This page has copies of all my articles for the discontinued online journal Going In-Depth which I contributed to between 2015 and 2019. The articles appeared under the section Genealogy Downunder: Australia and New Zealand. Not everyone has access to that journal but my regular articles are still mostly relevant and this is another way of sharing that information. Plus I had forgotten how much of my own family history I had written about.
Please note that I have not updated the articles and some URLs may have changed. Also, I have not included the images.
Index to articles below (scroll down to read):
Mar 2015 Introduction to genealogy downunder
Apr 2015 Funeral notices as genealogy clues
May 2015 Burial records as genealogy clues
Jun 2015 Headstones as genealogy clues
Jul 2015 Undertakers records for genealogy
Aug 2015 Family angst revealed in probate records
Jan 2016 Why did they die? Investigating death records
Feb 2016 Mapped and Planned. Are you missing out?
Mar 2016 Land selections - an enticement downunder
Apr 2016 Revealing words - personal insight into family lives
May 2016 Anzacs online - discovering Australasian military history
Jun 2016 School days - education records for family history
Jul 2016 More school days - teacher records for family history
Aug 2016 Ancestors in prison? Why you should be happy
Sep 2016 Hidden in the asylum - lost and forgotten ancestors
Oct 2016 Looking for ancestors in lying-in hospitals
Nov 2016 Sporting ancestors - every family has them
Dec 2016 An Aussie Christmas
Jun 2017 Family trivia in digitised newspapers
Dec 2017 Starting out in Australian and New Zealand Genealogy
Feb 2018 Finding ancestors in digitised publications
Queensland
Mar 2018 Finding ancestors in digitised publications
Victoria
Apr 2018 Finding ancestors in digitised publications Western
Australia
May 2018 Finding ancestors in digitised publications
Tasmania
Jun 2018 Finding ancestors in digitised publications New South
Wales
Jul 2018 Finding ancestors in digitised publications South
Australia
Aug 2018 Finding ancestors in digitised publications NT
& ACT
Sep 2018 Finding ancestors in digitised publications New
Zealand
Oct 2018 Australia A-Z Adoptions
Nov 2018 Australia A-Z Military
Dec 2018 Australia A-Z Bankruptcy and Insolvency
Jan 2019 Australia A-Z Convicts
Feb 2019 Australia A-Z Divorce records
May 2019 Australia A-Z Education records
Jun 2019 Australia A-Z Family history societies
Jul 2019 Australia A-Z Government gazettes
Aug 2019 Australia A-Z Hospitals and asylums
March 2015
An
Introduction to Genealogy Downunder
This is the first in a series of articles about
researching genealogy and family history in Australasia. Most Australians and
New Zealanders trace their ancestry back to the UK, Ireland and Europe but we
are surprisingly diverse in our makeup. For example, I have two GGG
grandfathers who died in North America: one Scottish in New Brunswick, Canada
and the other Norwegian in Minnesota in the USA. Both had a child that
emigrated to Queensland, Australia.
Many American, Canadian, UK and Irish families had fathers
or sons that came out for the gold rushes in both Australia and New Zealand,
some stayed and others returned home. Many had one or more children emigrate on
a permanent basis and of course, Australia started out as a convict settlement
in 1788. The majority of convicts never returned home. So perhaps it is not too
surprising that people can find ancestors and/or descendants downunder.
This diversity can also be seen in the website Australian
and New Zealand American Civil War Veterans <http://www.acwv.info> where
you can find Australians who fought in the war as well as Americans who settled
here afterwards.
Perhaps the first thing you need to appreciate that
Australia is very big, a continent as well as a country. It is also made up of
five States, two mainland Territories and a number of offshore Territories.
There is a national government, state and territory governments as well as
local governments. So place is very important and you do need to know place as
it will determine where to research.
The time period is also very important as each of the states and territories were established at different times and Australia only became a nation in 1901. New Zealand is a smaller, single country with central and local government. Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org> gives a brief history of both countries.
Now that we have established that you need to know a
place and time as well as the names of the person/s you are looking for, we can
start to look at some genealogy subject areas in depth. There are very few
areas that bypass the need to know time and place. So over the coming months I will be looking at
specific topics in depth with a focus on what is available online.
But before we do any serious research, I thought we
might do some fishing for ancestors. We all know that we should go back
generation by generation, proving our findings as we go but today's technology
often lets us go ahead in leaps and bounds. The mega databases such as
Ancestry, Findmypast, FamilySearch and MyHeritage are good if the name you are
researching is not very common. You may be able to pick up your person or
family very quickly or perhaps only a few suspects to sort through. This is definitely a fishing
expedition but might be useful if you have no idea of place.
What Australasian records are included in the mega
databases mentioned above varies and of course, more records are added all the
time. If you are using one or more of them, it is important to remember three
things. First always check the coverage of what you are searching in any of the
mega databases as what you want may not be there. Second also check the
relevant state or national archives as they may have records online that are
not included in the mega databases. Third, not everything is online or indexed.
What could you find if you did decide to fish? One of my favourite resources are police
gazettes as they have helped me solve a brick wall or two. Each Australian
colony/state had its own police force and police gazettes contain notices of
missing persons who are being sought by family or friends either here or back
home. Also if someone committed a crime or were wanted for some reason, it may
also have been published in a police gazette.
Archive Digital Books Australasia <www.archivedigitalbooks.com.au>
have digitised police gazettes and they are available on CD, USB, in libraries
and via FindMyPast. A quick search on the term American led me to these two
examples. The detail provided on individuals is fantastic and definitely worth
looking for. From there you can then follow up in police and court records for
more information.
Another place we like to fish for ancestors is Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au>, the National Library of Australia's portal website for Australian, State, regional and local digitised newspapers. Trove is free to search and view. New titles and date ranges are being added all the time and just recently I repeated a search on my North Queensland ancestors. The first time I looked for them I found few entries and on my most recent look, lots of exciting references to them. This is because more northern newspapers have been digitised and added since my original search.
We can easily find all kinds of snippets of
information on our families in Trove's digitised newspapers that we could never
find if we still had to sit down and wind through microfilms. Many bloggers
participate in Trove Tuesday, a blogging challenge established by Branches
Leaves & Pollen <http://branchesleavespollen.blogspot.com.au> where
each week bloggers tell about a new, exciting Trove discovery about their
ancestors.
Trove has a variety of filters to help narrow down
searches including state, newspaper title and date range from decade down to
individual years for example. If you have an exact date or newspapers you can
go directly to that if you want. You can join Trove for free and by logging in
you can allocate tags or add items to lists which can be either public or
private. Anyone can help amend the OCR (optical character recognition) but if
you do amend text without logging in it will be recorded as anonymous. I prefer
to be logged in and then others can see who corrected that text and who knows,
they may be related to you if you are both looking at the same item.
During World War II many American soldiers visited or
served in Australia and a search on "American soldier" returns over
15,000 hits in the 1940s in Digitised newspapers and more. The earliest
reference to "American soldier" in Trove is 1825 (as at the time of
writing this article) so you can see searching by topic, as well as person's
name, can return some interesting news items.
The National Library of New Zealand's Papers Past <http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz>
is the place to go for digitised New Zealand national and local newspapers. It
also has a variety of search strategies and filters to help narrow down
searches. It is recommended that you read the help sections and FAQs to make
the most of your search strategies.
While the above resources are fishing expeditions,
they can lead to some exciting and unexpected discoveries which can be followed
up in official records. In subsequent articles we will be looking at the usual
genealogical records for immigration, births deaths and marriages, land,
education, hospitals and asylums, mining, wills and probates, military and other
aspects of our ancestors lives. As we do, you will also become familiar with
Australia and New Zealand's major archives, libraries, family history and genealogical societies and
online resources.
Funeral Notices as Genealogy Clues
Last month I talked about fishing expeditions to find
ancestors and this month I am continuing that theme with another one of my
favourite ways to find unexpected information.
Funeral notices can be fascinating and will usually tell us when and
where a funeral service was held. But they can be much more informative by
including family details, addresses and perhaps a clue about occupation,
military involvement, sporting or social interests.
Family Clues
Sometimes it can be hard to discover the married name
of a daughter if the marriage is within a closed access period but it may be
given in a funeral notice. Sometimes
children and grandchildren are named and married partner's given names are included.
These are all clues that can be followed up elsewhere in sources such as
electoral rolls, directories and school records.
In the example below for Adkins Robert Spencer,
reference is made to a number of surnames and relationships of the deceased
including husband, brother, brother in law and uncle. The notice also mentions
his occupation and this can help to prove it is the right person if you are not
certain of other details.
Occupation Clues
If someone has worked for a business or company for
some time then the funeral notice might mention the name of it or employees are
invited to attend. As we saw in the example above, professional people may also
have their occupation noted.
Military Clues
Veterans quite often have some mention of their war
service. My uncle Gordon Price was a Rat of Tobruk and this was proudly
included in the funeral notice when he died in 1990. While I knew that he had
been in World War 2 it was not until I saw the notice that I realised he had
been at Tobruk. Like so many veterans, he did not talk about his war service.
Membership of the RSL (Returned Servicemen's League) may also be indicated.
Sporting Clues
This is where you can quite often find unexpected
information. For example, the funeral notice of Adkins Robert Spencer above
also mentioned that he was a past president of the Amateur Fishermen's
Association of Queensland. This led me to look for information on the
Association and in its official history there was a detailed record of his 16
year presidency and photographs. Clues from the publication then led to a search
for further information in newspapers.
Bowls clubs and other sporting groups quite often
insert a funeral notice on the death of one of their members.
Social Clues
Perhaps a relation was involved with a Lodge or
Friendly Society. The example below indicates
that William Dennis was a member of two groups within the Independent Order of
Rechabites (IOR) . Note that you may need to identify abbreviations used in
funeral notices. Once you know the name of the organisation and which group
they belonged to, you can then see if
there are any organisation records still in existence. In this example, the
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland <http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/>
holds original records for the Independent Order of Rechabites.
How to find funeral notices?
Hopefully the examples above will have captured your
interest and in Australia and New Zealand we have a number of online resources
that are free and easy to use that can help you locate funeral notices.
The Ryerson Index
The Ryerson index <http://www.ryersonindex.org/>
is a voluntary project where people have been indexing death and funeral
notices and some probate notices and obituaries in Australian newspapers for
years. The overall date range is from 1803 to within the current week or two
but coverage varies. It is particularly strong for New South Wales and for
larger capital cities. It is a fantastic resource that supplements the
digitised newspapers in Trove.
The database is online and free to search. While it is
easy to search, you do need to check coverage to make sure that the area and
time period you are looking for has been indexed. For example, the Brisbane Courier/Courier Mail is the
major newspaper for Brisbane, Queensland
and when you look at the date range for funeral notices it is from 1949
to 2015. You must then click on the link Details of dates indexed to see what
is actually included and in this example, complete coverage is only from 2001
with patchy coverage before that year.
There is a list of what newspapers are included on a state by state basis with the broad date range covered. As at February 2015, the Ryerson index included 269 newspapers with over 4.8 million entries so it is a useful place to check especially for deaths after 1954 the cut off year for digitised newspapers in Trove. Information included is surname, given names, type of notice, date, age if given, any other details and name of publication and date published.
Remember it is an index and you still need to look at
the original entry in the newspaper to find further information.
Trove
The National Library of Australia’s portal site Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au>
is a gateway to digitised Australian newspapers online as well as other
resources. It is free to search and if searching for a person's name, use
quotation marks around the name, for example, "Adam Johnston". Trove
has many useful filters including state, newspaper title, category and decade
which can be further divided into individual years.
Be careful with the category filter as not all funeral
notices will be found under family notices, quite often notices such as births,
deaths, marriages and funerals are included under advertisements. Read the
Trove help section for tips on amending text, searching, using tags, comments,
lists and other useful features.
Trove is continually being added to, especially
country and regional newspapers and there is a full list of titles included on
the site, as well as titles being added in the current year. While this article
is about funeral notices, Trove's digitised newspapers will reveal many other
family history snippets. Remember that the end date of most digitised
newspapers is 1954 although some titles may extend beyond that date.
Papers Past
Similarly, the National Library of New Zealand has
been digitising New Zealand newspapers and these are available online in Papers
Past <http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz>. As at February 2015, there were 93 publications covering the
period 1839 to 1945 with more than three million digitised newspapers. You can
keyword search or search by date, region or newspaper title.
Summary
These free online resources will assist you locate
funeral notices for your ancestors. Not everyone had a notice placed in the
newspaper but it is a resource worth looking for just in case. Remember to
follow up any clues to other relevant resources such as military, sporting or
society records. Next month I will be continuing my death theme and looking at
burial records. Until next time, happy researching.
May 2015
Burial
Records as Genealogy Clues
This month I am continuing my theme of favourite ways
to find unexpected information and the topic is burial records. So many people say 'but I already have the
death information, why bother tracking down burial records'? What can these
records tell us that we do not already know from death certificates and/or
tombstones? Hopefully by the end of this article you will all be looking at
burial records as they have solved a number of my own family brick walls over
the years.
Availability
These days many of the larger, and sometimes smaller,
cemeteries have their burial records online for free. These databases may be overseen
by cemetery trusts or local government councils and a Google search on the
cemetery and/or the local government council may be successful. If you do not
know the name of the cemetery, then using a portal site may be useful. The
portal sites I use most often are:
·
Australian Cemeteries <http://www.australiancemeteries.com/>
·
Australian Cemeteries Index <http://austcemindex.com/>
·
Christchurch City Libraries Cemeteries and
Cemetery Records <http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Resources/NewZealand/History/FamilyHistory/Cemeteries/>
includes both North and South Islands
·
CoraWeb <http://coraweb.com.au/>
includes Australia and New Zealand
·
Interment.net for Australia <http://www.interment.net/aus/index.htm>
and for New Zealand <http://www.interment.net/nz/index.htm>
With capital cities there may be a number of places to
look so make sure you check all possibilities.
Confirming possible entries in death indexes
With common names and a wide death date range, there
may be too many entries in the death index to exactly identify the correct
death certificate to purchase. A cross check with burial records might help to
eliminate some entries or even identify the exact one you are looking for. If
there are other people buried with that person, then this is bonus information
which you may not already have.
Finding
missing ancestors
That last sentence is so true, as it is how I finally
solved what happened to my great great grandmother Aase Gunderson. I knew that
she had disappeared from a known date to when her husband Anders remarried.
There was no divorce so she presumably died during that five years but there
was no obvious entry for her in the Queensland death indexes.
It was only when the Brisbane City Council placed
their burial records online that I solved the mystery. Although I already had
death certificates and tombstone information, I still looked up all of my
direct ancestors who died in Brisbane. Surprisingly Anders had been buried with
his first wife, Aase but she had been buried under the name of Mary Gunderson.
I had seen Mary's name in the index but her parents
names did not match what I knew so I never purchased the certificate. This was
a case of the informant not knowing the correct information to put on the
certificate. Once I had purchased Mary's death certificate I knew it was the
correct one as her marriage to Anders and their children were all listed, just
her parent's names were 'not quite right'. This example also highlights that
many Europeans Anglicised their given names and/or surnames to perhaps make
life a bit easier in their new homeland.
Ironically, Mary is now the entry directly above my
father, her great grandson.
Family secrets one
Henry Spencer is another one of our brick walls that
tumbled in the last few years. We eventually found that he died in Brisbane,
having traced him from Tasmania to South Australia before losing him. The death
certificate told us he had three wives and nine children and that he was buried
in Toowong cemetery. From the Brisbane City Council's Grave Location Search we
could establish exactly where he was buried in Toowong cemetery. On a very hot
day on one of our visits to Brisbane for Christmas a few years ago we
downloaded the very handy PDF map of the cemetery to locate his grave.
We knew from burial records that Henry was buried
alone but we had expected that someone with that many children would have had a
tombstone. But there was nothing over the grave. What does that tell us? Why
did no one erect a memorial to him? As we tracked down the other two families
(who we previously had not known about) it became obvious that perhaps Henry
was not a loving husband and father.
Even so, we still stood there feeling sad that he was
alone and largely forgotten and unknown by his family. Henry still has secrets
that I am trying to solve and perhaps the answers might change how his story
ends.
Family
secrets two
My great great grandmother Maria Johnston (nee
Jeffers) was also unlucky in love and was separated from her husband Adam
Johnston for many, many years before her death. I was given a photograph of her
back in the 1970s and she is with another man who was only identified as her
friend Abraham. Back then, my old Aunt Dorrie (really my father's aunt) was not
prepared to tell me any of family secrets, it was just not done.
I could not find out much about Abraham without a surname so he stayed a mystery in the family until the Brisbane burial records came online. How did I find him without a surname? Easy, as he was buried with two others, Emma Gunderson, daughter of Anders Gunderson and George Gunderson, one of Maria's grandchildren, proving that there was some link between him and the Gunderson and Johnston families. Two Gunderson brothers had married two Johnston sisters.
Abraham died the year before Maria and while she was
buried in the same cemetery, it was with one of her daughters and her
daughter's first husband.
Family
relationships
From the last example you can see that I was able to
piece together many Gunderson/ Johnston relationships by looking up where all
the children were buried and who they were buried with. This gave me links to
children, grandchildren, husbands and wives some of which fell within closed
access periods for birth, death and marriage indexes. In some instances I was
not aware that someone had remarried until I found the clues in the burial
records.
Summary
Of course, not everything is online and if you do not
have easy access to the cemetery where your family is buried then it may not be
a worthwhile exercise. But if it is in a major town or city it is definitely
worth a look. Given the easy availability online and that they are usually a
free record source, burial records must be on your research to do list for all
family members.
Do you still think that burial records cannot tell you
anything new?
Headstones
as Genealogy Clues
Over the last two months we have looked at funeral
notices and burial records as sources for additional information on the death
of our ancestors. This month we will be looking at Headstones as yet another
source of genealogy clues that may not be found on any other resource.
What can tombstones tell us that we might not already
know from other sources? Lots of things including:
·
place of birth/origin
·
date of birth
·
occupation
·
where from
·
nicknames
·
relationships
·
financial situation of the family (could
they even afford a tombstone)
·
society membership
·
military involvement
Availability
In Australia since the late 1970s there has been a
growth in genealogy and family history societies and many of these societies
have had active cemetery transcription programs. The results have either been
published in hard copy (book, microfiche or CD), compiled as card indexes,
databases in society libraries or online. In more recent years some of these headstone
transcriptions have also been made available via Ancestry, Findmypast,
FamilySearch, Billion Graves and personal websites.
Last month's article featured a list of portal sites
for locating cemeteries so I will not repeat that here but these portals are a good
starting point. This article will look at other online sites that might be
useful as well as providing examples of headstones that provide unique
information.
Websites
Australian Cemeteries Index < http://austcemindex.com/>
is a volunteer site where contributors upload images and transcriptions for
cemeteries. Some may be for the entire cemetery while others may be only
partial entries for a cemetery. You can search by a person's name or by the
name of the cemetery. At the time of writing this article there were over two
million inscriptions online.
Billion Graves < http://billiongraves.com/>
is another website where people are contributing images of headstones for
cemeteries across Australia. The site can be search by state or territory or
for all of Australia if you are not sure where they are buried. Images of the
headstones are included.
A smaller volunteer site in Australia is Find A Grave
< http://www.findagrave.com/>
and it has over 200 Australian entries currently.
Some people share their love of cemeteries and headstones
by placing all of their images online free to others. One example is South East
Queensland cemeteries headstones photo collection < http://www.chapelhill.homeip.net/FamilyHistory/Photos/index.htm>
and this site has a large number of cemeteries where every headstone has been
photographed and names indexed. There is also a large number of cemeteries
where not every headstone has been photographed. If you have Queensland
ancestors, it is definitely worth looking to see if the cemetery you want has
been photographed. Despite its title, there are also cemeteries from other
states that the authors have visited.
Many Australian cemetery inscriptions are available
through Findmypast <http://www.findmypast.com.au/> under the
Deaths/burials subcategory of Life events. Similarly Ancestry < http://www.ancestry.com.au/)
has Australian Cemetery Index 1808-2007 which is a compilation of headstone
transcriptions from all over Australia so content and time period covered
varies depending on the area. Be sure to check the information on this resource
to see what is included.
Always go back to the original transcription as not
all details may have been included in the subscription databases. Whenever
possible you should see an image of the headstone as well.
Publications
If a genealogy or family history society has published
cemetery transcriptions you may be able to locate a copy by searching in Trove
< http://trove.nla.gov.au/>,
a portal to many different types of resources in Australian libraries and other
institutions. Be sure to tick the Australian content only option to narrow down
the number of returns. Keywords such as monumental inscriptions, headstones or
tombstones plus the place you are researching will return any publications for
that cemetery.
Library subject headings such as epitaphs, sepulchral
monuments or cemeteries may also return relevant publications but note that not
all relevant publications will have these subject headings as a descriptor.
Vary your search strategies but include the place name as it is possibly the
best keyword to ensure that you do not miss any relevant entries.
Examples
Norfolk Island was a convict settlement at two different times with military regiments based on the Island to oversee the convicts. Some of the military personnel were accompanied by their wives and families. Mary Thompson's headstone gives the name of her husband and his military regiment making it very easy to identify him at a time before civil registration. Similarly Michael O'Donoghue had his regiment recorded on his headstone.
Prior to civil registration it can be difficult to learn where an ancestor came from. We may know a country and perhaps a county, but often an exact place is not known. The headstone for Patrick Bedwell in Norfolk Island cemetery clearly indicates he was from the city of Dublin and as his age is also given, we have an approximate year of birth for him as well.
Our third example provides a number of clues that might not be apparent from a death certificate. The inscription 'late of Charters Towers' indicates that Dorcas was from there or had spent a good part of her life there. In fact Dorcas was born in Moonta, South Australia before travelling with her family to Queensland as a young child. The family first lived at Copperfield before moving further north to Charters Towers. From there she moved to Brisbane where she died. Some of our ancestors moved around a lot and quite surprising distances too.
The other piece of information from this headstone is
Herbert's nickname Nibby and if this had not been included on the tombstone
then later generations may never have known this. Also the fact that he is
buried with his mother might indicate that he was not married which was the
case in this family situation.
Summary
Of course, not every cemetery has been transcribed but
it is definitely worth contacting the local genealogy or family history society
to see if they have transcribed their local cemeteries. Many of them have their
own websites. If the transcriptions have not been published or you do not have
easy access, the society may be able to do the research for you for a fee. Also
some societies may even visit the cemetery and take a photograph for you, again
possibly for a fee.
Do you still think that tombstones cannot tell you
anything new?
July 2015
Undertakers
Records for Genealogy
Over the past months we have explored different
resources for additional information on the deaths of our ancestors. Before we
leave the theme of death, I want to discuss undertakers or funeral directors records
as another potential resource.
Who buried or cremated our ancestors is usually only
on a funeral notice in a local newspaper. If there is no notice, then it may be
difficult to discover who the funeral director is unless it was a relatively
small place. Otherwise it is a matter of identifying all of the funeral
directors in the city or town and trying them one by one. Almanacs and
directories may be useful for discovering the names of local undertakers.
Looking for undertakers records is something that we might not do as the search could take time and if the funeral directors were no longer in business, then the records might not have survived either. However, you may be lucky and a local genealogy or family history society has indexed surviving funeral directors' records and published the indexes for easier access.
What can undertakers records tell us that we might not
already know from other sources? Many things including:
·
biographical details
·
address of the deceased
·
religion
·
who paid for the funeral
·
how much was paid
·
may give names of other family members
·
sometimes date and cause of death
·
may mention newspaper notices
My great great grandfather's second wife Anne
Gunderson died on 12 June 1930 and her funeral was organised by K&M Smith
undertakers. The information in the undertaker's records included that she was
67 years old, had died of premature senility and valvular disease of the heart
and that she was a Salvationist (Salvation Army).
The account was paid by her son John Henry Gunderson
and the undertakers had collected Anne's body from his home in Fairfield Road,
Dutton Park and taken it to their premises. After the service, read by Ensign
McClure, Anne's stained pine casket was
taken by motor hearse to Dutton Park cemetery on 13 June 1930. From this I
learned that Anne was either living or
staying with her son at the time of her death.
K&M Smith were also responsible for my great
aunt's funeral. Sarah Jane Jewsbury, a widow,
died on 12 June 1948 in Brisbane Hospital aged 59 years from cerebral
thrombosis and hypertension. The undertaker's records also give her address and
one of her sons as next of kin and his address.
The date and time of the funeral is also given and the
fact that it is a reopening of a grave in Bulimba cemetery. Sarah was buried
with her late husband John Jewsbury who had died in 1926, 22 years earlier. It
was a Roman Catholic funeral with a hearse and three sedans and each of Sarah's
seven surviving children were named, including married names for the daughters,
their husband's name and his occupation and addresses for everyone. The funeral
was also advertised twice in the Courier
Mail, twice in the Sunday Mail
and once in the Telegraph.
This kind of family information is not found on death
certificates making undertaker's records a very useful resource. Also if it is
a collateral line, rather than a direct ancestor, I often do not want to go to
the expense of buying the certificate and these records can make a useful
substitute.
Undertaker's records can also be cross referenced with
burial records, death and funeral notices in newspapers as well as death
certificates.
Availability
The Genealogical Society of Queensland < https://www.gsq.org.au/>
has taken an interest in undertakers records in Brisbane and some Queensland
regional areas and have indexed the records for the following undertakers and
time periods:
·
Alex Gow (Brisbane) 1913-1975
·
Cannon & Cripps (Brisbane) 1897-1990
·
John Hislop (Brisbane) 1969-1991
·
K M Smith (Brisbane) 1941-1960
·
Lorisch (Beenleigh) 1937-1968
·
Metropolitan regional offices (Brisbane)
o
Aspley 1993
o
Coronial burials 1989-1992
o
Mount Gravatt 1990-1993
·
S R Le Grand (Beaudesert) 1906-1983
·
T T Cornes (Mount Morgan) 1968-1982
·
Tucker & Nankivell
(Rockhampton)1924-1989
The Genealogical Society of Queensland undertakers'
indexes have been published in book form or CD or are available via Findmypast
but you still need to see a copy of the original records at the Society's
library as there is more information than what is available in the index. The
Society has an online ordering system for those who cannot visit the library in
person.
Some state libraries and collecting archives may hold
business records including undertaker's records. For example, the State Library
of South Australia has an online guide to undertakers and funeral directors
< http://guides.slsa.sa.gov.au/undertaker>.
The Library holds the records of four undertakers:
·
Claude Trevelion (Norwood) 1881-1909
·
F T Elliott & Sons (Hindmarsh)
1899-1910
·
Pengelley and Knabe (Adelaide) 1879-1912
·
R G Le Poidevin (Noarlunga and Golden
Grove) 1894-1978
Similarly the Society of Australia Genealogists <
http://www.sag.org.au/>
has an online guide to cemeteries including undertakers records held in the
Society's library or in other New South Wales libraries and repositories.
