November is gone, gone, gone!

'Hello Koala' of 50 koalas displayed throughout Pt Macquarie. This one just happened to be inside, but mostly found on the streets.

View from our window staying at Clarence River B&B as we visited and spoke at Grafton Branch

We had the opportunity to visit Pt. Macquarie, Grafton and Taree this month. We spoke in two of the branches and did a bit of family history setup for each branch. We really enjoy the little branches who's attendance varies from 20-50 members. They are always so friendly, wanting to feed and talk with us. We have heard some really interesting stories...... not to be outdone by the ones we get daily on phone calls!
Probably 3 of our most unusual phone calls were: someone wanting to know if we could exorcise a bad spirit from her family tree, another wanting to know if the church would pay for DNA testing (it's expensive $1250) because she wanted to prove she wasn't related to someone and yesterday Dad had a call from an elderly gentleman in Perth who wanted to contact sister missionaries who visited and didn't leave their phone number. He ranted for a long time about how inadequate we were as a church and also a Sis. Smylie who never answered her phone: )
Dad is busy, busy, busy and is trying to wrap up some work as we need to get prep done for YSA convention we will be attending for Family History.
We are loving the photos of Christmas trees and grandchildren and are printing to put on our photo wall. We are loving that Oscar was born and is doing well enough to go on his first family holiday.

Wallaby joey being held by Dad at rescue enclosure

Pt Macquarie town overlooking one of the beaches in the area. Fairly typical of beach towns where everyone enjoys a view

Naming Ivan Giordan Radman

Ivan school picture. He is one to right of pole in a white shirt. You can recognize the broad forehead

As told by his mother, Natalia:
Natalia (his mother) had chosen the name Giordan (not Giordano, Italian version) for her new baby and sent her husband to register the new baby, which had to be done within 3 days of the baby's birth.
Ivan's Dad had to walk 7 km to Porec and by the time he got there he had forgotten the name his wife had told him so he just chose a name and registered the baby with that name.  When he returned home he told his wife what had happened and that the baby was registered with the name Renato. His youngest sister Maria who at the time was unmarried and still lived at home, said "no he can't be called that, he'll be teased" as there was a popular song at the time (rena, rena according to Natalia). Maria suggested to name him Gianni... a good plain name. So essentially Ivan was named by his aunt Maria. The slavic version of Gianni was Ivan, which is when Dad used when he changed his name to Ivan in displaced persons camp. He added Giordan as a middle name.
However, Dad told the story how on his first day of school, he was sent off to a school where they spoke a language he neither spoke nor understood. The teacher then called him Renato and told him to remember his name. It was news to him as up until then he thought his name was Gianni!
I can remember when we travelled to Italy and Yugoslavia that everyone who knew Dad called him Gianni and his mother, Natalia always called him Gianni.

School attended by Ivan Giordan Radman. Now converted into flats. The red star on monument is of those lost at war.

Quiet Week

We went to see Wicked over the weekend. It was good fun to have the Saturday completely free.
We drove down in the morning, walked around Paddington market on Oxford Street..... I could only think all the girls would love the street as there lots of little designer stores to browse.
Sydney has many markets, but Paddington focuses on local artisans and it is interesting to see.


The rest of the week has been quite slow (for me) but Dad seems always to be busy. We had a farewell for the Roberts on Monday night and as we share an office with them, we will especially miss them.
We loved all the photos of Halloween. They gave us so much pleasure to see the kids in costume and to hear about the various stories of activities. They all look so good, beautiful and handsome,everyone of them. Loved all the adult costumes too.... creative, crazy, unique. Thanks for including us, we look at your pics over and over.
We continue to meet people who we have connections with the family on both sides of the pond. There are some more unusual than others.... for instance, one young guy this week from SLC visiting his senior missionary parents recognized that we had sat in a meeting together at Key Bank in SLC as Jordan and I organized nana's investments. Rebecca's Dad's cousin is on a senior mission here with her husband and we have had quite a bit to do with them as they try to help a struggling branch to ramp up for family history work. Then we have been fortunate to get various messages and hellos from aussies we knew more than thirty years ago.
We anxiously await the birth of new little Smylie in Colorado Springs this week. So excited :)
Much love...

Yet another group photo!

