Exactly five years ago, on 9 January 2018, I published my first blog for the #52 Ancestors Challenge. It was entitled John Flett you’re to blame! Now it’s time for an update. If you don’t want to read the earlier blog here’s a brief summary: great great-uncle John Flett (born 1862) immigrated to Australia from | more…
Thomas Slater died on 6 May 1868 in Kirkwall, Orkney, as the result of “a gunshot wound, tetanus 4 days”, according to his death registration. He was just 18 and a younger brother of one of my maternal great grandfathers, William H Slater. It is from newspapers that I learned more about the circumstances of | more…
“Stick in”, a phrase I associate with James Slater, Pa as we called him, my maternal grandfather. Born in poverty, he crossed the globe, returned to Orkney, bought and grew his own farm, working hard and innovatively. (It should also be said that I write from the perspective of the first child of his favourite | more…
