Lilian's Tree

Please note that those names marked with * have been changed, as they are still living. My name, well I wrote the post. May/June 1922, cold days and colder nights, when a 22 year old woman leaves her baby son at a train station, in Sydney. Given the name Peter*, it will take until nearly his 96th birthday for that man to finally have a name for his birth mother. Over the past couple of years I've tested my DNA with FamilyTreeDNA and late last year made contact with Wendy*, as a DNA match, being my 3rd - 5th cousin. Her Dad, Peter came in as a 2nd - 4th cousin. We compared shared centimorgans, looked at it from every angle and tried to work out how we matched. We had also looked at all the other matches we shared, with no luck. Wendy and I have had coffee and discussed this, looking at the family tree I had, of my paternal side. Now my great-grandparents had 15 children, 13 grew up, 11 married and had children, so somewhere in that mix was a match. Well we hoped so. Applying...

Hi, after day 6  the blog went quiet because I was staying with my Victorian Family and enjoying good, quality time with them. Getting there, from Ballarat well...    What should have been a two hour trip, tops, took four as again I had problems with the navigation system. Resorted to a paper map and got there. I'm thrilled with what I've been able to achieve, with the research I did in Ballarat and it will really help with the next book. On Friday we had our usual trip to the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie & ice creamery for a bit of an indulgence.  Well worth a visit   www.yvci.com.au These were our treats. With the family we attended two netball games. The Saturday school comp was a win but the Saturday afternoon comp was a loss. Both were good games and my granddaughters played well. We left Monday morning in the rain and ended in staying at Goulburn on Monday night. I had, had enough driving. After breakfast on Tuesday, we were 'on th...

This duo were our alarm, this morning. Another very cool start to the day but as the rain didn't arrive, we walked around the Botanical Gardens.  Saw the Dahlia display, but I think it was nearly finished as it looked a bit sad. Some of the blooms were huge and there was a wide range of colours and styles on display. The Fern House seems to under-going renovation and was disappointing. Walked along the Avenue of Prime Ministers. This is busts of all Australian Prime Ministers, from Federation in 1901 to Tony Abbott. Malcolm Turnbull has to wait. Also walked the Avenue of Giants. Sequoias, Californian Redwoods, have been planted and are huge. I did notice some smaller ones, planted to replace ones that have been damaged.                                     Standing under the branches and looking up the trunk of a Redwood. Morning tea at Pipers by the Lake and then Paul went ...

Day 2 Lake Weeroona, Bendigo. Windmill. Day 3 View from the New Ballarat Cemetery. Some Ballarat locals. Eureka Center.                                          The original Eureka Stockade Flag.                                                                  Day 4                                                Library research, with Suzie. Day 5 Chisholm Street

Cool and wet greeted us when we woke, this morning, so I spent some time writing emails and researching before we ventured out.  First stop was the Orchard Cafe at Lucas for morning tea.Paul indulged with a mixed berry and ricotta cake and I had a bacon and cheese muffin.Yum!  There was method in my doing this first, I was taking Paul to search for ancestral homes and it was wet. I'm getting to know my way around Ballarat, not getting lost once today! First stop was Chisholm Street, the place Google Maps says is in the middle of the intersection. The four houses didn't look that old, so that wasn't what I wanted. Driving down the street I spotted number 12. That rings a very large bell!  An Alexander Grant had lived in  number 12, with his butcher shop. Yes there was a shop attached to the house. I took a photo and drove off and then went YES!, that shop was very important. Back we went and I knocked on the door, nothing ventured, nothing gained. A women answ...

Monday dawned cool and foggy, so off to the library for research time. Ballarat Library has a wonderful Australiana Resource Room, with computers,heaps of resources, desks and a wonderful Research Librarian, Simon. Knowing where my ancestor had died and having Google Maps, place it in the middle of an intersection and the numbers being weird, I had to find out what was going on. I mentioned this to Simon and he knew exactly what I was talking about, went and got a directory, of the time and located where the house should be. Now to find it, tomorrow. I then spent time going through the other directories and was able to locate them several more times, to build up a profile of their lives. Then I started exploring other resources and found the microfilm for the 1909-1910 council rates. Taking a chance I started searching and found what I hoped to find, proof that my 2x great grandmother had owned the home, not the husband! Go Granny!  Another address to check out. From the ...

Cool but the sun is trying to breakthrough. So we are heading to the Ballarat New Cemetery and locating Simon and Ann Grant's grave. When we were here in 2003, we were directed to the Church of England section, new research has them in the Presbyterian section. It is an easy cemetery to navigate around and I soon located the block and section (row), just have to find the grave. Well... After walking from one end to the other I have concluded that they are in an unmarked grave. Well at least I can state that in the book and know it is correct. Next was 22 Chisholm Street. I had used Google Maps,  Street View, to locate this address and it had me in the middle of the road. Well I don't think is was wrong! Driving up and down didn't give me number 22. So it looks like a trip to the council to see what is going on. Today's  research ended with a visit to the Eureka Center, built on the site of the Eureka Stockade. We had been there previously and I wanted to check som...

Day 1. Friday 11 May 2018 was our departure date. A busy previous week and some commitments, in the days prior, saw us leave home at 7.00am. Cool and grey was the weather and just the Goulburn side of  of Mittagong, the showers started. What appears to be faulty wipers made for an interesting trip. They would work well, for a time and then it was like using dry blades on a dry windscreen. The noise was dreadful. A stop at Jugiong and they couldn't help and pointed us to a mechanic in Gundagai. He looked at the blades and said I don't stock that size, go to one of the servos at each end of the main street.  Back in the car and Paul and I decided that we would/could wait until Ballarat, where there would be more than one mechanic. Morning tea at Goulburn Bakery, sitting beside the open fire was lovely, along with the hot drinks and delicious food!  I also grabbed some freshly made sandwiches for our lunch. 1.00pm and Holbrook was next for petrol, for the car and drink...

Several months ago, I said to my husband that in order to write my second family history book,I needed to go to Ballarat. He agreed and I set about picking a time to go, organising accommodation, sending documents to Dropbox, checking that I had all my websites book-marked, re-checking the family tree information,  researching what I needed to find out and where I could find it. The  time frame was easy, since we are retired and don't have to worry about school holidays. Early May was the best. Accommodation, I picked a Big 4 Holiday Park because they have cabins and for five nights, that would be good. There are two in Ballarat and Ballarat Windmill had a cabin free. Dropbox isn't something I use frequently but for this I was able to send the scanned copies of documents to Dropbox, from the desktop, to Dropbox and they synced easily. My bookmarks were in order, as I had used them when away in November, just a couple of new ones to add. My family tree program is Bro...

Elsie Minnie Ironside was born 21 May 1892, to Maude Kidney and her husband Edgar Bird Ironside. [1] Elsie was my husband’s grandmother. How she met her future husband isn’t known but as they both lived and grew up in the Paddington area, I can only presume that they either met at the local church or the Paddington Town Hall. (Things we should have asked Mum about.) The Bridal Party. Alf Tobin (friend), Violet Ironside (sister), Frederick Sigrist, Elsie Ironside, Lilly Sigrist (sister), Norman Ironside (brother). Elsie and Frederick Charles Sigrist married in 5 April 1919 at St Michael’s Church of England, Flinders Street, Surry Hills. [2] Elsie’s occupation was given as Saleswoman and Frederick’s a Telephone Mechanic. It was this occupation that would kill him, but you will have to wait until September to find out why. Elsie and Frederick were blessed with two daughters, Edna May born 1920 and Joan Violet born 1929. The little family settled in Fairmou...