So depending on where your research is based, look for
undertakers records held by local societies, libraries or archives. If a
genealogy or family history society has published funeral directors indexes you
may be able to locate a copy by searching in Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au/>,
a portal to many different types of resources in Australian libraries and other
institutions. Be sure to tick the Australian content only option to narrow down
the number of returns. Keywords such as funeral directors or undertakers plus
the place you are researching may return any relevant publications.
Vary your search strategies but include the place name
as it is possibly the best keyword to ensure that you do not miss any relevant
entries.
Remember too that in smaller country areas the
undertaker may also have had more than one role or business in the area. Look
for cabinet or furniture makers as they may have also made coffins as this
business advertisement from Clermont in Queensland illustrates.
Summary
Few undertakers records have been indexed and/or
published but it is definitely worth contacting the local genealogy or family
history society to see if they have indexed their local undertakers. Many undertakers
also have their own websites or their records have been lodged with a library
or other organisation. Remember to always go back to the original record as not
all details may have been included in a published index or online database.
Do you still think that undertakers records cannot
tell you anything new?
August 2015
Family
Angst Revealed in Probate Records
Introduction
Thinking about probate records instantly brings to
mind what and how much someone left and who they left it too. But probate
records can be more than that and provide information such as:
·
the married names of a daughter, their
husband's name, occupation, address and sometimes even the names of their
children
·
the names of grandchildren, nephews, nieces
and siblings
·
bequests to charities or the church that
tell of their community involvement and interests
·
details of property and personal items of
value
·
if the will was done in advance or last
minute
·
where there is no will, was death unexpected
or something the person did not want to consider.
Probate records are definitely a key genealogical
resource and sometimes probate records reveal family angst and tragedies which
might never have been known.
Family
Secrets and Tragedies
The husband of my great great aunt Clara Davis
disappeared in the mid 1890s while on a trip to the Western Australian
goldfields to discover his fortune. Clara waited 20 years to have him declared
dead and claim their Queensland property as her own.
The Supreme Court probate file for Charles Davis
contains transcripts of two letters from Charles to his wife Clara with news of
what he was doing. The letters told of his battle with fever and regaining his
health in Fremantle before returning to the goldfields. They also reveal a
young father's love for his wife and two
young sons.
Charles wrote:
I
must now conclude with kindest love to you and the two boys from your loving
hubby Charley.
Hoping
you will write more fully next time.
Goodbye
Clara dear XXX XXX XXXX
Divide
these wishing I had something better to send you hope & trust dear
Clara never discovered what happened to her husband but research seems to indicate that he met another woman and stayed in Western Australia. His death certificate is still elusive and perhaps we will never know his final whereabouts. The transcripts of his letters in the probate file remain a fascinating insight into the family's life at that time.
Another family probate mystery is the will of my great
great grandmother Elizabeth Guy formerly Trevaskis nee Rosewarne which was
drawn up and signed ten days before her death from heart failure. The will left
all her real and personal estate to her two sons George and James Henry Guy the
children from her second marriage. The will also named both sons as executors
of the will.
Elizabeth's two children from her first marriage,
Dorcas White (nee Trevaskis) and John Trevaskis were not mentioned at all.
Neither Dorcas or John believed their mother had not included them in her will.
Both consulted a solicitor and queried the validity of the will but it had been
signed by Elizabeth Guy and was a valid last will and testament.
Elizabeth was obviously sick at the time and did she
really know what she was doing? Why was there no mention of her two oldest
children? Their sadness and puzzlement is obvious in the documents. Not only
did they lose their mother but they also felt a sense of abandonment by her at
the end. Or did the size of the estate have something to do with it? Was there
sibling rivalry between the two families?
This family angst would have been forgotten in the
mists of time except that it became a permanent record within a probate file.
Listed below is an inventory of Elizabeth's sizable estate for that time.
|
Furniture
etc |
£23 3s 6d
|
|
Horses,
carts & harness, buggy harness & lamps, three tanks & forty mixed
fowls
|
£37 5s
|
|
Mining
Homestead Lease numbers 6742 & 6743 together with improvements thereon
|
£80
|
|
£79
12s 9d "A" fixed deposit receipt Australian Joint Stock Bank Ltd.
valued at 17s 9d
|
£70
13s 6d
|
|
£477
15s 7d "B" fixed deposit receipt Australian Joint Stock Bank Ltd.
valued at 13s 3d
|
£316
10s 6d
|
|
Interest
on the above deposit receipts due 1 July 1904
|
£
8 7s 3d
|
|
TOTAL |
£535
19s 9d
|
Finding Probates
Terminology can be complex and varies across the
Australian states and territories. Will files may be referred to as
ecclesiastical files and intestacy files as orders and elections or letters of administration.
Probate is filed through the Supreme Court in each state and older records are
usually with the state archives. Access also varies across the states and
territories.
First you need to know where someone was living to
search in the relevant state archives. If someone lived in another state for
some time, they might have written their will in that state and not changed it
after moving to another state. Or they had assets in another state.
Another great great grandmother Helen Chick formerly
Ferguson nee Carnegie lived most of her life in Queensland and died in
Queensland but was living in Sydney New South Wales when she wrote her will. It
was probated in New South Wales and the file is held at State Records New South
Wales. I originally thought there was no probate file for her but an
advertisement for creditors in a Brisbane newspaper alerted me to the fact that
probate was in New South Wales as she still held assets there at the time of
her death.
I was keen to see the probate file as I wanted to prove some ongoing connection between Helen and her illegitimate son James Carnegie. Helen's last will and testament left everything to her sister Clara Davis and if Clara predeceased her, it was to go to her nephew John Carnegie Davis. No mention of her son James or any of her eight grandchildren. Were the families totally estranged? It was a sizable estate so why not something for her son or one or more of the grandchildren? Or the great grandchildren? What family angst lies behind these probate records?
Availability in Australia and New Zealand
We are lucky in Australia with most of the state
archives placing indexes to probate records online and two states, Victoria and
Tasmania, have digitised copies freely available online.
Queensland
Queensland State Archives <http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/> has an index to wills (or
ecclesiastical files) 1857-1900 for all of Queensland and 1901-1940 for the
Southern District only. Queensland is different from other states in that there
are four Supreme Court registries based in Brisbane (Southern District),
Rockhampton (Central District) and Townsville (Northern District) and Cairns
from 1997. Although someone from North Queensland would be more likely to have
probate filed in Townsville, it could also be in Brisbane. If in doubt, look in
both places. The online index does not include the intestacy (or Public
Curator) files.
To assist researchers there is an online brief guide
to will and intestacy records which lists the main series of records held for
each Supreme Court registry. There are also search procedures which give step
by step instructions for locating wills and intestacies in each of the Supreme
Court registries.
In addition researchers can search the online
catalogue ArchivesSearch by person's
name but not all will and intestacy record series have been indexed by
individual names.
New
South Wales
State Records New South Wales <http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/> has indexes online under Probate with a 'see'
also reference to Intestates plus some probate series have been indexed
directly into Archives Investigator, State
Records online catalogue. Although not cross referenced, there is also an
online index to deceased estates.
There are a number of online Archives in Brief guides
including:
·
Curator of Intestate Estate case papers
·
Deceased estate files 1880-1958
·
How to find probate and deceased estates
·
Probate packets
It is recommended that researchers use these guides to
assist in understanding the terminology and where to look for given time
periods. The links in the guides provide quick access to record series
information.
Victoria
Wills and probate records created between 1841 and
1925 are indexed, digitised and available for free on Public Record Office
Victoria's website <http://prov.vic.gov.au/>.
Wills and probate records created between 1926 and 2010 are also indexed and
copies can be ordered online. The website provides full details and there is
also PROVguide 29 Wills and probate records 1841-2009 and How To Guide 29 Wills
and probate records 1841-2009 with more information.
Tasmania
Tasmania's Heritage <http://www.linc.tas.gov.au/tasmaniasheritage> which includes
the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office has an online index to wills 1824 to
1989. Transcripts of the original wills have been digitised and are available
to download for free.
The online guide to wills and letters of
administration available in the family history section provides a complete list
of what record series are available.
South
Australia
Unlike the other state archives, State Records of
South Australia <http://www.archives.sa.gov.au/>
does not have probate records. The Probate Registry Office still holds the
original indices to wills and access can only be obtained by contacting the
Supreme Court in Adelaide or a record agent to search on your behalf. Genealogy
SA <https://www.genealogysa.org.au/>
have a copy of the index from 1844 to 1997. Access is 100 years in South
Australia for court records.
State Records of South Australia does hold some Public
Trustee files for estate records, intestate estates, deceased soldiers estates
and estates handled by the Public Trustee.
Western
Australia
State Records of Western Australia <http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/> has
an online information sheet Grants of probates (wills) and letters of
administration which outlines what is available and how to access information.
In addition individual names have been included in AEON (Archives Explored Online), State Records online catalogue.
Northern
Territory
The probate index for the Northern Territory 1911 to
1991 was compiled and published by the Genealogical Society of the Northern
Territory <http://www.gsnt.org.au/>.
The Northern Territory Archives Services <http://artsandmuseums.nt.gov.au/ntas>
has an online guide for researching probate, wills and letters of
administration.
Australian
Capital Territory
Since 1967 the Supreme Court Probate Registry in
Canberra has kept a register of files and the index is on public access but not
online.
New
Zealand
Archives New Zealand <http://archives.govt.nz/> hold probate records and entered into
partnership with FamilySearch <https://familysearch.org/>
to index and digitise records between 1848 and 1991. Images for the last 50
years are not available although the names are in the index.
Select the FamilySearch Search option, then select
Records and then New Zealand probate records. This allows researchers to only
search within the probate records.
Transmissions
by Death
If there was a will and real estate involved, there may
have been a simple transmission by death transaction in the Titles Office (or
whatever it was called in each state). Notices of transmissions by death
appeared in state government gazettes and there are some published indexes to
transmissions by death which can be located in Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au/>, the portal site of the National
Library of Australia.
Notices usually include the name of the deceased, date
of death, occupation, name of claimant, description of land and particulars of
the will. These notices were also published in local newspapers and you may
find references in Trove.
Summary
Finding probate records in Australia and New Zealand
can be difficult as there are differences between the states, not everything is
digitised or indexed and not everyone had probate filed. Plus there are other
ways of finding information including Public Trustee files, transmission by
death notices and solicitors advertisements in newspapers.
The information contained in probate records may not
be found elsewhere so it is definitely worth the effort of looking for probate
records. This is certainly true if there
are hidden, or long forgotten, family secrets, tragedies and angst in the
records. It is these stories that make our ancestors more real and known to us.
January 2016
Why
Did They Die? Investigating Deaths
Introduction
Death certificates give us the basic facts about a
person's death such as date, place and cause of death. However, if someone dies
in an accident, under suspicious circumstances, in an institution or without
having seen a doctor for some time then there will usually be an inquest or
magisterial inquiry into their death.
There have been numerous inquests into the deaths of members of my family and the inquiry records reveal all kinds of wonderful information that I would never have discovered in other sources.
Most inquest files contain the following basic types
of documents:
·
Certificate of particulars - inquest of
death
·
Post mortem certificate
·
Witness statements
·
Correspondence
·
Newspaper clippings
The Accidental Victim
On
18 January 1906 my great grandmother's brother John Trevaskis was killed in a
mining accident in Charters Towers, Queensland.
He was working in the Day Dawn Gold Mine when a trolley fell down the
shaft in which he was working and struck him on the head.
John died in Charters Towers Hospital from a fracture of the base of the skull, injuries to the trunk and shock. As with all accidental deaths there was an inquest held and as this was also a mining accident, there was a mining inquiry too. Make sure that you read all the notations on the front cover of a file as there may be other clues to follow up. Note the two inquiry numbers in the bottom corner of the file on John Trevaskis.
Ernest Eglinton held a magisterial enquiry into John's death on 22 January 1906. An accidental verdict was reached although it was noted that the accident was caused by 'the carelessness of the person who was in charge of landing the bucket, and that the trolley was shoved into the shaft by him, he neglecting to close the door of the shaft'.
Although the Court of Inquiry found that John's co-worker was negligent and was liable to be prosecuted for manslaughter, it was felt that this might be too harsh an action. The Crown Solicitor's opinion was sought and he doubted a jury would convict the person. Therefore no further action was taken regarding John's death.
The report in the newspaper provides a summary of what occurred but there will always be more information in the inquest file which includes all witness statements.
In memory of
John Trevaskis
Accidentally
killed
19 January 1906
Aged 37 years
Erected by his
wife and children
Tombstones with this type of wording also suggest that an inquest would have been held and that you should at least look for an inquest record. Remember to follow up all clues.
Witnesses
Not only can you find out information on the deceased
and how they died, inquest files also contain any witness statements. Theses
first hand accounts usually give a report on a person's last moments as well as
giving personal and biographical information that may not be found elsewhere.
If no one in your family had an inquest into their
death, maybe an ancestor or relative was a witness to someone else's death. Unfortunately
the names of witnesses are not usually indexed although they may be mentioned
in a newspaper report. Once you have the
date, place and name of the deceased you can follow up at the archives to view
the full statement in the inquest file.
A witness statement at the least will give their name,
address, occupation and how they came to know the deceased. If they worked with
them or lived next door there may be additional details.
Newspapers
A search of Trove < http://trove.nla.gov.au/>
can be useful in finding information on accidental or sudden deaths in the
family or references to witnesses. Once the date and place of death is known it
is easy to then go to the relevant State Archives and look for an inquest file
or register.
Some Archives have only retained inquest registers
with the basic details and not the files with all the witness statements. If
you are lucky the inquest may have been reported in detail in the newspaper as
was the case with my convict ancestor Richard Walker.
The Sydney
Monitor on 30 June 1832 published a report on the inquest into Richard's
death. There is no inquest file at State Records New South Wales so finding all
this wonderful detail in the newspaper was a research bonus.
An inquest was holden
(sic) on Thursday last, at the Black Dog,
Cambridge street, on the body of an old man named Richard Walker. It appeared
in evidence, that on the morning of Thursday last the deceased had called at
his daughter's house on the Rocks, and that he had gone into the backyard and
remained there such an unusual time, that his daughter was induced to go and
seek him. She found the old man extended in the yard in a fit. She called her
husband and some of the neighbours and removed him into the house and put him
to bed. The son-in-law immediately repaired to Dr Hosking, and after stating
the nature of the fits, requested him to give his attendance. The Doctor
enquired who was to pay him? The son-in-law pleaded poverty, and declined
becoming security for any sum, however small, though a good shoemaker.
Accordingly the Doctor finding that the charity was to be all on his side, did
not go. The old man lingered in the fits until three o'clock in the afternoon,
and then he expired. The Jury returned a verdict - "That the deceased had
died by the visitation of God".
Not surprisingly, Dr Hosking objected to this report
in the Sydney Monitor and sent a
letter to the Editor of the Sydney
Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser which was published on 3 July 1832.
I cannot allow the
aspersion thrown out against my professional character in your report of the
Coroner's inquest held on the body of Richard
Walker, which appeared in your last Gazette,
to pass without notice - especially as I consider no Coroner's Jury have a
right to call in question the motives of any medical man for not doing what they may consider to be his duty.
In the first place, I
have to state, that although the applicant had no pecuniary means of
remunerating me, as stated at the
inquest, had it been otherwise, I could not have gone at that time to visit the
person, having but a few moments returned from a patient whom I could not have
left for any length of time. Finding I was engaged, why could not the
messenger have sought other medical
assistance? and, moreover, it would have been useless had I gone, as I have
heard since that the man was dead before he returned home.
I cannot close these few
remarks without saying that I consider the expressions made use of by the jury
uncalled for, unjustifiable, and unwarrantable.
I am, Sir,
yours obediently, P M Hosking
George Street, Sydney
The Doctor's anger and outrage can still be felt all
these years later.
Locating Inquest Records
In Australia inquest records are held by the State
Archives and in New Zealand by the National Archives. Access varies from state
to state. Most archives have online guides to inquest records and these should
be consulted in the first instance.
|
Archives
Quick Links Archives New Zealand <http://archives.govt.nz/> Northern
Territory Archives Service <http://artsandmuseums.nt.gov.au/ntas> Public Record
Office Victoria <http://prov.vic.gov.au/> Queensland State
Archives <http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/> State Records
New South Wales <http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/> State Records of
South Australia <http://www.archives.sa.gov.au/> State Records
Office of Western Australia <http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/> Tasmanian
Archive and Heritage Office <http://www.linc.tas.gov.au/archive-heritage>
|
Summary
As mentioned at the start of this article, there are
numerous inquest files in my family records. Some inquest records are on direct
ancestors but many inquests are on collateral lines and their descendants as
these may also provide family background.
Good luck!
February 2016
Mapped
& Planned - Are You Missing Out?
Introduction
I
love using maps and plans with my family history research as maps and plans
give a different perspective on your family. Knowing where they lived and how
far they had to travel to work, school, church or to shop helps to build a
picture of their daily lives.
Maps and plans can add all kinds of information to our
knowledge of a family and the good news is that there are simply all kinds of
maps and plans to be discovered, some even online.
Maps
Perhaps the most popular maps for genealogy are parish
maps which show county and parish land boundaries. These maps often show the
names of original land owners and the portion
or lot numbers can be followed up in land records. Land file records may
include birth, death or marriage certificates, personal correspondence plus the
usual land administration documents.
While I knew that my 3G grandfather John Carnegie, an
oysterman, had two land selections in the parish of Toorbul, it was not until I
looked at a parish map for Toorbul that I discovered that his daughter Clara
and son in law Charles Davis had purchased land nearby. The map also showed the
location of the nearest school which allowed me to follow up education records
and discover personal correspondence in the school file.
The local cemetery where John Carnegie and his wife
Helen were buried was shown and I was able to locate their grave many years
later in what had become overgrown scrub. I even managed to locate a marine map
showing exactly where John Carnegie's oyster leases were, just offshore from
his land selections. Look at as many different kinds of maps as you can for an
area.
My 2G grandfather John Finn selected Portion 8V parish of Maroochy and although he was the original selector, his name is not on the map. By the time the map was compiled in 1902 he had sold the selection to J McNab and it is his name on the map. It is often suggested that only the original selectors are named on maps but as my personal example demonstrates, this is not always true so check land records as well as maps.
Many people bought land at
government auctions particularly in city and town areas. Prior to an auction an
estate map would be drawn up showing the blocks of land for sale, the date of
the auction and any conditions of purchase including price. It can be
interesting to see what the interest rate was or what the discount was for cash
sales.
While old parish maps tell us
about our ancestor’s properties, modern maps can also do the same. With Google maps <https://www.google.com.au/maps>
we can simply search on an address and see where it is and if we use
street view, we can even see what is still at that address. Is it the same
house our ancestors lived in or has the area been developed and modernised?
Using street view I located the
house I grew up in at Bardon, a suburb of Brisbane and amazingly it has not
changed since my parents first built it in the mid 1950s. It looks so small yet
my family lived there for 40 years until my father died. The house where my
father grew up in Buranda also looks the same as when we visited my grandparents
there. These two searches have brought back so many personal memories of my
early years that I encourage everyone to do similar searches and see what
family memories are triggered by looking at modern day images of family homes,
if they are still in existence.
Plans
Plans are similar to maps and can be as diverse as
plans for individual buildings or water supply and sewerage plans. While searching a school correspondence file,
I discovered a sketch plan hand drawn by an ancestor, John Barrow Atkinson. Imagine
the excitement of finding something drawn
and signed by your own family member.
The sketch plan shows families bordering the existing school grounds and which properties might need to be resumed to allow the building of the new boys school above the existing flood lines. If your ancestor was one of the families affected by the land resumption, there could be additional information in government correspondence that you might not have been aware of, if not shown on a sketch plan in a school correspondence file.
While sewerage plans do not sound very exciting they
can provide fantastic information on where someone was living. The Melbourne
Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) sewerage plans have been digitised by the
State Library of Victoria <http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/> and are freely
available online.
The plans date from the 1890s to the 1950s and provide
a fantastic look at Melbourne streetscapes from a historical perspective. Each
Detail Plan covers one or two street blocks or approximately six streets in
total and show details of every building, including garden layouts, fences,
drainage, ownership boundaries and other landmarks at the time each plan was
produced. Changes over time can be easily seen.
There is an online guide How to read the MMBW 40ft to the inch detail plans < http://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/MMBWplans>
which gives information on getting started, legend to the plans, how to access
the plans, what the plans look like, background information on the plans and
indexes available.
Locating Maps and Plans
Many libraries and archives have
been digitising their map collections, especially parish maps. These may be
found online through Trove <
http://trove.nla.gov.au/> or by searching on a state library or archives
website. Look for any guides to locating maps as this will
make it easier to find what you are looking for.
For example, the State Library of
Victoria has two research guides <http://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/> for maps
- one for family history and one for local history. While both guides are
similar, they each have different content and there is information in the local
history map guide which might also be useful to anyone doing family history.
Remember to look at all options as our individual research may be quite
different from that of other researchers.
The other State Libraries and State
Archives will have similar online guides depending on where you are
researching. If it is a capital city, also check out the local government
archives as well.
Summary
If maps and plans are something
that you have not yet looked at, perhaps it is time to do so. You may be
missing some interesting aspects about your ancestors’ lives.
Good luck!
March 2016
Land
Selections: An Enticement Downunder
Introduction
Following
on from last month's article on maps and plans, this month we are looking at
land records and where to look for indexes, guides and records.
The
Australian colonies were desperate for free settlers and colonial governments
needed to find good reasons to attract immigrants to our distant shores.
America and Canada were closer and involved a shorter and less dangerous trip,
so why would immigrants decide to make the long trip downunder.
There were many immigration schemes over the years and some immigrants received land grants, land orders and other incentives to help them re-establish their lives in a very foreign country.
Land
records is a huge subject area so this article will briefly outline easy to
access sites to visit for further information. The important point to remember
is that there is no overall index, either nationally or by state/territory. Terminology
and conditions varied over time and within the individual Australian colonies/states
and territories.
Land
holdings can range from small suburban freehold lots to vast cattle stations on
leasehold tenure. How to locate information on each type of tenure is different
but some of the resources and places to look are similar in each state and
territory.
Portal Sites
A useful portal site is CoraWeb: Helping you trace
your family history in Australia and elsewhere
<http://www.coraweb.com.au/> and the category Maps, Places and Land
Records has entries for each of the states and territories. For land records in
New Zealand, look at the Resources and Databases section of the New Zealand
category.
Some land records for both Australia and New Zealand may
also be found on subscription databases such as Ancestry and Findmypast. For
example, Ancestry has Tasmanian land applications and warrants 1868-1887
<http://search.ancestry.com.au/search/db.aspx?dbid=2698> which includes land orders. These documents
usually give person's name, native country, age, date of issue and amount and
acreage.
Findmypast <http://www.findmypast.com.au/> has
land records within their category of Census, Land and Surveys and some
examples include:
·
Crown land licenses Victoria 1851-1855
·
Land tax register and valuation Victoria
1888
·
New Zealand land records (no date range
given)
·
Queensland land orders 1861-1874
·
South Australian land owners 1835-1841
Remember some of these indexes may also be available
free to access on the relevant state archives website and not everything is
name indexed and online.
Published directories may also be useful to locate
people on the land. For example, Yewen's
Directory of Landholders in New South Wales has over 70,000 landholders
listed. It includes 1900 postal localities grouped under 87 larger districts
and is searchable on Findmypast
<http://search.findmypast.com.au/search-world-Records/yewens-directory-landholders-new-south-wales>.
Leasehold Land
Briefly, colonial governments assumed the right to all
Crown land in Australia, totally dismissing the rights of the Indigenous
people. Immigrants could buy land outright and a deed of grant would issue with
a freehold title. Crown land could also be leased under a variety of land
tenures or it could be selected and after the fulfilment of various conditions,
a deed of grant would issue with freehold title to the selector.
This is a complex area as conditions changed over time
and also within the various colonies and territories. Older Crown land
(leasehold) records are generally held by the relevant state archives while
freehold land records are administered by the relevant government lands department
in each state or territory. The actual name of the departments can vary over
time and place.
Depending on where you are researching first visit the state archives in that state or territory. For example, if you are looking for someone who was on the land in Victoria, then Public Record Office Victoria <http://prov.vic.gov.au/> has an online guide to Buildings and Land <http://prov.vic.gov.au/research/buildings-and-land>.
There is no single index to all
land records but you can try a search in Access the Collection, the online
catalogue as some land series have been indexed by name. However, not all land
series records have been indexed. Some entries may only have a person's initial
not their full given name, for example, Thomas Smith may be under T Smith.
State Records New South Wales has
some online indexes <https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/indexes-online>
to registers of land grants and leases 1792-1865, depasturing licenses
1837-1846 and 1851 and other land related records.
Queensland State Archives <http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/>
has some individual land indexes online including:
·
Land
orders 1865-1866
·
Land
selections prior to 1884
·
Mineral
leases 1871-1940
·
Miners
rights 1874-1880
·
Register
of lands 1861-1868
·
Register
of land sold 1842-1859
·
Register
of lands sold 1849-1861
·
Register
of pastoral holdings 1863-1880
·
Transfer
of runs 1848-1874
This list highlights how important
the time period is because you need to have an approximate year and place to
know which series of records to search. The mining references also indicate yet
another form of land tenure separate from farming and grazing for example. Researchers
can also search the Queensland State Archives online catalogue, ArchivesSearch <
http://www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/> as some series have been listed
within the catalogue.
In addition there are a range of online
Brief Guides <http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/Researchers/Resources/Pages/BriefGuides.aspx>
to various land records including:
·
Alienation
and sale of Crown lands
·
Land
Agents' records
·
Land
exchange and Commonwealth acquisition
·
Land
codes
·
Land
tenure records
·
Miners
homestead leases
·
Occupation
licenses (a license to occupy land)
·
Road
cases
·
Soldier
settlement
·
Special
leases
These online guides have more
information on frequently used land record series and how to access them.
Similar land record series would be held by other state archives, always look
for any brief guides or fact sheets as a starting point.
Looking for information on freehold land titles may
incur a cost as this information is usually still held by the relevant state or
territory government. For example, in New South Wales the Department of Land
and Property Information <http://www.lpi.nsw.gov.au/> is the responsible
agency. On the website is a menu option for Historical Research <http://www.lpi.nsw.gov.au/land_titles/historical_research>
which provides an outline of what to do depending on whether or not you have a
property description to start with.
