February 14, 2012

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Tomorrow the World

April 26, 2011 at 3:45 am Leave a Comment
Tomorrow the World by John Biggins

This book would actually be a good starting point for anyone who stumbles across the Prohaska series by John Biggins, as I did. It is chronologically first, tracing the career and life of Otto Prohaska from small-town Bohemia to the Imperial and Royal Navy of Austria-Hungary. Young Otto studies at the marine academy, learning 19th century sailing skills that will be largely irrelevant in the looming Great War. He travels around the world on a secret mission to find a missing Archduke, experiencing many adventures along the way.

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Archduke Franz Ferdinand

April 25, 2011 at 5:08 pm Leave a Comment
Archduke Franz Ferdinand

I’ve just finished reading the four Otto Prohaska novels by John Biggins. Otto Prohaska is a submarine captain serving the almost-landlocked Austro-Hungarian Empire on the eve of the First World War. He faces a host of unlikely circumstances, from petrol poisoning to exploding lavatories, cannibals and trigger-happy Turks. Despite his misgivings, Prohaska remains a loyal servant of the Dual Monarchy. Even his encounters with royalty fail to budge his sense of duty.

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Sutherland and Burgdorf book

February 13, 2011 at 8:42 pm Leave a Comment
Burgdorf family

A book about my grandmother’s family will be launched at Castlemaine on Sunday, March 6. The Wealth Beneath Their Feet has been written and compiled by Marjorie Theobald, a former Reader and Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. The book describes the history of the Sutherland, Burgdorf, Robertson, Webber, Madigan, List and Watkins families on the Central Victorian Goldfields. My grandmother was Eleanor Sutherland and her mother was a Burgdorf.

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Sister Mary Winthrop

February 2, 2011 at 7:22 pm Leave a Comment
Grave of Sister Mary Winthrop

In yet another extraordinary twist to the amazing tale of bigamist Robert Winthrop, it transpires that his sister was a nun who’s buried less than a mile from where I live in Adelaide. Thanks to the detective work of Cheryl Lean it’s been established that Sister Mary Dominic Teresa Winthrop came to Adelaide from Devon, England. After reading this website I believe she must have been one of the original Dominicans who came to Adelaide in 1883. Mary died on August 8, 1919 at St Dominic’s Priory, North Adelaide, aged 67. She was laid to rest at West Terrace Cemetery.

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My grandfather: Shearer, spud farmer, Communist

October 16, 2010 at 7:29 pm 3 Comments
Michael Gorey

Throughout his life Michael John Gorey was a colorful character and hard worker who toiled for his family in often adverse conditions. Susceptible in later life to mood swings and sometimes contradictory, he raised a large family in difficult circumstances marked by natural disaster and human tragedy. Three of his sons (Edward, Archibald and Michael) and a daughter (Sheila) had their lives cut severely short. Mick was born at Corop on March 25, 1884. According to his birth certificate, his father Edward was employed as a boundary rider.

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