As we move into our third year of the Covid 19 pandemic, I have been thinking a lot about my English Midland ancestors who lived through many epidemics of cholera and smallpox. In fact, it is extremely lucky that I am even here writing this guest blog post. In August 1832 my 4G grandparents both died in Wednesbury, Staffordshire in the cholera epidemic that swept the Midlands that year. Edward Brookes aged 42 years and his son Elijah aged 14 … Continue reading
When a fellow researcher shared a death transcript for my third great uncle, Andrew George Lee, I noticed that his occupation was listed as “railway guard” and thought “well that’s different to the usual farmer, carpenter or labourer” and filed it away for later. Recently though, when I began looking at the Lee family in more detail, something grabbed my interest when I found his obituary on Trove. Not only was Andrew a train guard but he was at the … Continue reading
By Victoria MacGregor An old, yellowed, typewritten letter resurfaces and creates a context to wrap around a family tree and some photographs I’m always surprised, pleasantly of course, by who responds to the private family album invitations I send. There’s certainly no formula to it, no pattern, no particular demographic, but there’s always been an enthusiastic, almost giddy interaction by those who come back to me, those who leave comments and share stories, just seem to get it. A few … Continue reading
In 1986 Tavistock Publications in London and New York published the valuable PhD research of Dr Helen Woolcock, a Queensland occupational therapist, under the title of Rights of Passage: Emigration to Australia in the Nineteenth Century. The broad imprecise title probably was selected to attract a wide international audience because while the volume does cover emigration and the nineteenth century, it specifically concentrates on how the colony of Queensland set about obtaining a healthy population. The book is a thorough … Continue reading
