#52Ancestors - Week 31 - Help

For many of our ancestors, there would have been times when they needed help.  For many who fell on hard times, help from family, friends and neighbors may have been a necessity.  For some help could be obtained from charities, guilds and other sources.  For many, the workhouse was the place of last resort when they were in need of help and unable to find it anywhere else.

The origins of parochial poor relief extend back at least as far as the fifteenth century.  With the decline of the monasteries, care for the poor gradually moved from its traditional voluntary framework to become a compulsory tax administered at the parish level.  Over several centuries the enactment of the Poor Laws saw the rise of the Workhouse, with few other sources of help available.

Stories about the Workhouse abound.  People ended up in the workhouse for a variety of reasons, usually because they were too poor, old or ill to support themselves. This may have resulted from a lack of work during periods of high unemployment, or someone having no family willing or able to provide care for them when they became elderly or sick. Unmarried pregnant women were often disowned by their families and the workhouse was the only place they could go during and after the birth of their child. Prior to the establishment of public mental asylums in the mid-nineteenth century (and in some cases even after that), the mentally ill and mentally handicapped poor were often consigned to the workhouse. Workhouses, though, were never prisons, and entry into them was generally a voluntary although often painful decision for those in need of help.

Admission into the workhouse first required an interview to establish the applicant's circumstances. This was most often undertaken by a Relieving Officer who would visit each part of the Workhouse union on a regular basis. Formal admission into the workhouse proper was authorised by the Board of Guardians at their weekly meetings, where an applicant could summoned to justify their application - an intimidating experience for those in need of help.

 

#52Ancestors - Week 30 - Teams

The prompt of 'Teams' immediately turns my thoughts to sport, to ancestors who played as part of a sporting team, especially as I watch the Commonwealth Games on TV each evening. 

During precious leisure hours, our ancestors may have played - or been involved in - a variety sports, many involving teams.  Cricket, various forms of football and other team sports may have been played by our ancestors.  Some of the sports our ancestors played have survived almost unchanged, while others have evolved greatly over the years and others still are rarely if ever played today.

Finding the evidence of our ancestors involvement in sporting teams and be challenging.  Newspapers are a great source of information, with match reports, player profiles and statistics often included, especially in local newspapers.  Administration records and meeting minutes may still exist, and long-standing sporting teams which still exist today often have many old records, rolls, trophies and memorabilia on display or stored in archives.

Even if they were not themselves players on a team, our ancestors may still have been involved.  Were they part of the administration of a team or involved in umpiring, scoring, grounds-keeping or maintenance?  Or were they supporters, attending matches when they could, cheering on the players? 

Discovering information about any teams our ancestors belonged to or supported helps us to flesh out their lives, adding detail to their likes and dislikes, giving colour to our knowledge of their daily lives.

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 

• Online parish registers Our essential regional guide to church records and where to find them
• Royal Navy records How to use muster records to trace naval careers
• Reader story: Sally George discovered a love story that beat the odds in an old collection of letters
• Dance Halls: Caroline Roberts steps back into the past to explore where our ancestors went for a night out
• Children's Homes Peter Higginbotham reveals the best places to look for records of children who were placed in care
• Plus: The best websites for finding historic maps and how to use the Ogilby Muster to trace First World War soldiers

#52Ancestors - Week 29 - Fun Fact

Misspeld Knames are a commun probblem for reeserchors.

It constantly surprises me how often I hear fellow family history researchers say "That can't be MY ancestor - the spelling of the name is wrong."  It invariably launches me into a speech about how common spelling variations are and how much we need to be aware of them.  Fun Fact - there is not a single surname in my family tree - and not many first names either - that do not have multiple spelling variations.  That includes Green (Greene, Gren, Grene), Clark (Clarke, Clerk, Clerke) and Pike (Pyke, Peck, Pack).

In times when literacy levels were low, how a name sounded was far more important then how it was spelled.  Generally your ancestor was not the person who actually recorded their name.  You can bet that those who actually did the recording — the census takers, clerks, tax collectors, etc — didn’t stop to ask about spelling, or check they had heard a name correctly.

