Sunday's Obituary- George William Lee Obituary (1859-1936)

To stay in keeping with the title of my blog, Family Stories: Photographs and Memories, I thougt it is time to start telling some of these family stories.  What better way than to start with the obituary of my great grandfather George Lee.  George was born in the small community of Nelligen, NSW the first surviving son of two of the early settlers of this district, Thomas George Lee and Emma Jane Weston.  George married Catherine McGregor in 1888 and are the parents of my Grandmother, Chistina Sterand Lee.  They and their family lived on the Nelligen River at "Acacia Farm".  The old farm house that features in one of my earlier blogs, "Acacia Farm".

Death of Mr George Lee

"This passing was not sudden or unexpected.  Slowly but surely age and illness, untied the knot of life and in the solemn hush of last Sabbath, breaking dawn, his spirit broke the earthy bars and drifted out into the calm of the eternal land..

The late Mr Lee came to Nelligen when a child with his fathers large family of virile workers, and became well and truly anchored as “Farmer George” on the Clyde river ever since.  In early life he married “Miss Kate McGregor” of Braidwood district, who proved a right worthy help made and splendid mother of four sons and five daughters. Three of the stalwart sons, Clyde, James and Norman are well and favourably know in the Police Department of this state, where the outstanding physique and reliable efficiency soon attracted attention.  James made many friends in Moruya, where he was stationed for two years.

The five daughters, all married and settled in the district, Mrs Saunders, Mrs Rixon, Mrs M. Shepherd, Mrs E. Rixon and Mrs Sheppard.  Mr Lee’s long and uneventful life, centered on home and family and he had but little time for aught else.  Of static temperament, calm and deliberte in judgment, slow in speech and action through storm or shine, he kept the even finer of his way and throughout his honorable life ever proved a good husband, a fond father, a true friend and a humble Christian who practiced more in common life than man preached in high places.

Headstone: George Lee - Nelligen

Our sympathy goes to the widow and bereaved family. A large funeral followed the remains to Nelligen Cemetery on Monday evening.  The funeral was conducted by P. Brogan of Moruya.  His impressive rendition of the simple, yet sublime service was compellingly arresting, and the quivering breaks in singing “abide with me” were tremulous with tingling pathos. 

 At conclusion of ritual Mr Trelfell gave a stirring straight from the shoulder, heart to heart sympathetic address that went straight to the mark and seemed to gather fresher force when told beneath the dark blue dome of gods great Cathedral and the closing benediction brought a sense of ineffable calm to the many mourners, Mr Trefell has only recently been appointed to Milton Circuit, but soon came to the front ‘with” the harness of enterprise specially qualify him for sacred mission, and he is doing splendid work in the district."

Follow Friday - An accumulation of my weekly research - 4

Time is what we want most, but... what we use worst.

William Penn

Yes, this is me to a "T".  Grand plans but they always seem to fall to the wayside.  It is a couple of weeks since I shared my weekly research finds.  One area that I have spent considerable time on has been setting up my Evernote  account and as I have out lined in my blog on Evernote I must report it has been rewarding.

As for my other research, I have been sidetracked a little by an email from a lady who is researching the Rushworth Family from Yorkshire and Lancashire.  This is a branch of my husbands family tree and goes back to George Rushworth (1801-1884) and his wife Martha Halstead (1805-1845). My husbands great great grandmother was their daughter Elizabeth Rushworth (1841-1947). The Rushworths lived in the towns of Colne, Barnoldswick, Spotsland, Burnley and Stacksteads, Lancashire. It is so exciting when someone contacts you and you find a whole new source of information and photos connected to your tree. 

To assist her with her research I sent a list of research sites that I had found useful and interesting for family tree research in these areas.  On the off chance they may be of interest to other researchers here is some of the sites that I have found useful.

Lancashire Family History and Heraldary Society, http://www.lfhhs.org.uk/index.htm

UKBDM (UK Birth, Deaths and Marriages), http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/

Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society, http://mlfhs.org.uk/index.php

GENUKI Lancashire Site, http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LAN/

Lancashire Family History Societies, http://www.ancestor-search.info/FHS-Lancashire.htm

Lancashire Archives, http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/corporate/web/?siteid=4528&pageid=30539&e=e

Lancashire's Criminal Past, http://lancashirehistory.wordpress.com/

A Vision of Britian Through Time, http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/index.jsp

The Barnoldswick Historical Society,  http://www.barnoldswickhistorysociety.co.uk/welcome.html

Burnley a Town among the Lanchashire Pennine Hills, http://www.jacknadin2.50megs.com/index.html

The Lancashire Lantern (great source for photos), http://lanternimages.lancashire.gov.uk/

Colne, http://www.pendle.net/colne/

The History of Colne, http://www.colne.towntalk.co.uk/about/history

These links are only the tip of the iceberg.  This is an area that I am very interested in and if anyone has any other resources they would like to share with me that have information on Lancashire especially between 1800-early 1900's I would greatly appreciated it.

