Letter M challenge

Wow, I am slow at getting this challenge up. But helping to Moderate the Modules in the UTas Family history course has been great and one thing I have noticed is how many research aims relate to

NW Elk Rapids MI 1960s Bayview & GD Rapids Postmark Downtown Stores Businesses Corner where Franks Drugs would be plus a SALOON or two Dirt Street Horse Buggy Era2

Don…The UpNorth Memories Guy… Harrison via Compfight

Memories

How often are there stories from family members or memories that turn out not to be true?

  • Like my grandmother saying her grandfather was black because he was sunburnt from being on the whaling boats too long …
  • Or my mother thinking her grandfather was an only child as she never knew any great aunts or uncles …
  • Memories of how big those rooms in your childhood house were, then re visiting and finding they were really small …

Our role as family historians or genealogists is to flesh out those stories and either prove or disprove those memories by using records and repositories.

Readers: Please leave a comment about my post or something beginning with M that relates to your family history or your research.

letter M

 

19 thoughts on “Letter M challenge

  1. Have realised that my male Couch relatives seem to have all been Mariners! No wonder I love the sea & I’m heading to Port Isaac later in the year to see where they lived

  2. As a child our perception is our reality – so it is too as an adult. The room was big to the child’s eyes. It is exactly the same size when one is an adult but we are remembering the room through our eyes as a child.
    M = mental illness.
    Rhonda Valentine Dixon

  3. I have a very important M that relates to my family history, come to think of it, there’s two! M for Mottershead and Mansfield. I was born a Mottershead and my mother was a Mansfield.

    And oh, those memories of huge houses, and returning to them as an adult, only to discover that they were rather small! I can totally relate.

    ~ Joanne.

  4. McClumpha

    Ellen McClumpha was my Great Great Grandmother. She was born in Liverpool in 1843 and came out to Australia with her parents and younger brother. They settled in South Australia.

    Around 1860, she married David James Winter Cornelious Culley in Adelaide and they had seven children.

    She passed away at the age of 47 in 1890 in Northcote, Victoria whilst visiting family there.

  5. Marriage,
    Marriage was not always the very first thing that occured for my ancestors. Some times the children came along at an inconvienent time.
    They had to find a place to live out of the harsh elements of Australia, they had to build a house, run a business, dig a mine and that town where the church was, was so far away when you didn’t have a horse and cart.
    But when the kids had all arrived and the strong had survived, when there was a few ounces of gold that had been added to the account, then and only then there was time to travel to that big city. Then in the back street church of Collingwood a mere 12 years after the first child there was time to marry.

  6. M- took a trip down memory lane today- my home is now 2 townhouses- the whole section of the street is, the bowling green is still there where my grandpa play., I walked around the church I was christened at further down the road, and then went to the now historic cemetery for a quick look. I grew up around these things. it has changed a lot.

  7. M is for marriage that often came well after the children were born. Miscarriages and high infant mortality without freely or easily available medical help or medicines. M is for the muscle needed to clear land and to build the family’s “Mansion” on newly acquired land. M is for migration and being a Musician at the Danish Royal Palace was not a suitable skill to have to Migrate to Australia – instead the newly learnt boot making skills was the ticket he had to use to come out here. M is for Musters and mustering of animals on the land. M is for Mareeba where I visited the Pioneer and New Cemeteries only to recall the following day that I had met Ernest and Elizabeth aka Betty OLDING when they lived at Mission Beach before moving inland to Mareeba. Realising that “Betty” died the day before my Mother, Betty, did so hopefully they shared many Memories of their times together down here on Mother Earth. M for the Mothers who held the families together through the tough times. M for the mines that gave one great grandmother’s father a chance at earning a meagre income from mining in Amherst, Victoria and her husband’s father the opportunity to own hotels on the Palmer RIVER goldfields in Far North Queensland.

  8. M = Mother, for without our mothers there wouldn’t be any family history.
    Also = Maternal, as this is the only true family line.

