Roman toes

Now I doubt that this cartoon doing the rounds of the internet would stand up to the scrutiny of the History Cold Case team (although, maybe they could add it to their repertoire!), it's still a bit of fun. I've methodically and very scientifically surveyed my family (like this: "Hey, what shape are your toes??" followed by a stunned silence) and come up with the following results:



Both of my parents have Roman toes, and so do 3 of their 5 children. The other 2 have Egyptian, even though we don't have anybody that wasn't of English, Irish, or Scottish origin for the past 300 years. So the Romans invading/settling Britain (depends on your perspective I guess, whether you ask the current Aussies or the Aboriginals for example) must have really influenced our feet. How the Egyptian bit got into the mix I have no clue.

My husband also has Egyptian toes, but both our daughters have Roman toes like me. Is one type more genetically dominant??

I wonder if the Egyptians have Egyptian toes and the Italians have Roman toes????

A Convict In The Family?

On Saturday 13 April I went to the Museum of Sydney for the opening of Mine Konakci's exhibition A Convict In The Family? It was wonderful to hear Mine speak about her inspiration for the photographs, and it was fun to spot the faces in the crowd who were also featured in Mine's photos. I saw another two photos that are linked to families that I am researching for friends, the Butt(s) and Cable families, but didn't get a chance to speak to the subjects. One lady I did catch was Anne, who is descended from a convict also named Anne (there were two with matching names of the 40 images). Her ancestor was a convict of the Second Fleet's Neptune, and my 5xg-grandfather James BRACKENRIG, was a soldier on the same ship, which arrived in 1790. Anne's ancestor went on to marry another soldier off the Neptune. I wonder if there was any power imbalance in those relationships that started in such sad and possibly violent circumstances.

The exhibition is related to a previous blog post that I wrote in October 2012.

Here I am with Mine's photo of me

Missing headstones and Michael Caton's inspiration to me

I loved watching the Michael Caton episode of Who Do You Think You Are last week. His ancestor was friends with the bushranger, Thunderbolt, who is buried at Uralla Old Cemetery, right near my ggg-grandfather, Henry CRUCKSHANK and his wife Sarah Brownlow DIXON.





Michael's ancestor ended his days at an asylum in Sydney, and was buried in an unmarked grave there, along with many others. What struck a chord with me is that Michael left a small stone behind to show that someone had been there - I presume this is the basis of the same Jewish tradition. Many times I've searched for the final resting place of an ancestor, and bemoaned the fact there was no marker of any kind there eg Julia MOONEY (nee HOWE) at Campbell's Hill, Maitland, and Esther BIGGE (formerly SALAMON SPENCER FITZ STUBBS & counting!). When I win Lotto I'll put up headstones for every ancestor that's missing theirs. I think I'll take a leaf from Michael Caton's book and go to the site anyway, and give thanks to that ancestor for giving me life, because without them I wouldn't be here today. And to let them know that they're still in the thoughts (of at least one!) of their descendants.

So I'll have to plan a day to Sydney to look at the grass where quite a number of my people are buried. Luckily it's only an hour away, but then a lot of traipsing around each cemetery. A few years ago now another Cruckshank descendant and I did a weekend trip to Uralla to visit Henry & Sarah's grave, which took 5 hours/420kms. It was about this time of year, and the weather was perfect.

Henry's brother, Frederick CRUICKSHANK (yes, spelled differently), is buried out on a property he worked on at Gostwyck on the Salisbury Plains, right near the gorgeous All Saints Chapel, and his headstone is laying flat now and gets covered over with every flood, when there aren't sheep or cows walking all over it. His isn't the only grave on that property but only one of two stones visible - the other one has fallen over on it's face, or else it's so badly weathered it's now illegible. A few of us would love to have it moved to be near Henry's grave at Uralla. Do we leave him to rest there with the stone, or move the stone so that it's not completely buried and never to be seen again by anyone? Fred and his wife Helen Brownlow DIXON (yes, 2 brothers married 2 sisters) had no children, so it's Henry's descendants that would be able to visit. Presuming the property owners and Uralla Council were to give permission. Hmmmmm, what to do.

Our new book has arrived!!

A group of us Genies Down Under podcast listeners decided to publish our convict stories in a book

(http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=convicts+down+under&categoryId=200468)

which was launched a couple of days ago on the December podcast.

 

"Cheers!" she says, holding up an imaginary glass of champagne to our tireless leader, Maria Northcote, who steered us through the painless process, and to all the other authors: Andrew Black, Ros Escott, Dot Elder, Jennifer Goodwin, and Gill McMillan.

 

My story is about Esther Salamon (or Esther Spencer), who I wrote about in a previous post.

 

 

 

For a Pittance photos

At the Easter weekend last year I had the privelige of being chosen by Mine Konakci to be photographed for her "For a Pittance" gallery of work, and the results are below. Mine's photography skills are amazing, if you want to check them out see www.forapittance.com.au . She had advertised in the Australian Family Tree Connections magazine for anyone with convicts in their family who might be interested. Seeing as I have 5 of them (Australian Royalty - hand chosen by the finest judges in England!), I thought I'd honour one of them in this way.

Here's what she wrote about her inspiration for the project:

“Most convicts transported to Australia were convicted of petty theft, the majority of which were considered to be minor crimes by today’s standards. Stolen items varied from shoes to fabrics, coats to pocket watches, purses to sheep, and jugs to yarn. More than 160,000 people, an overwhelming number, were transported ‘beyond the seas’ between 1787 and 1868 to serve their sentences, which were usually seven or 14 years.

As a photographer, what interested me was the impact that the theft of objects—most of a relatively small value—could have on people’s lives. As a result, the photographs depict the descendants with a representation of the item that their ancestors had stolen; with the items providing a link between the ancestor and descendant.” Mine Konakci

My ancestor chosen was my 5x great-grandmother, Esther Spencer, who I have blogged about in an earlier post. According to the Old Bailey she was “indicted for stealing, on the 17th of July [1794], two silver salt holders, value 18s. two silver salt spoons, value 2s. two silver pepper castors, value 1l [sic. Shilling maybe?]. a silver table spoon, value 14s. the goods of Jacob Ruffy.”  Initially she was sentenced to death, but that was thankfully reduced to transportation for life instead. Lucky for me!!

 

 

 

The bottom photo includes my daughters, Kate, aged 7 (on the right) and Georgia, aged 4.

We don't have the items that Esther stole at the time - they would have been returned to their Mr Ruffy I presume -  so we improvised with various other bits of silverware.

 

Thanks to Mine Konakci for permission to use the photos in this way.

 

PS Next time I have such an important photo taken I'll make sure my fringe is cut straight ;)

 

Third Fleet Transport - Albemarle

If I could make any sense of how to post this message to the Ancestry message boards I'd put it there, but seeing as it's like navigating blind, I'll post here instead:


I've just bought a copy of a book called:

Third Fleet Transport

Albemarle

An Alphabetical Listing of Convicts, Masters, Crew, Naval and Military

Compiled by Merrilyn Minter (RIP)

Published by the Newcastle Family History Society Inc.

 

Anyone who wants a look-up from the book, just message me any time.
My own ancestor is listed: Thomas Stubbs.

Nothing wrong with this picture!