Look History in the Eye Podcasts

The new podcast series Look History in the Eye, produced by the Public Record Office of Victoria, continues this week with Episode 5 - Pentridge Prison Escape : How Hard was it to Break Out of Pentridge?

The episode focuses on the 1955 escape of five prisoners and the Board of Inquiry appointed by Governor in Council Charles McLean.  The Board conducted hearings in Melbourne on successive days from 1st to 7th September, and visited Pentridge on two occasions. Twenty-nine witnesses gave evidence.  This report was then presented to both Houses of Parliament.

The Look History in the Eye series now includes :

1. The silent prison : Pentridge and the Panopticon
2. Monuments for the masses : the 1978 Melbourne Landmark Competition
3. The called her Madame B : uncovering Melbourne's infamous madame
4. From Deadtown to Musictown : when Melbourne got cool 
5. Pentridge Prison escape : how hard was it to break out of Pentridge? 

So visit the Public Records Office of Victoria today and discover the back story to some iconic Melbourne and Victorian people and places, and download the archival record which inspired each episode.

Ancestry DNA Update

Ancestry has again updated the ethnicity estimates for those who have done DNA tests with them, as well as adding a new feature showing Ethnicity Inheritance - an estimate of which parent testers have inherited each portion of their ethnicity from.

Once again my Ethnicity Estimates have changed slightly, and once again they have moved a little further from what I expected.  My estimate is now 45% England, 32% Scotland, 14% Norway, 3% Wales, 2% Ivory Coast & Ghana, 2% Sweden & Denmark and 2% Ireland.  This is different to my last estimate, which was 54% England, 33% Scotland, 9% Norway, 2% Ivory Coast and Ghana and 2% Ireland.  My original estimate, back in 2018, was 65% England, 22% Scotland & Ireland, 8% Germanic Europe, 2% Sweden,  2% Ivory Coast & Ghana.

My known German heritage has still vanished, turning into unexpected Scandinavian ethnicity.  My Scottish ethnicity is unexpectedly high, and my Irish extremely low.  I still have no explanation for the fairly consistent 2% Ivory Coast & Ghana, and every update seems to diminish my dominant English heritage even further.

My Ethnicity Inheritance makes it immediately obvious to me that Parent 1 must be my mother and Parent 2 my father.  Parent 2 is almost completely English, and my father's family comes almost exclusively from Essex and Suffolk.There is a small amount of Scandinavian heritage there as well.

My mother would logically be Parent 1.  It is from her grandparents and great grandparents that I trace my German, Irish and Scottish ancestors, although I have no explanation as to why I have inherited absolutely no English ethnicity from her.

The new tables for Ethnicity Inheritance are another great tool for tracing how we receive the Ethnicity Estimates provided by Ancestry and where any unexpected results may come from.

While the numbers raise some questions for me, they are still a fascinating insight into my heritage and another tool to help my further understand where I come from, and I hope to spend some time over Easter exploring more.

Although I would still love to know how my German ancestry became Norwegian.

And if anyone out there can give me an ancestor from the Ivory Coast / Ghana, I would love to hear from you!

#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!