In Queensland the relevant government department is
Natural Resources and Mines which is not obvious from the departmental name so
sometimes you may need to search the relevant state government site to discover
which department is responsible for freehold land information. Current fees and
services providers are on the website if you are unable to undertake a personal
search at one of their business centres.
Similar departments exist for the other Australian
states and territories.
Photographs can also be useful in illustrating what a particular farming or grazing area might have looked like. While there may not be an image of the property you are looking for, images of others in the same area will give you an idea of what it might have been like.
The images in this article highlight how hard it was
for banana and pineapple growers to get their crops to market in the days
before automated harvesting and refrigerated trucks. Most farmers and graziers
would have a few dairy cows for home consumption and you can also find images
of home vegetable gardens, chicken sheds, horse stables and so on.
Summary
As stated at the beginning, land
records is a very broad category that can be broken down into more detail, not
only by each state and territory, but also by type of land tenure, and whether
by original records or published records. First work out where they were and
when, use maps to narrow it down further and then look for finding aids and
records in the relevant state or territory archives.
Good luck!
April 2016
Revealing
Words: personal insight into family lives
Introduction
For
something different this month we are moving away from government records and
looking at personal records. Of course some of us may not be lucky enough to
have any personal records in our family archives but that does not always mean
that we cannot discover personal letters written by our ancestors.
Over
the years I have managed to locate personal letters written by my direct
ancestors in collections held by distant cousins and even in government files.
While I may not physically own the originals, I have copies and have been able
to view my ancestors' handwriting and read the words that they wrote themselves
so long ago.
Searching Collateral Lines
We never know who has inherited what family items so
it has always been my practice to try and trace every descendant of each of my
immigrant ancestors. Sometimes this has led me to close relatives and other
times we have been cousins several times removed.
When I started researching my family history in 1977
my grandmother's two younger sisters were still alive. Each of them had family
memorabilia including photographs, postcards and letters. In those days there
were no Flip Pal scanners or digital cameras or smart phones and I had to
convince them to lend me their precious treasures for copying. Fortunately my
mother accompanied me on those visits and they knew and trusted her.
The youngest sister had a letter written by her uncle,
my great grandfather's brother, telling him about where they had buried their
mother. Robert White described the grave site in such detail that my great
grandfather Herbert would have been able to imagine exactly where his mother
was buried in the old parish churchyard. No doubt his thoughts would have been about
his father and other family members at that sad time. The letter also talks
about life in war time England (World War One) and how their sister Ellen was
living with their father while her husband Bill was away.
It is only one letter but it was a real connection to family back in England who never saw their Australian relatives and who probably only corresponded infrequently. Why did this one letter survive? It cannot have been the only one as it refers to earlier news but for whatever reason, this single letter was kept.
Another distant cousin had some extremely fragile
letters written by my great great grandmother Maria Johnston nee Jeffers. Maria
obviously kept in touch with her siblings back in Ireland even though she was
illiterate when she first arrived in Queensland. Some of the letters are not
complete but you can see that her handwriting improved over time although
spelling and grammar were still hard for her.
Reading those letters made me realise how hard it must have been for a young, illiterate Irish girl to come out to Queensland by herself and make a new life. The image below is of a letter from her brother James Jeffers sent in 1904, 40 years after Maria had left her home in Portadown, Armagh. Only the first three pages of the letter survive but it seems to suggest that James is writing in response to a Christmas card received from Maria and that they have not been in regular contact for a while.
Again I was allowed to borrow them and make photocopies. It is probably 30 years since I first saw the originals and we have again lost touch with that family line. Are those letters still being passed down or have they been lost like other family memorabilia when someone dies? Perhaps my copies are all that survive now.
Personal letters to government
Why would someone write to the government? There are
lots of reasons and of course, not all personal letters survive but they can be
worth looking for. It may be easier if the personal correspondence has been
attached to an individual's file such as a land selection, probate file or a
military dossier.
Personal letters can also end up in general
correspondence files such as Colonial Secretary's in letters. State Records New
South Wales have an online index to the Colonial Secretary's correspondence
1788 to 1825 < https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/indexes-online/colonial-secretary/index-to-the-colonial-secretarys-papers-1788-1825/colonial-secretary-papers-1788-1825>.
Entries in the index reflect colonial administration
during that period but it also includes personal letters and petitions from
individuals including both convicts and free persons. For example there are
petitions from convicts for mitigation of their sentence, requests for
permission to marry, applications for land grants or leases, information about
court cases, lists of assigned servants and memorials from settlers and
potential settlers regarding their worthy character.
Another source of personal letters are military
dossiers. The National Archives of Australia <http://www.naa.gov.au/>
have digitised all Australian World War One military dossiers and made them
available online free. Discovering Anzacs <http://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/>
is a collaborative project between the National Archives of Australia and
Archives New Zealand and is another useful resource for locating Australian and
New Zealand military personnel.
My great grandmother's youngest brother Denis Patrick Finn
lied about his age when he enlisted in September 1915 to serve in World War
One. Denis was only 17 years old and by
the time he was 18 years old, he had been wounded and was recovering in
Grafenwohr, a German prisoner of war camp. In September 1916, just a year after
he enlisted he sent his married sister Sarah Jane a postcard, a copy of which
has been kept in his military dossier.
Denis wrote:
Dear
Sister
Just a postcard to let you know that I am getting on very well and my wound is
nearly better. I am at a German Camp here, you can send me anything you like at
the address on the other side in full. We get no money here so you can tell
Kitty to send me a pound or so. Good bye, best love to all. Tell Kitty to
write.
Signed Denis
One of the issues with personal
letters is that the writer often uses first names only, nicknames or
abbreviations. They know who they mean as does the recipient but it is not so
easy for later generations to interpret correspondence. In Denis' postcard who
was Kitty? It is usually an abbreviation for Catherine/Katherine but there is
no one of that name in the family. His younger sister was Kathleen but she
would only have been 15 years old and unlikely to be able to send Denis 'a
pound or so'. There is no other evidence or family story that Kathleen was ever
referred to as Kitty.
Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_(given_name)>
describes Kathleen/Cathleen as a given name used both in England and Ireland (Denis
and Kathleen's parents were Irish
immigrants) and that it is an Anglicized form of Caitlin, the Irish form of
Cateline, which the old French form of Catherine. Was Kathleen Kitty and why
would she have money to send Denis or was Kitty someone else? We may never solve that puzzle.
Summary
Looking for personal letters can be extremely
worthwhile and you can discover more information about families than appears in
official documents. Often the information makes our ancestors seem more real
and we feel a closer connection because we have read their own words and
touched something that they touched.
Letters can also be frustrating with missing or torn
pages, illegible handwriting, or no identifying dates or places, or names of
people you cannot identify. In many ways letters can be similar to unidentified
family photos. They are still worth keeping because some future clue may make
it totally clear.
Good luck!
May 2016
ANZACS
Online: Discovering Australasian Military History
Introduction
This
month I am looking at the wonderful Australasian military records for the South
African War (Boer War) 1899 to 1902 and World War One that have been digitised
and made available online for free. The
major archival institutions behind this massive project are the National
Archives of Australia <http://www.naa.gov.au/>, Archives New Zealand <http://archives.govt.nz/>
and the Australian War Memorial <https://www.awm.gov.au/>.
South African (Boer) War 1899-1902
Both
Australia and New Zealand sent troops to the South African (Boer) War 1899 to
1902. The Australian colonies sent their
own contingents from 1899 and after Federation on 1 January 1901, Commonwealth
contingents were sent until the war ended in 1902. The records may still be
with the relevant State Archives or may be held by the National Archives of
Australia so you need to look in both places for records.
Personal
dossiers held by the National Archives of Australia < http://www.naa.gov.au/>
have been digitised and are available through their main website or their joint
site with Archives New Zealand, Discovering Anzacs <http://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/>.
The Discovering Anzacs site allows you to transcribe the digitised file and add
your own stories and photographs.
If
you do not know an Australian soldier's service number you should search the
National Archives of Australia online catalogue RecordSearch <http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/>
first, as a Discovering Anzacs search only brings up a name and a service
number. Name searches in RecordSearch can be filtered by categories including
the Boer War and World War One making it much easier to locate individuals.
Another
useful search option in Discovering Anzacs is to use the Places search which
allows you to see all those who were born or enlisted from a particular place
in either Australia or New Zealand.
My
great uncles William and Solomon Price both served in Queensland and
Commonwealth contingents during the Boer War. There are records for them in the
Queensland State Archives <http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/> and there is
an online guide listing the Queensland
contingents and what records are held for them. <http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/Researchers/CollectionsDownloads/Documents/BG21BoerWar.pdf>.
The
records online are the attestation papers for the Commonwealth contingent that
they were in. It is important to remember that not everything for been
digitised and online but what is online can be a starting point for discovering
other records.
For
example, William Price's attestation paper for the 7th Commonwealth contingent
shows that he enlisted at Wilston in Brisbane, was born in Orange, New South
Wales, he was single, Church of England, a miner and his father T Price lived
in Charters Towers. It also gave his previous service with the 3rd Queensland
contingent. His physical characteristics included his height, chest
measurement, colour of hair, eyes and complexion and he had no distinctive
marks.
While
there is no photograph of William Price with the digitised file, I have located
two photographs of him, one with the 3rd Queensland contingent and one with the
7th Commonwealth contingent, in The
Queenslander, a digitised newspaper freely available through Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au/>.
The State Library of Queensland <http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/> has
digitised and indexed the individual soldier portraits for better quality and
ease of access and these are also available through the Photos zone of Trove. I
also located a photograph of his brother Solomon Price who enlisted in the 2nd
Queensland contingent and also served in the 7th Commonwealth Contingent with
his brother William.
The other Australian States have similar records in their State Archives and State Libraries. For New Zealand, Archives New Zealand have an online research guide War <http://archives.govt.nz/research/guides/war> which lists what records they hold for what they call the Anglo Boer War. References to individuals can also be located through their online catalogue Archway < http://archway.archives.govt.nz/>. Digitised copies of documents are located in Discovering Anzacs.
World War One
The same procedures can be used to locate Australian
and New Zealand soldiers who served in World War One. I usually do my searches
on each site as the Archives online catalogues may return more records,
including records not digitised and online and the Discovering Anzacs site may
have additional information submitted by another family member.
Another
search option for New Zealand is to use Archives New Zealand's Defence Force
personnel files for World War One <http://archives.govt.nz/world-war-one>.
Over 140,000 files have been digitised and made available online for free. You can search by name or service number.
This web page has useful links to other military resources including war
diaries and regimental histories.
Remember too that libraries may also have resources that are relevant. For example, The Queenslander newspaper published portraits of the WW1 soldiers before they went overseas. The State Library of Queensland has digitised these Soldier Portraits <http://qanzac100.slq.qld.gov.au/showcase/soldier-portraits> and they are freely available online. The Library has an online guide to World War One resources <http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/world-war-1> which includes links to diaries, letters, manuscripts and published resources.
Other Australian States had similar projects to record those going to war. In South Australia studio portraits were taken and some of these are now with the State Library of South Australia < http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/>. State Records of South Australia <http://www.archives.sa.gov.au/> also have a collection of WW1 soldier photos and together with the Library they have digitised some of these photos and created a Flickr group South Australians of World War 1: Share their story <https://www.flickr.com/groups/slsaww1/>. There are over 2,700 photos in this online collection. Many of these photos have been identified and additional family information added where known. While most of the portraits are of soldiers by themselves, there are some that include other family members.
The Archives New Zealand online research guide War <http://archives.govt.nz/research/guides/war> mentioned above has an extensive list of records held including casualty rolls; decorations and awards; defaulters, deserters and conscientious objectors; diaries and statements (personal); maps; nominal rolls; pensions; photographs; soldier rehabilitation, unit diaries; and war graves. To view these records you need to personally visit Archives New Zealand.
Museums
As well as archives and libraries there is a wealth of
military resources in museums. The Australian War Memorial < https://www.awm.gov.au/>
has an incredible range of online resources for all Australian military
conflicts since the South African (Boer) War. There is a Person search option
and you can select all conflicts or an individual conflict such as the Boer War
or World War One. This may lead to new information not obtained from the
research institutions mentioned above.
For World War One selected unit war diaries and
Commander's diaries and official histories have been digitised by the Memorial
and are freely available online. Remember not all diaries have been digitised
and placed online, you still need to search the Memorial's online catalogue for
relevant records.
In New Zealand, the Auckland War Memorial Museum <
http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/>
has an online cenotaph <http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph>
where researchers and family members can share their stories and photographs of
New Zealand servicemen and women. There are a range of resources on this
website that may be of interest to those with New Zealand military history.
Digitised Newspapers
Newspapers are a fantastic resource for researching
military ancestors and digitisation means that we can search by person's name,
a place, battle or other keywords. Digitised Australian newspapers are
available online free through Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au/> and in New
Zealand online free via Papers Past < http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast>.
Summary
There are many other online resources for military
history in Australia and New Zealand and this article has only looked at the
major agencies. In Australia each State Archive and State Library also have
resources depending on what state or territory your research is based. Follow
through on the links from the various resources and remember to look locally as
well. A local historical society may have compiled information on families who
enlisted from their area. This type of material may be online but it may also
only be available at the local historical society.
Start with the online resources mentioned above to
discover your Australasian soldiers names, dates and places so that you can
then work towards documenting their military history in more detail.
Good luck!
June 2016
School
Days: Education Records for Family History
Introduction
This
month I am looking at education records for genealogy and family history. I
love school records for a number of reasons. You can look for school admission
or pupil registers and find out when ancestors went to school and where. If you
have teachers in the family you can discover lots of biographical and career
information for them. When a new school was being considered,
the Education Department often did a survey of families to see which
children might attend the school if it was established, a mini census of a
local area.
In Australia the state education records are held by
the individual state and territory archives. Most of them have an online guide
to education records which makes an excellent starting point. In New Zealand
the records are held by Archives New Zealand <http://archives.govt.nz/>
and there is an online Education guide <http://archives.govt.nz/education>.
As I grew up in Queensland this article focuses around my own family's school
experiences.
Queensland is a lucky state to be researching school records in because the Queensland Family History Society < http://www.qfhs.org.au/> have been indexing Queensland school admission registers and school anniversary publications and publishing their Queensland School Pupils Index in parts on CD. Some of parts of the Index are also available through Findmypast.com.au < http://www.findmypast.com.au/>. Therefore in Queensland if you do not know what school your ancestors went to, you may be lucky enough to find them in the index.
Once you know the name of the school then you can look
for school building records, correspondence records, teacher records and other
records relating to that school. These types of records may help you to build
an image of what the school was like to attend and there may even be school
building plans or photographs in the files.
I was surprised to find myself listed in the Queensland
Family History Society's index and it was not because the admission register
had been indexed. My school had celebrated its 50th birthday and published a
booklet Bardon Primary School 50 years: Love Laughter and
Learning 1948-1998 which included lists of past pupils which
had been indexed by the Society. Often times when we do our
family history research we neglect to document our own life history. After discovering
myself in the index, I went looking for my old school photos and school
reports, all lovingly kept by my mother.
I knew from family knowledge that Mum and Dad first met at Buranda State School in Brisbane and many years ago, I confirmed this by finding my parents listed in admission registers at the Queensland State Archives < http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/>. They were in different grades and only overlapped for a year or so before Mum then went to Greenslopes State School. Strangely that is where Dad went before he started going to Buranda!
Mum
does not have many old photos but I am lucky enough to have two school photos from
her early years at Buranda State School. Sadly the photos are a bit creased and
Mum has drawn a circle around herself. Just as well as I could not recognise
her! Mum and Dad are both mentioned in the booklet Buranda State School 1918 - 1993 : 75th
Anniversary so always try and track down any published
school histories.
Information included in the admission registers
includes date of admission, name, age, date of birth, parent's name,
occupation, address, religion and then dates the child entered each grade and
when they left the school. Fantastic information and helps with people who
moved around. Some of my mining families I could only track using school
admission registers. For example, I knew from children's birth certificates
that my Johnston family had spent a few years in the Stanthorpe area where Adam
Johnston was a tin miner.
Thanks to the Queensland Family History Society index,
I could look up the names of the children who were of school age, confirm the
name of the school and then look for evidence of the parents in the new area.
It is also important to look at the original registers held at the archives, as
there is more information than what is just in the index.
While most of the Stanthorpe mining records have not
survived, I was able to locate this wonderful photograph of the Stanthorpe
State School at a time when I know the Johnston children were pupils. They are
probably in this image but without any other known photos, I cannot confirm
that. But at least I know what the school looked like while they were there.
Lots of biographical information is available on teachers as well as records of their qualifications and what they were being paid. I only have one teacher in the family and Florence Dayman married my mother's uncle Robert White. In those days women had to give up their teaching job on marriage. However, when Robert died just three years after their marriage, his widow Florence went back to teaching to support herself and her two young daughters.
Even if your family did not have school aged children,
they might have signed a petition for a new school in the area. If there were
children, then these might be listed with their ages as a reason why the school
should be established. This type of information may be found in school
correspondence files although mostly these files contain information on
the buildings and other administrative notes.
In one file I found that an ancestor had drawn up the
plan for the new school and he even signed it. So while mostly not interesting
for family history, these files may have something of real interest to your
research and should always be looked at.
Parish maps can be useful to see what school reserves may be in an area where your ancestors were living. Look and see which school was the closest and think about where the roads were. Were there any natural formations that might have stopped them attending the closest school, for example, a river, hills or simply a lack of roads. Remember that they may have travelled by horseback as well as walking.
Digitised Newspapers
Newspapers are a fantastic resource for researching
ancestors and digitisation means that we can search by person's name, a place,
battle or other keywords. Digitised Australian newspapers are available online
free through Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au/> and in New Zealand online
free via Papers Past < http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast>.
Do a search for the name of the school and discover reports on school
activities, changes in teachers and other items of interest.
Summary
School records definitely provide information on our families, especially the children who we may not have any other records for apart from their births. The records also place families in communities and we can see who lived nearby and also attended the same school. Education records for state schools are usually held by the relevant state archives and there may be a brief guide or fact sheet which will list the most popular or accessible series. Not all records are indexed but it is definitely worth looking for school records if you have not used them before.
Good luck!
July 2016
More
School Days: Teacher Records for Family History
Introduction
This
month I am still looking at education records for genealogy and family history
but with the focus on teachers. If you have teachers in
the family you can discover lots of biographical and career information for
them.
As I mentioned last month, there is only one teacher in my family. Florence Ellen Dayman married my mother's uncle Robert James White. Prior to her marriage Florence was a teacher and I have been able to trace her career in detail from records held at Queensland State Archives (QSA) < http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/>.
On 28 May 1914 Hubert George Ladbrook, head teacher at
Innisfail State School in North Queensland recommended Florence's appointment
as a pupil teacher at the school. In his report to the Department of Public
Instruction he described her as "quiet, obedient and studious in
disposition; is of an earnest and good character; and promises to make a very
fair teacher. She is now in the third half year of sixth class, and is desirous
of becoming a teacher" (QSA ref QSA EDU/Z1315 17964/1914).
The
Department concurred with Mr. Ladbrook's recommendation and Florence was
appointed a pupil teacher on probation at Innisfail State School. Her salary
was £20 from 17 June 1914 and increased to £40 from 1 January 1915 after
Florence successfully passed her pupil teacher second grade exams in December
1914 (QSA EDU/Q27).
Salary
registers, like other administrative type government records, sound dry and
boring and perhaps not worth looking at. Surprisingly these registers give a
detailed look at Florence' life before her marriage. Each year we can see
Florence proceed up the career ladder as well as any other bonuses due to cost
of living pressures.
Florence
became a pupil teacher third grade from 1 January 1916 and her salary increased
to £50 (QSA EDU/Q29). From 1 January 1917 she was paid the pupil teacher fourth
grade rate of £60 and this was increased to £70 from 1 July 1917 (QSA EDU/Q34).
From 1 July 1918 Florence was given an extra
£8 6s 8d to counter the cost of living. On 1 January 1919 her salary
went to £90 with a cost of living extra payment of £16 13s 4d. A further salary increase on 10
November 1919 brought her annual salary to £120(QSA EDU/Q38) .
On
1 July 1920 her salary was again increased to £140 and on 1 September 1920 it
rose to £155. On her 21st birthday, 26 September 1920, Florence's
salary was £195 per annum. On 31 March 1921 she tended her resignation as a
teacher in order to marry (QSA EDU/Q42).
In those days women had to give up their teaching job on marriage. Sadly for Florence her husband Robert died just three years after their marriage leaving her and their two young daughters almost destitute. There was a £400 life policy but that did not support them for long. Florence at least had her teaching career to fall back on and we can again pick up on her life and career.
Florence
returned to teaching at Innisfail State School from 5 May 1925 in the position
of Assistant Teacher. The school was in need of an additional teacher as
attendance had increased (QSA EDU/Z1315 - 5230/1925). Florence's starting
salary was £195 per annum and this increased to £215 from 1 July 1927. A year
later it was increased to £225 from 1 July 1928.
From
13 August 1928 to 7 September 1928 she was sent to serve temporarily at the
Townsville Central Girls and Infants School. She went there to study
kindergarten methods and was paid 25s per week while there. Florence took her
daughters with her and the school admission register shows that her eldest
daughter Florence Gwendoline was aged six years and five months at the date of
enrolment on 13 August 1928.
While
in Townsville Florence and her daughters stayed at Railway Avenue, Railway
Estate, Townsville with other family members. In September the family returned
to Innisfail and from 1 July 1929 Florence's salary was £235 (QSA EDU/Q77).
During the Depression years of the early 1930s Florence experienced salary cuts along with her fellow workers. From 1 July 1930 her salary should have been £245 but with the .6% salary cut she only received £230 6s from 1 August 1930. From 15 September 1930 the percentage cut increased to 1% which further reduced her actual salary to £220 10s. From 1 July 1931 the percentage cut increased further to 15% so that Florence was only receiving £208 5s. From 1 July 1932 her salary was listed as £270 but with the 15% cut she actually received only £229 10s dated from 1 October 1933. From 1 October 1934 the percentage cut was reduced to 11.25% which raised her actual salary in the hand to £239 12s 6d.
In
1935 Florence was off on sick leave at half pay for the period 6 April to 26
April. On 1 July 1936 her salary increased to £241 and yet again on 1 April
1937 to £251. A year later on 1 April 1938 it increased to £260 still £10 short
of the £270 she would have had in 1932 had there been no Depression (QSA
EDU/Q97).
With
this one case study you can see how teacher records can tell you a lot about a
teacher's life. We can see the impact of marriage on Florence's career as a
single teacher when she is forced to resign. Then the impact of being widowed
and returning to her teaching career. We also get a glimpse of the impact of
the Depression years with salary cuts to those still fortunate to have a job.
Published histories
Another useful resource for learning more about a
school and its teachers is to see if a centenary or other anniversary
publication has been written. Innisfail
State School: a history of the school and the district 1 July 1887 - 1987
by Ronald Ramsay was written to celebrate the school's centenary. Like all
published school histories there are lots of photographs and information on
students and teachers. Sometimes it might be easier to read a publication for
basic information such as names and dates before approaching archival records
for more detailed searching.
Where are the archival records?
In Australia state education records are held by the
individual state and territory archives. Most of them have an online guide to
education records which makes an excellent starting point. In New Zealand the
records are held by Archives New Zealand <http://archives.govt.nz/>. A
number of archives also have online indexes to teachers which makes discovering
whether you have a teacher in the family quite simple.
There are a number of different types of record series
and the terminology may differ between the states and territories but look for
registers of teachers, salary ledgers, correspondence files and school files.
One of my favourite record series are the registers of teachers with really
good biographical information including:
- Teacher’s
name
- Date
of birth
- Nationality
or place of birth
- Religious
denomination
- Date
admitted to the service
- Date
of resignation
- Professional
training
- Classifications
and appointments to schools
- Number
of children and Inspectors reports on their teaching skills
- Remarks
- Salary
details
- For
female teachers, the husband's name and occupation.
Digitised Newspapers
Newspapers are another fantastic resource for
researching teachers and digitisation means that we can search by person's
name, a place, battle or other keywords. Digitised Australian newspapers are
available online free through Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au/> and in New
Zealand online free via Papers Past < http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast>.
Using my example above, a search for Hubert Ladbrook
revealed when he was appointed head teacher at Innisfail. The North Queensland Register on 27 February
1905 reported that the head teacher at Cometville had been appointed the head
teacher at Geraldton, the earlier name for Innisfail. This is a good reminder
that place names have changed and you may need to search under a different name.
My search for Florence White nee Dayman was also
successful but in most instances it was as F Dayman or Mrs F White. She appears
to have helped out on a lot of school sports days and other school events. So
remember to also search on initials as full given names may not have been used
in newspaper reports.
Summary
For
those researching teachers, it is easy to compile a detailed history of their
careers from government records. Their social lives may also feature in the
local newspaper and a published school history may have even more stories about
them. If you have a teacher in the family, why not take a look and see what you
can discover.
Good luck!
August 2016
Ancestors
in Prison?: Why You Should Be Happy
Introduction
This
month we are looking at prison records for genealogy and family history. These
have to be my favourite record to locate ancestors but it was only by accident
that I discovered this treasure trove of genealogy resources. While working at
the Queensland State Archives in 1987, in the last few weeks before maternity leave, it
was suggested that I compile a new research guide. I picked prison records
because nobody used them.
By the time I finished the research guide I discovered a GGG grandfather (who I did not even know had come to Queensland), two GG grandfathers and a GG grandmother had all been in prison for various crimes. Two were only held in prison pending trial and subsequently acquitted. However, the prison records were still created and I have some wonderful details on direct ancestors.
Not
surprisingly, none of this criminal activity had been suggested to me by
elderly relatives who I interviewed back in 1977 when I first started doing the
family history. If you have criminals in the family you can discover
lots of biographical information for them and later records may have
photographs.
My Irish GG grandfather John Finn was charged with
alleged arson but was eventually found not guilty. As he was still charged with
the offence, I have reference to him in police reports, court records, prison
records (while he was awaiting trial) and newspaper reports.
On 31 August 1903 John Finn was arrested and charged with wilfully and unlawfully setting fire to a dwelling house in Hampstead Street, Woolloongabba. He was remanded in H.M. Prison, Brisbane until 8 September. The prison record gives a very detailed description of John at this time. He was 52 years old, a labourer, Roman Catholic, 5 feet 7 1/2 inches tall, of proportionate build, sallow complexion, hair greying, eyes blue, weight 10 stone 12 pounds and he could read and write.
As there is no surviving photograph of John this
physical description was fantastic as it gave an outline of what he looked
like. The prison record also showed that he walked lame from a broken right leg
earlier on. The record also stated his left thumb was deformed, his nose sharp
with a red mole under the left nostril and finally a mole on his left ribcage.
