Tag Archives: family

Review of 2022

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It is good to look back upon the year that was. This retired life is often free from milestones, goals, and ambition, and we often forget all that we have done.

  • This year I committed to weekly swimming at the local pool YAWA, and I stayed true to that, swimming about 1600 metres each time.
  • I walked regularly and did yoga at home in the mornings.
  • I continued to listen to the Rich Roll podcast, sometimes listening as I walked, and also often tuning in to the YouTube version. He has been consistently providing these interesting interviews for ten years now and I have listened to every episode. While I used to tune in during my commutes to and from work, now I have to make time in order to listen.
  • I have been practicing the French language using the Duolingo language app.
  • I joined the Peninsula Writers Club and while I have not attended many meetings, I did enjoy the workshops that I went to.
  • I wrote a work of historical fiction, and my autobiography to the present year. These were both great exercises for me to complete and my writing apprenticeship has broadened.
  • I read 32 books of the 50 book Reading Challenge I set for myself on Goodreads. My favourite piece of fiction was Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. My favourite piece of non-fiction was A Place in the World: Finding the Meaning of Home by Frances Mayes.
  • Time spent with my granddaughters was a lot of fun. Together we swam, cycled, drew, painted, cooked, played games, and enjoyed watching Bluey.
  • My husband and I had our DNA tests completed with Ancestry, and this confirmed my research into our family history.
  • The coronavirus pandemic is still circulating unseen.
  • I didn’t practice my piano lessons as often as I planned and hope to do more in 2023.
  • We didn’t go on any trips this year staying close to home.
  • We sold the caravan.
  • We are planning an itinerary for an overseas trip in 2023.
  • As of now I am hopping off social media. I deleted my Twitter account after subscribing in 2007. Instagram annoys me so much now that I can’t bear to be on there for more than a minute. I am not interested in TikTok. Facebook seems to be a necessary evil, but I will try not to post anything. I deleted my Strava account. Of course, I will keep Google and YouTube as these are actually helpful platforms.
Fun with my granddaughters 2022

Ancestors Arrivals in Australia

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Our ancestors arrived in ships during the 1800’s and early 1900’s. They came from England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and the United States of America, hoping for a better life in the new colony of Australia.

During these past months of lockdown in Victoria Australia I have continued to research and compile the family history for myself and my husband.

As Caucasian Anglo’s we knew our ancestry originates in the United Kingdom. The first ship I was aware of was the Hampshire that brought my grandfather and family to Australia in 1887. Although he was just a toddler at that time, he remembered the name of the ship and told me many times when he was alive, and I was a girl.

He ignited my curiosity that has stayed aflame all of my life. So began my family history research journey.

As I delved further into each branch of the family tree, I discovered more ships that brought our ancestors to Australia. Here is a list of those ships and the ancestors that sailed on them:

