Yearly Archives: 2023

The Wheeler Project.

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Originally published as GSQ Blog on 23 Oct 2016 One hundred years ago the world was engulfed in conflict. Men and women from every nation were conscripted or volunteered to fight when hostilities broke out in Europe in August 1914. Some 416,809 Australian men and women enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF), the main expeditionary force of the Australian Army.  By the end of the war, over 60,000 Australians had been killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed or taken … Continue reading

My grandmother Eileen Evans and the photo in a locket.

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  I knew nothing about Eileen Evans my paternal grandmother, or her early life until I started doing family history in the 1990’s, many years after her death in 1969. Stored in the bottom of a wardrobe was a shoe box of photos, inherited by my father from a maternal aunt and his mother’s cousin, Evelyn Walls. There were a lot of photos of people I didn’t know, and my first reaction was to want to throw them away. I … Continue reading

Threads of memories

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‘Weaving threads of memories’ a phrase from the subtitle of my book on the Wall family, remains ever constant through my ongoing interest in family history. Those words manifested recently, demonstrating to me how memories and past events linger in archival records and family correspondence only to emerge in surprising ways as golden threads in the tapestry of our research or quest. The Internet can be the cause of a lot of problems, but it is also a source of … Continue reading

Arriving under protection.

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Four single women arrived in New South Wales on the barque, Theresa on 25 August 1842 as bounty immigrants. They had travelled under the protection of my 2x great-grandfather, Christopher Cooper, his wife Magdaline and their children. Two of the four were related to Christopher and Magdaline. My family group came from the northern Irish counties of Fermanagh and Tyrone, two counties which were strongly represented among the passengers on board Theresa with her Irish, English and Scottish immigrants. The … Continue reading

Strong women.

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A few months ago, I accompanied my family to watch the exciting soccer match between the Matildas and France and subsequently followed the final games of the Women’s World Cup. I discovered and read an article about the Danish player Nadia Nadim. What an extraordinary young woman!  However, it’s not my purpose here to explain her story, you can seek it out if you enjoy reading about strong women.  I will tell you that Nadia certainly grabbed at chances that … Continue reading