Hi All,
A quickie tonight to share with you an AWESOME resource to help you with your research.
This site is massive and soo helpful!
http://www.wotsmygenes.com/results.asp?t=&c=&p=2
I hope you love it too!
More tips and links to come. Happy hunting!
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Person Of Interest
At the moment I am searching for the stories of my family. One of the people includes
This is my 5 generations; great-great-great-grandfather.
Alfred Benjamin Waldron
DOB: 27/2/1825
Place: Stourbridge, England
Baptism: 27/02/1828
Place: Worcestershire, England, UK
Occupation: Merchant, Dairyman, Farmer, Hotelier, Horse Breaker, Gold Digger
Immigration: 1854
Place: Victoria, Australia
More Findings: Arrived via "Sultana" from UK
Deceased: 28/09/1910
Place: Roma, QLD, Australia
Buried: 28/09/1910
Place: Roma cemetery grave 1459
Alfred chased gold and settled in Chiltern, Victoria where his first wife died along with their new son.
Alfred then married Mary McIntyre and this family travelled in 1874 to Queensland in a covered wagon and Mary bore a child during that very long trip. An infant died on this trip and was buried on roadside. Once they moved to QLD Alfred built a coffin whilst crying in the yard then got on his dray and went back to the child, bought it back to Roma to bury.
Three daughters stayed in Victoria but Emma and Jonathan Harvey followed Emma's parents to Queensland.
End of the 1800s the family gave up dairying and combined wheat growing with grape growing. He grew black wine grapes.
Alfred had a wine shop in Roma near where Brandts is now situated.
He bought to Roma the first Mechanical Grape Crusher which was later sold to Bassetts.
A Chiltern blacksmith was making double farrow ploughs by 1880 for vineyard use and Alfred was the first to introduce the FIRST one to the Roma area
Wine was made by the foot method and he used brandy made from the grape seed, as a preservative. After being fermented in casks the wine was bottled and ready to use after 12 months.
Marketed under the name Dairy Farm. Alf also made apple cider, mede and tended to the farm orchard which included peaches and plum trees. He Also kept bees and made his own honey
Alf was one of the first directors of the Roma Co op Flour mill, which was later burnt down.
This is my 5 generations; great-great-great-grandfather.
Alfred Benjamin Waldron
DOB: 27/2/1825
Place: Stourbridge, England
Baptism: 27/02/1828
Place: Worcestershire, England, UK
Occupation: Merchant, Dairyman, Farmer, Hotelier, Horse Breaker, Gold Digger
Immigration: 1854
Place: Victoria, Australia
More Findings: Arrived via "Sultana" from UK
Deceased: 28/09/1910
Place: Roma, QLD, Australia
Buried: 28/09/1910
Place: Roma cemetery grave 1459
Alfred chased gold and settled in Chiltern, Victoria where his first wife died along with their new son.
Alfred then married Mary McIntyre and this family travelled in 1874 to Queensland in a covered wagon and Mary bore a child during that very long trip. An infant died on this trip and was buried on roadside. Once they moved to QLD Alfred built a coffin whilst crying in the yard then got on his dray and went back to the child, bought it back to Roma to bury.
Three daughters stayed in Victoria but Emma and Jonathan Harvey followed Emma's parents to Queensland.
End of the 1800s the family gave up dairying and combined wheat growing with grape growing. He grew black wine grapes.
Alfred had a wine shop in Roma near where Brandts is now situated.
He bought to Roma the first Mechanical Grape Crusher which was later sold to Bassetts.
A Chiltern blacksmith was making double farrow ploughs by 1880 for vineyard use and Alfred was the first to introduce the FIRST one to the Roma area
Wine was made by the foot method and he used brandy made from the grape seed, as a preservative. After being fermented in casks the wine was bottled and ready to use after 12 months.
Marketed under the name Dairy Farm. Alf also made apple cider, mede and tended to the farm orchard which included peaches and plum trees. He Also kept bees and made his own honey
Alf was one of the first directors of the Roma Co op Flour mill, which was later burnt down.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Police report
This is Jessie Rachel Ann Lightfoot Slatter Nee Thornton- Sister of my Great grandfather George Thornton.
This is an article from the QLD Police Gazette dated 10th January 1931
What I always found fascinating was how in depth the description is.. I had the pleasure of talking to the son of Thomas Maher Snr.
