Lilian's Tree

Every year GenieAus, Jill Ball, looks at the positives in her year and asks fellow Genies to do the same. Here is my list, I only missed four in the 20. 1)       An elusive ancestor I found was ; I haven’t added any new ancestor, this year, but I’ve continued to add information to most ancestors. 2)       A great newspaper article I found was; Searching for something else, I found a small notice for the Golden Wedding Anniversary of Paul’s great, great-grandparents, Frederick James Ironside and Martha Amelia Bird. 3)       A geneajourney I took was;   I wrote and published a small family history book on the Vaughan/Chasmar side. 4)       An important record I found was; Searching FamilySearch I found what could have been the birth of Paul’s great-grandfather, Samuel Magill. While I was in Salt Lake City, I used the Family History Library and confirmed that it was him. ...

After over thirty years researching family history, I think that I have finally cracked how we have Hunter in the Magill names. Family lore had two different stories as to why our surname is Magill; The first one is that Samuel (Hunter), murdered a man called Magill and took the Magill name and high-tailed it out of Ireland. The second one is that he took his mother’s maiden name of Magill and left Ireland because of reasons unknown.   While both of these were interesting, I took them with a grain of salt. Samuel wasn’t above telling ‘stories.’ In February I was in Salt Lake City, home to the BIGGEST FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY in the world and have looked into Samuel’s birth. We know that he was born in County Antrim between 1844-1849. This has been gleaned from family lore and his death certificate. Well before I arrived in Salt Lake City, I found a birth of one Samuel Magill, son of a James Magill and Mary.   I then looked for their marriage and found this...

Tamworth Daily Observer (NSW 1910 -1916), Saturday 20 May 1916, page 6. Samuel Magill, was Paul's great-grandfather and Alexander, (Andrew Alexander, k/a Sandy), was Paul's grandfather. The 'ballroom' would have been the shearing shed or barn, as the original homestead was tiny and the new one wasn't built. It is interesting as Alexander was a married man, with children. No mention of them in the article.

 I don't know about you, but I find cemeteries fascinating! Weird, I know but it isn't just from being a genealogist. Here is a selection of tombstones, of family members. Margaret (nee Towers)  and Samuel Magill. Margaret was born at Windsor. Samuel was born in Belfast, Ireland. They are in the Kootingal Cemetery, near Tamworth, NSW. Andrew, born 17 April 1885. Son of Margaret and Samuel, he is buried near them in the Kootingal Cemetery. Edith (nee Millar), born 30 July 1955. She died, visiting family in Adelaide and was brought back to Sydney at buried in the cemetery at Waverly. She faces the ocean and the view is beautiful. Where are your ancestors buried? Anywhere interesting? Bye for now, Lilian.

I've misplaced a death certificate and am annoyed! I know that I have it as I enter certificates onto a spread sheet, number it and then file it in a folder and its not there. Margaret Towers married Samuel Magill in 1868. I have the marriage, his death, kids info but can't find her death certificate. I suppose that it gives me an incentive to go through my filing cabinet and do some culling, the problem there is that most of my laundry in in my study. Tradie comes next week for that. Well back I go to look for it.