Monthly Archives: February 2016

Immigrant ship names: Laurie Schell, Laura Schell, Lalashelley, La Rochelle

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Laurie Schell, Laura Schell, Lalashelley, La Rochelle – How many different ships were there with these similar names? These were the names for one and the same ship as handed down through families and recorded in bibles, obituaries and other newspaper and magazine articles. The ship was named the La Rochelle, commemorating a seaport in western France. The names took on an added veracity because of the purported origin from the immigrants themselves and frequent repetition.   Copyright free, State Library … Continue reading

A Royal Connection?

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Ever encountered someone who is certain of royalty in their pedigree? I’ve always given such notions a wide berth, not only because my family doesn’t seem in the least aristocratic but also because such records as exist are widely accessible online, available for replication in other family trees, even if erroneous. Research rigour flies out the window if one accepts that an entry in Geni or Wikipedia connects one’s family to, eg, Charlemagne. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the … Continue reading

Changes at Tapping your roots

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On behalf of GSQ I hope you are enjoying posts by our two new bloggers: Geraldine Lee joined us in January and Meg Carney joined us in February. They will be blogging on the 4th and 3rd Mondays respectively. Many thanks to Lyndall Maag and Tiggy Johnson for their contributions over the past 18 months. As 2016 is a leap year we have a 5th Monday on 29th February. Watch our for our guest blogger.  Happy researching! Pauline 

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The importance of checking variations in the spelling of names.

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I joined the Genealogical Society of Queensland just over 2 years ago and immediately started attending all the information sessions and seminars that were on offer. Numerous times I heard the advice, “ Be sure to consider variations on the spelling of names.” I took this advice and considered different spelling for the tricky surnames like RAILL ( Real, Reale, Rail, Raile) and Conor (Connor, Connors, Coner, O’Connor). However, I made one very serious mistake. I did not look at … Continue reading

A place in the sun

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Sweltering through the heatwave that recently descended on Brisbane, made me extremely grateful for the benefits of air conditioning. I started to wonder, not for the first time, how early migrants to Australia coped with the heat and humidity. Without electricity, they didn’t even have the benefits of fans, let alone air conditioning. Their clothing was designed more for colder climates than hot ones – think how you’d survive.   Rainbow over Currumbin, Qld I remember when I first arrived … Continue reading