The Tree of Me

Many years ago I had trouble finding the death of my great, great, great grandmother Sarah Matilda Collins, formerly Merchant, nee Neal. It was in the days of handwritten indexes and I simply couldn't find her. However, quite unexpectedly the local newspaper,  The Tenterfield Star came to the rescue. I knew the date of the death of her son, Thomas Hugh and his death was reported thus. The Tenterfield Star, Tuesday Morning, 2nd December, 1902. Local and General News Death News was received on Saturday of the death of Mr Thomas Merchant of Drake, whose illness we reported in the last issue, as also did we report the death of his eldest son in West Australia.  Deceased leaves a wife and family in Tenterfield. I had lost trace of his son Albert (who by the way wasn't the eldest son), so naturally went to the previous week's news. The Tenterfield Star, Friday Morning, 28th November, 1902 Local and General News Death We much regret to record the death of a promising young...

Amanuensis Monday  was started by John Newmark in his blog  Translyvanian Dutch  and encourages family historians to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes and other historical artifacts. An amanuensis is a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another. My husband's family are very fortunate. They have a series of letters written from Germany to Jacob Frederick Scheef who lived at Rocky River, near Armidale and later at Tilbuster and Puddledock. These letters date from 1859 until 1894. It's a shame we can't read German! There is also a diary Jacob kept and the letters he wrote home when he returned for a holiday to Germany in 1885. At least these are in English! Currently these documents are housed at the University of New England and Regional Archives , in Armidale, New South Wales. Letter sent from Stuttgart to the Rocky River diggings. It went around the world! Appears to have been writte...