Your Family Stories

Sharing stories of those who came before us …

  • Motorcycle Tragedies and the Thompson Brothers

    Nobody wants that knock on the door from the police, advising them of the death of a loved one on the roads. Sadly, this happened to the Thompson family in South Australia nearly 100 years ago, not just once, but twice, less than two years apart. Two brothers of my husband’s grandfather, Edward Thompson, died in motorcycle accidents in almost the identical spot. They were Malcolm Ronald Thompson, who died at just 17 years of age in August 1930 and Clifford John Webb Thompson, who died when he was 21 on the 19th of June 1932. These accidents occurred more…

  • Genealogy Gold!

    I love my distant cousins. I didn’t know most of them until I started researching my family tree. Over the years, I have corresponded with and met many cousins, having connected via DNA matches, shared ancestors on family trees or simply being introduced by another relative who said, “You must speak with so-and-so. They know lots about our family history”. Take, for example, my second cousin once removed – Michael. He is a cousin on my Foster line (my paternal grandmother’s paternal line). Like me, Michael was born in Liverpool, England. Michael’s grandfather, William John Foster (1899-1965) and my great…

  • What Will Happen to the Horses?

    I was very excited when I received a letter from a distant cousin in England (yes, a real AIRMAIL letter, delivered by the postman). It contained a family story that had been passed down through the generations. The story relates to my paternal line – the Lucas family, who I have traced back to the early 1700s in Liverpool (which is where I was born in the 1960s). The central character in the story is my 2x great grandfather, Joseph Lucas (1856-1946), and it is set in the early 1900s in Liverpool. On the 1901 Census the family was living…

  • Ancestral Warnings from Beyond the Grave

    Have you ever visited a doctor who has asked about your family health history? You know, like, “is there any heart disease in your family?” or “does anyone in your family have asthma?” or “have any of your close relatives died from cancer?”. One thing I find fascinating with my family history hobby is receiving the death certificates of my ancestors or close relatives and seeing their cause of death. I have been able to paint an interesting picture of my forebears and in some cases, the lives they led. Of course, death certificates provide other vital information for family…

  • My Grandad and World War II – Values and Virtues

    Inset Image: Grandad, Stanley Lucas on board one of the many ships he sailed on during his Merchant Navy career If you could sit on this bench and speak with anyone – dead or alive – who would it be?  It’s an often-asked question. For me, the answer is simple. My Grandad, Stanley Lucas. My Grandad When I was a child, Grandad was just Grandad.  He and Nana visited us every Saturday bringing pocket money and lollies. In the school holidays, my siblings and I would go for sleepovers and they’d give us lemonade spiders (lemonade with a big spoonful…

  • Welcome to Your Family Stories

    It seems, the older we get, the more many of us yearn to understand and connect with our past. Where did we come from? Why do we live in a particular part of the world? Why are we the way we are? Whether it’s our height, the colour of our eyes and hair, our artistic talent, our sporting ability or our personality; our parents, grandparents, great grandparents and all those who came before us have contributed to making us who we are today. And, of course, our upbringing and life experiences also help shape us. I love exploring my family…

About

I’ve always had a fascination with history. When I was a child, one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up was an archeologist. Now thinking about that, it’s really the stories from the past that intrigued me.

In recent years, I’ve been exploring my family history and have connected with newly found cousins around the world. I now know so much more about some of my ancestors and am enjoying writing their stories.

Karen