Are you someone who can create entire worlds in your head, like some of the best dystopian and speculative fiction writers I know? Or do you, like me, need to experience a place to be able to write about it? Whether it’s a community history (such as Many Hearts, One Voice) or family history, or […]
As Anzac Day approaches each year, I find myself thinking about members of my family who have served their country in war. I’m fortunate enough that my 94-year-old grandfather is still alive, and willing to talk about his experiences. He has also gifted me with the letters he and my grandmother wrote to each other, […]
This week, I interviewed my 94-year-old grandfather about the Second World War, and he told me the story of how he met my grandmother. Technically, the interview was an assignment for an oral history unit I’m completing. My real purpose, though – and why I’m studying a Diploma in Family History at all – is […]
If you’ve been searching for Irish ancestors, then you may be under the impression, as I was until recently, that all genealogical records were destroyed in 1922 when an explosion and fire badly damaged the Public Records Office in Dublin during the Irish Civil War. The destroyed records included Irish census returns, original wills dating […]
Have you ever tried researching your family history? Maybe you’ve been doing it for decades. Perhaps, like me, you made a start several years ago, but life got in the way. Or you might never really have thought about it until recently, if ever. After my grandmother passed away about ten years ago, my mother […]
I’ve just finished a series of workshops with a wonderful group of family historians. We met fortnightly over the space of a term, and I heard some truly extraordinary stories, not only because of the particular people and events included, but also the way in which those stories have been told. This post is partly […]