Settling an Estate

As I continue to peruse old newspapers, I have found that estate sales after the death of an ancestor can provide a huge amount of information about where and how they lived.  The sale of a house and land was often advertised in the newspapers, with a quite clear description of the estate being sold.  It would often also list the executors of the estate as well.

Advertised in the Ipswich Journal Saturday 6 March 1830 was the estate of William Boggis.  The sale included not only the house in which William himself lived, but also several other dwellings - with the current occupiers listed - and a small woodland.

Another article in 1842 described the two day sale of the estate of William Hart.  The first days sale included farm stock and equipment, while Day 2 featured household goods and furniture.  All are described in some detail and mention is made of catalogues of the sale being available.  I do find it quite disconcerting reading the advertisement for the sale of 'live and dead farming stock'.

In the News

I was very excited at Christmas to receive a gift of a 3 month subscription to the British Newspaper Archive, and have been spending quite a bit of my free time since happily researching.  The variety of articles I am uncovering is incredible, expanding and enriching my knowledge of my ancestors' lives.  Below are a few of the gems I have uncovered.

During my previous research I already knew Christopher Prentice worked as a Water Bailiff.  I hadn't know this was an elected position until I found the article above, which was placed in the Ipswich Journal on Saturday 12 September 1778 thanking those who had elected him to the position for their trust.

6 years later Christopher was standing for election to the Water Bailiff position again, and took out another notice in the Ipswich Journal applying for re-election.

In the same newspaper in 1796 another ancestor, William Hart, gave notice to the public that he had taken over running the Fleece Inn in Boxford, and hoped to continue to serve the public there.  

 

Trove : the Future Looks Bleak

The future of Trove, the National Library of Australia’s public digital archives, is in doubt with just six months funding left.  The library’s director general has revealed that it is facing “very, very big decisions” in the next few months.

The last tranche of funding for Trove, which receives about $5m annually from the Federal Government and has more than 20m hits each year, is set to run out in July. While there remains a possibility that Trove will be thrown a last-minute lifeline in the May budget, that will come just weeks before it could be forced to cease operations.  

According to the National Library’s modelling, Trove will need about $32m over the next four years to upgrade its digital archival system, which is aging. Introducing a paywall for users is not an option, the National Library’s director general, Marie-Louise Ayres said.

“From the very beginnings of the National Library’s work in the digital space, and we’ve been in this space now for well over 20 years, we have had one great driver – democratising access to our collections and the collections of other cultural institutions and making sure that they’re available to all Australians regardless of where they live, who they are, and their ability to pay,” she said.

“Free access to information is fundamental to libraries, and it is to us. So from our perspective, egalitarian access is what drives us and we have no interest at all in moving to an alternate model.”

Losing free, open access to the many resources Trove has to offer will be an enormous loss to students, historians, genealogists, and the many other people who regularly access the site.  Like many others, I will be eagerly awaiting news on the future of this wonderful resource.

Trove

Trove is a favourite family history for many researchers, offering a wealth of Australian newspapers and gazettes, magazines, images, reports, books, diaries and more.  What's more, it is completely free to use from anywhere in the world.

As of 6 November Trove contains 236,164,194 digitised newspaper articles, and the collection is growing constantly.

	Current total	Since 9 Oct 2022	Since 24 April 2022
All articles	236,164,194	243,446	1,652,104
Articles with corrections	14,332,650	69,054	477,111
Articles with tags	4,581,094	22,076	178,100
Articles with comments	250,894	1,912	12,203

Below are some of the upcoming additions to the collection, the dates which will be added and the partners who are digitising each.