Sydney. What a beautiful city.

We love and miss you all so please send pics of Halloween!

We had a call from SLC last week in preparation for BYU developing materials that Dad and I designed up for a rootstech/Family History Fairs in Australia. Australia will be a beta program and then possibly expand to other areas of the world. Dad did a mighty job on putting together the powerpoint and booklet describing the Kit which prompted SLC headquarters to adopt the initiative.

Dad and I went to Tamworth (country music capital of Australia!!:)) We went up to speak in Sacrament meeting. A small ward of 30 attended. They were all lovely, friendly people. It was a long drive of about 5 hours each way, but worth it. Dad took up a new computer and installed it for them.
While I was up there, I noticed a book on their shelf that was titled "A biographical index of South Australians 1836-1885 and discovered Tredrea and Hahn.(nana's family)

 

Last week we had Sister Rogers (87 yrs old) from Queensland come down to visit us. A missionary couple have spent the last 16 mths photographing the 1,000,000 headstones she copied from cemeteries. She had lots of stories and energy. It was an enjoyable 3 days with her. She was so bright but needed to get home to personal trainer as she attends the gym twice a week to keep in shape for summer pool aerobics!

Sister Rogers (the collector of 1,000,000 headstones with the missionary (Elder Roberts) photographing them.

We have a mini garden with a tomato plant, mint plant and capsicum plant. Perhaps we will get some fruit from it, but I really think it is more about Dad being able to use the hose on the balcony.

We also have two sets of missionaries leaving this month so this is the photo of the group this mth.

Left to right: Roberts (image capture) Archibald (legal counsel) Smith (self-reliance) Moore (inter-faith pr) Barr (temple pres) Williams (mission office) Killibrew (mission office) Allen (public relations) Feil (mission office) The Roberts and the Feils are leaving the mission within the next week or so.

Opera and a baptism

Sydney is a fabulous city. The streets are full of families, lots of markets, food and things to do. We went to Sydney Opera house for a performance of The King and I. It was very enjoyable. Dad sat by a 4 year old who was bored and kept waving her flashing doll around the whole time. Fortunately, it didn't bother him. It kinda drove me crazy though :)

Darling Harbour at night. We ate at a Greek restaurant. The area was filled with families.

Rasheeka, Devmini and Dave- newly baptized family living in our building. In true Indian style, this baptism took 4 hours of celebration with food, gifts, photos, talks and testimonies. Dave works in Sri Lanka and manages all of Victoria Secret products. He has given gifts of bras to most of the senior missionaries after he guesses their size!! Moved to Australia for Devmini to have a better education. It is hard for them as Dave is on the road a lot and Rasheeka and Devmini miss home.

Remembering Gaspar Stifanic: murdered at 31 years old.

