The Kunkel family in Australia or Bavaria
Perhaps it’s all those children’s stories of Cinderella et al being transformed and sent off to the ball that makes formal outfits so appealing to teenage girls (well at least this one, as was). I did feel very like Cinderella at the ball in my Debut gown. I had professional photos taken but the real … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 16 Cinderella and the ball
It would be interesting to know how widespread it was for mothers to make their children’s clothes “back in the day”. My mother was a good dressmaker, and very particular, though I think she sometimes felt overshadowed by my paternal grandmother who had been a professional dressmaker. I still have my grandmother’s sewing machine, which … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 15 Dressmaking tributes
This evening I learned through my TDDFHS membership emails that the Western Star and Roma Advertiser newspaper (published in Toowoomba, Queensland) is in the throes of being digitised by Trove. With three branches of my Kunkel family living in that area at the time (Paterson, Kunkel, Lee), I immediately hotfooted it to the computer to … More Trove Tuesday: Joseph Francis Kunkel
I’m not going to change the image I’ve posted in this collage but I am going off on a lateral tangent yet again. I had thought to write (even more!) about Magnetic Island but then I thought “why? I’ve done that to death”. Then in another of my midnight mental rambles I was thinking about … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 12: Cousins, aunts and uncles
Like many young girls of my generation I became a Girl Guide when I was about 10. However unlike many others I hadn’t followed the normal path through Brownies. Joining the Guides was a big deal because in those days it had the reputation of either not being friendly to Catholics, or vice versa. Certainly … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 8 Girl Guides
Why we pursue our family history is a common question among geneabloggers and other genealogists. I’ve reflected on this over the years and have never had an entirely satisfactory response to that question. Why I continue with it is so much easier: the search continues and the questions remain. I can’t simply say “my family … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 7 – Grandparents and family history
I rediscovered this photo the other day, having forgotten it was given to me a while ago. It’s a large photo on hard board, bigger than A4 so it doesn’t quite fit on my scanner platen. There is no indication of the photographer. It brought tears to my eyes because my grandfather looks so young and … More (Not Quite) Wordless Wednesday: my Grandad
This photo symbolises the role of church or religion in my early life and that of my family. Religion’s impact on family relationships will inevitably be introduced in other stories. The collage photo is of all the girls in my First Communion group, taken when I was seven. Instead of using that photo here I’m … More Fab Feb Photo Festival: Day 5 Church going
Birthdays and parties seem synonymous these days but were they when you were growing up? Certainly mine were pretty much always low-key affairs as I explained a while ago in another post. While I had a few friends and family over for each birthday, with party hats and presents, there was none of the hoopla … More Fab Feb Photo Festival -Day 4 – Baby books and birthdays
When you were a child did you go to community Fancy Dress parties or concerts or had they gone out of vogue? My “Local” The local community hall was not too far from our house and had been built in 1929 when the estate was newly developed. By then my grandparents had been living there … More Fancy Dress for the Fab Feb Photo Festival – Day 3
Family history across the seas 