Not Just Names, Dates and
Places Please by David McLeod
Don’t let the results of your
family history searches become just a list of
‘facts’. Remember the first word
is ‘family’, and this means
people.
Don’t
let the results of your family history
searches become just a list of
‘facts’. Remember the first word
is ‘family’, and this means
people. It’s the little anecdotes that
bring them to life as well as interesting
others in what you’re doing. This is a
sample of some of the snippets we’ve
found.
Drummed from the force:
He was a member of the early police force and
befriended a number of aboriginals.
Supposedly he refused to participate in a
"hunting party" where the prey was human, and
was left in the bush, stripped to his
underwear as punishment. Needless to say he
left the force.
Not such a good idea:
He worked really hard at converting his third
wife to Christianity. He finally succeeded,
only to have her newly developed conscience
prompt her to admit that she was still
married to someone else.
Travelling incognito:
He was supposed to have jumped ship, but when
his shipping record was eventually located,
he had obviously arrived in some comfort with
a large supply of provisions. But he did
arrive with a name quite different to the one
he changed to some years after his marriage.
So did he jump ship from the Navy at an
earlier date?
Little indiscretions:
"Did he or his adoptive parents ever know who
his real parents were?" Answer: "Oh he was
one of Richard's little indiscretions".
Really? One of...?
Poor sad little John:
Their second child was called John, after his
father. He died early so they called their
next son John. He died as an infant also. It
wasn't until child eight that they decided to
call another son John. He died as a baby
also, on the same day as his mother. Father
remarried and the new couple had a son whom
they called John. He lived for four years.
Child number three of the second marriage was
also called John. He lived less than a year.
FINALLY, child number five was born, he was
christened John, and he lived to a ripe old
age.
Silence is golden:
He kept a diary of his eventful voyage to
Australia. The trip took five months,
considerably longer than usual. They faced
near disaster in storms, a drunken surgeon
who had to be replaced, the deaths of a
number of passengers from cholera, and a
mutiny by the crew. In all of this diary
there is not a single mention of the fact
that he had a wife and two children on board
with him.
A cigarette and a cuddle:
"Dad used to take his younger sister into
town to the dance every Saturday". "I'm sure
he didn't", my mother declared, "he hated
dancing". "But I only said he took her to the
dance; he would leave her there and pick her
up afterwards". Grandma and Grandpa thought
she was being chaperoned. They were quite
unaware that the young ones would sneak out
the back of the church hall to sit on the
gravestones, have a smoke and a 'bit of a
cuddle'.
The wedding dress:
Her wedding photos were beautiful. Look at
the flowers, and the detail on the dress. But
wait a moment - that's not the same wedding
dress! It's definitely the same person, but a
different wedding dress! It turns out that
there was another husband.
David McLeod and his wife have had bursts of
enthusiasm over many years chasing
genealogical information. You can see more of
their work on their website www.GeneFrog.com