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Blog postFifty years ago today, on Wednesday 15 October 1969, my family wearily disembarked from a Qantas plane at Perth airport. The flight from London had made stop-overs in Frankfurt, Athens, Bahrain, Delhi and Singapore, so we were no longer awed or excited by airports. But the smell of eucalyptus in the night air told us that we’d finally arrived in our new home.
Perth’s only airport terminal in the 1960s As a moody twelve year old, I wasn’t much interested in what was going on around me. -
Blog postWhen I was growing up, I associated the name 'Hebden Bridge' with romance. My parents had fond memories of taking long walks from Hebden Bridge to scenic Hardcastle Crags when they were courting. By the time I visited the town for the first time in the 1980s, it was an attractive and trendy tourist centre, full of craft shops, boutique food outlets and cafes. But back in the 1860s, when my
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Blog postHusbands Bosworth in Leicestershire is one of those places that I’ve never visited, though I would certainly like to see it one day. So what follows is what I can glean from the Internet. For several generations it was home to the Orton family, ancestors of my maternal grandfather, Albert Edwin Orton Farmland north west of Husbands Bosworth (1) It’s thought that the name was originally “
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Blog postBee mosaic in Manchester Town Hall Image from wikipedia. Everywhere you go in Manchester, you’ll find bees - carved into buildings, decorating bollards and fountains, printed on flags, bumper stickers and tee-shirts, even tattooed on people’s arms. Originally the worker bee symbolised the hard-working and productive labourers in the factories, those hives of activity during the industrial
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Blog postSomeone asked me recently if there was a way to be notified immediately by email when I post a new article on this website. There wasn’t, but I decided to add that option to the sign-up form for my Readers List.
Subscribers will still receive my monthly newsletter, The Scribbler, with a round-up of what’s new on my website and blog. It comes along with specially-written articles, useful links, news about my books and a little about me. (Click here or on the image below to se -
Blog postIt was inevitable that during the research for my book, I would come across the name of Dr Roberta Jull. Her influence on the welfare of children and the status of women in Western Australia in the 1890s and early 1900s was huge. She arrived in Perth to join her brother, who was also a doctor, in 1896, soon after graduating from Glasgow University medical school. Under her maiden name, Stewart, she became the first female doctor to set up a practice in Perth.
But Dr Jull wasn’t the fi -
Blog postOn 2 March 1834, the Parmelia sailed through the sandstone heads of Port Jackson in New South Wales. Author Thomas Keneally describes the Parmelia's voyage and arrival in his book, The Great Shame: A Story of the Irish in the Old World and the New. Hugh Larkin, one of Keneally's wife's ancestors, was one of the 200 or so Irish prisoners on board. John Mason, my great great great grandfather, was
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Blog postDuring the centenary of the 1914-1918 war just concluded, we’ve heard a lot about the millions of men in Britain (and Australia and Canada) who rushed to enlist when the war broke out. We’ve heard much less of those who argued against enlisting, both before and during the war.
At the moment I’m reading Not Our War, edited by A. W. Zurbrugg, which brings together a selection of writings by people who were opposed to the First World War.
Pacifists obviously refused any invo -
Blog postDr Thomas George Davy is one of the minor characters in the book I recently finished. As the Police Medical Officer in Perth, he visited Alice Mitchell’s home with a police constable in February 1907, shortly before Alice was arrested for murder. He later appeared at her trial as a witness.
A cartoon of Dr Davy from Truth, 19October 1907. It is one of a many caricatures drawn for that newspaper by ‘Pas’ (Donald McDonald).
Dr Davy was born in Jamaica in 1856. He -
Blog postWe now leave the villages and towns of Essex so familiar to my great grandfather William Beales, and travel to Adelaide, the birthplace of his wife, Eliza Whybrew. Rundle Street, Adelaide in 1845, by S. T. Gill. (Image from the State Library of Victoria.) Eliza's grandparents, John and Catherine Mason, arrived in South Australia in December 1844, when the colony was less than a decade old.
