I love TROVE, and if you haven't explored it you are missing out.
Our family history is full of stories, and some I can validate, some I can't.
Great grandfather went gold mining, so the story went, and left the wife and kids behind. When she hadn't heard from him for a while, great grandmother went looking for him, (found him in a tent with a french woman) and brought him home.
Now, I have been trying to prove or disprove this one for many years. I did find that he was involved in a "riot" in the early workers rights movement, arrested and jailed, but that's about all I found. I almost gave up, told the cousins that it was family folklore. However, my cousin persisted with the story, and claimed he went to Ballarat or Bendigo....
This week I found his obituary in the TROVE collection- he went gold mining in Western Australia, had no luck, worked his way back to Victoria where he worked in the coal mines in Gippsland...(it claimed) and he was gone for 7 years.
Checking it out, all of the babies were born in the same NSW town, the babies were born 2 years apart, until the last one where there was a 6 year gap.... not quite the 7 claimed in the obituary, but close enough, and the years fit with the WA gold rush. In addition, the obituary of his wife's brother-in-law says that he too went to the WA gold rush.
So in essence the story was true.
Unfortunately, the bit about the french woman in his tent wasn't mentioned!
I have used Trove for 2 years now and through it have found a wealth of information on my great grandfather. He left Sydney as a 12 year old in 1873, went to QLD to work on a bullock waggon. Ended up owning pubs throughout QLD and because he was a publican, he was mentioned lots in the newspapers. Have even found pictures of him that the family never knew existed. Death notices and Obits turned up more family information. The only trouble with the site is that it becomes addictive.
His father was a compositor with the Sydney Herald and used his position to publish marriage, birth and death notices of his family back in Scotland. Thank you Trove!
Remeber when searching, try different spell of names, ie back in those days, Stuart could be sturt, stewart, etc, Henderson, Hendson, Hendersen etc. No Hendo's though.
chaslib said
11:37 AM Feb 12, 2014
Another thing to think about for Irish names - try putting an O' in front of some of them - I searched for Heffernan and found some of them listed as O'Heffernan.
Pam said
01:20 PM Feb 12, 2014
Trove is a great place to browse at the end of your Internet usage month if you have not used your quota.
Put names in whole, then try initials. Browse different places not just the area you expect.
I usually sort by date. That way if there is an ongoing incident or reports in different papers they show up together.
I love the old wording in articles. Eg. He expired during the night.
Rip and Rosie said
08:59 AM Feb 25, 2014
Family notices hold heaps of info for the researcher.
In funeral notices you get names of children, at least the surviving ones, which helps you with offspring and their dates, but in older notices you get even more. As women weren't invited to funerals, their husbands were. This gives you the married names of daughters, even though you have to track down which girl married whom. This changed in the early 20th century and women were included with their married surnames.
The ettiquette of funeral notices is very interesting. In many instances only the male head of the household "invited" family and friends to funerals............ e.g when my grandmother's 19 year old sister died, "Mr David Sinclair invites .... to the funeral of his daughter, Annie..." with no mention of her mother. A second notice said "Friends of Messrs. ROBERT, DAVID, THOMAS, JAMES, and DUNCAN SINCLAIR are respectfully requested to attend the Funeral of their deceased beloved Sister, ..." with no mention of her 4 sisters.
In a friends family, when her grandfather's second wife died, only her children were mentioned by name, and the 2 eldest step-daughters were not, but it was noted she was "wife, mother, step-mother..."
Another local funeral, for a young man who had committed suicide after an altercation with his young wife, his wife was not mention in the notices and was apparently not invited to the funeral.
Funeral notices also gave you an address, as many funeral left from the residence and the exact address woud be give. Far cry from today when funeral parlours are in every suburb.
chaslib said
09:03 PM Feb 27, 2014
Well, I think I may have got the crown in the Family History Finds ...... try a Sister!!!!!
I love TROVE, and if you haven't explored it you are missing out.
Our family history is full of stories, and some I can validate, some I can't.
Great grandfather went gold mining, so the story went, and left the wife and kids behind. When she hadn't heard from him for a while, great grandmother went looking for him, (found him in a tent with a french woman) and brought him home.
Now, I have been trying to prove or disprove this one for many years. I did find that he was involved in a "riot" in the early workers rights movement, arrested and jailed, but that's about all I found. I almost gave up, told the cousins that it was family folklore. However, my cousin persisted with the story, and claimed he went to Ballarat or Bendigo....
This week I found his obituary in the TROVE collection- he went gold mining in Western Australia, had no luck, worked his way back to Victoria where he worked in the coal mines in Gippsland...(it claimed) and he was gone for 7 years.
Checking it out, all of the babies were born in the same NSW town, the babies were born 2 years apart, until the last one where there was a 6 year gap.... not quite the 7 claimed in the obituary, but close enough, and the years fit with the WA gold rush. In addition, the obituary of his wife's brother-in-law says that he too went to the WA gold rush.
So in essence the story was true.
Unfortunately, the bit about the french woman in his tent wasn't mentioned!
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper?q=
His father was a compositor with the Sydney Herald and used his position to publish marriage, birth and death notices of his family back in Scotland. Thank you Trove!
Remeber when searching, try different spell of names, ie back in those days, Stuart could be sturt, stewart, etc, Henderson, Hendson, Hendersen etc. No Hendo's though.
Another thing to think about for Irish names - try putting an O' in front of some of them - I searched for Heffernan and found some of them listed as O'Heffernan.
In funeral notices you get names of children, at least the surviving ones, which helps you with offspring and their dates, but in older notices you get even more. As women weren't invited to funerals, their husbands were. This gives you the married names of daughters, even though you have to track down which girl married whom. This changed in the early 20th century and women were included with their married surnames.
The ettiquette of funeral notices is very interesting. In many instances only the male head of the household "invited" family and friends to funerals............ e.g when my grandmother's 19 year old sister died, "Mr David Sinclair invites .... to the funeral of his daughter, Annie..." with no mention of her mother. A second notice said "Friends of Messrs. ROBERT, DAVID, THOMAS, JAMES, and DUNCAN SINCLAIR are respectfully requested to attend the Funeral of their deceased beloved Sister, ..." with no mention of her 4 sisters.
In a friends family, when her grandfather's second wife died, only her children were mentioned by name, and the 2 eldest step-daughters were not, but it was noted she was "wife, mother, step-mother..."
Another local funeral, for a young man who had committed suicide after an altercation with his young wife, his wife was not mention in the notices and was apparently not invited to the funeral.
Funeral notices also gave you an address, as many funeral left from the residence and the exact address woud be give. Far cry from today when funeral parlours are in every suburb.
Well, I think I may have got the crown in the Family History Finds ...... try a Sister!!!!!