Lilian's Tree

This came from Jill Ball.  The answers are mine. Remember to Accentuate the Positive   1.  An elusive ancestor I found was;  none this year but added details to most branches and enjoyed finding out the information. 2.  A precious family photo I found was; none but I did scan several, late last year, 2015, at a family get together and talked to the Aunts about them. 3.  An ancestor's grave I found was; Henry and Charlotte Vaughan's, at Camperdown Cemetery. The stone is no longer standing but I found them! 4.  An important vital record I found was; probate for my husband's maternal Grandmother. Made very interesting reading. 5.  A newly found family member shared; a draft of their family history. Looks good but no sources cited. :( 6.  A geneasurprise I received was; winning a 2017 pass to RootsTech! 7.   My 2016 blog post that I was particularly proud of was; can I say all? I enjoyed sharing two branches of the family on Family Fridays. The A-Z challenge in Apr

2016,   what has happened, this year? Plenty of travel both together and just me. January and we made a trip to Canberra, for my birthday. February and I made my first trip to the USA and attended RootsTech,   in Salt Lake City. I was joined by our daughter and together we did Las Vegas, Grand  Canyon, San Francisco and Los Angeles. April, we enjoyed a few days at Windsor and explored the area. May saw us head to Melbourne and family time. September and I attended a conference in Camden.   We then flew to Cairns for a family holiday, Fantastic. October and we were of to Adelaide. Family, friends and genealogy made up that trip. December and our Christmas trip to Melbourne. I have continued my study, doing three subjects form the University of Tasmania,   as well as my Diploma course with the National Institute of Genealogical Studies.  I have nearly finished this course, with just five subjects to go. We have really settled into retirement , finding

It has been awhile since I last blogged and I'll bring you up to date, with what has gone one. 13th December saw Paul and I head south, to Victoria to spend Christmas with our Victorian family. Something we love doing! We stopped at Euroa, overnight and arrived at our daughter's at 8.00am. A quick change, into warmer clothes and a cuppa were in order. For morning tea we headed to the Flying Tart at Kinglake West. This bakery/café was one of the few places to survive the Black Saturday bushfires. Their bread, pies and tarts are delicious. Always good to support a local small business. The next morning we headed to the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie & ice creamery, for breakfast. Something of a bit of a tradition, when we are there. I did my Christmas chocolate shopping, after a delicious breakfast. On the Friday, my granddaughters and I headed into Melbourne for some shopping and a stop at Max Bremer's, yum. I love going shopping with them as we all love haunting booksh

Last Saturday saw us at Milawa, the Gourmet Region of North Eastern Victoria. First stop was the Milawa Cheese Factory for lunch and a cheese tasting.   This was our lunch view. Beautiful!   They have a variety of cheeses and I tasted several, including the Brie. All were delicious. There is also the cellar door for the King Valley Wood Park winery. We tasted a selection and Paul and I added to our collection. A winery to keep an eye on.   Our next stop was Brown Brothers Wines. We all enjoyed our wine tasting, with several interesting ones being purchased. I sampled the white wines and Paul sampled the reds, ports and Muscat's. They also sell jams, with wine in them, yes I bought some, to bring home. This is their shop and cellar door. Plenty of space and lovely and cool. They have beautiful gardens and a restaurant. If you want to, you can have a picnic or just lounge on the been bags under the oak tree. If you are energetic there is chess

Have you really, really looked at your family tree?   What do you see? Dates, names, places, yes but anything else????? I know that we only have 365 dates to play with,   have a good look at those dates? What do you see? On just my side we have four generations, with the same birth date.    Samuel Galbraith 22 October 1815.   His Great-granddaughter, Lilian Galbraith, in 1911. Then follows a great-great granddaughter and a great-great-great grandson. These last two are mother and son!  So this happens, so what! Well the 6th December has Mary Ann Grant my husband and my niece. We do have a few doubles as well. The biggest coincidence  is that of  Arthur Galbraith and Mary Ann Grant.   These are my great-grandparents, on my maternal side.   What is their coincidence?  BOTH Arthur and Mary Ann are the second child to have that name in their generation, in their respective families.  The first Arthur was born 1850 and died sometime between 1850/52. My Arthur was born 18