  1. 1819 Prince Regent departed London 17/9/1819 Plymouth to Sydney. Richard Roberts was convicted at Old Bailey for stealing one coat to the value of 5 shillings belonging to William Payton. Sentenced to 7 years transportation. Occupation noted as ‘Whitesmith’.
  2. 1826 Sir Charles Forbes departed from Plymouth to Van Diemen’s Land. Hannah Holland was convicted in Stafford for larceny of cloth and 4 shawls. Transported for 7 years. She was a member of the “Pottery Gang of Thieves”. The ship departed on 31/8/1826. Hannah gave birth to a daughter Mary Ann Plant while on board the ship. On 6/1/1827 they were hospitalised in Hobart Town. The baby died on 17/1/1827.
  3. 1827 Asia I London to Van Diemen’s Land. John Wesley was convicted for burglary at Nottingham on 15/3/1827. He was sentenced to life and transportation as a 19-year-old.
  4. 1829 Lord Melville II departs London on 5/1/1829 and arrives in Port Jackson 6/5/1829 with 170 convicts Dublin Ireland. John Higgins from Dublin, Ireland, was convicted on 5/11/1827 at Lancaster Quarter Sessions for a sentence of 14 years.
  5. 1837 Adam Lodge departed from Londonderry Ireland to Sydney arrived on 13/7/1837. James Morrow was a 12-year-old boy from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and travelled with his parents Joseph Morrow and Phoebe (nee Jamieson), and one other sibling.
  6. 1838 Palmyra England to Sydney 26/9/1838. On board were John Parker 38 (carpenter) and wife, Hannah Parker 38, and children Tryphena 11, Jane 15, Miriam 9, Keziah 5, another 3, and Mahala 1. They were from Brede, Sussex, England.
  7. 1841 Helen departs Liverpool on 4/4/1841 and arrives in Port Jackson on 21/7/1841. On board were Jonathan Weir (34-year-old carpenter) and Ellen Weir (29) with 7-year-old daughter Eliza.
  8. 1842 Robert Benn departed Greenock Scotland 20/9/1841 and arrived in Melbourne on 26/1/1842. Nathaniel Simpson travelled with wife Dorothea and daughter Ann and son William. They were from Downpatrick, Ireland.
  9. 1842 Arab London 7/11/1841 to New Norfolk Tasmania 31/3/1842 George Burt was 17 years of age travelling with his father, mother, and five siblings. They were from Walton, Somerset, England. They then travelled aboard the Shamrock to Melbourne on19/4/1849.
  10. 1844 Elizabeth departs Liverpool on 3/10/1843 and arrives at Port Jackson on 20/1/1844. Aboard was Maria Morrow with her family, father George, mother Elizabeth, and siblings. They were from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
  11. 1848 Marchioness of Douglas departed from Greenock Scotland and arrived in Melbourne on 27/1/1848. James Fleming was 37 and arrived with his wife Margaret 34, and sons Peter 9, William 5, and James an infant. They were from Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
  12. 1848 Aurora Plymouth to Geelong 7/12/1848. On board was William Hartley a 22-year-old laborer emigrating from Devon, England.
  13. 1851 Stebonheath Plymouth to Geelong arriving 16/12/1851. Mary Kerr was a 16-year-old girl travelling with her sister Flora who was 14 years old. They were from Inverness, Scotland.
  14. 1852 approx. Unknown ship. Henry Bentley was about 22 years of age when he travelled to Australia. He came alone leaving behind his family in Kent, England. It is not known the ship he arrived on or the exact date.
  15. 1853 Bride Plymouth to Melbourne 17/5/1853. Catherine Fitzgerald was a 23-year-old domestic servant from Tipperary, Ireland, and one of the many single young Irish women who came to Australia to become a bride. She married Henry Bentley soon after arriving in Melbourne.
  16. 1853 Helen Lindsay Plymouth to Melbourne arriving 17/7/1853. Edwin Hammond arrived with wife Elizabeth (25), son Edwin (3) and daughter Sophia (1). They were from Chichester, Sussex, England.
  17. 1853 Wilhelmsburg Hamburg to Melbourne arriving 24/8/1853. Aboard was the 29-year-old single man John Backmann from Stralsund, Germany.
  18. 1854 Ameer London to Melbourne 2/2/1854. William Catchpole was aboard travelling as an 18-year-old single man leaving his hometown at Aldgate, London, England.
  19. 1855 Shand Plymouth to Portland, Victoria 20/1/1855. Thomas Smith (a tailor) arrived with wife Sarah and five children from Gloucester, England.
  20. 1855 Epsom Plymouth to Geelong arrived 27/4/1855. On board was Mary Ellen Mullins (20-year-old) and Judith Mullins (22-year-old). Mary was the daughter of Patrick Mullins and Mary Higgins, and she was born in 1835 in Galway, Ireland.
  21. 1856 Ocean Chief departed Liverpool on 8/10/1855 and arrived in Melbourne on 25/1/1856. On board was the 20-year-old Edward Harris from Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England.
  22. 1857 Admiral Boxer arrived in Geelong on 9/3/1857 having departed from Liverpool. On board was the 26-year-old housemaid from Gloucester, England, Harriet Bushell.
  23. 1857 Beejapore London to Sydney 19/3/1857. Alexander Black arrived alone as a 23-year-old man. He left behind his parents and siblings in Kinross, Scotland.
  24. 1858 Parsee arrives in Melbourne on 14/5/1858. Matilda Colee arrives with her younger children, to meet up with her husband Henry who had arrived six years earlier. They were from Shoreditch, Middlesex, England.
  25. 1861 Prince of Wales London to Melbourne, 23/8/1861. George Newman 27-year-old arrived with Henry 62 (trader), brother James 20, and sister Sarah 24. They were from London, England.
  26. 1864 Champion of the Seas departed England 4/8/1864 and arrived in Melbourne 15/11/1864. 45-year-old Daniel O’Connor was aboard with his wife Mary 38, and children, Mary 22, Cornelius 21, Michael 17, Ellen 16, Kate 14, Hannah 12, Bridget 10, Daniel 8, and Patrick 6. They were from Cork, Ireland.
  27. 1871 Star of the Mersey Calcutta to Melbourne 25/6/1871. Aboard was the 37-year-old Henry Colee, son of Matilda and Henry Colee who had arrived earlier. They were from Shoreditch, Middlesex, England.
  28. 1887 Hampshire Portsmouth to Fremantle. John McKinna and wife Jane McKinna travel with six children to Fremantle. Then in 1888 they travel aboard the South Australian from Fremantle to Melbourne 6/2/1888. They left behind extended family in Newton Stewart, Wigtownshire, Scotland.
  29. 1908 Marama Vancouver to Honolulu then to Sydney. Arthur Gregory Duncalfe arrives with wife Beatrice. They left behind extended family in Spokane, Washington, United States of America.

