Look History in the Eye - Episode 16

The Sandy Point Skeleton is Episode 16 of the podcast Look History in the Eye, presented by the Public Records Office of Victoria. 

 
In 2017 a near complete human skeleton was discovered on the seabed near Wilson’s Promontory, Victoria. The media called him the Sandy Point man, and to the police he was a complete mystery. Hear from the forensic team who worked on this ground-breaking case using a new technique called FIGG for the first time. Family history DNA databases, archival research and scientific analysis combined to give the Sandy Point man his name.

Length: 42.30

Episode 16 : The Case of the Sandy Point Skeleton

Presented by Kate Follington, and featuring Dr Dadna Hartman, Manager Molecular Biology, Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, Fiona Leahy, Manager Legal, Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine and Dr Runa Daniel, Research Fellow Affiliate, Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.

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 :  

• Timelines How timelines can take your family history research further
• Irish ancestors Five essential records for tracing Irish heritage
• Fish and chips The history of Britain's most iconic dish
• Criminal ancestors How to trace their records
• Cemetery records How to find where your ancestors were buried
• Around Britain The East Riding of Yorkshire
• And more...
  

Week 5 (Jan. 29-Feb. 4) Challenge

The prompt for Week 5 is "Challenge", which pretty much describes most aspects of family history research at times.  How to pick just one area upon which to focus?

One aspect of research I find truly a challenge is the amount of misinformation and inaccurate research I find out there.  Incorrectly transcribed records, inaccurate original records, outright lies, and poor research skills can cause all sorts of problems for the unwary.

Online trees on any website I find can be full of errors, many of which are perpetuated by other researchers simply copying the incorrect information without  trying to verify it - even without noticing that the information is impossible!

Some of the impossibilities to keep in mind :

• 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.
• 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.
  

I have seen all of these, and more, in online family trees.  And trying to contact the tree owner to get their errors corrected?  Challenging indeed! 

A few years ago I discovered a transcribed record in an online database that illustrated the mistakes that can occur.  The record for the baptism of Hannah May below leapt out at me when I first located it.  Why??  Check the birth and baptism dates again.  According to this record Hannah was born 17 August 1796 but baptised 6 weeks earlier on 9 July 1796.

Something has been transcribed incorrectly in this record.  Possibly the dates are transposed and Hannah was born in July and baptised in August.  Possibly one of the months was transcribed incorrectly.  With no original image to check, I will need to dig further to find out.  It is clear, however, that a mistake has been made somewhere which makes my research that much more of a challenge.

Trove Tuesday - Can you hear the Music?

The National Library holds one of the largest music collections in the country – over 300,000 printed and manuscript musical scores, many of which can be accessed online through Trove. Its greatest strength rests in its Australian collections.

Before the invention of recorded sound, and later radio, listening to live performance and playing music yourself was how people consumed music. By the late 19th century, Australia had a flourishing performing arts scene and international performers were welcomed with fanfare. 

Sheet music was how you could play the latest hits at home at an affordable price. Composers and publishers were responsive to current events and Australia had thriving music retailer publishers which sold both instruments and printed music and published the work of Australian and overseas composers.

The National Library’s collections also include large company archives and comprehensive holdings of the music used by professional orchestras and performers in Australia, including those used for theatre productions or silent movies. An example of this is the State Theatre Collection which has music for the silent movie Felix the Cat as part of the collection.

A highlight of the Library’s music collection is its printed sheet music holdings. Numbering over 13,000 items, they are usually the length of a single song, and many have decorative cover art.  Most of the Library’s sheet music holdings are out of copyright and have been digitised. 

A highlight of the National Library’s sheet music collection is Australia’s unofficial national anthem Waltzing Matilda. This music was written by Christina MacPherson and later arranged by Marie Cowan, to words by A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson. It was first published in the early 20th century. Another is the popular Aeroplane Jelly jingle, which was first recorded in 1938 and is one of the most recognisable jingles in Australian history.  

Week 4 (Jan. 22-28): Overlooked

How easy it is to overlook vital information, useful websites, and other resources in our family history research.

