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Showing posts from August, 2013

The Bloggers' Geneameme

The lovely Jill over at Geniaus has posted a meme/questionaire for  National Family History Month and I though I'd play along, so here goes: What are the titles and URLs of your genealogy blog/s?  My blog is titled 'gathering dust'  which I thought that was rather appropriate given my tendency to have a burst of activity over a short period of time and then letting things languish as I get distracted by more pressing matters. That, and if you have ever met any of my family you will note the genetic propensity for ignoring the housework (especially dusting). The URL is  www.missmuffett.blogspot.com  chosen out of fondness for my last name, I wasn't always enamored of it given the amount of spider jokes I withstood as a child but it is one of those ones that grows on you as you get older. Do you have a wonderful "Cousin Bait" blog story? A link to a previous blog post might answer this question.   You know I probably do but haven't blogged it. I

Deciphering Old Handwriting

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is not something I am very good at, and given my own atrocious handwriting you think I would be. Yesterday I turned to twitter to help me make out a place name on a board's immigrant list for the Commodore Perry  1855 - it was Heblos for those interested - today I am wondering if anyone can help me decipher the following "complaints" by Johan Winter and John Boss from the same voyage. Source: Commodore Perry, Persons on Bounty ships to Sydney, Newcastle Moreton Bay, 1848-66, NSW Archives Kit, CGS 5317, microfilm 2469, 4/4946 I'm flummoxed.

Trove Tuesday: Where are you Walter Le Pelley?

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My Great (x4) grandfather, Walter Le Pelley (c.1840-?), the youngest child of Ernest Le Pelley (1801-1849) the 16th Seigneur of Sark , migrated to South Australia presumably due to the reversal of fortune encountered by the family. He married Elizabeth Gunther, the daughter of John & Mary Ann Rendall in 1863, and the couple had two children: Louisa Elizabeth (1864-1941) and Frances (Fanny) Amelia (1866-1885). In April 1869, Walter makes his first appearance as 'missing.' Going missing of course, is a curious thing. I doubt Walter himself considered himself missing, that is, if he wasn't dead. But he was un-contactable and people rather wanted to contact him. Missing Friends. (1869, April 21). The South Australian Police Gazette (Adelaide, SA.), p. 55 Elizabeth died in childbirth later that year,  and it is rather ambiguous as to whether he had returned by then or not. In any case two years later, a warrant was issued for his desertion of his children. Deser