Author Archives: Bobbie Edes

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

Daily Life of a Railway Blacksmith. Reserves, Chooks, Work & Family.

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Twenty years ago, it was a surprise to learn of the existence of a diary written by my great-grandfather William White between 1894 – 1904. One of his grandsons, Alan kindly offered to loan the diary to me so that I could transcribe it and include this insight into their family life in my book on the White family. Many thanks for that Alan. In transcribing the diary which is notated on 146 pages of an ordinary exercise book with … Continue reading

Researching the Whites of Bletchingley and Godstone in Surrey.

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As White was my paternal grandmother’s maiden name, it was a family that I researched very early in my ‘addiction’. This was in the 1990s, so genealogy records were not online and research was usually done using printed records, maps, lists and books. My husband and I began by frequenting the State Library of Queensland (SLQ) and going through their holdings and taking advice from the librarians there. One of the handy books at SLQ was the Genealogical Research Directory … Continue reading

Remembering to Accentuate the Positive 2022 challenge.

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This is the fourth time I have participated in Jill Ball’s (aka GeniAus) challenge.  As part of the challenge Jill sets out a number of sentence beginnings which bloggers need to elaborate on. It’s a rewarding experience and helps me to realise the many positive steps undertaken during the past year. I was happy to go back to travelling and catching up with a very old relative after a Covid enforced absence in interstate travels. Prior to my arrival in … Continue reading

My Sad and Glad Tales of PRONI.

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I’ve been pondering on what to write about in my next blog for a few days now having finished a series of stories about my Irvine family from Killyleagh in Co Down. Having mentioned this to our GSQ Patron, she suggested I write about researching at the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast, so that’s what this missive is about. I have now realised that my blog is due for publishing on 12 December 2022. This date marks … Continue reading