Bluestone Genealogy

Amy Johnson Crow challenges us this week with the theme 'Lucky' in #52ancestors. What does it mean to be lucky? Dictionary.com defines it as having or being marked by good luck or fortune. For some this means only knowing success and prosperity, and for others it means a once in a lifetime opportunity. For my 3x Great Grandfather, Goymer Shorten who was a career criminal in Suffolk, England; being lucky meant he didn't hang for his crimes of horse theft! It may seem ridiculous by modern standards, but the theft of domestic animals including sheep, cattle, horses, pigs and fowl, was quite common in the nineteenth century. Horse theft was judged to be the most serious of these offences, considering prior to the industrial revolution, horses were  the primary source of power for agriculture, trade, and transport. Given their importance for the successful continuation of industry and livelihood, it comes as no surprise that the penalty for horse theft was death. ...

One of my previous posts discussed my British ancestors and their presence in the UK census. I wanted to write about another family who  only shared a few short years together , compared to the Duce's many years (give or take) which was reflected in 30 years of census records. The sad story of Samuel and Charlotte Shorten is told between the 1841 and 1851 census. Samuel Shorten was the son of John Shorten and his second wife Christiana, born in Washbrook, Suffolk, England in 1815. He was the half-brother of my 3x great grandfather, Goymer Shorten (which makes him my half-3rd great granduncle). Samuel married Charlotte Parsons in Swaffham, a civil parish and market town in Norfolk, England in June 1839 when he was 24 years old and she was 18. By October that year, Samuel was working with his father who was selling pigs at the local Ipswich market in Suffolk [source: Bury and Norwich Post, 16 October 1839]. By the time of the 1841 census, Samuel and his wife Charlotte...

Week 6 of Amy's #52Ancestors in 52 weeks challenge is Favourite Name. William Shakespeare tells us, in the immortal words of his tragic character Juliet " What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet."  However, L.M. Montgomery argues through her precocious character, Anne Shirley, who does not believe "...a rose would be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk-cabbage."    During my research, it became apparent that some families liked certain names, usually family names, so much and were so determined to use them, they would 'recycle' them if their first child didn't survive infancy. For example, my 3x great grandparents Michael and Margaret Quigley (nee Kiely) named their fifth child Thomas (after Michael's father), after their first son Thomas died 3 days after birth.  My 3x great grandparents Patrick and Elizabeth Maguire (nee Monaghan) had 12 children, with three of their sons s...

Boy enjoying the flood waters, c.1950s, Copyright Beard Family, sourced from pictureaustralia Melbourne is famous (or perhaps infamous?) for experiencing all four seasons in one day. As a born and bred Melburnian, it's something that I often joke about to tourists. We can go from a balmy 19 degrees one day, to a whopping 41 degrees Celsius the next (that's 105 Fahrenheit to you Northern folks!). In fact the highest temperature in Australia (ever recorded) was 50.7 degrees Celsius in Oodnadatta, South Australia in 1960. So for part 2 of my 'ancestors and adverse weather' series (which I write from my comfortably air conditioned house), I will explore another heat wave in South Australia, and the devastating effects it had on one family.  William Henry Shorten was the last child of Goymer and Jane Shorten (nee Duce). While his eight siblings were all born in the Longford / Launceston area of Tasmania, William was the first Shorten to be born in Victoria....