The Old Mill…But which one?

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Much of what we learn about our ancestors comes from information gathered by us, the “family historians”, from birth, marriage and death certificates, census and immigration records and other documents gathered after hours of painstaking searching of every site and archive available to us. If we are lucky, we have family photos, hopefully labelled, and other handed down treasures and documents and we may find articles mentioning our family members in old newspapers. Often there are stories and “facts” passed … Continue reading

The story behind a photograph

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I love old photos. I really don’t care if they’re not my family, I just love the look of them – the clothes, buildings, styles and most of all, the stories behind them.  Some years ago, I managed to locate the descendants of my great grandfather’s half sister, Ephrath (Effie) Paulovich, and visited them at the family property at Widgee near Gympie. I had thought that this would be a day for chatting about family and finding out more about … Continue reading

So What’s in a name? Name variants and do they really matter?

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As a genealogist by trade, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had clients tell me something similar to this:  “He/she isn’t from our line because the surname is spelled Byrnes instead of Burns” or “Oh no, ours is Elliot with one ‘t’ – not two”, or “Our line is MacIntosh with an ‘a’ not “McIntosh”. And to be fair, they all truly believed it – they were quite unaware of the ever-annoying variants of surnames when tracing back … Continue reading

Dame Nellie Melba and the Boer War: Duke Bell

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What do Dame Nellie Melba and the Boer War have in common? I would have thought very little until I started researching the story of one of my relatives, Marmaduke Alexander Thomas (Duke) Bell. The name Marmaduke seems very quaint and unusual but as it was passed down for a few generations in my father’s family, it has become quite helpful in doing family research. I commenced researching Duke Bell because I knew he had gone to the Boer War … Continue reading

My Webster ancestors: Part two

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This story is a continuation of my blog of 28 January 2019 The Websters in ‘Oz – Sibling James Webster Travelling to New South Wales from their home in Fife was David & Euphemia Webster’s eldest son James, born in 1829. Shortly after he married Elisabeth Redpath in January 1853, the couple emigrated to Sydney onboard the ‘Empire’ arriving on 27 July 1853.[1] [2] Elisabeth had been given a tiny bible prior to her marriage, which was embossed ‘ER’ on … Continue reading