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Blog post"May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." (2 Corinthians 13:14) I once attended a church where the minister would bow his head and intone "The grace of our Lord..." when anyone walked in late, as if the service was about to end. His congregation soon learned to turn up on time! Sometimes the words do seem barely more
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Blog postThe strangely-named village of St Osyth lies about twelve miles (19 km) from Colchester, heading south-east towards the coast of Essex in southern Englad. It's named after a legendary seventh-century chieftan's daughter, Osyth or Osgyth (pictured here in an illuminated manuscript about her life). She apparently left her arranged marriage to become a nun and set up a convent in the village of
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Blog postIn this series of posts on places where my ancestors once lived, we now travel across many counties, from Lancashire in the north-west of England to Colchester, in the south-east. Colchester is one of the oldest towns in Britain. It has had a military presence since the Twentieth Victorious Valeria Legion established a garrison there in 43 AD, during the Roman conquest of Britain under Emperor
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Blog postPrinters at work in 1568. Publishing has changed quite a bit since then. When I self-published my first book, Susan, through Amazon and Draft2Digital, I knew very little about book-writing or publishing. So from the moment I started working on it, I tried to think of it as “just an experiment”. No matter what the outcome, I was bound to learn something useful. I did learn a lot, and I had fun doing it.
Looking back, though, I could have done many things differently, especially when i -
Blog postIn the early 1900s, Perth had no shortage of larger-than-life characters. They included not only eccentrics like Mrs Tracey and imposters such as Harcourt Whipple Ellis, but politicians, doctors and members of the legal profession.
The judiciary in Western Australia went through a particularly turbulent time around the turn of the twentieth century, much of it due to personality clashes and politics. It began when Chief Justice Alexander Onslow, whose early years in office had been ma -
Blog postIt may not look much different, but I’ve just finished moving and upgrading this website.
Previously the address bar said “Not secure” before my web address, which was rather off-putting. Now it has a nice little lock and ‘https’ in front of the address, with the ‘s’ standing for ‘secure’. It means people can leave comments, or add their name and email address to subscribe, with more confidence. Google also prefers secure websites.
This is what “the cloud” looks like in real life -
Blog postTrust is important in any relationship. But there are two levels of trust. The first involves our expectation that the other person will do us good rather than harm and will carry out what they say they will do. Over time we learn whether or not to believe the things they promise. The second, deeper, level of trust involves our sense of safety when we are with them, and our willingness to
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Blog postJohn Ward and his family left Rastrick in Yorkshire, sometime before 1901, and returned to Lancashire. They settled in Milnrow, not far from Littleborough, where they'd been living before they went to Yorkshire. Cottage handloom weaver at work. (Image from Wikimedia.org) Milnrow, located in a valley on the River Beal, was similar to Littleborough in many ways. It had once been a quiet
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Blog postAs an experiment, I’ve set up a couple of boards on Pinterest for images related to my books. They’re both works-in-progress, but have a look and tell me what you think. I’m something of a newbie when it comes to Pinterest, so I’d appreciate any suggestions you can offer me on how to improve them.
The first is for Susan. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of Susan herself, or her husband David Whybrew. But I’ve included a few of the people mentioned in the book, as well as many o -
Blog postThe so-called Roman Road on Blackstone Edge near Littleborough.Photo by Humphrey Bolton Let's follow John and Mary Ward, as they leave Walton le Dale in the 1870s and move to Littleborough, close to the Lancashire border with West Yorkshire. How different they must have found this village in the hilly, sheep-grazing moorlands of the Pennines, to the flat farmland and market gardens around
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Blog postA couple of weeks ago I put the finishing touches to my latest book and uploaded it to a publisher. That should have produced a sense of satisfaction. Two years’ worth of research completed, 85,000 words written, rewritten and polished. Instead I felt more like muttering, “Good riddance, I never want to see that wretched book again.”
