Accentuate the Positive 2025 Blogger Jill Ball has again invited us to look back at the last year of our family history journey. Here is my response to her prompts. 1. I treasured the pleasure of researching and writing I continued to add to my material on Wikitree. I see it as a public repository…

The Seize Quartiers of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, 4th baronet Seize Quartiers means "sixteen quarters". In heraldry this indicates that someone's sixteen great-great-grandparents all held coats of arms. To prove Seize Quartiers you must show that this existed for yourself, for all sixteen…

A Family Coat of Arms : some applied heraldry Rafe de Crespigny Introduction: The traditional coat of arms comprises a shield, a crest, a motto and possibly supporters, though supporters are generally used only by members of the nobility: dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts and barons – and of…

Christmas at Eurambeen East 1902 My great great aunt Ada Champion Crespigny (1848-1927) saved family letters. Her collection was passed on to her nephew, my great grandfather, Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882-1952). One of these letters written in 1902 is to Ada from her mother,…

Floods across Victoria in 1870. An image from the State Library of the Avoca River in flood. avocahistory.net.au/2025/12/30/a...

For many years the Avoca and District Historical Society's website was hosted by the State Library of Victoria. This month they discontinued their free web hosting services. The new website is at avocahistory.net.au

Silence, the presence of absence In December 1915, one hundred and ten years ago, all British forces, including Australians and New Zealanders, were silently evacuated from the Gallipoli peninsula, on which they had landed in April. Their withdrawal brought to an end a costly and controversial…

Parrot Pie for Christmas dinner 1890 My great great aunt Ada Champion Crespigny (1848-1927) saved family letters. Her collection was passed on to her nephew, my great grandfather, Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882-1952). Among them is a letter he wrote as a boy from Eurambeen East near…

Cherry Stones updated Family history is an engrossing hobby, a fascinating challenge to trace relationships, and an opportunity to discover how a family has experienced historical events. I am fortunate that quite a few of my forebears and their relatives were also interested in family history,…

Eurambeen cemetery visit I have a family connection with a Victorian sheep station, Eurambeen, sixty kilometers from my home town, Ballarat, and 9 kilometers west of Beaufort. Its first owners were George Beggs (1817 - 1879) and his partner Humphrey Grattan, who bought the property about 1855. In…

Beggs papers at Sovereign Hill The Sovereign Hill Museums Association in Ballarat has more than 150 000 objects, most concerned, directly or indirectly, with the history of the discovery and exploitation of the region's gold. Yesterday I visited the museum to view a sample of what are known as the…

A quiet wedding My grandparents Kathleen Cudmore (1908-2013) and Geoff de Crespigny (1907-1966) were married in 1933. They had one son, my father Rafe. On Christmas Day 1965 Geoff became ill with a brain tumour. He died in February 1966 at the age of 58. On 30 March 1967, at a quiet ceremony in…

Ancestors at Agincourt 25 October 1415 Six hundred and ten years ago an English army under King Henry V defeated a French army at the famous Battle of Agincourt. In November 1414 an expedition to invade France was announced in the English parliament, and although negotiations for peace were being…

Battle of Trafalgar Prizes During the Napoleonic Wars, the French and Spanish Naval fleets combined forces. On 21 October 1805, the Royal Navy under the command of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson intercepted the enemy fleet off Cape Trafalgar, on the south-west coast of Spain. The allied fleet lost 22…

A troop-ship letter World War 1 Australian troopships, often designated 'HMAT', 'His Majesty's Australian Transport' were requisitioned merchant navy vessels put into service carrying troops to and from Europe. One of these was SS Themistocles, a British passenger and refrigerated cargo ship,…

Oh, What a Lovely War! On 28 July 1916 His Majesty's Australian Transport 'Themistocles' departed Port Melbourne for England with 1500 troops. Most were reinforcements: the nineteenth reinforcements for each of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth battalions, the fourteenth reinforcements of the…

Signing on; saying goodbye In Melbourne on 13 December 1915 my husband Greg’s grandfather, Cecil Young (1898-1975) enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. Just seventeen years five months old, he gave his age to the recruitment officer as eighteen years five months.  Cecil had tried to enlist…

Homebush in World War 1 A year ago as part of the series All About That Place 2024, Pacific Edition, I gave a presentation about how a small Australian town remembered the First World War. When on 4 August 1914 Great Britain declared war on Germany, Joseph Cook, the Australian Prime Minister,…

