liebster-award2

How exciting to open my blog and find I have been nominated for a Liebster Award.  Many thanks to A Stitch in Time (http://genealogydiscovery.wordpress.com/) for nominating me.  I feel very honoured.

I have been asked to write 11 fascinating facts about myself:  I don’t think any of them are fascinating but here goes –

1. I have dual citizenship having lived in Scotland until the age of 21 and Australia since then – other than 5 years which I spent in England.

2. I was  a mature age student, sitting my year 12 exams at the age of around 38 and starting university just before my 40th birthday.

3. I am now a High School English Teacher in Australia with a Scottish accent.

4. I worked as a jillaroo in the Snowy Mountains, NSW, mustering, tagging and de-sexing angora goats for a year.

5. I trained in London as a Pub Manager and with my first husband, ran pubs in Bristol for 4 years.

6. I have done a range of jobs including cleaning shearers’ quarters and check out chick.

7. I have two children – my son (26) works on a gold mine in the desert in WA; and my daughter (22) studies bio-chemistry at university in Perth, WA.

8. My husband is golf-mad and has just opened a Golf Shop at our local golf club.

9. I have 5 beautiful step-grandchildren under the age of 6 (and a few proxy grandchildren as well).

10. I plan to return to Scotland in 2015 with two genealogy-mad friends as we all have ancestors from Aberdeenshire.   We hope to house-swap with people in the UK.  It won’t be all looking at gravestones I’m sure!

11. My husband and I plan to spend 6 months in our caravan next year travelling around the bottom of Australia – I am sure I will blog about it!

  • I now have to answer questions put to me by A Stitch in Time!

1. Why did you start blogging?

I have been a frustrated writer for years but never have had the confidence to give it a real go.  An old friend from London suggested blogging and sent me the information on WordPress.  It still took me more than a year to have the courage to give it a go.  I am still very new to it but I love it!

2. Who is your favourite ancestor and why?

When I look at the life of my great-grandmother, Jemima Chapman, I feel a real warmth.  She had a hard life but she never talked about it.  When I was a teenager she passed away at the age of  90, having had both legs amputated.  I thought  I knew her quite well but realised when I started researching, that I knew nothing.    When I discovered she married at 18 and worked as a biscuit icer, I couldn’t stop smiling.

3. What is your favourite time and place to blog?

Well I don’t really have a choice.  I blog on my laptop in our downstairs loungeroom in the evenings.  I have been known to blog in the middle of the night or early morning. I don’t have a favourite time, I would do it all the time if I could!

4. If you could invite 4 people to dinner from the past or present who would they be?

My dad because I miss him;

My Maternal Grandmother, Elizabeth Brown b 1905 in Glasgow, because she died before I was born and I think she could explain a lot to me about my mother;

My Paternal Great-Grandfather, Robert Smith b 1871 in Crimond, Aberdeenshire, because I can’t find his birth or death certificates.  His marriage certificate gives me the names of his parents but I can only assume he was illegitimate. I can’t find his parents but with names like Robert Smith and Margaret Brown I can understand why!  At dinner he could give me all the information I need to move on with the family tree.

My Grand Aunt, Rose Cameron b. 1890 in Dundee as she went off to America around the time of the First World War. I have the boat passenger list with her on it but can find no trace of her since then.  She is not my direct line but I would like to know what happened to her.

5. what is your ideal vacation spot.

There are lots of places I would love to visit again or for the first time – Venice and Rome for example.  But I live in a beautiful part of the world where it is hot in summer and mild in winter.  I live in a very small town that sits on the beach.  It’s isolated but it is a great place to live and to holiday.

6. If you where an animal which one would you be?

I have absolutely no idea.  I would prefer to be an exotic bird in a rainforest I think.

7. What is your most interesting genealogy story?

Well my own family are interesting to me but probably not to other people as they were all domestic servants and farm workers.  The most interesting are often the ones that take the most time to find.  I am doing my children’s father’s family and one side is from a very rich family in Sri Lanka/Ceylon.  That is interesting as they have no money now!

8. What is your dream job?

To be honest my dream job would be to be retired with a fabulous pension so I could indulge my hobbies of family history, patchwork and travel.

9. What is your favourite blog post? provide a link.

I am not sure if you mean my own blog or someone else’s so I will provide both.  My own favourite blog is a couple of little stories about my dad’s youth – https://lynnie57.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/the-war-years/.   As for someone else’s blog, I was very moved by Su Lesley’s blog about Emily – http://suzysu.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/and-now-for-something-completely-different-with-apologies-to-monty-python/.

10. Where are your family’s roots?

On my dad’s side our family came from the Aberdeenshire, Angus and Dundee areas of Scotland.  My mother’s side came from Glasgow.

11. What do you hope to achieve in 2013?

I hope to continue researching my own and my children’s family history.  I would also like to continue blogging.  I hope to improve a lot, find more time to blog and read more of other people’s blogs.

 

I have been asked to nominate other bloggers but those I most enjoy have already been recognised.  I am enjoying seeking out blogs that interest me – most of these are about geneaology but not all.  At a later date I would like to list these for other bloggers to check out.

Once again, many thanks for the recognition.