Messages in bottles have long been considered fascinating to many people. Stories of people finding them on the beach regularly pop up on news websites (often with the letters returned to their original owners) so it’s of no surprise to find that newspapers of the past similarly reported on such discoveries in much the same way. In 1869 …
In the early years of the Swan River Colony there weren’t a lot of choices with regards to marriage. There may have been more opportunities to meet people whilst living in Perth but, if you were living in rural areas, the opportunities may have been few and far between. Those people struggling to find a …
Years ago when I visited my Great Aunt (the same one I helped confirm Lake Street) I asked her about her grandfather, Jesse Wallace. He’d died in 1909 when her mother, Grace, was only nine years old and (obviously) my Aunt never had the opportunity to know him. Grace herself (being a young girl when he passed) would’ve …
Most of my regular readers would be all too familiar with the stories of Thomas Crampton, Matilda Maria Hurst, Matilda’s admittance to Fremantle Asylum and the strange disappearance of Thomas Lisle Crampton (their son). It is a story (and a family) that consumes me. Throughout 2015 I went to great lengths (including multiple visits to …
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place: and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In …
Finding Family 