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 : 

• What were you doing 40 years ago? Was it family-history related?
• Celebrating 40 years of Family Tree
• Heredis 2025: new software out
• 93 million new Theories of Family Relativity from MyHeritage DNA
• A.I. grants for library, museum & archive innovation
• 23andMe board steps down en masse
• Artificial Intelligence and genealogy
• Finding your way around  Findmypast
• Free, frugal & fun : time- & money-saving tips, tools & tactics
• The life of a 19th Century soldier
• Digging deeper & decoding the National Register records
• Your DNA questions answered!
• Witch-hunts during the Little Ice Age
• Wartime trauma The life of George Smith, ARP warden...

Foundling Hospital Archive Free Online

The archives of London’s famous Foundling Hospital are now free to search online.

Almost 100,000 pages of records, containing details of over 20,000 children, have been made available.

The Hospital was founded in 1739 by sea captain Thomas Coram to provide a home for the capital’s many unwanted children, particularly children born to unmarried mothers.

At the time, the name ‘hospital’ meant any place that provided ‘hospitality’, or shelter. Rather than being a hospital in the modern sense, it was a children’s home, where children received care and education before leaving to enter into an apprenticeship at about the age of fourteen. The education was progressive by the standards of the day – both boys and girls were taught to read, girls were later taught to write.  The children were also taught music.

The digitised records fall into the following categories:

• Petitions from mothers and others: 115 volumes, 1762-1881
• Billet Books containing tokens: 203 volumes, 1741-1814
• Admission and baptism registers: 8 volumes, 1741-1885
• Apprenticeship registers: 4 volumes, 1751-1898
• Registers of country nurses and inspectors: 6 volumes, 1749-1812
• Branch Hospital registers: 5 volumes, 1757-1772
• Records claiming children: 21 volumes, 1758-1796
• Committee Minutes: 43 volumes, 1739-1895

 

Week 42 (Oct. 14-20): Full House

The prompt 'Full House' immediately makes me think of the many large families in my family tree, and how many people were often packed into small houses.  In past generations, large families were quite common, with not only numerous children but also extended family often sharing a home.  

While some of my ancestors were fortunate enough to have sizeable homes, those of poorer working class backgrounds often lived in smaller houses of only a few rooms, or even a single room for the whole family.  Children shared beds, and in poorer conditions the whole family would have slept huddled together.  Space was limited and conditions poor.

For my father, the second youngest of 10 children, all of whom survived to adulthood, it was a full house indeed.  Often the family lived in small farmhouses, with only a few rooms.  They moved several times during my father's childhood, but none of the homes the family occupied would be called spacious.

While the eldest children had generally left home by the time the youngest were born, it was still a full house indeed.

Trove Tuesday

Trove frequently adds new content to their website, and the newspapers below are being digitised and will soon appear online.  These titles have been funded for digitisation by various contributors, which are indicated at the end of each listing.

NSW

• Bega District News (1923-1954) [Bega Pioneers Museum]
• Berry Register (1894) [Shoalhaven Libraries]
• Border Morning Mail (1953) [Albury City Libraries]
• Braidwood and Araluen Express [National Library of Australia]
• Braidwood News and Gold Fields General Advertiser [National Library of Australia]
• Broughton Creek Mail (1880-1881, 1891-1893, 1899-1907) [Shoalhaven Libraries]
• Broughton Creek Register (1886-1890) [Shoalhaven Libraries]
• Kangaroo Valley Times (1898-1904) [Shoalhaven Libraries]
• Maitland Mercury (1940-1954)
• Moruya Examiner [National Library of Australia]
• The Pastoral Times and Deniliquin Telegraph (1895-1950) [Deniliquin Genealogy Society Inc]
• The Seagull (1957-2015) [Richmond-Tweed Library Service]
• Coolamon-Ganmain Farmers' Review (1919-1937) [Coolamon & District History Group; Wagga Wagga & District Historical Society; Coolamon Shire Council; Lions Club of Coolamon]

SA

• Australijos Lietuvis - The Australian Lithuanian (1948-1956) [Australian Lithuanian Archives]
• Hills and Valley Messenger (1984-2011) [State Library of South Australia]
• Port Lincoln Times (1982-1986) [Port Lincoln History Group]

VIC

• Ararat and Mount Pleasant Creek Advertiser and Chronicle for the District of the Wimmera (1861-1873) [Ararat Genealogical Society]
• Brusnwick & Coburg Leader (1927-1929) [Merri-bek Libraries]
• Grenville Standard (1897-1914) [Linton & District Historical Society]
• Mount Ararat Advertiser and Chronicle of the District of the Wimmera (1857-1861) [Ararat Genealogical Society]
• Mount Ararat Advertiser (1857) [Ararat Genealogical Society]
• Nathalia Herald and Picola, Narioka, Kotupna and Moira Advertiser (1884-1913) [Nathalia & District Historical society Inc]
• Sun News Pictorial (1922-1954) [State Library Victoria]
• Sunraysia Daily (1942-1950) [Mildura Rural City Council Library Service]
• The Journal: Glengarry, Toongabbie and Cowwarr Journal (1930-1962) [Latrobe City Libraries]
• 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 (1927-19360 [Yarrawonga Mulwala Historical Society Inc.]

