Family Tree Frog

  How are you going with your family history research in this new year?  An area which is often difficult to research is that of our female ancestors.  We are also reminded how quickly memories or information about our ancestors, even relatively close ones, is lost.  For example how much do you really know about your grandparents' lives?  Are they still alive?  Did you record any interviews with them?  What evidence do you have?  And your parents?  You think you are pretty familiar with their lives but are you really?   I am fortunate that my mother was a great letter-writer and gave me many of her letters before she died.  They are all in manilla folders and marked with the year.  They range from 1959 up to 1992.  My mother died in 1995.  Much of the correspondence is with her father, her cousin, an old flatmate, and friends.  My mother was an only child so friends were very important to her.  Some of ...

Researching Your Ancestor's Occupation Today's post is going to be about my maternal grandfather, Thomas McLoughlin.  I have blogged about him plenty.  Probably the most comprehensive post I did about his working life was here .  Going through my mother's papers recently, I found a folder of papers relating to his working life which I had not "clocked" before.   So I have learned a little bit more about his working life, particularly the years before he worked for the Commonwealth Aircraft Company. Types of Sources and Repositories to check In my previous post, I listed some types of sources that you could check to try and determine your ancestor's occupation.  Before I go on to list those, can I just say that this is for my grandfather?  That's only two generations away from me.  I was really lucky to know him.  He died when I was about 21.  I never knew my paternal grandfather who died before I was born.  A week before my parent's...

Bayfront Painting Class 1945 : Florida Memory (Flickr Commons) This is the photo prompt for Sepia Saturday this week. It reminds me a bit of this photo...which was taken by the water at a regatta - showing happiness with friends....you get the picture.  My mother is the one in the middle with the Alice band on her head drinking some lemonade, I'm guessing.  I've blogged about this photo before ....so won't say anymore about it today.   No-one is painting in the picture sadly, although my mother was and my father is a competent artist. Here is a photo of my father when he was a young whipper snapper in the Public Works Department I think. It's the only photo I could find of either of them even thinking about drawing...   So I have little to show for this week's prompt I'm afraid...but here are some scans of my mother's drawings to give you an idea of her work. Alex by Barbara Conner My mother did quite a few drawin...

The Springs Chalet Mt Wellington Tasmania c 1949 Isn't this picturesque? The back of the photo reads: " This is the Springs Chalet up Mt Wellington where I walked and had afternoon tea. There was no snow at the Chalet at the time except on the Mountain at back similar to the other photo No. 1"   I have no idea what Photo No. 1 is.  And I'm not sure whose handwriting this is.  It doesn't look like Gran's and it doesn't look like my father's.  I'll have to ask him. These photos are in one of my father's albums. Here is another photo of his mother in the snow.   The caption underneath the photo in the album read " Puss in Boots " Ethel Conner nee Carrett Mt Wellington c 1949   And the back of the photo says " On top of Mt Wellington " I think they went to Tasmania for a holiday after his brother died. Some of the photos are dated 20 July 1947 on the back so I think maybe his mothe...