Family Tree Frog

It's that time of year when we look back at what has happened in 2017 and are looking forward to the New Year.  What or who has helped us along our research path in our quest for our ancestors' stories?  I have much to be grateful for and at the top of my list is .... Arwen Number 1 - Arwen (my training partner) Now I know you are probably wondering how an earth a dog can help with family history.  Is she very good at sniffing out ancestors????  No, not really.  But she is very good at nudging me to get off my bottom and go for a walk which keeps me healthy (so I have even longer to do my family history!! Tee hee!).  In fact I was going to say at the very beginning of this post that I am incredibly grateful for my good health but I thought " Who or what can I thank for that?"    Of course I could thank my ancestors and their good genes but I really do have to thank Arwen.  I could sit for hours in front of the computer screen g...

Part of the joy of being a family historian (as opposed to a genealogist) is that you have a broader view of your ancestry.  You look at them in the context of the place and time they lived.   Local history is very important to family historians and some even go to the extent of creating one place studies e.g. the lovely Pauleen Cass  who has set up one for Dorfprotzelten in Bavaria and East Clare in Ireland.  What a great idea. Many family historians have spoken of the joy they have felt being able to visit the land of their ancestors.  As part of a short course recently delivered through the University of Tasmania, I completed an exercise in mapping my ancestor's land in a crafty kind of way.  It was a great exercise and you can read about it here if you like.  I haven't been able to visit Taemas yet but I feel like I know the place better now for having studied newspaper articles, joined the local history society and read local histories. ...

Greenham Studios. (1901). Victorian Parliament House, Federal Parliamentary Library, Melbourne, [1920?] Retrieved January 30, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136761356 Libraries are my happy place.  So you can imagine how pleased I was last weekend when I discovered that one of my ancestors worked in this fabulous looking place in the 19th century. How did I discover this?  Well, I was mucking around, as you do, trying to be a good family historian.  I had received an email from the Lost Cousins mob and was trying to add more ancestors and their households to the site.  I knew my Sinclairs had come out from Scotland and was trying to remember when and then trying to find relatives in the 1881 Census.  I didn't have much joy in that regard but in the process reminded myself of some earlier research I had done here.   Do you use your blog to remind you of previous research conducted?  I do all the time. Thank goodness I have a search b...

I won a prize this week and I didn't even know about it until it turned up in the mail! A parcel arrived from Gould Genealogy & History .  "That's funny," I thought "I haven't ordered anything..."  I read the enclosed Tax Invoice and it said "Congratulations on being a winner of the Inside History Magazine promo" Inside History Magazine has a fabulous Facebook page which I liked ages ago and just about every day they give away prizes.  I had forgotten that in May I entered a competition to win a copy of Chris Paton 's British and Irish newspapers.   The challenge was to tell the best story you've found in an old newspaper.      I was the first to enter saying:  My grandmother always told a story about my 2nd great grandfather shooting himself and we were always a bit skeptical until I found this article. and shared a link to this post on my blog. So I've won a book.  And being a reasonably freshly hatched librar...

Alan says: We have Wendy Mathias to thank for our Sepia prompt once again this week and she points us in the direction of domes, ceilings, arches, and significant buildings. The dome in question is that of the Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington. There is a rather pleasing pattern to the image - which dates from the very beginning of the twentieth century - so you might want to add patterns to the list of possible interpretations.  If you would like to participate, go here for more instructions. Customs House Brisbane 1889 courtesy of   State Library of  Queensland I always find it difficult to find a focus for these themes. I do tend to jump all over the place - hence my blog name - Family Tree Frog. Possibly the most famous dome in Brisbane where I live is the one belonging to Customs House.  I've been to a wedding there once -  or was it just the reception? Anyway - it's all very swish and hasn't changed much from t...