Lilian's Tree

 Rachel Wyatt Vaughan is the tenth child of my great-great-grandparents, Henry Vaughan and Charlotte Chasmar. I know little about this child other than the facts I list below. Rachel Wyatt Vaughan, born 28 July 1864 at Castlereagh Street, Sydney and died 13 January 1865 at Castlereagh Street, Sydney and buried 15 January 1865 at Camperdown Cemetery. What has interested me was the middle name Wyatt. A maiden name of someone? Couldn't find ANY family with that name. It has/had me stumped. Well until this morning and it's only an assumption but... I was searching through the Camperdown Cemetery List on the church website,  Camperdown Cemetery   When a name caused me to look again, Joseph Wyatt, 1788 - 20 July 1860. Interesting. There was also a link to the headstone and there are seven people with the surname Wyatt buried in that cemetery, including Rachel Dobson Wyatt, 1794 - 1 July 1894. Very interesting. More searching happened. Joseph was an Inn Keeper in Castlereagh Str...

Our elder granddaughters are very much into running half marathons, marathons or even an ultra marathon! Grandma and Granddad cheer them on virtually, by the apps the races have, even sneaking a quick look in church during their latest run. Well while we don't run, we do walk and on Sunday the 12 July we did a 3k walk sponsored by the Western Districts Joggers & Harriers, called The Festival of the Feet. We finished in a respectable time of 37mins. and were presented with our medals.  It was a fun thing to do on a brisk winter's Sunday morning.  Our Bibs and Medals                                                                                                        ...

As I mentioned in my previous posts, Paul and I had three night in the city, at the start of the month.  On the Sunday we attended St Philip's Church, Church Hill. I mentioned to the minister that my great-grand mother, Isabella Mary Ann Vaughan had been baptised there in 1847. He explained to me that it would have been the old church, then he went into his office and came back with the ORIGINAL Parish Record book and scrolling through the pages we found the baptism entry.  I was thrilled to see the entry and took the photos below.  William Cowper, the minister was the first rector in the Colony of New South Wales, the other two had been chaplains. There was also a 'family tree' of the parishes that had come from St Philip's. I am now going to make an appointment to return and check the other children's baptisms as well.                                         

 Sunday dawned with a cool breeze and a hint of rain, so we had a late start. Church at St Philip's, Church Hill, where Isabella Vaughan was baptised. More on that in the next post. The church of St Philip's is the third church of that name in that area. The first was a wooden convict built in 1793 and they burnt it down in 1798. The next one was built in 1798 and was used until 1856, when the present one was built, across the road. There is a park where this church stood. The site of the second church. The foundation stone from the original church, now in the new one.                                                                                Looking up the aisle. The entrance on the side. Paul and I were made very welcome and the service was very...

 Saturday saw us up early and having breakfast at the Grumpy Baker, in a little lane behind our hotel. The savoury pastries we had were delicious and the atmosphere was fun. As we were at a Light Rail stop we hopped on and took the tram to Randwick, stayed on and came back to the City, getting of at Circular Quay. We saw parts of the city we hadn't seen before. Back at Circular Quay, we caught the ferry to Barangaroo, with the idea to walk back to the Quay. I had though that  Barangaroo Reserve might be an interesting place to explore but is just a park with views to Goat Island and up the harbour. The walk was busy, with families, joggers, bike riders or just people strolling along, enjoying the warm sunny day. We did walk up into the park and looked at the view.                                                             ...

 At the beginning of July Paul and I spent three nights at the Mantra on Bond Street. We had a Light Rail stop at the door, Circular Quay, two blocks away, with ferry terminals. Eleven floors up, we looked south along George Street.  We had a one bedroom, split-level, self contained apartment. Friday saw us drop of the bags and walk to Circular Quay and take the ferry to Watson's Bay. We had wanted to do the South Head walk, but the wind was whistling up the harbour and clouds scudding by we opted out of the walk. We walked along the water front, several street and across Camp Cove beach. Looking back up the harbour the views were beautiful. Watson's Bay Looking back towards the City. Camp Cove. Camp Cove. We meandered back to the ferry terminal and then across the park to a cafe for morning tea. Catching the bus back to the city, we alighted between Hyde Park South and North. It was a lovely stroll through Hyde Park, North to St James and then into Pitt Street Mall. I did som...

