A Memorable Minties Moment

1927, Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 - 1929), 26 February, p. 13. , viewed 25 Nov 2022, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page25137816

“It’s moments like these you need Minties”. Celebrating its 100th birthday this year, this iconic Australian lolly is one of the oldest confectionery products still available. Minties were invented in 1922 by Australian James Stedman and produced initially under Sweetacres brand."

 
The above tweet from Trove reminded me of a memorable "Minties Moment" far from Australia. Thanks Trove for the images and reminder.

A fun competitive activity when I was younger was to unwrap a Mintie and while enjoying the lolly,  one proceeded to tear the wrapping paper into one long strip. A comparison with others, usually siblings, determined who had managed to tear the longest strip without any breaks. The reward was simply in the accomplishment of the task.

1953 'Advertising', Brisbane Telegraph (Qld. : 1948 - 1954), 7 October, p. 21. (LAST CITY), viewed 25 Nov 2022, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article217216903

While accompanying my husband on an overseas posting, I had several opportunities to travel with a group of women who were from a wide range of countries. They were all there accompanying husbands attached to their country's embassy.

On one day trip out of Paris, we were in for a long bus ride. It had become a custom to entertain each other by introducing a fun activity or song or story while we travelled.

With several packets of Minties in hand I distributed them to all aboard.  I issued a suitable warning about the likelihood of tooth engagement! I then demonstrated the technique by which one could tear the wrapper into a long strip. Much hilarity ensued as many made the effort but somehow needed a second Mintie to try another time.

A fun activity that reminded me of special friendships with women forged across language and customs barriers. Have you had a memorable Minties Moment?

Minties - now made by Allens - a hard, white chewy, square mint-flavoured sweet, which on chewing become so sticky that they are notorious for causing dental fillings to come out. They are wrapped in a waxed paper.

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

Visualising family data

Descendants of Johanna Fitzgerald and Thomas Horgan

The 31 grandchildren of Johanna Fitzgerald and Thomas Horgan

Above is a visual representation of the Horgan grandchildren all born in South Australia after the widowed Johanna Horgan emigrated from Ireland in 1852 with her three young sons John, Thomas and Daniel. She was later joined by her older daughter Johanna. 

I am grateful to Andrew Redfern for the idea of representing families in this visual manner.

A chart like this can be produced in a wide range of programs such as Word, Powerpoint,  or Google slides. I chose to make mine in Canva using their simple tools to duplicate and tidy the person icons in the table.

The 94 great grandchildren

Not all of the 31 grandchildren represented above went on to have their own children. Some died at a young age, several women remained unmarried and looked after parents as they aged, 2 married couples had no children, 2 of the men became priests and one woman became a nun.

Of those grandchildren who did marry, here are the numbers of offspring from those unions.

Johanna Horgan and John Hogan's offspring had 23 children: - 6 O’Sullivans, 6 Hogans, 5 O’Briens, and 6 Kitschkes 

John Horgan and Hanora O'Leary's offspring had 11 children : - 3 Horgans and 8 McInerneys

Thomas Horgan and Mary Caroll's offspring had 30 children: -25 Horgans, 5 Slatterys

Daniel Horgan and Julia Evans offspring had 28 children: - 5 Slatterys and 23 Horgans

Numbers and dates, interesting but somewhat boring. Thanks Andrew for visual idea.

I am a descendant of John and Hanora Horgan. If you are a descendant of any of these 94 great grandchildren I would be delighted to hear from you.

 

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

Celebrate Family History

 

A fourth blog post for the month of August 2022 as I participate in Alex's challenge to celebrate National Family History Month held annually in Australia in the month of August.

Week 4 - Celebrate - tell us what you've achieved this month. What talk did you attend during #NationalFamilyHistoryMonth that you thought was brilliant or tell us about the discoveries you made? 

Celebrate - to do something special, to commemorate an event or occasion

I celebrate the fact that my ancestors made their long arduous journeys to this land and commemorate those occasions where I find evidence of  their lives here. I participate in the enjoyable pursuit of family history to enrich my own life and record stories of our forbears for my children's children.

It is fitting then to reflect on some family history events during the past month. So in no particular order a few things I have done this month :-

• Watched the inspiring  Opening ceremony talk given by Larissa Behrendt
• Attended the webinar Using State Records Online - South Australia
• Thoroughly enjoyed the Society of Australian Genealogist's inspiring session Do SOMETHING with your family history!
• Written 2 family history stories An August Gentleman and From Shank's Pony to Airy Heights
• Shared some tips for scanning and labelling photos
• Presented a Zoom session for my local genealogy group on Free Texts: Internet Archive and JSTOR for family history
• Presented a session for our volunteers on Finding and Saving photos from our Cooroy Rag photo collection
• Attended an excellent session presented by Shauna Hicks in our local Noosaville library entitled Why can't I find it?
• Designed a business card for our local group and updated our new brochure with a QR code 
• Worked on rescanning old photos in our family collections

There is always more to do, that's the joy of family history. We look for it, learn about it and learn from it. 

Celebrate family history!

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