Nellie 1877-1918 Helen Maud (known as Nellie), the daughter of Wentworth Cavenagh and Ellen Jane Mainwaring, was born on 9 August 1877 in Kensington, South Australia, the eighth of their ten children. She was my great great aunt. At the time of her birth Nellie's father was a member of the South…

Captain John Orfeur, 1696 – 1751 Captain John Orfeur portrait from about 1730 now in the possession of a 4th great grandson A guest post by my cousin Diana Beckett Captain Orfeur’s youngest daughter Catherine married Mathew Cavenagh in 1761. The information below is based on the extensive research…

When was Catherine Orfeur born? My fourth great grandmother was an Irishwoman, Catherine Hyde (Orfeur) Cavenagh (abt.1747-1814), the youngest of the three daughters of John Orfeur and Juliana Hyde (Palliser) Orfeur.  John Orfeur was an English army captain. John Orfeur married Julianna Hyde…

James Gordon Cavenagh 1766-1844 James Gordon Cavenagh, my third great grandfather, was born about 1766 in Inishannon, County Cork, Ireland, son of Matthew Cavenagh (1738 - 1819) and Catherine Hyde (Orfeur) Cavenagh (~1746 - 1814). He was the third and oldest surviving son of their fifteen…

Eating elephants August is Family History Month in Australia and New Zealand. Every year, to celebrate it, the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations (AFFHO) organises lectures and events and other activities. This year I was invited to talk, in the final session, on the subject…

Sepia Saturday 781: a picnic in the Ballarat Botanical Gardens This week's Sepia Saturday prompt is a photo of a picnic. I though I would repost A picnic in the Ballarat Botanical Gardens, photos from an outing of my father-in-law's family about 1924. My father-in-law, Peter Young

Our ancestors living 250 years ago Recently I have been writing about those of my forebears and relatives who were caught up in the American Revolutionary War. This started me thinking about my other ancestors living at the same time, 250 years ago. I have identified 170 ancestors of my husband…

A pension for Eleanor Dana, widow of Stephen Dana, soldier of the Revolutionary War Stephen Dana, my second cousin seven times removed, was born on 9 June 1740 in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. His parents were Benjamin Dana (1689-1751), a shipmaster, and Anne Francis. Benjamin Dana…

John Stocking Chauncy (1751-1777) cruelly killed by the British John Stocking Chauncy (1751-1777), my third cousin seven times removed, fought against the British in the American War of Independence. He was killed, a prisoner of war, after he had surrendered. John Chauncy was born on 21 August…

Francis Skelly Gordon Skelly (1741 - 1771), one of my sixth great grandfathers, was a Captain of the Royal Navy. In June 1758 Skelly saw action at the Siege of Louisbourg and at the Capture of Quebec in September 1759. He kept a journal from 1757 to 1759, which is now of considerable interest to…

A Loyalist’s rewards On 4 July 2026 it will be 250 years since the first Independence Day. For that anniversary I am gathering stories of people in my family who fought in the American Revolutionary War. Edward Mainwaring (1744-1803), my first cousin seven times removed, was born in 1744 in Burton…

At the time of the American Revolution the Dana family had been living for several generations in America. At least ten Danas responded to the Lexington Alarm, the urgent messages sent after the skirmishes with the British at Lexington & Concord #stories250 anneyoungau.wordpress.com/2025/08/22/t...

Thomas Carpmeal, a Bow Street Runner In 1769 Thomas Carpmeal (c.1741-1807) was appointed a constable by John Fielding (1721-1780) JP, of Bow Street Magistrates' Court. It was not a full-time position, and Carpmeal combined his policing duties with running a tavern in Broad Court, nearby. By his…

A fortunate life? Here's some more about Catapodi the forger, who I mentioned in my recent posts about John Roberts, alias Colin Reculist, forger and Sarah Best transported for stealing a cotton counterpane value 5 shillings. 'Colourful character' doesn't begin to describe him. Born in Greece in…

The Impossible Dream Tad Callin, who writes about his family history at 'Mightier Acorns', has set himself the challenge of finding and documenting the sixteen great-great-grandparents of his sixteen great-great-grandparents, and similarly for those of his wife.  For a few years now I have been…

