Grandkids - Who'd Have Them?

It’s Conor, my second grandson’s sixteenth birthday today and I found myself thinking, not for the first time, how much grandchildren mean.  I have three, Liam (18 next month), Conor, the birthday boy and Shannon (15 in a few short months) and what a joy they bring to my life and how empty it would be without them.  It’s been an exciting journey from seeing each of them at the hospital when they were a few hours old to teenagers and now a young man in Liam’s case. 

My first visit back to England in 38 years was taken with Michelle and Liam when he was 18 months old and we were visiting his grandparents in Ireland.  His name is still in the big book in the lobby at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara where he “owns” a tree in the forest.

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to take each of them away somewhere – Liam to New Zealand when he was 10, Shannon to Canberra when she was 9 and Conor to Melbourne a couple of times – an easy trip to pick as our prime objective was at least one AFL game each time!  All of these trips have been a dream as the kids have been so easy to be with and such great company. 
I’ve been to every end of year concert at their primary school from Liam’s first year to Shannon’s last year in 2010 when she was Dux of the school – and how proud we all were of her achievement! Now Liam is off to University – the first major step in his adult life.

I’ve had fun alternating Sundays between Liam’s soccer and Conor’s Aussie Rules football– often in pretty crappy weather and Shannon’s netball on a Saturday. 

In the last couple of years their focus has been on cycling – road racing and track – and once again, they approach it with enthusiasm.  I believe the interest started with Liam who was a triathlete at High School but preferred the cycling leg.  Whilst I don’t go to the road races much I try to be at the track cycling every Friday and love every minute of it.  Shannon was selected in the State Junior Team for the National Road Racing last year and Conor is doing very well against strong competition as a sprinter at the track.  He’s also put up some good performances on the road along with Liam, who didn’t compete during his last year at High School but is back in the thick of it now. 

I am just so proud of their achievements in life in general and they each bring something different to my life.  Liam, who has always been a somewhat reserved child (much to my regret) is now tending to talk and interact with me more as he gets older and has quite a wicked sense of humour on occasions.  I hope as he matures we will develop a good rapport as he probably doesn’t realise how important he is to me as my first grandchild.  Conor is my football “buddy” amongst a million other things.  We’ve always had that in common and he comes to the football with me as often as possible – always supporting the teams that Fremantle are playing! We have a great time together – and I’m hanging out for the start of this next football season!  Shannon is my “debater” and she shares my love of history and books.  I wish I had been able to take her to Scotland with me as I think she was have been fascinated by the history and pageantry. When we get together the conversations are so wildly diversified.  She has an avid interest in just about everything and has to be the most interesting girl of her age to talk with.  We go with consummate ease from history to politics to religion to law, you name it.  She’s my little Australian Republican.  I could spend hours with her just talking.
So there you have it – thoughts that have come together because of a 16^th birthday, a day off , a computer and time to think.

Thank you kids for just being YOU.

Who's a Racist?

I'm really starting to get heartily sick of reading and watching these PC wallies telling us we are offending ethnic minorities by being proud to be Australians.  Now a professor at UWA has released a "study" in which she says that those who fly Australian flags from their cars for Australia Day are more likely to be racist.  I hope no one actually paid for this "study"! Obviously she couldn't find anything more important to research.

So, now after being told that "Happy Christmas", carols over PAs in shops, nativity plays at schools, Easter eggs ("Holiday Eggs" just don't sound quite the same do they?) and even occasionally, Anzac Day are offensive, we are now in danger of being labelled a racist if we fly our flag.  The thing is - I don't believe that the majority of these ethnic minorities who are supposed to be offended are the ones actually doing the complaining.  I don't believe that our Muslims, Jews, Buddhists etc have any problem with our Christmas and many, many of those waving the Australian flag tomorrow will not have been born here but are proud to be "new" Aussies (or Aussies in waiting perhaps).

