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...

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. Aimin...

 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 wh...

 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 Dai...