Letter K challenge

Victory.....and defeat

Philip Watts via Compfight

Wouldn’t we all like to descend from a King or Queen? Their genealogy is so well documented but instead we have to start with

Kith and Kin

According to the MacMillan Dictionary, the British definition is

Kith comes from a word of Germanic origin meaning ‘known’. Kin is also of Germanic origin, from an Indo-European root meaning ‘give birth to’. Your kith are your friends or acquaintances, while your kin are all the people you are related to.

Here in Tasmania some of your kith can also be your kin somewhere down or across through the generations.

When starting out your family history research, it is so important to question those kin about their memories and knowledge of the family or person you are researching. Start asking questions as soon as possible or perhaps show them a picture they can reminisce about, even finding a newspaper article might bring back memories. All these will help build the story of that person or family group you are researching.

Kin often have heirlooms handed down through the family; not so in my family though. All I have is a handwritten copy of dates from a birthday book for the DAVEY family in Evandale area.

For the family history course I participated in during December/January 2014/5 one of our activities was to interview a person. I chose my dad as I wanted to gather more info about his parents and grandparents. I  recorded using Soundcloud app on my ipad and had a list of questions I wanted to ask. But after asking the question I would let dad ramble with his thoughts and I found out lots of things I never knew and probably would never have asked him about.

So make sure you question your kin (and even your kith) as they might have something to add to your family history research.

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

letter K

16 thoughts on “Letter K challenge

  1. K is for Knitting together all the pieces that make up your family, present and past. And for the Knowing it brings you.

  2. K is for keepsake.
    Keepsakes that are passed down in the family’s over generations are precious. Keepsakes don’t only mean objects, but also stories passed on about our ancestors

  3. K is for Kangaroo – one of the most ‘Aussie’ names I have come across in my research. His full name was Sydney Kangaroo Glenn Wood, but by the early 1900s this ‘unique’ middle name started to drop off official records (I wonder why…;) ).

  4. Working with the Aboriginal families in far North West Qld years ago, I asked how they came about some of their unusual Surnames. eg Engine being one that comes to mind. The gentleman said he had to have a surname and so he took it from the old engine left lying near their camp. Some of our Surnames are derived from the places our ancestors lived and from inanimate objects eg husbands GG Kettle. Would be interesting to know the full Kangaroo story.

    • Margaret, I used to work in Alice Springs and records we had on Aboriginal residents included one with the surname “Minnie Motocar”….it was very amusing, but of course many did not even know when they were born, being born out in the middle of nowhere, and as you mentioned didn’t have surnames as such. Such a very interesting and beautiful culture.

  5. K is for KEEPER. I am the current keeper of our family history. With my niece and her daughter assisting me, who will take over being the keepers.

  6. K is for KERRY

    My mother loved her Irish heritage, though she did not know much about it. Both her Grandfather and Grandmother had come from Ireland and she was fascinated by anything Irish. One day she heard a journalist being interviewed on the radio and her name was Kerry.She really liked the name and decided to call me Kerry after her and after County Kerry in Ireland.

  7. K is for KEEN, my 3xgrandmother being Hannah KEEN, daughter of Job KEEN from Middlesex.
    Also Keen is something a genealogist must be to continue the search.

    • Hi Rae we share a common surname, KEEN was my maiden name. Family came from Somersetshire in England- with Philip/Mary, James Stott and Elizabeth Wiltshire being GG Grandparents.I think that you are on a separate branch line but perhaps we will find something interesting.

      • More on K. Reading book: How to trace your family tree in England, Scotland and Wales, By Kathy Chater published 2003 Borrowed from Qld State Library. Some interesting snippets:gives actual days census was conducted and tells you why certain things will be missing from certain years of the census.
        Also hints on how to try to find people in occupations through trade magazines, union membership and apprentice schemes which lasted seven years. Hoping this will help me locate Tom Alford.
        Also lists Cromwell and others related to Kings service. A kindly neighbour took me to see “A Man for All Seasons” when I was aged 6yrs. I was quite impressed at the time, probably more to do with the whole theatre experience. English Lit Yr 11 @ school the subject was not quite so riveting.

  8. K is for the KINDNESS shown to me by a considerable number of people over the many years I have been involved doing my family history research……

  9. K is for Kaleidoscope…life is like a Kaleidoscope…”a complicated set of circumstances.” bringing people together. A former WREN trained in Communications meets an Australian Linguist/ Translator whilst working for The League of Nations in Berlin in 1947…my parents.

  10. K is for Elizabeth Keanan. Her marriage certificate states she married James Robert Nolan and was of full age at the time she married in Adelaide. I have found no more corroborating evidence for her. She may have come out with two other Keane girls (possibly her sisters?) on the Inconstant. If this is the case then there is the likelihood she came out via the Earl Grey’s Scheme that brought Irish orphan girls out to Australia. No birth certificates for her two sons or a death certificate to be located yet. K is for Annie Keane – another one I can’t track down her birth or coming out to Australia before her marriage here to Ion. K is for Knights of the round table which don’t appear in my tree. K is for keeping on breaking away at our brick walls, gaining knowledge of better ways to research, record, analyse our data to ensure truth in our records.

  11. K is for the kindness of Family Historians. It has amazed me since joining online FH groups, how it is never too much trouble to suggest ideas or offer to help with a brick wall.

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