Stray email couple clicked Tasmania News - The Mercury - The Voice of Tasmania

An email seeking genealogicla data leads to a romance across the seas.

Stray email couple clicked Tasmania News - The Mercury - The Voice of Tasmania

Posted using ShareThis

On this day - 26th January - Australia Day

What a great idea from Shelley at Twigs of Yore to post family events that occured on 26th January on her blog. Carole Riley of Carole's Canvas followed up with a similar post. Whilst Shelley had two 26 January events Carole had five from the 17th to the 21st centuries. I felt that I just had to join this Australia Day blogging event.

Carole gave instructions on the TMG Sydney blog on how to glean this information from The Master Genealogist software that I also use. This seemed like hard work so I looked at my online website for which I use TNG. How easy it was! From the site menu I selected Dates and - Hey Presto - there was a list of the 26 January happenings in my database.

None of my direct ancestors figure in the list produced. The closest is for my great-grandmother's brother, Michael Kealy who, on 26 Jan 1867, left his native Ireland on the Light Brigade and arriving on 21 May 1867 to start a new life in Australia with his brother. My great-grandmother, Mary Kealy, followed her brothers to Australia in 1877.

Conditions in Australia must have been agreeable for Michael as he fathered a family of 13 in Australia .

Australia Day - January 26th

My ancestors who made the journey from The British Isles to the great southern land in the 19th century probably dreamed, like Dorothea Mackellar, of "field and coppice". We, their ancestors, rejoice in our life in "the sunburnt country" and thank those ancestors for making a treacherous journey by sea to the "wide brown land". We love "the lucky country".

I thank The Wallerawang Branch Library Blog for giving me the idea of posting Mackellar's classic ode to my blog for Australia Day.


My Country By Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968, written in 1904) The love of field and coppice,Of green and shaded lanes.Of ordered woods and gardensIs running in your veins,Strong love of grey-blue distanceBrown streams and soft dim skiesI know but cannot share it,My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,A land of sweeping plains,Of ragged mountain ranges,Of droughts and flooding rains.I love her far horizons,I love her jewel-sea,Her beauty and her terror -The wide brown land for me!
A stark white ring-barked forestAll tragic to the moon,The sapphire-misted mountains,The hot gold hush of noon.Green tangle of the brushes,Where lithe lianas coil,And orchids deck the tree-topsAnd ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!Her pitiless blue sky,When sick at heart, around us,We see the cattle die -But then the grey clouds gather,And we can bless againThe drumming of an army,The steady, soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!Land of the Rainbow Gold,For flood and fire and famine,She pays us back threefold -Over the thirsty paddocks,Watch, after many days,The filmy veil of greennessThat thickens as we gaze. An opal-hearted country,A wilful, lavish land -All you who have not loved her,You will not understand -Though earth holds many splendours,Wherever I may die,I know to what brown countryMy homing thoughts will fly.

Strangers in a box « City of Tea Tree Gully Library

Four-week family history course for beginners at City of Tea Tree Gully.

Strangers in a box « City of Tea Tree Gully Library

Posted using ShareThis

Website releases records of convicts sent to Australia | The Australian

Website releases records of convicts sent to Australia | The Australian

Posted using ShareThis

New England, Australia: Fire guts Inverell's historic Byron Arcade

Sad story from Inverell.

New England, Australia: Fire guts Inverell's historic Byron Arcade

Posted using ShareThis

Updated Free BDM Website

This messgae came through on a listserv today - keep up the good work, Gordon.

"Website updated today- extra 290 plus NEW ENTRIES
Total entries now 15458
Please keep donating those certificates and thanks to all thus far

Website: http://ausbdm.ucoz.org/"

Local Studies: Calendar Celebrates 150 Years of Local Government

150 years of Local Government History in Orange, NSW.

Local Studies: Calendar Celebrates 150 Years of Local Government

Posted using ShareThis

Passwords: please try harder | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Image: http://lifehacker.com/5453721/no-time-like-the-present-to-choose-strong-passwords?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lifehacker%2Ffull+(Lifehacker)&utm_content=Google+Reader

Are you complacent with passwords? Is yours easy to crack?

Passwords: please try harder | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Posted using ShareThis

Put Together a Better Virtual Photo Album to Share with Friends and Family - Photo Sharing - Lifehacker

Put Together a Better Virtual Photo Album to Share with Friends and Family - Photo Sharing - Lifehacker

Posted using ShareThis

Discovery brings up memories - Local News - News - News Features - Forbes Advocate

Last week's news of the positive identification of the hospital ship Centaur brought back bitter-sweet memories for Forbes resident, Jean Dingwall.

Discovery brings up memories - Local News - News - News Features - Forbes Advocate

Posted using ShareThis

Harveys (and variants) in Australia

If you have some Harveys (or Harvie, Harvy, Herve, Hervey) you may be interested in this list extracted from the Australian Vital Records Index on the Harvey Genealogist site.

March 2010 conference

Our Jewish Roots
The Second Australian National Conference on Jewish Genealogy will be held from Sunday 7 March to Tuesday 9 March 2010 in Melbourne, Victoria

March 2010 conference

Posted using ShareThis

ACT Public Library Blog: New Internet training sessions at Belconnen

ACT Public Library Blog: New Internet training sessions at Belconnen

Posted using ShareThis

Onwards and Upwards: A Great Half Century Knock!!

A son in Western Australian tells his Dad's story.

