Relinquished daughters

It strikes me that there are four generations of relinquished daughters in my grandmother’s family tree, as far as I can see back. 
Mary Ann Hurford (my gggggrandmother) seems to have had a daughter out of wedlock.  Her name was Flora, and in the census records she seems to be living with a different family member [...]

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The Story of Forgetting

A couple of weeks ago I was listening to a national Australian radio program about books.  I only caught the end of the conversation, but one of the presenters was talking about a book she’d read called, “The Story of Forgetting” by Stefan Merrill Block.  I can’t remember exactly what she said, but she must [...]

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The Chart

I’ve filled in the gaps in my family tree for the period where death certificates exist in England.  You can see it below:

As you can see, I’ve been concentrating on the Ridgway side of the family and have more or less established that there’s no Alzheimer’s there.  However, Mary Parker did have ‘Senile Decay – [...]

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Brothers and Sisters Don’t Change Much

My gggrandfather, Oliver Ridgway, had a sister called Lily.  Lily’s descendants still live and farm in West Monkton (not to mention hold prominent positions in the community).  I have talked on the phone to them and been in contact via email. 
It was a shock to learn about my grandmother, who was adopted out at birth by [...]

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Of Course, there is no Divorce

Earlier in the search I found index records of a divorce between an Oliver and Ellen Ridgway in 1914 in NSW.  At the time I wasn’t convinced that it was my Oliver and Ellen (as I had found another couple by the same names), as the only evidence I had of either being in NSW [...]

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It’s been a while…

I’ve had very little time to blog over recent days and weeks.  Sorry about that.  Instead of great long (well thought out) posts, I’m going to try to post a little snippet each day in order to keep everyone updated.  I have a great long list of things I desperately need to write about and [...]

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Like her

Sarah Pring, my great-great-great-grandmother is said to have liked travel.  She must have if she was prepared to travel half-way across the world with a young family a number of times, making a home in several Tasmanian and Victorian towns.
This is a trait shared by her great-great-granddaughter, who I have been talking to in England [...]

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Nature vs Nurture

Since talking to my long-lost relatives in England and New Zealand, I’ve been thinking about the sorts of family traits that may surface…other than physical attributes.  For example, what types of behaviours could not possibly be attributed to upbringing (since the families grew up apart), and to what extent could they be explained by coincidence? 
One [...]

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All’s well…

This will be just a quick post to say that ‘All’s well’.
Over the Australian long weekend I have been in contact with a few living family members. 
First, I talked to my cousin using Skype on Thursday night.  We share both gggrandparents, Sarah and William Ridgway, as he is descended from Lily Ridgway.  He shared lovely [...]

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Close encounters of the ‘relative’ kind

Sitting here on a long, dark Australian winter’s night, I am imagining that a lovely spring dawn is breaking over the West Monkton graveyard.  I am heartened to know that the graves of my ancestors are being visited by their living English descendants. 
How do I know this?  Because I have been contacted by them, and [...]

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