Category Archives: family history

Gems from land files.

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I have learned more about each of my grandfathers by reading their land files at Queensland State Archives. One of them, Philip Shepherd died before I was born; the other, Leopold Maxwell Skuthorp Cooper, I knew briefly as a young girl while staying at his home during holidays. Not hearing about their lives in stories passed down the generations, these files have been valuable in their revelations. At 57 years old, Philip Shepherd, described as a retired carrier, selected a … Continue reading

Enjoying the Next Genealogy Journey – All the Way from Prussia.

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So far, my blogs in May, August and November 2023 have covered my research process into finding three great grandfathers of my late wife, Helen Barlow, and exploring their lives. Her remaining paternal great grandfather was born Albert August Bahlow to Michael Friedrich Bahlow and Caroline Wilhelmine Jahn in Schmelze, Brandenburg, Prussia, in mid-August 1858 and christened later that month.[1] It was such a relief to find this confirming information on Ancestry after years of snail-mail exchanges with a cousin … Continue reading

Connecting to a Forgotten Past.

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I’ve always believed that the journey of researching and writing about family history is just as important as the destination, but the research will often take us along unexpected paths. Uniting the current generation with earlier generations about a forgotten past is a worthy undertaking, but the project is often complex and can take a long time. Recently I came across a book, Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History by Margaret Juhae Lee. Margaret, the author, researched her family’s history … Continue reading

Convict tattoos

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It was quite a few years ago that I first encountered the Irish convict, James Harrison. He was found guilty of stealing copper and sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia. On his arrival in 1823, along with other details, his convict indent recorded that he had several tattoos. There was a crucifix, ‘1801’ and the words ‘man and woman’ on his right arm. On his left arm were the words hope and soldier and the picture of a woman, … Continue reading

The Neville family myth. False, true or maybe?

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Many researchers have discovered that one of the joys of being a blogger is the revision you may need to do while in the writing process, due to having researched the person prior to the age of online genealogy sites. There is a vast difference between scrolling a microfilm through a particular parish in a county and doing a wide search on the various sites. Gosh, these days we can even add wild-cards, extended periods to search and various counties … Continue reading