                                                            Genealogy. I thought for today's Trove Tuesday I would use the word genealogy in my search and I got 19,770 results! The first one I picked is a funny. Saturday, 29 April 1905, page 4, World News (Sydney, NSW:1901 -1955) The second one is from the president of   The Society of Australian Genealogists. Friday, 11 August 1933, page 8, Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld: 1872-1947)   There were lots of interesting articles, ranging from funny ones, through to obituaries.   Bye for now, Lilian. 

I've added two more to my reading pile. Mary Higgins Clark,  has a new Under Suspicion  book out, The Sleeping Beauty Killer. Was Vasey Carter really guilty of her fiancé 's murder, 15 years ago? This is next on my to read list. Next is my Christmas present, Playing To Win, the definitive biography of John Farnham, by Jeff Apter. John is an Australian music icon and it should be a good read. Next is the sequel to Me Before You, titled After You by Jojo Moyes. I bought the two books, together, loved Me Before You but I can't get into the sequel. I've had three goes at it but find it is very slow. Will give it another try.  If you have read it, let me know what you think.

Here are some of the photos I used in my UTAS Photo Essay Assignment. Taken at Camperdown Cemetery. The church is St Stephen's. It was early morning and other than some people walking dogs, I had the place to myself. It was lovely and quite.       Copyright 2016 LH Magill. All rights reserved. Hope you like them,  Lilian.

Since I posted about these two books I have read both, (now to add two new ones to the pile, lol). Kathy Reichs didn't disappoint with four gripping stories. Short and full of detail, with serious discussions in the first three, they are fantastic. Dealing with puppy mills, raptors, pythons, The Everglades and climbing deaths on Mt Everest make for interesting reads. The fourth story has me waiting for her next full novel to come out. While it is about how Tempe got into forensics, it is the ending that has the twist . Not telling, read the story. Karly Lane, new to me, I loved it.  The blurb on the cover says A heartwarming novel about betrayal, ambition and the power of love. It is all that and more. I thought it was slow to start with and found her habit of slipping into the past strange BUT once I started I couldn't put it down. The trips into the past are as if the person was remembering and they added spice to the story. Again not telling, read it. Bye for n

Now is the time we are all looking forward to holidays, sun, surf and sand, so I thought why not look for a place to stay? Port Stephen's is a lovely holiday spot on the north coast of New South Wales , not a place I've been to, yet. I found this article extoling the wonders of Port Stephen's, as a place to holiday at in 1920.   I love the comment about "another one or two million ants in the packed trams." What would the writer think of Sydney's trains, now? Not much has changed!       Bye for now, Lilian.  1920 'Why Not a New Holiday Resort?', Daily Observer (Tamworth, NSW : 1917 - 1920) , 6 December, p. 2. , viewed 05 Dec 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116937756 Article identifier http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116937756

Summer Reading! Do you have a favourite spot to read? On the beach? In a hammock, under shady trees? Somewhere cool?  Or are you like me and will read anywhere? I have been known to read, standing up on a train, when in a past life I worked in the city. Reading is the icing on my day! Most of these ladies have Facebook pages and I will do * to indicate which ones do. These pages are worth looking at. First up is Nicki Edwards *. Nicki is a wife, mum of four and a critical care nurse, one busy lady. She writes medical rural romances, set in the fictional town of  Birrangulla. Each of the four books is centred around a main character and they all interconnect, throughout the books. I don't want to give to much away as they are fantastic reads. My favourite has to be The Peppercorn Project and Isabelle Cassidy, a young widow. Set in Stony Creek, a town with empty houses and wanting families to fill them, this is a story of new beginnings and friendships. Nicki also has

When I try and blog, from the iPad, something happens and I can't. This is a test to see if it works. Random photo, morning tea, day one of the SAG Lost In weekend. Bye, Lilian

