Family Tree Frog

Alan from Sepia Saturday says: Ah, I remember it well. Get out your smart threads, polish up your brogues, stand around that imposing jukebox and spin those old favourites : "Summer Holiday", "V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N", or maybe "Viva Espana". Yes, it can only mean one thing : I am about to go on holiday again. But, worry not, who is looking after things whilst I am away but my fellow administrator - Marilyn. And the theme image Marilyn has chosen for Sepia Saturday 225 (post your posts on or around Saturday 26 April 2014) shows a group of smart young things stood around a jukebox. If you are theming this week there are endless possibilities - jukeboxes, music, the 1950s are just a few suggestions. All you have to do is to post your post, link your link, and visit your sepia friends. Easy-peasy ...... itsy-bitsy, yellow polka-dot bikini (control yourself, Alan) I'm finding it very hard to stay on theme this week from my own collection.  All I have are ...

George Henry Charles Carrett III &  Charles Arthur S Carrett Seonaid from Kintalk Family History Blog says: This is the fourth year that Auckland Libraries and the Kintalk blog have issued a Trans-Tasman ANZAC Day Blog Challenge. Stories we'd like to hear about could be about their sacrifice, or the way it shaped or impacted on their family history. Maybe you want to blog from the perspective of those that were left behind? Your story doesn't have to involve a serviceperson who lost their lives - during times of war, all sorts of loss unfortunately are experienced.  And you can write about those who also served in other wars, as all who served in Australia and New Zealand are recognised as ANZACs. Maybe you have written about your ANZAC before, and have more research to add to the story? To participate: Write a blog post about an Australian or New Zealander serviceman or woman's family, and the impact war had on their family history Post a comm...

Alan from Sepia Saturday says: The other week I made a confession about my aversion to gardening and all things horticultural and I was challenged to include a possible gardening theme for a future Sepia Saturday. Well, here it is - for Sepia Saturday 224 (post your post on or around Saturday 19th April 2014) you can choose from gardens, gardening, watering cans, and men stood watching women do all the work. The title of this 1943 photograph, which appears on the US National Archives stream on Flickr, is "Frequent watering of the Victory Garden is necessary during the early stages of growth". You are, of course, able to interpret the theme image in any way you want. Anyone who knows me well, GrandPurlBaa for example, knows that gardening is not my forte.  I appreciate a beautiful garden...really appreciate it but will do nothing to create my own.  Lazy sod that I am. And yet I can't blame it on my genes.  Both sides of my family seem to have loved garde...

Albury c1956 I wasn't quite sure where this photo was taken but now I think it is Monument Hill Albury after seeing Sharon's photos on Strong Foundations. ...what do you think?

Alan from Sepia Saturday says: Why have one photograph when you can have a group of four? You are, of course, free to interpret this week's prompt photograph in whichever way you want, but one possible approach would be a grouping of four old photographs. There are other potential interpretations within this 1919 group of Smithton, Tasmania - indeed there are probably four times as many possible themes as normal. The original image comes from the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office collection on Flickr Commons. Whatever your interpretation, just post your post on or around Saturday 12 April 2014  What to do?  Be completely egocentric...yes, that's entertaining.....well, I hope so.... Me in Edinburgh.......we were living in rented accommodation at the time.  No personal effects really.  Just the clothes we stood up in, as it were...I'm wearing jodhpurs (my Mother had a thing for jodhpurs) and little riding boots.  We were nowhere near horses I might...

As I travel down the genealogical or family history highway, I find myself wishing I could post more on my blog. Life seems to be zooming by.  I chose the above image from Flickr because it also represents how I'm feeling at the moment vision-wise i.e. a bit blurry.  I purchased a new set of glasses this week and I'm trying to get used to them.  They are those kind that have the different types of lenses in them  - you know the kind - you have to tilt your head up to read stuff on a screen or in a book - and then tilt down to look long distance.  It's driving me a bit mad but I'm persevering.   Anyway I just wanted to note a few things because I have this internal dialogue with myself about what I should be doing but never actually get round to doing it.  So this is an attempt to step outside my head and put down some notes.  I hope they are useful in some way to you too. Advertising related to Marquis de Rays'   La Nouv...

Alan on Sepia Saturday says: Danger is an odd thing. In our moments of sanity we all steer well clear of danger, but in those moments of exuberant insanity, we sometimes search it out in order to experience the thrill of the challenge. Why else would you get people sky-diving or sailing blindfold across the Pacific Ocean or cultivating nettles? But one man or woman's danger is another man's relaxing lunchtime drink. Here is a photograph from the Dextra photostream on Flickr Commons which I would really like to tell you more about but I am constrained by my lack of - I suspect - Norwegian. Given the international flavour of the Sepia Brotherhood (Sisterhood), I am sure someone will let me have a translation of the  Flickr description. It doesn't really matter because we are concerned with images rather than words and what this image says to me is danger. So your challenge this week is to somehow link an old photograph with the concept of danger (or anything else you...