Stories from Dead Relatives

This is my great grandmother, Cecelia Sedgwick (nee Morley) (animated by AI from My Heritage!). She was born in Red Hill, near Ballindine, County Mayo in Ireland in 1864. Her family (father Thomas, mother Bridget) lived on a farm on Lot 7b (land and house) at Redhill, owned by John Nolan Ferrall. There is an 1856 map of the region, which clearly shows Redhill, approximately between Ballyhaunis and Ballandine (which explains why both are found on various documentation) which was entirely owned by John Ferrall, and he also owned several nearby farms. If we zoom in a bit, we can clearly see Lot 7, but it's not clear where a and b might be and which house they would have lived in. You can go onto Google maps now, and actually travel around virtually, via Google Streetview! This house is the northern bit near the current road, looking south over Lot 7. It's hard to know if this was their house, but you can imagine where Thomas and Bridget lived, with their 7 children, including Cece...

 A  " 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks " theme caught me eye this week - "Labor" (or as we prefer to spell it in Australia - labour). How did my ancestors make a living? Have I found an unusual occupation in my family tree? What about the often unsung labour of females ancestors? One of the things I enjoy about researching my family tree is seeing how our lives have changed so dramatically within a few generations. From the advent of gas and electricity in houses, the number of kids we have, and our occupations. And I was watching Further Back in Time for Dinner on the ABC , where a modern-day family lives through the early 1900s - and I was again struck by how different our very recent ancestors lived to us. And the women, in particular, seemed to just have lots of kids, cook (often very different meat and food), clean (with no appliances), wash (the hard way) - and there was no prospect of anything else. That's all there was to look forward to. Cecelia, Celie, Susanna...

Long time no blog about dead people! With this lockdown-living because of COVID-19, I've had more time to sit on the laptop and keep researching. So, I decided to tackle another " 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks " challenge and this week's theme is Water. I've decided to interpret this theme with some amazing photos I found, whilst double-checking my Dad's records for my tree! My grandmother was Cora Parsons (who married Joseph Sedgwick). Her generation is the first one with lots of photographs. They lived in southern Sydney (Jannali), but I have a few amazing photos of her and her siblings enjoying seaside vacations in Middle Harbour and the Central Coast. This is Cora in January 1926, aged 25, at Middle Harbour. Cora, in the same outfit with umbrella, so presumably, somewhere also near Middle Harbour. I can't tell from Google Maps where this might be - so if you recognise that spot, let me know! This is Cora in March 1926, aged 26, at the E...

I'm back after a holiday break! This week's theme is "colorful" - but let's go with "colourful". The prompt describes "it seems that in every family tree, there's at least one person who is a bit larger than life, someone bold and different..."colourful". I've referred to my most colourful relative in this post  is Arthur John Hardwick Jnr, my maternal Great Grandfather. He was born on 18 October, 1888 in Melbourne "near the Union Hotel" Spencer St, Melbourne, which we know from his birth certificate: We are not sure why his parents Arthur John Hardwick Snr and Effie Clara Broome were living in Melbourne at the time, but we think they may have been on the way to visit relatives in South Australia (his sister Effie Maud Hardwick was born in Gawler, South Australia in 1893, but only lived one month). But whatever the reason, he was born in a hotel in Melbourne, and possibly set the tone for much of his life! ...

In this week's post, we have been asked to look behind an "unusual name" and I've chosen my great-aunt's husband, Frederick Nay, because it's not a name you hear every day and it is a great example of the challenges of searching for your family, because it turns out that names can change (quite a lot!). Fred was born in Warialda, in north-west NSW in 1902. He is the father of my Aunty Yvonne (and her six younger siblings), who is actually my 1st cousin, once-removed.  Fred's father was George Nay, who was born in Mudgee in 1849. George Nay and his wife, Mary Ann Peglar George's father was Robert Nay, who was born in Shoreditch, England in 1817. In 1832 at the age of 15, he was convicted of larceny and sentenced to 7 years and sent to Australia on the convict ship Waterloo in 1833. Robert Nay and his wife, Mary Fleming Robert's father was James Nay, who was also born in Shoreditch, England in 1789. His father was Francis...