My Family's Journey Through Time
This site is about my adventures in family history. I live in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia with my cat, Miss Molly. I am retired and enjoy filling my days with family history, reading, desktop publishing, friends, family, and music. My music is important to me and I generally try to be relaxed about life. This last doesn't always apply! My friends tell me I have a wacky sense of humour - well I don't know about that, but I certainly do enjoy the happiness that fun can bring. Reading is an essential part of my life and has been for as long as I can remember. My mother was a great reader as well and introduced me to books and their magic at a young age. While not an expert by any means in family history, I enjoy travelling the roads that my ancestors have visited in the past and hope you will journey along with me.
We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, 'You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us'. How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am, and why I do the things I do.
John Douglas Thomas, known as Jack, is my great grandfather.
Jack was born in Mackay, Queensland, on 11 May 1871 to James Thomas and his wife Jane Douglas, their only son. He had three older sisters, Mary (born 1865), Honor (born 1867) & Sarah (born 1869).
William Johnson is my 3rd great grandfather.
William was born on 11 February 1892 in Essex, England, to Joseph Johnson & Esther Monks. William arrived in Australia in 1826 onboard the Chapman with his wife and son.
Joseph Antoney is my great grandfather.
Joseph was born on 4 September 1842 in the Azores, Portugal, to Joachim Jose de Silva and Hannah Tessing. He arrived in Australia via the Fiery Star on 28 November 1864 as Quartermaster.
Rosetta, also known as Rose, is my 4th great grandmother.
Rosetta was born in 1781 in Ballygowan, Ardee, Co. Louth, Ireland to William Jonson & Caty )Elise) McKiver. She arrived, as a convict, in Sydney onboard the Northampton with her daughter Catherine on 19 June 1815.
John Beale is my step 4th great grandfather.
John Was born in 1783 in Maldon, Essex, England. He arrived, as a convict, on 11 June 1813 onboard the Fortune transported for life. He married Rosetta Johnson on 1 June 1818 in Parramatta, New South Wales.
Peter McCann is my 4th great grandfather.
Peter was born in Co. Monaghan, Ireland in 1769 to William McCann with an unknown mother. He arrived as a convict, on 11 January 1800 onboard the Minerva with a sentence of seven years.
Hugh Connor is my great-great grandfather.
Hugh was born in Ballykelly, Co. Londonderry, Ireland to John Connor and Elizabeth (Betty) Graham in August 1787. He arrived in Australia on 10 March 1839 onboard the Susan with his wife Ann & their children.
Dugald Cameron is my great-great grandfather.
Dugald was born in Oban, Argyll, Scotland to Angus Cameron & Ann McLean in 1775. He arrived in Australia from New Zealand c 1843 with his wife Christina and three children.
Mary Cameron is my great grandmother.
Mary was born in 1835 in Glenmore, Ardnamurchan, Argyll, Scotland, to Dugald Cameron & Christina Cameron. She arrived with her parents & two siblings c. 1843 in New South Wales from New Zealand.
Dorothy May Thomas is my maternal grandmother.
Dorothy May was born on 4 October 1898 in North Eton, Queensland to Jack Thomas & Annie Jacintha Mary Elizabeth Antoney. Dorothy married George Douglas McCann in Brisbane on 23 January 1924.
"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."
"Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life."
"The informality of family life is a blessed condition that allows us all to become our best while looking our worst."
"In time of test, family is best."
"In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony."
"Home is where you are loved the most and act the worst."
The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought, and some died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth; without them, we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before.
By Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943
Who knew I would have so many surnames in my direct ancestry?
I make every effort to document my research. If you have something you would like to add, please contact me.
