Week 25 (June 17-23): Storyteller

While my first thought when I saw the prompt 'Storyteller' for this week's #52Ancestors challenge was of recording and verifying family stories, a recent discussion has sent my thoughts in a different direction.

Over the past few years we have seen many difficult times, and I recently had a discussion with several fellow Family Historians about how we should record our memories and reactions for the future, so that generations yet to come can see how their ancestors lived through several years of crisis.

In 2020 the world experienced a historic global pandemic, with many of us moving in and out of lockdowns and various restrictions on our daily lives.  The world struggled to limit the spread and impact of Covid-19.  Like many I was stood down from my job, saw businesses close and contacts restricted, and in the small community where I live, unforgettably saw armed police restricting travel across the state border.

While many of my memories of the pandemic restrictions, which flowed on into 2021, are stressful, there were also many positives.  So many people came together to keep each other going.  Online shopping boomed and the concept of 'click and collect' became (and remains) common.  In the genealogical community meetings and conferences went online and access to many digitised records were relaxed to make research from home easier.  The idea of working from home became much more common in many industries.

Hard on the heels of 2 years of Covid lockdowns, 2022 saw my home area suffer the worst floods in living memory.  While my home itself was not impacted, many friends saw their homes flood, roads and highways were cut, access to services cut, shops closed and like many I came under an evacuation order.  

We watched the Murray River flood parkland, the water creeping closer and closer, flooding homes and breeching levies like the one behind the library where I work - see the photo below.  As the water rose the community came together to frantically sandbag homes and businesses, another wonderful show of community spirit in the face of a crisis.

These are memories that need to be recorded as part of our family history.  We have all lived through a global pandemic and lived through or witnessed a number of historic times in recent years.  Recording our memories of such major events should be a part of our family history records, for the generations that come after us.

So please, get writing your memories. Become your own storyteller of the historic times you have just lived through.

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 : 

• News : Helen Tovey reports on news from the world of genealogy
• 10th annual Lifetime Achievement archives and history awards
• Tips from the Family Tree Plus Club meetings
• Surnames as false friends with Chris Paton
• And So To France : Gill Shaw makes a foray into the French records
• Uncover the clues and pass the stories on…
• Dreaded Institution : a history of the Workhouse
• ‘Proof’ or works of Fiction? : Vital Records
• Reuben Joynes, Weaver & Activist
• Shape up your Research Skills in 5 steps
• Making DNA work for you
• Your questions answered
• Getting started & keeping organised with Family
• Photo corner with Costume historian and photo dating expert Jayne Shrimpton
• Join the Clubs

Who Do You Think You Are Series 20

The 2024 series of hit family history TV programme Who Do You Think You Are?  will mark 20 years since the programme was first broadcast in 2004.  Once again, several celebrities will take part to learn about their family history.

Simon Young, BBC Head of History, said: “This year we have a stellar line up to mark twenty years of the nation’s favourite social history series. Time and again it proves the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction, while helping us all to understand the history of Britain and the world much better, so it’s clear why our audiences have taken this series to their hearts.

Season 20 includes :

• Melanie Chisholm, known as Mel C, rose to fame as Sporty Spice in 90s girl band the Spice Girls and has continued to have success as a singer and actor. Now, she goes from singing ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ to appearing on the show. In her episode, she will discover a political activist and the story of how her family survived the Great Famine in Ireland.
• Singer-songwriter Olly Murs was a runner-up in the sixth series of The X Factor in 2009 and has recorded hit songs including ‘Dance with Me Tonight’ and ‘Troublemaker’. He will travel to Latvia to trace his family history and discover circus performing ancestors.
• Actor Vicky McClure starred in the This Is England series and BBC crime drama Line of Duty and can currently be seen in Paramount+ TV series Insomnia. She will discover the harrowing story of her great grandfather’s experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war in the Second World War.
• Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill is a retired track and field athlete specialising in the heptathlon and 100 metre hurdles. She won the gold medal in heptathlon at the 2012 London Olympics. She will travel to Jamaica and learn about her relative’s journey from being enslaved to owning his own land.
• TV star Gemma Collins rose to fame on reality show The Only Way Is Essex before appearing on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, Celebrity Big Brother, Celebs Go Dating and Dancing on Ice. She also her own reality TV show, Gemma Collins: Diva. On Who Do You Think You Are?, she will discover whether she truly is an Essex girl.
• Paddy McGuinness is a comedian, actor, writer and TV presenter, known for presenting programmes including Take Me Out, Top Gear and A Question of Sport. He will discover the truth about his grandfather’s role in the Second World War and investigate the origins of the McGuinness surname.
• Actor Rose Ayling-Ellis is best known for playing Frankie Lewis in EastEnders and winning Strictly Come Dancing in 2021, where she appeared as the programme’s first deaf contestant. She will discover an incident in her family history which surprisingly mirrors an episode of EastEnders.

Week 24 (June 10-16): Hard Times

The theme for Week 24 is 'Hard Times', and every family has seen them, some more than others.  Early deaths, lack of work, accidents and misfortune happen in most families at some time, although for poorer families hard times certainly hit harder and more frequently.  My own family is no exception.

Just last week, in response to 'Health', I wrote about two of my great great grandfathers being committed to insane asylums late in life, likely suffering some form of dementia.  I have also written about my maternal grandfather William Pummeroy, whose father died of pneumonia when he was only a month old, leaving behind a widow and 4 young children in desperate straits.  William and his brother would eventually be surrendered to the state while their mother struggled on with their two sisters, but only after their mother had made a desperate plea for help at the local magistrate's court, where the three magistrates would grant her 10 shillings from the poor box.

