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
In 2013, I joined the family history website Ancestry.com and started my genealogy journey on the internet, adding names, scanning documents and photos, into my family tree. It was while working through this process that an American family tree showed as a hint. Out of curiosity I went into the tree to investigate. The names recorded did not match my records but to my surprise the tree included a photo that I had in my possession. It was a portrait … Continue reading
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
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
I have been researching the Guy family of Madron, Cornwall for over 40 years. During that time, I have discovered all kinds of information about the family of three brothers who came to Queensland in the 19th century at different times. As everyone knows, we don’t discover everything about a family in a single session. Usually, bits and pieces of information are found as new records are indexed or digitized. Every so often we need to step back and review … Continue reading
