30 March 2017

Professor Emeritus Nancy Millis, AC MBE: an appreciation

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Nancy Millis graduated with a Bachelor of Agricultural Sciences from the University of Melbourne in 1945 and obtained a Master in 1946 befo...
23 March 2017

A ‘new’ photo of an Australian Beersheba hero?

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In an earlier post, I wrote about Captain Norman Rae MC , a hero of Beersheba and my ‘Sunday School Captain’. The Australian War Memori...
16 March 2017

Green with Patrick

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The celebration of St Patrick's Day in Sydney was quickly established in the new colony of New South Wales .  By 1795, Judge-Advoca...
14 March 2017

Why do family history?

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First up we need to agree on what family history is. Is it the same as genealogy? A useful distinction to make is that a genealogist ai...
07 March 2017

Sunday School Captain: My glimpse of Norman Gordon Rae MC

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At the age of seven, after a life-changing week-long visit to hospital , I developed an interest in religion. My spleen was eating up b...
01 March 2017

The Seventh Day Men Part 3: under King Charles II

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Persecution Renewed In 1658 Oliver Cromwell died. Soon the experimental Commonwealth lacked stable government and by 1661 the exiled so...
22 February 2017

The Seventh Day Men Part 2: under Lord Protector Cromwell

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By 1643, the Puritans had won the argument about Sunday: the law upheld the Christian Sabbath. Two Civil wars preceded the astounding devel...
17 February 2017

The Seventh Day Men Part 1: The Sabbath under James I & Charles I

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Dusty arguments about the nature of ‘the Sabbath’ seem of little relevance to the modern world. This feeling is heightened in the specialis...
06 February 2017

Would Governor Phillip have wanted 7 February for ‘Australia Day’?

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This year there were some protests about 26 January as Australia Day.  A chant on the streets was ‘Change the day’ and some of the commen...