My Portfolio

As I typed in the heading for this topic, I stopped and pondered over it for a few minutes. Was my greatest achievement the swimming trophies, medal and prizes I won as a teenager? Was my greatest achievement my nursing career; gaining my General , Psychiatric and Theatre qualifications while still...

For the most part my family ancestry is a mystery to me. Having missed the opportunity to ask my father about his side of the family and then also having missed the chance to later ask my mother, I found myself feeling lost and unable to tell my own daughter much...

. FAMILY HISTORY: Adolph Christian Ferdinand Moll immigrated to America from Germany in the early 1850s and settled in St Louis where he started a retail grocery store. In 1858 at the age of 24 he became a US citizen. On Feb 2, 1861, Adolph married Hedwig Balleseau who had been...

LEGACY STORY PROMPT MY ANCESTORS ANSWER THIS LEGACY QUESTION: What information do you know about your ancestors that impacts your life today? MEMORY TRIGGERS- Use these memory triggers to help kick start legacy stories about your ancestors. Or, add your own. Where did your grandparents and/or great-grandparents come from? What did...

It's been quite a journey since returning hone and being discharged. Like any life story there is too much to include in any one story. The highlights are, among other things, my 10 year career in a rock band with my brothers in the 70's. To see a slide show of...

  Annie Payne is an Australian personal historian, who founded her business, History from the Heart, in 2006. She first commenced interviewing people about their life stories in 1988 as a Bi-centennial project and hasn’t stopped following her passion. Her love of family stories was ignited as a small girl, begging...

Normal 0 false false false EN-AU X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Mine is made of corrugated green glass and it has been a fixture on the kitchen bench all of my life, in Brisbane, Adelaide and now in Perth. I’m not sure exactly when Mum bought the butter dish, or perhaps it was...

    Russell's son Charles Gregory with son's wife Celia Gregory   Russell Gregory   Russell Gregory was my great-grandfather four times removed, who settled into Cades Cove after 1818.   The American government removed the Cherokee Native Americans and made the cove available to white settlers.   Russell started his farm and...

            Moving Out of Cades Cove                    It was the day of our first move and everyone was busy getting their belongings together.   My few homemade play things were fondly stored in a badly worn black satchel.   The main articles of household furnishings...

Normal 0 false false false EN-AU X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 The once-smart red and white gingham oilskin cover is battered and shabby now, with splotches and mysterious old stains on many pages. Mum’s treasured recipe book has a special spot in my early memories and has been a constant companion all of...

Remembering the importance of having a place outdoors that was our special place. Up in a big tree.

This journal contains events and stories about Stacy, my third child and daughter.

You can't have a family gathering without food!

A pile of dirt! That's all my brothers and I needed to create weeks and months of amazing entertainment. Dad was one of the most creative fathers ever. He would dump a pick-up truck full of topsoil right in the middle of the back yard. With a 99 cent bag of...

My earliest memories of music are from church, as my dad was a Methodist minister.  I am told that at the age of two I begged to sit beside the church pianist as she played.  When we got home, I then pretended I was the pianist, playing on the window sill....

Normal 0 false false false EN-AU X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 I only met Welsh singing sensation Tom Jones for a couple of  hours in 1965 but the memory of him has remained indelible in my mind. Tom was touring Australia with a ‘Best of British’ concert group, along with Manchester’s answer to...

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  Video: Ashokan Farewell (violin: Kathy Larsen, piano: Rachelle Larsen, tin whistle: Steve Smith) played at a retirement community in Idaho July 2009 as part of the annual Larsen Family Musicale.   Music flows through every aspect of my life.    As I write this, I am sitting at my laptop...

My first ever purchase of a record was the 45 rpm of Ruby Tuesday by the Rolling Stones. I must have played it 100 times the first night and wrote down the lyrics. I even went so far as to compose my own lyrics of a song. At this time I...