It has been some time between posts!

I had such great intentions to keep my blog updated at least monthly in 2019 but life unfortunately got busy and time started to slip away from me yet again. This year in particular seems to be going by at an accelerated pace!

My daughter has finished her maternity leave recently and returned to full time work, so I have restarted looking after my grandchildren while their parents are at work again. I have been loving every minute of my time with them and feel truly blessed to get to be a part of their lives in this way. The four of them are a constant source of wonder, enjoyment and delight and I love them all beyond measure!

So with my weekdays rather full now, my research and blog are more of a weekend thing for me and I have been a little sidetracked with that lately. My son in law got his Ancestry DNA test done a couple of months ago and I found it fascinating to match up the rough tree I had done for him and the results he got back from his test. I actually happy danced that my hunches and research were right! It spurred me on to delve deeper into his tree and of course resulted in my getting completely sidetracked from my other research and this blog.

I have always been curious about the DNA side of genealogy (after all it was my sons genetic testing with regards to his autism and questions they asked about our family history that got me into genealogy in the first place) but seeing my son in laws results has definitely deepened my interest in it. I was holding back from doing anything in this area prior to this as there are a few possible skeletons that may be revealed in some of my branches and some elderly relatives would not be best pleased with me if I uncover any more of them!

I am currently thinking that the benefits may outweigh the drawbacks though; the potential to knock down some brick walls and uncover some truths is extremely appealing! I will ponder over it for a bit longer and let you know what I decide in a future post.

Comments

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 a...

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 fact...

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 ...

Tracing Family Branches

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