Flying around our suburban backyard in the ‘50s and ‘60s was a wooden spear with plaited hair wound around the top. It was a great hit with the local kids – not literally, thank goodness, but, rather, a curiosity, something foreign. Where had it come from? The spear was given to Dad during the Second READ MORE
Category: Coghlan
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 do we solve a problem like Maria?
Back in the 1990s, when I first started researching the family history, I innocently thought that my migrating forebears came to Australia and settled in one place. I soon discovered that, more often than not, immigrants to Australia in the mid 1800s often spent years finding their way; making money, losing money, battling disease, battling READ MORE
My Blog is turning 1!
Today is my blog’s 1st birthday! Time for a review… Site Stats: Since going online on 28 October 2015, there’s been 24 blog posts, 5,249 views, 1799 visitors, and 183 comments. The blog post with the most views? Back to the Main Drain-Cora Lynn, Vervale and Iona. A car trip around the Koo Wee Rup READ MORE
John COGHLAN, a gold town and Puckapunyal
Once again, as in a previous blog post, What’s in a Name?, I was bamboozled by a Victorian place-name. This time it was ‘Spring Creek’. Spring Creek was the wedding venue of my great grandparents, John COGHLAN (c1836-1904) and Ellen QUINLAN (c1843-1905). They married there in 1869. Here’s a reminder of how the couple (highlighted) READ MORE
Me, Dad and the Olympic Games
1956 was a very busy year for my dad, John ‘Jack’ Leo COGHLAN (1909-1974). Not only did he become a father for the fifth time—to me—but he was working at the Olympic Games in, our home town, Melbourne. The XVI Olympiad was the first Olympic Games to be held in Australia and the first to READ MORE
A 13 year old biographer
When I was 13 years old, our English teacher, the delightful Miss Seedsman, gave us an exercise in biography. The task was to interview someone about their childhood and write it up in three sections: family life, school life and a description of a game played at school. I interviewed my dad. Dad, John “Jack” READ MORE
The Locket
My grandmother, Mary Grace Jane ‘Doll’ COGHLAN nee LEE (1881-1958) ‘handed down’ to her son, my dad, a gold locket. On the outside of the locket are the initials ‘MJL’ and on the inside are photos of a man, a lady and a baby. There are no names or dates on the locket or photos READ MORE
Curiouser and Curiouser
When I was about 10 or 11 I had a growth spurt. My arms, hands, feet and legs telescoped out of their sockets. But unlike Alice, in Alice in Wonderland, I couldn’t blame my growth on a cake labelled EAT ME. Seemingly overnight, I became one of the tallest in my grade. My arms were READ MORE