Lilian's Tree

 My April research has been on my husband's Paternal side, focusing on Edith Pearl Amelia Millar's line. It goes like this; Hubby, Patrick MAGILL, Edith Pearl Amelia MILLAR, (her maternal line goes back to John NICHOLS, Scarborough,   First Fleet), Ralph MILLAR,   and his parents James MILLAR   and Marion BROWN.    Ralph and his wife, Amelia Jane HUGHES  had six children; Marion b 1880, Henry b 1882,  Florence b 1884, Edith b 1885, Ruby b 1889 and Constance b 1892. I have search for and found marriages and on some lines children for all of the six children.  While researching Ralph I made and interesting discovery about his parents, James and Marion. (It pays to re-read documents.) Their marriage has James listed as Free and Marion as Bond. Using their death certificates I worked out the possible years of arrival and looking a several data bases found that they were both convicts. James arrived in 1828 on the Speke. Marion and her sister Caroline arrived in 1833 on the Numa. T

As I look towards a 'big' birthday,  Judy G Russell  in her blog post, The passing of time , got me thinking about my six closest ancestors and how old they were when they died. 1998 was the first time I passed the age of  my paternal grandmother, Louisa Abberton, nee Nicolls. Louisa died in childbirth, not uncommon for the time, sadly the baby boy also died. 2002 was the next time and it was my maternal grandmother Evelyn Galbraith nee Jasper. Evelyn had delivered her 10th child when she succumbed to a pre-existing illness. The baby boy lived. 2003 and it was my paternal grandfather Thomas Abberton.   TB claimed his life, again not that uncommon, he left seven children orphaned. 2017 was the year I passed my dad,   Matthew Abberton.  That leaves just two, my maternal grandfather   Arthur Galbraith he was 81yrs and 41 days when he passed. Still a long way off. Then my mum, Lilian Abberton, nee Galbraith, she was 95yrs and 228 days. Aiming to beat this BUT one of her sisters is

 On  Sunday, I spent three lovely hours wandering Rookwood Cemetery, with 15 other members of the Society of Australian Genealogists and Geoff, who belongs to the Friends of Rookwood  and the Society as well. Geoff is a font of knowledge and showed us the graves of such notables as, John and James Toohey, who started Tooheys Brewery in 1869. W.C Penfold, stationers, and next to him, John Fairfax, the newspaper family. David Scott Mitchell, of the Mitchell Library in Sydney. The grave of Bridget Catherine Jensen is marked by this ornate headstone. I have found many In Memoriam notices by searching Trove, but the family its self are proving interesting to find. (More on what I find, later. I'm having fun.) Now when I see a headstone with an interesting note on it, like the one below, I have to search for what happened. Joseph Leeds death was a tragic accident. Joseph was a prominent businessman, with his offices in Camden House 418 George Street, Sydney. (This is between what is nor

 As a genealogist I can leave mysteries alone, a mention of something has me looking for information, to find out more and well with this 'connection,' I couldn't leave it alone. With my two previous posts,  Nicolls/Nicholls   and  Connection  I thought I had it sorted, well no. Looking at Christina Nicolls  and her age had me thinking that Richard Henry Daly,   couldn't be her son, could he? I did a search on Ancestry for Richard and found three different years of birth, 1920, 1924 and 1926.  Given that Christina was born in 1875 (10273/1875), she would have been 45, 49 or 51 years old when Richard was born.   While it was a push, she could have had Richard in 1920, but searching didn't give me any births of a Richard to a Christina in 1920, using the New South Wales, Birth Death and marriages site, (NSW BDM). I then got Christina's death certificate, (03867/1956) and with careful checking found all the children, listed, except Daisy, (this is on going). There