We appear to have a whole battery of politically correct egomaniacs and academics whose sole purpose in life seems to be to foster dissension, insecurity, distrust and hatred by insinuating that these "people" are offended or racially vilified.  They surely have to have at least some vestige of intelligence to know the results of their pronouncements on the ordinary Aussies.  One has to ask if they have a hidden agenda or are they keeping the agitation going to justify their own pathetic existences?

I know who I consider to be the greatest racists in this country - and they have a lot to answer for!

Happy Australia Day

Where did you say you were from?

I was looking at the “likes” on a link I had posted to Facebook today and saw that the two people concerned were related although they probably didn’t realise it!  It got me to thinking about my genealogy efforts and the family tree.

I started the research about ten years ago.  I’m not sure what prompted me to even think of it – maybe it was the realisation that the years were catching up with me and I needed to know more about  my past?  It certainly  had a little to do with me wanting my grandchildren to know about their background (at least on my side of the family).  I’m not really sure,  but most of the people I’ve come into contact with throughout those years since I started have been in and around my age bracket so maybe it is a case of realising that we aren’t immortal after all.

I surfed the internet, picking up hints on “how to” and then my local library ran a short course on the subject and I was off……

I bought my first version of “Family Tree Maker” (I’m 3 versions in now!) and duly entered my name. I put all the family that I knew of in, back to my grandparents and started searching the genealogy websites.  I uploaded the information I had to a couple of more well known sites and within no time I started getting emails from people who thought they might be related or who had information that might be useful.  Two of my earliest contacts were from the Lawrie/Laurie side of the family and came from Northumberland  and, of all places, New Zealand.

Further delving into the past revealed that my great grandfather’s elder brother had emigrated to New Zealand with his two children back in the 1840s (something no one seems to have known about) and we now seem to be related to half the population of the South Island!  (I believe there wasn’t much to do there in those days once it got dark!).  He moved on to Australia and died in Victoria in the 1890s.  He married again in Australia and there are now more Aussie relatives! So much for Mum and I being the first family members to come to Australia!

I was contacted by my cousin, John on my Father’s side of the family (a family I hadn’t seen since I was about 7 years old!) and he sent me a wonderful old photo of his mother and our aunt with my father when he was about to go off to WWl (he was 16 but lied about his age).

Going back earlier than my Grandmother on that side has been very difficult.  There have been several dead ends and wrong leads and we’ve never found anything about his father (my grandfather).  Seems Grandmother came from Devon but Lord knows what sent her to Birmingham!  I’m sure I’d rather have Devon!

I made contact with relatives on the Good side of the family (Good-Cobban-Lawrie) in USA England and Australia (Jo, Janet and Margaret on Facebook) and was delighted when my second cousin, Sharon, got in touch with me.  Her father, Alan, was the cousin that I grew up with – well until we came to Australia.

All in all though, we seemed to be a fairly mundane family.  No real skeletons but more than a sprinkling of shot gun weddings (tut tut in Victorian times too!!!).  That is until GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANNIE URQUHART!

Let me set the picture here.  I’ve lived in Australia most of my life, I’m an Aussie citizen and owe no other allegiance.  One of THE best things (historically) is if you can find a convict in the closet (preferably BEFORE transportation ended rather than today!)  It’s almost Colonial Royalty!  Imagine my delight when I stumbled over the information that Great Great Great Grannie, Euphemia Urquhart (nee Yule) had been a naughty lady and transported for a term of 7 years from Edinburgh to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania).  I paid a researcher to go through the National Archives in Scotland and she sent me over 70 pages of court transcripts, evidence statements and even the list of jurors at her trial.  I got more convict records from Tasmania, including her description upon arrival and the date of her eventual freedom.  She married again to a fellow convict – I might add, while she was still married to Great Great Great Grandfather, George, and never went back to Scotland. She died in Hobart in 1877. So even Peter Lawrie wasn’t the first ancestor to come here.  Mum and I were getting further back in the queue!  It’s of interest to note here that my surviving aunt who is now 92, doesn’t believe a word of this!  She reckons I’m just digging up dirt on the family and I haven’t had a Christmas card since she was told!!!!  When I was in Scotland for The Gathering in 2009 I took a full copy of the information from the National Archives with me and it is now in the Clan Urquhart Archives with the Clan Chief in USA.  In the Clan Parade up the Royal Mile I chose to walk with Clan Urquhart because the old girl had provided me with the most interesting piece of history ever!