I blogged earlier this week (see this week's Trove Tuesday post) on getting the maximum information from the death notice of my great grandfather William Pummeroy - which included his address, children's names, number of grandchildren, age at death and length of time in the colony.  Other resources can provide similar information if you pay close attention.

For example. below is the 1851 census for Isaac Green.

Isaac Green is a farmer, age 58, living in Fordham, Essex.  This census record tells me that his household consistes of his wife Betsy 57, son William 17, and servants Maryann Blakeley 45, Harriet Clark 30 and Betsy Woodward 17.  Looking in the "Where Born' column, I learn Isaac's wife Betsy was born in West Mersea, 10.5 miles distant.  This helped me find the couple's marriage, Betsy's baptism and continue tracing her family.

Interestingly, if you look at the household directly beneath Isaac's in the census, you find Edmund Woodward 59, wife Rebecca Woodward 55 and mother (actually mother-in-law) Rebecca Fairclough 77.  Edmund is a labourer - and yes, he works for Isaac Green and Isaac's servant Betsy Woodward is Edmund's eldest daughter who has gone into service up in the big house.  Following through the census, Betsy Woodward stays on working for Isaac Green for decades, through the 1861, 1871 and 1881 censuses until Isaac's death in 1882.

It would be all too easy to overlook this information and simply concentrate on the main family, noting family members and occupations and overlooking all that lovely extra information.

Proposal to Destroy Original Wills Overturned

The British government has announced it will not proceed with controversial proposals to digitise all copies of post-1858 wills in England and Wales and destroy the originals.

The proposal was introduced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) under the previous Conservative administration in December 2023, stating that the move was necessary to address the £4.5 million a year cost of storing the 110 million will documents.

The proposals were widely condemned by historians and genealogists. A petition to Parliament opposing them was signed by 15,793 people.

The MoJ has now published the results of its public consultation into the proposals.  It said that the consultation received almost 1600 responses, of which “The large majority of responses vehemently opposed any destruction of original wills”.

In its response, the MoJ said: “The Government is very grateful to everyone who responded to the consultation. It was very clear from the large number of responses and the very heartfelt nature of those responses that the issue was one which engaged high levels of public interest and concern.

“There was strong opposition to any destruction of original wills or other documents. This was for a variety of reasons in terms of both a national historical resource and also for individual legal challenges. There was also a strong emotional response to the consultation, typified in the comments received on the unique nature of wills as a record of a living person’s wishes for the distribution of their assets.”

“The Government accepts the compelling case that has been made by respondents… and has therefore determined not to proceed with any reforms that involve the destruction of original wills and supporting documents currently designated for permanent preservation.”

However, it noted that the decision to preserve the wills “does not address the concerns about the large and increasing costs of preserving the very extensive original will archive”.

It therefore warned that the government will “be giving further consideration to the fees charged for copies of wills and grants of probate”, particularly the current £1.50 cost of ordering a copy of a will.

This is very welcome news to family historians and we will be watching to see if any changes are made to the access or cost of ordering copies of wills.

Trove Tuesday - Death Notice of William Pummeroy 1889

It is sometimes amazing just how much information can be included in the few lines of a death notice when you pull it apart.

The notice below was for the death of my great great grandfather William Pummeroy, who died 6 October 1889.  The notice was published in the Melbourne Leader on Saturday 12 October 1889 and The Age on Monday 7 October 1889.  Both are available through Trove.

These few lines tell me so much about William and his family.  Firstly, it gives me his address, providing a head start on researching the house history.  It names all his surviving children, the sons and unmarried daughter by their first names and his married daughters by their married names - which in turn helps me confirm the marriages of his daughters.  It notes that William is the grandfather of 53 (!!)  It then gives his age, allowing me to calculate his approximate year of birth - if he is aged 71 in 1889 then he was born around 1818.  Finally, the notice states he was a colonist of 41 years.  This not only tells me William was not born in Australia, it also tells me he arrived in the colony in about 1848, at the age of 30.

So much information in just a few short lines.