  In my two previous posts, Sorting out Henrys and Ann(e)s and My Interesting Nicolls/Nicholls Line , I’ve talked about Henry and his first wife Elizabeth. This post will expand them some more. In the original post I mention that on Henry’s death certificate, (4257/1866) it states 6 males and 2 females living. Having added Henry George to the tree, I now have 5 males and 1 female, living. One male and one female from his second marriage, the others from the first marriage. Searching has given me a possible male, born 1840 and a female, born 1854 but I’m still looking for the full details and will leave them alone. Adding Henry George to the tree, gave me a new line to follow, to expand what I already knew. I had found seven children, this now expanded to 12, with 11 being alive when he died in 1912, a son pre-deceased him. So, Henry and Anne, having married in 1863 (1900/1863), have Sarah Ann b1864, William Joseph b 1866, Henry George b 1868, d 1880, Elizabeth Jane b 1871, Mar

 Back in January 2021, as we were settling into another year of Covid 19, I did a post on the confusion between two sets of Henry and Ann Nicolls/Nicholls. You can read about that here, as it will help with what is to come,  Soring out Henrys and Ann(e)s Fast forward to February 2024 and RootsTech, or more specifically Relatives at RootsTech.This is a fun thing that FamilySearch does, using your family tree and others, to find connections. You do have to have a FamilySearch account and have some form of a tree as well. Over the years that Relatives at RootsTech has been going I've always   had all   of my matches on my maternal side. Imagine my delight when I discovered that of my 96 ancestors, 95 were maternal and one was paternal.   Now I will say that my top matches on  maternal side are known to me, so they don't  have me rushing to do more research. The suggested match was a 2nd cousin twice removed, okay close but not  real close. She had a tree and both of us went back t

 As I mentioned in my  Previous Post  I've been pruning ancestors. This month is it the Cameron branch. On my tree I have Ann Cameron, baptised 21 October 1827, to Alexander Cameron (1799-1879) and Ann Lamond (c1799-1885), or so I thought.  Alexander did marry Ann Lamond but AFTER, Anne b 1827 was born.  Now there is nothing wrong with that except Ann L ISN'T Ann C's mother.  READ ALL THE INFORMATION ON OUR DOCUMENTS. I'll get back to the marriage, after this. On Anne C's death certificate* NO parents are listed, likewise on her marriage certificate*. I do have her baptismal  certificate* and it states that Alexander Cameron had is daughter Ann baptised on 21 October 1827, in the Parish of Lochbroom. (No mothers were listed on Old Parochial Registers. The indexes on Scotland's People are being updated to include the mother's name.) Searching Scotland's People I find four other children for Alexander from 1822 to 1830, all in Lochbroom BUT the mother is l

 Back in 2021, I wrote a post about a challenge Fiona Brooker set us, you can read about it here.  Challenge Well this year I'm selecting a family a month to research in depth and correct any mistakes. WELL... I've been pruning some people who weren't who I thought they were and it's only just March! It pays to really look at the information on certificates, document etc. and the verify what they say.  More later.

  Last week Jill Ball did a guest post for the Genealogical Society of Queensland, called An ABC Journey Through Books, you can read it here,  Books   I have read or used some of the books Jill mentioned and recommend them to you.  I liked the idea, so have done my own, with a twist with some of the letters. A to Z Book List, with a Genealogy Theme.                                                     A – Atlases, for the many places we study, i.e. England, Germany, Ireland. B – Born in the English Colony of New South Wales by Dr Craig James Smee. Seven books covering the time period from 1788 to 1830, with births, deaths and marriages. C – City of Light by Ian R Lobsey. About Tamworth in New South Wales. D – Dictionaries. I have many from medical, Latin, Law, Old trades, titles & occupations, Surnames, first names, place names. I find them invaluable. E – Evidenced Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills. Citing sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace. Now in its 4 th edition.

 Just a short post to say that I am in the process of developing a new talk, on the City of Sydney Archives. This site is very interesting and I would love to share the details with your society. I can do in person or via Zoom.