These ships that brought our ancestors to Australia form just part of the story. From these arrivals I document the families as they settle here in Australia and become Australians. I feel humbled by these stories that show courage and tenacity. They left behind difficult circumstances, only to have to toil harder in a harsh developing colony.

Finally, after many years of gathering stories, photographs, and documents, I have finished compiling the Bentley-Smith family history. It is 280 pages in length listing as many facts that I could corroborate. I hope it is a lasting legacy for family members. But I will keep on looking for that ship that brought Henry Bentley to Australia.

Reflections of 2018

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Once again, prompted by Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity, I look back on the past year to recall what went well and what didn’t go so well.UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_8651

What went well:

  • My days that I spend with my granddaughter are filled with exploration, discovery and fun. We walk, read, swim, play, tumble, ‘cook’, sing, draw, and play the piano.
  • Our new granddaughter arrived in November and the calm I feel when I just sit and hold a baby is so full of love and peace.
  • A warm holiday in the sun at Noosa with my husband, where we caught up with family.
  • The 2Cellos concert in Melbourne.
  • MOMA exhibition at the NGV with my daughter.
  • Returned to Portland for the launch of their refurbished library. Caught up with colleagues and friends. Remembered how far it is to drive there!
  • Netflix
    • Secret City
    • The 100
    • The Bodyguard
    • The Killing
    • Line of Duty
    • Animal Kingdom
    • Lots of others
  • Books read
  • Podcast favourites
  • Author Talks that I organized as part of my work at Frankston – the highlights:
  • Completed the Branching Out Certificate with the State Library Victoria.
  • Local champion for the Libraries Change Lives campaign and attended the launch at North Fitzroy Library in September.
  • Finished my personal Family History Scrapbook.
  • Continue to enjoy retreating to my house, surrounded by native birds, I feel like I live in a bird aviary. The sea breezes carry the sounds of the sea to blend with the birdsong.
  • Playing my piano.
  • The team of people I work with are supportive and dedicated.
  • The recruiting process for new staff is an experience I enjoy, especially when the results are beyond expectation.

What didn’t go so well:

  • Work continues to be unstable, changeable, and challenging. This is partly due to the changing nature of public libraries and how people consume media. Also state and local government priorities change in response to community needs.
  • I have little free time due to work commitments and the daily commute.
  • I have not exercised enough.
  • Road cycling is not something I do much of now.
  • I had several Basal Cell Carcinomas removed from my neck.
  • A winter cold resulted in a persistent cough that has been hard to shake.
  • I have not done enough yoga, meditation, or walking.

My Family History

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Surrounded by piles of photos, prints and digital, and indebted with family facts and stories, I struggle to shape it into a sensible narrative.

IMG_7865

Curating the family history is a challenging exercise and yet I am enthusiastic to weave it together for prosperity and for anyone who might someday wonder.

