Sentimental Sunday - Family Gathering

This weekend has been very productive, with the confirmation of the date and venue for the Shepherd, Carraige, Lee Family Gathering to be held on the 4th October, 2015.  The family gathering is for anyone who is connected to the descendants of Christina Lee and her two husbands Malcolm Michael Shepherd and Lionel Carraige.  Family names include, Lee, Shepherd, Carraige, McGregor, McDonald, McPherson, Weston, Webb, Rixon and Davidson.

These families were among the earliest settlers in the Araluen, Braidwood, Nelligen, Bateman's Bay, Milton and Ulladulla districts of Southern New South Wales.

The next few months will be spent connecting with as many family members as possible, collecting family photos and stories and finalising arrangements for the day.  A learning process for us all :).

If you think you are connect to these families or know someone who is, please leave me a message on this blog and I will arrange to send you the details.

Follow Friday - An accumulation of my weekly research - 10

It is a long time since my last "Follow Friday- An Accumulation of my weekly research" post.  However, I have been spending many hours focusing on the story of my greatgreat grandfather Donald McDonald. So today I would like to share some of my research discoveries. 

I discovered Donald McDonald's obituary at the end of last year in TROVE.  The article confirmed the family stories that he had immigrated from Canada, and added the additional information that prior to coming to Australia, he had spent some time in the goldfields in California.

As outlined in my previous post the article also provided some other clues to his life before arriving in Australia, ie. That he was from Glengarry, Ontario and his family had a link with the Hudson Bay Company. I was very keen to research these clues further, but to my dismay found that researching in a new country was not as easy as I thought it would be ie, lack of knowledge of the social and political history, geography, new languages, unfamiliar with archives, birth, death and marriage records etc.  I recognised this as “Genealogical Culture Shock” and wrote about this on my blog on the Worldwide Genelogical Collaboration last month.

Following on from this blog – which looks at some ways that you can overcome this brick wall or “genealogical culture shock”, I have been reading, collecting resources, identifying relevant history books, linking with genealogical societies, and searching facebook, pinterest and blogs by others who are linked to or researching in this area of Canada.  For my Follow Friday Post – I would like to share with you some of the Resources I have found. 

Do you know of other research resources for this area? It would be great if you could share them as well!!

Books

Gravestones of Glengarry Series

The People of Glengarry: Highlanders in Transition, 1745-1820 by Marianne McLean.

The Scottish Pioneers of Upper Canada, 1784-1855: Glengarry and Beyond by Lucille H. Campey

The Man from Glengarry:: A Tale of the Ottawa by Ralph Connor

Clan Donald by Donald J. McDonald

The History of the Clan Donald, the Families of Macdonald, Mcdonald and Mcdonnell, by Henry Lee

Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada Before Confederation by Donald Whyte

The Scots in Canada by J.M. Bumstead

Archives

Glengarry Archives: http://www.glengarryarchives.ca/

Library and Archives Canada: http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Pages/home.aspx

Hudson Bay Company Archives, http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/

Genealogical and Historical Societies

Glen Garry Historical Society: http://glengarryhistory.ca/new/

Ontario Historical Society: http://www.ontariohistoricalsociety.ca/en/About-The-Ohs_116

Web sites

Family Search, Glengarry, Ontario, http://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Glengarry_County,_Ontario

RootsWeb, Glengarry County GenWatch: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onglenga/

Clan McDonald Southern Ontario:  http://southernontario.clandonald.ca/

Clan Donald Canada Incorporated: http://www.clandonaldcanada.ca/

Canadian Headstones Project, http://canadianheadstones.com/links.htm

Libraries

Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Library, http://www.sdglibrary.ca/

Ontario Library, http://www.ci.ontario.ca.us/index.aspx?page=1

Toronto Public Library, http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/

Blogs

Library and Canada Archives Blog

Genealogy Canada

Scottish Genealogy Tips Tricks and Tidbits

Canada's History

Historica Canada 

Facebook

Canadian Council of Archives

The Ontario Historical Society

The Multicultural History Society of Ontario

Toronto Public Library

Archives Association of Ontario

Canadian Historical Society

Scottish Genealogy

Historica Canada

Pinterest

Canadian History: http://www.pinterest.com/jamesmac17/canadian-history/

Family History Canada: http://www.pinterest.com/bailleul/family-history-canada/

Scottish - Canadian History: http://www.pinterest.com/dianehewson/scottish-canadian-history/

McDanie/McDonald Genealogy: http://www.pinterest.com/scotsinamerica/mcdaniemcdonald-genealogy-western-nc/ 

Wisdom Wednesday - 2013 Accentuate The Positive Geneameme

We are approching the countdown to 2014, and it is time for a little reflection on the passed year.  I must thank Jill Ball, from Geniaus for her wisdom in posing a challenge to all genealogy bloggers that encourages us to look back on our achievements of the last 12 months  with  the 2013 Accentuate the Positive Geneameme.  For me 2013 has been a year of many discoveries as well as sometime out in the second part of the year when work and family commitments left little time for research or blogging.  I was feeling a little slack, however, when I reflect, there have been quite a few high moments in my research and blogging. Here goes with my 2013 Accentuate the Positive Geneameme.

