My previous post was about my dad, Joe Stirland. One of the images included in that post was my mum and dad’s wedding photo from August 1946 (see my post of 21 September 2020). I had copied this photo from my mother’s collection on one of my trips back to England. As is typical of group wedding photos, the groom’s parents are placed on ‘his’ side, whereas the bride’s parents are placed on ‘her’ side. When the post was being … Continue reading
By Lee English. This is a tale, partly in his own words of my Uncle Walter. As my husband and I walked into the room, we heard, ” Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday, dear Walter, Happy Birthday to me. I’m 91 today, I’m 91 today, hip-hip-hooray.” Uncle Walter was doing what he loves best – singing. Uncle Walter lives in a retirement village in Nerang, SE Queensland, where he has become a firm favourite with the other residents and … Continue reading
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
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
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
