G is For ...... Gorgeous new Grandson

My Gorgeous first Grandchild has arrived and I'm over the moon.

Our daughter and her fiancee have made us very proud Grandparents.

Our new little Grandson was born on the 15th at the Angliss Hospital, Upper Ferntree Gully Victoria.

His birth weight was 3380 kg (7lbs 3oz) and his length was 48 cm.

With that mop of hair it's any wonder his mum had heartburn and it's also very lucky she is a hairdresser!

Mum and Bub are both well and Dad is recovering and being wonderfully supportive.

The only drawback is that we live 3 hours drive from them and with having a 7 day a week General store it takes some planning to get away.  

Bub wasn't due until the 2nd of July and we were closing up shop to go and spend the weekend with his mum before the birth but Friday morning she rang and said she thought she may be in labour.

It never rains but it pours around here and as it happened Friday morning there was a very sad fatal car accident at our corner which took out a power pole and our electricity.

We were trying to wait until the power was restored before we left but it was taking ages as a new pole had to be brought in.

Then our daughter rang again about lunchtime and said she was going to the hospital so we decided that was it. We unplugged everything that we could just in case of a power surge and luckily we have a very lovely neighbour who kept an eye on things and fed the dog.

We arrived at the hospital only an hour before his birth.

Being country bumpkins every time we went to the hospital to visit we got lost and took a different road!  There a lots of scenic routes around that area.

Monday morning we had to come home and I so didn't want to but I am hoping to be able to go down again next week for a few days. 

Fingers crossed!

This post is part of the Gould Genealogy's Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge.

 My family history through the alphabet list

F is for .... "F" words galore

So many "F" words come to mind and they can all be attributed to my Family History experiences but some are unprintable.

The majority are Fine ------------------ beginning of course with Family History.


The First that comes to mind is that my maiden name was FORSYTH.
My Mum's maiden name was FLEMING.
Her first cousins were FLANIGANS.
My great great Grandmother was a FARQUHAR.

Fantastic Finds.                                            
Fabulous Family.

Foundations.
Faith.
Fussy
Fundamental.                                                          
Floundering.
Forever.
Fanatical.
Fortuitous.
Fun.                                                                        
Frustrating.
Flabbergasted.
Finances.
Fortunate.
Friendships.
Facebook.
Far-away.
Far-Fetched..
Far-reaching.
Far Out!
Frightening.
Fearless.
Faith and Begorrah!
Forgotten.
Fotos .... um.....well perhaps not

Also ................

The ship on which my great great great Grandmother was traveling to Australia from Scotland in Eighteen Forty, caught on Fire!
A recent comment on my blog started an amusing thread on my Facebook page.  Sharon commented that she had found a 1906 teacher whose name was Fanny Box.  It seems Fanny was quite a popular name back then as many of my Friends and extended Family recall women they knew of by that name.

A Favourite F Find is  Free Irish Genealogy eBooks

 My family history through the alphabet list

E is for .... Education

Some of my ancestors who migrated to Australia in the mid 1800s could write, some couldn't.
Thankfully in later years Education was attainable for more and more families.
I have a couple of old school photos.
The first is of my maternal grandfather's school.  He is in the top row far right and would have turned eleven years old earlier that same month.

King Valley S.S - taken 30-9-1920

Top left -Archie Mahlook, Percy Mahlook, Bob Newton, Alex Laffy, Kevin Rea, Pat Laffy, Archie Fleming (my grandfather), 

Mr. Young (teacher).

2nd row - Eileen Mahlook, Rita Morgan, Emma McWay, Alice Laffy, Margaret Lindsay, Daisy Jones, Kathy Foster, Mary Morgan, Bessie Lindsay, Myrtle Fleming(gramps' sister).  

3rd row - Donald Mc Wray, Pete Mahlook, Joe Rea, Bill Rea, Mick Mahlook, Pat Mahlook, Victor Chang (I wonder if this is the famous Doctor?), Bessie Porter, Front row - Harold Fleming (gramps' brother), Dave Jones, Ted O'Connor and Ernie Jones.

