Phyllis WINTER. Forever young.

Ursula ‘Phyllis’ WINTER was my Auntie, my mother’s sister. She died in 1955 at the age of 47. I didn’t know her as she died the year before I was born, but I heard about her as I was growing up. She was always spoken of with great affection and regard by Mum and her READ MORE

George MILLETT, our convict

Background… On the question of whether there were any convicts in our family, there was nothing definite, only this snippet: ‘Someone stole a hankie,’ my mum told me. ‘Who? Where? When?’ I asked. She didn’t know and neither did any of my immediate relatives. A detail on the death certificate of my great great grandfather, READ MORE

A Tribute to Teddy

31 Aug 2014. Teddy WINTERS Co.Cork, Ireland. Author’s private collection. Teddy Winters died in Ireland on Tuesday 12 March 2019. He was 92. Teddy and I were members of the WINTER clan, my mother’s paternal line. We met in Ireland for the first time in 2014 and I caught up with him again, just a READ MORE

ANZAC Day 2018 – Private Bertram John Vivian WINTER

Considering that this year’s Anzac Day, 25th April 2018, marked the centenary of the battle to reclaim the village of Villers-Bretonneux in France, I thought it timely to relay the story of Private Bertram John Vivian WINTER, my maternal grandfather’s cousin, who died on the Western Front in 1917 and is commemorated in the Commonwealth READ MORE

100 today…well, she would have been.

Today, Mum, Teresa Bernadette Coghlan née Winter (1917-2010)—known as Berna—would have been 100 years old. Wow. Hard to imagine. To commemorate her ‘centenary’ I’ve put together some research regarding her nursing training in Melbourne (1939-1942) during WW2. The story goes that Mum gained no pleasure from working behind the bar at her aunties’ hotel, the READ MORE

How Good a Wood Engraver was Edward LEE?

In the last third of the nineteenth century, my great-grandfather, Edward LEE (1840-1898) was employed as a wood engraver on the colonial illustrated newspapers in Melbourne. In June 2016, I was fortunate enough to have an article published in the Ancestor journal of the Genealogical Society of Victoria (GSV) detailing Edward’s working life in Australia.  READ MORE

A bee, a Saint and some Irish woods

In 2014, I went to Ireland. I went armed with the known details of three great great grandparents. I was hoping to find and walk on the land they came from and, if I was lucky, I was hoping to find some living descendants. And I was lucky: I sat at kitchen tables with ‘relatives’—some definite, some READ MORE

Sights and Sounds of Australia Part 1

Each season has its own features and aspects of life cycles in the ‘natural’ world. In this blog post, as in previous blog posts, namely, Sights and Sounds of Ireland, I’m going to share with you some recordings I’ve made. This time the sights and sounds are closer to home, they’re in my local ‘hood, READ MORE

Edward WINTER witnesses the hanging of three bushrangers

In my last blog post, Edward WINTER, Mary REIBEY and the $20 note , I spoke of the wonderful legacy Isaac BATEY left in the form of ‘Notes, 1840-1850‘—recollections of European colonial pioneers in Sunbury, Victoria and surrounds—available to be viewed in the State Library of Victoria (SLV). This post deals with another reference BATEY READ MORE

Edward WINTER, Mary REIBEY and the $20 note

Isaac BATEY (1839-1928) left an invaluable memoir of recollections of life in the pioneering days of Sunbury, Victoria, and its surrounds. Several of his stories relate to Edward WINTER (1812-1869)—his father in law and my great great grandfather. The stories are surprising, exhilarating and previously unknown—to my present day clan anyway. They’re what every family READ MORE