Theme: Letters and Diaries My Great Grandfather Alexander Johnston (1829-1906) came from a family of seven, and from all accounts they were a loving, tight-knit family. Only one sibling emigrated from their home town of Glasgow, and that was Alexander, who with his wife Margaret (Lyle) and little son Charles made the long journey to… Read more

Theme: Surprise I am reposting this blog due to the amazing number of typos and other errors … I plead being under the influence of a strong painkiller at the time I wrote it … but that is no real excuse (!) My thanks to Lesley, Arthur and Dave for pointing out some of the… Read more

Theme: Challenge. My second cousin Peter John Hunt (1929-2012) was a surveyor on the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (1960–61), He received the Polar Medal and RGS Sir Cuthbert Peek award in 1969. Hunt Mountain (3660m) in Antarctica was named after him. Originally a British Army officer, “……during the summer of 1959/60 he took… Read more

Theme: Overlooked. When I first started investigating my maternal grandparents’ line, it was known that my Great Grandparents Edwin Hunt and Margaret Morgan and their large family had emigrated to Australia from Berkshire in 1879, and that he had two sisters Elizabeth and Mary Anne who had emigrated earlier. A third sister Emma and a… Read more

Theme: Nickname I am late with this – I couldn’t think of anything new to write about concerning my family’s or my husband’s family’s various nicknames – nothing very startling or unusual – but then I remembered….. I once owned a gorgeous little sports car – British racing green with a black hood and tonneau… Read more

Theme: Favourite Photo. This photo shows my Aunt Betty and my mother Vada d’Archy in the grounds of their home in Toowoomba, Queensland. It must have been taken soon after their father Dick d’Archy left to fight in the First World War. He had been managing a large cattle station in far North Queensland, where… Read more