This is something that has interested me for many years and I have been on some previous fact finding missions that revealed things we didn’t know. I love to find out about our origins and the lives of our ancestors. I can name three ships that brought different branches of the family to Australia: The Hampshire, The Shand, and The Niagara. I love to see the photos of ancestors to spot the family resemblances that crop up unexpectedly.

Not a ‘scrap-booker’ by nature I think that ultimately a hand crafted personal creative book would be a beautiful result. In the meantime I have begun to do a simple storyboard using PowerPoint to set out my narrative. There are obvious important gaps that need to be filled somehow.

So I think about others in the family who have compiled remarkable genealogies that are relevant and interesting to my story. One of my father’s cousins has passed away now and I wonder where that wealth of knowledge is now. Another cousin of my husbands father must be very old now if not also passed away – where is her lovely story and impressive pedigree charts now? Another – my cousin is contactable, but that branch of the family story is well documented already, so not as pressing.

Some of the old photos are gorgeous but without captions the identities are a mystery. ‘A picture tells a thousand words’ but also presents many questions; such a who, where, when, why.

This historic photo for example is of the family of Smiths who lived in Portland Victoria Australia. One of the boys is my paternal grandfather.

Smith_family_in_Portland_1920

Family members who knew them previously identified the others in the photo. A scribble on the back of a print states that this photo was taken in 1920 in Portland, just prior to the family being ‘separated’. The father and mother of this family are not in the photograph because they had both passed away. I know the story and it is a tragic tale that I will include in my personal family history when the time comes.

Meanwhile my investigations continue and I try to wrangle this precious pile of pictures into something interesting and useful.

Happy snaps

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I have just studied the subject Creating and Preserving Digital Content through Charles Sturt University for the successful completion of the Master of Information Studies. And it has got me thinking….

All of those family photos held in a variety of forms in a variety of containers need some sorting. There are old printed photographs in photo albums and in boxes. There are digital photographs that reside in cameras, phones, devices, SD cards, CD’s, and computers. There are digital copies of photos sitting in random digital file folders on computers. And we keep producing more each day adding to the digital heap.

So now I know how to go about organising all of this stuff, I need the time to actually sit down and apply myself to the mammoth task of sorting it out.

Once I comprehend the enormity of the task I begin to ask myself – why? For what purpose? Who cares? How many photographs of wind-swept beach scenes are too many?

Then there is the question of the integrity of the captured image: if a filter is applied to an image from a Smartphone app then this should be noted in the metadata or description. But that adds another level of tedium to the task, and yet if it is not done then what does that say about the authenticity of the resulting image. Is it then art or photography? Or both?

The notion of transience emerges too when considering the purpose of such an exercise. With ease and speed of connected social media channels through smart devices, a photo shared across networks among friends and family is enjoyed for the moment, in the context of that moment, and then swept into the ever-moving stream of data creation. Sure it is still ‘there’ somewhere in the digital ether, waiting to be retrieved for future embarrassment; like a baby photo shown by smirking parents at their child’s 21st birthday party. Other than for nostalgic amusement, is there value in spending so much time and effort in sorting out the family photos for ‘the future’?

I can hear the archivists and historians stirring on their leather chairs, leaning forward, fingers cracking, ready to post a heart-felt reply. I welcome it because I need a good reason to justify this effort.

The term ‘digital dark age’ was used in Creating and Preserving Digital Content to illustrate a possible scenario where data is lost through poor preservation techniques. I get it. I wrote an essay about it, elaborately describing the scenes from the original movie version of The Time Machine, where the vacuous stares of the future Eloi people are the result of lost knowledge from crumbling pages in books left to decay.

I appreciate the words of former Prime Minister Harold Holt at the Stone Ceremony March in 1966:

“We cannot understand the present or plan for the future without the knowledge of the past.”

danielle_susan_margaret_alice_1984And yet significant family portraits containing four females spanning four generations might be worthy of preservation for sharing amongst immediate and future family members, but how many “selfie’s” must we have to delete before we gain a representative portrait of one individual.

My thoughts are a jumble between process, content, and value. The process is complex and needs to be worked out to establish some kind of system that works and fulfills preservation standards. The content contains so many variables and raises questions about authenticity. The value is difficult to judge because it is not easy to project into the minds of some future person and decide if this image is worth the effort of the time invested in preserving it.

