Week 44 (Oct. 28-Nov. 3): Challenging

The prompt for Week 44 is "Challenging", which pretty much describes most aspects of family history research at times.  How to pick just one area upon which to focus?

One aspect of research I find truly challenging is the amount of misinformation and inaccurate research I find out there.  Incorrectly transcribed records, inaccurate original records, outright lies, and poor research skills can cause all sorts of problems for the unwary.

Online trees on any website I find can be full of errors, many of which are perpetuated by other researchers simply copying the incorrect information without  trying to verify it - even without noticing that the information is impossible!

Some of the impossibilities to keep in mind :

• Children cannot be born before their parents. 
• Children cannot be born to a mother who is 6 years old.  Or 94 years old. 
• Children are highly unlikely to be born to a father who is 89 years old.  While this MAY be biologically possible, it is unlikely and deserves a bit of fact checking.
• A child cannot be christened 4 months before they are born. 
• A woman cannot marry 3 years after she has died.
• A man cannot enlist in the army 5 years after he has died.
• Full siblings cannot be born 4 months apart.
• Travel takes time, especially before the age of the airplane.  In 1883 a child could not be born in England and christened in Australia 5 days later.
  

I have seen all of these, and more, in online family trees.  And trying to contact the tree owner to get their errors corrected?  Challenging indeed! 

Trove Tuesday

Researching Immigration can be difficult for researchers for many reasons.  

Many arrivals into Australian ports were divided into categories.

• “assisted” (subsidised)
• “unassisted” (paying their own way), or
• “coastal” (travelling from another Australian port)

How a person arrived had great influence over the detail available about them.  Assisted immigrants generally owed the government money (or labour) in return for their passage and thus the records for them are usually fairly detailed.

For Unassisted and Coastal passengers, ship's registers frequently lacked detail.  Women, children, servants and steerage passengers were frequently left off passenger lists.  Names might be abbreviated - "J. Smith" or simply "Mr Smith", and children were often simply added as a note - "Mrs Smith and 5 children". 

Newspapers, however, often published shipping news, including lists of passengers as shown in the article below, which reports the arrival of my Beseler family in South Australia on the ship Pauline.

South Australian Register, Sat 1 April 1848

Included in the list of passengers are Frederick Beseler, shoemaker, Mrs Beseler and five children.  The article also notes that the ship had sailed from the port of Bremen, Germany.

Another Trove Treasure.

Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland

The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland was created through a five-year State-funded program of research entitled ‘Beyond 2022'.  It is funded by the Government of Ireland under Project Ireland 2040 through the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. 

 Led by researchers at Trinity College Dublin, the program "combines historical investigation, archival discovery, conservation and technical innovation to re-imagine and recreate, through digital technologies, the archive lost on June 30th, 1922, in the opening engagement of the Civil War".

Many genealogists with Irish family history have mourned the loss of records that were the result of the Dublin Records Office fire.  Combined with the destruction of the historic Irish censuses, the loss has made the task of researching Irish ancestors more difficult.

The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is an open-access resource, freely and permanently available online to all those interested in Ireland’s history at home and abroad. The website states that "our extensive and growing treasury of digitized records—scattered over space and time, but now reunited on-screen—brings ordinary lives buried in official documents back into the light". 

By 2022, over 70 archives, libraries and societies in Ireland, Britain and the United States have formally joined the enterprise to bring the destroyed Record Treasury back to life. 

Week 43 (Oct. 21-27): Lost Contact

During my family history research I have often reflected on the enormous step taken by my ancestors when they migrated to Australia.  Various branches came from England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany, all seeking a new life and leaving behind family, friends and their old homes.

None of my migrating ancestors would ever see those they left behind again.

For whatever their reasons, my original Australian immigrant ancestors made a huge leap of faith to leave their homelands and travel to a distant country, most with little chance of returning to their homeland if their new lives proved less than they hoped.  Settling into a new country is not easy. Immigrants have to adapt to an unfamiliar environment and lifestyle, while maintaining aspects of their previous culture and way of life.