The visit to Scotland also gave me the opportunity to visit the village of Chirnside in the Borders where the Lawries all came from  and Perthshire where the Gows originated.  I found the grave of my great great grandparents and great grandparents in the Chirnside churchyard and I must admit I stood there and shed a quiet tear.  I know it sounds corny but I felt I’d come home.  It was so much a part of what I’d been doing all the research for.  I stood outside the house that my mother was born in and passed the church that my grandparents were married in.

Weathered and difficult to read unless you're actiually there.

Peter Lawrie & Alison Lidgate.

James Lawrie & Agnes Blackbell.

plus another son and daughter of James & Agnes.

I’ve managed to go back to about the mid 1700s and we have family scattered all over.  From Scotland they’ve spread to Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, England and now Spain thanks to Sharon and Simon. I just hope that another family member will keep this research going for the future generations.  Not everyone is going to be interested but every now and again  there will be ONE who wants to know who they are and where they came from.

My family tree web site is www.radyer.tribalpages.com

               

The Perils of owning a Burmese kitten

It's a good few years since I've owned a cat and I'm not too sure what prompted me to decide that it was high time to experience those joys again.  Perhaps it was the idea of a gently purring cat curled up on my kneee in the evening.  After all, it's not quite the same for a fully grown Staffy to do that even though it's nice that she lies happily at your feet.
So after much humming and hahing I went off to a breeder and picked out my kitten. (Well, I should say he picked me). 
I was drawn to him because he obviously had a personality crisis and thought he was a parrot.  He got on my shoulder and no amount of moving him would keep him off.  I should have read those warning signs!
I finally picked him up a week ago at age 15 weeks - a magnificent little Lilac Burmese boy and named him Parker (we seem to have a propensity for surnames for animals in the family).
In this week I find that I love him dearly, he does sleep, purring,on my lap but I'm starting to look like I've been dragged through rose bushes.  My neck, shoulders and arms are a patchwork of scratches.  It's not that he's vicious or even scratching during play - he just loves to sit on my shoulder and this includes jumping there from great distances - and his aim isn't always spot on!!!!
He's already established that he's boss of the poor dog who is a bit wary of him.  He ignores Lucky most of the time, even to the degree of chasing toys around the floor while she's watching but the minute she goes too close, up go the hackles and a hiss and "where's that shoulder gone....?"
I bought him a state-of-the-art kitty litter tray.  $90 worth, Italian design.  Virtually the Ferrari of kitty litter trays and he won't use it unless the fancy lid with the filters etc is OFF.  Luckily I saw him crossing his legs and dancing around before he had a nasty accident!
One of his favoured playtimes seems to be about 3am.  After two nights of being pounced on (Sean Connery where are you???) I now shut the door between the bedrooms and living area when I go to bed.  However, he waits his chance for when I get up to let the dog out and he's waiting for me when I get back.  I think the bathroom is going to be the next closed door.  He won't come too close when I'm in the shower but a couple of times he's crouched as though he's about to jump as I've dried myself...ouch!!!
The computer is the biggest bone of contention between us though.  He will NOT stay off the keyboard.  He's changed the font size to minute, he's opened twenty three versions of Google at the same time and makes his own status updates on Facebook.  He frequently just turns the whole thing off.  He had that error sound bleeping at him the other day and was frantically trying to find out where it was coming from and he's sat next to a scrolling screen with his paw up trying to stop the movement.

He's nearly as bad with the iPad, tapping the screen with his paw while I'm reading a book and turning the page over!

Life has certainly changed in this household, but as I look at him, peacefully sleeping on the top level of his scratching pole/cat gym and looking so innocent I have to say it's all for the better.  maybe oneday Lucky will agree with me!!!!