Hi All I am feeling very sentimental today after receiving some very sad news last night. One of my beloved Aunt's died at age 96 ,even at that age is was still a shock because she was as fit as a fiddle & not at all sick. My Mum & other Aunty had both seen her on Monday & Tuesday & she was perfectly fine - but by late Wednesday had passed away. I have been looking through my family history notes of some of the conversations I had with my Aunty over recent years. I know she & the other older sisters & brothers of my Mum's went to school in Donnybrook.( Mum was the baby of the the 7 kids & was born in SA after the family had left WA ) so the time frame would have been probably been after 1915 that they attended the local school - but it may have been a few years before.The family had left WA & were living in Adelaide by late 1922.I know at one stage in WA my Grandfather worked on cutting down "The tall trees " as he called them & at other times he did various jobs with his horse & cart. I have been told that at the time that the area of Donnybrook where my DOUGAL family lived was ,it was very basic living conditions,especially for a family with 6 kids. Apparently my family were good friends with many of the families from these railway cottages .The only brick places were the railways cottages & everyone else lived in tent type structures- including my family. It seems that my Aunties & Uncles had to walk a very long way into the school.There were no roads or even proper paths to follow ,they had to follow the fence lines in order not to get lost.I'd loved to figure out where these railways cottages where that my family lived by & their neighbors - in regards to where the actual school was.I get the impression that my Aunt's & Uncles had to walk a very long way to get to school & not just 5 > 10 minutes - I get the impression it would have easily been between 30 > 60 minutes walk to get to school. each day. Our family is Catholic but there were no early Catholic schools or Churches to attend at the time.I have been told that Mr Padman was the only teacher at the time.My deceased Aunty had said that there were about only 6 kids in each class level but it was all one big classroom in the public school of the time.Funnily enough I did a white pages search of Donnybrook & there are 3 PADMAN's still living in the area.Any locals know of a Mr Padman that may have worked in the local school ? Are there any current records of the Donnybrook local school from the early 1900's ? How do I find them from SA ? I am very interested in hearing & learning about any early history of the Donnybrook area from 1910 onwards till 1922 & the local school & community Are there any early school records or census ,voting rolls of the local area ? If so then how can I access these from SA ? Are there any early maps of the area - in order to work out where my family could have lived ? Any advise or ideas would be truly appreciated & would help me on my sentimental journey re my family. Thanks for any help & for allowing me my sentimental journey Colleen Dunk - Adelaide cdunk@ozemail.com.au PS - I keep on hoping that one day " The Tardis " will appear in my backyard & I will have all the answers I am looking for <LOL>