Samuel Plimsoll (ship), new archive releases, free webinars & other news - Genealogy Notes 21-28 Jan 2018

Last week I said that I would randomly review one of my families and see if I could take it back further in Hampshire and Wiltshire. Well there were some deaths post 1837 that might be mine but the information on UK death certificates is not going to confirm that unless my ancestor was the informant. So I haven't paid out any money yet.

All Saints parish church, Winterslow, Wiltshire
image Trish Steel via Wikipedia

On the plus side I did find digitised images of parish church records in Ancestry.  My GGGGG grandmother Hester Parrick's baptism was in 1727 and she married in 1747. Her mother (that's 6 Gs) Martha Parrick was buried in 1742, all in Winterslow, Wiltshire. Amazing that I can sit here and view these images. Somehow it makes my ancestors seem more real.

I also like to read up on a place and find Wikipedia useful for a quick overview of a parish. Plus there is usually a map showing where in the county a parish is located and a photograph of the parish church. Check out the entry for Winterslow.
Blogs
Rootsfinder asked for permission to reuse one of my Trove Tuesday blog posts from last year in their How I Solved It series. Which Trove Tuesday blog post did they choose? It was the one where I found my great grandfather's accidental death, not by name (Thomas Price) but by the place name because the journalist recorded the wrong name (William Price)! Read the Rootsfinder post here and why not check out some of the other blog posts in this series for other ideas.

And speaking of Trove Tuesday, I managed to do my first Trove Tuesday blog post for 2018. It was a wonderful find - Samuel Plimsoll (ship) 1878 illustrated sketches. Thomas Price, paragraph above, arrived on the Samuel Plimsoll with his new bride Elizabeth Judge in Sydney in 1878. I'd previously located reports of the voyage out but on rechecking, I discovered these fantastic sketches. It might pay to see what else is under the Illustrated filter!

Education
The internet provides so many ways to learn more about genealogy and family history and how to improve our searching skills. FamilySearch conduct free webinars on a monthly basis and you can see what's coming up in February here. Handouts from past webinars can also be downloaded and some of the sessions on using various aspects of FamilySearch more effectively are quite useful.

Reading

Although it arrived a few weeks back, I have finally sat down to have a good read of Traces: uncovering the past. This is a new magazine and Volume 1 reminded me a lot of Inside History which I also loved reading.

This is what the cover is like if you are trying to locate it in a newsagent. I've taken up a subscription as there are not a lot of newsagents on the Island and the range of genealogy/history magazines is not great. One of the things I miss about not living in a big city.

Sources
Once upon a time in my archives work life, I used to get excited about the 1st of January as that was the day new access releases were made. So this completely slipped my mind this year but there are another year of BDMs to search, and more items opened up in our state archives.

Public Record Office Victoria usually does a very handy list or blog post and this year it is an extremely interesting read with some great photos. Check out New Archival Records to Explore at PROV. There is also a complete list of all new releases under their Section 9 openings. If nothing else, the list will give you a wonderful idea of what can be found in our state archives.

What's Coming Up

Apparently the summer holidays are over, and the Bribie U3A resumes this coming week. On the grapevine I heard that my advanced family history class on Wednesday afternoon is fully booked and there is a waiting list. There has even been the odd email asking can I sneak someone in.

I also go to the local history class on Friday mornings so my weeks will be busier for the next 10 weeks, then the Easter holidays. Reminds me of my school days.

This photo was my first day of school in my new uniform, taken in the back yard. Just to the left of me was the 'old dunny' and it looks like it was before we got the 'hills hoist clothes line' as there is no shadow from it.

Until next time, have a great genealogy week.

Internet Archive, Occupations and Other News - Genealogy Notes 13-20 Jan 2018

One of those weeks where everything seems to happen at once, and none of it planned for. So catching up on a lot of household chores and other bits and pieces today including this blog.

BDMs 

The UK General Register Office is extending their pilot of supplying birth and death certificates in a digital format for a cheaper price. I picked that up in the WDYTYA magazine (read the notice here) and it motivated me to think about a lot of my UK research which was done decades ago. The cheaper price of 6 pounds (less than $10.50) means that I could look into some of the siblings or even kill off a few direct ancestors with a death certificate. They don't give much information but at least I would know cause of death and where.

East Dean is in the hundred
of Thorngate, image Internet
Archive Book Images on Flickr

Which family to review? I have a 4 drawer filing cabinet full of paper folders so I randomly selected drawer 2 and pulled out a file mid way along without looking. I've ended up with my Fox family from East Dean, Hampshire and it has been quite a while since I last opened this folder. Looking forward to some exciting discoveries with this family review.

This image is from the Internet Archive Book Images on Flickr - A history of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, by Herbert Arthur and published in 1900. The Internet Archive is a wonderful place to look for digitised books and images.

Blogs

My January blog for The In-Depth Genealogist was on The Australian Cemeteries Index  (not to be confused with Australian Cemeteries) and the blog post was picked up in Gail Dever's Creme de la Creme round up for 13 January.

One of the reasons I like the Australian Cemeteries Index is that it includes images of all the graves in the South Brisbane cemetery tombstones.
Conferences

I mentioned earlier that the Waves in Time conference is being held at Caloundra in May 2019. The website is now up and also their social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Check the website out and follow updates via social media. I'm going to a conference committee meeting next week so things are moving along quickly.

The Bridging the Past & Future conference in March in Sydney is fast approaching and speakers have received their Dropbox accounts for their presentations. Due date is 8 February so finishing my two presentations is high priority in the coming week. As usual I have too many slides and keeping to time is a must. Nothing worse than missing the end of someone's talk or seeing them speed through the last slides.

Sources
One of the things I like discovering about my ancestors is their occupation as that allows me to think about how they spend their days. One of my Wiltshire ancestors was Robert White and he was a beadle. I had no idea what that was and if you Google you can find various occupation sites but one of my favourites is the Hall Genealogy Website: Old Occupation Names. It's arranged A-Z and beadle is a town crier and parish officer who kept order. From other documents he was also described as a clerk of the church. Possibly what we might call a desk job today, certainly not out in the fields or sweating in the blacksmith's shop.

           
Television
This week's episode of Who Do You Think You Are Series 13 was on Warwick Davis and I really enjoyed it. He was confronted with an ancestor who committed bigamy and another who was a minstrel who 'blacked up' as he put it. We have to be careful not to put 21st century values on 19th century actions because the world has changed a lot since then.

One of my great great grandmother's was a prostitute and in and out of gaol on numerous occasions. I had the opportunity to sit in a cell in the old women's prison at Boggo Road and it could have been one that she occupied at some point. Her marriage had failed and she was destitute and prostitution has always been one way for a woman to support herself since the beginning of time. My ancestor went on to die a respectable old lady but if she had not had an illegitimate child, I wouldn't be here today.

This was something that Warwick also expressed in the episode. If his ancestor hadn't had the bigamous marriage he wouldn't be here, nor his children. We can't change our ancestors, we just have to accept them, and the times in which they lived. Great episode and I'm looking forward to next week's show.

What's Coming Up?
This coming week I'm determined to do a Trove Tuesday blog, at least one a month for 2018. I've already found the article that I want to write about, a ship that two of my great grandparents arrived on in 1878. It's an illustrated newspaper article that I recently found and want to share with others.

My two presentations for Congress as mentioned above and I should start on my February article for Going In-Depth and another IDG blog post.

Have a great genealogy week and if you are in one of the areas suffering these ongoing heat waves this summer, try and stay cool. Until next week, have fun.