Week 26 (June 25-July 1) A Hard Choice - #52Ancestors

A hard choice faced by several of my ancestors was to emigrate from their homelands to the colonies of Australia.  What prompted these families, mostly with young children in tow, to pack up and move halfway around the world?  Two of my immigrant families would settle in one state of Australia, then pack up and move again several years later.  What prompted them to take that leap of faith and travel so far from their homelands, families and friends?  It would have been a huge decision to make.

My immigrant ancestors came from England, Ireland and Germany.  Land in their homelands would have been difficult and costly to acquire, so the prospect of cheap land for farming may have been a big motivator for them.  Many Germans also emigrated for freedom from religious persecution.  Then there are my Irish ancestors, who left Ireland a few years before the potato famine.  Again, I suspect Australia represented the chance for a better life, a chance to own land and improve the family's living conditions.

My great grandfather, James Nicholas Clark, was born in Bristol, England or possibly Launceston, Tasmania around 1856, just as the family emigrated to Australia.  James’s younger sister Annie Amelia Clark was born 31 March 1857 in Port Sorrell, Tasmania, where the family lived for at least 12 years before they traveled across Bass Strait and settled in Victoria.

Carl Friedrich Beseler, known in Australia as Frederick, was born around 1810 in Hanover, Germany.  He was a shoemaker in Germany and a farmer in Australia, arriving in Adelaide on 1 April 1848 on the ship Pauline from Bremen, Germany.  Passengers listed were Frederick Beseler, Shoemaker, Mrs Beseler and 5 children.  The family lived in South Australia for 7 years before travelling overland to Victoria, where they settled near Ercildown.  Several members of the family are buried in Learmonth Cemetery. 

Travel by ship in the mid 1800s from Europe to Australia would have been a long and arduous journey for these families.  Their determination to forge new lives prompted them to travel such distances.  A hard choice indeed.

Family Tree UK July 2026

The latest issue of Family Tree UK magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines.

Inside this month's issue : 

• Family Tree Live returns with two-day event
• Visit People’s History Museum’s 1926 General Strike exhibition 
• Delve into medical records
• Scribe AI now available on MyHeritage app
• Bring your Irish family history alive
• DNA Club news 
• Marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
• Following the money : a guide to taxation record sets
• Researching Your Ancestors Using Newspapers Online
• Why telling our story is the best gift we’ll ever give
• Staffordshire parish registers
• The Pitcairn Register : our book of origins
• Introducing the brand new Family Tree website 

Week 25 (June 18-24) The Ancestor Who Stays With Me - #52Ancestors

As we learn more about them, the stories of many of our ancestors stay with us.  For some, the story is positive - the achievements they made, the success they celebrated.  For others the story is more challenging - the obstacles they faced, the tragedies they overcame.  I find it is more the tragedies that stay with me.

My great grandmother Eliza Pummeroy (nee Beseler).  After struggling for a month after her husband's sudden death, Eliza took the step of applying to the local court for help, risking having her children removed from her custody and placed in an orphanage, something she was adamant she did not want.  The judges hearing the case awarded her 10 shillings from the poor box and committed the children to the department, with the recommendation they be handed back to their mother. 

My great great grandparents David and Eliza Mulholland, who had three children die as infants within a few weeks of each other - Henry who died 29 January 1872 aged 4 years 8 months, Margaret Jane who died 2 February 1872 aged 6 years 4 months and Thomas who died 14 February 1872 aged 1 year 2 months.  A stark reminder of the perils of childhood and how disease could carry off several family members in rapid succession - all three died of diphtheria. 

Then there is the Hines branch of my family tree, who I followed through the census records.  In the 1841 census parents James and Susan are alive and children John, Samuel, Albert and Hannah are listed with them.  Eldest daughter Susannah is not home on census night and so was not listed. 

The 1851census told a very different story.  Both parents had died, and the five siblings have been split up.  The two eldest children, Susannah and John, now aged 18 and 16, are living with their maternal grandparents and are listed as house servant and farm servant respectively.  Middle child Samuel, age 14, was found a home with relatives, and is listed as a lodger in the house of James Prentice.  His maternal grandmother Susannah's maiden name was Prentice (she is the Susannah Woollard listed above, who took in the two eldest children), and James Prentice is her nephew.  The two youngest children, Albert, now age 12 and Hannah, age 10, were  less fortunate.  Apparently there were no relatives willing and able to take these youngest children, and they are listed in the census as paupers in the Cosford Union Workhouse.  So not only have these children lost their parents, they have also been split up, the ones old enough taken by relatives and put to work.  The two youngest, not yet old enough to perform sufficient useful labour, are sent to the workhouse.

Tragic stories that stay with me.

Who Do You Think You Are Magazine July 2026

The latest issue of Who Do You Think You Are magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines.

Inside this month's issue : 

• The National Archives maps Weavers’ Rising
• DNA testing identifies sailors from the Franklin expedition
• New slavery records database launches
• Alan Crosby on the art of baby naming
• Get the most from death records
• Write a memoir in Six Easy Steps
• Assize Records 
• Was your ancestor in Nelson’s Navy?
• More great websites 
• The Napier Commission
• Forgotten women of Cambridge

Week 24 (June 11-17) Possibilities - #52Ancestors

When researching your family history, the possibilities are endless.  Each time I start researching - sitting at my computer, visiting an archive or repository or cemetery or library, each time I write or talk to a relative, the possibilities of what I might discover are what keeps me going.