Old Tom Maher junior was happy to tell me all about this robbery and recounted that night and the retrieval of goods. His father promised Jessie it would never go to the police but I guess it did!! Thom Jnr was with his father when they found Jessie and Devereaux. They let them go as they returned what they had taken.
This pair - Jessie Slatter(nee Thornton) and Leslie Devereaux - are my brick wall. There will be more to come on this brick wall. I would love to know what people think of this police report. Have you ever seen a thief so well described in a report before?
This is an article from the QLD Police Gazette dated 10th January 1931
What I always found fascinating was how in depth the description is.. I had the pleasure of talking to the son of Thomas Maher Snr.
Old Tom Maher junior was happy to tell me all about this robbery and recounted that night and the retrieval of goods. His father promised Jessie it would never go to the police but I guess it did!! Thom Jnr was with his father when they found Jessie and Devereaux. They let them go as they returned what they had taken.
This pair - Jessie Slatter(nee Thornton) and Leslie Devereaux - are my brick wall. There will be more to come on this brick wall. I would love to know what people think of this police report. Have you ever seen a thief so well described in a report before?
Special Moment
In 2011, I was contacted by 50up magazine and was asked I would like to feature in the magazine as a Genealogist. Here is the article, I hope you enjoy it.
This is the link to the article if you would like to read the magazine
http://50up.com.au/article/2011/08/reaching-into-the-past/
The Internet has provided new pathways to genealogical data, with censuses dating back to the late 1800’s now available online. But where to start can be the biggest hurdle. 50up spoke to Kylie Pickett about how to go about re-tracing the steps of your very own founding fathers.
A general curiosity about her family led mother of two Kylie Pickett on a journey that uncovered almost 6000 family members, their personal histories and gave her a greater understanding of the intricacies of her own family dynamics.
Having traced her history back to the 1500’s, Kylie has uncovered stories and connections to people across the globe, even some famous links.
Being unable to speak to her grandparents about their lives, Kylie was interested in their history and through some initial research she has discovered information about not only their past, but the lives of those much further afield.
“Family is the best tool,” said Kylie. “They often think things aren’t relevant, they will tell a story that fits into another story. My grandparents didn’t discuss family events with my parents, but I was interested in things like why I look the way I do.
“Then I started doing some research and found a photo from 1890 of my great great great grandmother and could see the family resemblance.
Kann Family
“I found articles that my 90 year old cousin had written in the paper in the 1920’s, army records, marriage certificates. I came across a photo of 5 generation grandparents from the 1800’s. There are always a few skeletons that you come across as well so it is up to you what you include in your tree and what you don’t.”
With the Internet, sites such as ancestory.com and myhistory are great ways to start researching and storing information. You can choose the level of detail you wish to include and branches can be as extensive as you choose.
Some websites cost money so it is important to decide how much you want to dedicate to your search and maximise the free resources available.
“I searched for a free website that would let me keep stories and descriptions of the people I found. ancestory.com is an amazing resource but it can be expensive so I only utilise it sporadically for certain searches,” said Kylie.
“You can do a basic tree with births, deaths and marriages; with some you can customise to include facts and figures and physical descriptions. You can go as in-depth as you want.
“With the free sites you may not be able to publish your family tree so if that is something you want to do then you may want to consider a paid family tree builder.”
“Harry Kann, my great uncle did a family tree by hand, which can be painful to read. He actually travelled to Germany for information on his tree as the resources available now weren’t available then. There are many family trees published in books as well which can be helpful.”
Begin at the beginning
For those who have no idea of their family history or where to start, the local historical societies not only hold a vast amount of information but the volunteers often have a great deal of knowledge in searching for documents and want to assist you to discover your past.
“There are many organisations that you can access such as the state archives, the National Library of Australia, you can get war records from the Australian War Memorial,” said Kylie.
“Local council websites can be of help with family names, property buying and selling and government records. Birth, death and marriage information can be easy to come by, but looking in newspapers for obituaries will give you children’s names, sometimes careers, marriage information as well as all the normal information.
“Finding gravestones can be helpful and newspapers are good because in the old days they published all kinds of stories about families, people heading off to war, local events and pictures – like my five generation grandparents. Electoral enrolments will tell you where people lived and where they moved to.”
