Tracing Family Branches

I have been dealing with an interesting issue lately involving my husbands grandfathers family tree. Working with details I had been given about his life I was happily researching what I believed to be his family.  I had his birth certificate so I was working from a primary source and was steadily adding facts, dates, people and places and quite happy with the results for a while. I had been told that he spent a good part of his childhood in Glasgow and that he had served in the First World War and had been a Prisoner of War.  Then in the 1920's he took up a job as a Prison Warder in Malaya.  He became engaged and in 1928 married Violet Helen Marguerite Murray in Singapore.  The stories were that the marriage was greatly affected by the death of their oldest son and broke down although they didn't divorce.  When Singapore fell in 1942 he was working as a Prison Officer at Changi and while he got his wife and son Ronald on a boat to England he remained behind. ...

My Trove Tuesday article for today involves my Great Grandfather John Patrick Stevens and his stolen horse.  Source: GUNDAGAI POLICE COURT. (1907, March 19). The Gundagai Times and Tumut, Adelong and Murrumbidgee District Advertiser (NSW : 1868 - 1931), p. 2.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127409118 Transcription: GUNDAGAI POLICE COURT. MONDAY, MARCH 18. Before Mr. Jamieson, P.M. STOLEN HORSE. John Patrick Stevens made application for the restoration of a horse, then in the possession of the police, such horse being supposed to have been stolen, and sold to John Keihone.  Mr. Fraser for Stevens.  Mr. Weekes watched the case in the interests of John Keihone, who held a receipt for having purchased the horse from a man named Gordon. John Patrick Stevens, laborer, residing at Gobarralong, deposed : The information is mine.  The horse is a dark bay, branded No. 2 on the near shoulder.  He purchased the horse from ...

This photograph is of my Grandfather Roy Thomas Stevens, my Grandmother Glennie 'Marie' Stevens (nee Battye) and four of my Grandfathers siblings. Back row from left: Roy Thomas Stevens, Robert Keith 'Bob' Stevens & John Raymond 'Ray' Stevens Front row from left: Glennie Marie 'Marie' Stevens (nee Battye) , Eunice Mary Price (nee Stevens) & Ada Josephine 'Josie'     McDonnell (nee Stevens)

A while back I posted about my husband's Great Grandfather James Harvey Murray (see here ) and how I was trying to confirm that his wife Helen was the daughter of Baron Raimund Von Stillfried-Rathenitz and his Japanese partner.  My research proved to be correct and Helen was indeed the daughter of Baron Raimund Von Stillfried-Rathenitz and Nishiyama Haru.  Helen and her two sisters Mary and Anna were left in a convent school in Singapore in 1883, prior to the Baron returning to Europe from Japan permanently.  I have found newspaper articles, shipping records and other records with regards to Helen and family and have shared this with other researchers and hope to find more in the future. One record of interest that I intend to follow up is here . An interesting family story that I have been told is that after the end of the second World War when Helen and her daughter Dorothy wanted to go to England to meet up with surviving family members at Barrow in Fur...

Well it has been some time since my last post as life has been rather hectic of late and my research has taken a back seat as a result.  Today I would like to acknowledge the lives of Robert Guymer and his wife Susan (nee Raison) who are my 5 x Great Grandparents.  I am descended from them through their son David but as a result of my research I have also found out that mine is not the only extended family connection to them.  My son in law is also one of their direct descendants through another of their children, namely their son Robert.  Thus making them my Grandchildren's 7 x Great Grandparents through my family line and also their 6 x Great Grandparents through my son in laws family line.  I found the family connection when I started tracing my son in laws trees, not suspecting that there would be any crossovers, but I have found over time that Australian trees can be more tangled than people expect and that you can be distantly related to people you know an...

We have had a wonderful month with the arrival of our first Grandson, Samuel Alexander Michael Stuart.  Young Samuel was a little bit eager to experience the world and arrived five weeks early.  He is tiny, but healthy and is already home with his family.   Our beautiful Grandchildren, Grace and Samuel Stuart

Today's snippet mentions my Great Great Aunt Mary Donnelly and her purchase of a dwelling and shop in Lewis Street, Mudgee in 1909. Source: PROPERTY SALE. (1909, September 2). Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative (NSW : 1890 - 1954), p. 11. Retrieved February 7, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article157680658 Transcript: PROPERTY SALE. Messrs. H. F. A. Wells and Co. report having sold on account of Mr. John Welby, 120 acres of conditionally purchased land at Stoney Creek Post Office and buildings, to Mr. John Ellis, of Redbank.  Also shop and dwelling in Lewis Street to Miss Mary Donnelly for £200.  Allotment fronting goods station, Mudgee, to Mr. Alexander Nealy, for £31 ; allotment fronting goods station, for £15, to Mr. Tubbenhaur ; farm at Stoney Creek, 160 acres freehold c.p., to Mrs. Maria Ellis, for £350 ; land and buildings at West End, Mudgee, to Miss Norberry, at a satisfactory price, and several farms and...

Well you could definitely say that this year has got away to a flying start ahead of me, with me playing a poor game of catch up! My first post for 2015 involves my Great Great Grandmother Mary Donnelly.  This advertisement from 1912 has her putting the family farm up for lease as her husband had died and she and her daughter had moved into Mudgee. Source: Advertising. (1912, April 11). Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative (NSW : 1890 - 1954), p. 18. Retrieved February 6, 2015, from  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article157640288