Details like this do not appear in photographs.
When John appeared before the South Brisbane Police
Court on 8 September 1903 evidence was heard from Constables Colman and Martin,
Emily Corrie, Mary Nolan and Mary Finn. The latter was John's daughter and my
great grandmother. John was again remanded in custody until Monday 14 September
when further evidence was heard. After the presentation of all evidence, the charge
against John was dismissed.
The Brisbane
Courier reported on the case with
just a broad outline of the trial sittings but you should never look in just one
newspaper. The Brisbane Truth took a
much bigger interest in the trial and devoted a whole page to the story
including three fantastic sketches of John Finn, Mary Finn and the house the
family were living in that he allegedly burnt down.
The photograph above quite possibly includes my GG grandmother Ellen Ferguson nee Carnegie, although all the women have their backs to the camera to preserve their identity. There is no surviving photograph of Ellen and her prison description provides the following details:
·
Scottish
·
Presbyterian
·
aged 40
·
height 5ft 4 1/2ins
·
medium build
·
fresh complexion
·
brown hair
·
hazel eyes
·
could read and write
·
second finger of her right hand dislocated
·
arrived in 1865 on board the Sunda.
Until discovering this prison record, I had not been
able to locate the ship the Carnegie family arrived on. Once I knew the name of
the ship and year of arrival, it was easy to locate a copy of the passenger
list and the family names and details.
Ellen's father John Carnegie served a one month
sentence with hard labour in the Petrie Terrace Gaol in Brisbane. His prison
description was also revealing:
·
Scottish nationality
·
aged 32
·
height 5ft 4 1/2ins
·
stout build
·
fresh complexion
·
brown hair
·
blue eyes
·
tattooed with the Montrose coat of arms on
his right breast, bracelets on both wrists and American colours on his right
arm
Of most interest were his tattoos which do not usually
show up in photographs. Montrose is where the family were from in Scotland and
I believe that John must have gone to America at some point, as he was a seaman
prior to immigrating to Queensland.
Where
are the records?
In Australia prison records are held by the individual
state and territory archives. Most of them have an online guide to prison
records which makes an excellent starting point. In New Zealand the records are
held by Archives New Zealand <http://archives.govt.nz/>. A number of
archives also have online indexes and digitised prison records.
For example, Queensland State Archives < http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/>
has a number of online indexes including:
·
Chronological register of convicts 1824-1839 with direct
links to a digitised copy of the register
·
St Helena prisoners 1863-1936
·
Toowoomba prisoners 1864-1906
Like female prisoners, male prisoners were also expected to
work at various trades while in prison. If you find someone in the St Helena
Penal Establishment index above, then the photograph below shows one of the
trades that prisoners did while serving their sentence.
Public Record Office Victoria < http://prov.vic.gov.au/> has digitised the following record series:
·
VPRS
515/P1 Central Register of Male Prisoners (search for your prisoner surname
within series 515)
·
VPRS
516/P1 Central Register of Female Prisoners (search for your prisoner surname
within series 516)
·
VPRS
519/P2 Register of Prisoners under Sentence of Hard Labour, 1847-1853
·
VPRS
10867/P0 Alphabetical Index to Central Register of Male Prisoners, 1868-1947
·
VPRS
10879/P0 Alphabetical Index to Central Register of Female Prisoners, 1857-1948
PROVguide 58 Prison Records < http://prov.vic.gov.au/provguide-58>
outlines background information and provides direct links to these indexed and
digitised records. So always start your search by consulting any relevant brief
guides or fact sheets on a topic.
Newspapers are another fantastic resource for
researching criminals and digitisation means that we can search by person's
name, a place or other keywords. Digitised Australian newspapers are available
online free through Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au/> and in New Zealand
online free via Papers Past < http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast>.
Summary
My family history is ever so much more
interesting because my direct ancestors
had brushes with the law. I know so much more about them as a result and I am
fortunate that most of the crimes were not too serious. Although I will admit
to being a bit shocked here and there but I am still glad that I looked into
prison records. All those people in prison are somebody's ancestors or relatives,
have you looked yet?
Good luck!
September 2016
Hidden
in the Asylum: Lost and Forgotten Ancestors
Introduction
This
month we are looking at asylum records for genealogy and family history. These
records are similar to last month's prison records because they have wonderful
genealogical information and sometimes even a photograph. A number of my own
direct ancestors spent time in an asylum, mainly because they were old and sick
with no one to care for them.
There are many different kinds of asylums including benevolent, infirm, destitute and mental asylums. Some researchers do not want to consider looking at asylum records in case they find out something distressing. But in the majority of cases the inmates are there because of old age, senility, post natal depression and often, people did not stay in an asylum for long periods.
If
you have someone in the family who spent any time in an asylum you can discover
lots of biographical information about them and later records may have
photographs.
My Irish great great grandfather John Finn, who in
last month's article was charged with alleged arson and subsequently acquitted,
also spent time in an asylum. John Finn was admitted to Dunwich Benevolent Asylum in
1921 shortly before his death. The reason given for admission was that he suffered
from senility - he was only 63 years old.
John had been sent to Dunwich from Longreach Hospital and I had no idea what he was doing way out there as he had been living in Brisbane where most of his family were. The admission record, held at Queensland State Archives < http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/>, provides detailed information on him, although not all of the details are totally correct. At the time I originally saw the record, access was 30 years but this has since increased to 100 years closed access.
The information in the admission record included:
·
Age: 63 years
·
Birthplace: Wicklow, Ireland
·
Religion: RC (Roman Catholic)
·
Education: R&W (read and write)
·
Trade: Labourer Married or Single: Widower
·
Father’s name and profession: James Finn,
farmer
·
Mother’s maiden name: Rose Bakey
·
Wife’s maiden name: Sarah Fagan
·
Age when married: 24 years
·
Where married: County Wicklow, Ireland
·
Children: Albert, James, John, Dennis,
Margaret Rose, Mrs Mary Kennedy, Mrs Sarah Duesbury - addresses unknown
·
Other relatives: Nil
· History: 34 years in Queensland, 15 years
on railway maintenance work in different parts, Westfield Station 3 months. Had
a farm at Nambour for a number of years. Been in Longreach Hospital since 28
December 1920. Rheumatism. 7 weeks in Brisbane Hospital prior to going to
Longreach. No money no property.
Reference: Queensland State Archives,
Register of Deaths and Discharges, A/52896, Series ID: 9621
From John’s death certificate I know he died on 12
July 1921 and on the Dunwich admission register there is a note for 25 July
1921 - 'struck off, reported died in Brisbane Hospital'.
From birth, marriage and death certificates I already
had a lot of this information on his Irish background and the correct names of
children and the married surnames of his daughters. Of most interest to me were
the details of his employment after they sold the farm in Nambour. I had not
known about the railway employment or his stay on Westfield Station near
Longreach. At least that explained why he had been admitted to Dunwich from
Longreach Hospital.
Last month I also mentioned by great great grandmother Ellen Carnegie who spent a lot of time in and out of prisons. Her first husband Alexander Miller Ferguson ended up his days in Dunwich Benevolent Asylum. He was admitted on 13 January 1925 from Charleville in western Queensland and the reason was that he was an old age pensioner and destitute.
He did not know where his wife Ellen
was but he said he had a sister, Mrs Chantler, living at Gertrude Street, South
Brisbane. I did not know that his sister had also come out from Scotland to
Queensland so that was a bonus. Alexander gave his year of arrival as 1886 and
he had spent five years living in Brisbane before moving out to Thargomindah
where he spent 20 years as a watchmaker and jeweller. Seven months later he was
discharged and died shortly after at the Diamantina Hospital. (Reference:
Queensland State Archives, Register
of Deaths and Discharges, A/52896, Series ID: 9621)
Where
are the records?
In Australia asylum records are held by the individual
state archives. Most of them have an online guide to asylum records which makes
an excellent starting point. In New Zealand the records are held by Archives
New Zealand <http://archives.govt.nz/>. Some also have online indexes and
digitised asylum records.
For example, Public Record Office Victoria <
http://prov.vic.gov.au/>
has digitised asylum registers for the following asylums:
·
Ararat 1867-1906
·
Ballart/Sunbury 1877-1920
·
Beechworth 1867-1912
·
Bendigo 1874-1908
·
Collingwood 1866-1873
·
Kew 1871-1919
·
Royal Park 1907-1913
·
Sunnyside 1905-1915
·
Yarra Bend 1848-1912
PROV has no overall index
so you need to have an approximate date and place to start searching. Each
digitised register has an index at the front, so it is also possible to look at
each one individually. Alternatively, these records have been indexed by
Findmypast <https://www.findmypast.com.au>.
PROVguide 59 Mental Health Records < http://prov.vic.gov.au/provguide-59>
outlines background information and provides direct links to digitised records.
So always start your search by consulting any relevant brief guides or fact
sheets on a topic.
Newspapers are another resource for researching asylums as quarterly and annual reports were often published and these can provide background information on how an asylum was managed. Sometimes individuals who have died in the asylum are mentioned by name. Digitisation means that we can search by person's name, a place or other keywords. Digitised Australian newspapers are available online free through Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au/> and in New Zealand online free via Papers Past < http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast>.
For example, the Ballarat
Courier on Monday 23 June 1873 reported on the previous Saturday's Police
Court hearings. Henry Egglestone, arrested for vagrancy was ordered to be taken
to the Ararat Lunatic Asylum. This newspaper account gives the person's name,
the date and the name of the asylum which is sufficient to go to the Public
Record Office Victoria website and look for the digitised record.
Summary
My family history is ever so much more
interesting because some of my direct ancestors
were admitted to an asylum. I know so much more about them as a result and I am
fortunate that none of them suffered a serious illness. All those people in asylums
are somebody's ancestors or relatives, have you looked yet?
Good luck!
October 2016
Looking
for Ancestors in Lying-in Hospitals
Introduction
This
month we are looking at hospital records for genealogy and family history. These
records are similar to last month's asylum records because they can have
wonderful genealogical information. There are many different types of hospitals
including general, maternity and specialist hospitals and may be either private
or public. In this article the focus will be on maternity hospitals or lying-in
hospitals as they were known earlier.
Lying-in Hospitals
Established in Melbourne in 1856, the Melbourne
Lying-in Hospital and Infirmary for Diseases of Women and Children < https://www.thewomens.org.au/about/our-history/>
was the first public women's hospital in Australia. It was founded as a place
underprivileged women could give birth and receive appropriate medical and
nursing assistance. It later became the Women's Hospital and still later the
Royal Women's Hospital.
The Hospital's website has a substantial history
online including an overview, timeline, information on founders including
doctors and members of the ladies committee, and biographical sketches of
medical staff, nurses, midwives, administrative and general staff. In addition
there are online guides to patient records and to the Hospital's archives.
There are some wonderful photographs illustrating the
Hospital's long history, and even if you do not have any Victorian research
interests, it is still a useful site to learn more about mother and child
welfare. The online guide to archival records lists series of records available
for research including annual reports, minutes, correspondence, midwifery
books, medical and clinical reports, labour ward case books, Labour Ward admission
books and Lying-in Hospital subscriber's tickets and other records.
As you can see there are routine administrative
records but also more detailed patient records. In fact the Hospital states
that the collection's greatest strength is the patient records kept from its
establishment to the present. For example, there are Midwifery Books from 1856 -
1889, Honorary Physician Case Books from 1878 - 1910 and Labour Ward Case Books
and Registers from 1888 - 1982 and other similar records.
Midwifery Book No 1, 1856 - 1879, <http://www.thewomenshistory.org.au/history/guides/patients/RWHS405.htm>
has been digitised and is freely available online. It is one of the Hospital's
greatest treasures and among the oldest surviving systematic records of
childbirth in the world. The first patient was a Mrs Kinsman in August 1856.
The midwifery books capture biographical information
about the mother as well as details about the birth including:
·
Patient's
name, age, country of origin, marital condition and parity or number of
previous deliveries
·
Date of
admission and discharge
·
Details of the labour and delivery including
the time in labour, the presentation (head, breech, transverse) and whether the
baby was born alive or was stillborn
·
If the baby
was alive, its sex, weight and length were noted, as were any interventions
such as the use of forceps, or any manipulation by the accoucheur of its
presentation.
·
Complications
such as prolonged labour, haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia or obstructed labour were
noted, along with any comments.
Access is dependent on the nature and date range of
the records. Descendants of deceased patients , on production of satisfactory
evidence of identity may be granted access to records by completing a view
archives application form. Full details are in the online Guide to the Royal Women's Hospital Victoria Patient Records.
Major hospitals in other areas may also have similar websites or published histories and a simple Google or Trove search may help to locate them.
Another option is to look at Find and Connect < https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/>
which is a website with history and information about Australian orphanages,
children's homes and other institutions including lying-in hospitals. Entries for institutions include a brief
summary, information about the records and photographs. There is a warning on
the website that some people may find the content distressing including
language, images and references to deceased Indigenous people.
My own father was born at the Lady Bowen Hospital in
Brisbane. A search on Find and Connect gives me a brief history of the Hospital
which was established in 1867 as the Queensland Lying-in Hospital but later
that same year the name was changed to the Lady Bowen Hospital. It originally
provided hospital care for indigent, unmarried and destitute women and their
babies.
A Ladies Committee ran the hospital from 1864 to 1924
when the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board took over its management. The
Lady Bowen Hospital closed in March 1938 when the new Brisbane Women's Hospital
opened.
The entry for Lady Bowen Hospital in Find and Connect
includes a timeline, related resources, publications and online resources
including newspaper references via Trove < http://trove.nla.gov.au/> and
digital photographs. While the patient records may not have survived, I can
still learn more about the hospital where my father was born.
Midwives
Being a midwife has been a female occupation for
centuries and in Australia to the late 1930s, midwives often worked for the
local doctor or in small hospitals, which they may have even established
themselves. In earlier times there was no specific training and a midwife may
have been just a local woman with experience in helping other women give birth.
A useful publication is Noeline Kyle's Nurses and Midwives in Australian History: a
guide to historical sources published by Unlock the Past <http://www.unlockthepast.com.au/>
and available from Gould Genealogy & History <https://www.gould.com.au/>.
The guide looks at their lives, where they trained and worked and where to
locate the records. Like nurses, midwives can be found working in hospitals,
refuges, asylums, prisons, charitable institutions and in local communities.
Where
are the records?
In Australia hospital records are held by the
individual state archives and in New Zealand the records are held by Archives
New Zealand <http://archives.govt.nz/>.
Always check to see if there is a brief guide, fact
sheet or other finding aid. For example, Public Record Office Victoria <
http://prov.vic.gov.au/>
has a How Toguide on Searching and
Ordering Hospital Records <http://www.wiki.prov.vic.gov.au/images/3/3f/HOW_TO39_-_Searching_and_Ordering_Hospital_Records.pdf>.
This online guide explains how to locate these types of records in the online
catalogue.
Newspapers are another resource for researching hospitals as quarterly and annual reports were often published and these can provide background information on how a hospital was managed. Sometimes individuals who have died in the hospital are mentioned by name. Digitisation means that we can search by person's name, a place or other keywords. Digitised Australian newspapers are available online free through Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au/> and in New Zealand online free via Papers Past < https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/>.
The following example from the Dubbo Dispatch and Wellington Independent, 23 July 1926 shows the additional detail that
can be picked up from newspaper reports relating to hospitals.
HOSPITAL DEATHS
Two deaths took place at the Dubbo
Hospital during the week. One was a young Scotchman named Andy Anderson
from the Warren district, who had been operated on for appendicitis. He was 20
years of age, and is said to be well connected in the Old Country where his
people reside. His body was laid to rest in the Presbyterian portion of the
Dubbo cemetery on Tuesday, the Rev. A. McCallum reading the burial service. The
other death was that of Daniel Robertson, aged 78, who had been caretaker of
the golf links for some years. Burial took place in the Church of England
section of the Dubbo cemetery, the Rev. C. W. Leavers reading the burial
service. Mr. E. Lees had charge of both funerals.
Summary
Hospital records are simply another resource that may
provide additional information about our ancestors health from birth through
any illness to death. Not everything is captured on birth and death
certificates and any extra information on their health provides an insight into
their lives. If you have not already thought about hospital records for family
history, is it now time to do so?
Good luck!
November 2016
Sporting
Ancestors - Every Family Has Them
Introduction
This
month we are looking at sporting records for genealogy and family history.
Whenever I mention sporting ancestors, the first response is usually that
someone does not have any and that there would be no point in looking. Most
people associate sport with activities like cricket and football and there may
be records of them playing for a local team and sometimes even wonderful team photographs.
But
there are so many more sports that our ancestors may have been involved with
and not just team sports. Hunting and
fishing are sporting activities which might have doubled as a way to help feed
the family in times past. What about school sports? Physical education was a
major part of school life and reports of school events can often be found in
newspapers.
So
how do you find sporting ancestors?
Is there any sporting memorabilia in your family history records? Are there any
trophies, medals, shields, pennants, certificates, badges, uniforms,
photographs, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks or other records relating to an
ancestor’s involvement in sport? Do you know the stories behind these items?
The first step is to re-examine any items and note
information such as dates, events, places, the name of the sporting group and any
other information that can be followed up. These clues provide the basis for
your research by pointing you in a particular direction.
Sadly, items such as photographs of sporting groups are often not dated or
individually named and they may not even show the name of the group. It can be
very hard to identify photographs without any clues but comparing it to other
photographs held by a local historical society, for example, may lead to some
kind of identification. Perhaps the uniform can at least assist in identifying
the sport?
Digitised Newspapers
If you do not have any personal memorabilia, you may
still be able to discover if an ancestor participated in a sporting activity through
digitised newspapers. Keyword searches may provide us with clues to follow up. For example, the funeral notice for our great
uncle Adkins Robert Spencer in 1938 contained some wonderful extended family
details including the married name of his niece. Plus we had been unaware of
his involvement with the Amateur Fishing Association of Queensland and that he
had served as its President from 1922 to 1936.
Further searches in digitised newspapers via Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au/> for the Amateur Fishing Association of Queensland led to all kinds of information on the Association during Adkins Spencer's years of membership. Frequently, he and other members of the Association were mentioned by name, sometimes only using their initials or referring to them as Mr or Mrs if their wives attended events. Remember to include variations such as initials or generic terms when searching digitised newspapers.
Trove can also be used to locate photographs and there
is a wonderful photograph of Adkins Spencer when he was Vice Commodore of the
South Brisbane Sailing Club. With this clue to his involvement with the Club,
further searches in digitised newspapers again revealed more of his sailing
activities and involvement in the management of the Club.
Almanacs and Post Office Directories
Many almanacs and post office directories have been
digitised and are available online from a number of different sources including
major subscription sites. In particular, the alphabetical section on country
towns may list all sporting groups for the town. The 1904 Pugh’s Almanac entry for Charters Towers,
for example, refers to the following groups and their office holders:
Charters Towers Angling Club
Charters Towers Cricket Association
Charters Towers Gun Club
Cricket clubs
Football clubs
Golf Club
Jockey clubs
Lawn Tennis Club
North Queensland Rifle Association
North Queensland Rugby Union
Rifle Club
Trotting Club
Could your ancestor have been involved in one of the
sporting groups and associations in their community? The generic term sport can
cover many different activities so remember to think broadly when considering
what your ancestors may have been involved with.
Local Histories
It is a good idea to locate and read any local history of the areas in which your ancestors lived. Most
include a chapter on sport or sporting groups in the area. There may be no direct
reference to your families but the history will provide context on the times
and the community in which they lived. On the other hand you may be lucky and discover
specific references to family members.
Sometimes an area may have had a number of local
histories published and it can be useful to read them all as what might appear
in the early histories may not appear in the more recent, and perhaps more
academic, history.
The other thing to remember with these types of
publications is that they often have lots of old photographs, although
individuals in group photos may not be named.
School Sports
We should not think too narrowly when considering what
types of sports our ancestors played, especially children at school. For
example, in a newspaper account of the 11th annual meeting of the Charters
Towers State School Sports in August 1929, the following sports were
listed:
·
50
yards sprints
·
75
yards skipping race (girls)
·
egg
and spoon races
·
potato
races
·
3
legged races
·
tunnel
ball races
·
basket
ball races
·
broad
jumps
·
high
jumps
·
thread
the needle races
·
bun
and soda race (I wonder what that involved?)
There were various events for both boys and girls and
for various age groups. It was reported in the Townsville Daily Bulletin
on 21 August 1929 and this is a good reminder that newspapers carried stories
not only for their own local area but further afield too. A search of Charters
Towers newspapers might find even more details on
this sporting event.
Where
are the records?
Sporting records can be found in archives, libraries,
local historical societies and museums and with sporting clubs still in
existence. My fascination with ancestors involved in sport led me to write Discover Your Sporting Ancestors: it was not
all work and no play which has been published by Unlock the Past <
http://www.unlockthepast.com.au/>
and is available in print and as an ebook from Gould Genealogy & History
< https://www.gould.com.au/>.
Summary
Sporting records are simply another resource that may
provide additional information about the lives of our ancestors. While most of
their time will have been taken up with work and family commitments, there may
have been time when they could enjoy team sports with others in the local
community or perhaps even some time fishing or joining others at the local
rifle club.
Sporting records are not likely to provide a lot of
biographical information, unless they became famous, but the records do give us
an insight into their lives. If you have not already thought about sporting records
for family history, is it now time to do so?
Good luck!
December 2016
An
Aussie Christmas
In
keeping with the festive spirit of the season, this month we will be looking at
what Christmas was like for our ancestors. While we may not have personal
accounts of what they did at Christmas time, what we do know is that it was
very different from what they were used to back home.
Digitised
newspapers are one way to discover what was happening each Christmas and often
the editorials sum up comparisons between the Old World and the New. A keyword
search in Trove < http://trove.nla.gov.au/> on Christmas returns thousands
of hits which can be narrowed down by state, decade and even year.
An editorial in The Telegraph (Brisbane, Queensland), on Monday 25 December 1882 provides an insight into the differences.
.......The only thing to
complain about the preparations for the festivities was the oppressive heat
which prevailed during the whole of last week. To the thousands of people who
during the present year have arrived in the colony from Great Britain the heat
must have seemed sorely out of place at Christmas-tide; or Christmas sorely out
of place in the middle of a semi-tropical summer. It does detract somewhat from
the enjoyment of even old colonists. There is much in the power of association.
To new chums Christmas without the matin welcome of Christmas singers, without
holly berries and mistletoe, without ice and snow and without a long hilarious
evening in a room all aglow with the ruddy radiance of a huge yule log, is
almost as anomalous and unnatural as Christmas minus roast beef or goose,
turkey, and plum-pudding. Christmas with the thermometer in the nineties, and
for Christmas singers mosquitoes making music as melodious as a jew's harp, is
an unwelcome substitute for the sharp bracing winter holiday of the old land.
....... To the labouring classes comfort and a high thermometer are better than
poverty and an empty pantry. There is little here now to diminish the merriness
of this festive season. We cordially wish that all our readers may have the good
things which make good cheer, and hearts to enjoy them.
Most of our ancestors were probably better off in the
new country, with many able to farm the land, establish businesses, gain
employment, and feed and educate their families. Perhaps the only time they
remembered the old country was at times like Christmas when they might have
been missing loved ones or thinking of earlier family gatherings.
Some of my earliest Christmas memories as a child are
of Mum spraying this 'white stuff' on the windows and doors to make it look
like it had snowed. Mum is 4th generation Australian and at that time she had
never travelled anywhere to see snow. Yet there were holly berry decorations on
the pine tree, a hot Christmas roast and vegies followed by plum pudding and
custard, all in the heat of the day. On the few occasions we have tried for a
seafood and salad lunch and ice cream
with pudding Mum has invariably said 'but that's not Christmas'. Traditions can
be passed down even when a person has not experienced them at first hand.
Mum grew up in the 1930s and even back then there were
those trying to argue for a change of our Christmas habits. The Telegraph on Friday 23 December 1938
under the banner of Climate and Rational Living asked the following question.
......Might not the cold
collation become the Christmas fashion in Queensland? With infinitely less
trouble to prepare, this can be made no less festive than the steaming turkey
and pudding of England. Cold bird, cold ham cooling salads, frozen jellies, trifles
and our luscious fruits - what more could one ask?......
It is pathetic to see in
Queensland, as one commonly does, after Christmas dinner in the grilling heat,
a family sitting about in a kind of perspiring coma, boa-constricting after the
traditional feast - doped, heavy-eyed, immovable in face of the unnerving task
of digestion.......
This year I again suggested the cold seafood lunch and
we would even bring all the prawns, crabs and salads. But no, there must be a
roast pork, two roast chickens, a ham, roast potatoes, cauliflower au gratin,
peas and gravy followed by plum pudding and custard. If we are lucky there will
be five of us, possibly seven at the lunch table. Why so much food for so few?
As Mum would say 'but it's Christmas'. I suspect we will be sitting there
afterwards like The Telegraph's
boa-constrictor!
Let's fast forward again to the 1950's and in The Beaudesert Times on Friday 25 November 1955 we are reminded "It's Time To Make The Christmas Cake".
Christmas is the time of
good will and good food. We don't have the Old World White Christmas in
Queensland but we do have all the old-fashioned Christmas dishes to which we
add our own seasonal offerings and we know that no Yuletide season is complete
without a Christmas Fruitcake. This cake must be something special.
Mercifully we have let this Christmas tradition lapse
in recent years but on occasion, fruit mince pies have been known to appear on
the table instead. Why not a lamington or a pavlova? Coconut and meringue are
almost snowlike but no, not Christmassy enough for Mum. As a child I remember
Mum making egg nog and to be honest, I don't think I have had it since I was a
small child. It has probably been overtaken by beer as the drink of choice by
many Queenslanders.
In the Australian Women's Weekly, 27 November 1957, there were eight must have recipes for a wonderful Christmas. Any guesses what they were? In no particular order:
·
Canadian Fruit Cake
·
Roast Turkey
·
Scotch Shortbread
·
Fondant Creams
·
Cold Collation
·
Same Day Christmas Pudding
·
Fruit Christmas Mince
·
Christmas Wreath
The only one I got mildly excited about was the Cold Collation
until I read the ingredients. Sheep tongues, ham and chicken with detailed
instructions on how to cook and skin the tongues. This brought back vivid
memories of growing up on brains, tripe (stomach), lamb's fry (liver) and
kidneys. All foods guaranteed to kill my
appetite unless the liver is in a rather tasty pate!
