Monthly Archives: July 2025

Knowing your grandparents.

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Randy Seaver is an American genealogist and prolific writer on his blog, Genea-Musings. Each week he poses a “Saturday Night Genealogy Fun” question. A while back I was inspired by his question which sent me down some rabbit holes. His question: Did your grandparents know their maternal and paternal grandparents? This is my response to the question as posed. My paternal grandparents were Denis Kunkel and Catherine Kunkel nee McCorkindale, while my maternal grandparents were James McSherry and Laura McSherry … Continue reading

My childhood homes.

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I was born Dianne Fay Alley to Sydney Alley and Jean Wiltshire in 1948 in Brisbane but when I went home with my Mum, I was Dianne Fay Richardson and my parents were Bert and Fay Richardson.  Yes, I was adopted, however I wasn’t told that until Bert (Dad) and Fay (Mum) had both died in 2001.  I presume that for the first ten days of my life, until the adoption was finalised, I lay alone in a hospital cot. … Continue reading

The Musings of a Family Historian.

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How difficult it is sometimes to write in great detail about my ancestors! I wrote my paternal family history with relative ease, so why am I struggling with my maternal family history? I have researched them reasonably thoroughly and there’s plenty of data to work with. There may be many explanations for this apparent literary lassitude. My ancestors were average people and very few of them had extraordinary lives. I am older, elderly in fact and the creative juices appear … Continue reading

Walking in ancestral footsteps

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In May this year I went to Ireland to walk in my paternal ancestors’ footsteps. This was something I had wanted to do for years. With only four nights in Dublin and three nights in Belfast, it was a whirlwind trip. I am hoping to do it again but that depends on health and mobility issues. You do need to do a bit of planning before making a big trip. I used the Ireland Reaching Out website and managed to … Continue reading