Two things prompted me to write about life on the ocean wave – in my family’s case the merchant marine and the Royal Navy. The first was a book I bought at the Lifeline Bookfest and, serendipitously it seems, an article in the latest issue of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine. The book is called Passage to America by Terry Coleman (1972, Pimlico Books, London). It tells the story of the, mainly Irish, emigrants ‘shovelled out’ from Britain … Continue reading
One hundred years ago World War I was in its third year. Thousands of Australian soldiers were fighting for Britain against Germany and the Austro-Hungarian empire. Newspapers published reports from the frontline and lists of casualties that told of the horrors of war. Recruiting posters encouraged men to enlist, to keep hope alive in the trenches and at home. A soldier blinded by a shell burst wrote a poem calling to ‘the lads back home’ to join the fight:- … Continue reading
A few weeks ago, I attended a seminar at the Genealogical Society of Queensland (GSQ) (http://www.gsq.org.au) presented by Helen Smith. I was sitting there feeling a little bit like an imposter because I was not a Queenslander. I wasn’t born in Queensland. I was born in New South Wales and still think of myself as a New South Welshman. But then I thought “Hey! Wait a Minute” this seminar is called “My Ancestor Was in Queensland”, and that was why … Continue reading
As I approached writing my monthly blog post, I had so many ideas of topics I could cover that my mind went into freefall and I couldn’t actually decide what to talk about. I’ve started about three drafts already. Should I talk about ‘Blogging’ which was our last topic at the Writing Group, or something a bit different? I had asked members of the Writing Group what kind of things they liked to read in the journal or eNews. Apart … Continue reading
Lately I received an email questioning the validity of my family tree, based on a belief that a photograph of my paternal great-grandmother Ida Parker was in fact a photo of a woman named Mary, the emailer’s great-grandmother; the evidence for this assertion was having been told (as a child) that the photograph was great-grandmother Mary. Upon seeing the photograph in my family tree the emailer felt compelled to enlighten me. And to claim a new branch of her family … Continue reading
