Knowing our family history

Back in the 1990's our son was sent for genetic testing with regards to his Autism. Sitting in the specialists office my husband and I realised how little we knew about our family history. As far as we knew back then, my husband was a mix of Dutch Indonesian, Portuguese, Japanese, Austrian and Scottish ancestry while I believed my family were predominately Irish with some Scottish on my mother's side. The specialist actually commented that I had a face like a road map of Ireland!
To us our family trees were tiny saplings with a couple of branches and questionable root systems. I could tell you that one of my Great Great Grandmothers was almost 105 when she died in the 1970's, that a Great Great Grandfather was a hero during the Gundagai floods and found a major gold mine but I couldn't tell you their names or any other details about them. My husband's family was even more of a mystery! The Second World War, civil unrest, death, divorce and discord had all impacted on his family and some of his Grandparents details were all that we knew. We both left the meeting determined to find out more, we would get in touch with family and sort it out in no time at all!
That was the beginning of my journey to know my family history. Today the journey continues and it has become a passion and lifelong research project for me now.

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The Kendall Children.

I started this post a while ago and was going to finally finish and post it yesterday however our four grandchildren came over and I got sidetracked. Our grandchildren range in age now from six down to one; they are so full of life (each of them lights up a room when they enter it) and we feel extremely blessed to have them in our lives. After spending the afternoon researching this post, their arrival made this tragedy even more poignant for me and so I appreciated their company even more than usual and hugged them a bit tighter too! This morning I woke up to a cold, wet and windy Wagga day and the thought of three little girls out in August weather like this, in light weight dresses with no shoes or jumpers impacted on me even more. Those poor babies! One of the girls was found still clasping her doll that she had carried with her over the whole tragic journey. When my husband and I were looking around the Wagga Wagga Monumental Cemetery some time ago we came across a very sad he

My First Fleet Connection - Mary Turner (aka Mary Wilkes/Wilks)

My 5th Great Grandmother Mary Turner (also known as Mary Wilks/Wilkes) is my earliest known and documented Australian relative. She was tried at Worcester on 5th March 1785 and sentenced to seven years. Mary arrived on the ship Lady Penrhyn in 1788. It seems the 5th of March was not an auspicious trial date for Mary in 1785 or later in 1789! On the 5th March 1789 she was tried for stealing six cabbages from the garden of William Parr, she was found guilty and sentenced to 50 lashes. Later in March 1789 she also was in trouble for her testimony in the trial of Royal Marines accused of stealing from the government stores (six of them were found guilty and executed) in which it was believed by some that she had perjured herself. Mary was sent to Norfolk Island in 1790 on board the ship Sirius . Apparently she stayed on Norfolk Island until 1793 when she returned to Port Jackson on board the ship Kitty . Her de facto relationship with David Batty (a Third Fleet convict who

Time for a happy dance! Well kind of .....poor Catherine!

Brickwall knocked down at last! Catherine Rhall was murdered by her partner James Baker Worldon on the 14th February 1855 at Beechworth. The Trove articles do involve my 4th Great Grandparents James Baker Worldon and Catherine Rhall! I guess the family tree book will need updating now ;) I looked up the following record from the Public Record of Victoria and bingo the details match my ancestors records. Catherine Rhall's fate is now known at last, she was murdered by her partner and he was only sentenced to two years imprisonment for it and by the look of it was released early in 1856! I also found out he used the alias Milbank, which will give me new avenues for future research. Public Record Office of Victoria Series title: Central Register of Male Prisoners Sub-Item title: Worldon, James; (Milbank); (Jas Baker Worldon): No. 2265 Sub-Item number: Page 199 Date range: 1854 Public access: Open Format: Digital Source: Public Record Office Of Victoria.

Tracing Family Branches

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