This school photo would have been taken about 1946 or 1947 at Myrtleford in Victoria where my mum attended school.  Mum is in the back row far right and her sister is back row far left.  There was twelve months difference in their ages.

Their little sister was 7 years younger and was recently telling me that she when she was made to first attend school she sat under the table bawling her head off until a family member came to collect her because she had no need of school as she had 2 big sisters to teach her!

 My family history through the alphabet list

D is for ..... Dance Skeletons

I was just writing a comment on Fi's Dance Skeletons blog saying that I was lost for inspiration on what to write for the letter D in the "Family History Through the Alphabet" challenge.

Then it hit me .... 
Dance Skeletons blog


It would have to be my favourite.  
I just love Fi's sense of humour and the way she uses it in her writing.

As I am often in both Ancestry and Facebook I especially enjoyed her first blog post Ancestry: Facebook for Dead People

I can say that I haven't been disappointed for a chuckle in any of her following posts either.

Love your work Fi.

 My family history through the alphabet list

C is for .... Crafty

This is my contribution to the Gould Genealogy "Family History Through The Alphabet" challenge.

My maternal Nan, Daisy Fleming, nee Morgan, was always making lovely things out of very little.

The old black and white photo below shows Nana in her handmade patchwork "fancy dress" 

This is a photo of the same dress today.

And some closer detail

Nana also used to make "hankie boxes" from old cards.  She would cut the cards to shape and sandwich them between 2 sheets of hard plastic.  Holes punched around the edges were used to stitch the pieces together.

The box is these photos is showing its age but its a wonderful keepsake.

 My family history through the alphabet list

B is for ......... Boggy Bill

Even after years of researching my family history I can still be Blown away by Bits of information that I didn't know.

Saturday just gone we had a small get together reunion for our Morgan cousins at Carmel (nee Morgan) and Len's lovely home at Strathfieldsaye, near Bendigo in Victoria.

I took along the treasured photo album of my nana, Daisy Fleming (nee Morgan).

My third cousin, Shelley (nee Morgan) was looking through it and spotted a photo of my nana's father, William Thomas Morgan.

"Oh there's Boggy Bill", Shelley commented.

I was gobsmacked to say the least.  

I'd not heard him called that before.  

Shelley said her Grandad had always called his Uncle Bill

 "Boggy Bill" because he lived at Boggy Creek.

My great granddad, William Thomas Morgan, known as Boggy Bill, was born at Euroa, Victoria in 1872.
He was the fourth son of Thomas Fitzherbert Morgan and Mary Ann nee Pike.
He married Ada May Hulme in 1905 and they had five children.
Four girls and one boy.  Bill died at Wangaratta in 1950.

Boggy Creek is near Myrrhee in Victoria.

 My family history through the alphabet list

A is for … Addicted

 "Family History Through the Alphabet challenge" ......  introduced by Alona Tester at Gould  

You just need to use the current letter for the week

(A, B, C etc. whatever week we’re up to, right through to Z), 

and connect it to someone, something, or a topic relating to 

your family that you’d like write about.

My immediate thought for A was ADDICTION.  

I am TOTALLY addicted to genealogy and researching my

family history.  

I love the thrill of the chase and the excitement of the discoveries.

I can't say I'm quite this bad but I do come close.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN ADDICTED GENEALOGIST
...when you brake for libraries.
...if you get locked in a library overnight and you never even notice.
...when you hyperventilate at the sight of an old cemetery.
...if you'd rather browse in a cemetery than a shopping mall.
...when you think every home should have a microfilm reader.
...if you'd rather read census schedules than a good book.
...when you know every town clerk in your state by name.
...if town clerks lock the doors when they see you coming.
...when you're more interested in what happened in 1697 than 1997.
...if you store your clothes under the bed and your closet is carefully stacked with notebooks and journals.
...if you can pinpoint Harrietsham, Hawkhurst, and Kent on a map of England, but can't locate Topeka, Kansas.
...when all your correspondence begins, "Dear Cousin,"
...if you've traced every one of your ancestral lines back to Adam and Eve, have it all fully 
documented, and still don't want to quit.

 My family history through the alphabet list