Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2019, as prompted by Jill from GeniAus

Thanks to Jill from GeniAus for kicking us off in 2020 with her Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2019.

1.  An elusive ancestor I found was Les Snider, a half-brother to my grandfather, George Millard Kerville. I only found him because the boy's mother, Marion Snider, was advertising in the Melbourne newspapers for my great-grandfather, Leo Brenell Gabriel, to claim child maintenance from him. The poor little mite died at six weeks, only two weeks after the Police Gazette entry. He was admitted to the Receiving Depot for Neglected Children at Brunswick, Victoria. Very sad.

2.  A great newspaper article I found was in the Kyneton Observer in 1875, where my great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Ambrose, was sent to gaol for 14 days for house-breaking and larceny. She was 16 years of age at the time. More research required!

3.  A geneajourney I took was all the way to London for my first RootsTech!

4.  I located an important record: rates assessment notices for a property my 4G-aunt, Helen Brownlow Dixon Cruckshank, used as a boarding house in Macquarie Street Sydney in the late 1800s. I'm writing her biography at the moment. I say at the moment, but it's been five years in the pipeline. I'm determined to have it finished by the middle of January when my three-year university course starts.

5.  A newly found family member, Marilyn, shared information on her ancestor, who is a brother to my ancestor. Then I was lucky enough to meet up with her at DNA Down Under in Sydney in August. Another newly found cousin was Penny, a descendant of convict Esther, from England but living in Finland. She flew to London to meet me, which was fabulous. Also Bella, another one of Esther's descendants. She lives in England and we spent my last day there visiting some churches as well as Bevis Marks Synagogue.

6.  A geneasurprise I received was a distant DNA match with genealogy & Facebook friend Maureen.

7.   My 2019 social media post that I was particularly proud of was consolidating many years of research and speculation into a blog post about the 16 children of my ancestor, Esther Salamon Spencer.

8.   I made a new genimate who lives nearby, Regina. We met up prior to travelling to London. Before our lunch date I thought "Do I really have time for this?", but when we did meet we had a million things in common & I'm so glad I made the time.

9.  A new piece of technology or skill I mastered was DNA painting, thanks to Jonny Perl's website.

10. I joined the crowd of Aussies going to RootsTech, along with my 3rd cousin Cheryl. We had a fantastic time.

11. A genealogy education session or event from which I learned something new was RootsTech London!! What an amazing experience in so many ways.

12. A blog post that taught me something new was: all the posts written by State Archives, the National Archives of Australia, The National Archives UK, etc. I love seeing what's new, and the tips they provide.

13. A DNA discovery I made was visual phasing, thanks to Blaine Bettinger at DNA Down Under in August, although it will take some more practice before I'm proficient.

14. I taught a genimate how to interpret their father's y-DNA results

15. A brick wall I demolished was figuring out all of Esther's 16 children when there were only 13 that we could account for up to now (see #7)

16. A great site I visited was (not a website, a real site) 3 churches and a Synagogue in London where some of my ancestors were baptised. Seeing Stonehenge and St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle was pretty special too.

17. A new genealogy/history book I enjoyed was Nathan Dylan Goodwin's novels, as well as meeting the man himself!

18. It was exciting to finally meet Blaine Bettinger in August at DNA Down Under where I was lucky enough to be an Ambassador.

19. I am excited for 2020 because the NSW state conference is being held fairly close to home, in Newcastle. I'll still stay onsite though, so I can easily join in with the after-hours get-togethers and spend more time with friends who have travelled from further away to be there.

20. Another positive I would like to share is back in March I attended a UTP event at Ryde called Researching Your Irish Ancestors, because I have lots of them. One of the speakers was David Rencher from FamilySearch. He blew me away with the breadth of his knowledge about his subject matter, in all the talks he presented. When I was in London for RootsTech I couldn't get into the talk that I wanted to because it was oversubscribed, so I chose a beginner's FamilySearch talk just because David was the presenter. Although I'm frequently on FamilySearch, I still learned things at this talk. I went to see David at the end to tell him that he was THE best presenter I'd ever heard, & he was gracious about the praise, but I think he was happy to hear it as well.

Father's Day 2013 tribute

Having been inspired by Jill Ball's GeniAus post this morning about Father's Day, here is my tribute to the fathers in my family.

Firstly, my husband, Dean. He's been a step-dad to my 2 grown-up sons, and is an awesome father to our two daughters. Here he is at the Sanctuary Cove boat show last year, wishfully thinking that this boat was actually his:

Next, the men whose DNA I share:

Gerald Andrew Collins (1941 - )

My father, Gerry (Gerald Andrew Collins), is a retired coal mine first aid officer, & school bus driver. He used to drive us on our school excursions, which gave us kids lots of cred. Back in primary school. Everywhere he would travel when he did his two laps of Australia he would know someone. There are never 6 degrees of separation to my Dad, only ever 2 or 3, especially if you're from Cessnock! He's battling lung cancer as best he can, and the world won't be as sunny without him in it. He answers the phone to his brother with the words: "He ain't heavy" instead of "hello", calls me "Old Nell", and always ends our phone calls by calling me "Pet". His philosophy is "If you can't say anything good about someone, don't say anything at all." He's never even said it to me (not that I can remember but surely he did at some stage), although he lives it every day. I try and live by his example, and pass it along to my children.

