May 1919 is the 100 year anniversary of “Spanish Flu” hitting Brisbane then spreading throughout Queensland. “Spanish Flu” does not come from Spain but was first majorly publicised there as Spain was a neutral country in WW1 and the press was not censored so it acquired that name and it has stuck. It had been a long four years of war. The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than did World War I, at somewhere between 40 and 100 … Continue reading
I have several ancestors in my family who could be considered troublemakers or ne’er-do wells; the problem is deciding who would be the one to write about for this blog post. It must be William Nelson McCann, aka William McCann Neilson, he is fascinating, but I need to sort through the pile of newspaper clippings I have on William to write coherently. William Nelson McCann (my 2nd great-granduncle) was born on 27 September 1837 in Launceston, Tasmania, the son of … Continue reading
It’s funny what you find along the way! Recently I was researching my 2nd great uncle, Thomas Baines, an Irish school teacher who emigrated to Queensland. Now, I am one of the ‘new kids on the block’, as far as genealogy is concerned, so the Queensland State Archives (QSA), although not completely unknown to me, was not a place where I felt comfortable to do my research. However, if I was ever going to give a correct account of my … Continue reading
Do you get sidetracked reading old newspapers? Is Google your friend? Does this eat up your valuable research time? I know it does for me, I get lost between those black and white lines. BUT sometimes you hit the jackpot. This is what happened to me recently when I was looking for information on my Great Uncle – Robert Seymour Reid. Robert was born in Beechworth, Victoria on 9 June 1873[1] to Patrick Reid and Amy Sophia Freame. Patrick, a … Continue reading
