Inside History Magazine and Top 50 Genealogy Blog List

A fellow blogger, Amy Coffin of WeTree Blog, wrote an article about her blog being included in Australia's Inside History Magazine's top 50 genealogy blogs. I went to Amy's blog to congratulate her, then headed off to see what other blogs made it to the list. I'm always looking for new genealogy blogs to follow.

Jill Ball, another fellow blogger whom I met at RootsTech 2010 wrote the article called "Entering the Blogosphere" which lists 50 top genealogy blogs organized by topic. 


I did discover some blogs listed that I wasn't familiar with, so that was great. But much to my surprise, I also found my own Olive Tree Genealogy blog listed in the Top 50! I'm in the category of "must reads from overseas" That makes sense since the magazine is Australian based. So thank you to Jill and Inside History Magazine for this honour! I'm thrilled to be included in such good company and especially pleased since Australia has a special meaning for me. 


My 2nd great grandmother Sarah Stead, nee Elvery headed to Australia from England to settle with her husband and four young children in 1867. Sadly the pregnant Sarah delivered her baby on board the ship and then died a few weeks later in quarantine in Sydney Harbour. She was only 32 years old. She's buried in the old Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney and the gravedigger was her husband's brother who lived in Sunny Corners. 

Sarah's husband William Stead left two of his children behind with his brother and sailed back to England with the other two (the baby died at 9 months old and is also buried in Australia). One of the children he brought back to England was my great-grandmother.  In fact I wrote a 5-part blog series called Abandoned in Australia chronicling my journey to find out what happened to the two boys left behind, and what happened to Sarah and her baby.  


I also have many Simpson and Stead relatives in Australia, since my grandmother's brother and uncles settled there in the late 1800s. So you can see I have a strong emotional attachment to Australia. And being placed in the Top 50 Genealogy blogs means a lot to me.