The lovely folk at Gould Genealogy have issued a challenge to genealogists and family historians. Their idea is The ‘Family History Through the Alphabet’ Challenge We will work our way through the alphabet, using one letter each week and discuss anything relating to our family history starting with that letter. This week, being Week 3 is the letter C.
C is for Cousins: During my childhood, I had contact with four cousins, the children of my mother’s only sister. I was aware that my father had brothers and sisters, but for many reasons, we weren’t in contact with them. My father’s parents, died when he was 6 years old.
At primary school, I was always quite envious of the children who came from large families, and often thought of how I would love to have more cousins to play with.
Shortly after I accidentally started researching my family history, I started to think about Dad’s family. It wasn’t long before I was in touch with a few of my first cousins from this side of the family. This lead me to the realisation that I had dozens of first cousins from the Jones branch of the family alone. I have now met quite a few of these family members, but still there are many that I haven’t met as yet.
Over the years, I’ve been contacted by many second and third cousins from all branches of the families of both of my parents. They have found me through various internet sites and recently, through this blog. These cousins are from all areas of Australia and around the world. Some are interested in family history and some have no interest at all. Many just have a general curiosity about this strange person (me) who blogs about their family.
Many of these cousins, I keen in regular contact with, some I hear from occasionally, after reading a blog post that interests them. Many I have met face to face both in Australia and overseas.
I consider myself to be extremely fortunate to have met so many cousins over the past ten years. They have all had a major impact on me and my life is greatly enhanced by them.
The lovely folk at Gould Genealogy have issued a challenge to genealogists and family historians. Their idea is The ‘Family History Through the Alphabet’ Challenge We will work our way through the alphabet, using one letter each week and discuss anything relating to our family history starting with that letter. This week, being Week 2 is the letter B.
BOYLE: PATRICK BOYLE arrived in Melbourne from Ireland on “The Pomona” in 1857. Also travelling with him were his wife MARGARET McCLINTOCK and daughters, Ellen, Annie and Margaret. They quickly settled in Violet Town, where Patrick became a successful farmer. on the banks of the Honeysuckle Creek. Margaret died in 1862, just 5 years after their arrival. Patrick remarried in 1866 to Maria Chute. They had 4 daughters and 3 sons – Hanora, James, Thomas, Theresa, Francis, Maria and Catherine. Patrick died in 1891 in Violet Town and is buried in a large family plot with both wives and his daughter Ellen who tragically predeceased him.
Week 11: 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy
Amy Coffin of The We Tree Genealogy Blog in conjunction with GeneaBloggers has called for bloggers of genealogy and family history to take on the 2012 challenge of 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy This week’s topic is Technology: Technology makes it possible for genealogy classroom learning to come to you. Webinars are now hosted by many instructors on a variety of family history subjects. Share with us a webinar or series of webinars that you appreciate.
When I heard that Society of Australian Genealogists would be holding regular webinars this year, I felt quite excited. As I live in country Victoria, I regularly get into the Society. When their magazine, Descent arrives in my mailbox, the first thing I turn to is the Event Calendar. Always thinking how I’d love to be able to go to some of their seminars. Many of them are topics that really interest me. So when I heard about the webinars, I put my booking in immediately for all of them.
These are the topics discussed so far:
English Marriage Records
NSW Shipping Records Online
Are Your Ancestors Hiding?
Does The SAG have that?
Due to the wonders of technology today, it’s fantastic to be able to participate in seminars that would be otherwise unavailable to me.
Week 10: 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy
Amy Coffin of The We Tree Genealogy Blog in conjunction with GeneaBloggers has called for bloggers of genealogy and family history to take on the 2012 challenge of 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy This week’s topic is Genealogy Road Trips: No two genealogy road trips are the same, but they are always fun and meaningful. Describe a memorable trip in your past. Where did you go? What did you find or not find? Did you meet any new cousins? What did the trip mean to you and your family?
My first thought when I read this topic was how to choose which cemetery trip to talk about. Any genealogist or family historian will tell you that there’s nothing like a cemetery road trip. But then I remembered the road trip I did with my cousin Myrna. I can’t remember when this was exactly but it would have been about 8 or 9 years ago. Myrna’s father and my father were brothers, but I didn’t get to meet her as an adult until about a year or two before this road trip.
My Dad grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria. He was the second youngest of a large family, and Myrna’s father was the eldest. The family had quite a few moves around neighbouring suburbs. Myrna and I had spent many hours poring over our research information, with Myrna patiently trying to explain to me where these addresses were. So we decided it was necessary to do a road trip. We set off quite early, with our list of addresses. Myrna driving, so that I would be free to look. Back in those days I was a bad passenger and much preferred to be behind the wheel in control. That caused lots of laughter on the day. We toured around the northern suburbs of Melbourne with not a care in the world, trying to follow the footsteps of our fathers.
We were very pleased to see that most of the houses were still standing. Most of them were looking quite grand, obviously having been renovated in recent years. We had to use our imaginations to think of how those houses would have looked back in the 1920′s and ’30s. Back then, these were slum areas, where families were doing it tough.
I came home with a greater understanding of my father’s life as a young boy. My father is now 86 and he remembered every one of those houses that we photographed. Through showing him the photos we took and talking about the houses, he was able to share much more information with me than ever before. Information that he hadn’t remembered for years.
This trip was hugely valuable to my research but also priceless as Myrna and I have now become very close cousins and friends.
Salvation Army Connection
I mentioned in a previous post that there is an article about The Salvation Army in the current issue of Inside History Magazine The article is about the Tracing service that the Salvation Army has to trace missing family members. I haven’t had the need to use this service, but thinking about the article, I remembered that my family history has quite a few connections to the Salvation Army, on both my paternal and maternal side.
