Beginning in South Australia

My mother, Hannah Horgan (born O'Dea) died at 101 years of age at the end of June 2013. She was the matriarch, gathering family together at any opportunity. She valued and treasured her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Now that she is gone I realise how valuable family photos and stories will be for future generations. So my interest in family history is relatively recent, but very rewarding and time consuming.

Since July I have found extensive records via Trove about the ancestral families on both my maternal and paternal side. Thanks go to my brother for supplying me with an invaluable document that piqued my interest about the early settlers in South Australia and supplied the starting point for my research.
Additional stimulus came from reading my mother's reflections on her life, as she had related her story in 1992, at the prompting of one of her 27 grandchildren. Thank you Deirdre for recording those memories.
These family stories should live on, not just in my genealogy database but for the extended family and future generations.

And so I begin, in South Australia's early days.

This 1848 map from The British Library's collection of newly released public domain images comes from South Australia : its advantages and its resources : being a description of that colony and manual of information for emigrants : by George Blakiston Wilkinson. The book was published in 1848, a scant 4 years before the first of my Irish ancestors arrived in the colony.

Whilst it is of little use to speculate upon its audience and actual readership, it does provide a very interesting background to early settlement, perceived and real difficulties as well as providing advice on all manner of enterprise from emigration to agriculture and relationships with aboriginal inhabitants. It is certainly enlightening to read works so far removed from current thinking and the reality of life in Australia in 2014. The book is free from The British Library.

On this blog I will retell some stories of those who lived in earlier times and reflect on their lives in days gone by.