Accentuate the Positive 2025 Geneameme

AI generated image, random text added on iPad

Each year Jill Ball from her Geniaus blog prompts family historians to participate in the Accentuate the Positive Geneameme. 

2025 Prompts - my responses

I treasured all the wills I found through fulltext search on FamilySearch. They add so much to understanding the families and their relationships from the past.

I shared my new Galvin Gleanings blog with my husband's relatives. Delighted to have a couple of positive responses, particularly one from a younger generation. Like most family history, this is still a work in progress. 

I travelled to visit living family in both South Australia and New South Wales.

I learnt many new ways to present and enhance family stories using AI tools from both Carole McCulloch's Essential Genealogy and Denyse Allen of Chronicle Makers. 

 I changed my WeAre family archive from private to public to provide access to cousins on all sides of both my and my husband's families. The archive does automatically privatise living people but I checked the media files to make sure that photos of the living were appropriately tagged and made private too.

I received a photo of a recently established marker for a grandfather's grave from a first cousin. I also received two extensively researched, comprehensive academic level biographies of relatives from a second cousin. One about Nora McInerney of Riverton. Nora was a grandfather’s sister. The other one is entitled Sister Aloysius O’Leary and the Josephite Experience. Ellen O’Leary the subject of this treatise was the sister of great grandmother Hanora. I’m very grateful for these contributions.

I conquered most of my disorganized hard drive, getting rid of duplicate files and renaming photos. An ever ongoing project.

I found newly published articles in Trove about Pat O'Dea, one of my mother's brothers and his family. One of his sons responded that he had now learnt some things about his parents that were previously unknown to him. A brief profile now exists in our family archive.

I taught a range of classes for my local genealogy group; FamilySearch skills, FamilyTreeMaker, Sharing your Stories and Refresher Skills for volunteers.

I cried when the first of my six siblings, my beautiful sister Bernadette, died at the end of February.

Bernadette Honner (born Horgan) 1941 - 2025

I was pleased to reconnect with some first cousins, not seen since I was a child. Some at Bernadette's funeral and some more recently through digital means.

I read more than 100 books in the past year and thoroughly enjoyed the latest offering from Nathan Dylan Goodwin "The Hop-Picker Murders." His protagonist Morton is a forensic genealogist who uses sound genealogical methods to unravel mysteries. I continue to read many genealogy blogs through both Feedly and Substack.

This post first appeared on earlieryears.blogspot.com by CRGalvin

From County Clare to Pinkerton Plains

John O'Dea  1834 - 1922

An updated version of John O'Dea's life detailed with marriage and death certificates can be found on the family archive at 

https://app.weare.xyz/share/earlier-times/articles/69yrmhlo2ve5 

 This post first appeared on earlieryears.blogspot.com by CRGalvin

A Winter Tragedy in Terowie

A Life of Quiet Strength 

In the cold midwinter of 1913, Kitty suffered a horrific accident that would change her life forever. With her father away at work and her mother ill with a severe cold, the young girl tried to light a fire to make her mother a cup of tea with disastrous results.

We are fortunate that the treatment of burns has come a long way since this poor child suffered.

Born on 29 December 1904 in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Catherine Mary Malycha, known as Kitty, was the second child of Mary Immaculate O’Dea and Valentine Malycha. Her family had moved north from Terowie, South Australia in the wake of legal and financial troubles involving Valentine’s father. Their stay in Broken Hill was brief and they returned to South Australia to be near their extended families. Like many settlers of the time, the Malychas hoped for a new beginning beyond Goyder’s Line. Yet the harsh conditions of life were dangerous.

The accident

TEROWIE. June 21. - A sad accident occurred today, when Mr Malycha's little girl,  Katherine, aged eight and a half years accidentally set fire to herself and was severely burned. The father's duties necessitate his absence from home, and the mother being unwell having a severe cold, the little girl got up, unknown to her mother, to get her a cup of tea, and it is surmised she put kerosene on the wood to make a quick fire. The mother, hearing screams, was quickly to the rescue, but was unable to put the fire out until it had severely burned the little girl. Medical aid was soon procured, and the little sufferer was conveyed by the doctor to Mrs. Robinson’s private hospital, where she is now lying in a critical condition. (1)

 Kitty’s story captured public attention. Living in a tent at Birthday Siding, East–West Railway, she wrote to The Worker, a labour newspaper, sharing a brief but moving account of her ordeal: (2)

The editor at the time, Mary Gilmore, a notable poet and advocate for the working class, ensured Kitty’s story was not forgotten.

