Family Tree Frog

Mounted Police,  King and Elizabeth Street corner from Sydney, 1890 /  photographed by Arthur K. Syer from State Library of New South Wales Flickr Account Are there murders, bizarre accidents or other thrilling stories among your family history? Thriller Thursday is a daily blogging prompt used by many genealogy bloggers to help them post content on their sites.This is an ongoing series by Anne Kruszka at Gene Notes . Well my advice for you this evening is to NOT search under the term "abduction" in Flickr unless you want to have nightmares.  I'm squeamish at the best of times but abduction is obviously a medical term for suspending limbs et al.  Flickr Commons is full of lots of disturbing photos and drawings of the human anatomy. I was looking for the term "abduction" because I found a most interesting notice while searching Find My Past for more information about the Ellis family. I have spoken before of Kate Ellis leadi...

Courtesy of the Tyrrell Collection, Powerhouse Museum, Nave St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney c. 1900 Beatrice Ellis? Wedding Wednesday is a prompt suggested by Carol of Reflections from the Fence and in use by several genealogy bloggers. Here I go again...madly guessing and researching the Ellis family. So, tonight I'm just going to summarise what I have found out about Beatrice Ellis born 1883 in Ararat Victoria.  Beatrice was my 2nd Great Aunt on my mother's side of the family. I haven't been able to find out terribly much about Beatrice's short life. I did find an article in Trove as per below. Courtesy of National Library of Australia, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 February 1905 But then we find a day later the following notice in the Wagga Wagga Express... I wonder what was going on???  Beatrice's older sister Kate Emilia Ellis was living in Newtown and had troubles of her own - four children aged 5 and under with another on the way.  ...

Ellis Family Group Photo Today's blogging prompt comes from Jennifer Geraghty-Gorman, of ‘ On a flesh and bone foundation': An Irish History' . The photo above is a copy of a photo obtained by my parents from a "newly found" cousin last century just before my mother died.  I'm afraid I don't know who is whom.  So I shall just have a big fat guess and hope that my guessing will bring cousins out of the woodwork to tell me where I have gone wrong ;)  I believe it is a photo of the Ellis family or my mother's great-grandparents and their children. Relationship Chart from Alex to Isabella Sinclair and George Ellis. Here's a bit of a relationship chart so you can see who's who in the zoo. That's me at the bottom - the living one.  Then my mother.  Then my maternal grandmother.  Then her mother.  And then her maternal grandmother. So - in the photo...I think is Isabella and George Ellis sitting together in the middle.  Seated ...

View Larger Map View Larger Map Today is week 5 of what is going to be a 15 month project. Each Saturday, at around 12.30am UK time the lovely Julie from Angler's Rest will release the prompt for that week's Book of Me, Written by You. The prompt for week 5 is Your Childhood Home When did you leave home? Where was it? Where did you move to? Was it rented or owned? –  with parents/Grandparents Was it inherited What was it like – describe it – each room. Were there a favourite room? Is there anything you particularly remember from the house? Pictures The road & area I left home when I was about 20.  I moved to a friend's place first and then into a rental property in Chippendale.   Our home was in Sydney and was called "Avondale" at 44 Toxteth Road Glebe.  We hadn't lived there for very long - say about five years. In the Google picture above Number 44 is the behind the gum tree.  The first of a row of three terrace houses...next ...

Margaret McLoughlin Communion Memento "Where does the time go?" I ask myself on numerous occasions, as no doubt, do you... Do you remember your first Communion? I remember mine...but only because it was relatively recent i.e. as an adult in my mid thirties.  Crikey!  That's nearly twenty years ago now.... Anyway, back to Margaret McLoughlin's first communion.   The picture above shows a rather quaint treasure that I inherited from my mother.  I'm not quite sure how she came about it but it is kept in a drawer of her old desk with a bunch of photos and other stuff I have accumulated over the years.   I am intrigued by it because it shows the date of her death.   I have so many questions about this.  Who created this memento?  I suspect Margaret.  Maybe a grown-up helped her with the lettering.  Who filled it in after she died?  Is this usual?  Who kept it?  Probably her poor p...