gathering dust

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 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!

One of the things I have been using Trove for is to find out more about places that are mentioned to me by various family members or that come up in the course of research. One such place is Cowra Experimental Farm. According to Nana (dad's mum) her husband, Walter Thomas Muffett ( 9/4/1916-13/3/1958) , had spent three years at Cowra Experimental Farm before they married. The photograph below was taken there. Cowra Experimental Farm sometime between 1934 &1937 - My grandfather, W. T. Muffett on far right. I knew vaguely, that an experimental farm is a sort of cross between an agricultural college, a working property and a science lab, from Trove I was able to find newspaper articles (such as the one below) on it's opening in 1905, and on its continued successes over the next 50 odd years at agricultural shows, irrigation improvements and in developing new hybrids of wheat. Experimental farms have played an important role in the development of Australian agriculture...

One of the troubles I have had in researching my family tree is the reticence of one side of the family in talking about the past. Whereas one side is happy to tell you anything and take great delight in all manner of scandals and anecdotes, the other is tight lipped and 'the past is the past' and best not brought up. So tracing the family tree without asking the family questions, challenging but as I am finding out, doable. If that is, you have some place to start. In my case it was  Trove . That sexy little knowledge tool, is quite a minx ;) I started with a surname. On typing that into Trove and narrowing the results to South Australian Newspapers, I now had a list of lots of people in that locality with that surname. Browsing through I spotted a familiar one. A VERY familiar one. Brilliant! In the family notices section of the Adelaide Advertiser, the family had placed birthday announcements. This you see, gave me an address and a timeframe. Family Notices. (1...