Notes from the TARDIS

Notes from the TARDIS


Genealogy is a kind of time travel. These are my research reflections, discoveries, and wandering thoughts as I travel through the lives and stories of people from the past—sometimes with tea, sometimes with tears, and always with curiosity.

  • Meeting George Chapman: The Man in the Diaries
    For a number of years I’ve known that my 2× great-grandfather, George Chapman, kept diaries. They are at the State Library of South Australia, and I am finally reading his handwritten words. George Chapman is my maternal 2× great-grandfather. His diaries run from 1872 to 1926 (with a few missing years), covering more than fifty…
  • Why Use Ask Grandma Kylie?
    Why Use Ask Grandma Kylie? If you’ve been researching your family history for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed something curious — and sometimes frustrating. You search for the same person on different genealogy websites……and you get different results. That’s not your imagination. And it’s not because you’re doing it wrongly. Why I Use…
  • Introducing The Family Threads Project
    There’s a moment in every family history search — especially in the search for birth parents — when the past feels close enough to touch. A quiet shift where old records, DNA matches, and a whole lot of heart finally begin to weave together. For many people, especially those on low incomes, that moment feels…
  • How Ask Grandma Kylie Uses Open Data
    One of the unique features of the Ask Grandma Kylie chatbot is that it uses open data from data.sa.gov.au. So what is open data? Open data is information made freely available by governments and organisations for anyone to use, reuse, and share. In South Australia, data.sa.gov.au is the central website where this information is published.…
  • A Complicated Legacy: Researching Blanka Buring
    When I began researching my cousin Blanka Buring, I hoped to shine a light on her work in social welfare and child protection. She was active in New South Wales during the mid-20th century — a time when social work was evolving and women like Blanka were stepping into roles that shaped policy and care.…