Lilian's Tree

Susan was born on 16/08/1854 to George Donald and Jane Galbraith, being baptised on 18/09/1854. She was their last child. Like her brothers and sisters I don't know anything about her childhood. She was just 16 when her father died in 1870. In 1875 Susan married George Henry Melrose in Yass. They would have seven children Henry Irwin (Irvine), Birth record #21847/1874, father is listed as George Henry Irwin Melrose, place Yass, died 1962 William Arthur Aubrey, birth index # 7320/1877, Armidale, died 1967 Herbert Lesley, birth index # 24793/1880, Tamworth, died 1970 Mina May Evelyn, (Nina), birth index # 28044/1882, Tamworth, died 1939 Albert George Birth index # 32845/1886, Queanbeyan, died 1942 Percy Harold, birth index # 34676/1888, Bungendore, died 1954 Stanley, birth index # 14477/1891, Goulburn, died 1973. Both George and Susan died in 1936 at Canterbury, Sydney. On Susan's death certificate her name is given as Susan Alston Melrose. This name doesn't come up on any ot...

 Jane Donald was the tenth child born to George Donald and Jane/Jean Galbraith. Sometimes Jean would be used for her as well.  While Jane appears to have had a normal childhood, it is her adult life that is very interesting. In 1871, at Balmain in Sydney she married Alexander Donaclift Young and then she vanishes! Searching the Australian records, for that time yielded nothing so I search the New Zealand records and found the birth of their first child, James on the 30 November 1871. And the family vanishes, again! Back to searching the Australian records. In 1873, at Balmain in Sydney their second son, Donald was born, Yes, they vanish again! By now I was wondering what was going on as I had found two marriages for Alexander in Victoria, before his marriage to Jane. BUT there didn't seem to be any deaths of divorces. before he married Jane. I did find divorce proceedings, for the second marriage, and it would appear that their 1871 marriage was a bigamist one. I say their 187...

 Day Four. This was the day we were supposed to go to Garwin and see the opal fields there, but Lightning Ridge was going to be without power on day five, so we swapped days.  This was a fun morning as we got to go underground in two different mines. The first one was an easy entrance, down 30 steps and a loop once inside. The sandstone is pink and our guide explained the different processes to find and extract the opal. Not my best photo but the hard hat kept falling onto my glasses. Pretty in Pink. One of the walls. I didn't spend to long underground as it was warm and I had my cardigan on. Wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.  We had a wander around the top and watched a video of the history of the area, while others did the tour. Our next stop was the Chambers of the Black Hand, this was 40 feet underground and accessed by 84 steps or a small lift. I picked the lift and it was very interesting going down as it was a cage and you could see the wall. This mine had ...

 Several years ago we were supposed to do a day trip to Lightning Ridge from Moree but things didn't go as planned... This year we made it and had three wonderful days exploring the town and the opal fields. Day One Leaving Sydney on a Saturday morning had us boarding our Coach Holidays and Tours coach and heading over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and on to Ourimbah for morning tea and to get the rest of the travelers. Lunch was in Muswellbrook at the Hunter Belle Cheese Cafe. Then it was on to Tamworth, with a quick stop at Wallabadah, to look at the First Fleet park. But all was not well on our coach, the air-conditioning decided to  play-up, much to the annoyance of all. Our driver tried several things, including meeting a mechanic on the side of the road, and got it working a bit better to get us into Tamworth. He also ordered a replacement coach to be driven up from Sydney.  Day Two. Our new coach was decked out in the colours of the Manly Sea Eagles, we couldn't loose ...