Young woman typing, c 1906 Not that I haven’t enjoyed writing the book. But I’d just spent several days trying to get the footnotes looking half-sensible -
Blog postThe sun was shining, but the air had a bitterly cold bite to it, when we left the station in Preston, Lancashire, and made our way south in December last year. We were planning to walk to Walton le Dale via the London Road (the A6), over the stone arched bridge which is famous as the site where Oliver Cromwell fought a battle with the Royalists in 1648. Instead we came to a footbridge,
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Blog postHappy New Year everyone! The start of a new year seems a good time to decide on a theme for the posts on Clogs and Clippers for the next twelve months. Last year I chose to review some of the unsolved mysteries in my family history. Having just come back from visiting some of the locations in England where my ancestors lived, I've decided my theme for this year will be "places". I'll be
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Blog postBack in 2014, I described how I'd found records for a man in Australia with the same name as my Leicestershire-born great great grandfather, Thomas Brown Orton. My curiosity was piqued and I looked into this younger man's story a little. I soon realised that it was probably co-incidental that the two men were both named Thomas Brown. My great great grandfather (born 1842) was named after his
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Blog postShe was a young, childless widow, an immigrant with no property and no income. He was a respectable land owner in a small town. Their story has a touch of romance, but it's hardly the stuff of history. Why is it included in the Bible? What distinguished Ruth and Boaz from those around them, who lived and died, then rested forgotten within a couple of generations? Why does Ruth´s story appear
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Blog postThis week, 24 October, marks the 100th anniversary of the death of William Whybrew (1884-1918). He died in France as the First World War was coming to an end, only three weeks before the Armistice was signed on 11 November, and just a few days before his 34th birthday. His body was never recovered from the battlefield. He is honoured at the Vis-en-artois Memorial in Pas de Calais. His military
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Blog postThe spire, all that remains of Stowell Memorial church whereAlbert and Hannah married in 1878 I've written a little about Albert Hough and Hannah Holt before. Their daughter Alice was my mother's maternal grandmother. But there are several gaps and puzzling details in their story that I've yet to resolve. Albert Hough and Hannah Holt married in Salford, Lancashire, in August 1878. At the time
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Blog postExcuse me while I do a little advertising. It's possible to subscribe to Clogs and Clippers and receive notifications by email when a new post appears. You'll find the "Subscribe by email" box in the sidebar. Thanks to those of you who have subscribed this way. But Clogs and Clippers is not my only writing project. By joining my more general Readers List you'll receive a regular (monthly)
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Blog postThis post is a bit of a break from my "unsolved mysteries" series. We've just returned from a holiday visiting family in Alice Springs, which included taking a 'detour' via Adelaide. The detour was deliberate - we wanted to avoid having to get to the airport in Perth before dawn for the direct flight to Alice. And besides, we both like Adelaide. While we were enjoying a walk we decided (or
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Blog postShop Street, Galway, IrelandPhoto by Peter Gorman* After my success in discovering new information about the St Leger family, I decided to see if I could find out more about another Irish family in my mother's line, Patrick and Margaret Hardman or Hardiman (nee Jenkins.) The Hardmans apparently arrived in England between the birth of their daughter Elizabeth (my maternal grandmother's great
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Blog postImagine that a friend gives you a present, rather clumsily wrapped. You know that your friend has very different tastes to yours, in fact, if you were quite truthful, you'd say that they have poor taste. So you unwrap the parcel with some trepidation. Inside you find a plain white candle in some sort of glass candle holder. You try to look impressed, but the thing is unattractive, hideously
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Blog postThey say everything comes to the one who waits, and that's certainly true in family history research. Back in 2014, when I last wrote about my mother's great grandfather, Samuel St Ledger (sometimes spelled St Leger) and his defacto wife Alice Dodd, there were all sorts of loose ends and unexplained aspects to the story. To recap, Samuel was born in Manchester, in the early 1800s, and worked all
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Blog postHere's a paradox - the longer we've been a Christian, the more we come to realise how sinful we really are. We discover that our antagonism towards God runs very deep. Does this sound familiar? Before I turned to Christ, I sometimes felt guilty about specific things I'd done, but I didn't know what to do with the guilt. It was a joy to discover that because of Jesus' death on the cross, I'm
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Blog postPoverty, chastity and obedience are the traditional vows of those entering religious orders. Benedict, however, added a fourth vow for his order - stability. Benedictine monks and nuns are expected to remain within the same community for life. This might seem strange, even harsh to us. We expect to move house and change jobs several times over a lifetime. Our whole society is hooked on the
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Blog postEquitable Street, Milnrow. Matthew and his family lived at number 33 in 1911. Most of the unsolved mysteries from my family tree involve "what" "when" or "who" questions. What was the relationship between James Beales and William Beales? When was Richard Ward born? Who brought up Harriet Whybrew? They're questions that, at least in theory, could be answered by finding the right records (if
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Blog postA lot of the articles on my old website "One Candle" were out of date, and the site itself was difficult to maintain, so I've closed it. I'm planning to edit or rewrite the articles worth keeping and post them here. If you are looking for a particular article that used to be on that site, please contact me and I'll send you a copy.