This is a photo of Ivan Stifanic family. Natalia (Pa's mother) is the little girl on the right and in the middle is her younger brother Gaspar.
Oriana (my first cousin) sent me this story recently. The details are filled in by Uncle Tony, who is the brother of Pa and the son of Natalia.
Gaspar was the third and youngest child of Ivo (Ivan) and Zanetta. When he was a baby, Zanetta died of tuberculosis.
Natalia who was closest to Gaspar in age was also adored him and and mothered him as her baby brother. Their older brother Sime (on left) was bossy and they didn't care for him.
Ivo wasn't a great believer in education and decreed that it was enough that one member of the family went to school and that was the oldest son, Sime. Sime went to school but Natalia and Gaspar did not to have formal schooling.
Traditionally the oldest son would get the farm when his father died, so Gaspar was expected to make his own way. He was given a piece of land outside of the village of Bonaci where they lived.
In his early 20's he became involved with a woman called Tina and they planned to get married. As was common among young people at the time, whilst trying to get the money together to marry and for Tina's family to agree on a dowry, Tina moved in with Gaspar. She fell pregnant and they had a son. Their relationship fell apart with arguments with her family over her dowry and Tina and her son moved back to her family home. She later married a local policeman from another town.
After Gaspar's relationship ended with Tina, he decided to earn some money to try and establish himself. He spent 2 years working in the coal mines in Albona and when he returned home he had enough money to set up a small grocery shop in Zbandaj. He rented a house and ran the shop from there. Zbandaj is close to Radmani where his sister Natalia lived.
Although Gaspar had returned home, he was lonely and therefore vulnerable to the advances of a woman named Gaidovica. She was with another man at the time, but the fact that Gaspar had a shop was attractive and he succumbed to her advances and she ended up pregnant. He married her and she lived with him in Zbandaj.
After living with him a very short time, one night Gaspar was lured to a neighboring village called Kirmenjak where he was set upon and murdered in a barn there. He was bludgeoned to death with a hammer. His body was then dumped in a nearby forest. As he had disappeared a search party was sent out to look for him. After 2 days his body was found and brought back to Zbandaj in a wooden cart. Uncle Tony reports that Natalia (Pa's mother and Gaspar's sister) was devastated when he was killed as she was very close to him.
Eventually Gaspar's father in law was charged with the murder and sentenced. He was imprisoned on Elba. With the capitulation of Italy in September 1943, all prisoners were set free so this man was released and returned back to Istra, his home and remained there until he died. It was so difficult for Natalia as the man who killed her brother was now free in the community again.
The son of Gaspar and Gaidovica as an adult moved to the US to NY state. When he died a few years back, his son organized for his remains to be buried in cemetery in Zbandaj with his mother.
Gaidovica went back to her old boyfriend and was able to inherit the land Gaspar owned near Bonaci. She sold the land and so she benefitted from the murder of her husband.
The motive for the murder was that Gaidovica's family wanted to have the grocery store (the license to run the store) in Zbandaj as it was a lucrative small business to run a small village grocery store. As it was the local authorities refused to pass the license onto Gaidovica's family as they considered them having poor character. Instead the license went to Josip Radman (my grandfather, Natalia's husband) who was considered good character.
This is the little shop that Pa would talk about running when he was a child... it was Natalia who ran the shop while Josip continued to farm the land. They did quite well financially, even with the war happening in the rest of Europe, life was peaceful in Istria until the Capitulation in September 1943 and the arrival of the Germans and the rise of the partisans. It was then that events took a turn for the worst.

Wollongong, Tassie and Salt Ash

The last two weeks have been so busy and although we enjoyed it all, glad it is over.
We went to Wollongong (or as locals would say 'the gong') and set up an Family Search booth at a state genealogy fair. It was easy and we were lucky enough to not get hard questions. People were very friendly, the talks were mostly interesting as we listened to people who have devoted their lives to researching sometimes some very remote, unrelated events that have captured their passion.

Part of the Family Search booth in the "Gong". Rebecca (dad's niece) helping on the computer

We flew to Tasmania (Tassie) and hit the road. Briefly visited Salamanca market in downtown Hobart before setting out driving north the whole length of the island. Scenery was beautiful and Tassie focuses on food tourism and so there are little shops along the way, raspberry/berry farms, chocolate factories, cheese factories. The people were very friendly and the food was great.

Clouds outside window in Hobart on our last day. The weather for the 6 days was beautiful and clear.

Salamanca market in Hobart.. Dad headed for gypsy rolls which were freshly made and yum.

Taking a driving break in Swansea on east coast of Tasmania

We taught in Devonport ward. Dad did a timeline for a youth interview. It was good and we enjoyed the group of maybe 50-60 adults and youth. We were invited back to eat by some members of the ward and so we spent the evening with Angelo and Edna and 3 young elders (Utah, Sydney and Sth Africa).

Dinner at home of Angelo and Edna with 3 elders in Devonport

We then visited 6 family history centers and dad helped with any issues. It is amazing that even a little island like Tasmania is right up to date with everything related to the church. They work long and hard with the youth in family history and taking them on temple trips to Melbourne (which is their closest temple). Each visit took about 2-3 hours as they just wanted to share what was happening in their family history centers. Dad focused on the equipment and any problems with it.

A portion of Austen's timeline. There are ancestors to the left and also the temple on the right side. 

We got home late Thursday night and got ready on Friday to help teach in a really small branch about 3 hrs north of Sydney. It all went fine, but we had planned to spend the night in Salt Ash after eating dinner with two other missionary couples. It was late when we got to the hotel only to find, there were no vacancies in the whole town (school holidays) and I had booked for the next night! So, we sang for 3 hrs to keep Dad awake so he could drive back to Sydney. Our car is old and no working radio so we used my music on my phone to sing to. We were glad to make it home.

