Week 24 (June 11-17) Possibilities - #52Ancestors

When researching your family history, the possibilities are endless.  Each time I start researching - sitting at my computer, visiting an archive or repository or cemetery or library, each time I write or talk to a relative, the possibilities of what I might discover are what keeps me going.

Especially exciting is when new records become available, either online or newly released physical records.  What might I find?

This is the reason I regularly check what is new on all the databases I subscribe to, including Ancestry, which is available free to search at my local library via Ancestry Library Edition.

Finding out what is new on Ancestry is as simple as checking the card catalogue.

To get to the card catalogue, log into Ancestry (or Ancestry Library Edition at your local public library or research centre if you don't have a subscription) and click on the Search tab at the top of the page, then select the "Card Catalogue".

 

The Card Catalogue is a searchable list of all the record collections available.  Because of the way their databases are titled you can use the title search box to narrow all the resources for a specific place, such as "Victoria, Australia".  You can then browse through the various data sets, click on one which interests you, and conduct a specific search of those records for anything relevant to your family.

 

Using this method, I discovered that Ancestry holds the Victorian Divorce Records 1860-1940.

I immediately did a search of this specific record set for James Clark and came up with a listing for his divorce, complete with a link to the original documents.

Viewing the record was the bonanza - some 55 pages of statements and court proceedings and other documents.  Full details of the circumstances of the marriage and its breakdown, dates and addresses, and the final Decree Nisi that dissolved the marriage.  

These documents fill in the detail of the marriage breakdown and subsequent divorce and are a wonderful find!

While you are looking at particular datasets on Ancestry, it's a good idea to read the "about" section for more detail. To do this scroll past the search box and you'll see information about where the data came from and more details about what is in that particular resource. 

  

For example, the Rate Books 1855-1963 for Victoria, Australia are by no means complete, and the detail makes this clear.  While the list below is not the complete list of Rate Books available, it gives you the general idea that different areas covered different year ranges.  For the complete list, please check the card catalogue yourself.

There is nothing more frustrating than spending your valuable researching time looking for information that is not covered by the database, even though the broad description implied that it was there.  So try checking the description of some of the datasets available on Ancestry to see exactly what they cover - it may explain why you cannot find a records you were expecting to be available.

And remember - the possibilities are endless!

Week 23 (June 4-10) A Place That Matters - #52Ancestors

Society today is much more mobile than in previous centuries.  Many of my ancestors spent generations living in the one place, setting down deep roots in a place and a community.

The Argent family can be followed through the census records with both father and son listed as living at Newbridge Mill, West Bergholt in the 1841 census.  By the 1851 census John Jr has taken over the mill from his father and is listed as a miller and farmer of 100 acres living with his wife Emma, son John and daughters Emma and Ada, as well as 2 servants.  The same census lists John Senior as Miller and Farmer living in Crouch Street, St Mary at the Walls, Colchester.

Newbridge Mill, West Bergholt

John Thompson Argent continues to be listed as Miller and Farmer at Newbridge Mill in the 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 censuses, running this business until his death on 22 January 1894.  To this family, Newbridge Mill was a place that mattered.

My Green ancestors had even stronger ties to Fordham Hall (also called Manor Farm) in Essex, being tennants at the Hall for several generations.  Although they were not the owners, they were major local landholders and were the gentry of their small community.

Fordham Hall, Essex

The Green family of Fordham Hall farmed the land, kept a pack of foxhounds,and took part in many community events.  The article below, from the 'Essex Standard' on Friday 13 October 1837, mentions Isaac Green of Fordham as one of the judges at the annual meeting of the local Agricultural Society.

 

Week 22 (May 28-June 3) A Name With Meaning - #52Ancestors

Names running through families often carry extra meaning, and naming children has always been significant.  There were also fads among names - copying that of the current Monarch and their family, for example, or using a traditional name common in your own family, or following popular fads.  Horatio, for example, made a brief surge in popularity after Nelson's victory at Trafalgar.  Similarly, Adolf disappeared from German communities after World War 2.

The given names of our eighteenth and nineteenth century British ancestors were drawn from a surprisingly small pool.  The four most popular male names were carried by one in every two males, and the top thirteen male names were carried by 87% of the male population.

In the 1700s the top five names for each gender were :
Boys - John, William, Thomas, Richard and James
Girls - Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, Sarah and Jane

In the 1800s the top five names for each gender were :
Boys - John, William, James, George and Charles
Girls - Mary, Anna, Emma, Elizabeth and Margaret

Then there were also the commonly used spelling variations, abbreviations and diminutives.  For example, if you don’t know that Polly was a diminutive of Mary or that Nellie was a diminutive of Ellen and Eleanor and Helen, you may struggle to find your ancestors’ entries.  Harry for Henry, Bill for William, Fred or Alf for Alfred, Dick for Richard, Charlie or Lottie for Charlotte, Maggie, Meg or Maisie for Margaret.  Elizabeth was another extremely common name with multiple diminutives - Eliza, Liz, Lizzie, Betty, Betsy, Beth, Bessie, Lisbeth, Liza - the list goes on.  

