Initially I was disinclined to post again on the topic of Christmas cards as I wrote this story back in 2011. Then I started thinking about the background of card-sending and the potential importance to family history. I’d guess that in most families there’s at least one person who writes to every member of the … More Advent Calendar: Day 2 – Christmas Cards
Today’s Sepia Saturday image is “men in braces”, or perhaps working clothes, or newspapers. In a way my post combines all of these elements. Among my photo collection is a photo of my grandfather taken for a news story. James Joseph McSherry was an incredibly hard worker, having notched up a normal lifetime’s service with … More Sepia Saturday 192: A life in railway service
It seems that my uncle Pat Farraher is determined to have his moment in the Sepia Saturday sun. Pat appeared back in Sepia Saturday 166 and today’s topic is tailor-made for him. The World War II nominal roll only gives bare details but it lists Patrick Joseph Farraher enlisting on 15 September 1942 in Enoggera, Brisbane at the … More An army marches on its stomach
This week’s Sepia Saturday theme is about work, ideally it would include an image of a woman working but that seems to be so uneventful and ordinary that no one photographs it. Instead I’m including three photos which came to me as part of my aunt’s photographic archive. The photos all feature Army bakers probably … More Sepia Saturday 166: Army bakers
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
Today’s post is an absolute pleasure to write. The lady featured in this photo is my great-aunt Emily, sister to my maternal grandmother, Laura. Emily was Laura’s younger sister, the next in line, born in Charters Towers less than two years after her to parents Stephen Gillespie Melvin and Emily Partridge. Sadly my grandmother died … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 10: Aunty Emily
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
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
It’s funny how even a cryptic image like this Sepia Saturday prompt can stir one’s memories. After a brief “hmmm” moment my sub-conscious brought forth the connection. For me this image was a straight path back some fifty odd years. My image today has been chosen from Australia’s wonderful Trove site. While it dates to 1929, a … More Sepia Saturday 160: The Gabba
I am participating in the A to Z 2012 blog challenge throughout April. My theme is a genealogical travelogue or a travel genealogue (I’m not sure which). Since we got our Nissan X-Trail about four years ago, it’s taken us on some long adventures, though to be honest its 4WD facility hasn’t had much of … More X is for X-Trailing into the distance
Family history across the seas 