Andrew William Collins (1907 - 1994)

This blurry pic on the right, taken on the lakefront at Wangi Wangi NSW in 1993, is 4 generations of our Collins family. In the wheelchair is my grandfather, Andy (age 86), my Dad Gerry, me as a spring chicken, and my eldest son, Stewart, who was only a few weeks old at the time.     

Andrew William Collins (my "Pa") was also a coal miner, as well as a bread carter, canary breeder and at one stage a driving instructor. He was really lucky to avoid being killed in the Bellbird Colliery Disaster in 1923, when he was 16. He had been offered to work "a doubler" (working two shifts in a row), but didn't take it on. The explosion happened in that second shift. He was a really gentle man. When I lived with he and my grandmother for a couple of years (a privilege I didn't appreciate at the time, especially for it's genealogical value!) I would come home from school in an afternoon and he'd ask if I learned anything. The answer was always "Nup", even if I did occasionally learn something. That was our standard greeting. He loved to sit in the sun on the front verandah of his Cessnock home and say hello to anyone who walked past, as he tapped the rubber end of his walking stick on the wooden boards.

His Dad was another Andy, or George Andrew, depending on the document, was also a coal miner. The name Andrew runs through the family all over the place in many generations, including my brother. (I've recorded them all so future descendants won't get confused by them.) I wrote about him here: http://janellestree.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/my-biggest-genealogical-wish-apart-from.html

He was born at the Sydney Benevolent Asylum in 1885, and was fostered by the Collins family from Newcastle, NSW, at about 6 weeks old. His marriage certificate was in the name Collins, listing his foster-parents as his parents, so if I hadn't had a heads-up about his parentage from a great-aunt I would be merrily chasing someone else's tree. Then, this hush-hush family secret information turned out to be wrong anyway! His real father's name was listed on his mother's entry into the Benevolent Asylum when she was heavily pregnant: Henry Burgess Gibb (1865 - 1901), coal miner from Newcastle. He was working there at the time, although his family had emigrated from Liverpool, England, about 1857, and were living in Sydney. Maybe Henry was home to visit his family when he met Ada Barrett (nee Morrant). I have no photos of Henry. He committed suicide (another story to be told there) in 1901, age 36. Ada's husband, William Joshua Barrett,  was in Goulburn Gaol at the time of Andy's birth, for the attempted murder of their toddler son, William James Barrett. I calculated the Ada was about 3 months pregnant with Andy when the awful attempt on William's life took place, so my guess is that William Joshua Barrett knew about the pregnancy, had just found out about it, or worked it out for himself. 

Here is Henry's son and my great grandfather, Andy:

Andrew/George Collins (1885 - 1952)

So even though we are proud Collins', from the age of 19 I thought my surname was meant to be Barrett, then a few years ago I found that it should've been Gibb. Weirdly, the same goes for my Mum's side of the family. Her father was George Millard Kerville (1911 - 1991). His father was actually Leo Gabriel (1889 - 1962), not Horace Alfred Kerville (1872 - 1939), even though he was given the Kerville name. Leo started as a boarder in Grandpa's mother's house, but they had a relationship that lasted many, many years and many children. They didn't marry until Horace died in 1939. Yet another story! So my mother's surname should've been Gabriel instead of Kerville. Ah, families. Gotta love 'em!

My Grandpa, George Millard Kerville, was an eccentric master cabinet-maker, who also made his own wine out of anything and everything. He had a cellar dug out of the red dirt under his house in Port Macquarie, NSW, and he would sneak us grandkids a sip of mead that he'd made. He had a garage/workshop where he had all his machinery and tools, which always had wood shavings on the floor, and smelled like cedar. When we would visit in the school holidays he would let us make things out of his off-cuts, so there was lots of nailing and PVA glueing, with not much to show at the end of it. We loved playing in the cedar shavings, especially the then curly bits, which must have been off the hand plane. His motorbike must not have come to NSW when he moved the family there from Victoria in 1954, as I've never seen it at his house. When my Grandmother, Edyth Mary Tuck (1920 - 2003), was in labour with my mum and her siblings he took her to the hospital in the side-car of the bike. I'm sure the ride would've sped labour along!

Grandpa George in 1963, age 52

George Millard Kerville, about 1950, outside his home in Ashburton, Vic.

So to the fathers in my life, thank you for being there, for being the wonderful men that you all are, and for giving me life. I'm ever so grateful.