Week 16 (Apr. 16-22) Oldest Story

Thanks to old newspapers, I have many stories about the lives of my ancestors, adding detail to their lives.  Amongst the oldest newspapers articles I have is from the Ipswich Journal, published Saturday 1 November 1777, placed by my ancestor Daniel Green

A week earlier a cart horse owned by Daniel had disappeared from its paddock, and Daniel was offering a reward for its return.  He apparently didn't know for certain if the horse had escaped its paddock and strayed, or if it had been stolen.  As a result, he offered a reward of 2 Guineas for the return of the horse, but 5 Guineas for information about the offenders if the horse had been stolen, providing that information lead to a conviction.

Clearly Daniel not only valued his horse, but had the means to provide a reward for its safe return.

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 :

• DNA testing company 23andMe files for bankruptcy
• Who Do You Think You Are? celebrities revealed for 2025
• New family history courses & guides
• DNA Club news
• New WW1 military family history research service
• Finding our ancestors’ death records
• Victory in Eurpoe (VE)
• mtDNA ‘ugly duckling’ of DNA testing
• Tracing Schoolchildren : what the records can reveal
• Unhappy beginnings : Illegitimate Children
• VE DAY 80 SPECIAL: Planning a WW2 battlefield research trip
• DNA : Do you really need to test a sibling? 
• And more...
  

 

Who Do You Think You Are 2025 Announced

First broadcast in 2004, each episode of Who Do You Think You Are? follows a celebrity guest as they research their family history, discovering the tragedies and triumphs that made up their ancestors’ lives.  In each episode, the celebrities go through the records to find their ancestors, retrace their footsteps and meet with historians to learn more about the times they live in, showing how viewers at home can get started discovering their own family history.

The celebrities due to discover their family history in Who Do You Think You Are? 2025 are:

• Oscar-nominated actor Andrew Garfield
• Platinum selling pop star Will Young
• EastEnders actor and documentary presenter Ross Kemp
• Actor and comedian Diane Morgan
• Today programme presenter Mishal Husain
• Actor and comedian Aisling Bea
• First Dates maître d' Fred Sirieix
• Actor and Strictly Come Dancing contestant Layton Williams

 

Week 15 (Apr. 9-15) Big Mistake

Genealogy is, sadly, full of mistakes, and they are oh so easy to make.  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 or in a database or archive.  Any new piece of information needs to be checked and confirmed.  Mistakes WILL be made - by researchers, by transcribers and digitizing projects, even by those who originally created records, and they can lead us badly astray in our research and waste valuable research time.

In an earlier post I listed 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 2 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.
  

Recently 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 and has not been picked up in the transcription process.

Trove Tuesday - Coming Soon

These items are being digitised and will soon appear on Trove.  You can see which newspapers and gazettes are already available in the full digitised newspapers and gazettes list.

NSW

• Adelong Mining Journal and Tumut Express (1858-1860)
• Adelong and Tumut Express and Batlow District News (1949-1954)
• Border Post (1856-1860) [Albury City Libraries]
• Cootamundra Liberal (1888-1906)
• Germanton Times and Tumbarumba Advocate (1884-1885)
• Junee Democrat (1899-1904)
• Myall Coast Messenger (2014-2017) [Tea Gardens Family Research and Local History Inc.]
• The Seagull (1957-2015) [Richmond-Tweed Library Service]
• South Coast Register (1926-1948) [Shoalhaven Libraries]
• Tumbarumba Times (1906-1955)
• The Western Herald (1971-1980) [Bourke Public Library - Bourke Shire Council]

SA

• Port Lincoln Times (1989-1991) [Port Lincoln History Group]

VIC

• The Ararat Advertiser and Chronicle for the Stawell and Wimmera Districts (1885-1889) [Ararat Genealogical Society Inc.]
• Ararat and Mount Pleasant Creek Advertiser and Chronicle for the District of the Wimmera (1873-1884) [Ararat Genealogical Society Inc.]
• Ballarat Courier (1886-1896) [Ballarat and District Genealogical Society Inc.]
• Belfast Gazette (1878-1890) [Port Fairy Ghost Stories Inc.]
• Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (1919-1924) [Essendon Historical Society]
• Essendon Gazette and Flemington Spectator, Keilor Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (1924-1931) [Essendon Historical Society]
• The Nathalia Herald (1925-1929) [Nathalia and District Historical Society Inc.]
• The Nathalia Herald and Picola, Narioka, Kotupna and Moira Advertiser (1919-1924) [Nathalia and District Historical Society Inc.]
  
• Port Fairy Gazette (1890-1923) [Port Fairy Ghost Stories Inc.]
• Snowy River Mail (1919-1970) [Orbost & District Historical Society Inc.]
• Sunraysia Daily (1950-1956) [Mildura Rural City Council Library Service]
  
• Warrnambool Standard (1879-1890) [Warrnambool & District Historical Society]
• The Yarrawonga Mercury and Southern Riverina Advertiser (1927) [Yarrawonga Mulwala Historical Society Inc.]
• The Yarrawonga Mercury and Tungamah and Lake Rowan Express and St. James Gazette (1927-1936) [Yarrawonga Mulwala Historical Society Inc.]
  

Week 14 (Apr. 2-8) Language

Language is something which constantly evolves, with words over time taking on new meanings and new words constantly added to any vocabulary.  This is something we need to be aware of in our family history research - what a particular word meant 200, 100 or even 20 years ago may not be what it means today.  Similarly, what was acceptable language years ago may not be acceptable or commonplace today.

This change in language is particularly clear in newspapers - not merely the language itself but also what was acceptable in reporting and how events were reported.

My great uncle Norman Clark died at the age of 19 when he was taken by a shark off Middle Brighton Pier on Feb 15th 1930.  He was the first swimmer to be killed by a shark in the bay for over 50 years, and was killed in full view of hundreds of people as there was a boating regatta taking place at the time.  The incident was reported in numerous papers around Australia - not just the Melbourne Argus but papers like the Rockhampton News, Launceston Times, Adelaide Advertiser, Brisbane Courier and Western Australian Mail.  Below is one of the many (over 70!) newspaper reports which appeared in papers around Australia in the days after Norman's death.

 

 

 

Just looking at the language is fascinating - I doubt it would be allowed today to describe a young man's death in a shark attack as a "thrilling struggle".  This sub-heading does highlight how language much changes - not just the basic meaning of a word but also how it is used.  At the time of this headline 'thrilling'  more closely meant 'dramatic' rather than 'exciting', and certainly what was acceptable when reporting such a tragedy back in 1930 is not what our newspapers would publish today.

The description of the attack is graphic and would not be reported in such a way today - it simply would not be acceptable.  Even reporting the victim's full name prior to all family members being notified - I have a subsequent report from the Adelaide Advertiser in which his older sister is interviewed and reveals that she found out about her brother's death by reading about it in the newspaper while she and her husband were on holiday in Adelaide.

Trove Tuesday

This month on Trove, Stephanie Morris of the National Library of Australia talks about the history of Women in Photography.

The earliest known female photographer in Australia is Louisa Elizabeth How. An album of her amateur photography taken between 1858 and 1859, held by the National Gallery of Australia, are the oldest known photographs by an Australian female photographer known to still exist. 

Stephanie discusses the work and stories of some of Australia’s earliest female photographers, including Alive Mills, May and Mina Moore, Bernice Agar, Pegg Clarke and Ruth Hollick. 

New historical photography collections are added to Trove each year. The website provides a guide on how to search images in Trove. 

You can also discover the story of Australia’s first professional photographer.