 My blogging is still not happening and I'm puzzled as to why.   Since I last wrote, back in May I've been busy with things. I did my two posts for the Genealogical Society of Queensland, it was fun sharing what friends thought with  the different questions I asked them. The link to the first post is here  Chat with Friends . If you click on the next post link the second one will come up. In May I attended a Morning Tea, at the State Library of NSW, and meet the new State Librarian, Dr Caroline Butler-Bowdon. She spoke about the vision for the next 200 years of the library, very informative. From Macquarie Street, it was a dash down to the Capital Theater at Haymarket to see the musical, The Lion King. It was fantastic! The costumes are amazing and the cast were excellent. To say I was blown away would be an understatement.  I gave a presentation at the Parramatta Family History Society at the start of June and had a wonderful time. I really enjoy presentin...

 In 2025, we did an Outback Safari, in a 4WD with our driver/guide. Broken Hill was one of our overnight stops and we didn't see much of the place. We promised ourselves that we would go back and explore and we did. We flew out of Sydney on a wet Monday morning and were in Broken Hill by lunchtime. Broken Hill is on Central Time, so 30mins behind Sydney.  Flying into Broken Hill Picked up the car at the airport and drove into town and the tourist information center for a street map, (the car didn't have SatNav).  Walked around the town looking at the historic buildings. Broken Hill is a Heritage listed town. Found our hotel and checked in. Lovely room and plenty of space in the bathroom, too. I picked a good spot as it is in a very quite spot, with no traffic noise. Tuesday and we had breakfast in town and then drove 23kms to Silverton but continued out to the Mundi Mundi lookout. You can see forever and because of the recent rains, there is a tinge of green as well. Back...

 It has been over a month since I last blogged, and my mojo seems to have gone. I did do two blog posts for the Genealogical Society of Queensland, as a guest blogger. They will be out in May. So, what have I been doing, instead of blogging?  Reading, both on my Kindle and paperback. I made an other quilt top. This one is in flannel and I'm not finished with it yet. Still undecided about the border.  Paul and I had a weekend away at Gosford, when I did a presentation for the Gosford Family History Group. I won a prize in their Easter raffle! I've been looking into my German Ancestors and have found a mystery. It warrants its own post, so watch this space. I played on MyHeritage, and made this fan chart family tree. It shows the countries of birth. I made ANZAC biscuits on Saturday, look strange but taste yum. BUT my big news is that I have a new computer tower, with Windows 11 on it. I'm still in the setting-up stage and this blog is the last thing I have to move, so I'...

 I'm still new to AI and in the past few weeks I've been 'playing' with it more. I used NotebookLM to turn a story into a slide presentation. While it was good, I did have to correct some mistakes but I'm happy with the overall slides.  I like that it asks questions that prompt you to look at other things related to what you gave it. I've also tried an Infographic using a baptismal certificate. What do you think? I've used ChatGPT for some things but today I played with having it turn me into a caricature, here are three results.  I think they look good.

 A February rushes towards March, my blogging is still slow BUT I checked my progress for 2025 and found I was the same. Very slow to get started! February has been a good month with two talks given. The first one to Camden Family History Society, was my new talk, 60 websites in 60 minutes, or there about. It went well and came in under 60 minutes. The next talk was an oldie but one I love giving, You're the Voice, telling your family stories. This time it was to the Botany Bay Chapter of the First Fleet Association. I hope I've inspired people to tell their stories. Both groups are lovely and I have a great time when I present to them. My sister turned 80 and a lunch was organised for the day before. Lots of chat with cousins and a lovely day celebrating such a milestone. I did clean the patio, that had become rather dirty. I borrowed  my son-in-law's pressure cleaner and had a great time blasting away. It looks good! A new office chair was (finally) purchased. It has take...

 I've lost a month, it can't be February already? Well, I haven't really 'lost' January, it is just that I relaxed, had the grandchildren come and stay, went bowling, went out to lunch, had friends over, got little odd jobs done, nothing earth shattering. Genealogy didn't get done, except for a client. Blogging didn't happen. Plenty of reading. So MY year has started now and my calendar is filling up, something I'm going to have to slow down. We did book our next trip. We head to Broken Hill in May. Looking forward to exploring the city.