52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 7 - Military Service

Considering the number of relatives I have who served in the two World Wars, my family was certainly more fortunate than many.  We had few injuries and even fewer deaths during military service, but I do not doubt that all who served - and those who waited at home for them to return - were profoundly and permanently changed by the events they witnessed.

Russell Nicholas Clark

My maternal grandmother, Gladys Daisy Clark, was born 30 June 1906, the 5th child (and 5th daughter) of James Nicholas Clark and Pricilla Veronica (nee Mulholland).  Eventually she would be one of 12 children, plus another 2 half siblings from James' first marriage to Eliza Hawley.  Unusually for the time, all the children survived to adulthood.

Leonard Rupert Clark

Gladys had 5 brothers in total, and 4 of them would see active service in World War 2.  Her 5th brother, Norman William Clark, was tragically killed at the age of 20 in a shark attack.

For a family with 4 brothers serving in the war, they were extremely lucky to see all 4 come home safely.  Mostly they saw active service in the Middle East, with 3 surviving the siege of Tobruk - brothers David, Leonard and Russel.  Gladys' eldest son, my uncle David Pummeroy, also served in World War 2, a pilot in the Air Force.  He would also return home uninjured.


Having heard many family stories over the years about the various war experiences of these men, and the home experiences of the women in the family (none of my female ancestors were nurses, etc), it surprises me how many of them, including my father, saw the war as a chance to travel, see a bit of the world, give the 'enemy' a black eye and all be home by Christmas.  My father was always rather disappointed he never actually made it out of Australia during his time in the Air Force.  His brother Ernest (known as Squib) sent the postcard below to their sister Nancy from Egypt.

Squib's WW2 postcard from Egypt

Through the National Archives of Australia I have downloaded several family WW1 records and ordered those from WW2 -  the NAA has indexed and digitised Boer War and World War 1 dossiers, which you can search and view online for free. World War II dossiers have been indexed but will only be digitised if a family member has requested it.  Other websites include Discovering Anzacs Whichallows you to add your stories and images, and the Australian War Memorial, which has databases like the WW1 Embarkation Rolls and WW1 Red Cross files.  Researching  newspaper reports in Trove has also been a gold mine, with news of enlistments, farewells, news from the front, even a few letters home were published in local papers.

WDYTYA 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 RB Digital eMagazines.

Inside this month's issue

• The Roaring Twenties
  100 years on, Helen Antrobus explains how you can trace your ancestors in this exciting and turbulent decade
• Murder, Mystery and My Family
  Stephen Wade goes behind the scenes on the hit TV series that looks at historic murder cases and asks: whodunnit?
• Child welfare
  How the plight of Victorian children led to the founding of the NSPCC
• Gypsy ancestors
  Are you descended from the Gypsy, Romany and Traveller communities? Find out with these websites
• Reader story
  An Indian journal helped Tim Burrell trace his family back to the Middle Ages
• Plus...
  Understanding Scottish civil certificates; the hidden history of Georgian gentlemen's magazines; tracing ancestors who worked as jewellers, and much more...
  

Around Britain

• Staffordshire
  The best resources for finding family in the Black Country and the Potteries

Holocaust Stories Online

Do you have Jewish ancestry and want to know more about the Holocaust?  My Story is a new website from the Association of Jewish Refugees, launched to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January. It offers a collection of free downloadable e-books containing the memoirs of Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution and Holocaust survivors. Based on oral history interviews, they allow the interviewees to tell the story of the suffering they experienced, their lives after the war and their journeys to seek refuge in the UK.

My Story first began collecting the stories of Holocaust survivors in 2017and currently over 35 members have either had their book printed or are waiting for their book to be created.  All My Story books can either be read online in pdf format or downloaded as an ePub file.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 6 - Out of Place

When searching for an elusive ancestor, it can be surprising just where people turn up.  When whole generations of a family have lived in the same area, suddenly that elusive missing ancestor turns up somewhere completely out of place.  During my research it has happened again and again - for one reason or another someone departs from the mainstream, heads out on their own, doesn't follow the predicted pattern and ends up somewhere completely unexpected.

From a mystery great great aunt who vanished in Melbourne and suddenly reappeared to marry in New Zealand to a family of forebears who were reported to immigrate to Melbourne from Bristol only to appear in Tasmania for 8 years in between to a great uncle who vanished from his family home in Essex, England only to turn up in Canada - sometimes people just end up out of place.

