The Family Detective

It's a year today since my dad passed away. He was the someone who told me so much about our family history. I just wish he was here so I could share some of the things he never really knew. Strangely, I was asked yesterday if I knew Teddy Lang. Yes, he's a great great uncle of mine. Seems some I know of, knows someone who knew him. Infact, it's Teddy's niece. So, a cousin of my dad's. There is a 93 year old woman out there who knew my family. I wonder if she knows the answers to some of my questions. I sometimes wonder if Dad has something to do with the mysteries I'm uncovering. Like he's helping to guide me to find answers. Since he's passed I've discovered cousins and relatives Dad didn't even know existed. I've spoken to several on the phone, and met another. And the circumstances of finding these people has always been random, not people I've hunted down. A year ago I lost the most amazing person, felt the family had shrunk, but thr...

I've been contemplating turning my bedroom wall into something resembling a police detective's wall. Post it notes covering it in an attempt to get a visual image of my family history. I'm a visual person, and find sometimes I don't get all the facts right because I haven't got a great grasp on the information. Today I used Timeglider to make a family time line of Henry Laing & Sarah Weatherstone. Already by doing this I realised I had the birth or death dates of two of his children out of date. It's a handy tool and I'm keen to use it to test out some ideas such as comparing if two people were in the same area at the same time etc. While Timeglider can cost money, I've made the following timeline just using the free version. Hope you find this helpful.

One finds many things when searching online .. I found this family history checklist today. Very handy for anyone just starting out ... Even though it's a list for interpreting an obituary, I found much of the advice useful ... eg checking census records, checking military records ... etc 1. Look at a map to determine exactly what city, county and state the deceased lived in. 2. Check for the Surname in online databases or public records from that time period. 3. Check Census reports from around that time period, if the exact year is not available, look for census reports from before and after, you’ll surely find something in one or the other. 4. Check for his surviving family's names in the census reports. 5. Check for other local newspaper publications that may have more details in the obituary. 6. Check for newspaper articles about the deceased prior to his death. 7. Check marriage recordsfor the deceased and the deceased's spouse. They may have had previous marriages o...

Henry Laing was the first of "us" to come to Australia, aboard the convict ship " Isabella " in September 1818. Born Wednesday, September 22, 1794, Henry Laing grew up in the shadows of Edinburgh Castle. His father John Laing & mother Elizabeth (nee Annan) were cowfeeders who lived near the junction of Fountainbridge & Thornybauk Roads. They had at least 4 children, Lillias (who married Charles Hunt), William, James and Elizabeth (who married William Atkien and continued to live in Thornybauk Road as a cowfeeder after her parent's & husband's death). As an adult, Henry was 5"5" tall with a ruddy complexion, pocked skin, brown hair and hazel eyes. At around the age of 21 Henry moved out of his parents home to live with a woman named Mary Graham. They shared a room in Curries Close which was in the cattle market district of Edinburgh known as the "grass market". Of the evening of or around May 26th, 1817 Henry reci...