When James Neale, a Private in the 4th (King’s Own) Regiment of Foot boarded the copper-fastened teak convict ship Jane in Deptford, he was bound for New South Wales. Family lore says he was making a quick escape from the stormy seas of his second marriage. Little could he know that even more troubled waters…
Tag: Jo Callaghan
How do you solve a problem like Maria?
Maria Wood said she was born in Parramatta or Paddington around 1830 – but was she? I’m on the trail of solving another mystery that I didn’t even know I had… until I took a DNA test! If you’ve been following my KINdling posts, you’ll know that my father grew up in an orphanage. That…
Finding my Collman family part 5 – George Charles Percival Collman
Down near picturesque Lake Jindabyne, at the feet of the majestic Snowy Mountains, lies the grave of a man who could be my Mystery Great Grandfather, aka MG. But is he MG? Is he my grandmother’s birth father? That’s the six million dollar DNA question. George Collman was born just before Christmas 1877 on the…
Finding my Collman family, part 4 – Robert
Shortly before Christmas, 1908. That’s as precise as I can be about the moment that my great grandmother, Miriam, had a dalliance with a man named Collman. My ancestry DNA results don’t tell me his name but they do indicate that my grandmother’s father descended from a man named Collman and a woman named Weston….
Finding my Collman family Part 3 – Charles and Louisa
In my hunt for my mysterious MG, my Mystery Great grandfather, I haven’t yet spent a single minute researching this Collman-Weston couple. Perhaps that’s because I have convinced myself that Thomas Collman and Augusta Weston are the right Collman-Weston couple. But what if I’m wrong? What if Charles Collman and Louisa Weston are actually my…
Finding my Collman family Part 1 – A Party of Five
Over the past two years I have been on a magical mystery tour trying to work out whose blood is running through my veins. My DNA results have revealed that my grandmother – Edna – was raised by a family that she had no biological connection with. Through my Edna blog series I worked out…
YESTERDAY DETECTED AT GOODSON’S POINT
I was sitting at home when the phone rang. It was my friend Judy at Windermere on the banks of the Tamar River near Launceston in Tasmania. This is where various members of my Goodson convict family lived from about 1832 until about 1881. James Goodson (the convict father of the Goodson family) served his…
Finding my Collman family Part 2 – Fine Beans
Searching for MG is a slow process of sifting through records and waiting for DNA matches to appear. One day someone will take a DNA test that magically unlocks the mystery. I’m not the type to sit quietly waiting, doing nothing, so while I wait for that magical DNA match I’m running a magnifying glass…
The Baron of Yarramalong
You briefly met my great grandfather William Hill in an earlier post. William Hill was the son of an Irishman named William Hill, the cousin of William Hill, the father of (George) William Hill and the grandfather of… you guessed it, William Hill. In 1937, one of the Williams featured in a handful of news…
Timothy Callaghan is good… and probably useful
Doctor Allayne, Mr Wise, and the Reverend Sheridon, all of the Immigration Board, came on board the ‘Samarang‘ as she lay in Sydney harbour. The crew of Samarang were tired and impatient to offload her passengers. After 108 days of being relentlessly tossed about on an unforgiving sea, they were all keen to go ashore….
KINdling 