Going to the Faries…

Family History, Grigg August 2, 2019 Alan Thompson Leave a comment

fairy in flight My sister asked her Miss Nearly-three what sort of cake she would like for her impending birthday. Her mother hopefully showed her a picture of a cake in the theme of her new all time favourite television show “Bluey” (her psychopathic devotion to “Peppa Pig” having waned of late). “Nah!” said my niece. “I want a FAIRY cake” … And in that moment the family circle was complete. Don’t mess with the GOOD Fairy Miss Nearly-three’s grandmother had been required to play…

Grave Matters

Dyson July 19, 2019 Alan Thompson 2 Comments

Help save the grave of James Dyson and his two wives in East Perth Cemetery The bodies of James Dyson and his wives Fanny and Jane lie in the old East Perth Cemetery. The three were united only briefly together under the same roof in life, and when they died many years apart, they were not necessarily buried in the same plot. But eventually all three were reunited on (not under) a single headstone in a family grave, in the oldest burial ground for the…

Won’t you think of the children?

Dyson, Genealogy July 15, 2019 Alan Thompson Leave a comment

A reference list for the children of James, Fanny and Jane Dyson

Boom time.

Western Australian History June 12, 2019 Alan Thompson 1 Comment

During the early 1840’s, Western Australia experienced it’s first economic boom. This was both contributed to and was fed by a sudden expansion in the settler population. Between 1837 and 1843 the European population in the colony increased by over 50% — The settler population doubled. While that may sound impressive, consider this: The total number of settlers in 1837 was only 2,025 men women and children. There might have been an additional sixty or seventy soldiers, but that was it for a land area…

Alias Hoffington

Dyson, Family History May 25, 2019 Alan Thompson Leave a comment

I believe I have successfully reconstructed the baroque, Byzantine story of the first Mrs Dyson. I’m now prepared to state my theory and die on this hill if that be my fate.

Rename Canning Bridge

Places, Western Australian History April 6, 2019 Alan Thompson 1 Comment

The unspeakable horror of Canning Bridge

Choose your own Adventure

Dyson, Uncategorised April 4, 2019 Alan Thompson Leave a comment

This is the tale of two convicts in Van Diemen’s Land. Their story does not have an end yet: happy, sad or otherwise. Can you help?

A Trial on Trial

Dyson March 12, 2019 Alan Thompson 2 Comments

A man killed his wife. When the powerful find themselves on trial, discussions happen about the justice system that don’t happen when the powerless are similarly ensnared.

Pavement Archaeology

Western Australian History November 26, 2018 Alan Thompson 1 Comment

On the pavements of around where I live in a southern suburb of Perth in Western Australia, are many concrete slabs of various shapes, sizes, and marked with various esoteric designs. Show me anything with two or more variations on a basic pattern of anything and I’m going to want to understand why, or more probably make a collection of it

Dyson’s hat

Dyson November 13, 2018 Alan Thompson Leave a comment

Kings Meadows Convict Station discovery finds artefacts, convict hat