One of the topics I’ve presented to a few societies is “The marriage of family and local history”. By broadening our research focus to our family’s geographic context to the place(s) where they lived, we can learn so much more about their engagement with their local community and the successes and trials of that community. I don’t know about you, but when I drive through a small country town, I wonder how it came to be – what brought it … Continue reading
This tale begins with the landing in Brisbane of the vessel Ariadne on 3 January 1864, that turbulent year for the city with two major fires in Queen Street.[1] One of the passengers on Ariadne was James Carothers, a young 19 yr old lad from Fermanagh.[2] The young lad worked hard and by 1870 he had established a farm at Bulimba Point; Bulimba had been serviced since 1850 by Samuel and Matthew Buckley operating a rowing boat. In 1864, John … Continue reading
Several recent events have once again highlighted for the co-writers of this blog (Bobbie Edes and Pauline Williams) the value of ‘going local’ as information about your family history can turn up in unexpected places and may not be available anywhere else. Earlier this year we had a short holiday with another friend on Magnetic Island. One day we drove down to Picnic Bay to investigate the Island’s History and Craft Centre. One of the old buildings, the Butler Hut, … Continue reading
I’m not really sure whether the moral of this story is “neither a borrower nor a lender be” or “look for the silver lining”! Hugh Irvine, having arrived from County Down on the Roma in 1882 opened his Boot Warehouse in Ferry Street Bulimba in 1887, and in 1888 he and the shop were written up in Volume 2 of the Aldine History of Queensland published in that year.[i] This was obviously impressive for the young man from Killyleagh and … Continue reading
You may be wondering why there’s another post from me in August. Well, this is a fifth Monday and usually we have a guest blogger. The need to confirm a guest blogger for August fell off my “To Do” list in the catching-up phase after a month overseas. So, I decided to tell you about a conference being held here in Brisbane on 3-4 October which is Queensland’s first local, family, and social history conference. In Time and Place, … Continue reading
