By Tiggy Johnson. This time I wanted to share one of my poems that I think is fitting for this time of year, when we’re all thinking about loved ones, especially those we’ve lost. Photograph for Nana I would like to have known you before you served in the RAAF when your parents were alive before you married divorced had kids watched one die. I would like to have seen you smile like this more … Continue reading
It used to be that the Christmas season started in December, but now it seems to start anytime from September onwards. This is a shame really: our happy memories of Christmas past can potentially be lost in the marketing hype which seems to go on for ever. By the time we get to Christmas Day we’re exhausted and often ‘over it’. I’ve been thinking of Christmasses when I was young. I was born and grew up in England, so cold, … Continue reading
By Lyndall Maag. Their heads were close together and bowed low over the table in front of them, their eyes straining to read the tiny writing on the diagram unfolded before them. I had placed Family Tree Chart Number 3 on one of the tables in the Society’s library, been distracted by other tasks (classic genealogy!) and my position at the base of the chart had been thoroughly usurped! Chatting quietly, two of GSQ’s most experienced family historians scanned names, … Continue reading
By Lyndall Maag. “This reads well”, she said and I felt I should fill the ensuing pause with an intelligent, perhaps even witty, comment. “Let’s do it”, I replied. Okay, not really intelligent or even witty, but as a result I found myself sailing with my mother and 140 others, along the Rhine and Danube Rivers, through Eastern Europe recently. While the focus of this journey was not my family history, there were several experiences, genealogical by nature, that I … Continue reading
By Tiggy Johnson. Since last month’s post, I knew I’d write again about my grandmother’s biscuit tin and its contents. Though when I went to photograph the tin itself, I discovered it was not a biscuit tin, but instead held tarts. I can see part of the label, which suggests the tin held 500g of ‘Frederick Aussie Jam Tarts’ (possibly a word or two missing) that should have been eaten before April 1995. If my grandmother moved the contents … Continue reading
