Author Archives: Cathie Sherwood

The postmaster, the bolter and the draper

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Can a life be affected if begun in war? Perhaps for William Thomas Phillips, born in Portugal on 6 December 1813, during the Peninsular War, this isn’t a question which needs to be asked. He was only four years old when his parents, James and Lydia Phillips, and older siblings, Henry and Jane, finally returned to peacetime in England in 1817 following the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo. Aged nine when the family arrived in New South Wales, Australia … Continue reading

The Who’s Who of my family tree

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The first Who’s Who was published in London (1849) as a handbook of titled classes, listing only names without biographical sketches. In 1899, the format changed to include a short biography and various versions of Who’s Who are now published around the world. Each version has a slightly different format but usually provides details about prominent living people with deceased notables listed in Who Was Who. Every family has notables – some have convicts while others have royalty – some are lucky … Continue reading

The Vickers-Frostrop wedding invitation

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This is a slightly condensed version of a blog post I wrote for the Mackay Family History Society and has been reproduced with permission  You can read the full post (and other blog posts) at: Boese-Coogan Postcards #3: The Frostrop-Vickers wedding invitation Wedding invitations have certainly changed over the last 111 years! This postcard was sent by the Mulherin family at Coningsby, a farming locality north of Mackay, to Rudolph and Alice Boese (my great great uncle and aunt) inviting … Continue reading

What’s in my genealogy library?

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Talk to any family historian and they will list the must-haves books in their genealogy library. Some have over 10000 books sitting on shelves while others may have a smaller collection which is regularly culled! Favourite reads nominated by genealogists will be many and varied but it is highly likely that there will also be some overlap. I don’t have thousands of books but I do have a collection which has been accumulated over many years. Some are books which … Continue reading

A Dickens of a connection: tangents and fundamental mistakes

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Many of us can often be heard complaining bitterly about the erroneous information in family trees on Ancestry and MyHeritage and elsewhere. We are all too aware that once one person gets a date wrong or has an ancestor marrying the wrong person, that information is copied across numerous trees without any further checking to determine its veracity or otherwise. These kinds of mistakes can easily be made by beginners who may lack an understanding about the evidence process.  However, … Continue reading