The Family Detective

 This is another story written based on the newspaper records for Michael's murder trial. We needed to try and bring characterisation to the people. We have to remember that our ancestors were just like us. Their environments may have be similar, their homes simpler but they feel love, lust, hatred just the way modern people do.  I have two versions of this story. I'll post both but feel free to comment what you think. “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul … to take.” The rough sandstone of the cell tears at the skin of my knees, but the pain is no comfort.   Could it only have been seven hours ago that we’d met John at the inn?   I had watched Katie fuss over the children before we left. The tight twists at her nape reminded me of a shamrock, fitting for a St Patrick’s celebration. Seven children and her body still filled me with desire; her waist, her bosom and those enchanting Irish eyes. I know my Katie. She loves a drink and a gossip. ...

 As part of my uni course we have had to write fiction based on historical facts. It doesn't have to be hugely researched, but a news article turned into a story. This is one I did based on the Cotter's Hold Up. The reference for the newspaper article is at the end. ISOLATION The last of the sun’s rays abandon the stringy-bark hut half-hidden among scrubby gums. The galahs are a shrieking stream of pink and grey concealing the sound of the hawker’s arrival. Katie stokes the embers in the fireplace and sets another log upon it. Outside darkness and smoke entwine to create the perfect camouflage.   Katie gives a silent prayer of thanks for her eldest child, beautiful, porcelain-skinned Mary, who rocks Elizabeth on her hip while ladling the rich-red stew on each plate. Mary is almost eighteen and already dreaming of the day she will marry and leave. Without Mary, Katie wonders how she will cope. Ten children, another on the way. Maybe it would be better if she resisted Mich...

  Meet Rose Littlewood. I found this photo of her on Ancestry.com. I'd never seen a photo of her before so it was great to see her. This photo has been colourised by me. The original is posted below. At first the image of Rose was a little confronting. I guess it shattered the image I had of a girl named Rose as something sweet and delicate. But I'm glad that the image helps to show some of what life might have been like for Rose. Once I put it through a colourising app I realised that there was softness in her face, she is smiling. I've put a few photos through this process now as I feel seeing things in colour bring them almost into the present. It helps us see them differently to just black and white.  Rose is my current research project and I will add a separate post about her which I will add to as discoveries are made. 

         I was lucky to find some photographs of my maternal line Grandmothers via Ancestry.com. I knew my Great Grandmother Catherine Cotter and have a few memories of her. I knew very little about her mother except she was Rose Coffee and my Grandmother's middle name was named for her. From left to right: Rose Littlewood     Catherine Coffee     Evelyn Cotter     Caroline Hardy     Deborah Lang It's interesting to see how features change or continue down through the generations. From Rose to her daughter their is a fairly strong feature of the turned down eyes which we see also in my Grandmother Evelyn. My mother and I have similar brows and round eyes which must be from Grandfather's line (although my dad had similar eyes for me to inherite as well). The nose is a fairly strong one and may be the one connection I see in common through the generations. A thin top lip and larger bottom lip are evident ...

One of the most interesting subjects I did this year was Place, Image and Object. As part of this subject you had to research an object that had meaning for your family. I chose my mother's Pedigree Doll. It was an interesting way of presenting family history in a different way. I have a few other objects I might endeavor to present in this way too.  OBJECT BIOGRAPHY: ‘Kim’ – Hard-Plastic, Pedigree Doll When family objects are passed down from one generation to the next, they bring with them shared histories and memories. A toy train might spark memories of afternoons making model landscapes. Old buttons may recall times spent with a departed grandma. A doll which has been played with though, brings with it a story, a personality and a name. A doll may have had one or many playmates. They have probably had many adventures. With dolls it seems more appropriate to say we adopt them, not inherit them.  A doll is something common to every region, culture and time-period in history...

This year I started a Family History degree at University of Tasmania. My first assignment was to create a research question and discuss how I solved it. I decided to start with John Ross and work out when he left Braidwood and why. Many people have researched John and there are still unsolved questions around his parents and their histories but this part of the puzzle was at least easy enough to solve with a bit of  'serendipity'. The biggest solution to solving this question was a small advert. [Please acknowledge my research if you are using it on any other site including Ancestry.com] Digging Up the Past: When and why John Ross migrated from Araluen to Cope's Creek OBJECTIVE When my father died, I inherited a packet containing unpublished family stories compiled by a distant cousin, Pamela Leach. John Ross and his wife Catherine née Toomey's story shed little in the way of personal anecdotes. The group sheets mostly dealt with their incomplete birth histories, the...

 It's time for a change. I have spent so long trying to trace my Ross, Lang, Weatherstone, Kelly and Cotter families that I realise there are so many others on my tree. I started to make a fan chart and realised so much of it is empty. So many choices and where to start? I feel I know at least some of the stories of the above people. Catherine Coffee was my great grandmother, I knew her. I have a book from her but I know very little of her. I remember visiting her at the hospital with my Grandmother the day before she died. Her mother was Rose which was my Grandmother's middle name. I always liked that name. I might start with her mother. I have her on my tree but I don't even know this information, it just was something I added from another tree. And the name littlewood .. it seems perfect for a family tree project!

I literally stumbled across this document while looking for something else. S ource: State Records Authority of New South Wales; Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia; Benches of Magistrates: monthly returns of trials of convicts 1832–6 ; Series Number: NRS 12214; Reel: 662 This record (dated 29 December 1836) is for Ellen Ross a convict from the ship Pyramus. A search of the records show that this woman is Elizabeth Ross. One of the thing that interests me is that R Lee is the person who has accused her. This "Ellen" Ross lives in the Parramatta area and is around the age of our Ellen Ross. This Ellen Ross has a lot of interesting stories to tell. We have a few colourful articles about Eliza Ross. The Pyramus arrived in March 1832 and in the Sydney Gazette just a week later it was reported Eliza Ross, who was landed a week back from the Pyramus made her debut at the Police Office, for taking a cruise to see the Sydney lions, but, at the intercession of her m...