Onwards and Upwards: A Great Half Century Knock!!

Posted using ShareThis

Wahroonga historian Jo Harris collects Royal Australian Historical Society gong - People - News | Hornsby

Wahroonga historian Jo Harris collects Royal Australian Historical Society gong - People - News | Hornsby & Upper North Shore Advocate

Posted using ShareThis

ACT Public Library Blog: Free Google Book Settlement seminar

Free event in Canberra will be of interest to genealogists who are authors.

ACT Public Library Blog: Free Google Book Settlement seminar

Posted using ShareThis

A renovation with conviction

Adrian Nesbitt revisits his former family home to trace and connect with a dark past. I wonder if Adrian's ancestors knew my convict ancestor, Patrick Curry, who lived in the same area at the same time.

A renovation with conviction

Posted using ShareThis

Elders seek prince's help with finding ancestor Pemulwuy | Herald Sun

Elders seek prince's help with finding ancestor Pemulwuy | Herald Sun

Posted using ShareThis

Worlds Apart | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

A "stolen generation" story from Radio Netherlands.

Worlds Apart | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Posted using ShareThis

Jewish Action - The Magazine of the Orthodox Union - OU.ORG

An Australian's account of a visit to ancestral lands.

Jewish Action - The Magazine of the Orthodox Union - OU.ORG

Posted using ShareThis

Sunday Velvet - Springthorpe Memorial, Kew cemetery

A Stylish final resting place.

Sunday Velvet - Springthorpe Memorial, Kew cemetery

Posted using ShareThis

NSW BDM Reminder

As of the 1st January 2010 the NSW BDM indexes have been updated. Births [1788 - 1909]; Deaths [1788 - 1979] and Marriages [1788 - 1959] are now available for searching.

Family History Week plans underway | Coffs Coast News | Local News in Coffs Coast | Coffs Coast Advocate

Family History Week plans underway | Coffs Coast News | Local News in Coffs Coast | Coffs Coast Advocate

Posted using ShareThis

Widdups from Urana

Widdups from Urana & Bracewell-Hodgson connection « Family history across the seas

Posted using ShareThis

Public events - National Archives of Australia

Public events - National Archives of Australia

Posted using ShareThis

DUWARD DISCUSSION: I'm My Own Grandpa

DUWARD DISCUSSION: I'm My Own Grandpa

Posted using ShareThis

Using Twitter for genealogy by Geniaus

Using Twitter for genealogy by Geniaus

Posted using ShareThis

Blayney Pioneer Register

The closing date for The Blayney Pioneer Register is January 26th.

Forms can be downloaded from http:/abercrombiecaves.com/blayneyhistory

Find My Ancestor: Posterity Treasures - Keeping a Journal

Some ideas for recording your memories for future generations

Find My Ancestor: Posterity Treasures - Keeping a Journal

Posted using ShareThis

Watters descendants gather for centenary | Mackay Lifestyle News | Health, Fashion, Food and Wine in Mackay | Mackay Daily Mercury

Watters descendants gather for centenary | Mackay Lifestyle News | Health, Fashion, Food and Wine in Mackay | Mackay Daily Mercury

Posted using ShareThis

Genealogy Blog - Victorian Man's London Diary Put Online - GeneaNet

A window to the London of your ancestors.

Genealogy Blog - Victorian Man's London Diary Put Online - GeneaNet

Posted using ShareThis

Lonely no more

This diagram from The Perennial Lone Wolf Librarian's Weblog started me thinking about how the development of the internet, email and web 2.0 applications has changed genealogy from a rather lonely pursuit to a collaborative activity.

When I started out in the late 1980's I spoke to people in the family to gather the data that was in their heads then I headed off to libraries to search printed resources,microfiche and microfilms. I also made contact with a few people I found in Pioneer registers from various areas in Australia. Some of these people responded by post and sent photocopies of certificates and handwritten trees. Most of the information in these handwritten trees was not sourced; verifying sources meant trips to libraries and genealogical societies and much searching of indexes on microfiche, visits to cemeteries etc.

I embraced technology in the late 1980's when I started entering my data into a basic database. I was then able to share printed reports with new found cousins but I needed to go to the library (luckily I worked in one) to make photocopies of certificates as I did not have access to scanners and copiers at home.

Fast Forward twenty years to today and, thanks to advances in technology, I have a smorgasbord of tools with which to communicate and a broad range of virtual genealogy friends with whom I can share information, news and tips and discuss the trials and tribulations of ancestor hunting.

Air raid shelters, Balmain

Air raid shelters, Balmain: "

Sunlight Oil and Soapworks (later Unilever) Balmain, c1928

Betty Sparnon grew up in Balmain and writes “we often played in the old air raid shelter near Unilever and I recently met another child of Balmain who remembers an air raid shelter under a factory opposite the Dry Dock Hotel. How can we find out more about these shelters?”

We searched our collection but haven’t uncovered anything that would assist Betty. If you have any information on air raid shelters around Balmain, contact us at localhistory@lmc.nsw.gov.au and we will pass this information on to Betty.

Posted in Latest Posts

"

From down the well: Tasmania

From down the well: Tasmania

Posted using ShareThis

Home farewells Davis - Fiji Times Online

Home farewells Davis - Fiji Times Online

Posted using ShareThis

Stephen's Lighthouse: Ten Years - Comparing 2000 and 2009

Stephen's Lighthouse: Ten Years - Comparing 2000 and 2009

Posted using ShareThis