Author Archives: Geraldine Lee

About Geraldine Lee

An enthusiastic amateur genealogist, retired nursing sister, mother of 3 happily living on the Gold Coast

Beware Junk Genealogy – Don’t Rely on Research of Others…Validate Sources!

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Lately I received an email questioning the validity of my family tree, based on a belief that a photograph of my paternal great-grandmother Ida Parker was in fact a photo of a woman named Mary, the emailer’s great-grandmother; the evidence for this assertion was having been told (as a child) that the photograph was great-grandmother Mary. Upon seeing the photograph in my family tree the emailer felt compelled to enlighten me.  And to claim a new branch of her family … Continue reading

Tracing Chinese Ancestors (cont’d from 16/1/2017)

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In 21st Century Australia, discrimination based on race, creed, gender or sexual preference, age or physical capability is prohibited by law. Most of us regard this as progress, as evidence of Australia’s commitment to basic human rights, an acknowledgement of the cultural benefits of tolerance and diversity. In colonial Australia, British assumptions about race – the inferiority of the Oriental, the inability of ‘whites’ to labour in the searing heat of the tropics – gave way to an economic imperative: populate or … Continue reading

Tracing Chinese Ancestors

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The story of Chinese immigrants is the story of every Australian, whether the journey was in the 19th or 20th or 21st Century, a voyage of three months or 20 hours by jet – the differences are of degree only. Chinese immigration to Australia was rare before the mid 1800s when gold was discovered in Victoria. Thousands of Chinese responded to the lure of mountains of gold awaiting anyone willing to work long hours panning and digging and living a … Continue reading

Wheeler Project – Reflections

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Annie Wheeler’s index of Central Queenslanders serving in the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F.) has enabled Genealogical Society of Queensland (GSQ) volunteers to document the lives of more than 2,700 Australian men and women who fought and died and World War I. Their service records, housed in the National Archives of Australia (NAA), show the diseases from which they suffered – scabies and diarrhoea, trench foot, venereal disease, influenza and tuberculosis – as well as the battle injuries that either killed … Continue reading

Wheeler Redux – Australia, Forever Changed

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One-sixth of Australia’s total pre-World War I population of 5 million was killed in action or wounded in the Middle East battles at Egypt or Gallipoli, in France or Belgium at Messines, Polygon Wood, Passchendaele. Survivors of these battles were discharged, repatriated to Australia, expected to take up their lives after what is today acknowledged as the most brutal war in living memory. Some managed to resume their pre-war lives, despite old wounds, amputations, painful memories of loss and sacrifice; … Continue reading