Daily Archives: January 15, 2008

Tracing your family tree and finding living relatives

I have been into genealogy for about twenty years now and until recently dealt mostly with locating and finding long dead ancestors. One thing about this past time is that it brings you into contact with so many people you would otherwise have never met and all with the same goals in mind as yourself.

Recently I have struck some luck as I have been contacted by two relations ( cousins ) and they have found me through my other site Hamilton Family History. One cousin is twice removed and the other is a girl my age that I went to school with when we were small. They are both from Mum’s side of the family – there’s hardly anyone left from Dad’s side unfortunately.

It’s great though to find people, family members, who you have lost contact with and who are working away at their family history as well. With any luck we will be able to share our info and put more pieces of the jigsaw together!

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.

Stolen Generation will get their apology – but will it be accepted?

Between the years 1869 and 1969 Australia had was called ‘The Aboriginal Protection Act’. Under this legislation thousands of aboriginal children, usually half-caste but nearly all malnourished and ill-treated, were removed from their parents and adopted by white families. This was carried out by the government and various church missions. The idea was to protect these kids. Many were badly treated due to having white blood, they were made outcasts by their tribes; young females were considered to be especially under threat. This policy of removing these children has been termed ‘The Stolen Generation’. It represents the not-so-nice part of Australian history. However times and attitudes were different back then and indigenous Australians were viewed , on the whole, as a problem to be dealt with.

Over the past ten years there has been increasing pressure for the Australian Govt to say, quite simply, ‘sorry’. So far it has not been done but now Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is preparing to say ‘sorry’ to the Aboriginal people for what ocurred in the past. Fair enough. Whilst there were children needlessly removed from their families, many others certainly would have died had they not been, in my opinion, rescued. But back then there were no social workers, no human rights laws, just attitudes and a need to do something about what was seen to be a developing problem.

But it wasn’t only aboriginal children who were removed from their mothers over all those years. Due to social attitudes before the 70′s many thousands of white Australian babies were taken from their mother’s at birth and adopted out. Simply because these mother’s were not married. Will there be an apology for these similarly stolen children? And by whom?

Can the Australian people hope for an apology from the Japanese Govt for the horrors inflicted on Australian soldiers during WWII? I think not.  Can all those people who lost their homes and farms during the 1980′s under the Labor Govt’s ‘recession we had to have’ policy hope for an apology from Mr Rudd on behalf of his socialist govt? Pigs might fly first.

The way the Aboriginal people were treated over the course of a century, before we developed any real sense of social awareness and responsibility, was a travesty no doubt. And it has been acknowledged and is being addressed, but an apology…

One thing I would like to know, making an apology is one thing, but will it be accepted?

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.

Johnny Depp – here’s a Kiss for Life

The word ‘superstar’ has become one of the most overused terms in the english language and also one of the most misused, especially when it is used to describe certain celebrities. In my opinion though Johnny Depp has every right to lay claim to the title of Superstar because he really is super.

Mr Depp quietly visited Great Ormond Street Hospital in London yesterday and handed over a cheque for £1 million in gratitude to staff for saving the life of his little girl last year. What a guy. But what a great hospital and an even greater staff of doctors and nurses who work on a daily and nightly basis caring for our sick and ailing children. Not only that but he also spent days dressed as his character in ‘Pirates’, Capt Jack Sparrow, reading bedtime stories  to the children in the wards. All without posing for photo op’s, all without an ounce of fuss.

 Well done Johnny, you’re a star and what’s more and you get my new Kiss for Life Award!

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.