NFHM Blog Challenge Week 2: Family...

Week 2 of the National Family History Month blog challenge, and this week I’m writing about “family”. Family for a family historian is such a broad topic. Do I write about an individual, or a family? A recent story or an old one? So. Many. Choices. And surprisingly it’s taken me a while to narrow it down. Reunions are a place where ‘everyone’ is family, so it seems appropriate to write about big a big family reunion one of my family’s had … the Kelly Family Reunion. 31 December 1938 was the date chosen as it marked both 100 years since the arrival of William Kelly and his second wife Jane (nee Caley) in South Australia from the Isle of Man, as well as 50 years since the death of William. The reunion was held at the Kelly family property, “Sulby Glen”, in the tiny country town of Cudlee Creek, South Australia, the drew 300 of the 400 descendants, with quite a number making the trip from interstate. The article in the Advertiser, dated Monday 2 January 1939 writes … Never has the old Sulby Glen property at Cudlee Creek seen so many visitors as passed through its beflagged entrance gates on Saturday morning, when almost 300 of the 400 descendants of William Kelly, from the Isle of Man gathered together to pay homage to his memory and to commemorate the centenary of his landing in Australia. The gathering was certainly unique as far as South Australia, is concerned, and one of the very few of its type ever held in the Commonwealth. The day was also the 50th anniversary of the day of his death.  Sixty cars and a large motor bus brought the visitors, who came from New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia, and from many parts of South Australia...

It Took 113 Years

Previously I wrote about my day in Finland in an overview form, but reality I glossed over the best parts because I was saving it for this post. First off, let me start by telling you my connection to this country comes through my great grandfather, Otto Rafael Winter who was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1880. The third of six children, he was the son of a cigar factory worker, and in 1902, 22 year old Otto left Finland to become a seaman. After sailing around the world for five years or so, he jumped ship in Queensland (Australia), and over the course of the next few years he made his way down to Sydney, before making his was to Adelaide, which my home city. It is here that he met the love of his life, Irene Daley. And it is here where they settled. I won’t go into detail about his life as I’ve written about him before, but needless to say that while he did write to his family back home, he never actually saw them again. So now on with my story … Sunday, 19 July 2015 Sunday, 19 July 2015 is one of those dates for me. You know the ones I mean. A day when something significant happens (good or bad), but either way it is memorable, and that date just sticks with you. This date was significant for me, because I FINALLY got to Finland. To say that this has been on my bucket list forever is an understatement. So just to get there was exciting. But while we (my parents and I) were there, we also met a number of relatives – the living ones as well as the dead, walked...