As our family is so small, and shrinking, we haven't got any new traditions to pass down as we still turn up at Mum's every year when we can. While we have agreed on her place again, I'm still pushing for the seafood, salads and less fuss. Last year we were the ones who did the cooking in her small kitchen and it was definitely cooler outside despite the blazing heat of a Queensland summer. Never again, so it won't be me in the kitchen this year. My brother is not cooking inclined and likes to bring the chooks and ham. He's also a fan of less fuss. Is this the year to start a new family tradition?
What are your family Christmas lunch/dinners like?
Have you got traditions that are kept up year after year? Do you have the same
foods or does it vary each year? Does the family all come together where
possible? Have you captured these memories and I don't just mean photos? They
don't tell the stories behind the food on the table, or the decorations on the
tree. If we don't start recording our memories and traditions then they will
simply disappear into the mists of future Christmas seasons.
Good luck!
June 2017
Family
Trivia in Digitised Newspapers
In
Australia and New Zealand we are lucky to have free digital access to many of
our 19th century newspapers. As many researchers will know, newspapers are a
great resource for finding notices of births, deaths and marriages along with
funeral and bereavement notices, in memoriam notices and other similar notices.
However,
we can learn much more from digitised newspapers. Weather reports, updates from
the local school, farming notices, details of crime in the area, accidents and
in times of war, updates on those going to war, or returning or those who will
never come back.
The
National Library of Australia maintains Trove< http://trove.nla.gov.au/>,
a website that provides access not only to digitised newspapers but a wide
range of other resources, free of charge. Similarly, the National Library of
New Zealand maintains Papers Past <https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/>, that
provides free access to digitised newspapers and other resources.
A keyword search in Trove on a family name or place can return thousands of hits which can be narrowed down by state, decade and even year. Start with a person's name but remember that it might be a nickname or simply initials.
A search for Samuel Pyers, a convict ancestor, found a
fascinating account in the Hobart Town
Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser on 26 November 1824. Samuel's
house was robbed by a gang of men who had also robbed other houses in the same
Black Snake area. The gang were found guilty and as a person had been killed in
one of the robberies, they were also found guilty of murder. There are very few details in the newspaper
but at the time Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania) was still a convict colony
and escaped prisoners trying to live off the land were a problem for
authorities and free settlers.
How many of us know our ancestors exact last moments?
Thanks to a newspaper account into the death of another convict ancestor, we
know exactly how and when he died. An account of the inquest was published in
the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales
Advertiser on 30 June 1832. The inquest depositions no longer exist and if
it were not for the newspaper report, we would not know any of the following
details.
On Thursday an inquest was likewise held
at the "Black Dog" public-house, Cambridge street, Rocks, on the body of Richard
Walker, who, the preceding
morning, between 9 and 10 o'clock, fell
to the earth in the yard at the back of the house in which he lived in the above street.
He was carried to bed speechless,
and remained in that state until
about four o'clock the same day The jury
returned a verdict of "Died by the visitation of God" In the course of the
examination of witnesses, it appeared that a man of the name of Thomas Mosher, a poor cobbler living
in the same house with deceased,
went, between two and three o'clock,
to the shop of Surgeon Hosking, and requested his attendance to the deceased,
who had grown worse. Upon being
informed that the applicant had no pecuniary means of remunerating him, Surgeon Hosking declined
attending, alleging his "business
would not permit him." At this conduct the jury, one and all, expressed
their indignation in the severest terms language could convey; as it was their unanimous opinion,
that had the assistance required
been afforded to the individual now
dead, in all probability he would have recovered; and this their opinion they
requested the Coroner to
represent through the proper medium.
Many newspapers also contain illustrations and during
wartime it is not unusual to find portraits of soldiers before they leave for
war. Three of my great great grandparents' sons went to World War One. Robert,
John and Denis Price all signed up at different times and I have now located
photographs for each of them. John Finn eluded me for a while as his name had
been recorded as I Finn as seen in the image below and not J Finn. Remember to
check for spelling variations because names can be misprinted in a newspaper
report.
State Library of Queensland <http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/> has digitised nearly 30,000 portraits of Queensland World War One soldiers. They were first published in The Queenslander newspaper and are a fantastic resource for anyone with a Queensland World War One soldier. Similar portraits for soldiers in other Australian states can be located by looking in Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au/> or by visiting the relevant State Library website and online catalogue.
Their father John Finn had been charged with alleged arson in 1902 and the crime attracted a lot of newspaper coverage. Finn and his seven young children had been occupying the house until a week before the fire. The family were evicted by a bailiff for non payment of rent and the three youngest children were taken into care. It was noted that John Finn spent his money on drink instead of paying the rent. John's wife Sarah had died two years earlier and no doubt he was struggling to work and look after his large family without her.
The children were returned to their father after he
was discharged and The Truth (Brisbane)
on 20 September 1903 hoped that:
...this
would be the last it hears of this case, and to John Finn it would like to
offer a little bit of sound advice, which is, look after your own family before
spending your hard enough earned wages on drink.
Lots of detail on the family and a sketch of my great
great grandfather was published. We are fortunate to now have a likeness of him
given that there is no surviving photograph. We also have an insight into what
life was like for the family when their mother Sarah died just before her 41st
birthday.
Another example is when my grandmother's brother Sydney Herbert White was killed after falling from his horse while riding in Charters Towers there were reports about the accident in the local newspaper. An inquest was also held and a detailed report also appeared in the newspaper. His burial was also reported on in The North Queensland Register (Townsville) on 3 December 1900 and we learnt that 'a large number of his fellow scholars from the Sandy Creek Sunday School followed the funeral'. It was also reported that 'the greatest sympathy was manifested for the parents of the deceased, who was their eldest child being only 11½ years of age'.
Accounts like this help us to better understand what
happened and the impact it had on those most affected by the event. Over 100
years later we can read these newspaper reports and still feel the emotion of
those affected by a death so long ago.
Of course there may also be feel good stories and just
news of the day which helps to place our families in both a community context
and an historical setting. What was happening in the area where your ancestors
lived? What impact did the weather have on them? Droughts, floods, bushfires,
and cyclones all would have made life more difficult especially if they lived
on the land. Why not look for family trivia in digitised newspapers - who knows
what secrets you might find.
Good luck!
December 2017
Starting out in Australian and New Zealand Genealogy
Introduction
If you have some Australasian family connections, then
there are some wonderful online sites that are free to use to kick start your
family history.
Australia is a very large country, in fact it is a
whole continent and only became a nation of federated states and territories in
1901. Prior to that there were six colonies which were all part of New South
Wales at one time except for Western Australia. European settlement in
Australia only commenced in 1788 with the arrival of the First Fleet.
History and geography are critical to doing genealogy in Australia and perhaps the easiest way to gain a broad understanding is to look at Wikipedia History of Australia. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Australia>. The borders of the various colonies changed at different times, so you also need to have a date and a place to start researching.
There is no overall central place to look as the main
records used for genealogy are mainly held by the states and territories
although there are some federal records after 1901. This means that anyone
researching in Australia needs to use both state and federal repositories and
records.
New Zealand is not as large as Australia, but you
still need to know geography and history to understand where to look for the
records. Putting your ancestors into the context of the country they immigrated
to is essential.
Subscription and pay to view sites such as Ancestry,
Findmypast and MyHeritage may simplify searching but none of them includes all
the records that are available online from archives, libraries and other
organisations.
Useful Portal Sites for both Australia and New Zealand
A good starting point to see what broad categories of
resources are available is CoraWeb: helping to trace your family history in
Australia and elsewhere <http://coraweb.com.au/>. CoraWeb is organised by
subject entries such as birth, death and marriage records, cemeteries,
convicts, directories, maps, military, shipping and migration, wills and
probate. Categories are then further divided by state or territory with links
to useful sites.
Similarly, Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the
Internet for Australia <http://www.cyndislist.com/australia/> and New
Zealand <http://www.cyndislist.com/new-zealand/> has similar subject
listings with links to relevant sites.
Portal sites like Coraweb and Cyndi's List should be
browsed to appreciate the full range of resources available. If you are not
familiar with Australian and New Zealand resources, you may not think to search
for a topic or perhaps the terminology is not familiar.
Genealogy and Family History Societies
There are hundreds of genealogy and family history
societies across Australia and New Zealand but there is no single listing of
them all. A Google search for the place you are researching may turn up a
society if you use keywords like genealogy or family history and a place name.
Alternatively, the Australasian Federation of Family
History Societies (AFFHO) <http://www.affho.org/> has a member list on
its website but not all Australian and New Zealand societies are members of
AFFHO, but it is a starting place for major societies.
Also on the AFFHO home page is a link to the Federation
of Family History Societies (FFHS) Our
Australasian Really Useful Information Leaflet < http://www.affho.org/news/FFHS-Aus-RUL-Booklet-Summer-2017v2.pdf
> which is an initiative between FFHS, AFFHO and the Society of Australian
Genealogists <http://www.sag.org.au/>. The leaflet has how to start
information and lists useful sites.
Australian Archives and Libraries
In Australia we have some fantastic national and state
archives and libraries who are very supportive of those doing genealogy and
family history research. Most of them have a useful how to guide which should
be the first thing to look for when visiting the website.
|
Archives |
Libraries |
|
Archives
Australian Capital Territory <http://www.archives.act.gov.au/> |
Libraries
Australian Capital Territory <http://www.library.act.gov.au/> |
|
National
Archives of Australia <http://www.naa.gov.au/> |
National Library
of Australia <http://www.nla.gov.au/> |
|
State Records
New South Wales <http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/> |
State Library of
New South Wales <http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/> |
|
Northern
Territory Archives Service <https://dtc.nt.gov.au/arts-and-museums/northern-territory-archives-service> |
Northern
Territory Library <https://dtc.nt.gov.au/arts-and-museums/northern-territory-library> |
|
Queensland State
Archives < https://www.qld.gov.au/dsiti/qsa> |
State Library of
Queensland <http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/> |
|
State Records of
South Australia <http://www.archives.sa.gov.au/> |
State Library of
South Australia <http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/> |
|
Tasmanian
Archive and Heritage Office <http://www.linc.tas.gov.au/archive-heritage> |
LINC Tasmania
(includes all Tasmanian libraries) <http://www.linc.tas.gov.au/> |
|
Public Record
Office Victoria <http://prov.vic.gov.au/> |
State Library
Victoria <http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/> |
|
State Records Office
of Western Australia <http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/> |
State Library of
Western Australia <http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/>
|
Caption:
Table listing national/state/territory archives and libraries websites
These sites are all free to search and most have
online research guides, indexes and digital copies of documents and images free
to view and download. Browse the websites to fully appreciate what is available
online.
New Zealand Archives and Libraries
Archives New Zealand <http://archives.govt.nz/>
has regional offices in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin and the national
office is in Wellington. The National Library of New Zealand <http://natlib.govt.nz/>
is in Wellington but major cities outside of the national capital may also be
worth checking. For example, Auckland Libraries <http://www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/>
has a huge family history section with lots of resources also online.
Other Free Useful Sites
There are many sites that could be listed here but
most will be easily found using the portals or following links from the various
archives and library sites mentioned above. However, I will mention three of my
favourites, all free to access.
The Ryerson Index <http://www.ryersonindex.org/> is a free online index to death notices in Australian newspapers. It also includes some funeral notices, obituaries and probate notices. Coverage varies for each state and territory so remember to check what is included for the time you want. This is an ongoing volunteer project which is updated regularly and not everything is indexed yet.
Trove <http://trove.nla.gov.au/> is the National Library of Australia's online resource to a range of resources including books, journals, articles, images, archives and manuscripts, maps, archived websites and digitised newspapers. Not everything is in Trove, but it is a fantastic place to search and some items may be online or be available through inter library loan.
Papers Past < http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/> is the New Zealand site for digitised newspapers, magazines and journals, letters and diaries and parliamentary papers. The newspaper collection covers from 1839 to 1948 and includes publications from all areas of New Zealand.
Social Media
Australian and New Zealand genealogists and family
historians have embraced social media and some have their own blogs and
websites or participate with Twitter, Facebook and Google+. A quick way to
identify Australasian bloggers is to do a search on Unlock the Past’s
Australian Genealogy & History blogs <http://www.unlockthepast.com.au/australian-genealogy-history-blogs>
or New Zealand Genealogy & History blogs <http://unlockthepast.com.au/new-zealand-genealogy-history-blogs>.
There are too many bloggers to mention here but as
author of Diary of an Australian Genealogist
<http://diaryofanaustraliangenealogist.blogspot.com.au/> I often mention
other bloggers, events or what is new in Australian genealogy. Jill Ball's blog
Geniaus <http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/> has an occasional feature GAGS
(GeniAus' Gems) which is a roundup of blog posts that she has liked, many of
which are Australasian.
Summary
Perhaps the most frequent question I am asked when
giving seminars is 'where do I start' which led me to write my beginner's guide
Where Do I Start?: a brief guide to
researching your family in Australia and New Zealand published by Unlock
the Past <http://www.unlockthepast.com.au/>. It is available
to purchase as a paperback or ebook from Gould Genealogy & History <
http://www.gould.com.au/>.
Obviously. it covers more than what is outlined in this article, but the
websites listed above will certainly help you get started on researching any
downunder relatives. Good luck!
February 2018
Finding ancestors in digitised publications Queensland
Family history is closely aligned to local
history and my new series of articles looks at online resources that help to
place Australian ancestors within their local communities. We will look at
specific websites that make freely available books, journals, directories,
government gazettes and other similar resources. We start our journey with
Queensland (and remember that some state based resources may also be applicable
to other Australian states and territories).
Introduction
Knowing where our ancestors lived and when
is essential for any genealogy research. Many of the resources for local
history are also relevant for family history. These types of resources may not
be found on genealogical websites. Therefore, we need to think more broadly
about where to look. The examples in this series will give researchers ideas
for their own family history research.
TextQueensland
Text Queensland: Queensland’s Past Online
<http://www.textqueensland.com.au>
is a wonderful site for anyone with ancestors who lived in Queensland. It
provides free access to books, journals, theses, Pugh’s Almanacs, Queensland
Government Gazette, The Queenslander
(newspaper) and Queensland Hansard.
Except for The Queenslander(also
available via Trove < https://trove.nla.gov.au>,
these resources are not available online elsewhere. The site is maintained by
the University of Queensland, the Queensland Government and the Centre for the
Government of Queensland. Now for a look at some of the individual resources
and how they can be used for family history research.
Pugh’s
Alamanacs
Pugh’s
Almanacs were an annual commercial guide to
Queensland businesses, people, places and events and provided information on everything
from the weather to government agencies. The digitized Almanacs start in 1859 and cease in 1927 which is nearly 70 years
to trace the development of a town, business or family. Advertisements also
provide an insight into what was tempting our ancestors into shops and
businesses.
Queensland
Government Gazette
The Queensland
Government Gazette was an annual listing of government notices including
job appointments, retirements, land transactions, hotel licensees and
bankruptcy notices to mention just a few. The Gazettes list thousands and thousands of individual names and
places and 1859 to 1900 has been digitised. A fantastic, free resource for 19th
century Queensland.
Books
Under Books there are three categories –
University of Queensland Press books since 1948; Queensland Heritage Texts from
1841 and Lectures of North Queensland History from 1972 to 1974. This is a
virtual library of Queensland history and the heritage texts are mostly out of
print rare books including traveler’s guides. The latter are like diaries and
if you can find one on an area your ancestors were living in, it can give you a
very clear idea of what life was like back then.
For example, William Hill’s Forty-Five Years’ Experiences in North Queensland 1861-1905: with a few incidents in England 1844 to 1861 talks about the earliest developments in North Queensland, including the Ravenswood, Palmer and other goldfields. As the books are in PDF format, it is easy to search for keywords such as places and names. My own ancestors were in Charters Towers and a quick search led to a description of Hill’s trip to Ravenswood and Charters Towers. While the book does not mention my mining ancestors by name, it does provide a clear image of the hardships of mining and what travelling on horseback and buggy was like, and these are things that my ancestors did.
For those without North Queensland
families, Chapter Two will be of interest as it is a detailed description of
Brisbane in 1861 when Hill first arrived. He was not overly impressed and
wrote:
Brisbane was not a very attractive city in ’61, with
unformed streets, atrociously kept shops, and houses few and far between, but
we were all nevertheless agreeably astonished, as we had been led to believe we
would have to land in dense scrub, and be immediately attacked by wild blacks
and huge snakes!
What were our own ancestors’ expectations,
and did they share Hill’s beliefs? Reminiscences can provide insights into what
our ancestors experienced that is not usually found in government records. Take
the time to explore these heritage texts and remember, the title may not
necessarily convey everything that the publication covers.
The University of Queensland Press publications from 1948 are also of interest as copyright may have been waived. For example, before moving to Charters Towers my ancestors spent time in Copperfield and Clermont and in 1986 Richard and Margaret Stringer published A Shifting Town: glass plate images of Clermont and its people by G. C. Pullar. Thanks to Text Queensland I can read this in the comfort of my own home for free. While the book is mainly about the Pullar family, it does give the background history to the development of Copperfield and nearby Clermont. Not to mention all those wonderful photographs.
Of more general interest is Ross Patrick’s A History of Health & Medicine in
Queensland 1824-1960 which was published in 1987. What did our ancestors do
when they got sick or had an accident? Where was the nearest doctor or
hospital? How did they treat themselves and their families? The book is
extremely detailed, and it is not the type of book that you would purchase but
having access to it freely at home makes answering some of those questions on
our ancestors’ health much easier.
Lectures of North Queensland History looks
at a diverse range of topics including Charters Towers and the Boer War; Moslem
Albanians in North Queensland; the Ravenswood Strike 1912 and the North
Queensland Cattle Industry. My mother had two uncles from Charters Towers in
the Boer War, so I found Joan Neal’s article of value to my own family
research. While not a big series of lectures if there is one on a topic of
interest, then the footnotes will lead you to some interesting sources.
Journals
This category has numerous journals
including the Journal of the Royal
Historical Society of Queensland 1914-1994, The Shearer’s Record 1888-1893 and the John Oxley journal: a bulletin for historical research in Queensland 1980-1981.
The Royal Historical Society of Queensland < http://www.queenslandhistory.org>
has an index to the journal articles on the website. The index can be
downloaded as a PDF and then searched by keyword. This makes it easy to locate
which articles may be of interest to your family history research. Then simply
download the volume you want from Text Queensland. Or simply browse, there is something of
interest in all volumes. The earlier issues often contain personal
reminiscences of what life was like in early Queensland or members talking
about their own ancestors exploits in their new home.
Theses
Academic theses may also be worth a look as
a simple keyword search on Rockhampton returned numerous results including the
following five examples:
·
The Rockhampton Benevolent
Society 1866-1916
·
Bowen: the foundation of a
North Queensland port settlement 1861-1880
·
Land settlement in the northern
districts of Port Curtis and Leichhardt, 1835-1869
·
A study of Irish migration to,
and settlement in, Queensland 1885-1912
·
Queensland Baptists: the
development of Baptist evangelicalism 1846-1926.
Apart from the first item, the others do
not have Rockhampton in the title so remember that titles may not always
reflect content. What is possibly the greatest value of this type of resource
is the bibliography and footnotes as they can provide further resources for
your own family history research.
Subscription sites
Some of the types of resources mentioned
above may also be found on family history subscription websites and if it is
only an indexed entry, then try to locate the original digitized resource
online. Check out the source of the subscription site data for a clue to the
original source.
Conclusion
In this article we have looked at the first
of a series of websites that have digital resources for local and general
history which can also be used for family history research. In future issues we
will be looking at local government archives, state libraries, historical
societies and universities. Each of these types of repositories have a wide
range of resources which can also be for genealogical research. Any resource
that provides details on the daily lives of our ancestors helps us to know more
about them and the community in which they lived. Try and find similar sources
for your own research as we go on this journey. Good luck!
March 2018
Finding ancestors in digitised publications Victoria
Family history is closely aligned to local
history and my new series of articles looks at online resources that help to
place Australian ancestors within their local communities. We will look at
specific websites that make freely available books, journals, directories,
government gazettes and other similar resources. We continue our journey with Victoria
(and remember that some state based resources may also be applicable to other
Australian states and territories).
Introduction
Knowing where our ancestors lived and when
is essential for any genealogy research. Many of the resources for local
history are also relevant for family history. These types of resources may not
be found on genealogical websites. Therefore, we need to think more broadly
about where to look. The examples in this series will give researchers ideas
for their own family history research.
State Library Victoria < https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/> has a wonderful genealogy research room but if you are unable to visit in person, the Library also has a very active digitization program. Many publications, original records, images, maps and other resources useful for genealogy and family history are available online for free. To see what is available go to Popular Digitised Collections < https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/search-discover/popular-digitised-collections>.This article will look at some of the more useful genealogical resources.
Victoria Government Gazettes
The Victoria
Government Gazette < http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/>
was an annual listing of government notices including job appointments,
retirements, land transactions, hotel licensees and bankruptcy notices to
mention just a few subjects. The Gazettes
list thousands and thousands of individual names and places and the following Gazette titles have been digitized and
are freely available:
·
1836-1839 New South Wales Government Gazette
·
1840-1859 New South Wales Government Gazette, Port Phillip Government Gazette and Victoria Government Gazette
·
1860-1997 Victoria Government Gazette
These titles also reflect the development
of Victoria as a colony. First as part of New South Wales, then as the Port
Phillip settlement and then finally as Victoria from 1851.
The
Gazettes can be browsed by decade,
year, month, day or page but are not keyword searchable for every page. Only
the printed indexes are searchable by keyword, phrase or date and these are not
as detailed. The Gazettes may also be
available through subscription sites such as Findmypast < https://www.findmypast.com.au/>.
Sands & McDougall’s Directories
Directories are wonderful resources for
locating individuals, organisations and businesses and to see the development
of places over time. There are listings under areas such as government,
religious, legal, clubs and societies. Eight directories have been digitized
between 1860 and 1895, ten for the period 1900 to 1945 and six between 1950 and
1974. Individual volumes are listed on the webpage.
From 1902 the directories also cover
country Victoria. Information included in the directories varied over time and
it was not compulsory to participate. There was often a fee involved and some individuals
and businesses may have chosen not to be included. The directories are like
early telephone books and before compulsory enrolment on electoral rolls, these
publications may be the only way to trace people in colonial times.
There is a search engine that allows you to
search for an individual name, place or other keyword. I entered Trevaskis, one
of my Victorian family surnames and there were 228 results across all the
digital collections.
Old Melbourne Street Directories
There are a range of street directories for
Melbourne and suburbs from 1912 through to 1952. The street directories include maps,
advertisements and street name indexes and are useful for trying to locate
places in Melbourne. These publications do not include names of individuals like
the Sands & McDougall directories above.
Street directories do have interesting
information on living in Melbourne such as cab fares, churches, clubs,
hospitals, postage rates, tram fares and train service times as well as the
suburb maps and street listings. The advertisements are fascinating.
Victorian Historical Journal
This journal was first published by the
Royal Historical Society of Victoria <http://www.historyvictoria.org.au/>
in 1911 and includes articles on all aspects of Victorian history. There is a
comprehensive index on the Society’s website from 1911 to 2012. Once you have
located articles that you are interested in, then you can go back to the State
Library Victoria website to view the articles for free.
World War 1 Unit Histories
Digitised works include both the cavalry
and infantry and at the time of writing, 26 histories are listed. For example,
Thomas Darley’s With the Ninth Horse in
the Great War was first published in 1924 has been completely digitized and
is freely available online.
There are also more recent publications
such as Douglas Hunter’s My Corps
Cavalry: a history of the 13th Light Horse Regiment AIF
published in 1999. In this instance, only the book’s dustcover and table of
contents has been digitized. If you are unable to visit the State Library in
person, your local library may have a copy, or it may also be available through
inter-library loan or for sale.
La Trobe Journal
This scholarly journal was first published
by State Library Victoria in 1968.
Individual issues from 2012 to 2017 can also be accessed from the
journal’s home page <https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/about-us/our-publications/la-trobe-journal>.
There is also a link to all issues from 1968 to 2011 and full text articles can
be accessed freely online.
Just browsing the contents hints at the wonderful
original records held by the Library. For example, the December 2013 issue has
an article by Rachel Solomon on ‘The Victorian diaries of a Welsh swagman
(1869-1894)’. While he may not be your ancestor, his experiences would have
been similar if he was travelling in the areas your ancestors lived. First hand
accounts of what a place was like can be fascinating and build up a picture of
what life was really like.
Digital Image Pool
There are almost 200,000 images in the
Digital Image Pool <http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/images>
that the State Library Victoria has made freely available as the images are out
of copyright or available to be used. The collection can be keyword searched
and covers an amazing range of historical topics including people and places.
Subscription sites
Some of the types of resources mentioned
above may also be found on family history subscription websites and if it is
only an indexed entry, then try to locate the original digitized resource
online. Check out the source of the subscription site data for a clue to the
original source.
Conclusion
In this article we have looked at the second
of a series of websites that have digital resources for local and general
history which can also be used for family history research. In future issues we
will continue looking at local government archives, state libraries, historical
societies and universities. Each of these types of repositories have a wide
range of resources which can also be used for genealogical research.
Any resource that provides details on the daily lives of our ancestors helps us to know more about them and the community in which they lived. Try and find similar sources for your own research as we go on this journey. Good luck
April 2018
Finding ancestors in digitised publications Western Australia
Family history is closely aligned to local
history and my new series of articles looks at online resources that help to
place Australian ancestors within their local communities. We will look at
specific websites that make freely available books, journals, directories,
government gazettes and other similar resources. We continue our journey with Western
Australia (and remember that some state-based resources may also be applicable
to other Australian states and territories).
Introduction
Knowing where our ancestors lived and when
is essential for any genealogy research. Many of the resources for local
history are also relevant for family history. These types of resources may not
be found on genealogical websites. Therefore, we need to think more broadly
about where to look. The examples in this series will give researchers ideas
for their own family history research.
State Library of Western Australia < http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/> has wonderful genealogy resources which are summarized in an online guide Dead Reckoning: how to find your way through the genealogical jungle of Western Australia < http://cms.slwa.wa.gov.au/dead_reckoning>. It is divided up into categories such as books, indexes and catalogues, private archives, other materials including maps, government records and further sources. The guide is an excellent way to learn more about family history resources in Western Australia.
In this article my focus is on two of the popular digitized series of publications that are free to use online. A fantastic bonus for those researchers unable to visit in person. The easiest way to see what is available is to go to the WA Heritage page <http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/explore-discover/wa-heritage> on the Library’s website.
Some of the categories include moving
images, private archives, police gazettes, oral histories, photographs and post
office directories.