Dad with Elder Finch (senior missionary living in Salt Ash supporting the branch) as they set up family history. This branch has no chapel and so they share a community hall with Assemblies of God congregation.

Aussie, aussie, aussie, oy, oy ,oy!

Aussie lingo

Arvo: as in an email from our manager asking for a meeting this arvo.
Bogan: Ellen describing her husband in conversation, but this expression is heard everyday.
Knackered: as in I did so much today, I am knackered.
Salvos: as in actual name of thrift shop owned and run by Salvation Army and along those lines
Vinnies: as in actual name of thrift shop owned and run by St. Vincent de Pauls.
Ambos: as in nightly news reporting on a car accident where the ambos transported the injured person.
Beautiful and lovely: descriptors of delicious food. No-one uses delicious, yum, perhaps.
Johno: 'o' instead of 'ie' endings for all nicknames.
Mackers: as in McDonalds
Good onya: as in our manager telling us we did well on an initiative we wrote.
Oldies: as in our manager telling us about his parents in law.
Snags: as in sausages which are commonly cooked on barbecue and eaten with a slice of bread (we ate at youth conference)

love you all!

Tassie farm taken from speeding by in our car

Old people do the strangest things!

Bros. Feil(mission office, former principal), Smith (self reliance, former dentist) Killibrew (mission office, former home inspector), Allen (public relations, former accountant) Archibald (legal counsel, former attorney and title company owner) Dad, Pres Barr (Temple press. former fashion guru) Roberts (photo capture, farmer in Layton)... missing 2 couples

We never stop eating! It comes with being a senior missionary I guess. We will have to purchase two seats each to get home.
These couple of photos are from a Samoan dinner put on by a senior missionary couple who went to Samoa on some business. Bro Archibald helps with legal counsel and went there to see about some land that was left to the church. While they were there,  they bought everyone lava lava wraps and put on a Samoan dinner. So very generous... all of them are. We met for dessert on Sunday night as there is an Indian family in our complex who is getting baptized on October 10th. To include them, often our neighbors have a get together with very rich desserts.
Last FHE Dad and I had to cook and went pure Australian and made meat pies, mashed potatoes with peas and gravy and salad. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. A change from American casseroles.
Last weekend we spent in Wollongong at a Family Search booth. We asked Rebecca to come with us and help out. We had quite a few new users and were able to show them how to get on the site and how to search for records. Rebecca is an expert and I learned a lot by watching her.
Meantime, we are scrambling because we have to teach youth and adult classes in Tasmania on Sunday. We don't have the lessons done yet!
As we will be in Tasmania we won't be able to text or call unless we hit wi-fi. We generally don't get wi-fi in the low quality hotels we stay in.  (hard to get used to)We have heard Tasmania is beautiful so we have to drive the length of island a couple of times so should see some beautiful scenery in between the Family History Centre visits and the teaching. We will be gone from Friday until Thursday.
Then next Saturday we will travel to Pt Stephens (beautiful little coastal town) to help some other senior missionaries teach the members of their ward how to use family search.... so a busy week or so.
I have a testimony of Family History work and enjoy listening to others as they research their own family histories as well as those others who without their diligence would not be remembered. Australians love genealogy and there are many projects being worked on here all by volunteers. I am enjoying researching our own family and trying to put in context the little bits of information that I have. It is up to you all to make sure nothing is forgotten moving forward. There are so many resources now that make family history so very accessible.
Kiss all the babies. Please send head shots if you haven't. I won't mention who, but two families haven't sent them yet. I want dad to make a poster for me to look at every day. Please send so I can see all the beautiful little faces. We will have an open space for our new little one who will be here in a few weeks.
We miss you all and love you all so very much.

Dad says the time is flying.... I don't think so.... 25% done!

Been a while since I posted but have had contact with just about everyone so you know we are still here! Spent a good evening on Friday for about 4 hours with Andrew Tredrea (first cousin) and his wife Ledley. They took us out to dinner and it was good to catch up the last 30 years! His adoption into the Tredrea family was done by Pres. Bruce R. McConkie and his wife Amelia when they were mission president in Australia about 50 years ago. His dad (nana's brother) died 4 years ago, but his mother is still alive and she lives with Andrew and his wife. His brother Russell lives on the Gold coast with his wife... they are the parents of three children and grandchildren. (meant to take a photo!!)