Even maintaining contact could be difficult, or close to impossible.  Not all my ancestors were literate.  How do you maintain contact with family on the other side of the world before telephones and international calls, when the only real way to communicate was by letter?  Not only could it take months for a letter to make its way across the seas, such letters also cost money to post.  Then there would be a wait, possibly for several more months, for a reply to arrive.

There was more difficulty to overcome if either party (or both) lacked reading and writing skills.  In the 1800s when most of my family lines arrived in Australia, literacy levels were low, especially among the poorer classes.  Not all my ancestors who emigrated could read and write, and frequently those left behind in the 'old country' lacked literacy skills themselves.  Perhaps they could have sought assistance in writing to loves ones and reading their replies, but this would have been another cost to pay.  Little wonder so many lost contact.

Trove Tuesday

One of the saddest stories I have found in my family history is that of Eliza Pummeroy (nee Beseler).  Eliza was born in 1871 in Learmonth, Victoria to Edward Beseler and Emma (nee Flower).  Eliza married Alfred Pummeroy in1895 in St Kilda, where Alfred worked as a plasterer.  They had four children before Alfred suddenly became ill with pneumonia and died on 6 Feb 1901, leaving Eliza with 4 young children and in a desperate situation.

The family lived in rented housing and had little by way of savings.  With four children to look after, the eldest 4 years old and deaf and mute, the youngest (my grandfather William) only 2 months old, Eliza was unable to do much by way of paid work.  She took in washing to make a little money, and was given 3 shillings a week by the local Ladies Benevolent Society.  It wasn't enough.

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.

This appeal was reported in several newspapers.  Two reported the case with a fair amount of detail, including the fact that the children all appeared clean and well cared for, while a third much briefer article gave a somewhat different impression, especially with the heading 'Neglected Children'.

Prahran Telegraph, Sat 9 March 1901, p3.

The Argus, Sat 9 March 1901, p15.

The Herald, Fri 8 March 1901, p5.

A great series of articles found on Trove. Having these to add to my records adds so much to my knowledge of my family history - without these reports I would never have know how much of a struggle my great grandmother Eliza faced after the death of her husband.

Family Tree UK Magazine

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 : 

• What were you doing 40 years ago? Was it family-history related?
• Celebrating 40 years of Family Tree
• Heredis 2025: new software out
• 93 million new Theories of Family Relativity from MyHeritage DNA
• A.I. grants for library, museum & archive innovation
• 23andMe board steps down en masse
• Artificial Intelligence and genealogy
• Finding your way around  Findmypast
• Free, frugal & fun : time- & money-saving tips, tools & tactics
• The life of a 19th Century soldier
• Digging deeper & decoding the National Register records
• Your DNA questions answered!
• Witch-hunts during the Little Ice Age
• Wartime trauma The life of George Smith, ARP warden...

Foundling Hospital Archive Free Online

The archives of London’s famous Foundling Hospital are now free to search online.

Almost 100,000 pages of records, containing details of over 20,000 children, have been made available.

The Hospital was founded in 1739 by sea captain Thomas Coram to provide a home for the capital’s many unwanted children, particularly children born to unmarried mothers.

At the time, the name ‘hospital’ meant any place that provided ‘hospitality’, or shelter. Rather than being a hospital in the modern sense, it was a children’s home, where children received care and education before leaving to enter into an apprenticeship at about the age of fourteen. The education was progressive by the standards of the day – both boys and girls were taught to read, girls were later taught to write.  The children were also taught music.

