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

Wiseman's Ferry

We had a reasonably busy week, doing a couple of presentations and beginning to work on a Youth Conference on family stories. We went to our 4th ward this past Sunday and of-course immediately recognized someone. She is nana's age but the last time we saw her, she and her husband (Bruce and Elva Mitchell) had dropped by our house to visit us and her husband gave Jessie a blessing. She was just a baby and suffering with seizures at the time. It was 32 years ago. When I went up to her, she leaned forward and asked in a loud voice "Is that you Donna?" Pretty funny really..... how old I look!
On Saturday we went for a drive with Archibalds (our neighbor) and a young couple who are here on a month internship. Later in the day we went to a huge flea market close-by called Parklea. We bought some fruit and nuts and enjoyed just walking around for a bit.

                                                             a crazy caterpillar with 4 horns