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Living with a Family Historian.

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By Peter Cass. Wos’it like, then, eh? Wos’it really like? Living with a Family Historian (FH), that is. (Dropping poor Michael Caine imitation.) Herewith some reflections and anecdotes, probably somewhat muddled because they include events from Pauleen’s (aka the FH in question) pursuit of her family history, far more sporadic forays into mine, and the involvement of our daughters. For Pauleen, the journey began in the mid-1980s, with an enquiry at the Genealogical Society of Queensland stand in an Historical … Continue reading

The Gift of a Name.

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By Geraldine Lee. A collection of historic photographs landed in my email months ago. One photo caught my eye – a woman and four small children sitting next to a sign advertising the children for sale. With a bit of digging I learned that the photo was published by an Indiana newspaper 5 August 1948, with a caption suggesting that the woman’s husband was out of work, the family had no money for food or rent and had decided to … Continue reading

Discovering the Treasures at the Society of Genealogists

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By Amelia (Mia) Bennett. The past few months have been an interesting time for genealogy.  New approaches and developing technology have changed the way we do things while we cannot meet up or visit archives.  As a trustee and volunteer for the Society of Genealogists (SoG), I have been involved in supporting some of these developments and have been pleased with how adaptable organisations have become. One of our big advances is the start of Online Talks.  Opening up the … Continue reading

Tell Your Family Stories.

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By Pauleen Cass. With the tsunami of genealogical data available online it’s tempting to just keep adding more and more facts and branches to your family tree. It’s also tempting to ignore the context of the data – to not look beyond the page you’ve landed on. Do you assess what you’re seeing, whether it’s a transcription or an image of the original document? All this data adds to what you know about your families but does it tell their … Continue reading

Breaking into Gaol Records.

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By Jennifer Harrison. Whoever would have thought that the origins of a young servant girl arriving as a free passenger in 1823 would be revealed within the records of Sydney and Darlinghurst Gaol?  The quest for  Hannah Lee’s background commenced with John Daley, an Irish convict, who arrived in Port Jackson on the Brampton, 22 April 1823.  Originating in King’s County/Offaly, the 25-year-old was tried under the Insurrection Act for forcibly stealing arms from John Cooper’s farm, near the Grand … Continue reading