Over the years of my researching, I have found a number of my ancestors, especially those who worked as agricultural labourers, at some stage found themselves facing hard times in the workhouse.  

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.  For the working poor, saving money to support themselves in their old age was often impossible, with wages only covering the bare minimum.  For come, the dreaded workhouse was the only recourse available to them. 

Did any of your ancestors find themselves in a workhouse?  Want to know more about the conditions and how workhouses operated?  Here are a few sites for information about and records of workhouses.

• The Victorian Workhouse
• Workhouse records
• Union Workhouse
• London Workhouses
• The Changing Face of the Workhouse

Ireland's Genealogical Gazette

The June issue of Ireland's Genealogical Gazette,  published free online monthly by the Genealogical Society of Ireland, is out now.

 
In this issue :

• Genealogy & GDPR
• Ireland’s Ordnance Survey
• GSI Board News
• Irish History with Davy
• Demographic History
• Open Meetings Schedule
• James Scannell Reports..
• Précis of the May Lecture
• Military Archives Release
• Donations to GSI
• GSI Board Members

Also available online are previous gazettes dating back to 2006 and a range of other resources, so check out their website to see what they have to offer.

Week 23 (June 3-9): Health

The theme for #52Ancestors this week is "Health", and this has had me looking back in my records not only for information on the physical health of my ancestors but also their mental health. Over the years of my research I have discovered several ancestors who spent time in institutions such as workhouses, orphanages and lunatic asylums.  Two of my Great Great grandfathers died in lunatic asylums, both from what we understand today to be some form of dementia.

For many families, caring for an elderly relative, especially one who had developed dementia, was simply not possible, and before the rise of affordable nursing homes and old age care there were few places where the elderly could be cared for.  In times when dementia was little understood and any kind of mental illness carried a weight of social stigma for the family as well as the sufferer, hiding the person away in an institution was a frequent solution.  Others, unable to care for themselves because of their deteriorating mental and physical state, were arrested for various reasons and ended up before the courts.  Many were committed to the lunatic asylums, spending their declining years in conditions that today we would consider inhumane and totally unacceptable.

A number of these records are now online.  Did your ancestor spend time in an asylum in Victoria, Australia?  You may be able to access their records through Ancestry and the Public Records Office of Victoria.  

Information on Ancestry includes: Victorian Asylum Records between 1853-1940 from the Public Record Office Victoria.  The following information will typically be found:

• Name of patient
• Age and birth place of patient
• Date admitted into Asylum
• Reason they were admitted
• Photographs and physician notes also occassionally appear

If your ancestor died in a Victorian lunatic asylum, there will also be an inquest into their death.  The inquest records relate to deaths that occurred  when a person died suddenly, was killed, died whilst in prison, drowned, died whilst a patient in an asylum, or was an infant ward of the state and died under suspicious circumstances, among other circumstances.  These are available online at the PROV.  Inquest records up to the year 1937 have been digitised and can be viewed online. Inquest records from 1938 onwards are not digitised and can only be viewed in the reading room after you place an order.

The content of the records varies over time. Each file may contain:

• the Coroner’s verdict on the cause of death
• names of the jurors
• depositions of evidence given by witnesses called
• a copy of the Victoria Police report
• exhibits, photographs, copies of autopsy reports and other medical reports (these are more common from the 1950s onwards).

Edward Beseler was one of my great great grandfathers, and this was to be his fate.

Edward Beseler was born in 1836 in Neubukow, Germany and emigrated to Australia as a child with his parents and 4 siblings.  The family arrived in Adelaide in 1847 on the ship Pauline, living in South Australia for several years before traveling to Victoria, settling on a farm in Ercildown.

Edward was naturalised as an Australian citizen in 1863, and married Emma Flower in 1865.  Emma was born 19 September 1841 in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales and died 1 August 1882 in Donald, Victoria.  Together the couple had 10 children.

By 1900, Edward was in his 60s and showing signs of dementia.  Matters came to a head in 1909 when he appeared in court (see report below) on the charge of having insufficient means of support, was found to be insane and an order of commitment was made.

From the Ballarat Star, 4 February 1909

Edward was admitted to the Ararat Mental Asylum, where he was assessed, found to be suffering from senility, and committed to the wards.  In his asylum record he is described at the time of his admission as being in fair bodily health for his age, clean and tidy but difficult to communicate with as he was quite deaf and illiterate, and described as suffering from delusions.  While there are only a few doctor's notes in his file, by 1917 Edward's health was deteriorating and he died in the asylum on 7 December 1918, only a few months short of 10 years after his admission.  Thanks to Ancestry and the PROV, I have his Asylum record and his Inquest report, giving me a great deal of information about Edward's health late in life, both physical and mental.

Really Useful Podcast - Proof is Essential

Episode 6 of Series 3 of the Really Useful Podcast is out now! The episode is titles 'Proof is Essential' and discusses the importance of proof and using good methodology in your family history research.

 
The episode is described on the web page : 

Joe is joined by Karen Cummings, professional family historian and Managing Director at Pharos Tutors, Sophie Kay, professional genealogist at Khronicle and the Ancestry and Genealogy Expert for Time Team and Phil Isherwood, genealogist speaker and writer who runs the methodology blog ‘Seeing the Wood for the Trees’.

Proof is critical when building our family trees. We must use good methodology to gather evidence to prove our family history. Our guests discuss the importance of proof to family history research and offer some advice.