1. An elusive ancestor I found was Donald McDonald, my great great grandfather.  While troving on TROVE on Boxing Day, for articles on gold mining in Araluen and Braidwood districts, by pure accident, I came across the obituary for Donald, which confirmed the stories that my father had related to me many years ago.  The family story was that Donald McDonald was from Canada and came to Australia in the time of the gold rush.  However, I had not been able to find any record to confirm him immigrating to Australia from Canada.  The detailed obituary clarifies this story by advising that Donald first went to the gold fields in California and then traveled with a group of American friends to the gold fields in Australia. This group was known as the Yankees and they established quite a reputation in the area of Bells Creek, Araluen. More stories on this to follow in 2014! 

2. A precious family photo I found was a photo of James and Margaret McGregor, with all their family. What a find! or should I say gift! I was visiting my Aunt in November and we were discussing family tree research over a cup of tea, when she gave me a copy of a photocopy of the picture of James, Margaret and all their family.  The bonus was that each person in the photo was named. This photo was the kick in the "butt" that motivated me to get back into my blogging after a 5 month break.  That following week I started my blogging series on the McGregor Sisters.  Thank you Aunty Inara!

3. The Ancestral graves that I found which meant the most to me in 2013 were those of the Nesbitt Family in Alnwick, Northumberland.  Back in the 1890's, pre-internet, it was difficult to find information on family links in England, so I wrote to the post-offices of the towns that I knew our ancestors came from in the hope they would be able to put me in contact with people in the area with the same surname. One of these letters struck gold.  A worker at the post office at Alnwick, gave my letter to his father, who was a member of St Michael's Church parish in Alnwick.  He wrote a couple of lovely letters to me, these letters included photos of family graves, and post cards of Alnwick.  This year I traveled to the United Kingdom to do some family research and visited Alnwick.  It was so exciting to wander around the cobbled stone streets where my ancestors lived, but the most amazing part of this visit was to rediscover these family graves and take my own photos almost 30 years later.

4. A Genesurprise I received was about two weeks after my Aunt gave me the picture of the McGregor family (see above). I received a message on my Ancestry site, asking if I was related to James and Margaret McGregor? It seemed that the stars were aligned for my McGregor Research.  To cut a long story short a volunteer from the Society of Australian Genealogists (SAG) contacted me, advising that they had James and Margaret's bible and if I liked I could have it! I visited the SAG, and to my delight came away with three family bibles.  See my post: Lunch time discoveries in the Rocks. The bonus of this visit was that I finally joined the SAG and I hope to become more involved with them in 2014.

Alexander McDonald's grave

5. My 2013 blot post that I was particularly proud of was about my great-great uncle Alexander Joseph McDonald.  This poignant blog was part of the 2013 Trans Tasmanian ANZAC Day blog challenge and tells the sad story of Alexander McDonald's landing at Anzac Cove on the 25 April 1915.  By the way, Alexander was the son of Donald McDonald mentioned above in my first point in this blog on my most elusive ancestor discovery for this year.

6. My 2013 blog posts that have received the largest number of hits and comments has been the series that I started on "Sharing Memories". I have really enjoyed putting these personal memories, some with old pictures taken my father to paper.  Hopefully I will be inspired to post more of these memories in 2014.

7. A new piece of software I mastered was Evernote.  A couple of years ago I wrote a blog on my resolve to start using Evernote.  This year I made a concerted effort to use my Evernote account.  I have found it invaluable in collecting, and sorting notes, web pages, photos, documents, passwords, scanned documents etc.  I don't know about you but I love every now and then to just randomly search the Internet for bits and pieces relating to my family history, i.e. articles on towns they lived in, maps, occupations, social conditions, events that happened in their lives etc.  I collect and tag these links, saving them in the appropriate family tree file for later reference.

8. The social Media tool I enjoyed using this year! I start a Facebook page for Family Stories, Photographs and Memories.  This has allowed me to link with other genealogy sites on Facebook and has been very rewarding.

9. A journal/magazine article I had published?  None.  However, this would be a challenge I would like to tackle in 2014 if the opportunity arises.

10. A Genealogy Book that taught me something? My recent focus on researching the McGregor family has made me realise that my knowledge of Scottish Ancestry is very limited.  Two books that I found most useful were: Scottish Family History on the Web, by Stuart A. Raymond, and Scottish Genealogy, by Bruce Durie.

11. A great library that I visited in 2013 was the Colne Library, Lancashire. As I mentioned earlier I went to the UK in the middle of this year with the specific aim of researching the descendants of William Taylor and Elizabeth Rushworth. I spent a month in the small village of Foulridge on the outskirts of Colne, Lancashire, and passed many hours in the local Colne Library. The staff were so helpful, assisting me with all my questions, and showed genuine interest in my research. This included pulling out from their storeroom a forgotten box of pictures from the local Ambulance Station that was given to the library when the station closed.  In this box we found an amazing collection of photos highlighting events and important personalities from the Ambulance Station's history.  Included among these were a number of pictures of Elizabeth Taylor (nee Rushworth).

