My ancestral rabbit hole

More than thirty years ago my mother and father made some progress on tracing our family ancestry. I recall them talking about Alexander “Sandy” Albion and some difficulties in determining some relationships. I played in the space briefly around 2012 but struggled to find time and let it sit.

While I was recuperating in 2023 I reviewed some folders of documents I had retrieved from Mum’s place after she died in 2022. Among those were various records of births, marriages, and deaths that Mum and Dad had collected in their search for ancestry. I played around again but, as I healed, I put that aside intending to get back when I had time.

A series of rainy days last week with nothing else urgently demanding attention allowed me time to make a start. I hit some barriers, likely some of the same that had frustrated Mum and Dad, but technology has moved on in 30+ years and some creative digging turned up more clues. I dug around in FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and Ancestry and into the Queensland Family history research service, New South Wales Family history search, IrishGenealogy.ie, Trove, and Family History UK forums. It really was an exercise in going down rabbit holes but I think I have succeeded in outlining the stories of Alexander and Rachel Albin/Albion, my great-great-grandparents.

I started writing this post intending to cover their stories, together and apart. They parted ways in 1859 but lived to 1885 and 1908, respectively. In the end there was so much material that I decided to tell Alexander’s story in this post and Rachel’s in another. Now that I’ve worked through both I’ve decided they each need their own post. As much as anything that is because I also decided to include links to available sources. That will enable those with an interest to pursue more detail and preserve the record.

Thus, this post has been edited to remove the story of Alexander which now appears in a separate post.