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.
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| 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.