Catching up with the past
In doing research you may come across information that might be detrimental to someone. Many families have hidden pasts they want kept hidden which is why it is important to think about why you are creating your family tree and who it might affect.
“You come across some real scallywags with deep dark secrets,” said Kylie. “There is some information I have only told my close relatives who I trust because I don’t want to publish certain stories. You need to check with people before you put anything down in writing or wait until people have passed away before you add it to your tree.
“I have been searching for a family member who disappeared in the night without a trace. Some of my historical family members were chased out of a town overnight and changed their name when they settled in Queensland. That can make information difficult to find because two of the siblings had one surname and the other two had a different surname.
“I was lucky through using message boards online that I found some family members and have since caught up with them. They have stories and information that have helped form parts of the tree. They are often prepared to explain some discrepancies as well as they might have encountered a situation differently.
“We have made some family connections through my research which has meant my mother has met some of her cousins and we have found out we are related to a famous Australian actress. When you use the online family tree builders it tells you if someone else has searched for the same person and puts you in contact with them.
“This can be a great way to add to your family tree as you can often include whole sections of their research.
It takes time
Robert Thornton Lightfoot
It may not be just the family members that you uncover but also a greater understanding of historical times, but beware, researching your family can be very time consuming as if you think about it you could probably find a connection to everyone in the world.
“You could easily be at 100,000 people depending on how much time you wanted to spend doing it. I started just as a hobby but it can take over your life,” said Kylie. “There are days when I realise I’ve been working at it for eight or nine hours. Also other people may not be as curious as you and so probably don’t want to hear about it all the time.
“Some people start and give up after a month, and you have to remember that there is no end to it. There are weddings, births and deaths happening all the time so to keep it accurate you have to be constantly updating it. I really enjoy learning about the past and seeing how far we have come as a society.
“I have details of my ancestors from 1595 in Westminster, England and of course the details of my children born in the 21st century and everything in between.”
Kylie is searching for details about her great aunt Jessie Rachel Ann Lightfoot Thornton born 18thOctober 1898, who was married to Francis Slatter from Allora, Queensland.
If anyone has information about Jessie please contact Kylie at kyliefamilytree@hotmail.com
This is the link to the article if you would like to read the magazine
http://50up.com.au/article/2011/08/reaching-into-the-past/
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
My Family Tree
A few years ago I started to realise that I am not invincible and that someday I won't be here. This has led me to start the unravelling of the family tree. I figure that this is the best legacy for my children, grand children, nieces, nephews, siblings and all of those in between.
Although they do not see it now, I like to think that when they are my age or older they will truly appreciate knowing their heritage and where we came from. The struggles, joys and heartbreaks that their ancestors endured to get us where we are now.
However, I dare say I have made it rather hard for myself as I am not only doing my families tree but my husbands family tree as well. His family have proven rather simple so far as he still has grandparents alive and some members of the family already have done some aspects of his tree. My family, well that's a different story. My grandparents have all passed. I rely on My great uncle Harry Kann who researched some of the family tree before he passed away, I rely on my extended family members I have met and tracked down. I have a great uncle alive who has a wonderful mind and can tell me a lot about his lineage.
I also rely on family stories to piece by piece uncover each member of the family. I dare say a big road trip may be on the cards..
Well I am enjoying it all none the less. Discovering where you come from really helps you to understand why you are the person you are and how you got here.
Although they do not see it now, I like to think that when they are my age or older they will truly appreciate knowing their heritage and where we came from. The struggles, joys and heartbreaks that their ancestors endured to get us where we are now.
However, I dare say I have made it rather hard for myself as I am not only doing my families tree but my husbands family tree as well. His family have proven rather simple so far as he still has grandparents alive and some members of the family already have done some aspects of his tree. My family, well that's a different story. My grandparents have all passed. I rely on My great uncle Harry Kann who researched some of the family tree before he passed away, I rely on my extended family members I have met and tracked down. I have a great uncle alive who has a wonderful mind and can tell me a lot about his lineage.
I also rely on family stories to piece by piece uncover each member of the family. I dare say a big road trip may be on the cards..
Well I am enjoying it all none the less. Discovering where you come from really helps you to understand why you are the person you are and how you got here.
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