Especially exciting is when new records become available, either online or newly released physical records.  What might I find?

This is the reason I regularly check what is new on all the databases I subscribe to, including Ancestry, which is available free to search at my local library via Ancestry Library Edition.

Finding out what is new on Ancestry is as simple as checking the card catalogue.

To get to the card catalogue, log into Ancestry (or Ancestry Library Edition at your local public library or research centre if you don't have a subscription) and click on the Search tab at the top of the page, then select the "Card Catalogue".

 

The Card Catalogue is a searchable list of all the record collections available.  Because of the way their databases are titled you can use the title search box to narrow all the resources for a specific place, such as "Victoria, Australia".  You can then browse through the various data sets, click on one which interests you, and conduct a specific search of those records for anything relevant to your family.

 

Using this method, I discovered that Ancestry holds the Victorian Divorce Records 1860-1940.

I immediately did a search of this specific record set for James Clark and came up with a listing for his divorce, complete with a link to the original documents.

Viewing the record was the bonanza - some 55 pages of statements and court proceedings and other documents.  Full details of the circumstances of the marriage and its breakdown, dates and addresses, and the final Decree Nisi that dissolved the marriage.  

These documents fill in the detail of the marriage breakdown and subsequent divorce and are a wonderful find!

While you are looking at particular datasets on Ancestry, it's a good idea to read the "about" section for more detail. To do this scroll past the search box and you'll see information about where the data came from and more details about what is in that particular resource. 

  

For example, the Rate Books 1855-1963 for Victoria, Australia are by no means complete, and the detail makes this clear.  While the list below is not the complete list of Rate Books available, it gives you the general idea that different areas covered different year ranges.  For the complete list, please check the card catalogue yourself.

There is nothing more frustrating than spending your valuable researching time looking for information that is not covered by the database, even though the broad description implied that it was there.  So try checking the description of some of the datasets available on Ancestry to see exactly what they cover - it may explain why you cannot find a records you were expecting to be available.

And remember - the possibilities are endless!

Week 23 (June 4-10) A Place That Matters - #52Ancestors

Society today is much more mobile than in previous centuries.  Many of my ancestors spent generations living in the one place, setting down deep roots in a place and a community.

The Argent family can be followed through the census records with both father and son listed as living at Newbridge Mill, West Bergholt in the 1841 census.  By the 1851 census John Jr has taken over the mill from his father and is listed as a miller and farmer of 100 acres living with his wife Emma, son John and daughters Emma and Ada, as well as 2 servants.  The same census lists John Senior as Miller and Farmer living in Crouch Street, St Mary at the Walls, Colchester.

Newbridge Mill, West Bergholt

John Thompson Argent continues to be listed as Miller and Farmer at Newbridge Mill in the 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 censuses, running this business until his death on 22 January 1894.  To this family, Newbridge Mill was a place that mattered.

My Green ancestors had even stronger ties to Fordham Hall (also called Manor Farm) in Essex, being tennants at the Hall for several generations.  Although they were not the owners, they were major local landholders and were the gentry of their small community.

Fordham Hall, Essex

The Green family of Fordham Hall farmed the land, kept a pack of foxhounds,and took part in many community events.  The article below, from the 'Essex Standard' on Friday 13 October 1837, mentions Isaac Green of Fordham as one of the judges at the annual meeting of the local Agricultural Society.

 

Week 22 (May 28-June 3) A Name With Meaning - #52Ancestors

Names running through families often carry extra meaning, and naming children has always been significant.  There were also fads among names - copying that of the current Monarch and their family, for example, or using a traditional name common in your own family, or following popular fads.  Horatio, for example, made a brief surge in popularity after Nelson's victory at Trafalgar.  Similarly, Adolf disappeared from German communities after World War 2.

The given names of our eighteenth and nineteenth century British ancestors were drawn from a surprisingly small pool.  The four most popular male names were carried by one in every two males, and the top thirteen male names were carried by 87% of the male population.

In the 1700s the top five names for each gender were :
Boys - John, William, Thomas, Richard and James
Girls - Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, Sarah and Jane

In the 1800s the top five names for each gender were :
Boys - John, William, James, George and Charles
Girls - Mary, Anna, Emma, Elizabeth and Margaret

Then there were also the commonly used spelling variations, abbreviations and diminutives.  For example, if you don’t know that Polly was a diminutive of Mary or that Nellie was a diminutive of Ellen and Eleanor and Helen, you may struggle to find your ancestors’ entries.  Harry for Henry, Bill for William, Fred or Alf for Alfred, Dick for Richard, Charlie or Lottie for Charlotte, Maggie, Meg or Maisie for Margaret.  Elizabeth was another extremely common name with multiple diminutives - Eliza, Liz, Lizzie, Betty, Betsy, Beth, Bessie, Lisbeth, Liza - the list goes on.  

I have one female ancestor, baptised Elizabeth, who was known throughout her life as Betsy.  This was the name she used in census records, her children's birth/baptism records, her own marriage registration and on her death certificate and burial record.  The only time I can ever find her referred to as Elizabeth is at her baptism.Betsy was the name with meaning.