  9. M is for Mandy my surname. I always thought that I was the only Gary Mandy turns out there are quite a few of us.

  10. M is for me unraveling the Mysteries of my family tree.
    M is for MOODY – my mum’s family name. My mum’s gr.grandmother was Elizabeth Franks MILLER. She is a ‘problem child’ as, from her father back, I can find no mention of wives or mother’s names. Elizabeth’s grandfather was John Theodore MULLER, who apparently left Hanover (now part of Germany) for London, UK in late 1770’s

    M is for MOOR – my father’s grandmother Lucy, who married Alfred J HARPER. Alfred is really a MURPHY, adopted by his aunt and her husband after his mother died, shortly after his birth. Alfred’s dad is Michael MURPHY who is still one of my difficult ones. Where did he go after his wife died?

  11. Mystery: not sure where Marg B missing Dad went. But was helping nephew review his Uncle’s research about the Faulkner family of Barcaldine. His Nan Annie Stephenson’s mother Harriet Annie Moir had perished on the Thompson River near Jundah in 1930 of heat exhaustion. Harriet’s father left the children in an Orphanage at Barcaldine (abt 1882) and went to Punjaub a remote cattle station near Burketown, died of fever and lies in umarked grave. Must check Uncles sources to see how HE Worked that one out. Also locating info on this orphanage ??
    At my Nans house the dimensions also changed a bit, but the colours stayed the same. worked out why I had memories of a strange light in the window in lounge- it was a latticed window above a door, into the flat which Nan let to supplement the income. Curiouser and curiouser said the Cheshire Cat…

  12. My Mother – has just sent me a photo album from Scotland with photos of her family going back a few generations. Some I have never seen before -like the photo of my Great Uncle Harry playing the bagpipes during the 2nd World War. This will add so much to my family history writing.

  13. M is for the Miracles and Marvels of Modern Medicine keeping many of us alive for a lot longer today, compared with the lives of our Mothers, Grandmothers and Great Grandmothers etc.

    • Hi Ann just marvelling over the wonders we can find on the internet. Have been doing a bit of research on the Jagerndorff line while I wait for all Sue’s wonderful guests to finish their Convict course. Found the family at the Canoona goldfields around Crocodile Creek/ Bouldercombe Qld. Finished up back in Stettin Pomer Germany 1827. So I was trying to understand the boundary changes and early history of Germany to locate Stettin. Found these great web sites – Googled old maps of Germany:

      http://www.edmaps.com/html/germany.html

      edmaps.com (Canadian site)
      this site also has info links about many countries.

      http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~george/historicalgermanmaps.html/
      this page has old maps restored and repaired by George Dunham et al.
      Might be of use to some. Regards Marg

  14. M is MaryAnn Goulding … or is it Crocker? Who supposedly stole a clock from a jeweller in Oxford Street London and was sentenced to 7 years transportation….. she was allegedly 13 years old! Her husband also found himself on the wrong side of the law in England…. and ultimately ended up in Van Deimens Land.

  15. The Letter M brings to mind the thousands of Milk Cows and their owners/milkers who formed the backbone of this country in the early days and sadly are now disappearing. [1]

    Many were forced to leave the Dairy Farms due to the introduction of quotas, the 1964 -66 drought, bulk milk collection, as well as high grain prices in the 1980s.

    I grew up on one of these farms outside of Dungog, NSW and when I was a child (in the 1950’s) there were eight dairy farms in our valley. Today there are none. They have all been sold or converted to Beef Cattle.

    I find it sad that so many children today have no opportunity to visit a real farm and have to opportunity to ‘feed a poddy calf by hand’ for example.

    [1] http://williamsvalleyhistory.org/dairying/

    • Hi Jenny, enjoyed reading your dairy history. It is interesting to look back on how industries evolve over time. When you are living “in the time” you often become too involved in the day to day struggles
      to appreciate what is really going on. My husband went through the cattle slump of the 1970’s,then we were farming sheep when it became necessary due to a massive slump in meat and wool markets to drastically reduce flock numbers, some of our neighbours felt their only option was to shoot 10000 fine merinos. We had a much smaller farm and so decided to ride it out although we did dispense with our prize winning ram purchases that season which we found very difficult., having waited years to be able to buy them. Not many people run sheep here now because of the wild dogs. But I hear that people around Longreach who had been running cattle are now looking to restock with sheep, WHEN the drought breaks, as they will never be able to find the funds to restock with cattle priced as they are.
      Best be off, just a few of my musings. Regards to All Marg

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *