Family Tree Frog

Our theme prompt for Sepia Saturday 192 features a wonderful 1947 portrait of the jazz musician Stan Kenton by the noted photographer William P Gottlieb. The photograph forms part of the Flickr Commons collection of the Library of Congress - indeed if you are a lover of classic jazz photographs there is an entire Flickr stream dedicated to Gottlieb's work. That is Kenton in the middle of this trio, dressed in typical 1940s style with his striped trousers held high with the obligatory suspenders (or as we call them here in Europe, braces). So there is your first possible direction of travel, but you may also choose to go with neckties, jazz, men sat down or  ... anything you want to.  From Tom McLoughlin's collection Tom McLoughlin was my maternal grandfather. I think this is him in these photos.   From Tom McLoughlin's collection From Tom McLoughlin's collection From Tom McLoughlin's collection If it's not, it'...

Lovely Jill of Geniaus dreamt up a geneameme for all of us Geneabloggers - particularly because it is National Family History Month here in Australia. She asks a few questions and here are my answers: What are the titles and URLs of your genealogy blog/s? Family Tree Frog   Baiting the Hooks by  MattieB on Flickr Do you have a wonderful "Cousin Bait" blog story? A link to a previous blog post might answer this question.  I wish I could say "Yes" but not through my blog so far.  At least not to my knowledge.  One cousin found a letter from my mother left at the sexton's office at Rookwood Cemetery in connection with her parent's grave.  That cousin bait worked well.  I think other cousins have found me through Ancestry and other websites, now defunct I think, like First Families and Rootsweb. Why did you start blogging? Is there someone who inspired you to start blogging? I was a bit hesitant about blogging at first.  I h...

  © Rob Steven via Flickr This week I am going to stray from my norm and give you photos found on Picture Queensland rather than from my own family albums.   Rob Steven has given us such a fantastic photo that I feel nothing in my family albums is equal to the task...and besides...I do like a good hat...or bonnet.  Nothing is known about the prompt image, so I could look for siblings, wives, penetrating gazes, shawls, gloves, beards, hands on shoulders or any group of three. So off we go, a hunting for bonnets and penetrating gazes Mary Ann Low 1877 - State Library of Queensland Out of copyright This is Mary Ann Low.  According to State Library of Queensland  she is "photographed wearing a bonnet decorated with feathers and lace ties. She has a cameo brooch on the neck of her dress." Here's another photo of her with her daughter many years later.  NB. Hand on shoulder....ooh...and shawl... Mother and daughter Mary Ann Lo...

Our theme picture for Sepia Saturday 189 comes from the Flickr Commons Collection of the National Library of Ireland and is entitled "What An Amazing Contraption". It provides us with an opportunity to search out photographs featuring all manner of strange or unidentified contraptions. And if you are fresh out of contraptions there is always cars or people sat in ridiculous positions. Contraption, n. (sl.). Queer machine, makeshift contrivance. (perh.f. contrive, cf. conceive, -ception). I have been fascinated with contraptions from a very early age.  This photo is taken at Hurstville I think c.1960.  I'm sitting on the bed with my father looking at one of my parent's cameras - maybe it's the Voigtlander .   Both my parents enjoyed photography - my father often set up an amateur dark room in the laundry or the garage and I loved watching the photos magically appear in the trays of developing fluid.  My mother was a fiendish photographer and ...

Thomas Joseph Benedict McLoughlin I'm reading a book at the moment - well several really, but that's another story.  The longlist for the Booker Prize was recently announced so, as usual, I cherish this fantasy that I will be able to read them all and guess the shortlist.  The book I am reading is called "The Marrying of Chani Kaufman" and is about an ultra -Orthodox Jewish marriage.  It discusses various customs including behaviour on the Sabbat or what some of us might call the Sabbath.  If you want to see the 39 activities forbidden on the Sabbat click here. My mother came from a mixed marriage - a Protestant who married a Catholic.  She used to tell me how Sundays were a bit of a sore point in her home when she was growing up.  Apparently my grandfather steadfastly resisted doing anything on a Sunday, being brought up a strict Catholic.  So no "work" of any kind. No housework, no work in the garden - but things still had to get done so...