Family Tree Frog

Brisbane City Hall - Museum of Brisbane This is the way National Family History Month ends This is the way National Family History Month ends This is the way National Family History Month ends Not with a whimper but a bang! (with apologies to TS Eliot) Today was one of those days that just happened to turn out for the best.  Just as well really because I was a bit low last night.   I was a bit low because Robbie and I have really been suffering a dreadful bout of the flu this week.  Last night I was meant to go to a concert with my kids but was still a bit too "not chipper" to be standing in a mosh pit dancing to my favourite band - yes, tragic at my age I know, but there you go.   Anyway, so I was a bit sorry for myself last night but determined to turn it around today.  And today was the last day of August.  The last day of National Family History Month in Australia.  Next weekend is Father's Day in Oz but we decided...

Every week I participate in a meme called Sepia Saturday and this week Alan suggests:  Our theme this week revolves around letters home and you can interpret it as widely as you want. It might be letters, it might be cards, it might be writing, it might be people far away from home. All you need to do is to feature an old photograph and tell us a little about it. I'm a bit short on time (and photos if I'm honest) so this week's contribution is a postcard. Unfortunately I don't know the area well enough to say where this picture would have been taken from but I welcome comments and observations on same. The postcard is from my maternal grandmother, Kit, who died before I was born and four years after this was written. It is addressed to my maternal grandfather Tom.  Kit and Barbara - not quite sure where this photo was taken but it was around that time period.  Here is the back of the postcard. The card is dated 30 December 1952...

Today's the day to apply a bit of spit and polish to the old blog I say! Earlier this week fellow blogger Geniaus told us about fixing up her blog and asked for feedback.   This led to me calling for other geneabloggers who might be interested in joining in the same sort of exercise...giving each other feedback and making adjustments/improvements to their blog.    I have suggested that we say one thing we LOVE about the blog and one thing that we think could be improved/lost/added. There are six of us so far who are prepared to take the plunge and it's by no means too late if you want to join in too.  Just add your name to the link below and post your comments on each other's blogs. By the by, I've also discovered that the lovely Thomas MacEntee and Lisa Alzo from Hack Genealogy are running a Blogging Boot Camp this weekend.   This ties in nicely with Shauna Hicks suggestion for today to attend or listen to a webinar or Google + ...

Lovely Pauleen from Family History Across the Seas  has offered this Geneameme for your consideration.  What a great idea!  I'm in !  My answers are below. What are you doing for NFHM? Shauna Hick's 31 Activities for Researchers What do you hope to learn in NFHM? Heaps! Do you research at a family or local history library?   Yes! QFHS ! We're having an Open Day on Saturday 23 August 10am-3pm.Why don't you come along?  We're here. Do you do all your research online?   No! What’s your favourite place to store your family tree?  In several places I guess so if something goes wrong, I know it's somewhere! Online, on a computer, on paper. If offline, which genealogy program do you use?  ( do tell us its strengths/weaknesses if you like) I use Family Tree Maker and have done since time immemorial.  There's a bit of me that suspects that it is not the best but then I guess all software has its advantages and disad...

Just like my daughter's partner, Dan, who spends every weekend "pimping" his cars - endlessly tuning, tinkering and playing under the bonnet and modifying the body - I suspect that many genealogy bloggers are also trying out new looks and playing with the design of their blogs. Fellow geneablogger Geniaus talked about modifications to her template today and asked how often we gave blog layout and design a health check.  She got great feedback and offers of help which inspired me to think about having a Blog Pimping day this Saturday. Would you like to sign up to help others spring clean their blogs?  Sometimes spring cleaning is an overwhelming task and you don't know where to begin.  What if someone "came over" and offered to help or said "Let's tackle this first" ?  I propose that we all commit to cleaning up our blogs (even just a teensy bit) this weekend.   This is how it would work.  When you sign up in the comments below to...

Every week I try to contribute to something called Sepia Saturday. It's a community of bloggers who love looking closely at old sepia photos and who post at about the same time on the same meme.  This week's meme is, for want of a better descriptor, mug shots.  Alan says:  If you have any criminals in your family background and have photographs of them, then you could post those.  Equally, any official photograph would fit this theme and allow you to avoid the charge of posting under false pretences. Indeed any portrait will do and, don't forget, you won't be charged with treason if you ignore the theme and post any old photograph you choose. So I am going to blog about one of my husband's ancestors.  The one that has given us most trouble.  Our brickwall.  Because he has simply vanished and I would love to find out what happened to him, though I suspect we never will find out. Here's the one and only photo I have of him. Robert James...

I know how frustrating Wordless can be so I'm just going to include the description that my husband gave of where this was taken.  This is Carey's Corner (that white building you can see at the end of the street).  It's on the corner of Nerang and Scarborough Streets Southport where the taxi rank has always been (he claims) near the Cecil Hotel.  Who was Cecil Carey I wonder.  And that's Allison's Drapers that you can see half of the awning next to Carey's Corner.  All comments about this photo gratefully excepted.  I'm guessing it was taken c 1955. It's a bit difficult to get the same perspective of course these days but this is where we are talking about. Google Pic taken in 2007 For more memories have a read here  on the Southport Stories.  And for another perspective have a look at the photo here.  Bit of a shame about losing the clock.

From the National Library of Australia,   Queensland Times (Ipswich) (Qld. : 1909 - 1954), Friday 3 August 1945, page 6 This is the funeral notice for my husband's great-grandfather on his mother's side i.e. his mother's grandfather on her father's side.   Patrick died on Thursday 2 August 1945 in Nimmo Street Booval which is not very far from the racecourse. This notice appeared the next day and he was buried that day.  It will be 70 years ago this time next year that he died.  He died before my husband was born and before my mother-in-law married.   What's great about this funeral notice is that it gives me lots of names and places connected with the family that I didn't necessarily know before.    I think the Mr and Mrs W Smith of Strathpine must have been my mother-in-law's father's 2nd family, if that makes sense.   Looking back at the Death Certificate (it's always good to go back and look with "fresh eyes") I se...