Family Tree Frog

Image by hurk from Pixabay Amy Johnson Crow challenges us to write about our Family History again in 2024 using her 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  The theme for Week 1 is "Family Lore." Many of us have heard stories from our grandparents about incredible feats our ancestors did or a famous person we're related to. What's a tale that has been passed down in your family? Did it end up being true or did it turn out to just be a good story? You can join the challenge too her e. The most famous/shocking story handed down in our family was that my father's great-grandfather was meant to have shot himself.  Lo and behold it wasn't the entire truth (he lived to tell the tale) but there was certainly a large kernel of truth in the story handed down by my grandmother.  You can read the story of Edward Conner's life here . Of course there's always more to be done isn't there?  I ordered his death certificate years ago but it was lost in transit so...

Photo by Nicole Köhler on Magdeleine I've been researching family history for a very long time...a very long time.  Let me say that again....a very long time.  So you think I'd know better but....we all get into habits and routines.  We all think we know how to do research.  So, let me tell you a story about what happened to me the other day.  The other night actually.  Wednesday night specifically. Wednesday night had been looming large in my consciousness because it was when my final assignment was due for the Writing Family History unit I'm studying at University of Tasmania (yes - even though I live all the way up in Queensland - don't you love modern technology?) The assignment was due at midnight. So anyway, I'd decided to write about my two great-great-aunts Clara Rebecca Conner and Harriet Conner because I am ob sessed with them.  During the course I had written a couple of short stories about them.   Photo by...

Today's post is really about pure conjecture and pondering and I'd be grateful for any observations on my perusing and conclusions. Yesterday, as a result of meandering about the web and visiting many genea-blogs and genea-videos - in particular What's New at Ancestry on YouTube - I was reminded to search the Card Catalogue under the Search Tab at Ancestry to look at the latest additions to particular areas of research.   It's not really one of the latest additions to the UK or Hampshire records having been published on Ancestry on 25/11/2014 - UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1912 - but it was 4th on the top of the list by date added - and let's face it - the most interesting title.   And yes, I think I've found my 2nd great-grandfather Edward Connor on the admissions list.  Of course I can't really be sure as there is no identifying information but I think the timing is right. Some of you may remember that I posted about Edward h...

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 ...

This photo is really me clutching at straws. My family tree software program - Family Tree Maker - has this neat thing where I can see what anniversaries family history wise are coming up or have just been. Friday was my grand-aunt's 120th birthday. I had quite a few grand aunts on both sides of the family but I really only knew one - my paternal grandmother' s sister Rene. But this grand aunt - still on my paternal side - was one of my grandfather 's sisters - Constance Nellie Morrison (nee Conner). I don't know much about my father's aunts and we don't seem to have any photos of them - that I can find at any rate.   The photo here is of their mother - Mrs Eleanor Conner with Mrs MacDougal (don't know who she was) and my grandparents, Ethel and Edwin Conner and John Morrison - Constance's son.   I don't have any certificates for Constance or her sister Lillian.  The information I have has been gleaned from websit...