My great grandfather, ERNEST WELFARE WATERS was born in 1878 and married his first wife, ELIZABETH MACROW at Rochester in 1899. Before their marriage Elizabeth had been a Salvation Army Officer. But due to the ruling in the Salvation Army that officers could only marry officers, she had to resign. I’m fairly sure that this rule still exists today. Unfortunately Elizabeth died just two years after the marriage. Ernest’s second marriage was to HILDA MARY BEATRICE GILMOUR in 1902. They lived a long life together, both reaching their late 90s. Both Ernest and Hilda were life long members of the Salvation Army. I remember them both wearing their uniforms. Ernest was known as an Envoy. This was explained to me as being as close as you can get to being an officer, without actually being an officer. When I was a child I went to Sunday School at the Salvation Army. I was always aware, when there, of the great esteem that my great grandparents were held. I have been told that there were so many members of the WATERS family in he Salvation Army band that the band was known as the Band of Many Waters.
This photo shows ERNEST WELFARE WATERS and HILDA MARY BEATRICE GILMOUR on their wedding day.
Ernest and Hilda’s third child was BERNARD WATERS. Bernard was a Salvation Army Officer, who also resigned in order to marry. This photo shows Ernest and Bernard together in their Salvation Army uniforms.
WILLIAM TAYLOR is my great grandfather, but this time on the paternal side of my family history. He died in 1905 and his obituary in the Salvation Army Publication “The War Cry” shows that he was a greatly respected member of the Salvation Army at Yarrawonga. I have been told that William’s daughter who was my grandmother also was a member and wore a Salvation Army uniform. But I haven’t been able to confirm this. As she died when my father was a small child, he has very little memory of his mother.
from Salvation Army publication ‘War Cry, February 8, 1896: Brother Taylor, our colour sergeant lives about five miles out, but he is at the meetings as often as possible, and is always ready to give his testimony and warn the people to prepare for death, judgment, and eternity. About ten miles from Yarrawonga, at Bundalong, the corps – Mulwala, New South Wales. The people there help well and are supplied with War Crys etc. weekly. At present the spiritual conditon of the corps is very good.
from Yarrawonga Mercury, November 23, 1905: Another old and respected resident of the district, Mr. William Taylor, died at the residence of his two sisters, in Telford Street, Yarrawonga, early on Monday last, 20th inst. About 25 years ago Mr. Taylor took up a selection of land at Bundalong, where he brought up a rather large family. He was aged 64 years at the time of his death, and for the past 17 years had been an active member of the Salvation Army at Yarrawonga, taking a leading part in the open air services of that body. He was a kindly dispositioned man, well liked by his neighbours and those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance. The funeral took place on Tuesday last, when the body of the deceased was placed at rest in the Yarrawonga Cemetery, the funeral service being read by Ensign Watkins of Benalla, Mr. S. T. Bowles, attending to the mortuary arrangements.
My family research took me to the Salvation Army Archives centre where I found the staff there to be incredibly helpful. This blog post has reminded me that I need to go there again for further information and to tie up a few loose ends in my research.
Ernest Welfare Waters and Hilda Mary Beatrice on their wedding day
The lovely folk at Gould Genealogy have issued a challenge to genealogists and family historians. Their idea is The ‘Family History Through the Alphabet’ Challenge We will work our way through the alphabet, using one letter each week and discuss anything relating to our family history starting with that letter. This week, being Week 1 is the letter A.
ELIZABETH ANDERSON is my 3 x Great Grandmother. She was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1831 to parents, DAVID ANDERSON and JANE DRUMMOND. Elizabeth married ANDREW LOUDEN in 1852 at Old Monkland, Lanarkshire and later that year they set sail for Australia on the ship ABERFOYLE. Andrew and Elizabeth started out their new life around the Geelong area, in Victoria. But it wasn’t long before they began farming outside Ballarat. They had a large family of 12 children, 8 boys and 4 girls. These children all lived to a relatively old age which was quite unusual for the times. When their farming days were over, the family settled in Queen Street, Sebastapol. Elizabeth died in Ballarat on January 11, 1905 at age 74. Husband Andrew lived for another three years until his death in April 1908. Elizabeth and Andrew are buried at The Old Ballarat Cemetery, Ballarat,Victoria
Elizabeth and Andrew Louden and family
Inside History – 50 Best Blogs List
As I mentioned here I really love Inside History magazine. Because I live in the country my subscription issue usually arrives a few days after it’s release. I’m usually getting impatient for it, after my twitter friends start tweeting about the content. I was really hoping that Issue 10 would arrive in the mail today, for no reason, other than to look at the beautiful photos as well as read the varied articles. The cover photo is always a highlight.
But my reasons for looking forward to checking the mail changed when I read Western District Families Blog. Merron mentioned there, that Jill Ball had compiled a list of 50 Best Blogs To Follow in Inside History and she was understandably excited to see that her blog was on the list. But the big surprise to me was to read her comment that this blog has also been included as a best blog to follow. I’m still very surprised to have been included but feel deeply honoured to be mentioned alongside what I consider to be amazing genealogy and family history blogs. I wasn’t at all surprised to see a few other blogs that I enjoy following were listed.
Congratulations to all bloggers who made the list. I’m looking forward to checking out some of the blogs there that I haven’t read yet.
So far I’ve just had time for a quick flick through the magazine, but my first impression is that this issue looks to be the best yet. I’m most looking forward to reading an article about The Salvation Army written by Barry Gittins. There are quite a few links to The Salvation Army in both maternal and paternal branches of my family. I have used their fantastic Archive Service many times.