WA

• The Farmers' Weekly (1955) [State Library of Western Australia]
• The Guardian (1955-1957) [State Library of Western Australia]
• Sportsman (1903-1904) [State Library of Western Australia]
• The Sun (1919) [State Library of Western Australia]

VIC

• Camperdown Chronicle (1875-1876) [Camperdown & District Historical Society]
• Gippsland Farmers' Journal (1919-1922) [Latrobe City Libraries]
• Live Wire (Yallourn, Vic: 1938-1955) [Latrobe City Libraries]
• Narracan Shire Advocate (1944-1955) [Latrobe City Libraries]
• Lilydale Express (1927-1954) [Lilydale & District Historical Society]
• Richmond Guardian (Vic:1925-1928)
• The Ararat Advertiser (1899-1913) [Ararat Genealogical Society Inc]
• The Tarrangower Times and Maldon Advertiser (Vic.:1901-1911) [Maldon Museum]

NSW

• Berrigan Advocate (1932-1954) [Berrigan Shire Library Service]
• Border Morning Mail (1950-1951) [Albury City Libraries]
• Coolamon Echo (1898-1905) [Coolamon & District History Group]
• Deniliquin Pastoral Times (1863-1878) [Deniliquin Genealogy Society]
• The Mittagong Argus (1901) [Berrima District Historical & Family History Society]
• Mittagong Express (1892) [Berrima District Historical & Family History Society]
• Mittagong Star (1927-1932) [Berrima District Historical & Family History Society]
• Orange Star (1926-1927) [Central West Libraries]
• Queanbeyan Age (1952-1954) [Queanbeyan Palerang Regional Council]
• St Georges Advocate (1899, 1901-1903) [Kogarah Historical Society Inc]

New on Trove

A number of new and expanded newspaper titles have been added to Trove recently.  It is always exciting to discover new additions to the database, many courtesy of the hard work of local community groups undertaking digitization projects.

New Victorian additions to Trove include :

• Bacchus Marsh express (1919-1945), (1946-1954) [Bacchus Marsh and District Historical Society]
• Ballarat Courier (1883-1884) [Ballarat and District Genealogical Society]
• The Ballan Times/The Ballan Times and Blackwood, Blakeville and Myrniong Standard/The Ballan Times and Gordon, Egerton, Wallace, Millbrook and Blackwood Advertiser/The Ballan Times and Egerton, Gordon, Blakeville and Myrniong Standard (1890-1913, 1919-1920) [Ballan Shire Historical Society Inc]
• The Brunswick and Coburg Leader (1922–1926) [Moreland City Libraries]
• Elmore Standard (1882-1920) [Bendigo Regional Genealogical Society]
• Kyneton Guardian and Woodend and Malmsbury Chronicle (1863-1870) [State Library Victoria]
• Mildura Irrigationist/The Mildura Irrigationist and Murray River Cultural Advocate (1893, 1895-1896) [Mildura Rural City Council Library Service]
• Nagambie Times (1882–1913, 1919-1920) [Nagambie Historical Society Inc]
• Nagambie Herald and Goulburn Valley Advertiser (1873) [Nagambie Historical Society Inc]
• The Nagambie Herald and Avenel, Murchison and Goulburn Valley Advertiser (1873) [Nagambie Historical Society Inc]
• Richmond Guardian (1885; 1904-1924)
• The Tarrangower Times and Maldon District Advertiser/The Tarrangower Times and Maldon and Newstead Advertiser/The Tarrangower Times and Maldon, Newstead, Baringhup, Laancoorie and Muckleford Advertiser (1862-1894) [Maldon Museum]

 For a full list of recent additions, click here.

Really Useful Podcasts - Episode 6

The Family History Federation has now launched Episode 6 of its new series of Really Useful Podcasts.

 
This new episode focuses on Newspapers.  The website describes it : 

"Joe is joined by Mish Holman, professional genealogist who is particularly interested in theatre ancestors and census enumerators, Margaret Roberts, speaker, editor of the Playing Pasts online sports history magazine and Publicity Officer for the FHS of Cheshire, Paul Chiddicks, blogger and Family Tree Magazine’s ‘Dear Paul’ and Natalie Pithers, professional family historian, blogger and host of the YouTube/Podcast series #TwiceRemoved.

Newspapers are a superb yet under-used resource for family history. We discuss the kinds of information you can find within them ranging from accidents to awards and how to go about searching for genealogy gold."

