I knew nothing about Eileen Evans my paternal grandmother, or her early life until I started doing family history in the 1990’s, many years after her death in 1969. Stored in the bottom of a wardrobe was a shoe box of photos, inherited by my father from a maternal aunt and his mother’s cousin, Evelyn Walls. There were a lot of photos of people I didn’t know, and my first reaction was to want to throw them away. I … Continue reading
Well, this is the third in a row, so I guess that makes it a series! Last year’s piece was a bit big picture, what is the world coming to. This year is more family focused. My father’s father, Augustus Theodore (Gus) Cass (born 1886), joined the Melbourne and Metropolitan Fire Board (MMFB) as a fireman in about 1907. This undated photo of him, resplendent in his full uniform, must have been taken very early in his career, judging by … Continue reading
Four-year old Catherine Irwin sat in a school room in a slab hut in Newcastle in May 1816. Nearby sat her seven-year-old brother, William and 15 other girls and boys aged from 3 to 13 years. The Irwin children were in Newcastle with their father Ormsby Irwin, a life-term Irish convict, who had been convicted in Sydney for the manslaughter of Sergeant Robert Morrow of the 73rd Regiment. Catherine and William’s mother, Eleanor Irwin who had been convicted of the … Continue reading
By Jennifer Harrison. Following the wonderfully successful Irish seminar GSQ conducted in October 2020, it occurred to me that members might benefit from knowledge of a series of books currently in production in Dublin which provide wonderful contextual material for those researching individual counties. Since 1985 Geography Publications have produced substantial volumes under the collective title of History and Society. Each book ranging between 500 and 1000 pages examines an individual county. By the end of 2020 with the issue … Continue reading
By Jill Ball © 2021. Does the excitement you feel when you find a promising reference to a book suddenly disappear when you are unable to locate a copy? On rare occasions we can simply beg, buy or borrow a copy of that book but often it takes some sleuthing to track a tome down. In this post I will discuss some of the places where you may be able to find that elusive title. In many cases we … Continue reading
