Yearly Archives: 2023

Recollections of an old hand in Colonial Queensland.

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My great grand-uncle James Porter arrived in the frontier settlement of colonial Brisbane in Queensland in 1849. He emigrated with his parents and siblings, including my four-year-old great-grandfather, Robert. James was fourteen on arrival, young enough to be amazed by the difference between colonial Australia and his birthplace of Scotland but old enough to remember his early perspectives. He wrote sixty-two years later in 1911, that his memory was better for events that occurred in his younger days than in … Continue reading

Things I Didn’t Know About My Mother.

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By Peter Cass. Hello and welcome to my fourth annual GSQ blog. The original impetus for this blog was comments made to me by former pupils of Mum’s, at two primary schools in Papua new Guinea, that “your mother was wonderful, the best teacher I ever had” and “she ignited my life-long love of reading.” I thought, “Well. I might say a bit more” and then I thought “I don’t actually know very much about Mum’s own primary schooling. I … Continue reading

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Family History Research.

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Irving Stone wrote The Agony and the Ecstasy: the biographical novel of Michelangelo in 1961. I loved the book and even more so the movie with Charlton Heston as Michelangelo which came out in 1965. Not that I am comparing myself to Michelangelo, but there is very much a love hate relationship with family history in my opinion. For someone who has been doing their family history for 46 years I would have to say the ecstasy outweighs the agony. … Continue reading

My Grandma Irvine: Lills Life and her autograph book.

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Inately proud of her extended family, Lill kept in regular contact with her extended family and friends. How do I know this, you may well ask? Primarily through her marriage, which came about through meeting her future husband while visiting interstate family on both her mother & father’s sides. Then there is that little book collected by many a young girl in the past, their autograph book. I have a copy of Lill’s little book, but more on that later. … Continue reading

Inspired by others.

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By Pauleen Cass. In recent weeks, Ellen from Hound on the Hunt blog asked the question: “Who has helped you most with your family history?”[i]  Randy from Genea-Musings picked up the theme for his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post.[ii] The topic inspired me to make it my theme for this month’s GSQ blog post. As Ellen said, over the years I’ve had many people help or inspire me with my own research explorations. Let me share some of them with … Continue reading