Police Gazettes
The Police
Gazette of Western Australia < http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/>
has been published since 1876 and is a fantastic resource for researching
police, convicts and criminals. Licenses for a range of activities may also be
recorded including publicans, boarding houses, billiards, and wine and spirit
vendors. Missing friends are also mentioned in the Gazettes as the police were often called on to help find people. Remember
too that your ancestors and other family members may have been victims of
crime, so do not be afraid to look at these records.
The Gazettes
from 1876 to 1900 have been digitized and are fully text searchable. Most
issues have an index as well, but the following years are missing an index –
1878, 1879, 1897 and 1898. However, it is better to search the text and
remember that a name may be abbreviated or just an initial is used.
There is no overall search engine and you
really do need an approximate date. Digitised Western Australian newspapers can
be searched in Trove <https://trove.nla.gov.au/>.
If you find a reference to someone in a court case in the newspaper, you can
follow it up in the Police Gazette.
For example, I knew from Queensland
Police Gazettes that Charles Brandon Davis had left his family and gone to
Western Australia and a warrant was issued for his arrest in May 1894. By
looking at the June 1894 issue of the Western
Australia Police Gazette I located the matching notice asking police to be
on the lookout for him.
The personal description is wonderful:
From Queensland Police Gazette, 1894, page
168
Brisbane –
Charles Davis is charged, on warrant issued by the Brisbane Bench, with having
on the 10th February last, deserted his child John Carnegie (Davis),
residing at Toombul (should be Toorbul). Description: a seaman or wharf
labourer, an Englishman, 31 years of age, 5ft 4 in high, stout build, blue
eyes, brown beard and hair, fair complexion, strong fair moustache, bald spots
under chin, deformed nail on the middle finger of one hand. Supposed to have
gone to Western Australia. – Q 841, 21st May 1894.
There is no surviving photograph of Charles
Davis but at least we have this wonderful physical description of him. Similar
descriptions are also given for missing friends and often there are contact
details back home. Not surprisingly many immigrants lost touch with their
families and enquiries would be made, often many years after a person first
arrived.
Post Office Directories
Directories <http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/explore-discover/wa-heritage/post-office-directories>are
wonderful resources for locating places, individuals, organisations and
businesses and to see the development of places over time. They were first
published by H. Pierssene and then by H. Wise and Co. and cover the period 1893
to 1949. The directories have been digitized and are freely available online.
There is no overall search engine and you
must search year by year. There are annual lists of contents with links to
corresponding pages. For example, 1899 includes the following categories:
- ·
Advertisements
- ·
General index to contents
- ·
Western Australia street index
- ·
Index to commercial
prospectuses
- ·
Index to names of advertisers
- ·
Towns directory A-Z (with each
letter of the alphabet further sub-indexed)
- ·
Alphabetical directory (lists
individuals by surname)
- ·
Trades directory
·
Smaller directories including
legal, ecclesiastical, educational, medical, banking, insurance, local
government, pastoral and agricultural, friendly societies and charitable
institutions.
Choosing the 1899 Directory, I quickly found my George Bullen, living at East
Montana. This was not a location I was familiar with, so I went back to the
Towns directory, and looked for East Montana. It was a suburb of Coolgardie
which is where I thought the family were. This gave me a better idea where in
Coolgardie they were living.
In the major towns and cities, addresses will often give the street name as well but in regional areas it was more likely to just be the name of the town or a suburb within that town. Street numbers may also be given but remember numbers may have changed over time and street names may also have changed.
Photographs
There are over 70,000 images digitized
and online. The collection can be searched through the Library’s main
catalogue. By selecting the online filter, it is possible to just see what has
been digitized. Another option is to use the Photographs section of Trove <https://trove.nla.gov.au/>
which I find easier to use.
The Pictorial Collection Highlights <http://slwa.wa.gov.au/wa-story/pictorial-collection-highlights> lists some of the collection gems and is an interesting way to learn about the history of Western Australia. There are numerous collections relating to World War 1 and places and businesses are also represented. As I have not personally been to Coolgardie, I searched for photographs and managed to find a full colour series of modern day images. Not everything in these collections is digitized yet.
Subscription sites
Some of the types of resources mentioned
above may also be found on family history subscription websites and if it is
only an indexed entry, then try to locate the original digitized resource
online. Check out the source of the subscription site data for a clue to the
original source.
Conclusion
In this article we have looked at the second
of a series of websites that have digital resources for local and general
history which can also be used for family history research. In future issues we
will continue looking at local government archives, state libraries, historical
societies and universities. Each of these types of repositories have a wide
range of resources which can also be used for genealogical research.
Any resource that provides details on the
daily lives of our ancestors helps us to know more about them and the community
in which they lived. Try and find similar sources for your own research as we
go on this journey. Good luck!
May 2018
Finding ancestors in digitised publications Tasmania
Family history is closely aligned to local
history and my new series of articles looks at online resources that help to
place Australian ancestors within their local communities. We will look at
specific websites that make freely available books, journals, directories,
government gazettes and other similar resources. We continue our journey with Tasmania
(and remember that some state-based resources may also be applicable to other
Australian states and territories).
Introduction
Knowing where our ancestors lived and when
is essential for any genealogy research. Many of the resources for local
history are also relevant for family history. These types of resources may not
be found on genealogical websites. Therefore, we need to think more broadly
about where to look. The examples in this series will give researchers ideas
for their own family history research.
LINC Tasmania < https://www.linc.tas.gov.au/> is a portal site that links researchers to the Tasmanian State Archives and State Library and there are numerous digitized record series of interest to family historians. The Family History home page <https://www.linc.tas.gov.au/family-history/> lists a broad range of topics including arrivals and departures, convict life, education, work, where someone lived, military records and other useful resources.
This article, however, is primarily
concerned with digitized publications and the easiest way to see these is to
choose the ‘All guides to records’ option. Directories & Almanacs < https://www.linc.tas.gov.au/archive-heritage/guides-records/Pages/directory.aspx>
are a great resources for locating places, individuals,
organisations and businesses and to see the development of places over time.
These publications are the same as what is available in other Australian states.
Of most interest is Wise’s Tasmania Post
Office Directory 1890-1948 and The
Tasmanian Almanack 1824-1830 which have been digitized and are online and
free to access.
As we saw last month with Western
Australia, there is no overall search engine with directories and you must
search year by year. While it is tempting to just look for our ancestors’
names, researchers should also think about reading some of the other sections
to learn more about what was happening and what services and goods were
available to people in earlier years.
William Jarvis and his sister Hannah (one of our families) arrived free in Van Diemen’s Land (the earlier name for Tasmania) in 1824 and The Tasmanian Almanack for 1827 provides a wonderful insight into what life was like for early settlers including the Jarvis family.
For example, there is a section on Colonial Gardening which tells you when,
where and how to grow potatoes; Swedish turnips; asparagus; cauliflowers; pease
(sic) and beans; onions; carrots and parsnips; cucumbers, pumkins (sic) and
melons; cabbages; turnips; artichoke; leeks; horse radish; lettuces; shallots;
celery; radishes and broccoli. There are numerous reminders that the seasons
are quite different from back home in England.
Then there is the section on the Fruit Garden and we are informed about
the growing of grapes; strawberries; raspberries; mulberries; apple and peach;
English cherry; pears; nuts; elder; green gage; damson; currants and
gooseberries; quince; and loquet (sic) which had just been introduced to the
Island.
Until reading these sections I had no idea
that the early settlers grew such a wide variety of vegetables and fruits.
Farmers sold their produce in the towns so even those in more urban areas would
have had a choice of fruit and vegetables depending on the season.
The
Almanack also includes land regulations, colonial
legislation, prisoner’s rations and clothing, garrison orders, calendar of
events, advertisements and the usual list of government officials, clubs,
organisations and individuals. It is worth browsing the whole directory at
least for one year to see the range of information covered. Of course, as time
progresses, the size of the almanacs and directories became larger as the
colony grew and the population expanded.
Cyclopedia of Tasmania
The Cyclopedia
of Tasmania is a two-volume work published in 1900 and now available
online. It can be accessed from the Directories and Almanacs link above. The Cyclopedia is an historical and
commercial review of Tasmania’s progress and includes descriptive and
biographical information, facts, figures and illustrations. The Cyclopedias were published for most
Australian states at the turn of the 20th century and contain a wide
range of historical and biographical information including portraits of ordinary
individuals, not just well-known government officials.
Browsing the contents list of each volume
reveals just how detailed these Cyclopedias
were and the Old Colonists section may be of interest. This section is not in
alphabetical order and most of the biographical sketches are accompanied by a
portrait photograph. The entries were all males, but one entry also had a
photograph of his wife.
It is important to browse these
publications because in the section Towns in the South of the Island (and Towns
in the North of the Island) there are also biographical sketches and
photographs of individuals including females. Again, the towns are not listed
in alphabetical order and it can be tedious searching page by page. There is an
index of sorts at the end of each volume. The index is not comprehensive for
every individual or place, but it is a useful starting place.
Government Gazettes
In FamilySearch <https://www.familysearch.org/>
if you select Research by location and choose Australia, you will find numerous
record series under Indexed Historical Records and Image Only Historical
Records. Under the latter are digitized copies of the Tasmanian Government Gazettes from 1833 to 1925 <https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2170647>
which also includes the Hobart Town
Gazette. To use these publications, you must have a year and an approximate
date, and it is possible to print and download each year.
Gazettes include information on all
aspects of government including staff appointments, hotel licensing, land
information, government regulations and probate information to mention just a
few subject areas. A search in Trove <https://trove.nla.gov.au/>
may reveal a reference to a land selection or hotel license which can then be
followed up in the Tasmanian Government
Gazette for that date.
Subscription sites
Some of the types of resources mentioned
above may also be found on family history subscription websites. For example,
both Ancestry and Findmypast have the Cyclopedia
of Tasmania and you can do a search, locate a page number and then go to
LINC Tasmania to see the entry.
Conclusion
In this article we have looked at the fourth
in a series of websites that have digital resources for local and general
history which can also be used for family history research. In future issues we
will continue looking at local government archives, state libraries, historical
societies and universities. Each of these types of repositories have a wide
range of resources which can also be used for genealogical research.
Any resource that provides details on the
daily lives of our ancestors helps us to know more about them and the community
in which they lived. Try and find similar sources for your own research as we
go on this journey. Good luck!
June 2018
Finding ancestors in digitised publications New South Wales
Family history is closely aligned to local
history and my new series of articles looks at online resources that help to
place Australian ancestors within their local communities. We will look at
specific websites that make freely available books, journals, directories,
government gazettes and other similar resources. We continue our journey with New
South Wales (and remember that some state-based resources may also be
applicable to other Australian states and territories).
Introduction
Knowing where our ancestors lived and when
is essential for any genealogy research. Many of the resources for local
history are also relevant for family history. These types of resources may not
be found on genealogical websites. Therefore, we need to think more broadly
about where to look. The examples in this series will give researchers ideas
for their own family history research.
The State Library is one of the first places we should look for ebooks or digitized publications and the State Library of New South Wales <http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/> is no exception. Ebooks and other electronic resources can be accessed either in the Library or at home if you live in New South Wales and have an e-resources/library card. For those not resident in New South Wales there are some online resources that are useful for family history research.
For example, the Library has a wonderful collection of Personal Diaries and Letters from the First World War. Although not strictly within the theme of digitized publications, it is appropriate to mention them here as 2018 marks the end of World War One anniversary celebrations. The Library has created a separate World War One website <https://ww1.sl.nsw.gov.au/> and there are themes, stories and research options to explore. Many of the Library’s resources have been digitized and are freely available.
The Library’s collecting policy for World War One included the whole of Australia, not just New South Wales and we were lucky enough to find a Tasmanian cousin’s diary had been acquired and digitized. It was sad, but still wonderful, reading about Archie Barwick’s war time experiences and reading first hand his grief at the death of his brother and many of his mates. His sense of humour still shined through 100 years later when he wrote “there are great shell holes everywhere in the roads, fields, the railway line torn up & such like, gentle reminders that shells hurt” (Archie Barwick diary, 3 September – 3 October 1916, State Library of New South Wales).
Another place to look for digitized publications in New South Wales is the City of Sydney Archives <http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/history/archives>. Under Search Our Collections there are some wonderful options including:
·
Historical Atlas of Sydney
·
Assessment books 1845-1948 (rate books)
·
Sands Sydney, Suburban and County
Commercial Directory 1859-1932 (no directories for 1872, 1874, 1878 and 1881)
·
Planning Street Cards
·
House and Building Histories Guide
·
Dictionary of Sydney
·
Sydney’s Councillors and Aldermen since
1842.
There are more options plus searching
the online catalogue, Archives
Investigator and ArchivePix which
is the online photographic collection. The City of Sydney Archives provides
free access to everyone.
In other articles in this series, we have seen the value of using directories to search people, businesses, organisations and places over time. Researchers can do a keyword search over a single year or numerous years. Always browse the table of contents to see what type of information was published in each section.
Project Gutenberg Australia <http://gutenberg.net.au/index.html> is another place to look for digitized history and heritage books for New South Wales, as well as the other States and Territories. The home page has numerous category options to search but a quick glance under Special Interest revealed Pioneers at Peace: The Story of St John’s Cemetery, Gordon by Jill Lyons. This cemetery is on Sydney’s Upper North Shore and the book gives biographical information on many of the people buried there. There is also a complete record of all burials and photographs of the monuments.
Under Australiana there are books on discovery, explorers, history, biography, military and other topics. The link The First World War <http://gutenberg.net.au/first-world-war.html> lists numerous ebooks about the ANZACs and the war in general. Similarly, the link for The First Fleet <http://gutenberg.net.au/first-fleet.html> has information on the voyage, the ships, some of the First Fleeters, statistics and further reading. Not everything is all online free but if you are interested in one of the topics, follow the links and see what is available.
My personal favourite is browsing Project Gutenberg’s Library of Australiana <http://gutenberg.net.au/pgaus.html> which includes many personal narratives. With mining ancestors on the goldfields of Victoria in the 1850s, Mrs Charles (Ellen) Clacy’s A Lady’s Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53 provided insight into what my ancestors experienced. Even if a diary or memoir is not written by a direct ancestor, if it is written about a place and time where your ancestor was, chances are they had similar experiences. The approach to Bendigo was described by Mrs Clacy as follows:
A few miles
further, and the diggings themselves burst upon our view. Never shall I forget
that scene, it well repaid a journey even of sixteen thousand miles. The trees
had been all cut down; it looked like a sandy plain, or one vast unbroken
succession of countless gravel pits--the earth was everywhere turned up--men's
heads in every direction were popping up and down from their holes. (Chapter V)
As you read through Mrs Clacy’s diary, it is like travelling with her and seeing everything through her eyes. The trip from Melbourne to Bendigo would have been the same for everyone and that is why digitized publications like this are so useful for family history research. David Collin’s two volume An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales is another example as it provides a firsthand look at the early years of the settlement at Port Jackson. There are numerous examples and browsing Project Gutenberg Australia may turn up some family history gems.
Government Gazettes
New South Wales Government Gazettes
have been digitized and are available via Trove <https://trove.nla.gov.au>.
Gazettes contain a wealth of information on people who interacted with the
government including all kinds of licenses, bankruptcies, insolvencies,
probates, land sales, government staff appointments and other government
notices. It is free to access and is keyword accessible or you can search for
an individual date and issue.
Subscription sites
Some of the types of resources mentioned
above may also be found on family history subscription websites such as
Ancestry and Findmypast.
Conclusion
In this article we have looked at several websites
that have digital resources for local and general history which can also be
used for family history research. In future issues we will continue looking at
local government archives, state libraries, historical societies and
universities. Each of these types of repositories have a wide range of
resources which can also be used for genealogical research.
Any resource that provides details on the daily lives of our ancestors helps us to know more about them and the community in which they lived. Try and find similar sources for your own research as we go on this journey. Good luck!
July 2018
Finding ancestors in digitised publications South Australia
Family history is closely aligned to local
history and my new series of articles looks at online resources that help to
place Australian ancestors within their local communities. We will look at
specific websites that make freely available books, journals, directories,
government gazettes and other similar resources. We continue our journey with South
Australia (and remember that some state-based resources may also be applicable
to other Australian states and territories).
Introduction
Knowing where our ancestors lived and when
is essential for any genealogy research. Many of the resources for local
history are also relevant for family history. These types of resources may not
be found on genealogical websites. Therefore, we need to think more broadly
about where to look. The examples in this series will give researchers ideas
for their own family history research.
The State Library is one of the first places we should look for ebooks or digitized publications and the State Library of South Australia <http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au> is no exception. Ebooks and other electronic resources can be accessed either in the Library or at home if you live in South Australia and have an e-resources/library card. For those not resident in South Australia there are some online resources that are useful for family history research.
In other articles in this series, we have seen the value of using almanacs and directories to search people, businesses, organisations and places over time. Always browse the table of contents to see what type of information was published in each section.
State Library of South Australia have digitized directories from 1864-1973 and each directory must be searched individually. The easiest way to locate the directories online is to use the online guide to Family History Service <http://guides.slsa.sa.gov.au/FHservice>. From the early 1870s there is a single alphabetical name index for all South Australia and later researchers can also find separate sections for country towns and Adelaide suburbs. One of our families lived at Goolwa at the mouth of the Murray River and through the directories we can trace the development of the town over time.
It is important to remember that the directories did not always give a person’s given name so also search by initial or even just a surname, assuming it is not Smith. Not everyone is included in almanac and directory listings. Usually it is only the head of a household or had a business or were listed as part of a committee of management for a sporting group or other organization. Before compulsory voting was introduced, directories may be the only way to see who was living in a community or regional area.
Virtual Books
SA Memory <http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/>
is another section of the State Library that looks at South Australia’s ‘past
and present, for the future’. There are numerous themes including:
- ·
Exploration
- ·
Foundation
- ·
Shipping
- ·
People
- ·
Places
- ·
Society
- ·
War
- ·
Arts
- ·
Children
- ·
Your Story
- ·
Collections.
Under Foundation there is a section for
Virtual Books where you can read selected books online for free. There are some
interesting items relating to attracting immigrants to South Australia
including Advice to Emigrants (1848), Immigrants
Advice (1873) and More Advice for
Emigrants (1852). These types of guides gave information on what the
various cities of Australia were like at that time and advised about what
clothing to wear. The climate here was so different and there was no real need
to bring a lot of woolen clothing.
Also, of interest are the details of what to expect during the voyage. I am always fascinated by the type and the amount of rations on board for everyone. If the voyage was delayed due to bad weather or unfavourable winds, then there was a serious risk of running out of food and fresh drinking water. In the 1848 publication I found a reference to how South Australia was a more moral place than New South Wales, which is probably a veiled reference to the latter’s convict origins and that transportation only ceased in 1842.
Under Digital Collections <http://digital.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/> there are some wonderful pamphlets and publications relating to World War One. There are also sections for letters and diaries, oral history, and themes such as emigration, gold rushes and sport to highlight treasures in the collection. While not strictly a publication, there are some beautiful digitized maps to highlight aspects of family history research in South Australia.
Government Gazettes
South Australian Government Gazettes 1841-1870
have been digitized and are available via Findmypast < https://www.findmypast.com.au>.
Gazettes contain a wealth of information on people who interacted with the
government including all kinds of licenses, bankruptcies, insolvencies,
probates, land sales, government staff appointments and other government
notices.
Conclusion
In this article we have looked at several websites
that have digital resources for local and general history which can also be
used for family history research. In future issues we will continue looking at
local government archives, state libraries, historical societies and
universities. Each of these types of repositories have a wide range of
resources which can also be used for genealogical research.
Any resource that provides details on the daily lives of our ancestors helps us to know more about them and the community in which they lived. Try and find similar sources for your own research as we go on this journey. Good luck!
August 2018
Finding ancestors in digitised publications NT & ACT
Family history is closely aligned to local
history and my new series of articles looks at online resources that help to
place Australian ancestors within their local communities. We will look at
specific websites that make freely available books, journals, directories,
government gazettes and other similar resources. We continue our journey with the
Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory (Canberra) and remember
that some territory-based resources may also be applicable to the Australian
states.
Introduction
Knowing where our ancestors lived and when
is essential for any genealogy research. Many of the resources for local
history are also relevant for family history. These types of resources may not
be found on genealogical websites. Therefore, we need to think more broadly
about where to look. The examples in this series will give researchers ideas
for their own family history research.
The Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are the two smallest mainland areas of Australia and have the smallest populations.
The Northern Territory Library <https://ntl.nt.gov.au/> has three ways to explore its collections – Territory Stories, Discover LibrariesNT and Explore NT Stories. The digital collection with over 300,000 items is located under Territory Stories. Within that there are numerous communities including:
- ·
HistoryNT
- ·
IndexNT
- ·
LibraryNT
- ·
NewspaperNT
- ·
ParliamentNT
- ·
PictureNT
- ·
PublicationNT
- ·
StoryNT.
For the purposes of this article we are looking further into PublicationNT and by drilling down through the various levels you can see digitized books relevant to the Northern Territory. For example, A. V. Purvis’ unpublished manuscript Heroes Unsung is a two-volume work dedicated to the memory of explorers, pioneers and bushmen of Central Australia between 1845 and 1878. First hand personal recollections of life in this remote part of Australia is a must read for anyone whose ancestors spent anytime in Central Australia. In Volume One there is a list of personal names and the date that they first came to the area from 1845 onwards.
Similar digital resources can be located by browsing the various communities in Territory Stories and there are numerous resources for World War One and World War Two and the bombing of Darwin. There is a digital list of the evacuees from Darwin before and after the bombing on 19 February 1942.
The Australian Capital Territory is the home of our national capital Canberra. The National Library of Australia <https://www.nla.gov.au/> located in Canberra has a wealth of digital resources that relate to not only the ACT but the whole of Australia.
The National Library maintains Trove <https://trove.nla.gov.au/> which is a portal site to numerous resource zones including:
- ·
Archived websites (1996-now)
- ·
Books
- ·
Digitised newspapers
- ·
Government Gazettes (New South Wales
and Commonwealth)
- ·
Journals, articles and data sets
- ·
Lists
- ·
Maps
- ·
Music, sound and videos
- ·
People and organisations
- ·
Pictures, photos, objects.
As this article is focusing on digitized publications the two most relevant zones are Journals and Books. For example, by searching for the Royal Historical Society of Queensland or the Royal Historical Society of Victoria there are numerous references to their historical journal with the statement ‘possibly online’. By following the links, researchers can see these journals online for free as they have been digitized. However, current or recent issues may not be online which is why there is the disclaimer ‘possibly online’.
When searching in the Books zone of Trove, there is a filter that allows for you to search only for ebooks or digitized publications. Within the online filter, there are three further subcategories – access conditions (you may need an eResource card to access), freely available or unknown.
For example, my ancestors were miners in Queensland and Robert Logan Jack’s The Mineral Wealth of Queensland is a useful guide to the smaller mining fields. A search easily locates the publication and by clicking on the ‘view online’ link, researchers can read the publication online or download a PDF copy. Interestingly this copy of Jack’s book has been digitized from the collection held by the University of Chicago Library.
Government Gazettes
Trove
also has a digitized copy of the Commonwealth
of Australia Government Gazette 1901-1973. Like the State Government
Gazettes, this publication is useful for locating the appointment, dismissal
and retirement of Commonwealth employees, regulations, administrative practices
and other Commonwealth functions including bankruptcies.
ACT Heritage Library
The
ACT Heritage Library <https://www.library.act.gov.au> is another Canberra based library with useful online
resources for family history including digitized publications. For example,
Geoffrey Burkhardt’s Canberra and
District Local History: A Select Bibliography is online and can be used to
locate resources on topics such as:
·
Aborigines in the Canberra District
·
Buildings, Architecture and Places
·
Business, Industry and Transport
·
Churches
·
Cultural Organisations, Societies and Groups
·
Duntroon and the Australian War Memorial
·
Early Settlement of the Canberra District
·
Events
·
Family Histories Relating to the Canberra District
·
Government Departments
·
Hospitals and Medical
·
Justice and Police
·
Parks and Gardens
·
Reference and General Works on Canberra
·
Schools, Colleges and Universities
·
Sporting Clubs and Groups
· Suburbs, Properties and Districts including Queanbeyan.
A
comprehensive (but dated 1996) guide to researching anyone who lived in what is
now the Australian Capital Territory.
Conclusion
In this article we have looked at several websites
that have digital resources for local and general history which can also be
used for family history research. In future issues we will continue looking at
local government archives, state libraries, historical societies and
universities. Each of these types of repositories have a wide range of
resources which can also be used for genealogical research.
Any resource that provides details on the daily lives of our ancestors helps us to know more about them and the community in which they lived. Try and find similar sources for your own research as we go on this journey. Good luck!
September 2018
Finding ancestors in digitised publications New Zealand
Family history is closely aligned to local
history and my new series of articles looks at online resources that help to
place Australasian ancestors within their local communities. We will look at
specific websites that make freely available books, journals, directories,
government gazettes and other similar resources. We continue our journey with New
Zealand.
Introduction
Knowing where our ancestors lived and when
is essential for any genealogy research. Many of the resources for local and
social history are also relevant for family history. These types of resources
may not be found on genealogical websites. Therefore, we need to think more
broadly about where to look. The examples in this series will give researchers
ideas for their own family history research.
The National Library of New Zealand has a comprehensive online guide for researching family history in New Zealand < https://natlib.govt.nz/researchers/guides/family-history>. The Library also offers over 3600 hi-res images which are available to download for free. Photographs can illustrate where our ancestors lived, what their occupation was like, where they went to school or to church.
The focus of this article is digitized publications and the Early New Zealand Books Collection <http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/> was developed by staff at the University of Auckland Libraries and Learning Services. The collection provides free online full text and keyword searchable books about New Zealand published between 1807 and 1875. There are about 450 volumes, 4500 chapters and around 250,000 individual files in the collection.
Browsing the list of titles which are
in chronological order is the quickest way to see the breadth of the
collection. For example, Dean’s Pioneers
of Canterbury: Deans Letters, 1840-1854 would be of interest to anyone with
ancestors in early Canterbury or John Bathgate’s From London to Dunedin in 1863 if your ancestors arrived on the The Star of Tasmania. Shipboard diaries
are fascinating and even if your ancestor did not keep a diary, perhaps someone
else on board did.
A good starting place for military history is the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre <http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/> at the Victoria University in Wellington. The Centre has digitized numerous fully searchable titles including:
- ·
New Zealand Wars history (73 titles)
- ·
New Zealand First World War history (88
titles)
- ·
New Zealand World War II history (106
titles).
The collection can be browsed by people, projects, works or subjects. But it is not just military history. For example, by browsing under the subject category Autobiography; Biography; Journals; Correspondence, there are numerous letters relating to the Beaglehole family in the 1920s, Hadfield family letters from the 1840s and various letters from Samuel Marsden to immigrants in the 1820s.
