Growing the Family Tree Again

Hello!

Last week I completed my Diploma in Family Historical Studies through the Society of Australian Genealogists - at least I hope I have: I await the results, of course. It is almost eight years since I embarked on building my Phelan & Atkin family tree, using ancestry.com.au, and in that time it has grown to include over 4000 people with many records, photos and articles attached.

But since doing the Diploma (and the Certificate in Genealogy before that), and learning more about the 'proper' way to conduct and record genealogical research, the problem of the large amount of unverified information has bothered me. Rather than try to wade through it all and fix it, I have decided to start the tree again!* This will of course be a long process, but I thought it would be a good one, for the following reasons:

I can build a better family tree, with fully verified information (or at least notes to make clear where it is not)
I had been unable to keep up with the extra hints ancestry had been sending me, so the end result will hopefully yield more information than I had before
I will take the opportunity to revisit all the records I have personally collected from visits/enquiries to local and family history societies around the country as I go, to make sure I haven't missed anything
And finally as I go through this process I will write this blog - something I wished I had done when I did this the first time. As I rediscover interesting facts, records and stories I can share them with you (but only the most interesting ones I promise!)

I won't commit to posting regularly or often, as I also intend to work on other related projects over the next few months. And of course there's stuff like 'work' and 'life' that will no doubt get in the way.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, and any feedback and comments are welcome.

Anthony

*I have retained my original family tree on ancestry, but have made it private. I want to limit the spreading of unverified (and therefore possibly wrong) information from going any further than it has already.

Comments

General Hewitt and the Man from Elba

I have always enjoyed saying I'm 1/16th Italian. I've often been asked if I have a European background, so it's fun to be able to provide that answer. Though so far, my DNA test is showing no evidence of this background! Nevertheless, it is true, my family does have one Italian ancestor. He was my 2x great-grandfather and his name was Antony Gasperino. His arrival in this country dates back to the 1850s, in quite unusual circumstances, on a ship named the General Hewitt . But before we even make our way on board that ship, what little we know of Antony's early life deserves a mention. Antony (presumably Antonio in his native land) Gasperino was born on the island of Elba in 1836. From his marriage certificate we know that his father was Lawrence (Lorenzo) Gasperino but his mother's name is not recorded. On his death certificate her name is listed as 'not known'. It's strange that even the informant at the time of his death (his son Joseph) would not kno...

How Austin Phelan Met his Wife

Dad's father Phillip Stanley Phelan was one of twelve children (eight boys and four girls) born to Joseph Phelan and Mary Gasperino. By the time Dad was eight years old, he had five uncles and three aunts surviving. As I have mentioned previously, I don't recall hearing much about them from him when I was growing up, and certainly not Austin George Phelan, who was the youngest of the boys in the family. Austin was born in Benalla in 1904, lived in the Essendon area all his life, like many of the Phelan clan, and worked as a brewery employee. But it is how he came to meet his wife Sara that proved to be of most interest once I started digging. As you can see above, Austin was listed as the 'co-respondent' in the 1931 divorce case between John Carnegie Lovick and his wife Sara Annie Lovick. In other words, he was the 'other man' who had become involved with a married woman (who would later ultimately become his wife). Officially John Lovick was petitioning...

Tommy Roundhead: The Most Lawless Lawless of All

With the number of Lawlesses in my family tree, it was only a matter of time until I found one that truly lived up to the name. At first, I was incredulous at the discovery of this man's litany of 'drunk and disorderly' and obscene language charges, incurred far and wide. But upon closer reading of a handful of his convictions, I realised there was a darker and more disturbing side, and that this was perhaps a very troubled individual. Mugshot of Thomas Lawless from the records of the Bathurst Gaol Thomas Lawless was the second child of Patrick and Catherine (Kitty) Lawless. He was born about 1844 in Macedon, Victoria, but currently we know little about his early life. However, the Ancestry website revealed several 'hints' to NSW Gaol Description and Entrance Book records for a Thomas Lawless born about 1846 in Victoria, so thought I might be onto something. I had to be careful though, as there was more than one Thomas Lawless in the colonies around this time. A sea...

Phelan and Atkin Family History

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