Shannon's Learning Journal: Recently my class, 5T, were doing a family tree. First I interviewed my mum , then my grandma and then my dad. The furthest I went back was 1797.

Shannon's Family A few weeks ago I interviewed my mum, my dad and my grandmother because we were doing a family tree at school. I also looked through the family Bible. I wrote all my information on an A4 piece of paper. At school we did a project on my family tree. ******************************** I was born in Wollongong Hospital at 11:45 am on the 29th of November. The year was 1989. I weighed eight and a half pounds. I got named after the Shannon Church in Ireland. My mum and dad were born in 1954. My mum was born in Wollongong Hospital when Queen Elizabeth was in Wollongong. That’s how she got her middle name Elizabeth. My dad grew up in Port Kembla with his two bothers and two sisters. Back in 1796 John Kelly was born in Ireland. When he grew up and stole from the wealthy, he became a convict. After a long trip to Australia he died in 1884. His wife Mary Dayle was born in 1797 and died in 1883. These were my ancestors. I learnt a lot about my family history because my mum had a lot of information on her side of the family.

Family Tree

Sean's Learning Journal: We've been doing a factual recount about our family. I did one about my mum and dad in Vietnam. We had to interview our parents about their history. Mine was interesting and good. I enjoyed it.

Sean's Family This term we did a project about our family tree. We had to ask our parents about our family. It sounded like it was going to be hard. We had to record our family names. *******************  I was born at Shellharbour hospital in 1990. My parents named me Sean. In Vietnam, my dad was a soldier representing South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese attacked South Vietnam. A lot of people died so my Dad and other soldiers went into war. The North Vietnamese won the war. My dad was captured by the Communists. Every day my dad got beaten by the communists. Then a couple of years later my dad was released. My dad couldn't take any more so he escaped from Vietnam to somewhere he could be free. Then my dad met my mum Bich Nga Tran on the boat going to Malaysia. They fled to Malaysia. One day my mum & dad wanted to go to Australia, so they flew there; they got citizenship and their Australian passport. Then a year later my sister was born; then a couple of years later I was born.   From talking to my parents, I’ve learnt it can be very hard living in very strict countries.