The digitised records fall into the following categories:

• Petitions from mothers and others: 115 volumes, 1762-1881
• Billet Books containing tokens: 203 volumes, 1741-1814
• Admission and baptism registers: 8 volumes, 1741-1885
• Apprenticeship registers: 4 volumes, 1751-1898
• Registers of country nurses and inspectors: 6 volumes, 1749-1812
• Branch Hospital registers: 5 volumes, 1757-1772
• Records claiming children: 21 volumes, 1758-1796
• Committee Minutes: 43 volumes, 1739-1895

 

Week 42 (Oct. 14-20): Full House

The prompt 'Full House' immediately makes me think of the many large families in my family tree, and how many people were often packed into small houses.  In past generations, large families were quite common, with not only numerous children but also extended family often sharing a home.  

While some of my ancestors were fortunate enough to have sizeable homes, those of poorer working class backgrounds often lived in smaller houses of only a few rooms, or even a single room for the whole family.  Children shared beds, and in poorer conditions the whole family would have slept huddled together.  Space was limited and conditions poor.

For my father, the second youngest of 10 children, all of whom survived to adulthood, it was a full house indeed.  Often the family lived in small farmhouses, with only a few rooms.  They moved several times during my father's childhood, but none of the homes the family occupied would be called spacious.

While the eldest children had generally left home by the time the youngest were born, it was still a full house indeed.

Trove Tuesday

Trove frequently adds new content to their website, and the newspapers below are being digitised and will soon appear online.  These titles have been funded for digitisation by various contributors, which are indicated at the end of each listing.

NSW

• Bega District News (1923-1954) [Bega Pioneers Museum]
• Berry Register (1894) [Shoalhaven Libraries]
• Border Morning Mail (1953) [Albury City Libraries]
• Braidwood and Araluen Express [National Library of Australia]
• Braidwood News and Gold Fields General Advertiser [National Library of Australia]
• Broughton Creek Mail (1880-1881, 1891-1893, 1899-1907) [Shoalhaven Libraries]
• Broughton Creek Register (1886-1890) [Shoalhaven Libraries]
• Kangaroo Valley Times (1898-1904) [Shoalhaven Libraries]
• Maitland Mercury (1940-1954)
• Moruya Examiner [National Library of Australia]
• The Pastoral Times and Deniliquin Telegraph (1895-1950) [Deniliquin Genealogy Society Inc]
• The Seagull (1957-2015) [Richmond-Tweed Library Service]
• Coolamon-Ganmain Farmers' Review (1919-1937) [Coolamon & District History Group; Wagga Wagga & District Historical Society; Coolamon Shire Council; Lions Club of Coolamon]

SA

• Australijos Lietuvis - The Australian Lithuanian (1948-1956) [Australian Lithuanian Archives]
• Hills and Valley Messenger (1984-2011) [State Library of South Australia]
• Port Lincoln Times (1982-1986) [Port Lincoln History Group]

VIC

• Ararat and Mount Pleasant Creek Advertiser and Chronicle for the District of the Wimmera (1861-1873) [Ararat Genealogical Society]
• Brusnwick & Coburg Leader (1927-1929) [Merri-bek Libraries]
• Grenville Standard (1897-1914) [Linton & District Historical Society]
• Mount Ararat Advertiser and Chronicle of the District of the Wimmera (1857-1861) [Ararat Genealogical Society]
• Mount Ararat Advertiser (1857) [Ararat Genealogical Society]
• Nathalia Herald and Picola, Narioka, Kotupna and Moira Advertiser (1884-1913) [Nathalia & District Historical society Inc]
• Sun News Pictorial (1922-1954) [State Library Victoria]
• Sunraysia Daily (1942-1950) [Mildura Rural City Council Library Service]
• The Journal: Glengarry, Toongabbie and Cowwarr Journal (1930-1962) [Latrobe City Libraries]
• The Yarrawonga Mercury and Southern Riverina Advertiser (1927) [Yarrawonga Mulwala Historical Society Inc.]
• The Yarrawonga Mercury and Tungamah and Lake Rowan Express and St. James Gazette (1927-19360 [Yarrawonga Mulwala Historical Society Inc.]

You can see which newspapers and gazettes are already available in Trove's full digitised newspapers and gazettes list.