While I was tiding my bookshelves, this morning I came across four more books for the summer reading pile. Three by Danielle Steel and the other by Jojo Moyes.  Jojo Moyes, After You is the sequel to Me Before You. Set eighteen months, later, Lou Clark is trying to get on with her life. I have started this and am finding it slow. Will let you know how I go, with it. Danielle Steel, is one author I enjoy reading and these three promise many long hours of reading pleasure. Power Play ; 'You love your family and your career. What will it cost you to have both.' This is on the cover and the blurb and the back is just as intriguing, with this, 'Both must face their own demons, and the lives they lead come at a high price. But how high a price are they willing to pay?' Country ; 'Life can take you anywhere if you seize they day...'  The story is about a widow and a country music megastar and if she is willing to take a risk. Prodigal Son ;  'When he c

Well I made it, my 400th post on my Blogiversary. Starting this blog on 21 November 2010 I wrote; I'm new to this but want to share family information and meet other family members.  Looking for the names of Abberton, Magill, Sigrist.  These are just some of the names I'm researching. Will post more once I'm settled in. Well I don't think I'm 'new' to this any more! I'm still searching for the same surnames, with a few more thrown into the mix. I have caught up with some cousins, found new ones but the biggest thing has been meeting fellow Bloggers. Jill Ball, has helped me re-design the blog and given encouragement. Thank you so much. Friendships with Helen Smith, Alona Tester, Fran Kitto, Pauline Cass, to name just a few, inspire me to lift my blogging game.  Wearing Blogger beads, at various conferences, creates new opportunities to talk about blogging and meet new people. I have learnt to do new things, too, adding my first photo on 2

https://archivesoutside.records.nsw.gov.au/useful-tips-for-reading-handwritten-documents/ 'Archives Outside is for people who love, use and manage archives.'   So says the spiel on the top of the page and as a genealogists I do love archives. This link is to a post about reading old handwritten documents and was complied by Archives NSW staff. Divided into four sections, Strategies, Useful equipment, Tips about lettering, symbols and abbreviations, Useful reference tools and resources,  these give us positive ways in which we can workout problems. Under Strategies, two tips that stuck out were Use common sense and Persistence is the key . These are important as we tend to want to finish, transcribing the document, quickly. Looking at the section , Useful equipment , I thought what? You need your eyes and pen and paper  but NO! The two tips they give made perfect sense. No, I'm not going to tell you, what they are. Tips etc. is divided into letters, symbols an

My weekend started lunchtime on Friday, with the arrival of our daughter, Amanda. After lunch we headed to Vicki's place for fun. Amanda hadn't been able to make it up for Hannah's Baptism, so this was the reason behind the trip. James, always greats us, "Grandma, Granddad" but on Friday it was "Auntie Manda" as he was thrilled to see her. Hannah was a little shy but was soon cuddling her aunt.  An afternoon of family time and dinner was a lovely way to start the weekend.  Saturday, saw the trip to the toy shop and then we girls had 'lunch' at Max Bremmer, yum!  When we got back to Vicki's place, James greeted Amanda with the words, "you came back" and a huge hug. He is such a loving little boy. Paul and I have enjoyed our time with her and interesting conversations, late into the night, were great. Today saw us brave the crowds at Miranda Westfield as she hadn't seen the refurbishment and I had to finish my Christmas sh

    Heading into the Christmas and holiday season, when the cricket is the only 'good' thing on the tellie, I start  a reading pile. Throughout the year I usually have two or three books on the go, at once, much like a quilter. I have two of those planned as well. These four books are the start of my reading list and I know there will be one under the Christmas tree. Debbie Macomber is a long time favourite of mine and I will often re-read different ones. This book, 'A Girls Guide to Moving On' is a stand alone title. The blurb says, 'When Leanne and her daughter-in-law Nichole went through divorces at the same time, they compiled a list to help them move on from the heartbreak.' Should be a fun read. I haven't read a Cathy Kelly book, before but these two took my fancy. Between Sisters is about two sisters Cassie and Coco, 'the women of Delaney Square. A comment on the back says, ' Between Sisters is the sparkling new novel about mothers

