Family Tree Frog

What a huge week it has been genealogy wise for me.  Lots of things to learn and discover. Saturday morning was spent at my Society taking part in a Library Assistant's workshop.  These are held a couple of times a year and are designed to help you be a better library assistant.  One of the mini talks/presentations was about the Map Room.  This is always a vastly underused resource at the QFHS Library.  I'm always amused at how I always learn something despite going into the library at least once a month on duty and having been a member for probably about thirty years now. We all practised getting maps out of the cabinets.  The cabinets can be a bit intimidating to newbies.  Once the door is open, I think people are petrified that all the maps are going to fall out if the door doesn't catch.  I've got the hang of it now but was amused to notice for the first time the little "buttons" or knobs on the outside of the map cabinets to hang...

On reflection, yesterday was one of those "balanced" days.  It was my RDO or Rostered Day Off. I tried to be good at the outset by not being "shockingly lazy" as revealed in one of my previous blog posts.  I jumped out of bed, got dressed, opened the front door, looked at the sky, went back for my brolly and went for a walk.  It started to rain by the time I got to the bottom of the street and it continued to pour for the next 45 minutes.  Undeterred, I ploughed on, returning home in soaked sneakers and vowing never to wear those particular gym pants again (they would be the ones with the bell bottoms that have always been a bit too long in the leg for me).  They soaked up all the water in the puddles and made a sickening slap slap sound on my ankles as I "burned" up and down the hills. Exercise done - tick. Humiliation - done - tick.  Washing yet to be done. Next - the Dentist.  I am very lucky with my teeth (as mentioned in a previo...

This post is part of the Book of Me, Written by You meme created by Julie Goucher of Angler's Rest. This week's prompt is -  School Trips Did you go on any school trips? Where did you go? Memories and trinkets of those special days? Okay - yes I did go on a school trip in what was I guess the September holidays when I was in Grade 10 in 1976. The photo above is taken at 54 Wright's Road Drummoyne.  Looking at the map, I think this building must have been knocked down now because I remember it being an older style building, like the ones across the road. My parents had moved to Sydney to look for a house and my father had started working at Sydney University.  The flats at Drummoyne were owned by the University and were somewhere for staff to stay until they found somewhere more permanent to live.  I was getting ready to board at Canberra Girls Grammar in Deakin.  I was very excited about seeing the desert and going on this big ...

This week's Sepia Saturday theme features a monkey, people in hats - it's all a bit of a circus really, though the little girl doesn't look very happy.  I think she's got the sniffles. I am delighted to be able to produce monkeys from my mother's photo album from 1950. She went to Taronga Park Zoo in the August Holidays.  She would have been 14 years old. This is her writing underneath and it says " The monkeys playing with a balloon at Taronga Park." Here's another photo. It says: After the ballon (sic) had burst the monkeys had to amuse themselves. My mother was an only child like me and no doubt had to amuse herself when she got home by pasting in the photos in her album and writing captions underneath in white ink, once the photos had been processed.   I wonder what type of monkeys these are?  I think they might be black-handed spider monkeys.   And because I am a freshly hatched Librarian and we like to classify thin...

What a lovely surprise!  Sharon from Strong Foundations nominated me for the One Lovely Blog Award.  I'm pretty sure I "met" Sharon and her lovely blog through participating in the Sepia Saturday meme.  Sharon shares my love of Family History and finding fabulous articles on Trove.   Thanks Sharon! Here are the Rules for the "One Lovely Blog Award": Thank the person who nominated you and link to that blog Share Seven things about yourself - refer below Nominate 15 bloggers you admire (or as many as you can think of!) - also listed below Contact your bloggers to let them know that you've tagged them for the One Lovely Blog Award Seven things about me: Alex reading a little book in Edinburgh - as you do. I'm an only child (can you tell????) I love words and finding new words.  My husband Robert and I joke that we only buy The Guardian to do the Quick Crossword and the Sudoku. He does the Sudoku and we share the Crossword.  I...

Brisbane City Hall - Museum of Brisbane This is the way National Family History Month ends This is the way National Family History Month ends This is the way National Family History Month ends Not with a whimper but a bang! (with apologies to TS Eliot) Today was one of those days that just happened to turn out for the best.  Just as well really because I was a bit low last night.   I was a bit low because Robbie and I have really been suffering a dreadful bout of the flu this week.  Last night I was meant to go to a concert with my kids but was still a bit too "not chipper" to be standing in a mosh pit dancing to my favourite band - yes, tragic at my age I know, but there you go.   Anyway, so I was a bit sorry for myself last night but determined to turn it around today.  And today was the last day of August.  The last day of National Family History Month in Australia.  Next weekend is Father's Day in Oz but we decided...

Every week I participate in a meme called Sepia Saturday and this week Alan suggests:  Our theme this week revolves around letters home and you can interpret it as widely as you want. It might be letters, it might be cards, it might be writing, it might be people far away from home. All you need to do is to feature an old photograph and tell us a little about it. I'm a bit short on time (and photos if I'm honest) so this week's contribution is a postcard. Unfortunately I don't know the area well enough to say where this picture would have been taken from but I welcome comments and observations on same. The postcard is from my maternal grandmother, Kit, who died before I was born and four years after this was written. It is addressed to my maternal grandfather Tom.  Kit and Barbara - not quite sure where this photo was taken but it was around that time period.  Here is the back of the postcard. The card is dated 30 December 1952...