buried here)  Armidale, New South Wales Great, great great grandparents Thomas Dawson & Betsy Hare Armidale district (Unmarked grave)

Previously I have written two posts about where my ancestors are buried. This post gives details of my husband's paternal ancestors. Grandparents      Patrick Brennan and Stella Kerr Armidale, New South Wales Great grandparents                                                                                    William Brennan and Annie Ryan Armidale, NSW Alexander Kerr Glen Innes, NSW  Photo AusCemIndex Harriet Kerr - not an ancestor       Edith Kerr (Squires) Armidale, NSW No photo Great Great  Grandparents                                               ...

My Seabrook family, Henry William his wife Sarah and their daughter Sarah Caroline arrived in Hobart Town aboard the Thomas Laurie  on 12th November 1832. I've seen a lot of early maps and have visited Hobart and Franklin Wharf where Henry had a timber yard but always wondered what it may have looked like. Today I discovered the Virtual Hobart Town app which shows what life was like in Hobart Town in the late 1820's. The video below is a teaser to the app. It's certainly worthwhile downloading the app.

I've always referred to my great, great, great grandfather by using both his christian names William and Lee. This was probably to distinguish between father and son, William Henry Dawson.  Dr William Lee Dawson 1819-1871 William Lee was named after his maternal grandparents. His grandfather was William Giles and his grandmother, Catherine Lee. The Lee branch of this family has been well documented.  William Lee's maternal grandmother Catherine Lee was the daughter of the Rev Michael Lee, the son of Richard Lee, the son of William Lee who was the son of Emanuell Lee.  The Lee family are mentioned in Rev George Hill's book  The Plantation in Ulster . Others are referenced in Evelyn P Shirley's book  The History of the County of Monaghan . The Rev Michael Lee graduated in 1726 with a BA from Trinity College, Dublin. 1 Now I'm wondering if my great, great, great grandfather went by the name of Lee, not William. The only evidence I have for this is the death notice ...

Research can always be incorrect. I have previously written a post about Dashwood House at Newton Stewart but now need to write a followup as the house I thought was Dashwood isn't. I wanted to verify that my research (as it turns out an uneducated guess) was correct so I posted on the Facebook page of Newton and Minnigaff Memories.  You can see my post here.   Comments informed me that I was wrong. My earlier reasoning was incorrect and I didn't spend enough time in Newton Stewart to positively verify my work.  I was fortunate that a number of people replied to my post and one of them posted a photo of the Dashwood House for me. Further comments informed me that the Renwick family purchased from the Milroy family and held the property until about 1930 when the Nicholson family purchased the property.  Dashwood House, Newton Stewart, Wigtownshire, Scotland My Lineage: James Milroy & Elizabeth McGill, Jane Milroy, Jane Smith Fleming, Mary McColm, James Moore, Ron...