Category Archives: Female Ancestors

“OURS WERE THE HEARTS TO DARE”[1]

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I never cease to be amazed at the fortitude and endurance of the pioneer women of our country. Often their story is unsung, as they just went about their daily lives unaware of their spectacular contribution to the future of this nation, but simply doing their best, dealing with the strangeness of this new land and confronting head on the harsh realities of life. They coped with deaths of children, droughts and disasters, and sometimes the destruction of all they … Continue reading

Finding my grandmother Lizzie

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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

Queensland Nurse – Agnes Katharina Isambert

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By Marg Doherty I enjoy researching women, but I get frustrated when I see only birth information for women and no more. This is one reason why I research WW1 nurses from Queensland. When I was asked to write this blog, I thought I would write about a nurse whom I had not fully researched. For this reason, I selected Agnes Katharina Isambert and I have found a fascinating story. Agnes was born in Queensland and had a difficult childhood, … 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