Lilian's Tree

Rootstech 2022  Back on 2016 I attended my first Rootstech conference and was blown away by the sheer size of it. The immense number of talks, presentations , key note speakers and the vendor hall. I LOVED IT! I made new friends, saw old ones, learnt heaps and then spent the next 10m days exploring parts of Nevada and  California. 2017 saw me back in Salt Lake City and my second Rootstech, this time I paced myself and didn't try and cram everything in. 2018 and 2019 had me getting up very early for the online sessions as I didn't get to attend, in person, those two years, but I still had fun and learnt heaps. 2020 and even though Covid-19  was around, I ventured across the Pacific Ocean, to attend in person. It was wonderful to be hugged by friends, catch-up for a meal and a chat, venture out to Antelope Island and the Spiral Jetty and to walk around Salt Lake City, looking at the beautiful murals. I was even fortunate to be given four DNA kits from four companies as a 't...

 I have been watching Inside Central Station,    on SBS, for the past 10 weeks and found it very interesting. Last Sunday, 14 November was the last show and they went into the unused train tunnels, under Sydney's Hyde Park. They were looking for World War 2 graffiti and found one that had the person's name, unit and service number, sooooooo guess what I did?  Yes I researched him. The photo is of the image on the TV, so it's not the best but it's enough to show that information.  I went to the Australian War Memorial website, but didn't find anything but they had links to the National Archives of Australia - Personal service records and the Department of Veterans' Affairs Nominal Rolls. I discovered that Robert Harry Dunkley   was born in 1924 in Adelaide, South Australia. Next of Kin was Nelly Dunkley. He enlisted 13 May 1934 and was discharged 15 July 1946. His posting at discharge was 14 Aust Work Coy. His rank was Private. As his Army Records aren'...

 Before house were given numbers, they often  had names and this makes me ask, "Did your house have a name?" My husband, Paul,  grew up in the same house that his mother, Edna Sigrist,  did and it had the name "Bodalla."   The reason behind this name was that Christopher Fredrick SIGRIST (1858-1919)   had worked in the small country town, on the far south coast of New South Wales, to pay of his bankruptcy. Christopher was Edna's grandfather and Paul's great-grandfather. Fairmount Street, Lakemba. I grew-up in Arncliffe, in a very tiny street, with only six houses, four on the odd side and two on the even side. In researching on Trove I have found that the house was named "Aberdeen," but I don't remember seeing any mention of it. The veranda tiles at Arncliffe. In 2014 Paul and I started renovations on our home, with the view that they would be finished before Paul retired in 2015. They were and it was then that we thought of giving the house a ...