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Tracing your ancestors Family History Show

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Taking the opportunity to attend a family history show when overseas is always a worthwhile activity. Not only do you get to view the latest and greatest in genealogy (you hope) but for me, it provides an opportunity to see what most people are interested in given the demographics of the attendees. This particular show is organised by the Discover Your Ancestors magazine and was held on the 21 September at Sandown Park racecourse at Esher, about 30km from London. … Continue reading

Belfast & tracing Irish ancestors

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This blog post is being written from Belfast as I am here for the Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Conference run by the Ulster Historical Foundation. Prior to the start of the week long conference, I attended a 3 day Irish Genealogy Essentials course.  There were about 40 attendees at this workshop/seminar, 5 of whom were Australians and the rest were a mix of Canadians and Americans. There were quite a few in the group who had taken the same course … Continue reading

My paternal great great grandmother was a bolter!

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In the mid 1850s, she left her husband, the second son of one of the Hunter Valley’s earliest free settlers, and ran off with the local draper, Robert Hector Paulovich. This all seems like I may be about to tell a rather grubby tale –  he has a very foreign surname and she was ‘obviously’ of low moral character. But like most family stories, there is more to this one than meets the eye and while Mary Anne figures in … Continue reading

Tales my father told me…

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There were two things that my father told me about his father, John Charles (Jack) Wood, which intrigued me. One was that John Charles was born on a ship heading to India and the second was that Jack and his brother Percy, who later lived in Persia (Iran) and was a diplomat, wrote to each other in French. When I decided to go overseas in 1975, I tried to find Grandfather Wood’s birth certificate so that I could apply for … Continue reading

The importance of re-connecting with cousins

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This post has been slightly modified from one which originally appeared at www.learnsource.com.au/wp. Some time ago, I travelled, with two of my sisters, to Bundaberg where my father had grown up with his nine siblings.  I made contact beforehand with some of my cousins who still live in the area and told them that I was looking for any stories, photos or memorabilia that I could copy to incorporate into the story that I am compiling on our family history. … Continue reading