Any long term readers of this blog will know how much I LOVE newspapers, especially the magnificent and free Australian newspaper site Trove.  From family notices to court reports, sporting achievements to business advertisements, stories of shark attacks and vagrancy, destitute widows and shipping arrivals, I have found so many wonderful things in the newspapers about members of my family.

As more and more newspapers are digitised and added to the collection, I keep finding snippets that add to my family history.  Thanks to newspapers I discovered that my great uncle Alfred Pummeroy, a jockey, was fined for incompetence.  While searching death notices I discovered my great grandfather James Nicholas Clark and great great grandfather John Clark were both members of Masonic Lodges.

So take some time searching old newspapers - you never know what you might find.

Jewish Newspapers added to Trove

Throughout the year Trove's collection of Australian Jewish Newspapers has been expanded to provide  access to over 200,000 pages and 180 years of Australian Jewish community history.  This project is a collaboration between the National Library of Australia (NLA), the National Library of Israel (NLI) and the Australian Jewish Historical Society (AJHS), and has seen 15 new titles are digitised into Trove’s collection of newspapers, over the years 1871-2008.

Titles now included in Trove include :

• The Australian Jewish Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1920 - 1933)
• The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne, Vic. : 1935 - 1999)
• The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne, Vic. : 2000-2020)
• Australier Leben = Australian life (Melbourne, Vic. : 1931 - 1933)
• The Westralian Judean (Perth, WA : 1924 - 1925; 1929 - 1955)
• The Australian Hebrew Times (Sydney, NSW : 1894)
• The Dialectic : Jewish Monthly (Fitzroy, Vic. : 1875)
• The Australian Zionist Pioneer (Sydney, NSW : 1929) 
• The Australasian Hebrew (Sydney, NSW : 1895 – 1896) 
• The Australian Jewish Chronicle (Sydney, NSW : 1922 - 1931)
• The Sydney Jewish News (Sydney, NSW : 1939 - 1954)
• The Australian Jewish Times (Sydney, NSW : (1953-1990) 
• The Australian Jewish News (Sydney, NSW : 1990 - 2008)
• The Australian Jewish News (Sydney, NSW : 2009-2020)
• The Australian Jewish Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1935 - 1955) 
• The Australian Israelite (Melbourne, Vic. : 1871 - 1875)
• The Jewish Weekly News (Melbourne, Vic. : 1933 - 1935)

 

From the Papers

Sometimes the detail provided in the newspapers is incredible.  The article below, about the wedding of my great aunt Constance Green in 1923, provides some amazing details.

The dresses worn by the bride and her bridesmaids - who the article tells me were her sisters Nancy and May - are described in detail.  

I know they left the reception by car to catch a train to Cornwall for their honeymoon, and that the bride's travelling dress was Wedgewood blue cloth trimmed with black silk braid and a large Tuscan hat with white lilac and roses.

I know that evening the bride's parents, Mr and Mrs W. P. Green, entertained the employees and members of the choir and church band, with their wives, at a 'substantial supper'. 

Not only does the paper describe the wedding itself, but it lists each gift the bridal couple received on the occasion.

So I know that the bride gave her bridegroom a silver-mounted umbrella and a silver tankard.  The bridegroom gave his bride a diamond and sapphire ring and ostrich feathers.

Major and Mrs Wood gave a dinner service.  Mrs Pole, cut glass vinegar bottles and salt spoons.  Mrs Tremlett, candlesticks.  Miss E. Hall, a cushion.  Miss Ambrose, a photo frame.  The list goes on.

All this detail about the wedding truly fleshes out the occasion in detail I could not imagine finding anywhere else. 

Trove Treasures - Death and Funerals

Over the years I have found a number of fascinating articles and notices on Trove, the Australian newspaper archive created in collaboration between the National Library of Australia and hundreds of partner organisations around Australia.