This article about one family’s preservation project describes some of these issues with a heart-warming narrative and a positive outcome, but concluding that it is “never done.”

My aim is to begin. I have the relevant information about how to approach the task. I have a large external hard-drive. I will gather the photos in all forms. I will start sorting, naming, describing, storing, backing-up, and hopefully one day in the future I will have some kind of result that’s purpose will be apparent.

In the words of Francis Kilvert, as quoted from this article: Digital Curation and the Citizen Archivist by Richard Cox:

“Why do I keep this voluminous journal? I can hardly tell. Partly because life appears to me such a curious and wonderful thing that it almost seems a pity that even such a humble and uneventful life as mine should pass altogether away without some record such as this.”

Cox, R. J. (2009). Digital Curation and the Citizen Archivist. Digital Curation: Practice, Promises & Prospects. pp. 102-109. http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/2692/

The Christmas spirit

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I walked through the front door and was stopped in my tracks with the silent realisation “Oh My Gosh, it’s Christmas!”  I first noticed on a sideboard in the entry a knitted nativity scene. It was so cute and made by the sister of the lady who lived there. I could not imagine ever spending the time to knit little individual sheep. This house, where our Book Club was meeting for the Christmas session, met all of the criteria of a warm, cosy, festive atmosphere. There were Christmas decorations everywhere; tastefully placed. A huge artificial Christmas tree filled a corner of a warm sitting area defined by wood paneled walls, antique sideboards, comfy leather lounge chairs and a fireplace adorned with conifer sprigs.

 

Christmas in the Australian summertime is usually a stifling occasion, but on this December evening it was raining, cool and misty, transporting us to a European Christmas. We shared a buffet dinner arranged on the dining table in the best Christmas crockery. We ate, drank sparkling wine, chatted, and then settled to discuss the book: Amy Witting’s “A change in the lighting”. The discussion was brief and not as in-depth as the previous discussions of other books.

 

dsc010351The next day I decided to think about my own plans for Christmas. I put up our little artificial tree, made Christmas cards and sent them, planned the meal for our family get-together, and went and bought a cute little nativity scene. It is not knitted but cute nonetheless.

 

Our shared meal will be a typical Aussie Christmas lunch with various cold meats, salads, pavlova with raspberries, plum pudding, fruit punch, lollies, beer, and wine. No doubt it will be a hot day and I will set up tables on our back verandah.

Staying connected

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While on holiday touring Europe I tried to stay connected to my family via email. I found that the variables with internet facilities were as ubiquitous as the variables in bathroom plumbing. Everywhere presented different systems that needed re-negotiation.

 

Not all hotels offer a PC with internet connection. Some are free to hotel guests while others require payment, either by coin in a slot, or credit card logon. And the fees vary.

Internet shops can be found here and there, but not everywhere. Again fees vary considerably.

 

Browsers and keyboards differ from what we are used to. Software systems are usually in the language of the country and sometimes there is no address box for typing in URL’s. MS Windows is worldwide so it is easy to recognise familiar icons. A lady in Italy asked me to help her with her PC because she assumed I could understand Italian from my apparent familiarity with the Italian browser. Keyboard arrangements differ too according to the language of the country, so familiar typing habits can hinder the speed of writing an email and inevitably cost you more money. Imagine “q” for “a” and “y” for “z” and the “m” moved entirely. Finding the “@” key can prove to be a challenge every time.

 

Deqr familz,

It is Summer in Europe so the weqther is hot qnd sunnz. We hqve seen the Eiffel Tower, the Sistine Chqpel, the stqtue of Dqvid qnd the Monq Lisq.

Be home soon.

Xxx

 

 

 

 

 

I managed to send and receive emails in Engelberg, Rome, Venice, Florence, Paris and London. Accessing Facebook was not always possible, but I updated when I could. Hearing news from Australia on TV or in the newspapers is almost non-existent. We Australians do not rate in the world’s thinking. Even world weather reports ignore us altogether. I think this is a good thing though and hope it remains that way. “Where the bloody hell are you?” spoken by a young Aussie lady in a television commercial for tourism, wondering where all the tourists are, could be more accurately expressed by most residents of the Northern Hemisphere when asked about Australia.