Family Tree Developments

Posted on 2004/01/28 14:55:30 (January 2004).

[Tuesday 27th January] After very slow (or zero) progress over the last few days, my family tree suddenly had a big boost on several fronts. I'd ordered two more birth certificates over a week ago, and they arrived early this morning. This told me my great great grandmother's maiden name - Hogan, and I was then able to look up her family in the 1881 census and add a big chunk. Secondly, some very kind Australians answered my request for help on one of the geneaology newsgroups, and I was able to find out a lot about my great grandfather's younger brother. I'd known very vaguely that most of my great grandfather's siblings had gone to Australia, and have always thought it would be great to discover some Australian cousins, but having very little information to go on, I'd never got anywhere.
It turned out my great grandfather's younger brother Vernon had moved to Australia when he was very young - possibly around 18. He'd enrolled in the Australian army for both world wars (and survived!). The enrolement records were a goldmine of useful information. Not only did they have details like his date and place of birth, allowing me to confirm it was the right guy, it also listed the town he was from and who his wife was. So, at the end of WWII, my great great uncle was known to be alive, and in Lidcombe (a district of Sydney it seems) in New South Wales. Proabably he had children, most likely born in the 1920s, and who knows, maybe some of them could still be alive today. Or at least, their children or grandchildren.
In the evening, I went out with Chie and some of her friends for a meal at the Yellow River Cafe, which was surprisingly good, followed by a trip to the cinema to see The Last Samurai. Not really my cup of tea, despite being set in Japan. It just all seemed a bit pointless, really.

WOW! Excellent work! There will always be more tree to discover, though!

Posted by Rob Lang at 2004/01/29 24:54:36.

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