Death notices, funeral notices and obituaries are among the many useful offerings in the newspaper archive, and whenever I am lucky enough to find such notices they prove a wonderful addition to my records.  Of course not everyone who died had such notices in the papers.  Families had to pay for them, and for many it was beyond their means.  It is always worth checking, however, to see what might be available.

When my great grandfather James Nicholas Clark passed away in 1924 there were two death notices inserted in the newspaper - one from his family and one from the Masonic Lodge of which he was a member.  Had it not been for this Masonic notice, I would never have known that James was a FreeMason.  It is also worth noting the spelling error - the heading of the Masonic notice has CLARG, not CLARK.  The family notice also gives me his occupation - Overseer at Brighton City Council, and both notices give his address and the cemetery in which his grave is located

The 1889 death notice of my ancestor William Pummeroy also gives some valuable information about his life.  The first of the Pummeroy family to migrate to Australia, his death notice not only names the surviving children but notes how long he has resided in the Colony.  Note the daughters are only listed by their married names - only the unmarried daughter Jessie has her first name listed.

My Great-Uncle Alfred Edward Beseler, who died in 1954, had an obituary written in his local newspaper, adding some lovely detail to his life as a local photographer.  Knowing he had an office for his photography sends me looking for building records and rate notices, and knowing his profession in the area had me scouring local newspapers for events he attended and advertising for his business.

So have a look on Trove for what the historic newspapers have for you, and see what details they can provide.  You won't always be lucky, but there may well be unexpected gems of information you can glean.

What's new of Trove

The newspapers listed below have recently been digitised and made available in Trove. Note that the year range listed for the item is an indication of what's currently available in Trove, and not always the full year range the item was published.

NSW Newspaper titles

• NOTA - News Of The Area (Hawks Nest & Tea Gardens, NSW) 1970-1999
• Nowra Colonist (NSW) 1899-1904
• The Telegraph and Shoalhaven Advertiser (NSW) 1879-1881
• Windsor & Richmond Gazette (NSW) 1888-1961

VIC Newspaper titles

• Box Hill Reporter (Vic) 1925-1930
• The Reporter (Box Hill, Vic) 1889-1925
• The Brunswick and Coburg Leader (Vic) 1914-1921
• Mildura Telegraph and Darling and Lower Murray Advocate (Vic) 1913-1920

WA Newspaper titles

• Dampier Herald (Kununoppin, WA ) 1928 - 1937
• Cathedral Chronicle (Geraldton, WA ) 1931 - 1954
• Corrigin Chronicle and Kunjin-Bullaring Representative (WA) 1925 - 1943
• Weekly Judge (Perth, WA) 1919-1931

Widow's Application for Relief

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.

Trove Upgrade

Many genealogists, especially those in Australia, are familiar with the wonderful website Trove.  Trove, part of the National Library of Australia, contains historic newspapers, Government Gazettes, journals articles and data sets, digitized books, pictures and photos, music and video, maps, diaries and more.  All can be accessed by anyone, completely free.

In mid 2020, the National Library of Australia plans to launch a new, significantly upgraded version of Trove.  And for those of you who would like a sneak peek at the new site, a general public preview will be held from 14-24 February.  Even more, there will be a guided tour of the upgraded website by the Trove team via a free webinar, held this Thursday 6 February from 1-2pm.  You can book in for the webinar here.

As a regular visitor to Trove, I'm looking forward to seeing the new website and have already booked in for the webinar.  I hope to post some feedback on the new website soon, after I have had some time to explore.

What's New on Trove

In the last few months, the wonderful free website Trove has added almost 2 million more newspaper scans to their collection, taking the current total to a whopping 224,759,059 scanned pages online.  Did I mention it is all FREE!