Of special interest are the various volumes of the Cyclopedia of New Zealand <http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-corpus-cyclopedia.html> published between 1897 and 1908 which have a wealth of information on the different provincial districts for both the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The six volumes are as follows:
·
Volume 1 Wellington Provincial District
published 1897
·
Volume 2 Auckland Provincial District
published 1902
·
Volume 3 Canterbury Provincial District
published 1903
·
Volume 4 Otago and Southland Provincial
Districts published 1905
·
Volume 5 Nelson, Marlborough and
Westland Provincial Districts published 1906
·
Volume 6 Taranaki, Hawke’s Bay and
Wellington Provincial Districts published 1908.
Note that not all names are marked up and findable with a keyword search. It may be necessary to look for a place or district and then read about early settlers or events. Always read any tips for searching individual publications to make certain that you do not miss any relevant information. The contents page lists all sections which are very similar to directories and almanacs. Examples include Military, Educational, Ecclesiastical, Social, Legal, Banking, Old Colonists and a listing of country towns and districts included. As the Cyclopedia is over 100 years old, it provides good background context and history for placing our ancestors in their communities.
Digital New Zealand <https://digitalnz.org> is another way of searching New Zealand’s online resources including archives, libraries, government departments and local history museums. There are over 31 million items in the following categories: stories, images, videos, audio, articles, books, archives, data, groups, guides and factsheets, journals, manuscripts, music score, newspapers, reference sources, research papers, websites and other.
You can search for a person, a place, event and add your own information to the story. If searching by date, you can select a decade such as the 1860s and there are over 750,000 items including over 11,000 images. Some of these entries may be references to digitized newspaper articles in Papers Past <https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz> but by using the More option it is possible to see other categories such as books, manuscripts, research papers, archives, articles and journals. Searching for a general term such as gold mining returns almost 23,000 results including 104 images which can be narrowed down by adding a place or date.
Conclusion
In this article we have looked at several websites
that have digital resources for local and general history which can also be
used for family history research. In future issues we will continue looking at Australasian
local government archives, state libraries, historical societies and
universities. Each of these types of repositories have a wide range of
resources which can also be used for genealogical research.
Any resource that provides details on the daily lives of our ancestors helps us to know more about them and the community in which they lived. Try and find similar sources for your own research as we go on this journey. Good luck!
October 2018
Australia A-Z Adoptions
From this month we are starting a new theme
in our exploration of Genealogy Downunder. We will be looking at 26 different
aspects of Australian family history research in our new Australia A-Z. Some letters
of the alphabet lend themselves to many different topics while others it is a
struggle to think of a single topic. Take Z for example, and what we have
planned for there might surprise you. However, this month it is A for Adoption.
Introduction
Many families have encountered adoption in
their research and there are various aspects to be considered depending on the
time and where the adoption took place. We will also be taking a broader
approach and include references to Australian orphanages, children’s homes and
other similar institutions. Official adoption, regulated by government
agencies, will usually have records although there are various privacy and
access regulations. In earlier times, prior to legislation, there were more
informal arrangements often overseen by church groups. There may not be
surviving records in these instances.
Where to start?
A useful starting place is Find &
Connect <https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/>
which is an Australian government website and a resource for ‘Forgotten
Australian, Former Child Migrants and anyone interested in child welfare in
Australia’. Researchers can search for information on:
·
Homes
·
Photographs
·
Records.
If researchers do not know the name of an institution, it is possible to search by state or territory. Within that the search can be narrowed by date or by location or you can simply browse an alphabetical list. For example, Brisbane, Queensland has six institutions listed including:
- ·
Blackheath Home, Oxley ca 1924-1963
- ·
Brisbane Servants’ Home 1865-1873
- ·
Diamantina Orphanage 1865-1910
- ·
Female Refuge and Infants Home
1870-1919
- ·
Maternity Home Brisbane 1892-1897
- ·
St Ann’s Industrial School 1868-1964.
Each entry includes a brief history, photographs, archival series and items, any related organisations, and publications including online resources.
The earliest, Diamantina Orphanage was established in 1865 but the Queensland colonial government only assumed control in 1879 when the Orphanages Act was passed. As it was a government agency there are surviving records with admission and discharge books dating back to 1865. As the records are now over 100 years old these are on open access and available at Queensland State Archives <https://www.qld.gov.au/dsiti/qsa>.
Using Find & Connect can be a quick way of discovering records of interest but there are other ways. State Archives usually have online guides for adoption and other child related records. For example, State Archives and Records New South Wales <https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/> has an A-Z list of research topics and under Adoption there is a referral to the term Care Leavers. Under this category there are two online guides < www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/care-leavers/guides>:
- ·
Care Leavers Guide
- ·
Child Care and Protection Guide.
The Care Leavers Guide provides information for those seeking to learn more about their own, or a relative’s, time in an institution. Various support services are listed. The Child Care and Protection Guide provides an overview of the major record series held at State Archives and Records New South Wales for the period 1801 to 1912.
There is also an online Child Care and Protection Index for the period 1817 to 1942. This includes the following institutions:
- ·
Industrial Schools Records 1867-1942
- ·
Mittagong Farm Home for Boys 1907-1921
- ·
Orphan Schools records 1817-1886
- ·
Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children
1852-1915.
Remember that not all records have survived, not everything is indexed and not everything is online. Read the various guides to learn what is available, for when and where.
The research methodology is similar for other Australian states and territories. Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) <https://www.prov.vic.gov.au> has adoption under the broader Health and Welfare category. PROV has an online guide Adoption and wardship records 1864-1961 <https://www.prov.vic.gov.au/index.php/explore-collection/explore-topic/adoption-and-wardship-1864-1961>.
Under Adoption Records there is a brief history and it is important to know that adoption was not formally regulated in Victoria until 1928. Before then children may have been adopted through churches and sometimes the courts. Records after 1928 are closed for access as they may contain information on individuals who may still be living. There is advice for anyone seeking information on their own adoption or if they are the child of an adoptee.
The wardship records for the period 1864 to 1894 have been indexed and digitized and can be searched by name on the PROV website. Information includes date and place of birth, when committed and why, previous and subsequent history and discharge information. For the period 1910-1918 you need to have an approximate date range and then search the relevant registers in the PROV reading room at North Melbourne.
State Libraries may also have an online guide for adoption and child welfare records. For example, State Library of South Australia <http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au> has under their Family History online guide, a more detailed online guide to Adoption, fostering and child welfare in South Australia < http://guides.slsa.sa.gov.au/child_welfare>.
If you are researching in the other states and territories, simply go to the relevant state archives or state library and look for an online guide to adoption records.
Conclusion
In this article we have looked at various websites
that provide online information about adoption and other child welfare records
in Australia. Researchers need to know when and where and then go to the
relevant state or territory archives or library for further information and
resources. Alternatively, they can use the Find & Connect website to locate
relevant institutions.
What records are available varies greatly across Australia depending on the years being researched. There are few indexed or digitized records. It really is important to read any online guide for background information and advice. Good luck!
November 2018
Australia A-Z Military
This month is a theme issue, so we will be
look at some websites that help with Australian and New Zealand military
history and tracing Australasian soldiers. In addition, we will examine two of
my own family stories about World War One and the impact on my personal family
history.
Introduction
The National Archives of Australia <http://www.naa.gov.au/> have digitized and
made available for free, the World War One army dossiers for all those who
served. Some files may only be a few pages while others can be dozens of pages.
Simply search for the name of the soldier in a basic search or use the Name
Search option and then select World War One. It can be useful to search both
ways as other relevant files may be returned in the results.
Archives New Zealand <http://archives.govt.nz/> has also digitized and placed online for free military dossiers for New Zealand World War One soldiers. A simple search for a soldier’s name in the online catalogue should return any relevant files. A related website is Discovering Anzacs <https://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/> which includes both Australian and New Zealand soldiers.
The Australian War Memorial <https://www.awm.gov.au/> also has digitized records, databases, war diaries, photographs and other resources useful for tracing a World War One military ancestor. If you cannot personally visit, have a look at the online exhibitions and educational resources as well as searching for your ancestors online.
The Finn Brothers
In this theme issue my father’s three great uncles Robert, John and Denis Patrick Finn who enlisted in World War One are featured. Although all three returned to Australia, I believe that the experience changed them, and their lives were totally different from what they might have been had not war intervened.
Their parents John and Sarah Finn
emigrated from County Wicklow, Ireland in 1882 to Queensland, Australia with
their eldest son Robert. Another son James was born on the voyage and a further
eight children born in Queensland.
Their youngest son Denis Patrick Finn was
the first of the Finn brothers to enlist on 19 September 1915 in Brisbane.
Denis was only 17 years old (having lied about his age), single and worked as a
labourer at the time of his enlistment. He joined the 52nd Battalion. Denis was
wounded in action in France and was the only Finn brother to become a prisoner
of war in Germany. In September 1916 he sent his married sister Sarah Jane
Jewsbury a postcard:
Dear Sister
Just a postcard to let you know that I am getting on very well and my wound is
nearly better. I am at a German Camp here, you can send me anything you like at
the address on the other side in full. We get no money here so you can tell
Kitty to send me a pound or so. Good bye, best love to all. Tell Kitty to
write.
Signed Denis
Denis was also mentioned in despatches
(not dated) for bravery under fire and it is probably at this time that he was
wounded. In 1923 Denis married and had two children but the marriage did not
last and by the early 1930s Denis had been convicted of a number or petty
crimes. He was also using the alias Johan Romanoff and perhaps this was someone
he met in the prison camp or at some other point during the war.
Robert Finn, the eldest son was the next
to enlist on 12 February 1916 in Cairns, Queensland and he joined the 9th
Battalion. Prior to that he was working as a miner at Wolfram in Far North
Queensland and was still single at 36 years of age. Like Denis, Robert was also
sent to France and returned to Australia on 18 July 1919. Robert never married
and died in Mount Morgan hospital in 1953 but prior to his death he was living
in Bouldercombe, another mining town in Queensland.
John Finn was the third brother to enlist
on 10 June 1916 in Brisbane. He was also single, working as a labourer and 26
years old. He too saw service in France and returned to Australia on 2 June
1919. Like his older brother Robert, John never married and spent time working
on the sugar cane plantations in north Queensland. John died in Cairns in 1967
and had been living at Trinity Bay.
All three brothers received the 1914-18
Star Medal, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal for their service
overseas.
Why did Robert and John never marry? Were
they just confirmed bachelors or did the war change how they viewed their
world? Why did they live so far away from their family? Would Denis have turned
to petty crime if he had not gone to war as a teenager or not spent time in a
prisoner of war camp?
Not only did the war impact on the
brothers but it also must have impacted on their father and their siblings. My
grandmother would never talk about her mother’s family, so I will probably
never know. However, as more and more records are digitised and made more
accessible, we can continue to slowly piece together their stories.
A search in Trove <https://trove.nla.gov.au/> revealed an amazing article about all three brothers in The Week on 31 January 1919. It included a photograph of each of the brothers. The captions stated ‘Robert Finn on active service 2 years 5 months, John Finn on active service 2 years 3 months and Denis Finn wounded and taken prisoner at Mouquet Farm in France in August 1916; now in England. The foregoing are three sons of Mr John Finn of Brisbane’.
Unfortunately it was a poor-quality newspaper copy, but as we do not have any photos of John and Robert Finn we were totally thrilled with the discovery. It was also a different photo of Denis Finn, as he appeared older than the photo that appeared in The Queenslander when he first enlisted.
Queensland and German New Guinea
At the outbreak of World
War One, my grandfather Henry Price as part of the Kennedy Regiment in North
Queensland, was mobilised for war service. In the event of war, it
had been previously arranged that the Kennedy Regiment, one of the
citizen-force regiments enrolled under the compulsory training scheme, would
garrison Thursday Island. On 8 August 1914 Henry and his regiment (over 1000
men) embarked on the troopship Kanowna for Thursday
Island.
After reaching Thursday Island safely, a few days later the volunteers were called ‘for service outside Australia’. The Defence Act provided that no citizen forces could be sent outside the Commonwealth without their consent, hence the ‘call for service’. About 500 of the men volunteered including Henry Price and his brother Les Price and they were then sent on to Port Moresby on 16 August 1914 on board the Kanowna where they were to take part in the capture of German New Guinea.
Henry and Les Price joined the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force on 6 September 1914 and the Fleet was ordered into battle the following day. The cruisers Sydney and Encounter, the auxiliary cruiser Berrima, destroyers Warrego and Yarra, submarines AE1 and AE2, the supply ship Aorangi, the Parramatta, the Koolonga, the oil tanker Murex and the Kanowna all steamed out of Port Moresby.
However, just outside the harbour the Kanowna slewed sideways and halted. The firemen had stopped stoking the engines and insisted that they would not start again until the ship was going home to Queensland. Most of its crew had been shanghaied into service and were not volunteers. The soldiers declared they would stoke the engines but were overruled and the Kanowna was ordered back to Townsville and arrived there on 18 September 1914. The Kennedy troops, including Henry and Les Price, were discharged on the same day.
The majority of the Kennedy Regiment then rushed to volunteer for the 1st AIF and subsequently became the backbone of the 15th Battalion at Gallipoli which went in with 1000 men. Sadly, within just a few short weeks the Battalion came out with only 350 men.
Henry Price did not re-enlist following the abortive campaign on the Kanowna. For his brief part in the war effort, Henry received the British War Medal. The family story that he participated in the capture of German New Guinea was not quite accurate, but all family stories should be investigated as there is usually a kernel of truth behind the story.
Had Henry re-enlisted, he would have gone to Gallipoli and perhaps this story may not have been written as only three of his ten children had been born at the outbreak of World War One. My mother was his last child born in 1934, 20 years later.
Conclusion
In this article we have looked at various websites that provide online information about military records in Australia and New Zealand. Libraries also have resources so look for any online guides for background information and advice on researching military ancestors. Good luck!
December 2018
Australia A-Z Bankruptcy and Insolvency
We continue our exploration of 26 different
aspects of Australian family history research in our new Australia A-Z. This
month it is B for Bankruptcy, Insolvency & Liquidation. While different,
these three resource areas are quite often linked together in online guides and
resources across Australia. They are interesting areas to research as they can
include individuals, partnerships, companies and firms.
Introduction
Definitions of bankruptcies, insolvencies
& liquidations can vary across the Australian colonies/states and over time
which makes the topic more complex. To simplify, this article uses the terms
generically and researchers should look closely at the terminology and its
meaning in whatever state they are researching. Examples will be given in the
article to help illustrate the differences.
Many of us may think that our families were too poor to have ever been declared insolvent, bankrupt or to have had their assets liquidated. That could not be more wrong. I have found many examples within my own families where due to the dire economic times of the 1890s depression for example, they have had no option but to declare themselves without assets to pay outstanding debts.
After natural disasters, many people often found themselves without a home or employment and with no money to find new accommodation or pay off debts. The 1893 Brisbane flood impacted on many, many families and in The Brisbane Courier on 18 April 1894 there is a report on John Wotley’s insolvency. A school teacher, he lived at South Brisbane an area totally underwater during the height of the flood. The causes of his insolvency are listed as:
- ·
Inability to let or lease
houses and property owing to same having been covered by the late floods
- ·
Losses by not getting debts
owing by tenants through their leaving
- ·
Depression in value of property
- ·
Inability to realise on landed
property.
His creditors decided to liquidate his
estate and not accept the insolvency. This meant that his assets were sold off
to pay debtors and they allowed him to keep his household furniture and
effects.
Like other Australian record sources, there is no central registry. You must know the colony/state/territory to search in and surviving records are usually in the relevant state or territory archives. There are few online indexes but most of the archives have online guides to what records are held and for what time periods. From 1928 responsibility for bankruptcy matters was transferred to the federal government.
Where to start?
Queensland State Archives <https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/arts/heritage/archives> has an online family history guide. Under the
Courts option, researchers can find an online brief guide to insolvency and
liquidation records. These records are filed in the Supreme Court and may also
be managed by the Public Curator if the Curator was appointed as trustee. The
guide can be downloaded as a PDF and it includes definitions. It is important
to read these and understand the process individuals and businesses went
through.
The guide outlines the major insolvency and liquidation record series held for each of the three Supreme Courts in Queensland located in Brisbane, Rockhampton and Townsville. Note that a northern insolvency may be recorded in a southern court, so it is best to check all courts. At the end there is also a listing of Public Curator files for each of the three districts.
There are no online indexes but digitized newspapers can provide dates and places as Supreme Court and Public Curator notices were published to seek out any creditors or debtors to an estate. For example, The Northern Miner on 19 May 1899 recorded the petition for adjudication in insolvency in forma pauperis of one of my family members in the Northern Supreme Court. John Trevaskis was a cyanider (someone who worked in gold mining) and he lived in Charters Towers with his wife and family. His request was granted, and the first meeting scheduled for 6 June and the Public Curator was appointed as trustee. This tells me that there are two files to look for – a Northern Supreme Court file and a Public Curator Northern District file which is more likely to have greater detail than the basic documents filed within the Supreme Court. The date and place make it easy to then request the files for viewing at Queensland State Archives.
If you are unable to personally visit a
state archive, you will need to have someone else look at the records for you.
Most archives have a list of record agents or professional researchers or the
local genealogy or family history society may offer a research service.
The process is similar for other state/territory archives. State Archives and Records New South Wales <https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/> has a Research A-Z online guide. There is an entry for Bankruptcy and Insolvency under B, a see reference under I but no separate reference to liquidations. Again, there are definitions and an administrative history of the major records. There is both an Insolvency Index 1842-1887 and a Bankruptcy Index 1888-1928 and researchers need to read more about each category.
I knew that my great great grandfather John Finn had struggled after breaking his leg and that they had sold their Queensland farm at Nambour and moved to northern New South Wales. A search of the bankruptcy index revealed that John Finn, a farmer filed for bankruptcy on 26 November 1897 in Murwillumbah. With the file number, I was able to arrange for a copy through a search agent. Much cheaper than having to travel to Sydney.
A search in Trove located references to his bankruptcy in the New South Wales Government Gazette on 3 and 10 December 1897. The notice included that he was a farmer in Dunbible, in the Murwillumbah area and this confirmed a family story that they lived at Dunbible. In this instance, there were no newspaper references, only the government gazette notices. Researchers need to look in all possible places for clues or run the risk of missing an important aspect of their family history.
The research methodology is slightly different for Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) <https://www.prov.vic.gov.au> as there is no online guide for bankruptcy and insolvency. In Victoria you need to know where your family was living and what the local court was. With this information, search the PROV online catalogue for the name of the court, for example, Inglewood and use the term insolvency. This will bring up a list or results. For example, VPRS 483 Insolvency Court Register; Register of Insolvencies; Index to Insolvencies; Insolvency Schedules 1879-1916 can be searched within the series. This only lists the individual registers or items within the series, not the names of individuals. However, it does allow you to identify what records might be relevant and you can then get a research agent to access them on your behalf.
Victorian digitized newspapers in Trove would also assist in identifying if an ancestor went insolvent or bankrupt and would give a date and place to narrow the search in the PROV online catalogue. For example, The Horsham Times on 12 November 1897 reported that Samuel Henry Moreton, a farmer from Brim was declared insolvent due to:
- ·
Depreciation of the insolvent’s
property in Melbourne
- ·
Low price of farming produce and stock
- ·
Pressure of creditors.
Conclusion
In this article we have looked at several
state archives, newspapers and government gazettes to identify individuals and
businesses that were forced into bankruptcy and insolvency. Not all records
have survived but if there is a file, it may give quite detailed information on
their assets and belongings. It may also explain why they fell into
difficulties. These records provide
another window to investigate the lives of our ancestors. Researchers need to
know when and where and then go to the relevant state or territory archives or library
for further information and resources.
What records are available varies greatly across Australia depending on the years being researched. There are few indexed or digitized records. It really is important to read any online guide for background information and advice. Good luck!
January 2019
Australia A-Z Convicts
We continue our exploration of 26 different
aspects of Australian family history research in our Australia A-Z. This month
it is C for Convicts. The British settled Australia as a penal settlement,
first in New South Wales, then Norfolk Island, Van Diemen’s Land (later known
as Tasmania) and finally in Western Australia. South Australia was the only
state not to have convicts sent directly to it.
Introduction
Convicts is a single word but it is a more
complex subject because where you search is dependent on time and place. If you
do not know much about this aspect of Australia’s history then it is essential
to read a general overview of the topic. Wikipedia’s article Convicts in
Australia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convicts_in_Australia> is a
useful starting place.
Some convict records are available online
and original convict records are usually held in the state archives or
microfilm copies may also be available at state libraries. The National Library of Australia has an online guide Convicts
<https://www.nla.gov.au/research-guides/convicts> which gives
information on trial records, prison hulks, voyage out, convict assignment,
tickets of leave, certificates of freedom and pardons. From that list you can
see that anyone with a convict in the family is lucky as there are lots of
records about those who came before the courts.
For convicts arriving in the early years, State Archives & Records New South Wales has an online Convicts Guide <https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/convicts/guides>. It advises that between 1788 and 1842 when transportation ceased about 80,000 convicts were sent to New South Wales and about 85% were males with only 15% females. Some convict records are available online through the Archives but there are other series only available in Ancestry <https://www.ancestry.com.au/>.
There were two convict settlements on Norfolk Island, both administered from New South Wales. The Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area <http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/national/kavha> on Norfolk Island is one of 11 places that make up the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage serial listing which was inscribed on 31 July 2010.
The Moreton Bay penal settlement (later Queensland) was within the colony of New South Wales and records can be found in State Archives and Records New South Wales. The State Library of Queensland has three online guides to convict records (for the whole of Australia) and an online guide that features numerous Convict Queenslanders <http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/convict-queenslanders>.
Van Diemen’s Land (later Tasmania) was the next colony to take convicts directly and the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office has digitized the more popular record series and made them available online. The online guide Convict Life <https://libraries.tas.gov.au/family-history/Pages/Convict-life.aspx> includes the Tasmanian Names Index which is an easy way to locate a range of records on early Tasmanians including convicts.
Victoria did not want convicts and when eight ships were sent there, all convicts on board were pardoned on arrival provided they served out the remainder of their sentence within the colony. These convicts were known as Exiles. Public Record Office Victoria has an online guide in the Justice, Crime and Law section titled Notification of Exiles 1844-1849 <https://www.prov.vic.gov.au/explore-collection/explore-topic/notification-exiles-1844-1849> which provides further information.
Western Australia accepted convicts between 1850 and 1868 and the Fremantle Prison Museum has a searchable online convict database <https://fremantleprison.com.au/history-heritage/history/convict-database/>. Information includes the convict’s name, number, ship and date of arrival, year of birth, crime, sentence, place of sentence and other information. Some convicts have more information recorded than others. The website includes a history of Fremantle Prison and a section on what the convict era was like.
State Records Office of Western Australia holds original convict records and there is an online guide Convict Records <http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/archive-collection/collection/convict-records> which includes transportation records, convict registers, correspondence, medical registers and journals, occurrence books, staff records, tickets of leave, expirees and reconvictions. Explore the guide to see what is available but as very little has been digitized, if you cannot visit personally, you may need to engage a record agent to look at the records on your behalf.
A search in Trove <https://trove.nla.gov.au/> may also be useful in locating newspaper references to convicts, especially after their sentence has expired or they received a pardon or ticket of leave. The New South Wales Government Gazette is also available in Trove and it contains references to convicts.
One of our convicts, Richard Walker died in 1832 and there was an inquest into his death which was reported in The Sydney Monitor on 30 June 1832. Richard had been visiting his daughter in the morning and gone out to the back yard and not returned. His daughter went out and found him suffering a fit and sent her husband for the doctor, who was unable to attend. Richard lingered until the afternoon when he died. The jury returned a verdict ‘that the deceased had died by the visitation of God’. Thanks to the inquest and the newspaper account, we learnt what Richard Walker’s final hours were like, and that he died with his family around him.
For those with an ancestor who arrived on the First Fleet in January 1788, there is a Fellowship of First Fleeters association <http://www.fellowshipfirstfleeters.org.au/>. Direct descent must be proved before joining and over 8000 descendants have established their direct lineage and joined the Fellowship. Membership is not just convict descendants but any descendants of marines, seaman or government officials who were also part of the First Fleet.
A website maintained by the Perth DPS Project is Convicts to Australia: A Guide to Researching Your Convict Ancestors < http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/convicts/> includes a wide range of resources such as:
- ·
Lists of convict ships
- ·
Western Australia convicts
- ·
Western Australia pensioner guards
(sent out to guard the convicts)
- ·
New South Wales convict women
- ·
Convict tales.
With these websites, explore all the pages and content and follow up any links as these lead to other useful websites for anyone with a convict ancestor.
Conclusion
In this article we have briefly looked at convict
records around Australia and there are many kinds of records available to trace
convicts. While there are some indexes and digitized records online, there are
still other records only available at the relevant archives for personal
research.
Family historians need to know when and where their convict ancestor was sent and then go to the relevant state or territory archives or library for further information and resources on their convict forebear. It really is important to read any online guide for background information and advice. Good luck!
February 2019
Australia A-Z Divorce records
We continue our exploration of 26 different
aspects of Australian family history research in our Australia A-Z. This month
it is D for Divorce. Not everyone has a divorce in their family history as it
was expensive and there had to be fault on one side of the relationship. In the
19th and 20th centuries it became more frequent and
divorce records can usually be found in the state archives.
Introduction
Divorce records may not be applicable to everyone’s family history, but if there is a divorce in the family then the records will most likely contain a copy of the marriage certificate, correspondence, affidavits, decree nisi and photographs. The latter may be of the original wedding, but they may also be evidence of what led to the divorce.
For example, if the divorce was on the
grounds of adultery then there may photographs of the at fault partner and
whoever they were having an affair with. This can be confronting especially if
it is your parents or grandparents and it was not something that you had been
told about previously.
Family skeletons can pop out of the
cupboard at any time when researching family history and divorce records are
one of those areas where there could be a few surprises. Proceed at your own
risk.
Where to Look?
Originally divorce was handled by the State Supreme Courts and those records are usually held by the state archives. After 1976 the Family Court of Australia has responsibility and the date of commencement varied from State to State.
The state archives may have an online guide
or index to divorce records so as a first step have a look at the relevant
state archives website. For example, Queensland State Archives <https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/arts/heritage/archives/>
under the Courts section has an online index to divorces 1861-1894. The index
gives the names of respondents and co-respondents. Later records are also
available, but researchers need to visit the archives and search original
indexes.
Reading an online guide is useful as it will mention terminology which can change over time and between the states. For example, other terms for divorce files are matrimonial petitions, causes (writs) or Common Law writs. Researchers might not think to search using these alternative terms for divorce.
