Traces Magazine

For those of you in Australia who mourned the passing of Inside History magazine, I hope you have discovered Traces, which launched its first quarterly issue in December.

Featured in Volume 1 of Traces magazine:

• Fremantle Prison: then and now
• How an Indigenous axe is rewriting Australia’s story
• Melbourne’s buried treasure
• Preserving old photographs
• Beginning your family research

 Having thoroughly enjoyed the first magazine, I am looking forward to  Volume 2 which is due out soon.  Look for a copy in your local newsagent!

RootsTech 2018 Videos

For those of you who, like me, could not make it to the amazing RootsTech Conference last week in Salt Lake City, there is a selection of presentations available to view online.  While these gems do not make up for missing the event itself, they are a fantastic glimpse of what was available and a great chance to learn something new.
Go to https://www.rootstech.org/rootstech-2018-videos to see a what is available.  It is by no means the entire selection of presentations but a good cross section - and they only make me more determined to get to the full conference one day!
Clearly I an not the only one disappointed to be unable to attend - those who missed out even have their own hashtag https://twitter.com/hashtag/NotAtRootsTech which I have been following.

Week 9 - Where There's a Will - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Amy's prompt for Week 9 is Where There's a Will - and I do love wills.  They are fascinating documents and (potentially) give so much information about the family of the individual who wrote it.  Their spouse, children, other dependents, sometimes extended family or business associates - it is always well worth taking the time to see if any of your ancestors left a will.

I have had great luck with wills in my family history research.  They have provided me with invaluable clues - the surnames of married daughters, which children have survived a parent, details of property held and much more.  Getting the most out of the wills I have found has sent me chasing details of executors and witnesses - often relatives, as such a task was not given to strangers.  Who was each person mentioned, and how did they relate to the originator of the will?

My favourite will is that of my great great grandfather David Mulholland, who died in 1902.  The will itself is quite brief and names his wife and surviving children.

Original handwritten will of David Mulholland

A transcription of the will reads :

This is the last will and testament of me David Mulholland of Eurobin near Kilsythe in the Colony of Victoria Farmer.

I give devise and bequeath unto my wife Eliza Jane my dwelling house and furniture and all the land around the house to the railway fence for her life time and each of the two sons pay her five shillings per week for her life time the sons names are Henry and James.  My son David will receive fifty pounds cash.  James will get the homestead paddock and the paddock known as O’Donnell and also the house and land after Mrs Mulholland’s death.  Mrs Mulholland to do with as she likes with the furniture.  Henry is to have all the land across the Ovens River known as Watonga and all the cattle are to be equally divided between James and Henry.  My daughter Mary (Mrs Pape) one shilling and my daughter Ellen (Mrs Stoddart) one shilling.  My daughter Jane twenty pounds.  My daughter Priscilla (Mrs Clark) ten pounds and the balance of the cash to be divided in equal parts between James and Henry after all my debts are paid. 

Considering that David had over 600 pounds in the bank at the time of his death, the daughters who received a shilling each might feel a little slighted, as might his wife who gets to dwell in the farmhouse for the rest of her life but does not own it, and receives 10 shillings a week from the two sons who farmed the land with her husband but she has no money of her own left to her by him.

Also a source of extremely useful information is the probate record attached to the will, especially the Affidavit of Statement which contains a statement of assets and liabilities - basically a list of what David owned and how much it was worth.  The first page of this list (4 pages long in total) details the three parcels of land he owned - subsequent pages listed crops, livestock, farming implements, carriages, harness and saddlery, furniture, cash on hand and money in the bank.  Any debts owed to David, and any debts he owed others were also listed.  All fascinating information and a great insight into the family.

Page 1 of David Mulholland's Statement of Assets and Liabilities

David Mulholland owned 3 parcels of land that formed his farm, and the Statement of Assets and Liabilities details each, and gives quite a bit of information.  For the first parcel of land, it tells us the following details : All those pieces of freehold land containing 132 acres 3 roods and 1 perch more or less being special allot. 6H, allotments 7A and 7B of section 25 and part of allotment B5, Parish of Barrwedgee County of Bogong fenced partly post and two rail partly rail and wire 40 acres partly cleared remainder used for grazing with 3 room stone house with three weather board rooms and outhouses erected thereon municipal assessment 33 pounts per annum valued at 665 pounds.

So much information is contained in wills and probate records, and they are also a record type which dates back to before civil registration, which makes older wills an even more exciting find.  Not all my ancestors left wills of course - many were poor labourers who had little to leave - but every will I have found has furthered my research and given me a much deeper understanding of they lives my ancestors led. 