 I went looking for some family graves, at Rookwood Cemetery, this morning and as one does, I found an interesting one and have done some research on this poor person.        George HALSE, died 8 September 1900. George was injured in an explosion on Spectacle Island, in the ordnance depot.. Now I hadn't heard about this island, so that was my first search, using Google Maps. Spectacle Island is situated in Sydney Harbour, near Cockatoo Island.  You can read about the island here,  Spectacle Island But I was more concerned about George and onto Trove I went and the articles paint a gruesome picture. This article tells what happened.  Daily Telegraph, Monday 10 September 1900, Page 6. This article is the inquest. Evening News, Tuesday 11 September 1900, Page 4. George is buried in the Royal Navy Section, Rookwood, DD_Zone B/#/568, far from is birth place in England.

  I my previous blog post, Theory , I speculated that the parents of Margaret Kidston NICOL, were John NICOL and Janet GRAY. Well… The spelling of NICOL has been consistent in the documents I have found but some trees and documents have had the spelling NICHOL. I search using both spellings.   Research Question. Who are the parents of Margaret Kidston NICOL born 1820? What I found. Well scrap the year of birth. I really should stick to what is in front of me and really review the documents. Like: ALL the census records, on Scotland’s People, from 1851 through to 1891 have Margaret’s place of birth as being Gargunnock, Stirlingshire, with her age range being from 36 in 1851 to 76 in 1891. Making a year of birth being 1816. Her 1893 death certificate has her age as 79, and no place of birth. Making the year of birth as 1816.   I found a birth for Margaret NICHOL, daughter of John NICHOL and Margaret ROBERTSON in 1816 in Stirling. On Margaret’s marriage certificat

  https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/research-guides/forenames#Forenames%20and%20naming%20patterns   The spelling of NICOL has been consistent in the documents I have found but some trees have had the spelling NICHOL. I search using both spellings.   Research Question. Who are the parents of Margaret Kidston NICOL born 1820?   Information. 1)    Death Certificate: Statutory Deaths, 578/00 0179, parents given as William NICOL and Jane HARGRAVES. 2)    The Morrison Family Tree on Ancestry by lbowman222, (a distant cousin), has the parents as Henry NICHOL and Catherine BRINGING. Theory. Margaret’s parents are John NICOL and Janet GRAY. Working it out. 1)    Using Scotland’s People, I searched for the marriage of William NICOL and Jane HARGRAVES in a 15-year period from 1805 to 1820, there were no results. I then searched for the birth of Margaret, with the above parents, using the same timeframe, there were no results. 2)    Using Scotland’s People, I

 Disclaimer. I haven't looked into this, these are just my thoughts. Chatting to a friend, a fellow Genealogist, we were discussing our ancestors ages, when I pondered this question. Did our Ancestors actually celebrate their birthday? We all have Ancestors that changed their ages, frequently. Changed the date, month and place of their birth, and we go off on tangents looking for the records in a new place. BUT    What if they really didn't know the full details of their birth? While the parents might have had them baptised, registered the birth, would they have kept a paper copy of such documents? Families might have had the Family Bible, with such information but what if they were so poor that they didn't?  Think of this, as children our parents told us it was our birthday, we didn't have the proof, until we needed it later. Would our Ancestors have done the same thing? Some of us have Ancestors that could neither read or write, so any documents with such details coul

 2023 was a good year. Our health remained good and we did a big road trip in May, (now planning 2024's). I also returned to church and joined a Growth Group. Love being back. I've read, attended talks, classes, lunches, did genealogy research, did heaps of reading, did some sewing and knitting and managed to keep a journal for the whole year. Surprised! What will 2024 bring? I've a new journal to start, a trip away with one of our granddaughters, lunches and classes booked. We are planning our next road trip. I've started a Photo a Day, on Facebook, will see how I go. No theme just what catches my eye.  Jill Ball posted a link to this blog  Jennifer's Best Bookish Blog,  Bookish Blog  and it's given me some ideas for my 2024 reading. I'm going to use  StoryGraph   to record my reading for 2024. GoodReads will still get used but I thought I'd try something different and my granddaughter suggested this one. For 2024 I've made each month a different re