I have one female ancestor, baptised Elizabeth, who was known throughout her life as Betsy.  This was the name she used in census records, her children's birth/baptism records, her own marriage registration and on her death certificate and burial record.  The only time I can ever find her referred to as Elizabeth is at her baptism.Betsy was the name with meaning.

Week 21 (May 21-27) An Unexpected Strength - #52Ancestors

Many of our ancestors showed unexpected strength when dealing with the adversity in their lives.  Without the medical, financial and social support we benefit from today, they had to call on inner strength and find a way to move forward.

One such ancestor of mine was Eliza Beseler.  I have written about her previously.

Eliza was born in 1871 in Learmonth, Victoria to Edward Beseler and Emma (nee Flower).  Eliza married Alfred Pummeroy in1895 in St Kilda, where Alfred worked as a plasterer.  They had four children before Alfred suddenly became ill with pneumonia and died on 6 Feb 1901, leaving Eliza in a desperate situation.

The family lived in rented housing and had little by way of savings.  With four children to look after, the eldest 4 years old and deaf and mute, the youngest (my grandfather William) only 2 months old, Eliza was unable to do much by way of paid work.  She took in washing to make a little money, and was given 3 shillings a week by the local Ladies Benevolent Society.  It wasn't enough.

After struggling for a month after her husband's sudden death, Eliza took the step of applying to the local court for help, risking having her children removed from her custody and placed in an orphanage, something she was adamant she did not want.  The judges hearing the case awarded her 10 shillings from the poor box and committed the children to the department, with the recommendation they be handed back to their mother.

This appeal was reported in several newspapers, including the article below.

The Argus, Sat 9 March 1901, p15.

How much courage and desperation Eliza must have felt to take the step of appealing to the courts for aid.  Standing before three magistrates to plead her case, knowing they had the power to take her children away, while still mourning the death of her husband.  An unexpected strength in the face of such desperate circumstances. 

Website Wednesday - Railway Work, Life & Death

The Railway Work, Life & Death Project is a joint initiative between the University of Portsmouth, the National Railway Museum (NRM) and the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick (MRC). The project also works with other institutions including The National Archives of the UK (TNA) and the RMT Union.

The project makes it easier to find out about workers and work on Britain and Ireland’s railways from 1855 to 1939. They provide data about what staff were doing on the railways, what happened to them and why, all revealed through the accidents they had. Working on the railways 100 or more years ago was incredibly dangerous, with hundreds killed and tens of thousands injured each year.

The Railway Work, Life & Death project has been able to make publicly available the work produced by the NRM, MRC and TNA volunteers. Between them, they’ve produced a database of over 115,000 individuals and incidents. The volunteers have extracted the details found in the records of accidents produced between 1855 and 1939 – things like names, ages, roles, companies and details of the accident or support provided – and entered them into the free database.

Week 20 (May 14-20) At the Cemetery - #52Ancestors

The information to be found on tombstones and in cemeteries cannot be discounted.  From visiting cemeteries in person to finding online cemetery records to uncovering photos of headstones, I have had some wonderful finds.  The information found on headstones can be remarkably varied in content, with anything from a simple name to the details of parents, spouse, children and dates and places of birth and death.  Sometimes finding one relative in a cemetery leads to the discovery of several more, with whole generations of family all buried in the same location. 

The photograph above is the Mulholland family plot in Eurobin, Victoria.  The plot includes two main headstones and several plaques.

The main headstone is for my great great grandfather David Mulholland who died 10 April 1902, age 71 and his wife Eliza Jane who died 30 October 1925, age 95.  Also included on the headstone are three infant children - Samuel Thomas, died 28 April 1879, age 3 months ; Margaret died 5 September 1885 age 10 years, and an unnamed infant son who died 26 January 1887 age 10 days.

The second, smaller headstone is 'erected to the memory of the beloved children of David and Jane Mulholland who died at Boggy Creek.'

Sadly, the three children named on the headstone all died as infants within a few weeks of each other - Henry Mulholland, died 29 January 1872 aged 4 years 8 months, Margaret Jane Mulholland who died 2 February 1872 aged 6 years 4 months and Thomas Mulholland who died 14 February 1872 aged 1 year 2 months.  A stark reminder of the perils of childhood and how disease could carry off several family members in rapid succession - all three died of diphtheria.

Family Tree US May/June 2026

The latest issue of Family Tree US magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines. 

Inside this month's issue : 

• Remembering What Matters Most 
• RootsTech 2026 Roundup
• Scribe AI : transcribing and translating records
• New partners for FamilySearch 
• Digitizing memories with Ancestry 
• Family Tree DNA: Enhanced Tests
• Getting Smart with AI
• Soul Searching
• The Course of Human Events 
• Four Score and 170 Years Ago
• Find Your U.S. Ancestors
• Loyal Royal subjects
• At Your Service - the lives of indentured servants
• 75 Best Websites for US genealogy research.
• Hair Apparent • A woman and her hair-filled brooch present a 19th-century dilemma
• Confirming Relationships
• Searching Newspaper Databases at Elephind
• And more...