Tuesday’s Tip - Evernote and Family Tree Research

This week I made a concerted effort to familiarise myself with some of the features of the App Evernote.

As most of my family will agree, I am not good at taking my time to read instructions and generally just jump straight in, often missing some of the basic and vital tips.  So this time I, started carefully, by first watching the short introductory video on how to get started http://evernote.com/video/

Then I went to their How to Get Started page  and made my way through each step, testing each application. These steps provided information on installation, creating an account, creating your first entry, adding an images, synchronising with your phone, laptop etc, saving web content.  All pretty basic you might say, however, after a week of playing around with Evernote, I think you need to have it set up properly and understand its applications to really reap the benefits.

I was really impressed with the fact that I could sync with my phone, work and home computer, Ipad, and laptop (yes!! gadget tragic). This means that if I find a interesting article/photo when reading paper on the train, I can take a photo of it with my phone and send to Evernote, or if I am  reading article on Ipad I can send the link with the appropriate "filing tag" for later reference.  Likewise, if I am researching in a library, I can take a photo of article/photo from book or magazine and link to my Evernote account.

My gadgets really came to the fore over the weekend.  I was visiting an Aunt and she had some old family photos and was very loathed to part with them for even a second so that I could scan them. However,  I was able to take a photo of them with my phone and immediately send the pictures to my Evernote account, tagged with the appropriate family names, and a short note of who were in the picture and the approximate date that the picture was taken.

To gain the full benefit I have taken the time to set up NoteBooks (folders) to correspond with the four main branches of my family tree.  Then as I save items, I am tagging them with the Surname within each branch, and description of the item eg "photo", "newspaper article",  "link" , "certificate" etc. 

I have to confirm that my so far my Evernote experience is very positive and I am sure as I become more familiar with it's different applications it will prove to be among my most valuable research tools.

Those Places Thursday - Acacia Farm, Nelligen

Acacia Farm, Clyde River, Nelligen

George and Catherine Lee

"Acacia Farm" has been part of our family history for over 100 years.  The old farmhouse was on the banks of the Clyde River, up stream from the small town of Nelligen, NSW, Australia. My great grandparents George Thomas Lee and his wife Catherine (nee McGregor) moved to the farm in the early 1900's, with their family of nine children.  

My Grandmother Christine Sterland Lee was their seventh child, and she and her siblings would travel by boat down the Clyde River to the small school in Nelligen.

 When I was very young I can remember crossing the Clyde River on the punt at Nelligen (in the days before the bridge was built).  In the Christmas holidays cars would line up for miles waiting for their turn to go across on the Punt.  We would get out of the car and look over the side and watch all the jellyfish in the river. There used to be thousands of them blobbing along in the water as we passed.

Waiting to catch Punt to cross the Clyde River, Nelligen

Dad used to tell stories of when he lived there with his grandmother (Catherine Lee) after his father, Malcolm Shepherd died following a logging accident. He described how they would row the boat down the river  to Nelligen for supplies and catch the tide on the way back to the farm. I can remember visiting there as a little girl with my dad and Pop. My Nan's brother Uncle Jordie lived there at the time. We walked down to the paddock towards The Point where there was a nice little sandy beach. Uncle Jordie was growing turnips and I remember he pulled out a couple and gave to me to give to Nan to make soup. The lushness of the farm made a big impression on me as at that time our family lived on a sheep station in the far west near Broken Hill.

The "farm" as everyone called it, was often the meeting place for family get togethers. Everyone would roll up with huge baskets of food and drink.  The big black kettle would be put over the small open fire in the old kitchen that my great grandmother used to cook in.  It was constantly kept on the boil to keep up with the copious quantities of tea that were made. The adults would sit around in the front garden, surrounded by huge old blue hydrangeas plants,  swapping stories  of days gone by, while all the kids would run wild, playing hide-and-seek etc. There were always strict rules not to go on parts of the old veranda, as the floorboards were rotten. At the back of the farm house there where huge old fruit trees and an outside loo and shed that was covered in a choco vine that had certainly got out of hand. Lots of great hiding places!!