Tracking down those displaced family members can be tricky, especially when they turn up unannounced in a completely different country than the one you expected them to be in.  When did they move there?  WHY did they move?  Why did no one else in the family seem to know where they had gone?  I cannot say how many times I have heard people suggest looking further afield for a missing family member.  Back in a time when so many people were born, grew up, lived and died in one small area, it is surprising how far afield some people traveled, often in search of a better life.

It may not even be an individual turning up in another state or country.  Sometimes a missing ancestor is to be found in a prison or asylum, something many families tried to keep quiet about.  In times past the 'taint' of having a family member imprisoned or committed to an asylum was a considerable social embarrassment, and many families avoided mention of such a relative for fear of attracting social stigma.

While it is true that many of our ancestors followed fairly predictable patterns, there were still the trailblazers, the brave individuals and families who struck out into the unknown.  Seeking a better future, an escape from poverty or persecution, they uprooted themselves from all they knew and headed out into the unknown.  And turned up out of place.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 5 - DNA

A lot has been said about Genealogy and DNA tests, and while a lot has been positive there has also been a significant amount of negative commentary as well.  The issues that have arisen regarding privacy, informed consent and law enforcement access have caused great concern and discouraged some people from testing.  Over the past few years I have blogged several times about DNA, both my own results and the ongoing law enforcement access issue.

For myself, taking a DNA test has largely just confirmed what I had already discovered in my research over the years, and has produced no major surprises.  For a few others I know, that has not been the case.  For one friend (who has given me permission to speak generally about her discovery) a DNA test had major repercussions when it led to the discovery that she was adopted.  Her adoptive parents had never told her about her birth, and she had no idea she was not biologically related to them until she received her test results.  She found no relative matches to several family members she knew had done DNA tests, and matches to people she didn't know, including 2 sibling matches to complete strangers.  It was a lot to deal with and the entire family have had to come to terms with the discovery.

In the couple of years since I did my own DNA test (taken with Ancestry.com) there has been a few updates in ethnicity estimates.  As more people test, more ethnicity information becomes available and (presumably) more accurate estimates can be given.  The current ethnicity estimate for Ancestry.com customers was calculated in August 2019 and has 40,000+ reference samples and 1,000+ possible regions.  The latest update saw minor changes in my ethnicity, with the English component increasing and the Ireland/Scotland and Germanic Europe components decreasing.

DNA matches have also been interesting.  Last year one of my first cousins finally did the test - until then my matches had been second cousin at best.  Third and fourth cousins were much more numerous, and I have exchanged information, stories and photos with several of them.  Although I come from quite a large family (my father was one of ten siblings) few of my first cousins are interested in genealogy and had not done DNA tests.   This brings home the reality that you can only match to others who have tested - and no matches to a branch of your family doesn't necessarily mean you are not related, it could just mean no one from that branch of your family has done a DNA test yet.  Something to keep in mind.

Trove Upgrade

Many genealogists, especially those in Australia, are familiar with the wonderful website Trove.  Trove, part of the National Library of Australia, contains historic newspapers, Government Gazettes, journals articles and data sets, digitized books, pictures and photos, music and video, maps, diaries and more.  All can be accessed by anyone, completely free.

In mid 2020, the National Library of Australia plans to launch a new, significantly upgraded version of Trove.  And for those of you who would like a sneak peek at the new site, a general public preview will be held from 14-24 February.  Even more, there will be a guided tour of the upgraded website by the Trove team via a free webinar, held this Thursday 6 February from 1-2pm.  You can book in for the webinar here.

As a regular visitor to Trove, I'm looking forward to seeing the new website and have already booked in for the webinar.  I hope to post some feedback on the new website soon, after I have had some time to explore.

Transcription Tuesday

Every year, the people at Who Do You Think You Are Magazine hold Transcription Tuesday, where they ask readers to join in indexing and transcribing thousands of unique records throughout the day, helping to make them more widely accessible to researchers across the globe.  This year Transcription Tuesday falls on 4 February.

Whether you can spare a few minutes or a few hours, it's the perfect opportunity to delve into some fascinating documents and give something back to the family history community.

No matter where in the world you live, all you need is a computer, an internet connection and a passion for genealogy.

This year, WDYTYA is partnering with two of the world’s biggest family history websites – FamilySearch and Ancestry, via their free World Archives Project.  They are also working with two smaller projects opening up records of the First World War – the Internment Research Centre and Royal Navy First World War Lives at Sea.

On the magazine’s homepage they have a post with details of Transcription Tuesday and links to the coordinators of all four projects about why they matter and how you can help.

So whether you can spare a few minutes, hours or the whole day, consider taking part in this year’s Transcription Tuesday and help make more records freely available online to researchers everywhere.  You never know what you might find!