Family Tree Frog

Week 3 - Sunday 21 August August is National Family History Month in Australia and Australian Family and Local History bloggers thought it would be a great idea to have a - Blogging Challenge!  Everyone is welcome to join in, even if you don't live in Australia, we'd love to hear from you and hear your stories. Significant military battles are commemorated during the month of August such as Mouquet Farm in WWI and Milne Bay in WW2.  The Australian Comforts Fund was also founded in August 1916.  Did your ancestors have connections to these places, battles or organisation? Is there another anniversary or significant event that your family commemorates/remembers in August? Share your stories with us on or around Sunday 21 August and link them using the Mr Linky widget below so we have one central place to read all the stories on this theme.

Welcome to this week's calendar of local and family history events for Brisbane and surrounding areas. Anyone who knows me well will know that I am a dead cert for registration for the QFHS seminar this Saturday with Jenny Joyce about family history photographs.  From dating your photos, to organising them and keeping them safe, I can't wait for Saturday! Other events this week include a local history night at Annerley library featuring the history of Yeronga State School, a conservation clinic at State Library of Queensland and a talk at Ashgrove Library about the evacuation of Gallipoli.  I haven't been to the Museum of Brisbane for a while and was interested to see that they have a new exhibition coming up called Facing World War One. Also, if you belong to a society or museum that needs help with preserving your collection you might want to think about applying for a Community Heritage Grant funded by the Australian Government through the National Library of A...

Transforming Tindale in the box What's in the box you may very well ask?   Transforming Tindale - that's what. So I haven't got much time to chat this morning.  I've to get to work and mount an exhibition, that's what. Transforming Tindale i s a thought provoking journey into the Tindale collection, what it means to Aboriginal people and its place in Queensland’s history. Transforming Tindale is on display at Arana Hills Library from 29 January ( today  tomorrow- eek!) to 20 February.  For more information click here. There are lots of other great events coming up this week including one featuring fellow bloggers Helen Smith and  Pauleen Cass  and experienced English researcher Pauline Williams at GSQ called Putting Your Ancestors in context. Enjoy! 

Poppies for Remembrance Day Taken at Coriole Vineyard McLaren Vale South Australia Yesterday I received the latest issue of the journal of the Queensland Family Historian - the journal of the Queensland Family History Society Inc.  It is always jam packed with all sorts of information about additions to the library, members interests, seminars and news.  This particular issue features articles written in honour of Remembrance Day.  They cover all sorts of topics from Avenues of Honour and the Battle of the Somme to biographies of members' ancestors who fought in the Great War.   The journal is published quarterly and is just one of the many great reasons to join the Society.  If you were interested in submitting an article for consideration by the Editorial Committee, the following deadlines may be of interest: 15 March 15 June 15 September 15 December To join the Society or find out more about its activities, click here. If you are a newbie to f...

Some of the new additions to the QFHS Library Hallelujah!  For once, something is happening on my side of town ;)  Of course I just want to say that the only thing happening this week is In Time and Place .   You may have heard recently about the Annual Awards for Genealogy Rock Stars....   This is something fun run by John D Reid and our own dear Jill Ball of GeniAus fame won the Australia/New Zealand section.  Well, the winner of the Canada section was Dave Obee and he is one of the keynote speakers at In Time and Place - so I am very excited. How about that? Other speakers include but are not limited to: Shauna Hicks  Janis Wilton Helen Smith Saturday and Sunday morning will be a great mix of family and local history.  I just want to split myself in two so I can attend all the sessions.   Registration i s only $140 - great value for such a feast of speakers.  Go on - spoil yourself.  Monday's a Public Holiday...

Portrait of Private Edward Hinde of Gilston, Queensland, pictured in France, circa 1916 [picture] / Photographer unknown.  Picture courtesy of Gold Coast Libraries Picture Gold Coast collection.  This image is free of copyright restrictions. Permission is needed to use this image for commercial purposes. It's on again !   Kintalk's Trans Tasman Anzac Day Blog Challenge.  This year I have chosen to focus on the Hinde branch of my husband's family.  My husband prompted this blog by saying he remembered a photo of a digger on the wall of his grandmother's house when he was growing up. He remembered the man's name was Thomas.  I knew it couldn't be Thomas Daw - he was too young for WWI .  Dorothy, my husband's grandmother, was a Hinde before she married. When I searched the NAA records  for Hindes serving in WWI, I found an Edward and a Thomas.  Edward and Thomas would have been Dorothy's first cousins once removed or to put it another w...

Standing Figure by Ante Dabro at University House I promised to write a wrap-up post of my experience of Sunday's talks at the 14th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry  in Canberra so here goes.. SUNDAY 29 MARCH Keynote Address: Meeting people at war: writing war on the home front - Michael McKernan Michael McKernan - photo courtesy of  Allen and Unwin I was really interested in listening to this talk mostly because I've been busting a gut (to use an impolite phrase) creating PowerPoint presentations for our library service to commemorate the lives of the soldiers from the region who enlisted in the Great War.  The PowerPoints are just part of the displays we have in each library and they include display cases filled with artefacts from local RSLs and museums and some A2 sized themed posters. Foyer Caboolture Library with WWI Displays WWI Display Caboolture Library Burpengary Library posters These photos give you a ...

George Henry Charles Carrett III and Charles Arthur Stanley Carrett in France c 1917/1918 Now isn't this dreadful - I'm not sure which is which. I suspect George Henry Charles is the one on the right.   Let's have a look at a close up of his face at Millie's wedding photo again... George Henry Charles Carrett at Millie's wedding 1924 Tricky huh? We might be able to reach better conclusions by looking at their service records on the NAA website. Charles enlisted on 15 May 1916 at the age of 25.  At the time he was 5ft 71/4 inches with fair hair and blue eyes - a bricklayer turned Gunner.   He was wounded in a field in France a year later. George enlisted 8 May 1916 at the age of 37 standing 5 foot 7 and 3/4 inches with brown to grey hair and grey eyes.  A builder turned driver. So...I was wrong....George is on the left.   I'm not sure exactly when this photo was taken 1917 or 1918.   Don't you wish they were a...