Week 8 - Heirloom - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

I'm really enjoying the #52ancestors challenge, and the Week 8 prompt Heirloom has sent me into my old oak sideboard (inherited from my mother, who inherited it from her mother), looking at the assortment of porcelain and glassware I have inherited from my parents, grandparents, etc..  While trying to decide which particular item I wanted to write about, I got to thinking about who would inherit these things after I am gone, and whether they will treasure them as I do, or even know their stories.  It has got me thinking (which, really, is what this challenge is all about).

I have no children to inherit when I am gone.  Neither does my sister.  Our branch of the family ends with us - so what will happen to all our 'stuff'?  Will it be passed on to people who will value it, or will it be tossed in the tip or sent to the second-hand shops, dismissed as junk?  There are a few things I have written a history of for my cousins, but most things they will have no idea about, much as my sister and I did when our parents passed away.

While we were sorting through the contents of our family home, we were constantly turning to each other and asking "Do you know what this is?  How long did our parents have it?  It is an heirloom or did Mum buy if from a mail order catalogue a few months ago?"  The answer, all too frequently, was "I don't know.  I don't remember seeing it before."  Many things were clearly not old or valuable and went straight into the 'donate' or 'tip' piles.  Other things prompted excited exclamations, a few tears and long stories, as we recognised old treasures not seen for years.  In the end, however, we had to make judgement calls on a lot of things - we couldn't keep it all, and generally if we didn't know the story or history behind something, we simply threw it out.

Even for those of you out there who do have children and grandchildren to inherit when you are gone, do they know the stories behind your treasures, and will they value them enough to keep them and pass them on to the next generation?  Or will they decide they don't want to fill their homes with 'old stuff', maybe pick one or two items they remember from their childhoods and toss the rest, and dump the things they do keep in the garage or shed or attic or basement, and forget to pass the stories and history on to their children in turn?  I know a number of people for whom this is a problem.  Sadly, I don't have an answer.

So after looking through my sideboard and cabinet, I think I'll make a start by taking photos of several inherited items and making notes on that they are, where they came from, why I've kept them and what I would like to happen to them when I'm gone.  And I will hope the stories, and the items themselves, will survive for generations to come and not be lost forever.

Victorian Birth, Death and Marriage indexes

For those of you who (like me) missed the news, the Index to Victorian births, deaths and marriages has been updated at the start of the year and you can now search for marriages up to 1950. That’s 8 years of additional marriages.  Births have also been extended by a year.
The Index to Victorian births, deaths and marriages now covers:

• births in Victoria from 1853 to 1917
• marriages in Victoria from 1853 to 1950
• deaths in Victoria from 1853 to 1988
• church baptisms, marriages and burials in Victoria from 1836 to 1853

Each entry includes the:

• name of the person or people the entry relates to
• type of event (such as birth, marriage or death)
• registration year
• registration number
• other information relevant to the type of event.

Week 7 - Valentine - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

The prompt for Week 7 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is Valentine.  As I have decided my family is not particularly romantic, I thought instead to look at the history of Valentine’s Day – when it originated and how it became so popular.

The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl–possibly his jailor’s daughter–who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today. 

Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and–most importantly–romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.

While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial, others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

Lupercalia was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”–at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.) Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900 printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day greetings.

Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year after the estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.

Ash Wednesday 35 Years On

It is 35 years ago that Victoria and South Australia were devastated by the Ash Wednesday bushfires.  At the time I was 12 years old and living in Moama, New South Wales, a small town on the Murray River almost directly north of Melbourne.  The Age has republished on its website their report from February 17th 1983.
My home was well away from the fire area, but I can vividly remember watching the news on television and my whole family worrying about relatives living in the danger zone.  I can remember the red sunrises and sunsets, and a kind of half-dark during the day as the smoke shadowed the sun, even though we were over 100km away from the fires themselves.  My family had an old chest freezer on the covered back verandah of our house, and my sister and I drew pictures in the layer of ash and soot that covered it.

Map of the Ash Wednesday Fires in Victoria

At the time it was the third worst fire toll in Australian history, after the 1939 Victorian bushfires which killed 71 people and the 1967 Tasmanian bushfires killed 62.  Highways were cut, thousands were evacuated, hundreds of homes and businesses burned.  Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser declared a state of emergency.  Over 4000 firefighters, many of them volunteers, were deployed and in South Australia over 600 army personnel were mobilized to help.  In a country so prone to devastating bushfires, Ash Wednesday stands out for the devastation it caused.