gathering dust

I was rather amused to come across this series of correspondence within the Chronicle  and   The Advertiser    and even more amused to find two of my maternal grandmothers branches claiming ownership of this title, one on her mother's side and one on her father's. A nice little anecdote to share with the cousins. THE FIRST BORN, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MALE. (1901, June 12).  The Advertiser  (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931), p. 6. Retrieved February 12, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4842932 THE FIRSTBORN SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MALE. (1901, June 15).  The Advertiser  (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931), p. 11. Retrieved February 12, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4843307  The second letter appeared also in in the June 22nd edition of the Chronicle. You can find all the #TroveTuesday posts over at  Branches, Leaves & Pollen  or search the hashtag on twitter  

I mentioned yesterday my desire to map out my family history in some way and to this end, Trove has been a fabulous resource. I've previously used a family notice found in Trove to begin a search of electoral roles and confirm some names , and again the family notices of Trove'd newspapers have turned up some wonderful gems. "Family Notices."  The Advertiser  (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931) 25 Oct 1902: 6. Web. 5 Feb 2013 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4891551> According to this, at the turn of the century, my great (x3) grandparents, Charlotte and Edward Black were living on Pulsford Road in Prospect, South Australia. According to Google Street View, there are still some delightful houses with period features along Pulsford Road. I wonder which one was the Black's! You can find all the #TroveTuesday posts over at  Branches, Leaves & Pollen  or search the hashtag on twitter.

I have a bit of a weakness for maps, and lately I have been contemplating how to plot some of the never ending list of place names that appear in the course of digging around in genealogy and family stories. I know there is software out there intended to do this but I'm thinking more of a DIY approach using Google Maps in a similar way to  HistoryPin  (If you haven't checked out HistoryPin  before you really should). The problem now is, where to start!

I headed to my parents for the Australia day long weekend, as not only was it Australia Day but brother #2 turned 40 on the 25th and an appropriate bash had been organised to celebrate. I'll admit it, he is and always had been my favourite brother. Sorry brother's #1 & #3, it's not like you didn't know this anyway. Brothers, #1, #2 with me on shoulders, and #3 In any case, 40 is a big birthday and sharing the love of history and family history that both Dad & I have, we (that should really be I, as I pretty much steam-rolled over Mum & Dad to get my way) I decided that it would be a nice thing to give my brother copies of the family photos. That is, all the family photos we could find. Dad and I spent the 25th pulling the house apart and spent the better part of the evening scanning as many as possible. The portraits of our grandfather and two of our great-uncles were printed and framed as the main present and an CD included of all the rest. Dad ha...