After lunch, and more cups of tea, if we were lucky everyone would go up to the beach at The Point for a swim while the men folk tried their hand at fishing.  I  clearly remember spending time with my Nan using a stick with a short line and hook and bread  to catch little fish for bait. It was great fun. The farm has now been sold, but I do believe the old ruins of the original farm house are still there.

Family Recipe Friday - Dad's Recipe for Ginger Beer

As a small child I remember my dad, growing his ginger beer plant in a jar on top of our fridge.  Every day he would religiously feed the plant with dry ginger and sugar until it was time to brew the ginger beer.   Then when I had a young family, I decided to try the recipe as well.  Dad gave me this typed out sheet of instructions, and lots of useful advice on how to brew the ginger beer.  It became a favorite in the summer months amongst my family and friends.  Very refreshing! 


Ginger Beer Plant

Put in screw top jar 8 sultanas, juice of 2 lemons, 1 teaspoon of lemon pulp, 4 teaspoons sugar, 2 teaspoons ground ginger and 2 cups of cold water.  Leave 2 to 3 days.

Then each day for 1 week add 2 teaspoons G. Ginger and 4 teaspoons sugar.

To make Ginger Beer

Pour 4 cups boiling water over 4 cups sugar and stir till dissolved.  Add juice of 4 lemons.  Strain into this the Ginger beer plant using a piece of muslin and squeeze dry.  Add 11 pints cold water.  Fill airtight bottles and keep 3 days before using.

To keep plant alive halve residue in muslin and place back in jar with 2 cups of water for 1 week.  then feed with 2 teaspoons G. Ginger and 4 teaspoons sugar as before.

Follow Friday - An accumulation of my weekly research - 3

Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday - Author Unknown

Oh yes Friday is here again!!! and as usual, there are a lot of things on my to do list that have not been ticked off!! (Hence my opening quote), I am definitely not Robinson Crusoe!!!

I did manage to finish my story on my grandmother Eliza Hazel Palin and have to reflect that writing these short histories of my female ancestors is taking longer that I thought. I have found that I am getting caught up in the stories of their times and the events they lived through.  What is becoming even more obvious to me is the huge holes in their stories, all that information that has been lost along the way.  It makes me wish I had taken more time years ago to gather the stories while there were people around to tell them.  All very well in hindsight you might say.

My biggest project this week has been reading and learning about the online application called Evernote.  So far I am quite impressed with its different applications and plan to write next week on how it can be a useful tool for the genealogy research.  If you are interested in checking this application it can be downloaded from http://evernote.com/.

Earlier this week I did get sidetracked researching one of my husbands great uncles that fought in WWI, so this week I will share with you a few useful sights if you are planning to research a member of your family that fought in the Great War.

The Australian War Memorial; http://www.awm.gov.au/

Role of Honour: Search site http://www.awm.gov.au/research/people/roll_of_honour/

ANZAC's Diaries: http://www.anzacwebsites.com/gallipoli/diaries.htm

The ANZACS: http://www.lighthorse.org.au/

Gallipoli and the Anzacs: http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/

Indigenous Australians at War: http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/collections/exhibitions/iaaw/home.html

The Australian Light Horse Association:  http://www.lighthorse.org.au/

Australian at War: http://www.australiansatwar.gov.au/default.html

National Archives: Army WWI: http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/defence/service-records/army-wwi.aspx

Australian WWI Nurses:
http://www.travel-nurse-information-australia.com/World-War-1-Nurses.html

Evernote - Will this be a useful tool for my genealogy research?

I am sure I am not on my own when it comes to having bits and pieces of their geneaology research in a number of places.  I try very hard to keep the all the pictures, files, useful links, newspaper clippings, emails and letters from other researchers and so on,  in some kind of ordered manner.  However, I must admit the amount coming in is often far greater than the time I have to sort them. 

I am hoping I have a solution.  I am an avid follower of Paul Higgins site on Emergent Futures and receive his monthly news letter which gives a great summary of new innovations and trends.  In the last newsletter there was an interesting article on his Favorite Applications.   The first application was on  Evernote.  Now I have to confess, when I first purchased my Ipad (which I love) I madly downloaded many of the new apps, that were going to make my life easier and fun.  One of these apps was Evernote as it came highly recommended by many.  I did set up an account and after a brief look at its applications, didn't get back to using it.

Now after reading Paul Higgins article, I have decided that this could be the tool that I can use to tie all my research together. 

This tool allows you to store your notes, pictures, develop check lists, maps, clip interesting articles, etc.  Then the bonus is that you can now access all the items you have saved at any time on your Ipad, phone, or laptop. 

I can see great potential for this app with family tree research so I plan to explore this further, and make an effort to learn the full value that this tool has to offer.  Watch this space as I share my progress.