Lilian's Tree

 I love searching through all different types of records. Type in a name and see what pops up. Well... The other week, searching through the National Archives site, I entered Grandpops name and their was his application to enlist in World War 1.  As he was a married man, with three children I was surprised that his service hadn't been mentioned, before. Today I received an email with a link to the documents and what a surprise. He tried to enlist twice, the first time on 12 January 1916 and the second time on 10 July 1917. He was knocked back both times and the reasons given were alcohol (1916) and (1917) haemorrhoids and physique below standard. Interesting but sad at the same time. I wonder how he felt.

Leslie John Abberton  Born 1898 to Thomas and Louisa Abberton (nee Nicolls). He was their fifth child and forth son. Leslie enlisted on 28 February 1917, following two of his older brothers into the service. He served in the Middle East with the 2nd Light Horse Machine Gun Squadron. Leslie died of wounds on the 30 November 1917 and is buried at the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt. His name is listed on panel 180 in the Commemorative Area of the Australian War Memorial.                                 Thank you, Uncle Les for you sacrifice. Lest We Forget.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young. Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted, They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them. These two stanzas are part of the  poem "For the Fallen" by Laurence Binyon.

http://www.army.gov.au/Our-history/Traditions/   Discovered this page, looking for something else. It explains the Traditions of the Army. Seem very fitting. Lest We Forget.

I'm still very new to the world of DNA but I did enter my results on to the GEDmatch site and have made a distant connection. Well he found me. We are very, something like 6 generations ago, related. That does take it back overseas, somewhere. We will both have to do some research on it. The person I though might be related, isn't but we do share a surname, in the ancestors. Again more digging. So while I was in the mode for DNA(ing) I did a one-to-many search and have found a closer match, only 4.5 generations back. I'm now working up the courage to contact him to see if there is a solid connection. Must re-read Kerry Farmer's book, DNA for genealogists, from Unlock the Past. (Gould Genealogy are the supplier). Bye for now, Lilian

Have you ever found an abbreviation and wondered what it means? The link, below has a good document, (13 pages), of abbreviations. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rigenweb/abbrev.html While it is Roots Web and Ancestry, you can access it for free. Bye for now, Lilian

A “brush with the law”, listed Sue,  from my writing group, now why would I want to do that topic, my family were saints! Well that is until I started reading the New South Wales Police Gazettes. First there was great-grandfather, Thomas Abberton, posting a £5 reward for the return of his stolen horse, that’s not bad. But wait there   more, and I was only searching the Abberton side. Next was Uncle Fred, theft, assault and the interesting one, carrying   firearms on Sunday. Looking deeper into the gazettes I found that he was caught carrying the firearms, two breach-loading guns and a repeater rifle, value £14 7s, after having broken into a shop and stealing them. He pleaded guilty to larceny and was sentenced to 18 months hard labour.   Well he was only an uncle. Oh, look, Thomas Abberton! What has great-granddad done? Opps! It isn’t him but my grandfather, also Thomas and the charge desertion. The year 1904. So who did he desert and why? His wife, Louisa, had died in 1903,

Sixty-six years ago on Saturday 16 April 1949, Edna May Sigrist and Patrick James Hunter Magill were married.  Both had served their country in World War 11, Dad in the Army, in New Guinea and Mum in the Air force, in Australia. Mum had a younger sister and Dad was one of 10. Sadly we have lost them both but they had 57 years together.

Jeni and I have had a wonderful day, meeting interesting people and catching up with those we know. Our table was between Joy and Allan Murrin and Laurie and Lorraine Turtle, both are transcription agents and enjoyed talking to them. Joy watched the video of my TV spot. Gail, from NSW State Records, Cassie Mercer, from Inside History, Teapot Genealogy, Fellowship of First Fleeters and Carol Baxter, author were just some of the people I caught up with. We had some nibbles but people are under the impression that we only deal with families from Bankstown. Might have to write a piece for the Torch newspaper and Australian Family Tree Connections, to see if we can change that. Our handouts and chocolates went down well! Tired but it was a good day. Plans for doing our own next year have been discussed on the drive home. Bye for now, Lilian.

