A trip to find First Fleeters

I have been reading "Where First Fleeters Lie" and decided whilst on holidays in the Wisemans Ferry area to go and look at Wisemans Ferry Cemetery and St Albans! While the trip was enjoyable and fascinating it was also a little sad: as many of the headstones have worn so much over time their inscriptions are undecipherable! So while there I photographed all pre 1900 headstones that I could read and also the footstones where there were some. I would have photographed all headstones if my camera hadn't chosen to run out of battery power! But this made me think, how often so many of us go to cemeteries and just photograph our ancestors headstone....could we take extra time and perhaps photograph a few more? Imagine if when visiting a loved ones grave we also took a moment each time and took photos of those surrounding it....what a legacy we could leave especially with the billion graves project...food for thought!

Time flies so I am taking a tablet to try and help

It always surprises me just how the time goes by between my posts! Well I now have a tablet so hopefully the ease of access to here will mean I update on a rgular basis. I have a couple of things to blog about today so here goes ... I!attended the NSW and ACT family history Asson. annual conference last weekend and recommend to everyone that you attend the next one in Sept next year. A very informative weekend and the opportunity to make new friends and see existing ones. The next issue saddens and astonishes me, the NSW State Govt with no resistance from the Hawkesbury Council?have plans to destroy Windsor bridge and Thompson Square for no good reason, as there is an alternative comparable solution. If you head to http:www.cawb.weebly.com.au you can learn more and I encourage you to sign the petition to save this part of Australia's heritage. In my news, finally am on the trail of my husbands maternal ancestors knocking down the wall is still hard work and appears I will need to learn about Polish records next. Another update soon :-)

Another Convict and on the trail of my Ancestors

For over 20 years there has been mystery surrounding my 3rd great grandparents, due to their common name they have not been easy to find. My Grandmother 20+ years ago paid to have a search done for my 3rd Great Grandmother as we knew her name and knew she had been married here - the search turned up empty.
So we skip to Australia Day 2012 and Ancestry.com allowing Convict Record views for free. Imagine my delight and surprise when I found the Convict Request to marry my Free settler 3rd Great Grandmother EUREKA!But that was not where the discovery ended...I knew now where the two of there were in a moment in time and was then able to link my 3rd Great Grandfather back with the information in the application to his crime and am pretty sure I am hot on his trail of his tickets of leave...I saved to my shoebox all possibilities! The bonus, there were 5 public trees containing these people and a little more information (that of course I will need to source) but I am off on another line! Woohoo!The mystery is not completely solved but it is now no longer totally in the dark either!
In other discoveries with these records, I have been saved a visit to State Records as the Special Bundles and Colonial Secretary's papers were also viewable for free and I know that another Grandfather of mine was eventually granted an Absolute pardon! Not bad for someone whose original sentence was Death, this also explained how he got to be a licensee for 3+ pubs in Sydney.
So 2012 looks like the year I may just get stuck back into all these lines...I really would like them polished a bit more for next year and my son's 21st..after all that was the plan originally - but somehow 20yrs back then seemed such a long way away!