Family Tree Frog

Well here we are!  We've made it to the last week of the blogging challenge in National Family History Month.   Have you learned some more about  your ancestors and their lives? Have you unearthed some new sources or facts that you didn't know before?  Have you made interesting connections or found new blogs in the process? I hope the experience has been rewarding for you.  Here's the last challenge... Frank Hardy's novel Power without Glory covers a wide range of notorious characters from criminals to Archbishops and politicians, wrestlers to gamblers and everyone else in between.   One of the themes is conscription during WW1 but you can interpret the title as broadly as you like.   Were your ancestors powerful in some way? Legitimately or  not.   Did they have a stoush with the authorities or strong political beliefs? Lets hear their story. By the way, speaking of stories, have you seen the 31 Links in a chain page on QF...

Having possibly bored everybody (including myself) to death with the last post, you will be pleased to know I'm going to keep this one short and sweet. I've decided to list all the rivers that might have a connection to my ancestors (oh and me too - why not?) And here is a suitable literary quote... “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”  ― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows Here they are in alphabetical order with pictures wherever possible and the surname/s of the family/ies I am researching afterwards: Afon Seiont, North Caernarvon, Wales - JONES (Afon  means river in Welsh) Welsh Countryside by Nelo Hotsuma from Flickr - some rights reserved Aray River, Inverary, Scotland - SINCLAIR Inverary Castle and River Aray by David Jones on Flickr - some rights reserved Brisbane River, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia - DAW, CONNER Grey Street Brid...

This is my contribution to Week 2 of the #NFHM2017 Blogging Challenge - Careful He Might Hear You .  I've been inspired by Pauleen Cass' post about the orphans in her family. While technically not orphans, my maternal grandmother and her twin sister were placed in the Randwick Destitute Asylum at the age of 3.  Their mother - Kate Amelia Forfar (nee Ellis) died on 31st December 1905 at Denison Street Arncliffe.  My maternal great-grandmother Kate (Kitty) Amelia Forfar (nee Ellis)  Kate had four children at that time - the eldest was Ernest Henry aged 6,  then Dorothy Emily aged 4, then the twins aged 3 - Grace Isabella (Belle) and Helen Kate (Kit) - my grandmother. There was a younger child Walter William but he died earlier in the year from asphyxia.   The four children were admitted to Randwick Asylum on Saturday 24 February 1906 by their father Walter William Forfar of Denison Street Arncliffe.  They were discharged seven years later...

It's Week 3 of the #NFHM2017 Blogging Challenge. How are we all going?  I suspect we are all very busy because there is so much on at the moment.  I know I am finding it difficult to find the time to write on my blog.  Working full time, participating in my local family history society events, studying another unit in the great UTAS Family History course , organizing a 40th school reunion for next year, celebrating birthdays for various family members...there's always so much to do.  And yet, every blog post I write, I learn something new or add a bit more to the family tree. This week our meme comes from Nancy Cato 's saga All the Rivers Run .  It spanned eight decades and four generations.  Your blog post doesn't have to do that but was there a matriarch in your family that inspires you?  Or maybe you want to focus on a particular river that played a part in your ancestors' lives.  Where will your imagination run to? We can't wait to fin...

There that title got your attention didn't it?  Really I will stop at nothing to get hits on this blog. ;) Just joking... Queensland Family History Society had an Open Day yesterday as part of National Family History Month.  It was a beautiful day and despite competing with the ever popular Ekka we had plenty of visitors and lots of people signing up.  Hoorah! I was delighted to see some of my friends from other parts of my life come and have look around and sign up - thank you Majella and Jeanette! There were prizes and booksales and discounts...what more could you ask for? My job was to show newbies around the facilities and perhaps help them with their research a little bit.  It's always a bit scary when you ask someone about their research...will you be able to help them?  Will you be stumped?  Luckily there are so many knowledgeable folk at QFHS that I have learned to relax a bit and, if I am stumped, I just turn around and ask t...

The lovely Alona Tester from Lonetester HQ has thrown out the challenge to see how many letters of the alphabet you can assign to an ancestor's place of work or home; not necessarily where they work born but where they lived or worked. A Arncliffe , Sydney - where Kate Amelia Ellis died. Arana Hills - where I work Aranda - the suburb I grew up in Canberra or  Avondale - the name of our house in Glebe, Sydney where I finished school and went to Uni. B Bannockburn, Scotland   for the Forfars who cause me no end of trubble.  Bathurst, NSW   - the birthplace of my maternal grandfather (McLoughlin).  Barbados  for my husband's family (Donovan/Proverbs).  Bishopsgate, London, England   where the Cooks lived in the 1860s.  Bondi, Sydney  for my grandmother in her later years and where both sets of my grandparents were married.(McLoughlin) and Conner  Bourke , NSW - where John McLoughlin and Margaret Taylor were m...