At the time of writing this article, the Queensland State Archives link to the divorce index was missing but Queensland has open data. This means that all the Archives indexes are free and downloadable from the Queensland Government Data website <https://data.qld.gov.au/dataset/divorces-1861-to-1894/>. It may be useful to download an index into a spreadsheet and then rearrange by date or place for example.
Similarly, State Archives and Records New South Wales has an online index and guide <https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/divorce-records-indexto divorces> for divorce records between 1873 to 1923. It is important to take the time to read the online guide. There are some missing entries for certain years and these are currently being indexed and added. Gaps in the records can be critical as it may just be the year that you want. Remember to check what is covered by an index.
At Public Record Office Victoria there is no accumulated index, but researchers can search original indexes online using the first initial of a surname from 1861 to 1938 <https://prov.vic.gov.au/index.php/explore-collection/explore-topic/divorce-files-and-cause-books>. Once you have a file number then you can order the file for viewing in the public search room. The divorce files are not digitized. If you cannot visit personally, then you will need to arrange for someone to order the copy for you.
The Tasmanian Names Index <https://www.libraries.tas.gov.au/how-to/Pages/Names-Index-content.aspx> includes divorce petitions to the Tasmanian Supreme Court 1861 to 1920. The good news is that these records have been digitized and are freely available to search and download.
Follow the same methodology for the other Australian states and territories.
Newspapers
Sometimes the first hint that there has been a divorce in the family is through an accidental discovery in digitised newspapers in Trove < https://trove.nla.gov.au/>. Just using search terms such as a surname and divorce will give you numerous results which can be filtered by decade or year. Quite often divorces will be in Supreme Court listings especially if it is a straight forward divorce.
More sensational divorces may have newspaper
articles written about them and perhaps even abstracts from the court
proceedings. As an experiment, try using the search term ‘sensational divorce’
in Trove. At the time of writing there were over 66,000 results in digitized
newspapers!
My great great uncle Denis Patrick Finn was divorced twice, and the only newspaper evidence of his first divorce was a Supreme Court advertisement in the Sydney Truth on 5 May 1940. This basically said that Denis was petitioning his wife Verona Ada for a divorce on the grounds that she had deserted him for a period of three years.
With the date I was then able to go to State Archives and Records New South Wales website, search for the file and then order a copy of the records. There were affidavits and depositions but no photographs which was disappointing. The only photograph I had of Denis was his World War One army portrait (image below).
In one of Denis’ petitions (image above) we learnt that he was an incapacitated returned soldier whose pension was being paid to his wife to provide an education for their daughter Myrtle. Little known facts about a family may be included in petitions and affidavits.
The file for his second divorce did not have photographs either but there was a marriage certificate which gave me details of his wife and her parents. I ended up finding a photograph of Denis in the New South Wales prison records but that’s a story for another time.
Conclusion
In this article we have briefly looked at divorce
records around Australia and how to search for them in digitized newspapers.
While there are some indexes online, there are few digitized records. Some
state archives offer a copy service while with others you need to engage a
search/copy agent. It is important to read any online guides for divorce
records for background information and advice.
Remember if you do not want to find any
family skeletons, then don’t look. Good luck!
May 2019
Australia A-Z Education records
We continue our exploration of 26 different
aspects of Australian family history research in our Australia A-Z. This month
it is E for Education Records. It might be hard to imagine our ancestors as
children going to school. However, if they did there are some wonderful school
records that will tell you more about them. Teachers can also be discovered in
various education records which provide biographical information about them or
the schools in which they taught.
Introduction
Compulsory primary school education for
children was introduced by the Australian colonies at varying times in the late
19th century. Terminology also varies. In this article, we used
generic names for various useful series of school records.
The different colonial/state governments
provided free state school education and these records are usually held by the
relevant state archives. As school records are popular, there may be an online
guide or indexes on the state archive website.
If it was a small private school those
records have probably not survived. Although you may pick up references to the
school in digitized newspapers on Trove <https://trove.nla.gov.au/>. If
it was a larger church or private school, and it is still in existence, the
school may have its own archives.
School Admission registers
These registers are also referred to as
pupil registers. The records are lists of pupils attending a school and are arranged
in chronological order of admission date. Information in the register usually includes:
- ·
Date of first admission
- ·
Name of pupil
- ·
Date of birth
- ·
Name of parent and address
(usually the father and may give his occupation)
- ·
Religion
- ·
Dates of admission to
subsequent grades
- ·
Date of leaving school.
The registers are a useful way to locate
other members of a family and for establishing when a family moved into an
area. This is particularly useful for mining families who moved frequently from
gold field to gold field.
When my Johnston family moved to the Stanthorpe
tin mining district in the 1870s, I was able to find the children enrolled in
the local Stanthorpe state school. This helped to establish an approximate date
for when the family decided to go tin mining. Their move back to Brisbane was
also noted in the school admission register.
Similarly, when my Potter and Bullen
families left Gympie for the Gladstone gold fields, I was able to trace where
they stopped by looking for their children’s school records.
In some states there is no overall index to pupil records, and you need the name of the school to start searching the records. South Australian school pupils can be discovered in FamilySearch <https://www.familysearch.org/en/> but remember to check coverage for time periods and places. Many indexing projects are ongoing.
Queensland
has an overall state index. The Queensland Family
History Society <https://www.qfhs.org.au/> has indexed school
admission registers and school histories to compile the Queensland Schools Pupils Index in multiple parts. This is
available for sale on CD or parts of it are also on Findmypast <https://www.findmypast.com.au/> or
MyHeritage <https://www.myheritage.com>.
A simple search located my father’s
attendance at Greenslopes State School in 1939. By 1940 he was at Buranda State
School and this probably indicated when his family moved to their new home at
Buranda. My grandmother lived in that home until she passed in 1994.
My mother also went to Greenslopes State School and that is where my parents first met. Mum has two photographs of her school days and one was in 1939. She circled herself in blue ink so that we would recognize her. Dad was not at school that day, so there was no school photograph for him. As you can see, the photograph is in poor condition. As it was one of the few photographs of Mum as a child, to us it is priceless.
To my surprise, my own name popped up in
the search. I discovered that my primary school had published Bardon Primary School 50 years: Love
Laughter & Learning 1946-1998. I tried to get a copy, but it is out of
print. Seven years of my life were spent
at that school.
Mum kept all my school report cards and
photographs so there are lots of memory prompts. Going through these had school
time memories flooding back. I should capture these stories before it is too
late. In the photograph below, after a few moments of thought, I started to
remember some of my classmates’ names. Photographs do prompt memories!
Teacher Records
There are numerous record series that give
biographical information on teachers. There may be records of their teaching
qualifications and what salary they were paid. For example, Queensland State
Archives have an online index for the period 1860 to 1905. See the online guide
for schools <https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/arts/heritage/archives/collection/schools>
for more information (also includes information on locating school admission
registers, some have been digitized).
I have one teacher in my family. Florence Dayman
was married to my mother’s uncle Robert White. Women had to give up their job
as a teacher once they married. When Robert died just three years after they
married, his widow Florence went back to teaching to support herself and their
two young daughters. In this instance, the teacher records provide a very
detailed picture of Florence’s life from a pupil teacher through to an
experienced teacher.
Correspondence
Files
Most
schools have their own correspondence files. These records can have all kinds
of information on the building, administrative notes from the teacher, or even references
to the local community. Even if your family did not have school aged children,
they may have signed a petition for a new school in the area. If they did have
children, then they might be listed with their ages as a reason why the school
should be established.
In the Gympie One Mile State School file, I
discovered a hand drawn sketch from our ancestor John Barrow Atkinson. He was
part of a committee to plan how the school grounds could be enlarged for the
growing population.
Maps
Parish maps usually show where the schools
were located and can be used to identify what schools were in an area. Old
parish maps are also located at the state archives. Look for an online guide to
using them. In some states there may be digitized copies.
Try to discover which school was the
closest to where your ancestors were living. Remember to also think about where
the roads were or the railway line. Were there any natural formations which
might have stopped them attending the closest school? Many children walked to
school or rode horses, but they were not crossing rivers, going over mountains
or travelling long distances.
Conclusion
Education records can provide wonderful
information on our families. The records also place families in the local
community. We can see who lived nearby and attended that school. In the first
instance, look for any online guides or indexes for education or school records
in the state archives that you are researching.
Remember not all records are indexed and
very few are digitized and online. My family history is much more interesting
for including education records. If you have not looked, then maybe it’s time
to do so. Good luck!
June 2019
Australia A-Z Family history societies
We continue our exploration of 26 different
aspects of Australian family history research in Australia A-Z. This month it
is F for Family History Societies. Since the late 1970s there has been a
proliferation of genealogy and family history societies established across
Australia. Their members have transcribed cemeteries, digitized resources and
indexed everything from funeral directors’ records to school admission records.
In many instances these resources are not online or may only be available
through members only portals.
Introduction
The oldest family history society in Australia is the Society of Australian Genealogists <https://www.sag.org.au> which was established in Sydney in 1932. Most of the other genealogy and family history societies were established during the late 1970s and early 1980s, a boom time for genealogy in Australia.
Locating a Family History Society
There is no single list of all the societies in Australia. There are a few national and state umbrella groups across Australia but not all societies are members. A simple Google search for the place you are researching together with terms such as genealogy or family history should locate a society if there is one. Not all towns or cities have a society. As Australia is quite large, some societies may represent numerous smaller places. Conversely, there are some cities with more than one society.
We will now look at some umbrella groups.
Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations (AFFHO)
The national group is the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations <http://affho.org> which covers both Australia and New Zealand. AFFHO overseas a congress every three years and National Family History Month <http://familyhistorymonth.org.au> every August in both Australia and New Zealand.
There is a membership list on the website in the About section. There are categories for national and each of the Australian states and territories. New Zealand does not have self-governing states. Under Australia, for example, you can find societies such as the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society or the German-Australian Genealogy and History Alliance.
For New Zealand, members include the National Library of New Zealand and Auckland City Libraries (a major family history library in the North Island). However, the New Zealand Society of Genealogists <https://www.genealogy.org.nz>, the largest society in New Zealand, is not a member of AFFHO (list accessed April 2019).
Remember not all societies are affiliated
and a Google search may be useful.
History Queensland
History Queensland <http://www.historyqueensland.org.au> includes both genealogy and family history societies as well as some local historical societies. They hold a two-day conference and public family history fair every two years. There is a members list on the website with links to the society’s website if they have one.
Be aware that in the capital city, Brisbane, there are two main societies – the Genealogical Society of Queensland and the Queensland Family History Society. Plus, there are groups for individual suburbs and specialist groups. For example, Friends of God’s Acre represent the cemetery located at Archerfield and the Oxley-Chelmer History Group is mainly interested in the history of those two suburbs.
NSW/ACT Association of Family History Societies
As the name implies, the NSW/ACT Association of Family History Societies <https://nswactfhs.org> membership is based from societies in Canberra (Australian Capital Territory) and across New South Wales. Their major activity is an annual conference held in a different place each year.
Under the Members option on the website, there is a list of members with direct links to their websites, email address and a Facebook page if the society has one. Most societies have a website but there are still a few that do not. In some areas, the genealogy/family history society may also be aligned with the local historical society or museum.
Victorian Association of Family History Organisations (VAFHO)
VAFHO < https://www.vafho.org.au> represents groups in Victoria including the two Melbourne based societies, the Genealogical Society of Victoria and Family History Connections, formerly the Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies. There are also specialist groups such as the Descendants of Convicts Group Victoria.
The group hosts an expo or conference from time to time and further details are on the website. These events are usually held every two or three years.
Western Australian Genealogical Society (WAGS)
Some state societies may also have affiliated groups, and this applies to the Western Australian Genealogical Society <https://membership.wags.org.au>. A list of affiliated societies is on the website and these include Albany, Australind, Busselton, Collie, Esperance, Geraldton, Mandurah and Rockingham.
Under the Institutional option on the WAGS website, there is a list of local history societies and other specialist interest groups and libraries.
Explore the Websites
When you visit a genealogy or family history website, take time to look at their resources and the links pages. The latter will usually include the state archives and libraries, birth, death and marriage registries and other sites for family history research. For example, WAGS Genealogy Links <http://membership.wags.org.au/membership-mainmenu-44/genealogy-links> has over 1560 links and is updated monthly. There are fields for category, country, state/county and title. It is not just for Australian research.
Some societies also place their newsletter online and other useful resources. For example, the Queensland Family History Society <https://www.qfhs.org.au> compiles a monthly enewsletter Snippets which is a round up of all the latest news in Australia and overseas. Back issues are also available on their website.
In some instances, you may be able to subscribe to a society’s enews for free without being a member. However, if you have a lot of research interests in an area it may be useful to join and access any members only resources online. Other benefits include placing an article or request for help in the society’s journal and most societies do limited research for those unable to visit the library personally.
Conclusion
This is a very brief look at some of the genealogy and family history society umbrella groups in Australia and New Zealand. Not all societies are members of these groups and a Google search may locate a society in the place you are researching.
Many of the resources in these societies are unique to them and not found elsewhere. Some societies have also collaborated with Ancestry, Findmypast and MyHeritage to place their indexes online.
Explore the genealogy and family history societies in the areas you are researching. You just might be surprised. Good luck!
July 2019
Australia A-Z Government gazettes
We continue our exploration of 26 different
aspects of Australian family history research in Australia A-Z. This month it
is G for Government Gazettes. These publications were published by colonial and
state governments and document various aspects of daily life. Look for
ancestors employed by the government, land selections, publican licenses, wills
and probates, and lots of other interactions between ordinary people and the
government.
Introduction
Government gazettes are similar to
newspapers and were published by colonial, state, territory and federal
governments. The gazettes contain a wealth of information on all aspects of
government and are a useful resource for finding information on individuals and
their interaction with governments.
Governments also published police gazettes
and education gazettes. As the names suggest, these gazettes specifically focus
on a particular aspect of government. Police gazettes are great for discovering
police staff, criminals, victims, and missing persons while education gazettes
are useful for tracing teachers and information on schools.
In recent times historic government, police
and education gazettes have been digitised and are available from various sources.
There are also online guides that provide tips for searching. For example, Queensland State Archives has a guide Queensland Government Gazettes - Brief Guide 33 <https://publications.qld.gov.au/dataset/brief-guides-at-qsa/resource/447e871e-4a0a-4005-a1fb-405bac794a3c> which can be downloaded free as a PDF. The guide contains some very useful tips on how to search for topics such as schools and teachers, wills and intestacies, transmissions by death notices, insolvencies, rewards, dead letters and ship letters, professions and trades, public servants, licenses, land and pastoral leases.
As all the colonies/states and territories have similar government gazettes, the Queensland State Archives guide is a good starting point for background information and search tips.
Another useful resource for government gazettes is the Resources page of Unlock the Past <http://www.unlockthepast.com.au/articles-and-other-free-content>. The following articles are of most interest:
·
Government and Police Gazettes: unlocking a major untapped resource by Alan Phillips
·
New South Wales Government Gazettes by
Archive CD Books
·
Queensland Government Gazettes by Mary
Geiger and Rosemary Kopittke
·
South Australian Government Gazettes with reference to Port Adelaide by Andrew Peake
·
Victorian Government Gazettes by Clive
Luckman.
Locating Australian Government Gazettes Online
Like all other Australian research there is
not a single place to look. The National Library of Australia has an online
research guide Government Gazettes <https://www.nla.gov.au/research-guides/government-gazettes>
which includes explanatory text and examples. There are also links to the
various state gazettes, both contemporary and historic.
We will now briefly look at each area.
Commonwealth
Since 1901 when the Commonwealth of
Australia was established, there has been an Australian Commonwealth Gazette.
This is freely searchable via Trove <https://trove.nla.gov.au> in the Government
Gazette zone for the period 1901 to 1973. While it is more likely that our
ancestors are mentioned in colonial/state gazettes, there are some areas where
it is also relevant to search the Commonwealth gazette.
For example, the Commonwealth took over the function of bankruptcy from the states in 1928. This means that after that date, you need to look in the Commonwealth gazette for any insolvency and liquidation notices.
New South Wales
Full text government gazettes for New South
Wales are searchable online from 1832 to 1900 via Trove. Also available are New
South Wales Police Gazettes from 1862 to 1930. These are a wonderful resource
and easily searchable using Trove’s various filters including date by decade,
year, or month.
Searching in Trove can lead to lots of wonderful and unexpected family discoveries. For example, my great great grandfather John Finn filed for bankruptcy while he was farming in Dunbible, northern New South Wales. After years of research I had not discovered this until my Trove search revealed the reference in the 1897 government gazette.
Northern Territory
Until 1910 the Northern Territory was part
of South Australia - see below.
Queensland
Text Queensland: Queensland’s Past Online
< https://textqueensland.com.au>,
a collaboration between the University of Queensland and the Centre for the
Government of Queensland at the University of Queensland, has the Queensland
Government Gazette from 1859 to 1900 online with free access.
South Australia
Historic South Australian Government
Gazettes from 1839 can be accessed online by AustLII <http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/other/sa_gazette>.
There is provision for a database search or a name search. Individual years can
be accessed and if you have an exact date, you can go straight to that edition.
There is also some access via subscription sites, and this is summarized at the end of this article.
Tasmania
There is no free online access to historic
Tasmanian Government Gazettes. The Hobart
Town Gazette can be accessed via Trove for the period 1816 to 1827.
Gould Genealogy & History <https://www.gould.com.au> have digitised a range of South Australian and Tasmanian government gazettes, public service lists, and police gazettes. These publications are listed for sale in their online catalogue and may be available for research in libraries and genealogy and family history society libraries.
Victoria
The State Library of Victoria < http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au>
has digitised the Victorian Government Gazette for the period 1836 to 1997. It
was known as the New South Wales Government Gazette between 1836 and 1850 and
then the Port Phillip Gazette for the period 1850 to 1851 and from 1851 it was
known as the Victorian Government Gazette.
With Australian genealogy, it is important to remember when each of the colonies was established. From the various titles, it is easy to see that Victoria became a colony in 1851 and before that it was the Port Phillip district of New South Wales.
The Victorian Gazette online is searchable only through the printed indexes within the gazettes. This means that if a person's name was not listed in the index it will not be found in a search. This is quite different from the searching capabilities of other digitised versions where you can search on every word.
If you do the same search in both, the State Library of Victoria version will return less hits or no hits than the version digitised by Gould Genealogy & History and available for sale on CD/USB or at various genealogy and family history libraries.
Western Australia
The State Law Publisher <https://www.slp.wa.gov.au/gazette/gazette.nsf/newsearch>
has placed online Western Australian Government Gazettes from 1832 onwards. The
easiest way to access the earlier years is via the search page where you can
specify an exact year or a range of years.
In response to a surname search, the search engine returns individual issues of the Gazette as a PDF. Researchers then need to download and locate the entry. There is no preview pane to see if it is what you want. It is cumbersome and time consuming but if you have an exact year, it can be quite useful.
Police Gazettes from 1876 onwards for Western Australia have been digitized and placed freely online by the State Library of Western Australia <https://slwa.wa.gov.au/explore-discover/wa-heritage/police-gazettes>.
Gould Genealogy & History have digitised a wide range of Western Australian blue books and public service lists.
Subscription Sites
Both Ancestry <https://www.ancestry.com.au> and Findmypast <https://www.findmypast.com.au> have government gazettes and police gazettes as part of their resources for Australia. The table below indicates records online at the time of writing, but resources are added to on a continuing basis.
|
Ancestry |
Findmypast |
|
New
South Wales Government Gazettes 1853 to 1899 |
New
South Wales Government Gazettes 1832 to 1880 |
|
New
South Wales Police Gazettes 1854 to 1930 |
New
South Wales Police Gazettes no date given in description |
|
Queensland
Government Gazettes 1903 to 1910 |
Queensland
1832 to 1850 (as part of New South Wales Government Gazettes) and no date
given for rest of collection |
|
Queensland
Police Gazettes 1881 to 1945 |
Queensland
Police Gazettes 1864 to 1900 |
|
South
Australia Government Gazettes 1867 to 1884 |
South
Australia Government Gazettes 1841 to 1870 |
|
South
Australia Police Gazettes 1862-1947 |
South
Australia Police Gazettes 1862 to 1872 |
|
|
Tasmania
Government Gazettes 1907 to 1919, also Hobart Town Gazette 1827 to 1880 and Hobart
Gazette 1903 to 1906 |
|
Tasmania
Police Gazettes 1884 to 1933 |
Tasmania
Police Gazettes 1871 to 1900 |
|
|
Victoria
Government Gazettes 1851 to 1901 |
|
Victoria
Police Gazettes 1855, 1864 to 1924 |
Victoria
Police Gazettes 1855 to 1900 but some missing years |
Conclusion
This is a very brief look at using
government gazettes for family history. If your ancestors had any interaction
with the colonial/state government, then there may be a record in the
government gazettes.
Take the time to explore government gazettes, especially those that are freely available online. You just might be surprised. Good luck!
August 2019
Australia A-Z Hospitals and asylums
We continue our exploration of 26 different
aspects of Australian family history research in Australia A-Z. This month it
is H for Hospitals and Asylums. These records, where they have survived for
colonial Australia, can have a wonderful range of biographical information on
our ancestors. People were sick, suffered accidents or were simply too old and
frail to look after themselves and therefore may have spent time in an asylum
or hospital. Part of the admission process was to gather as much biographical
and personal information about the patient as possible. Much more than you are
ever likely to find on a birth, death or marriage certificate.
Introduction
The term hospital is self-explanatory and
with asylums we have used the term in a generic fashion to include benevolent,
children’s, old age and insane institutions as the records are all very
similar. As with other Australian research topics there is no one place to
look, so you do need to know what colony/state your ancestors lived.
Some hospital and asylum records have been indexed and digitized and are online. Others have not been indexed and access to these records varies between the states. In this article we will primarily look at records that are online as it is not always possible to visit the relevant state archives to see original records.
Hospital Records
Sometimes it can be hard to prove
relationships when ancestors have common surnames which may also have several
variants. For example, Adam Johnston (also spelt Johnson and Johnstone) came
out to Queensland from County Cavan, Ireland in the early 1860s. Several of his
siblings also came out and trying to prove they were related was not easy. Fortunately
for my research, Adam’s brother was admitted to the Brisbane General Hospital
in 1872 and again in 1873. The hospital record showed that James Johnston
arrived on the Mangerton in 1861 and
cross checking with the passenger list, showed that Adam Johnson also arrived
with him.
Biographical information recorded in hospital records may include the following:
- ·
Name
- ·
Age
- ·
Father’s name and occupation
- ·
Mother’s name including maiden
surname
- ·
Where born
- ·
Whether married or single
- ·
Occupation
- ·
Length of time in the colony
- ·
Name of ship
- ·
Last place of residence
- ·
Religion
- ·
Date admitted
- ·
Doctor’s name
- ·
Nature and history of illness
- ·
Date discharged.
Of course, how much detail was given depended on the informant but if they knew the person well, or if it was the patient themselves, then the records are a gold mine for tracing further back. In my example, James Johnston was single, 30 years old, born in Ireland, Church of England, arrived on the Mangerton 12 years ago, his father was James Johnson (sic) a labourer and his mother Sarah Machelwaine (sic should have been McElwain) and he suffered from chronic rheumatism. This information was enough to trace the family back in County Cavan, Ireland.
As mentioned earlier, the first place to start looking are the state archives. Queensland State Archives has some hospital indexes online and Judy Webster (a professional genealogist) has indexed a wide range of hospital records held by Queensland State Archives. Hospital records may also have been indexed by local historical societies or genealogy/family history societies. One example is the Genealogical Society of Victoria which has published on CD The Victorian Goldfields Hospital Index which includes records for the following places in Victoria: Amherst, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Creswick, Dunolly, Kyneton, Maldon and Maryborough. Another Genealogical Society of Victoria publication is Patients in Melbourne Hospital 1856-1905.
The best search strategy is to start with the relevant state archives and look for an online guide to hospital records and then simply follow the suggestions. Access and records available vary across Australia. Quite often these online guides will also mention if there are any published indexes or useful publications.
Asylum Records
There were many different types of asylums
apart from mental asylums including benevolent, children’s, sick, destitute and
infirm asylums. Even those patients in a mental asylum may not have been
suffering a mental illness, they may have simply been old, frail or sick with
no other place to go. Many women can be found in mental asylums after
childbirth suffering with what we know today as post-natal depression.
If you have ancestors in Victoria, you are very lucky as Public Record Office Victoria has digitized many of their asylum records and these are free to view online. The records have been indexed in Ancestry for the period 1853-1940 if you are not sure which Victorian asylum your ancestor was placed in.
Henry Bullen, one of our ancestors, was admitted to Ararat Asylum in Victoria in 1871 aged 57 years old. He was diagnosed as suffering from dementia and the doctor reported that he was in ‘tolerably good bodily health’ but his memory was very bad. By 1872 his health had deteriorated further, and he died at Ararat Asylum in 1873. His wife’s name was Georgiana, but the records showed that she was called Anna which in turn helped me to find her in other records.
The biographical information in asylum registers is almost the same as that for hospital records and the records are mostly held by state archives. Always look for an online guide as these will list the major series of records and any indexes. There may also be brief histories of the major asylums which can be useful. Access is usually closed for 100 years although this varies from state to state.
My great great grandfather John Finn was admitted to Dunwich Asylum on Stradbroke Island near Brisbane, Queensland in 1921. Last month I wrote about his bankruptcy, so it was no surprise to find that he ended his days in an asylum. However, it was sad to read in the records that he had lost all contact with his family. When I first saw his Dunwich asylum record, access was only 30 years, but since then access was increased to 100 years. Now I must wait until 2022 to see the record again at the archives. Fortunately, I was able to obtain a photocopy back then!
Portal Sites
Coraweb is a very useful portal site to a wide range of Australian research areas including hospitals and asylums. Both Ancestry and Findmypast also have records of interest. Trove is the National Library of Australia portal to a wide range of resources, including digitized newspapers. If you stumble across an ancestor mentioned in a newspaper as being a patient in a hospital or asylum, remember to follow up the clue by looking at the relevant state archives website.
Conclusion
This is a very brief look at using hospital
and asylum records for family history. If your ancestors were ever admitted to
a hospital or an asylum there may be a wealth of biographical or other family
information in the records.
Take the time to explore hospital and asylum records, especially those that are freely available online. You just might be surprised. Good luck!
Note
That completes the end of the articles published in Going In-Depth between 2015 and 2019.
I hadn't realised how much of my own family history was included in the articles. I hope other family members also find these articles of interest.
No comments:
Post a Comment