It has been a long time since my last post here, but after a long period working on the letters of Charles and Emma Atkin, I have now returned to rebuilding the family tree and am currently looking at the Phelan side. I have just revisited possibly the saddest discovery I have made in my 8+ years of research - the tragic death of Ada Shearwood in Benalla in 1890. And it's a discovery I might not have made had I not been contacted back in 2011 by a third cousin through the ancestry.com website. Jackie Shearwood of Sydney was curious as to how the 5-year old Ada Mary Shearwood, buried in Horsham, had come to die accidentally in Benalla, as was written on her gravestone (see below). Grave of Ada Mary Shearwood in Horsham Cemetery Ada had been born to George and Margaret Shearwood (nee Gasperino) in Horsham. Some in the family will be familiar with the Gasperino name: Margaret was the older sister of Mary Agnes Gasperino, my great-grandmother. The Gasperino family were from ...