Her letter sparked an outpouring of kindness. Letters of comfort and friendship poured in from across the country. In a subsequent issue, Kitty thanked the many strangers who had written letters of sympathy and friendship:

“I really cannot write to all, as they are too numerous.” (3)

Valentine, Kitty’s father, had been working on the railway line being established to connect eastern Australia with the west. Kitty wrote to the Daily Herald in 1918  describing life in this remote corner of South Australia. The camp was now about 105 miles (170 kms) from Port Augusta.

It is very dry, and the rabbits are very poor. They climb bushes and trees for feed. There is no grass about our camp, and none grew last year. Birthday Siding is five miles from the camp, and the J.R.V. dam is about the same. I catch a number of rabbits in steel traps daring the night time. I do a lot of knitting. (4.)

https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/PRG+1780/3/14
Birthday Railway Siding: A small wooden shelter with water tank, and wagons on railway line.
This photo was taken well after construction of the railway was finished. Living conditions in tents in this harsh environment during construction was extremely difficult for families

Life in Spalding

After the completion of work and the dismantling of the camps, the family moved to Spalding, South Australia. Kitty never let her injuries define her. Though much of her life was lived quietly in the Mid North of South Australia, the newspapers offer glimpses into her later years. She lived in Spalding, where she contributed to community life through her participation in Catholic fundraising events, local dances, and the Country Women’s Association. A talented needlewoman, she won prizes for her hand-knitted garments at CWA shows, including a bed jacket in 1934 and a gentleman’s cardigan in 1935.

Her parents died within a year of each other, her mother Mary died in July 1935, aged just 55 and her father Valentine passed away in March 1936, aged 62. 

Her elder brother Stephen Francis (Frank) married in 1935, and her younger siblings Frances, Margaret Eileen, and Thomas (Tom) all married in the following years, all with connections to the local districts. 

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Kitty remained a resident of Spalding, appearing on local electoral rolls. She was involved in efforts supporting Australia’s war effort, with her fancywork once again recognised at the 1942 CWA Exhibition, which raised over £61 for wartime causes. 

Kitty’s life centred around family. In later years, she is recorded holidaying with her sister Frances (now Mrs. G. Dowd) a niece and nephews at Fisherman’s Bay, a detail that gives us a glimpse into her role as a devoted aunt and family matriarch.(5)

Catherine Mary Malycha passed away in April 1974 in Spalding, the town where she had spent the majority of her adult life. She never married, but the love held for her and the strong family bond is reflected in the words on the tombstone in Spalding.

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Catherine Malycha's O'Dea ancestors

Gt. Gt. Grandparents Patrick and Mary O'Dea arrived in South Australia on the "Time and Truth" in 1854

Gt. Grandparents  -Thomas O'Dea 1831 -1914 and Bridget Hill 1838 -1902

Grandparents -   Margaret O'Dea 1858 -1938 married another Thomas O'Dea 1843 -1925

Parents  - Mary Immaculate O'Dea 1879 -1935 married Valentine Malycha 1873 -1936

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1. 1913 TEROWIE;, Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA : 1910 - 1924), 28 June, p. 8. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article124954060

2. 1916 ;CHILDREN'S LETTERS. The Australian Worker (Sydney, NSW : 1913 - 1950), 15 June, p. 11. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145766198

3. 1916 CHILDREN'S LETTERS., The Australian Worker (Sydney, NSW : 1913 - 1950), 3 August, p. 11 .http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145766624

4 1918 THE LETTER BOX. Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA : 1910 - 1924), 16 April, p. 8.http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article124540003

5. 1953 SPALDING. Northern Argus (Clare, SA : 1869 - 1954), 28 January, p. 8. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article100589391

This post first appeared on earlieryears.blogspot.com by CRGalvin