The Voyage of the Saldanha

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By Lyn Irvine THE VOYAGE OF THE SALDANHA By Lyn Irvine The Saldanha of 1562 tons register, sailed on the 8th for the new colony of Queensland with 367 passengers on board… Considerably more than half the passengers have had their passages paid for them by the colonial Government. These consist of female domestic servants, farm labourers, and a few mechanics. The passengers …comprise among them 100 married couples, about 70 single women, many of them domestic servants and 100 … Continue reading

How do you pass on family stories to your grandchildren?

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My first grandchild was born last year and I spent six weeks with him a month after he was born.  He lives in Chicago so while I was there I spent some time thinking about how I could pass on some stories of his Australian family without just giving him a list of relatives with names and dates. One day during my visit, I was in the American Writers Centre on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, which had just opened, reading … Continue reading

How does being a family historian change you?

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By Bob McAllister Many years ago (when I filled most of the time now devoted to family history with a full-time job), I read The Gatton Mystery by James and Desmond Gibney¹. It explored the issues surrounding a still-unsolved horrific triple murder that took place near Gatton on the evening of Boxing Day 1898². One of the authors was a judge and his brother a senior public servant. I recall their book laid out in some detail the events as … Continue reading

From the Azores to Australia

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Do you know where the Azores are located? It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the North Atlantic, which are an autonomous region of Portugal and located about 1,360 km west of that country. This is about my maternal great great grandfather Joseph Antoney and my paternal great grandfather, Emanuel Vero. What a coincidence, an ancestor from the Azores Islands on both sides of my family but two generations apart. Growing up on a remote group of … Continue reading

The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

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Johann George and Maria Barbara Heldt and their children, Peter, Nicholas, Elizabeth and Barbara, arrived in Australia in March 1853 on board The Helene. They were among the numerous German immigrant families who settled in the Clarence River District in Northern New South Wales. Johann and Maria were my 3xgreat grandparents. Their daughter Elizabeth was my 2xgreat grandmother. It was whilst researching my Heldt ancestors, I got “lost” in Trove, as often happens, and came across the tragic story of … Continue reading