#52Ancestors - Week 15 - How Do You Spell That?

Spelling.  The bugbear of all genealogists.  The lack of consistency in spelling by our ancestors (and by those many clerks, enumerators, priests and officials who actually wrote their names down) is something that causes researchers endless frustration.

Misspeld knames are a commun probblem for reeserchors.  In times when literacy levels were low, how a name sounded was often more important than how it was spelled, and many officials who created records simply wrote names down as they heard them.  Generally your ancestor was not the person who actually recorded their name, and they had little opportunity to correct a misspelled or misheard name.  This means that spelling variations and incorrectly recorded names abound in records.  No one stopped to ask 'how do you spell that?'

It is something we hear time and time again as researchers - always consider possible alternate spelling of any name.  Consider Anglicization of names – especially non-British names.  First names as well as surnames often changed. Local dialects and foreign accents often made a significant difference, and many first names were truncated or written in short form.  William recorded as Wm, Patrick as Pat or Patk, James as Js and so on.  You also have common shortened names – William as Bill, James as Jimmy, Elizabeth as Eliza or Liz or Beth or Betty. 

Consider how well the search engine of any database might cope with alternate spelling, truncation and so on.  Several searches may be necessary to ensure you don’t miss potential matches.  In my family database I have exactly no surnames that are spelled the same way - including Green (Greene, Greyne), Hart (Harte, Heart, Hearte) and Pike (Pyke, Peak, Peake).

So when you are researching, always stop and ask - How do you spell that?  And more importantly - how did THEY spell that?

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 

• Get more from maps Gill Blanchard reveals how to use old maps in family history
• Extreme weather TV's Ruth A Symes explains how you can find out how the weather affected your ancestors' lives
• FamilyTreeDNA Debbie Kennett on how to make the most of this pioneering DNA company
• Once upon a time... Julie Peakman tells the story of children's literature
• Reader story Clare Patrick's great grandfather was a Victorian black actor
• Plus: The best websites for old street photographs, how to trace Post Office workers, using LostCousins and more

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

• National recognition for photo reminiscence project
• Uncovering the Nation's Working Class Heritage
  
• A summer of celebrations
• Scottish 1921 Census contract awarded
• Let’s make archives for everyone
• New release takes RAF collection to 11 million records
• Survey reveals attitudes towards history
• Help to make the US 1950 census searchable online
• Celebrating Armed Forces Day 2022
• Tailors, Dressmakers and Seamstresses
  

 

#52Ancestors - Week 14 - Check It Out

It is something experienced researchers say over and over - when you see new information on someone's online family tree you need to check it out - thoroughly.  One of the biggest mistakes we can make as researchers is to blindly accept as fact anything we see in someone else's online family tree.  Any new piece of information needs to be checked and should be taken as a hint at best.  Not everyone out there is a meticulous researcher and some simply see a record that kind of fits and add it to their trees.  Typing errors when adding dates can also create misleading 'facts', and many tree builders out there don't even check their trees enough to spot glaring errors and absolute impossibilities.

Check all your facts, don’t assume that any document is right or wrong, and always try to find other independent sources to verify your facts.

Don’t assume that :   

• Your ancestors were married 
• Your ancestors used their dominant local church  
• Census information is accurate  
• Any records are 100% correct  
• Your ancestor’s life events (births, marriages, deaths) were recorded  
• All relevant records have survived the passage of time

I am constantly amazed by some of the errors and misinformation I find online, especially in online trees.

So many people make assumptions, ignore the basics of biology and chronology, and put their (clearly incorrect) data online for others to copy - and the copiers accept their incorrect data without questioning errors which should be clear.  Always 'check it out'.

Here are some of the things to keep in mind to help spot obvious errors - and I have seen all of these in online trees : 

• 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.  While medical technology may be making this possible today, it really wasn't possible in the 1840s.  Baptisms, however, are another matter. 
• 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.  Something in this timeline is wrong.

So remember to Check It Out.

#52Ancestors - Week 13 - Sisters

The theme for Week 13 is Sisters, and I'm focusing on my father's six sisters, Isobel, Phyllis, Jess, Olive, Nancy and Marjory.  Born in the Mildura area between 1912 and 1928, the six girls (and their four brothers) grew up on farms around Victoria.

Their parents, Frank and Rosa, were both born in England, and emigrated to Australia shortly after their marriage in 1907.  The couple chose to leave their families behind and, like so many before them, take their chances on a new life in Australia.  All six sisters married and raised families of their own, a total of 18 children scattered around the state.

Given the spread of ages, getting all six sisters together for a photograph was something of a challenge.  While I have a number of photos of the sisters singly or in smaller groups, the image above is the only one I have of all of them.  It was taken in 1965, while the family gathered for their mother Rosa's funeral.  The photos show, left to right, Isobel, Nancy, Olive, Phyllis, Jess and Marjory.

Taken the same day is the only photo I have ever seen of all ten siblings together, gathered around their father.  A truly precious, if slightly blurry, image of my father's family all gathered together.  And yes, brother Ernie does indeed have a beer bottle balanced on his head!

Look History in the Eye Podcasts

The new podcast series Look history in the eye is  produced by the Public Record Office of Victoria on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and on the PROV website. The first two episodes now available provide insight into the Pentridge panopticon and the 1970s Melbourne Landmark competition featuring interviews with archaeologists Adam Ford and Geoff Hewitt, and architectural historians Derham Groves and Seamus O’Hanlon.   

In the series the PROV interviews the people who delve into public archives and uncover interesting truths about Melbourne and Victoria's past. Discover the back story to some iconic Melbourne and Victorian people and places through the series.

PROV has more episodes to come every Wednesday including…

• Deadtown to musictown featuring food writer Michael Harden, restaurateur Tiberio Donnini and economist John Nieuwenhuysen
• They called her Madame B with historian Barbara Minchinton
• Prison escapes featuring crime writer Susanna Lobez 
• And more episodes are on the way…

Each episode spotlights records from the PROV collection. You can view the records featured, view transcripts and learn more about the stories told via the episode pages of the website. 

#52Ancestors - Week 12 - Joined Together

This week's theme of "Joined Together' can be interpreted in so many ways.  As family we are joined together by blood, by marriage, by love, by many ties and shared interests and shared memories.  People are joined together by work, hobbies, sport, region, country, language - the list goes on.

Every family has different activities and interests that bring them together.  During my childhood my family joined together most evenings for a meal and relaxation time afterwards.  Although I didn't quite understand it at the time, we came together in a way few families did any more - in a time when most spent the evening at home gathered around the television, we frequently left the TV off and gathered for the evening to talk, do craft and read aloud to one another.

While neither of my parents had the opportunity to continue their education as they wished, both valued learning highly and were determined their children would have opportunities they did not.  Both loved reading and passed that love on to my sister and I.  Reading aloud to one another was simply something we did - reading in bed on lazy Sunday mornings, and reading around the kitchen table after dinner in the evening.  We all did handcrafts - so while we knitted, sewed, carved and crafted, we each took turns reading aloud.  The books we children read became progressively more complex as we grew up and developed our reading skills, but even from an early age we read, or made up a story from the pictures in our picture books.

My sister and I both started primary school already confidently reading chapter books.  What our teachers made of us I don't quite know, but I do remember my Grade 1 teacher sending me to the school library to pick out some more challenging books after it became obvious our classroom readers were too basic and I was bored with them.

A shared love of reading continued throughout our lives and joined us together - recommending authors and titles to one another, discussing what we read, and sharing time together reading quietly.  While we all have different tastes and favorite books and authors, we overlap in many areas and our love of reading joins us together.