Bondi Beach panoramic

We went for a drive to Bondi beach last Sunday afternoon and it was full of little children all training to be surfers and young life savers. (dad's movie!)

Sydney is a huge city and beautiful. The streets are full of people walking everywhere as most things are within walking distance.We went to Lion King on Saturday to celebrate our anniversary. We went to the matinee session and so the place was full of chidden which made us wish all the grandchildren were here with us.

At Lion King

This week we are working on the graphics for traveling roots tech kits which will be presented to SLC headquarters about the middle of September. Also, we have to refine some programs to teach to youth and will be traveling to Tasmania to teach later this month. Next week we will set up a booth and work two days in Wollongong promoting Family Search.
We miss you all and love you and sooooooooo happy when we hear from you. Thank goodness for voyage text and phone. Just a few words here and there are my lifeline :)

Driving over Sydney Harbour Bridge on Saturday

We loved visiting Melbourne

Last week we spent three days in Melbourne. Although a bit drizzly, we were able to walk all around the city and have breakfast and lunch in little delis and arcade. Felt so familiar. I keep getting asked how an Australian ended up marrying an American. Dad has just given into it now.

Very typical tea rooms found all over in every little suburb and street in Australia.... this is one we walked by in Melbourne

Once we arrived in Melbourne, (we stayed about 10km) from town but in a little village with a high street, so we went to look for breakfast before meeting with with the other missionaries.

A little cafe called Toast (one of many) where we shared eggs, bacon and blackberry pancakes. (oh yeah.... hot chocolate and diet coke!)

We needed to go over and meet the camera capture missionaries so we can get them into a united group meeting on WebEx once a week. (It is always amazing to meeting someone who who has no idea how to switch on a computer..... Melbourne has 6 missionaries and none of them know how to use a computer at all). So that has proved a challenge for Dad as he has tried to do it from Sydney.

Camera capture missionaries in Public Records of Victoria 40 hours a week

Off to local pub for fish and chips and pasta and Eton Mess dessert (look up recipe,,delicious and easy)

We also visited some family search (non LDS) affiliate libraries. This was pretty amazing to see how passionate people are about finding and doing their family history. We thought it was interesting that at the genealogical society, the Jewish families have a roots program whereby all Jewish children research their name and thereby go back to figure out their heritage. It is a right of passage for them to know where their name came from and where their family came from. The library also encourages everyone to write a biography and has assistants to help.

Dad and Alan Janke who donates hours a week to records of the Jewish people in Australia

After meeting with Jewish Genealogical Society, we went to nearby Holocaust museum and were overwhelmed to get again read the horrors and see the evidence of what the Germans did to the Jews.

One photographic display. Most of the displays were too heart breaking to post

We visited Genealogical Society of Victoria and they are an active group of seemingly octogenarians who are avid genealogists. The manager who gave us the tour and spoke with us was disappointed, I am sure when Dad did not purchase her published book on the sewer systems of Geelong. She spent a long time explaining to him why it was helpful to genealogy, but he spent his money on some small Irish booklets.


We have a few Family History Fairs we will be helping with or attending this week. So there is more than enough to keep us busy. We are also putting together an international roots kit and intern program. The work will go on and they have already found our replacement missionaries who arrive next May.

We miss you all and love getting all texts, letters, photos and phone calls from everyone. We love you and this week, we will reach our 25% complete mark. Hopefully it will mark the end of winter soon also.... last week was the coldest week for 43 years!

We love you all......xoxoxo and you are in our prayers every day.

Father and Son: A story from our family history

                                                   Rowland Augustus Frederick in center
Rowland Augustus Frederick Tredrea was Nana's  (Janet Cynthia) father. Growing up as a child, we were very close to nana (Irene) and pa (Gus). On Sunday nights we would often watch war movies with him. He had served  in WW1 and during that time had been 'gassed' chemical warfare and also his assignment was incredibly traumatic to him. He was an ambulance driver who had to travel to the front lines of the battle and retrieve the dead and injured. He said he witnessed so many atrocities. He suffered with 'shell shock' now known as post traumatic stress disorder during the war and for many years, if not the rest of his life.

