Category Archives: context in family history

What if we told the truth about how we work?

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  The way in which you justify your conclusions concerning a branch of your family tree has much in common with a formalmathematical proof. Each one depends upon assembling demonstrated (and defensible) facts and then proceeding from them via a path of inexorable logic to an inevitable conclusion. But they share far more than that. Both a genealogical argument and a mathematical proof are deliberately structured to obscure the false starts, blind alleys and mistaken identifications that make each subject … Continue reading

Revealing personality

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One of the first things I learnt about my great-great-grandfather, John Kennedy Donald, was that he came to Ipswich in Queensland as the first traffic manager on the Southern and Western Railway. I soon discovered that he arrived on the Commodore Perry, which anchored in Moreton Bay on 30 June 1865 after 100 days sailing from London. His family followed in two groups; first, daughters Mary Morrison and Eliza Donald and granddaughter Mary Morrison, whom J Kennedy met in Brisbane … Continue reading

Researching in Northern Ireland

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Having put my hand up for a request to do a ‘one-off’ blog I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Bobbie Edes and I’m possibly addicted to genealogy (only possibly). Having a hubby who is also into genealogy means we tend to do quite a lot of research when we return to his place of birth in England. During this extended period I generally leave hubby with his hometown mates and fly to Northern Ireland for two or three … Continue reading

The value of a letter

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Many years ago I was given a copy of a letter my great-great-grandmother had written to my great-grandmother in December,1886. Such a wealth of information was found in that letter. My great-great-grandmother Mary Ann Sawtell lived in Kangaloon, New South Wales, while my great-grandmother Elizabeth Perrett lived in Laidley, Queensland.In the letter Mary Ann talks about many of the residents living in and around Kangaloon. In fact forty two people are mentioned in the letter. Could we write a letter … Continue reading

Victorian curiosities emerge in data clean-up

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I have recently purchased the upgrade of Legacy from v8 to v9, but haven’t yet installed it, pending a clean-up of the data in Legacy 8. Cleaning up data involves refreshing my memory of what I’ve already got, whether it’s been incorporated into Legacy and, more importantly, what does it all mean. When I’m researching, I use A4 notebooks to make written notes, save images either directly to my computer or to a USB, depending upon where I am. In … Continue reading