Monthly Archives: April 2024

Unclaimed mail, missing friends and the dead letter office.

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An issue which can torment researchers of pre-21st Century times is the missing letter: the failed communication, the lost opportunity to contact a friend, relative or business. What critical love letter, piece of family news, financial assistance, secrets, or other life-changing messages were lost? Why was it such a problem? What was the fate of the lost messages and parcels? For the 19th and most of the 20th Century, mailed messages, newspapers and goods were a vital link around the … Continue reading

An ordinary man.

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I have always been interested in the “forgotten” people on my family tree, those who were single, or married but left no descendants and those who died young including the many unnamed infants. Those who led ordinary lives and left little behind in the way of possessions or stories to be remembered and passed down. One such person was Albert George Loftus, the brother of my two times great-grandmother Alice Loftus. The Loftus family, John and Mary with their four … Continue reading

Elizabeth Readford, lost to history.

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Many Queenslanders will have heard about Henry Readford, commonly known as Harry Redford. He is remembered in legend, in legal precedent, in written histories, in monuments and sculptures. His epic droving trip with stolen cattle from Bowen Downs in central Queensland to South Australia has been marked through modern day Cattle Drives.  In contrast, his wife of 30 years, Elizabeth has disappeared from history, without a photograph being located to remember her. Elizabeth Jane, my great grandaunt, was born in … Continue reading

Dara, the Archbishop’s Palace and a wedding.

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  It was May 1949 when my paternal grandfather, Richard Francis Thompson known as “Dick” died at the age of 63, leaving my grandmother, Eileen Evans, a widow for the next 35 years. There were no wedding photos although I do have individual studio portraits of them that were taken either before or after the occasion. I vaguely recall a story, that my grandparents met at a dance. My grandmother seated in the balcony of a dance hall waiting for … Continue reading

Badges and Memories.

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Recently I received a reply to one of my blogs asking if I was the teacher at Nanango State School who had started a High School Rural Youth Club at the school back in the early 70s as they were writing the history of Junior Farmers/Rural Youth in Queensland. Of course, that was me! The first thing they asked me to do was to find any relevant badges that I had of that time so I went fishing through all … Continue reading