With a bit of free time on my hands over the last few weeks, I’ve been using a website to colourize some old family photographs I’d only ever seen previously in black and white. http://playback.fm/colorize-photo Though,…
A friend and I went on a walk this morning, hosted by the Friends of Waverley Cemetery, which was excellent. We were the only two on the tour, so it was very personalised, and our…
I have been active genealogist for most of my life. Early in the piece I would use all manner of software, including Family Tree Maker etc. But as my interests moved on from compiling extensive…
It’s so funny meeting people who know people you know, but who not so many people know anymore. Below, you’ll see the black and white photograph of my mum and my granny I showed to…
Through my mum’s side of the family, I’m a descendant of the convicts, James Rixon and Amelia Goodwin, who came (were sent) to Australia in 1798 and 1800 (respectively). For many years, James was buried…
My latest family history project is trying to connect with the story of my cousin, Lyla Brown/Curtis, who married an American soldier in the 1940s, and who went to live in the US. I remember…
As a child growing up in South Lismore, one of my strongest earliest memories was of the arrival at the nearby railway station of hundreds of people for the Aquarius Festival. Though it’s often described…
“So you must be James, the blogger?”, I was asked today at the Anglican Church at Windsor. The question took me quite by surprise. Though I’ve been keeping this blog for over a decade, and…
If you have an eye for history or architecture or hotels, and you’ve visited the town of Appin (near Campbelltown in Western Sydney), you will have probably noticed an old derelict building not far from…
At this stage, I don’t know for sure if I’m related to James Patrick Terence O’Brien of Lismore, NSW but his story fascinates me, nonetheless. It’s a story I discovered quite accidentally, searching for family…
On the weekend I finally got around to watching the brilliant television program “Friends Of Dorothy” by William Yang. William is a really important Australian photographer whose work documents, in particular, Sydney’s gay and lesbian…
I didn’t expect to, but ended up telling a story at the “Now Hear This” story-telling night in Sydney tonight. I told the story of my great-great grandmother who had a relationship with her first…