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Blog postAdelaide Railway Station in 1878 Back in February 2013 I wrote a post titled "What happened to Jane and Bridget Mason?" about the two youngest of John and Catherine Mason's nine daughters. When John died in Adelaide in 1857, leaving Catherine destitute, Jane was 4 and Bridget 2 years old. At the time of writing I said that I hadn't been able to find out anything about these two girls, and
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Blog postHere's the next family history "mystery" that I've yet to solve. Robert Beales, born about 1785, was the great grandfather of my great grandfather, William James Beales. Robert and his wife Hannah (surname uncertain, but possibly May) had a number of children baptised in the church of St Peter and St Paul at St Osyth in Essex, or in nearby St Andrews, Weeley, between 1810 and 1827. Their names
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Blog postTimorous and Mr Fearing are two of the characters described by John Bunyan in his allegorical story, The Pilgrim's Progress. Despite the similarity of their names, they have rather different personalities, and come to very different ends. The Pilgrim, Christian, meets Timorous and his companion Mistrust at the top of the Hill of Difficulty. Unlike Christian who is heading for the Celestial
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Blog postOne of the things I most enjoy about having a family history blog is the contact it provides with people from far and wide. It's always a thrill to find an email in my inbox from someone who has read my blog and found a connection with their own family. Often this is followed by both of us exchanging information and photos that we would never have come across through the normal methods of
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Blog postMarket Place, Garstang Sometimes the best way to solve a mystery is to think laterally. If you can't find the information you want about someone by a direct route, discover all you can about their siblings, in-laws, neighbours and friends, and you may find a clue that leads to the answer. That was my thinking when I set out to discover the maiden name of Betty Lambert, one of my great great
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Blog postIt's hard to believe that it's a whole year since I published my book about Susan Mason. It was fun writing it, a steep learning curve to publish and market it, and a wonderful experience to get feedback from people, some of them distantly related, from all around the world. To mark the anniversary, I've made the ebook/kindle version of the book FREE for this week only. It's available on
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Blog postRose Whybrew was the fifth daughter of David and Susan Whybrew (nee Mason) and my father's great aunt, though he never met her. She is another of the unsolved mysteries in my family history research. I've been able to follow her life story as far as Chicago, USA, in 1918, but then she disappears. Despite hours spent searching, I haven't found any trace of her after that. What I do know about her
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Blog postMost of us have probably wondered at some stage whether we can really go on being a Christian until the end of our lives. Our faith seems so weak and wobbly at times. Perhaps we’ve struggled with doubts about certain doctrines, or felt puzzled and disturbed by something we've read in the Bible. Maybe we’ve tried to share the gospel with others and found ourselves flummoxed by their
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Blog postTwo voices, one song* In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul was writing to Christians who were at risk of believing that keeping the Jewish law was helpful, perhaps even necessary, for salvation. To help them understand that it was their faith in Jesus, not keeping the law, that put them right with God, he pointed out that Abraham was declared righteous by God before the covenant of
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Blog postWe all need encouragement to keep doing what we’re doing. As a writer, I’m encouraged to go on writing when someone tells me that something I’ve written has been helpful to them. Teachers are encouraged when their students do well in their exams. Trades people are encouraged when a customer recommends them to someone else, not just because of the promise of more work, but because it shows that
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Blog postMay the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:5-6 Photo by Riza Nugraha In a world where conflict abounds at every level, the ability of Christians to live and work together in unity should be a wonderful
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Blog post“Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” Genesis 18:25 The Old Testament is vital to our understanding of who Jesus is and what he said and did. Yet it’s not always easy to read. Sometimes the problem is our distance in time and
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Blog postOh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! (Ps 107:1) In a recent news clip about children’s art being displayed in a prestigious art gallery, one child was asked how she felt about seeing her picture hanging besides works by world-famous artists. Her unsmiling response was “It shows that I’ve worked hard and that if you really want to, you can
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