Earlier in 2016 Picton suffered floods and a large number of businesses where inundated. The King George Pub, where I have enjoyed lunch, was still closed today, as were several other places. One business, that suffered was a toy shop, The Kids Cottage, Shop 11/150 Argyle Street Picton, 2571.  www.thekidscottage.com.au     This place is amazing and today myself, my two daughters and my grandson payed it a visit. James' eyes lit up, when we entered as there was so much to see and for a three year old James had his birthday voucher to spend and with his Aunts help he found this game. It is similar to UNO but if you happen to press the fart button, one to many times, it makes fart noises. Hilarious. He couldn't stop laughing. He was able play the game and was soon understanding the various cards. While they were bust shopping, I went to a quilt shop. Picton Patchwork is near Maccas but if you were to blink, you would miss the 'Golden Arch', as it is so small.

I mentioned in my post on visiting State Records, that I had looked at Probate Records and I thought that some might not know how to look for them or what was available. The wills are now online at FindMyPast, (check to see if you local library has a subscription) and from there you can search the State Records site.  www.records.nsw.gov.au One of the things Gail mentioned on Wednesday was the Deceased Estate Files, something I hadn't heard of. Created by the Stamp Duties Office, for every individual who died leaving property or other assets, which were subject to death duties.  These could include the will, list of assets and their value, balance sheets of businesses and certificates of valuation. They cover from 1880 to 1958. I'm going to search for the ones I know and see what I find, if anything. Will keep you posted. This photo shows you the three Archives In Brief, that can be seen on the website, that will help you out. Have a good look at all of them, they are ver

As I had mentioned Elsie Minnie Sigrist in the State Archives post, I thought I'd tell you about her. Elsie Minnie Ironside. Born 21 May 1892. Married 5 April 1919. Died 25 April 1934.  Not much bit there is so much more. Elsie was the daughter of Edgar Bird Ironside and Maude Kidney. She had a sister Violet and a brother Norman. In April 1919 she married Frederick Charles Sigrist.   They were blessed with two daughters, Edna born 1920 and Joan born 1929. Sadly Frederick died when Joan was just six months old.   I think this photo was taken, while they were dating.   Bye for now, Lilian.

Yesterday a group, from the Bankstown Family History Group. met at Kingswood for a day of research and a tour behind the scenes. Once our visitors passes were issued, (I had organised this in advance), we were able to start our research. I had ordered three probate packets, before hand and they were waiting for me. The first one I looked at was for Elsie Minnie Sigrist, Paul's grandmother. Elsie had died in April 1934 but probate wasn't sort until 1944. I was puzzled by this as it was a long time. Reading all the affidavits I found the reason. The executors hadn't thought that the estate was worth much and only when the bank contacted them and said that the cottage had gone up in value, did they then apply. The will was sad as Elsie had made it in hospital, most likely when she knew that she wasn't going to make it.  The poignant words,' to be guardian of my infant children' brought tears to my eyes. Edna, (Mum) wasn't 14 and Violet was just 5. Elsie had

What genealogy magazines do you read? Do you start at the beginning and read cover to cover or find your favourites and start with them? Below is a selection of what I’ve read, in the past month. First up is Inside History, to me still the best Australian magazine around. I love Cassie Mercer’s new updated photo, she changed it   in issue 35.   Issue 36 is full of interesting articles. Anne Sherman discusses tracing your Welsh ancestors. I don’t have any but it was a really interesting read. There is an article on Paul Ham’s new book, Passchendaele, Requiem For Doomed Youth. (Random House, $45). Reviews of four new family history apps, has me thinking about adding one to my iPad. Called Scanbot, it uses you device’s camera. Just the thing for archives visits! What’s new online has what records have been added to Ancestry, FindMyPast etc.   Next is my English magazine, Family Tree, ( www.family-tree.co.uk )   packed full of articles from, Learn the Genealogical Pr