Monthly Archives: June 2019

Publishing a family history book – learning from experience

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At its June meeting, the GSQ Writing Group discussed the positives and pitfalls of publishing a family history book. Group member Anne had circulated a long list of things she had learnt from experience and demonstrated the various points with books she had published on members of her own family. Other group members had also published books and they contributed their ideas. The following combines the details in Anne’s list with points raised during the discussion. Before reaching the stage … Continue reading

‘A very merry man’: John Harris

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I had always thought if I had convict ancestry I would have liked to be a descendent of someone who arrived on the First Fleet and be part of the Fellowship of First Fleeters. So when I found a convict, Sarah Chapman, in my lineage I was slightly disappointed that she did not arrive until December 1801 on the Nile which was 13 years after the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove. I wrote about Sarah Chapman in … Continue reading

Questions for Uncle George

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I have heard stories about you all my life.  I would see our family name on the Toowoomba Mother’s Memorial and ask, “Who was GH Maag?”   The answer was always the same.  “That’s Uncle George.”  As a family, however, we knew little more than that you fought in WW1 and the family story that your life had been saved during fierce fighting in The Great War because a bullet had struck a cigarette case in your breast pocket instead of … Continue reading

A twist of fate

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My great grandfather Helgi Julius Jónsson was a man of the ocean, just as his father and countless generations before him were.  He was an Icelander and they were bred tough, especially in the region where he was born – the Westfjörds, one of the most remote and rugged regions of Iceland.  Helgi was a born and bred fisherman.  He knew that the ocean was something to respect and gives thanks for.  It gave life with the sustenance of fish … Continue reading