Ancestry Ethnicity Estimates Updated

Recently, Ancestry again updated their DNA Ethnicity Estimates, so I have again been studying my new, updated results.  I have commented before that with every ethnicity estimate, my results seem to move further from my family tree as I know it.  For the second time in a row the numbers moved a little back towards what my existing tree leads me to expect.

The table below shows my ethnicity estimates over the years since I first tested.  It is worth noting that in 2018 and 2019 the Irish ethnicity represented Ireland and Scotland combined.  According to my researched Family Tree, my father's family is 100% English back to the early 1700s and further and is primarily from the Essex/Suffolk area. My father's parents married in England before they came out to Australia.  My mother's family is at mostly English with some Irish (a Great-Grandmother), German (Great-Great-Grandfather) and Scottish (Great-Great-Grandmother) mixed in.  Most of her lines arrived in Australia in the 1840s and 1850s, and the various nationalities intermarried out here.  This is not reflected in my ethnicity estimate.  

This latest update gives back come of my Irish ethnicity while decreasing my Scottish, and much of my Sweden/Denmark percentage returns to Germanic Europe.  Completely new are the Netherlands and Yorubaland (southwestern Nigeria).

I would love to know where the Ivory Coast/Ghana and Yorubaland heritage comes from - both are from my mother's side of the family and I have a suspicion I may eventually find slavery in my ancestry.

As I say just about every time I post about Ethnicity Estimates, we need to remember that these numbers are estimates only and can still be quite inaccurate.

Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

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 : 

• Historic newspapers The best websites for discovering if your family made headlines
• Transcription Tuesday Join us for our virtual volunteer event
• Theatrical ancestors Tracing ancestors with a connection to the stage
• Methodist records The best websites
• Reader story Katherine Langford's ancestor fought at D-Day
• Around Britain East Sussex family history
• And more.....
  

Week 41 (Oct. 7-13): Most

The prompt for Week 41 is 'Most', and Like last week's theme of 'Least' it is a prompt that is open to interpretation.  The most children in one family?  The most spouses to one individual?  Most likely to succeed (or fail)?  Most confusing family relationship?

In the end I have chosen a combination of most spouses and most confusing relationship, both titles would have to belong to Thomas May, my 3xGreat Grandfather.  Thomas married a total of 5 times, losing several wives in childbirth.

Thomas May was born 20 September 1762 in West Mersea, Essex and was baptised 16 October 1762 at the church of St Peter and St Paul.  He died on 27 February 1843 in West Mersea and was buried on 7 March 1843.  He outlived all 5 wives.

Wife 1 – Elizabeth Godwin
Born 1763 Thorrington, Essex
Married 27 March 1787 Thorrington, Essex
Died 25 August 1790 West Mersea, Essex
Children – Thomas, Edward

Wife 2 – Sarah Sadler
Born 1775 West Mersea, Essex
Married 1792 West Mersea, Essex
Died 7 January 1799 West Mersea, Essex
Children – Betsey (Elizabeth), Sarah, Hannah, John Tickell

Wife 3 – Henrietta Stevens
Born Unknown
Married 12 May 1801 St Mary, Lambeth, Surrey
Died 2 May 1812 West Mersea
Children – Henry John, Mary

Wife 4 – Susannah Balls Green
Born 7 June 1770 West Bergholt, Essex
Married 10 November 1818 Fordham, Essex
Died 11 February 1828 West Mersea, Essex
Children - Nil

Wife 5 – Mary Ann Pullen
Born 13 October 1791 West Mersea, Essex
Married 9 August 1829 West Mersea, Essex
Died 1838 West Mersea, Essex
Children – Edward, Sophia Mary Ann

It is his 4th wife, Susannah Green (nee Balls), where the relationships become truly convoluted.  Susannah's son Isaac (from her first husband John Green) was married to Thomas's eldest daughter Betsy (Elizabeth).  So Thomas became not only father-in-law but also step-father to Isaac, and his new wife Susannah became mother-in-law and step-mother to Betsy.