Sarah Best transported for stealing a cotton counterpane value 5 shillings In 1797 a twenty-three year-old woman named Sarah Best (1774-1853), who also used the surnames Catapodi and Brown, was tried and found guilty at the Old Bailey for the theft of a cotton counterpane, value 5 shillings. Her…

John Roberts, alias Colin Reculist, forger In 18th-century England, as modern banking practices evolved, goldsmiths' receipts for deposits began to circulate as a form of paper money. Their written promises to pay on demand were treated like cash. Financial legislation regularised the practice,…

Not bound for Botany Bay One of my first cousins five times removed was Henry Weston (1773-1796), a gambler and ne'er-do-well, hanged for forgery at a young age. He was born in 1773 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, fourth son of Thomas Weston, an attorney, and Dorothea Weston nee Orfeur. I know very…

Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, 1st Baronet (1723 – 1796) One of my first cousins seven times removed was the Royal Navy officer and politician, Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, 1st Baronet (1723 – 1796). Hugh Palliser was born in 1723 at Kirk Deighton, in the West Riding of Yorkshire (now in North…

Progress using Artificial Intelligence In 1950 the mathematician Alan Turing proposed what came to be called the Turing Test: if a human observer screened from other clues judged its responses as indistinguishable from those of a human then it was reasonable to describe a machine as thinking.…

Caught in the cross-fire My third great grandfather Philip Lamothe Snell Chauncy (1816-1880), a surveyor, in 1839 emigrated from England to the colony of South Australia and worked there for two years. In 1841 he was appointed Assistant-Surveyor in the Colony of Western Australia. In 1853 he…

Brasses and antiques About a year ago I came across a photograph of a plaque in Lincoln Grove Evergreen Memorial Park, Tamworth, New South Wales, which read:  In Memory of Thomas Cumming Lyttelton-Taylor's Twin Brother George Killed In The Boer War And His Parents And Sisters Jessie Aggie And Etta…

Content Rank: a new WikiTree metric Web search-engines such as Google and Bing do not index everything they encounter. For efficiency and speed and cost they pass over what they judge to be obscure and unimportant. This means that a published search term on a public site may not necessarily be…

Afternoon tea on a windjammer In 1949 my father Rafe was taken on a long drive by his grandfather Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882-1952)* from Adelaide to Port Victoria on Spencer Gulf. Their trip was to look at two sailing ships, S.V. Pamir and the ship S.V. Passat, which were moored…

Fire at Avoca homestead May 2024 My Cudmore forebears were pastoralists, with holdings in South Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales. Two in particular, my great great grandfather, James Francis Cudmore (1837-1912), and his brother Daniel Henry Cashel Cudmore (1844 – 1913) took up notable…

Roland Herbert Cudmore (1879 – 1913) Roland Herbert Cudmore (1879 - 1913) was my great grandfather's first cousin; thus he is my first cousin three times removed. He served in the Second Boer War, and this he survived, but a decade later he was killed in a car crash. Roland, the son of Daniel…

Gentlemen Adventurers: A little drive to Yugoslavia In 1955, when my father Rafe was studying at Cambridge, he answered an advertisement from a fellow student who proposed to drive across Europe to Yugoslavia in the summer holidays. He was accepted as one of a group of six students, five from…

Much love dear Pish – Posh When she was a girl my grandmother Kathleen Cavenagh (Cudmore) Symes (1908-2013) was a close friend of my great aunt Nancy (Champion de Crespigny) Movius (1910-2003). In 1933 they became sisters-in-law when Kathleen married Nancy’s brother Geoff Champion de Crespigny…

Oh dear! My grandmother voted for the Communists! In 1955 my father's parents moved from the city of Adelaide to a house by the beach, at Grange. Their new address was within the boundaries of the Federal electorate of Port Adelaide, created in 1949 and abolished in 2019. Port Adelaide was one of…

A long marriage Today is the sixty-sixth anniversary of my parents' wedding, the first without my mother, who died on 27 August 2024, eight months ago. What percentage of married couples reach such long wedding anniversaries? I looked up the Australian statistics. Finding nothing relevant, I…

A timely reminder of the cost of WW2 youtu.be/DwKPFT-RioU?...

V E Day – remembering Peter Leeton Kirkpatrick Today is the 80th anniversary of the end of World War 2, at least in the European theatre. Victory in Europe Day  (VE Day, from midnight on 8--9 May 1945), celebrates the formal acceptance by the Allies of Germany's unconditional surrender. When the…