12.  A history book I enjoyed, was A Lancashire Past: A family love story, by J.W. Foulds. This was a delightful story of life in Lancashire in the early 1900's, and provided a great background and some understanding of life in Colne, Lancashire.

13. It was so exciting to finally meet  and reconnect with fellow researchers of the Taylor/Rushworth family tree. I has been writing and sharing information with this researchers for around three years.  It was so much fun to actually embark on family tree research together, as we visited the old family haunts, homes and churches in Lancashire.

14. The geneadventure I enjoyed was of course, my trip to the United Kingdom. I visited the districts of Arnold, Cambridgeshire; Alnwick, Northumberland; Arnold, Nottingham and of course Colne, Lancashire, all towns linked with branches of my and my husbands family tree. I visited so many churches, pubs, farmhouses, library's and museums, met long lost cousins and discovered photos and family graves and records.  It is my plan to sort and write about these discoveries in the new year.

15. Finally, another positive I would like to share. I consider myself a person who dabbles in blogging and writing history, though if I had more time I would like to take my blogging more seriously.  So when I received an email from the Australian National Library that both my blogs, Family Stories: Photographs and Memories, and The Other Half of My Family Tree - stories of my female ancestors, were to be archived in the Pandora Project, I was quite surprised! and a little chuffed. It certainly puts a little more pressure to write articles of substance!

Well that is all for 2013.  I wish you all the best for the New Year and Happy Blogging for 2014.

_________

Resources:
1. 1913 'OBITUARY.', Windsor and Richmond Gazette (NSW : 1888 - 1954), 12 April, p. 12, viewed 31 December, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85849934
2. http://womenfrommyfamilytree.blogspot.com.au/
3. Society of Australian Genealogists, http://www.sag.org.au/ 
4. http://familystoriesphotographsandmemories.blogspot.com.au/
5. Colne Library, http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/libraries/librarydetails/libsearch1.asp?name=Colne

Sympathy Saturday - Obituary - Mrs Annie Shepherd (nee McDonald)

 

Annie Shepherd and grandson Neville

My Grandmother,Annie Shepherd, nee McDonald was the daughter of Donald McDonald and Margaret Hanlon  and she was born in Reidsdale, NSW Australia in 1869.  Annie's brother Alexander Joseph McDonald was the feature of my recent ANZAC day blog, Military Monday - 2013 Trans Tasman ANZAC Day Blog Challenge - Alexander Joseph McDonald.

Obituary - Mrs Annie Shepherd 

from Braidwood Dispatch  

By the passing of Mrs Annie Shepherd, which occurred in Sydney recently, another of our fine old pioneers has gone on her last long journey. The name Shepherd has been associated with Braidwood for almost 100 years.  Away back in the dim distant past her father, the late Mr Donald McDonald worked on the gold diggings at Bell's Creek, when the whole district, and particularly Araluen were in the throes of a great gold rush.

The deceased was born at Reidsdale in May, 1869, being the only daughter of Donald and Margaret McDonald.  She with other members of  the family received her early education at the Reidsdale School, the teacher there being the late Mr Arkins.  Leaving the district the family migrated to the South Coast, Mr McDonald setting up a timber mill at Mogo. From there the deceased married the late Lynn Shepherd at Mogo, Moruya, the ceremony being performed by the late Fr. Cassidy. The couple came to the Braidwood district to live, settling about eight miles out of Braidwood off the Mongarlowe road in the vicinity of the piece known as Torp's Lane.  Later they shifted nearer to town to a home close to Sandy Creek, two miles from Braidwood, where they lived for some years.

This home was noted for it's hospitality, many a weary traveller having the occasion to remember a good meal and often a comfortable bed there.  From there the family moved to Belle Vue, on the Araluen road, where they were exceedingly popular with all sections of the community.  Their home was on the Araluen Road, the hill just beyond being known to this day as "Shepherd's Hill". 

Mrs Shepherd was indeed a fine type, possessing all the fine traits that distinguished our worthy pioneers.  Her husband passed awry some 21 years ago at Braidwood.  The two older boys went to World War I in the great fight for freedom.  In later years the old lady has been living in Sydney.

There were 11 children of the marriage, of whom 8 are still living.  She had 18 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.  The funeral from St Francis Church, Paddington, was largely attended, marking the respect and esteem in which the deceased lady was held.

  

Several of the sons are still in the Braidwood district, while a daughter, Mrs Norman Casey, resides in Sydney.  It will be remembered that her late husband worked for the late John Musgrave on the Braidwood "Dispatch" where he was foreman and later on manager, a capable, conscientious employee, possessed of considerable journalistic talent.