WHAT’S NEW
NEW SOUTH WALES
Border Morning Mail (Albury, NSW: 1938-1943)
North Coast Times (Bellingen and Coffs Harbour, NSW: 1888-1889)
Nota (Hawks Nest and Tea Gardens, NSW: 1970-1983)
The Bananacoast Opinion (Coffs Harbour, NSW : 1973 – 1978)
QUEENSLAND
Torres News (Thursday Island, Qld.: 1957-2015)
VICTORIA
Chiltern Leader (Vic.: 1896-1898)
The Express, Melton (Vic.: 1943-1954)
Mountain District Free Press (Vic. : 1947-1954)
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
The Albany Observer (WA: 1890-1891)
Bonnie Rock-Lake Brown-Mukinbudin Leader (WA: 1934-1939)
Corrigin Broadcaster and Peoples Weekly (WA: 1930-1933)
Dampier Despatch (Broome, WA: 1904-1905)
Esperance Times (WA: 1896-1898)
Fremantle Advocate (WA : 1926-1942)
Gnowangerup Star (WA: 1941-1954)
Greenbushes Advocate and Donnybrook and Bridgetown Advertiser (WA: 1899-1902)
Nelson Advocate (WA: 1926-1938)
Northern Times (Carnarvon, WA: 1952-1954)
The Perenjori Pioneer (WA: 1930-1933)
INTERNATIONAL
A Voz de Timor (Dili, East Timor: 1973-1975)

COMING SOON
NEW SOUTH WALES
Albury Banner (1881-1896) [Albury & District Historical Society; NSW State Government Regional Cultural Fund]
Border Morning Mail (1938-1942) [Albury & District Historical Society; NSW State Government Regional Cultural Fund]
NOTA (1970-1983) [Tea Gardens Hawks Nest Family Research Group]
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
The Yellow Flag and Torrens Island Terror (1901) [Peter Collins]
VICTORIA
Arena Sun (1900-1904) [State Library Victoria]
Great Southern Advocate (1907-1913; 1919-1926) [Korumburra & District Historical Society]
The Moe Register and Narracan Shire Advocate (1888-1889) [Latrobe City Libraries]
Narracan Shire Advocate (1889-1891) [Latrobe City Libraries]
Richmond Guardian (1907-1909;1915-1916) [Rhett Bartlett]
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Bullfinch Budget (1910-1911) [State Library of WA]
Bullfinch Miner and Yilgarn Advocate (1910) [State Library of WA]
Central Districts Advertiser and Agriculture and Mining Journal (1893-1895) [State Library of WA]
Central Districts Advocate (1922-1924) [State Library of WA]
Collie Times (1935) [State Library of WA]
Daily Advertiser (Geraldton, WA: 1890-1893) [State Library of WA]
Democrat (Perth, WA: 1904-1905) [State Library of WA]
Dumbleyung-Lake Grace-Newdegate Cultivator and Kukerin and Moulyinning Producer (1930) [State Library of WA]
The Fremantle Advocate (Aug 1926-Jan 1942) [Fremantle Library]
Kalgoorlie and Boulder Standard (1897-1898) [State Library of WA]
Kanowna Democrat and North East Coolgardie Advertiser (1896-1897) [State Library of WA]
Kanowna Herald (1898) [State Library of WA]
Kondinin Wheatlander and Kulin and Karlgarin Gazette (1926-1927) [State Library of WA]
Kookynie Advocate and Northern Goldfields News (1903-1904) [State Library of WA]
Koorda Record (1934-1939) [State Library of WA]
Laverton Mercury (1899-1921); [State Library of WA]
Morning Post (Geraldton, WA: 1895-1896) [State Library of WA]
Mullewa Magnet and Perenjori-Morawa Advertiser (1927-1928) [State Library of WA]
Murchison Magnet and Mullewa Mercury (1926-1927) [State Library of WA]
Northern Public Opinion and Mining and Pastoral News (1894-1902) [State Library of WA]
Pingelly Express (1905-1906) [State Library of WA]
Southern Cross Herald (1894-1896) [State Library of WA]
Southern Cross Miner (1899-1902) [State Library of WA]
Wheatbelt Wheatsheaf and Dampier Advocate (1930-1939) [State Library of WA]
York Gazette and Quairading and Dangin Herald (1930-1931) [State Library of WA]