Many years ago, my aunt told me a story in which she remembered sitting in a car in a car park while her father visited someone in an adjoining building. She wondered why she could not go with him, but her father made it clear he was going alone. She learnt later that she was outside the Goodna Mental Asylum where her father was visiting his older brother William Alexander Dorsey Bell. This story lingered in my mind so a … Continue reading
I had always thought if I had convict ancestry I would have liked to be a descendent of someone who arrived on the First Fleet and be part of the Fellowship of First Fleeters. So when I found a convict, Sarah Chapman, in my lineage I was slightly disappointed that she did not arrive until December 1801 on the Nile which was 13 years after the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove. I wrote about Sarah Chapman in … Continue reading
What do Dame Nellie Melba and the Boer War have in common? I would have thought very little until I started researching the story of one of my relatives, Marmaduke Alexander Thomas (Duke) Bell. The name Marmaduke seems very quaint and unusual but as it was passed down for a few generations in my father’s family, it has become quite helpful in doing family research. I commenced researching Duke Bell because I knew he had gone to the Boer War … Continue reading
For a long time I have thought of looking into the history of my house but it was always on my To Do List. At the GSQ annual seminar Top Genealogical Sources, which was held in October of this year, I heard Annabel Lloyd from the Brisbane City Archives speak about the resources available to carry out research on your house and this motivated me to start the search. The Brisbane City Council also has an excellent guide which provides … Continue reading
Have you ever had serendipitous moment while doing your family history? I had decided to write in this blog post about my maternal great grandfather, Harry Weedon Hardwicke, who I briefly mentioned in my previous blog post. He was born in Tasmania, the thirteenth child of Elizabeth and Charles Browne Hardwicke. I haven’t been able to find his birth or baptism certificate but we know that he moved to Townsville, Queensland where he met his future wife Louise Christina Amy … Continue reading
