International Women’s Day – Ellen Gavin, Julia Kunkel and Johanna Gavan

8 March, 2011

  Today is the centenary of International Women’s Day and an appropriate day to honour our female ancestors. I have chosen to highlight the lives of my great-great-grandmother Ellen (Murphy) Gavin and great-grandmother Julia (Gavin) Kunkel as well as an unrelated friend.  Their lives were so much harder, and stoic, than ours and I thank … More International Women’s Day – Ellen Gavin, Julia Kunkel and Johanna Gavan

52 weeks of personal history & genealogy: Week 10: Disasters

7 March, 2011

We are now in Week 10 of Amy Coffin and Geneablogger’s 52 weeks of Personal history and genealogy. This week’s topic: Disasters. Did you experience any natural disasters in your lifetime? Tell us about them. If not, then discuss these events that happened to parents, grandparents or others in your family. With the 2011 events … More 52 weeks of personal history & genealogy: Week 10: Disasters

52 Weeks of personal history and genealogy: Week 9 Sounds – a reflection

3 March, 2011

Grandma calls me her bonnie wee bairn as I lie on the couch while she brushes my hair. The rise and fall of the silver hairbrush makes a clicking noise as soothing as the brushing itself. Afterwards we’ll share a treat. There’s a clunk as the lid rests back on its hinges. A heavy record … More 52 Weeks of personal history and genealogy: Week 9 Sounds – a reflection

52 weeks of personal history and genealogy: Week 9 Sounds

3 March, 2011

The Week 9 topic from Amy Coffin and Geneabloggers is: Sounds.  Describe any sounds that take you back to your childhood. These could be familiar songs, jingles, children playing, or something entirely different. Thinking of childhood sounds my sub-conscious brought forth an arrayof random and evocative (to me) sounds: The kookaburras laughing in the trees … More 52 weeks of personal history and genealogy: Week 9 Sounds

52 Weeks of Personal history and genealogy: Week 8 Technology (Part 2)

26 February, 2011

Responding to Part 2 of Amy Coffin’s challenge for Week 8 on Technology: Part II: What types of technology do you enjoy using today, and which do you avoid? So what technology do I use now? Pretty much everything has a technological component and if we don’t try to adopt new advances as they come … More 52 Weeks of Personal history and genealogy: Week 8 Technology (Part 2)

52 weeks of personal history & genealogy: Week 8 Technology (Part 1)

26 February, 2011

The challenge issued by Amy Coffin and Geneabloggers for Week 8 of 52 weeks of Personal History and Genealogy is: Technology Part I: What are some of the technological advances that happened during your childhood? Part II: What types of technology do you enjoy using today, and which do you avoid? As a baby boomer I … More 52 weeks of personal history & genealogy: Week 8 Technology (Part 1)

52 weeks of personal history & genealogy: Week 7: toys. A tale of rabbits, dolls and guns

18 February, 2011

The challenge issued by Amy Coffin and Geneabloggers for Week 7 of 52 weeks of Personal History and Genealogy is: What was your favourite childhood toy? Is it still being made in some form today? The prophetic asset in my toy collection was a rubber rabbit which was apparently mass produced at the time. Given … More 52 weeks of personal history & genealogy: Week 7: toys. A tale of rabbits, dolls and guns

Memories of days past and memory-jogging

12 February, 2011

Like many others I’ve been participating in the 52 weeks of personal history and genealogy created by Amy Coffin in collaboration with geneabloggers (http://www.geneabloggers.com/tag/52-weeks-of-personal-genealogy-history/) so retrieving memories has definitely been on my mind.  One of my “to do” tasks is to knock my study into some order so I’ve been cataloguing my books, slowly, and came … More Memories of days past and memory-jogging