10.25and the fair is underway. While the weather is undecided as to what it is going to do, there is a good turnout. Jeni and I were setup by 8.15 and it is good to catch up with genealogy friends. More later, Lilian

Today Sue had organised Jeffery Madsen to give a talk on, Creating Maps in Family Stories. While I haven't used maps in stories, they are something I use frequently.  He explained what a map was, why we would use a map and what is the map showing the reader.  Jeffery also explained that by using different types of maps, the reader is able to see the location of a particular place. Sources of maps, copyright and attribution were also covered. We were then given a lesson in how to put maps into our word document. How to manipulate them and how to organise the text. Something for me to play with. It was a very useful and informative talk, from a gentleman, who loves maps. Bye, Lilian

Back in 2013 I decided to have my DNA done, to see where I came from. I used Family Tree DNA and waited for the results and I was disappointed. My origins were exactly where I had worked out my ancestors came from, 100% European. I have now joined an Irish Facebook page and think that I may have made contact with a very distant cousin. She has had her DNA done and has it uploaded to Gedmatch. I am now trying to figure out how I can get my results on the same site, to compare. Will keep you posted as to how I go. This is going to be very interesting. Bye for now, Lilian.

Bliss, my darling husband has a flex day, so we have a five day long weekend, back to reality tomorrow.  I did manage to get the three things I wanted to do, done.  I also joined Pinterest and have been playing with that, browsed several different websites that I hadn't looked at for awhile. Meeting night, tonight for the Bankstown Family History Group and I'm presenting a workshop on TROVE. Should be a good night. Bye for now, Lilian

http://www.britishsurnames.co.uk/  Below is a cut and paste from their site as they explain it better than I. Welcome to the British Surnames website. Here, you can find information on similar surnames, most common surnames, surname distribution maps as well as surname meanings and etymologies As the name suggests, this site primarily lists surnames commonly found in Britain, but many of these are found in other parts of the world as well - so even if you're not British, your name could well be in here! I find it a very interesting site. Bye for now, Lilian

http://colsec.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/   I have never looked at these and I really don't know why. Christine Yeats had a Facebook post about unemployment records for Sydney in 1866 and how you could search them. I did and didn't find anyone, that is okay as I don't think that I had anyone in Sydney, just then. I then went browsing through the site and 'discovered' the Colonial Secretary Index, 1788-1825 and has a play. Wow, it is amazing and while it is only an index, it has a lot of detail. You can search for a surname or subject, using the search box at the bottom of the page. This does a whole text search. You can also search by clicking on a letter of the alphabet and getting the list of what is under that letter. This is divided into sections, click on the one you want and then scroll through, until you locate the one you want. Depending on what you are after, you can get a few entries or many. You get the person's name, a date of the item, with a br

Easter Blessings to you. Apart from a family lunch on Sunday, I have nothing else planned and Paul has a flex day on Tuesday!  Looking at my sewing table, it really needs a good tidy-up! The ironing has taken over and I'm going to write up some reviews on the Unlock The Past books, hence the pile. The reviews will be on my website. There is also some mending under that and a quilt to quilt. I have a new subject starting on 6th April, so I'd better read the notes. I've also got an ongoing subject to work on. This pile of newspaper pages relates to the Bankstown Family History Groups press, so I want to put them into a folder. What are your long weekend plans? God Bless, Lilian

With help I have sorted out the connection problem. It seems that when I connected to the hotels internet, it reset my settings. I got a warning from my malware program that the network wasn't safe and I bailed out but it had already changed the settings. It was just a simple fix and now all is good. So a word of warning when using hotel internet, make sure it is safe and secure. Bye for now.

http://family-tree.co.uk/category/free-guides/ The link above is to the English magazine, Family Tree, Your Ancestors, Your History. It is a good magazine and browsing the website I came across the section on free guides. They have nine guides, with such topics as Census Records,  Parish Registers  and Passenger Lists. If you have English ancestors they might be worth a look. The site also has a free ebook to down load, on How to Write Your Family History. I have it and it is good to read. Bye for now, Lilian