But, the story I want to share is about his father, my great great grandfather, James Richard Morgan Tredrea. Just before leaving on my mission I asked nana what she remembered about him. She said she remembered nothing.... only that he enlisted with Rowland so that his son wouldn't have to go to war by himself. She added he was actually too old to go but lied about his age. So James loved his son, Rowland, so much that he enlisted with him.
The story from Nana prompted me to go searching war records to see if the facts lined up. I was able to obtain copies of both war records. James enlisted within a day or so of his son and they both left on the same ship to sail and fight the war in France. After James served for 2 years 116 days, he was having a medical checkup and the dr. noticed "cardio vascular changes." At this time James owned up to the fact that he had lied about his age on enlistment application and that although he put 45 years old, he was actually 57 years old at the time and now was 59, almost 60 years old! I think that is a great story illustrating the love a father has for a son. It does remind me of the scripture John 15:13 " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." James enlisted to be near his son, knowing that he could die.
The army discharged him with some medals and he returned to Australia. He died 4 years later at the age of 64 yrs.

JoAnne, Russell (cousin Tredrea), Bronte, Peter and Donna with Pa (Rowland) and Nana (Irene) late 1950's.

balcony with a view

We are doing well, eating too much and missing you all. We go to so many dinners and lunches for various reasons. The other senior missionaries are very kind and very friendly and very social. We're taking Levi's advice and making sure we accept all invitations to socialize!
This week Dad is working on ordering 60 computers to distribute to qualified FH Centres. Tons of reports and phone calls and red tape for dad. I have been assigned to work with 50 affiliate libraries and support them in family search and perhaps teach them indexing. We are teaching and mentoring FH intern from BYU helping her put together a presentation she can take on the road. The interns are a new program so it is often tough to keep her busy and interested. We will probably go with her to Tasmania for her first presentation in a couple of weeks. We will go to Melbourne next week to meet with camera capture missionaries (6 of them) and link them with Tasmania and Papua/NG. Lead weekly webex with them so they feel some support with missionaries doing the same work in the office.
We spoke in a beautiful little town of Mudgee (4 hrs out of Sydney) this past weekend. We had lunch with branch president and his wife afterwards. It was different experience to talk to a congregation of 11 or so. They were all so very friendly and kind and want more assistance on family history work.
We attended zone conference last week and I was asked to speak on youth and family history... Dad helped by illustrating my words :) on whiteboard.

Challenge:
All of you go onto familysearch.org and register. You don't have to have a church membership number. Maybe you can see what I am trying to upload about the family.


love you all so very much,
mum and dad

Earlier this week!

Spent last Sunday with Chris, Jouni, Rebecca's family and Ellen's family at church and then for an Indian dinner at Rebecca's house. Their son, Sam is leaving for a mission to Singapore later this month. Rebecca has a beautiful, old Australiana style house with full verandahs and on 5 acres. It was built in 1876 and has all the old fireplaces. She has raging fires burning and it was a delightful time. We took P-day on Monday and took the ferry down to Sydney and met Chris and Jouni of the day wandering around Darling Harbor and the city. Great company and enjoyable city.

Penrith Stake Youth Conference

We have been busy working on a family history youth conference the last week or so. The youth  attended the temple and did baptisms and then attended two other classes: one on family search and indexing and (our class) Your story, your way. Our class (taught 3 times)was about the different ways to tell a story: video, writing, dance, art, music etc. Thanks Levi for sending Ben Scheuer as we used him singing Cookie Can Banjo and I researched and told a little bit about his story. We had interviewed and made a video of temple president and his wife of their families' escape during WWII from Europe. Dad did a timeline of the video to illustrate another way to tell a story. Kailee (a family history intern from BYU-H) works in our office and we asked her to present with us. She gave a good little talk at the beginning and helped all along the way. We did butter making and a couple of other games also.... All in all we were happy to get out of the office and participate in something that resembles home! The youth had a barbecue afterwards. It was a really nice event with lots of leaders and support there.

                                          Girl with sticker left on after Guess Who? game.

                                          Close up of timeline Dad drew in an afternoon.

                                          Kailee and us