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
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
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
I would like to tell you a story about my paternal great grandfather who was a police constable in the far north eastern region of New South Wales from 1880 to 1916. In 1900 he fell victim to a slight misadventure which caused him some notoriety in the district. At the time, he was stationed in Casino, a small town about 30 or so miles inland from the coast. In September of that year he was escorting a prisoner from … Continue reading
Current DNA research suggests that the descendants of plague survivors share certain genetic changes, described as super-genes, that may extend life expectancy by providing protective immunity and resistance to certain cancers and auto-immune diseases. The theory interests me because two of my Italian ancestors may possibly have died of plague, My 8x-great-grandfather Michele and his son Giovanni died on the same day at ages 85 and 54, respectively. Their deaths could be attributable to factors other than plague – an accident of some … Continue reading
