Author Archives: Christine Leonard

My connection to ‘The Valley’ from the late 1850s.

GSQ Blog Posted on by

I’ve become very interested in the early settlement of Fortitude Valley since discovering I have ancestors who lived there before and after Queensland separated from New South Wales in September 1859. Denis James Guerin, with his wife Margaret, and eight children, moved to Moreton Bay between 1856 and 1857 to take up a job as a weigher with HM Customs. This was quite a change for the Guerins as before leaving Sydney, Denis was the licensee of the Corporation Arms … Continue reading

Connecting to a Forgotten Past.

GSQ Blog Posted on by

I’ve always believed that the journey of researching and writing about family history is just as important as the destination, but the research will often take us along unexpected paths. Uniting the current generation with earlier generations about a forgotten past is a worthy undertaking, but the project is often complex and can take a long time. Recently I came across a book, Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History by Margaret Juhae Lee. Margaret, the author, researched her family’s history … Continue reading

Ada Baker – From gentility to domestic service in the colony.

GSQ Blog Posted on by

Adelaide (Ada) Baker, the second eldest of six siblings was born on 22 February 1856 in London to parents Daniel Thompson Baker and Ann Dorling, who lived in a comfortable residence at 390 Oxford Street in Soho, London: about where Oxford Circus is located. The Bakers employed housemaids, one of whom accompanied Ada to school before bringing her home in the afternoon for music lessons with a private tutor. The children lived in sophisticated gentility, they were not asked to … Continue reading

Who in the family will take my family history notes?

GSQ Blog Posted on by

Another year turns over and a question nibbles away in the back of my mind, like mice hidden in the interior walls of a house, sneaking the odd bit of cheese when you least expect it. On the floor in my studio tucked away in the garden sit three plastic crates, a transparent shade of white as plastic crates commonly are, revealing the edges of old newspaper cuttings, letters, photo albums, and photocopies of records passed down by distant cousins … Continue reading

Threads of memories

GSQ Blog Posted on by

‘Weaving threads of memories’ a phrase from the subtitle of my book on the Wall family, remains ever constant through my ongoing interest in family history. Those words manifested recently, demonstrating to me how memories and past events linger in archival records and family correspondence only to emerge in surprising ways as golden threads in the tapestry of our research or quest. The Internet can be the cause of a lot of problems, but it is also a source of … Continue reading