People also changed their names for a variety of reasons.  We need to consider Anglicization of names – especially non-British names.  First names as well as surnames often changed, especially around the time a person moved from one area to another.  Local dialects and foreign accents also often made a significant difference, especially if the person recording the name wasn't familiar with the accent or dialect.  How our ancestors were known by those around them may not match earlier records.

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. 

When we are researching we need to 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.

Another fun fact I have been caught by in my research.  In some areas, particularly around Germany, two names were often given to a child at birth or baptism.  The first name - what we often refer to as the given name - was a spiritual name, usually to honour a favourite saint, and it was often used repeatedly in families.  It was the second name – or middle name - by which the person was actually known.  That's how I ended up with 4 brothers - August Wilhelm, August Carl, August Friedrich and August Johanne.

 

Upcoming Conferences

Riding the Waves of History is the 37th Annual Conference of the NSW & ACT Association of Family History Societies, and will be held online 16-18 September 2022.  The conference is hosted by the Newcastle Family History Society Inc. with Maitland & Beyond Family History Inc.

Conference speakers have been announced and are : Julie Keating, Peter Mayberry, Diane Blishen, Jeffrey Madsen, Lilian Magill, Pat Healion, Gay Hendriksen, Joy & Allan Murrin, Kerry Farmer, Samantha Ashby, Dr Janis Wilton, Carol Baxter, John Graham, Cathie Sherwood, Jill Ball, Christine Woodlands, Jason Reeve and Louise Gale.

Keep an eye on the conference website or subscribe to their newsletter to keep up with conference news, pricing, speakers topics, virtual exhibitors and more. 

Family History Down Under will run from 8-11 November 2022 at the Castle Hill RSL Club, 77 Castle Street, Castle Hill NSW 2154

The conference will feature 4 tracks - each running across multiple days

• DNA: Genetic Genealogy
• Researching Abroad
• Australia & New Zealand
• Methodology & General

There will be 30+ speakers from Australia, New Zealand and other countries and  approximately 76 Presentations across the 4 days of the conference.  Recordings of all presentations (excluding workshops and dinner talks) will be available to view until 28 February 2023.  There will also be an Exhibition both at the conference and virtual until 28 February 2023.

You can choose how you wish to participate : in person or online.  Visit the conference homepage for more information on pricing, speakers, a list of presentations and more.

RootsTech will he held 2-4 march 2023 and will again be available free online. 

Watch amazing keynotes, enjoy instructive classes, and take part in cultural celebrations from all over the world, right from the comfort of your home. The website advised there will be hundreds of hours of brand new content for 2023.

You do not need to register for this conference and the online videos will have unlimited availability.

Family History Week

Don't forget to book in for our Family History at Your Library sessions during Library Week.  You can find out more about what the library has to offer you - access to Ancestry Library Edition, online magazines, our Genealogy Blog and Twitter, classes and class notes, and more.

#52Ancestors - Week 28 - Characters

 Every family has its stand-out characters, be they black sheep or lovable larrikins.  Sometimes we find out about them through family stories handed down, sometimes we see them acting out in photos, sometimes it is through newspaper reports and other records left behind.

One of my favourite family characters is my uncle Ernest Green, known to all as Squib.  Stories about his exploits abound.  In World War 2 he was stationed in Egypt and was frequently disciplined for practical jokes, drinking and going AWOL.  He was fond of telling the story of how at the end of the war he and a mate volunteered on a ship transporting soldiers home that was calling for bakers.  As they used to work for a baker they were accepted - until they were taken to the kitchens and asked to bake bread, at which point they had to admit that they just drove the horse and delivered the bread, they didn't bake it.

 
Squib was second oldest of the 10 Green siblings, and I have only one precious photo of all ten siblings together.  Somewhat blurry, it was taken on the day of their mother's funeral, and has the siblings gathered around their father.  It is not hard to work out which sibling is Squib - he is the one with the beer bottle balanced on his head!