Our articles in this issue range through time from the convict era, to the late nineteenth century, to the 1920s and to the present day. In ‘A small quantity of lace’, Jenny Cassidy tells the story of her ancestor Mary McCarthy, who was transported to Tasmania in 1826. Mary’s first child was born on board the convict transport. After serving her sentence, Mary settled in Melbourne, where she led a long and productive life. Tharp Mountain Girdlestone was an early practitioner of medicine and surgery in Victoria in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Catherine Carman follows his career from the goldfields to Melbourne, as he established a reputation in surgical, medical, scientific and teaching practice. Sadly, ill health forced him to return to his native England where he ended his days in 1899.

Two very different stories were written as part of the Writers Circle’s recent writing exercise based on the 1920s. Claire Dunlop’s story of her mother is a personal one based largely on oral history, whereas Sally Johnson takes us into the thick of the Irish revolutionary movement and the role of her family member, Sarah Barron. Bojan Pajić gives an account of the Australian visit to Serbia in 2023, for the Anzac Day ceremony at the Cemetery in Belgrade, and includes the stories of WW1 and WW2 Australian servicemen in Serbia.

Was there something French in the air as we were preparing this journal? For our ‘How to’ series, Jenni Manguy and Martin Playne  have written a comprehensive guide for beginners to search out their French ancestors. While the article concentrates on mainland France, there are links to enable the reader to find ancestors in France’s overseas territories. In addition, Robert Nash, Secretary of the Huguenot Society of Australia, has written us a guide to researching and finding your Huguenot ancestors.
 
If you are writing your family history, (and if not, why not?), you will appreciate Joy Roy’s Getting it Write article on ‘Citing your sources’, which shows you how to cite a wide range of sources.

Barbara Beaumont

Editorial Team