Trove Tuesday

It is always a fantastic feeling to find proof of a family story, and this week Trove has given me just that.

My father was fond of telling the story of how, during the 1956 flood, the sheep station 'Para' on which he worked was completely surrounded by water for several months.  Despite the flood, life had to continue, looking after the stock, feeding and shearing, and so on.  With all roads in and out cut, however, there was no way to deliver the wool clip to Wentworth or Mildura for sale.  So, according to my father, the station went 'old school' and hired the paddle steamer Success to ship the wool in.

The attempt almost met with disaster.  At one stage a tow rope broke and the barge almost collided with the Mildura-Wentworth bridge.  It was only at the last moment before impact that a rope was successfully thrown across from the Success to the barge to reestablish control.  My father was involved in loading the wool onto the barge and was one of the hands on board during the trip.  An interesting side note - Dad couldn't swim a stroke.

The article above was printed in the Western Herald on 18 July 1969, and tells of the trip in September 1956 which was likely the last such trip on the Darling, carrying wool from Para Station for sale.

A family story proven!

Churchwardens Accounts of England and Wales

The listings in the Churchwardens' Accounts database feature every known church together with any chapels of ease and private chapels found mentioned in printed books and documents, along with the dedication, diocese, archdeaconry, and deanery of each wherever possible. There is also an indication of the population, taken from the Hearth Tax Returns and an early nineteenth century census. Further information will be added as it is gathered – including bibliographic information for each parish.

The search for surviving churchwardens’ accounts has been carried out by visiting all County Record Offices, Local History Libraries, and a few museums. This includes the Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight but not the Channel Islands although information provided by the Guernsey and Jersey Record Offices is listed in the database. The accounts that have been located, have been examined and each year of survival is listed with, wherever possible, the total expenditure of each year.

Although the main purpose of this website is to give details of original sources, a search has been made for both modern and antiquarian publications with transcripts and extracts from the churchwardens’ accounts. This information is shown on the appropriate parish pages.

A wonderful resource to help locate a significant part of our ancestors' lives.

Week 40 (Sept. 30 - Oct. 6): Least

This week's prompt of 'Least' has required a bit of thought.  What area of my family history do I know the least about?  And why?

The answer would probably have to be immigration records.  It is an area in which I have always had difficulty finding information, and several branches of my family seem to have swum their way to Australia.

Why can shipping records be so problematic?  Over the years, I have found a number of issues with shipping and immigration records.

Firstly, I need to consider alternate spelling of the passenger’s name.  These were times when literacy levels were low, and often our ancestors were not the ones who actually recorded their name.  It was the officials – the secretary, clerk, shipping or immigration official, etc who filled in the records, and they frequently wouldn’t stop to ask about spelling, or even check they had heard a name correctly.  Some people also used as alias for a variety of reasons, making their records difficult – or impossible – to find.

If the person travelled in steerage/was an unassisted immigrant/was a crew member who jumped ship, the details recorded about them may be scant or non-existent.  Females, children, servants and steerage passengers were frequently left off the passenger lists altogether.  It is also worth noting that prior to 1852, ship's masters were not required to record the names of unassisted passengers travelling from Britain to the Australian colonies.

Did our ancestors migrate in stages?  Not everyone went straight from A to B – some visited other points along the way, sometimes taking years to arrive at their final destination.  My Clark family, for example, migrated from Bristol, England and settled in St Kilda, Victoria.  I searched for their immigration records in Victoria for years – until, almost by accident, I discovered that they originally arrived in Australia at Launceston, Tasmania.  They lived in the nearby Tasmanian settlement of Port Sorrell for at least 6 years before making the journey across Bass Strait to the mainland and settling in St Kilda.  I had been searching in the wrong state.

Finally, not all records have survived the passage of time and remained legible.  It could be that the records we are seeking simply haven’t survived, or a damaged or faded beyond legibility.

So, for a variety of reasons, immigration records are my least successful are of research.