You can see which newspapers and gazettes are already available in Trove's full digitised newspapers and gazettes list.

Ancestry Ethnicity Estimates Updated

Recently, Ancestry again updated their DNA Ethnicity Estimates, so I have again been studying my new, updated results.  I have commented before that with every ethnicity estimate, my results seem to move further from my family tree as I know it.  For the second time in a row the numbers moved a little back towards what my existing tree leads me to expect.

The table below shows my ethnicity estimates over the years since I first tested.  It is worth noting that in 2018 and 2019 the Irish ethnicity represented Ireland and Scotland combined.  According to my researched Family Tree, my father's family is 100% English back to the early 1700s and further and is primarily from the Essex/Suffolk area. My father's parents married in England before they came out to Australia.  My mother's family is at mostly English with some Irish (a Great-Grandmother), German (Great-Great-Grandfather) and Scottish (Great-Great-Grandmother) mixed in.  Most of her lines arrived in Australia in the 1840s and 1850s, and the various nationalities intermarried out here.  This is not reflected in my ethnicity estimate.  

This latest update gives back come of my Irish ethnicity while decreasing my Scottish, and much of my Sweden/Denmark percentage returns to Germanic Europe.  Completely new are the Netherlands and Yorubaland (southwestern Nigeria).

I would love to know where the Ivory Coast/Ghana and Yorubaland heritage comes from - both are from my mother's side of the family and I have a suspicion I may eventually find slavery in my ancestry.

As I say just about every time I post about Ethnicity Estimates, we need to remember that these numbers are estimates only and can still be quite inaccurate.

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 : 

• Historic newspapers The best websites for discovering if your family made headlines
• Transcription Tuesday Join us for our virtual volunteer event
• Theatrical ancestors Tracing ancestors with a connection to the stage
• Methodist records The best websites
• Reader story Katherine Langford's ancestor fought at D-Day
• Around Britain East Sussex family history
• And more.....
  

Week 41 (Oct. 7-13): Most

The prompt for Week 41 is 'Most', and Like last week's theme of 'Least' it is a prompt that is open to interpretation.  The most children in one family?  The most spouses to one individual?  Most likely to succeed (or fail)?  Most confusing family relationship?

In the end I have chosen a combination of most spouses and most confusing relationship, both titles would have to belong to Thomas May, my 3xGreat Grandfather.  Thomas married a total of 5 times, losing several wives in childbirth.

Thomas May was born 20 September 1762 in West Mersea, Essex and was baptised 16 October 1762 at the church of St Peter and St Paul.  He died on 27 February 1843 in West Mersea and was buried on 7 March 1843.  He outlived all 5 wives.

Wife 1 – Elizabeth Godwin
Born 1763 Thorrington, Essex
Married 27 March 1787 Thorrington, Essex
Died 25 August 1790 West Mersea, Essex
Children – Thomas, Edward

Wife 2 – Sarah Sadler
Born 1775 West Mersea, Essex
Married 1792 West Mersea, Essex
Died 7 January 1799 West Mersea, Essex
Children – Betsey (Elizabeth), Sarah, Hannah, John Tickell

Wife 3 – Henrietta Stevens
Born Unknown
Married 12 May 1801 St Mary, Lambeth, Surrey
Died 2 May 1812 West Mersea
Children – Henry John, Mary

Wife 4 – Susannah Balls Green
Born 7 June 1770 West Bergholt, Essex
Married 10 November 1818 Fordham, Essex
Died 11 February 1828 West Mersea, Essex
Children - Nil

Wife 5 – Mary Ann Pullen
Born 13 October 1791 West Mersea, Essex
Married 9 August 1829 West Mersea, Essex
Died 1838 West Mersea, Essex
Children – Edward, Sophia Mary Ann

It is his 4th wife, Susannah Green (nee Balls), where the relationships become truly convoluted.  Susannah's son Isaac (from her first husband John Green) was married to Thomas's eldest daughter Betsy (Elizabeth).  So Thomas became not only father-in-law but also step-father to Isaac, and his new wife Susannah became mother-in-law and step-mother to Betsy.