gathering dust

The lovely Jill over at Geniaus has posted a meme/questionaire for  National Family History Month and I though I'd play along, so here goes: What are the titles and URLs of your genealogy blog/s?  My blog is titled 'gathering dust'  which I thought that was rather appropriate given my tendency to have a burst of activity over a short period of time and then letting things languish as I get distracted by more pressing matters. That, and if you have ever met any of my family you will note the genetic propensity for ignoring the housework (especially dusting). The URL is  www.missmuffett.blogspot.com  chosen out of fondness for my last name, I wasn't always enamored of it given the amount of spider jokes I withstood as a child but it is one of those ones that grows on you as you get older. Do you have a wonderful "Cousin Bait" blog story? A link to a previous blog post might answer this question.   You know I probably do but haven't blogged it. I...

is not something I am very good at, and given my own atrocious handwriting you think I would be. Yesterday I turned to twitter to help me make out a place name on a board's immigrant list for the Commodore Perry  1855 - it was Heblos for those interested - today I am wondering if anyone can help me decipher the following "complaints" by Johan Winter and John Boss from the same voyage. Source: Commodore Perry, Persons on Bounty ships to Sydney, Newcastle Moreton Bay, 1848-66, NSW Archives Kit, CGS 5317, microfilm 2469, 4/4946 I'm flummoxed.

My Great (x4) grandfather, Walter Le Pelley (c.1840-?), the youngest child of Ernest Le Pelley (1801-1849) the 16th Seigneur of Sark , migrated to South Australia presumably due to the reversal of fortune encountered by the family. He married Elizabeth Gunther, the daughter of John & Mary Ann Rendall in 1863, and the couple had two children: Louisa Elizabeth (1864-1941) and Frances (Fanny) Amelia (1866-1885). In April 1869, Walter makes his first appearance as 'missing.' Going missing of course, is a curious thing. I doubt Walter himself considered himself missing, that is, if he wasn't dead. But he was un-contactable and people rather wanted to contact him. Missing Friends. (1869, April 21). The South Australian Police Gazette (Adelaide, SA.), p. 55 Elizabeth died in childbirth later that year,  and it is rather ambiguous as to whether he had returned by then or not. In any case two years later, a warrant was issued for his desertion of his children. Deser...

Being on uni break and suffering from brain fog inducing sinusitis, I've spent the past couple of days meandering through my family tree research and following whatever tangents caught my interest. A pleasant morning was had searching for and reading about early German immigration to the Hunter Valley and it is that subject that lead me to this little drama. "Maitland Quarter Sessions."  Evening News  (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931) 11 Jun 1884: 4. Web. 18 Jun 2013 < http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107266484 > John Phillip Gail (shooting with intent) John Phillip Gail was the second husband of my 3x Great Grandmother Christiana Sophia Boss (nee Rusch) - one of the aforementioned German immigrants - and the couple is already a little bit scandalous having had at least one child out of wedlock 2 years after Christiana was widowed, and unconfirmed family gossip indicating that John may have been married at the time, so 'shooting with intent' was ...

I have been rather remiss of late when it comes to Trove Tuesday and blog posting in general as my own research has been sidelined in favour of uni assignments and research tasks for others, but today's task has reminded me once again of the many ways in which I utilise Trove for things outside family history. Today I am creating content and resources for a website that forms an assessable component of CSG4112 . As part of a group I have been working on creating an e-learning website on the study Western Australian History (the website could have been on any e-learning type activity, our group just ended up being a bunch of history nerds and as the only non-Sandgroper I was outvoted when it came to the specific focus) so not only have I been learning a lot about Western Australian history, I have been researching and writing articles on available resources, and Trove cannot be overlooked. I think when I am done with the article on Western Australian Newspapers available via Tro...

The common ancestor is an idea with a long history, and if you have been around the internet or genealogy circles anytime since the late 1990s, the concept that westerners are all descended from Charlemagne is probably something you have come across. This concept originates in Darwinian Evolutionary theory and is pretty well supported by mathematical models, genetics (well mitrochrondial DNA), computer modelling and all kinds of other neat science-y stuff. ( Mark Humphrys  gives the most complete overview, it's pretty fascinating) As a scientific concept I totally get it. Go back far enough and everyone on the planet right now has a common ancestor - Every one (in theory) has 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 ggrandparents and so on until you have more potential ancestors than existed on the planet at that time. I was still pretty skeptical when my grandmother showed me her family tree which included Robert the Bruce. Skeptical to the point where I found copies of Rob...

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