Category Archives: family histories

Genealogy in COVID 19 Times Was Amazing and Never Boring.

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By Shauna Hicks. Since 16 March I have been mostly at home except for food shopping and medical appointments. There has been some reading, cleaning, and gardening but mostly I have had the luxury of spending more time on my own family history. I have tidied up paper files, sorted and tried to identify family photographs, cleaned up computer files and directories, worked through DNA matches, undertaken some new research on various sites and completed some serious writing of stories … Continue reading

How do you pass on family stories to your grandchildren?

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My first grandchild was born last year and I spent six weeks with him a month after he was born.  He lives in Chicago so while I was there I spent some time thinking about how I could pass on some stories of his Australian family without just giving him a list of relatives with names and dates. One day during my visit, I was in the American Writers Centre on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, which had just opened, reading … Continue reading

Tracing your female ancestors.

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I have recently given talks at GSQ and Brisbane City Council libraries on “Finding Grandma – tracing the female line.” It can be a challenge to discover a female ancestor’s individual identity; in the 18th and 19th centuries women were generally recorded as “wife of …” or “daughter of …” in a wide range of records. Socially, this situation existed as recently as the Second World War. How many times when doing our research have we come across a baptism record, … Continue reading

The Who’s Who of my family tree

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The first Who’s Who was published in London (1849) as a handbook of titled classes, listing only names without biographical sketches. In 1899, the format changed to include a short biography and various versions of Who’s Who are now published around the world. Each version has a slightly different format but usually provides details about prominent living people with deceased notables listed in Who Was Who. Every family has notables – some have convicts while others have royalty – some are lucky … Continue reading

A Life Well Lived

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My mother wanted to die at home.  As a family we were able to fulfill this final wish. Before she died there were many opportunities to talk to her about her life. In her own words she described her journey as “a life well lived.” Her eulogy which I wrote and delivered (and Mum censored before her death) highlighted what Mum saw as the important aspects of this well lived life. Provided below are several excerpts from her eulogy which … Continue reading