"G'day mate" from the Top End of Oz

G'day mates in the genea-blogosphere. I’m Pauleen Cass (aka Cassmob) and I live in Darwin, in Australia’s Top End. We're on Australia’s northern border, nearer to Asia than Australia’s most populated eastern hub. We’re in the tropics and currently in our Wet Season with torrential monsoon rains, mid-high 30sC (95⁺F) temps, huge storm clouds, lightning and thunder. It’s a dramatic season but it’s also wonderful to see the vegetation come to life after months of minimal rain. 

Our Dry season, May-August, is blissfully balmy, with regular temps in the early 30s, minimal humidity, clear blue skies and nary a drop of rain for a few months. As for the Build-Up (September-December), the less said the better – it’s no fun wishing you had your own facial windscreen wiper...makes you barmy.

But enough of the travelogue, let’s get to the serious stuff – genealogy or family history. I got hooked by the Genealogy Society of Queensland’s heritage display back in the late 1980s and have been obsessive about my family history ever since. Now that I’m both an empty-nester and retired, my days are filled with family history and, since 2009, blogging….how good is that! The downside is that my families all lived in Queensland, and I’m a long way from there. Which is why it’s so great to be part of an international community of geneabloggers who encourage, teach and inspire each other. Not to mention the increasing availability of original records online.

Dorfprozelten am Main, 2003.

My own ancestry is a fairly typical Aussie mixed brew: Irish, Scots, English - and my lone German, George Mathias Kunkel. Most arrived in the 1850s, during the relatively early days of the free settlement of Moreton Bay (the colony of Queensland came into being in 1859). Then there were some stragglers in the 1870s and 80s and one family in 1910. What I most enjoy about family history is building up a sense of the individuals, their lives and their social context. I love it (mostly!) when they pose challenges and I have to pursue them through the records to crack a mystery.

Having started my research back in the pre-computers, pre-internet age (no, there were no dinosaurs!), it probably won’t be a surprise to learn that another obsession of mine is “getting down and dirty” in the records. Archives and libraries of all sorts are my particular favourites. You’ll no doubt hear more about my Beyond the Internet passion as we go along.

As well as my own family history, I am fascinated by local history and migration. I have three main research topics:

Emigrants from East Clare to Australia in the mid-19th century. If anyone has ancestors from there I’d love to hear from you, whether your family settled in the northern or southern hemispheres. I'm especially interested in emigrants from the town of Broadford, Parish of Kilseily. 

Emigrants from Dorfprozelten, Bavaria to Australia. Again while my focus is emigrants to Oz, I’d also love to hear from descendants of other Dorfprozelten emigrants who may have settled in North or South America, or elsewhere.

The small town of Murphys Creek in South East Queensland. If you know your ancestors lived or worked there at any time, again please drop me a line, or leave a message in the comments.

So that’s it for me today. I’m really looking forward to this global collaboration - thanks to Julie Goucher from Anglers Rest blog for this innovative partnership, and all of you for reading and joining in. If anyone else would like to participate, why not send Julie an email, places are in hot demand.

If you’d like to visit my genie blogs, they are Family History across the Seas and From Dorfprozelten to Australia. You can find links to my favourite websites on the blog.