A colourful and sad cousin

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Colourful, what does that mean? Does it say they wore bright clothes? Or, does it mean they were ‘colourful characters’? Sorting through my family file for the colourful characters and after sorting through and considering this one and that one I have decided on a 1st cousin twice removed – Joseph Emanuel Antoney AKA ‘Manny the Murderer’. Manny was born in Walkerston near Mackay, Queensland on the 2nd April 1900 to Manuel Silva (Emanuel) Antoney and his wife Annie Marie … Continue reading

William Alexander Dorsey Bell

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Many years ago, my aunt told me a story in which she remembered sitting in a car in a car park while her father visited someone in an adjoining building. She wondered why she could not go with him, but her father made it clear he was going alone.  She learnt later that she was outside the Goodna Mental Asylum where her father was visiting his older brother William Alexander Dorsey Bell. This story lingered in my mind so a … Continue reading

The Vickers-Frostrop wedding invitation

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This is a slightly condensed version of a blog post I wrote for the Mackay Family History Society and has been reproduced with permission  You can read the full post (and other blog posts) at: Boese-Coogan Postcards #3: The Frostrop-Vickers wedding invitation Wedding invitations have certainly changed over the last 111 years! This postcard was sent by the Mulherin family at Coningsby, a farming locality north of Mackay, to Rudolph and Alice Boese (my great great uncle and aunt) inviting … Continue reading

The Life and Times of Thomas Curran

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Thomas Curran is my 3-time great grandfather. He lived a full life both in Jersey and Victoria after he moved to Australia in 1852. I visited Jersey earlier this year and saw first hand Toms house and the hotel he operated Here is part of his story Toms portrait in the National Library Australia Tom Curran was born on the 10th Of September in the year of 1827, in the town of St Helier on the Island of Jersey, one … Continue reading

Separation or Divorce?

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The genes (ancestors) and I are taking a break from each other. A trial separation. It’s not a sudden decision as I’ve been unhappy for some time. We’ve had a long relationship spanning many decades. For most of this time, the relationship casually bubbled along. Both parties in the relationship seemed satisfied with this. This all changed after I retired in 2014.  Since then the intensity of the relationship has hurtled along at speed. At first, I didn’t mind as … Continue reading