Lilian's Tree

Week 2, Travel. Well travel has been a bit light on since Covid-19 'travelled' the world, stopping us from travelling, so I've selected different photos, each with a story themselves. Callan Park. While this looks like a beautiful building, it was once a lunatic asylum. Here for several years, before being sent to Newcastle, my great-grandmother, Mary Ann GALBRAITH, nee GRANT resided. Suffering from what we would now call depression, caused by the sudden death, (overseas) of her husband, leaving her with a shop to run and two boys to look after. It became to much for her. A birthday treat, in 2017 of a 4-WD drive wilderness trip in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, saw me asking the driver if we could stop at Hartley Cemetery and search for several graves. He thought it was fun and so we stopped at two cemeteries and found Hubby's ancestors graves. Berrara, just out of Sussex Inlet on the NSW South Coast, a place that we would holiday at, most years when the children ...

This year I did 12 Ancestors in 12 Months and foud it fun. I also did my own version of the A-Z Challenge and found it became tedious.  So what theme should I go with in 2019? I have had two different thoughts, both can be done ahead of time and scheduled, as I'm away a bit next year and they are both different. This is where I need your input, please. Theme/Idea 1 - A Place a Month. Somewhere, where either an ancestor lived or worked. This might work but I'll have to really see what I have on some of the places. Theme/Idea 2 - A Book a Month. Different books that I have enjoyed or found useful, with my research. I love reading, so this wouldn't be a hardship to do. I suppose I could do both! I'd still blog the other things, like trips and courses. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks, Lilian.                                              Ca...

Last night I attended a writing workshop at Writing NSW,  https://writingnsw.org.au/    on Finding the detail: research tools for writers , presented by Eleanor Limprecht.  Eleanore has written three novels, many articles and reviews and she gave insights into her research. https://www.eleanorlimprecht.com/about/    You can read more about her books on her website. It was held at Writing NSW, headquaters, at Callan Park. On the handout Eleanore had a quote from Paul Auster, an American writer and director, which said, "The truth of the story lies in the detail."   It is the details that we find, for our ancestors that make them real for us and so it should be when we write about them. Eleanor covered topics from Why Research? What are our resources? Types of information. Ways to organise your research. Ethical Considerations. And the one we all struggle with, How to put research aside and write. I found that how she researches, for her novels,...

I have had an interesting day, attending part two of conservation course.  The Royal Australian Historical Society, held this at Callan Park and today I went for a walk and took some photos. Great-Grandma Galbraith spent time there and it was interesting to wander around. The beautiful sandstone buildings I saw date from 1880 and 1883. These four photos show different parts of the area. It is now under the University of Sydney and they are using the old buildings for different subjects. The conservation course had us making a Solander Box, for storing documents in. They are named after Swedish botanist, Daniel Solander, (1733-1782).                                                  It doesn't look much standing on its end....