Family Tree Frog

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...

Did you like doing jigsaw puzzles when you were a child?  I did.  I'm such a hoarder that I have even kept my favourites...I have very fond memories of a Mary Poppins jigsaw and I even have one of the Oriana , the ship we went overseas in when I was a baby.  That's the ship's prow you can see next to the passenger terminal at Circular Quay in that piece just above....if you turned the piece anti-clockwise you would see it better.... Well, I found another piece of my family history jigsaw puzzle last night - quite unexpectedly, whilst looking for something else...isn't it always the way?   You may remember, that this time last year, I was researching my maternal grandfather's working life - Thomas Joseph Benedict McLoughlin.  One of the "bits" that eluded me was what happened between school and his eventual employment at the Commonwealth Aircraft Factory in the 1940s.  Tom did very well at school and I've blogged about that before, fi...

Well this week's theme is quite easy for me to match in terms of family photos.  I suspect some of you may have seen this one before but I saw it with new eyes this morning realising perhaps for the first time that my maternal grandfather, Thomas McLoughlin,  was sitting on a wicker chair. Other family photos featuring wicker furniture are from the paternal side of the family. This is, I suspect, a photo of a photo but it is much loved.  It features my two Aunts and my Uncle.  I only knew my elder Aunt Hazel on the left. My Aunt Trixie (the baby in the chair) died when very young.  That's Uncle Ted on the right and he died well before I was born. This is their mother, my grandmother, Ethel, sitting at I strongly suspect a wicker table.  I also suspect that she would have embroidered that tablecloth.  I have a few of her tablecloths but I don't think that particular one.  I have posted this before so I really needed to fi...

Alan from Sepia Saturday says: Trumpet fanfares :  My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to that celebration of old and curious photographs that is known throughout the world as Sepia Saturday. Indeed, welcome to a very special Sepia Saturday, because four years and 199 themes ago, Sepia Saturday was born. And we are celebrating this important anniversary by asking everybody who has ever joined in with Sepia Saturday to look back on their contributions and choose a favourite one. Simply republish that favourite Sepia post and we will gather together all the contributions and publish them in a little "The Best Of Sepia Saturday" book which will be available for anyone to buy on-line. As you would expect from Sepia Saturday, there are very few rules and regulations involved in this special Sepia Saturday post. It can be any of your Sepia Saturday posts, but unfortunately we will have to limit it to one per participant. If you would like to amend or update the post, t...

I'm being a tad cheeky here because I don't know if my grandfather did in fact go to PNG but.... I found these photos in his album so I'm having a bit of a think and an explore and an investigation to try and discover what on earth they could be about. I don't know when these photos were taken but I'm guessing in the 1930s.   On the back of this photo is the word " Medang ".   The other clue in the photo is of course the name of the boat which I am reading as Macdhu. When I look up Macdhu on Trove I find lots of references to a boat but particularly between 1930-1939 with many falling around 1933, 1937 and 1938. Here's another photo of the boat.  On the stern it says Macdhui Sydney. Here's another picture of Medang And another one of Kavieng from the deck And another Here are some of Finchhafen... And to finish off here are some from Samarai. .. It is so frustr...

1912 Tom McLoughlin - Football Team  - Tom is at the end of the back  row on the right Family history is not complete without a football photo is it? Even from 1912. Not quite sure where this is taken - I suspect Bathurst. Back of postcard The back of the postcard reads in my mother's handwriting on the left Circa 1912  Tom 14 years  Football Team  Tom in sub junior I'm not sure whose handwriting is on the right hand side - maybe my grandfather's.   It says  M McLoughlin  4 Lamrock Terrace  E Orange. M McLoughlin could have been Tom's sister Margaret or his sister Mary or his mother Margaret. Thomas, aka Tom, my maternal grandfather was born 7 July 1898 in William Street Bathurst. I would love to know what Grandad's role was on the team. He's wearing a suit and a tie.  And his boots are nicely polished. Is he the manager?  A coach? A fan? What do you think? Was ...