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The GSV's Journal 'Ancestor' is now out for this quarter (March 2018, Vol.34:1). If you are a Member you have already got this Issue and you will be well into the interesting articles. Here is a brief look at what is in this new Ancestor. I would love to receive your comments to this blog, about this journal and its features  (see 'Comments' button at end).  You may even want to send me a follow-up article for possible future publication on this Blog.*** Bill Barlow, GSV Blog Editor. e: blog@gsv.org.au

'Use of Autosomal DNA to find Relatives of Charles William Sharman'. DNA testing helped Robyn Sharman Hawking to solve the long-standing problem of who were the parents of her great grandfather Charles William Sharman. It set her on a course that she would never have been able to follow without the test results.

If you would like to know more about DNA and its usefulness in genealogy, the GSV has introduced a new series of 'modules' - you might like to attend one or more of the modules that are being planned for this year. These will help you personally interpret the data that DNA testing companies send you after a swab test.

'Dr John Fishbourne: A Victorian Medical Pioneer'. Kaye Cole has researched her nineteenth century relative Dr John Fishbourne, a medical pioneer in improving the treatment and education of people with a range of conditions including intellectual disability and epilepsy.

'How I found my Namesake'. While searching for her namesake of three generations back, Elizabeth Kelly traced the McCallion family to Sydney and uncovered their mostly sad story.

'Who's Been Living in My House'. Louise Wilson takes us on a rather different journey, that of the history of her house in South Melbourne. This article provides an insight into the large amount of material available on residences.

Martin Playne’s 'A Guide to Researching Northern Territory Records' will give you some good ideas on where to look if you have Northern Territory ancestors. Few people realise that the Northern Territory came under so many jurisdictions at different periods.

In 'Research Corner', Michael Sturmfels has generously shared the results of his research into pastoral workers in the Western District Victoria between 1860 and 1880, for which he checked through a great variety of records. He shares some of the interesting stories, and has made his results available online at the GSV.

But there is more! Family history researchers are assisted each month with the writing of their story in 'Getting it Write'; about oral history in this issue. There are sections about blogging (with Meg Bate), book reviews, notes on additions to the GSV Library, as well as regular pages from the Public Record Office, and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

Remember that this is your journal, the place where you can share your family history. As well as our usual longer articles, we would like to invite you to submit a short article (around 250 words) and an image or two, focussing on a particular place of significance in your family history for our new back page space. In this issue in 'Tower Bridge' Barbara Beaumont recalls a family link to this famous London landmark.

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There is a growing interest in joining others who share and discuss common areas of genealogical research. It's informative and more fun!

This year the GSV is launching new Discussion Circles to cater for those researching ancestors who lived in and around London and another for those who lived in British India. A third new Discussion Circle formed recently is focussed on the North of England (Durham, Northumberland, Yorkshire & Cumberland).

These common-interest groups are open to GSV Members for no additional cost (as part of GSV membership). They meet regularly and provide great value for your research by the free exchange of their participants' knowledge and experience. They also may invite specialist experts to their meetings. 

For example the South West England discussion circle (SWERD) this coming Wednesday, 14 March at 12:30 to 2:00 pm is looking pretty special with a very interesting guest speaker who will generate plenty of discussion.  Dr Joe Flood is the Administrator of the DNA projects for Cornish ancestry on the myFamilyTreeDNA website and he administers these global DNA projects from Melbourne.  Dr Flood will discuss the projects and the findings to date. The projects have a Cornish focus, but there should be something in the presentation for everyone who is interested in the use of DNA in family history research.   SWERD has been expanded - GSV members with research interests in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and now Dorset are very welcome at the meetings.

The newest GSV Discussion Circles will meet as follows:

The North of England : Tuesday 13 March - 12.30 - 1.30 pm.

London Research - Thursday 22 March - 12.00- 1.00 pm. With a view to starting a Discussion Circle. Bookings essential - ring +61 3 9662 4455 or the website http://dev.gsv.org.au

British India - Tuesday 17 April - 12.00 - 1.00 pm.

Join the GSV quick (or on the day) to benefit from these groups if this is your area of special interest. You can also read more about these groups in the latest issue of Ancestor journal 34:1 (March 2018)

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By Clive Luckman

It is fun, and very satisfying to compile your family tree, showing names, dates and relationships. I think it is more fun to put some flesh on those bones.

One of the interesting things that can be done is to discover your ancestors’ occupations. In the pre-industrial revolution times (say before the very early 1800s) the vast majority of the population lived in the country. That changed during the century and today something like 5% of the population lives in the country, at least in Australia, Europe and north America. Those very significant demographic changes together with the industrial revolution meant lots of the occupations, some very specialised, died out.

One of the by products of the industrial revolution was a rebellion of sorts. The “Machine Breakers” (as the name implies) damaged new machinery by way of a protest and in fear of losing their income. Some of the Machine Breakers were convicted and transported to Australia.

So occupations such as button makers became extinct as machines began to make buttons. One occupation that persists today, though in relatively tiny numbers, is the shoe maker. The general name for a shoemaker, even up to the early 1900s in Melbourne, was a Cordwainer (the word probably derived from a leather worker in Cordova, Spain). An important occupation. The function of making (rather than repairing) shoes had occupational sub-divisions: a Clicker cut the leather taking care to have minimum waste and selecting the best parts for the stretch and so on; a bracer attached the upper to the sole using waxed thread.

As an aside, until roughly the 1850s the same last was used for left and right hand shoes – in other words the shape of the left and right hand shoes was the same. A horrifying thing today.

One of the sources of occupations in England and the US is the census. In both cases the occupation is recorded. The relatively recent English 1921 census include these occupations: Baubler, Lurer, Bear Breaker and Maiden Maker – I hesitate to search for the definitions of these.

Australian sources include birth, death and marriage certificates which include the occupations. But these details began on 1 July 1853 and before that we rely on Church records of Baptisms, Marriages and Funerals which lack a note of the occupations.

As with any research one needs to be critical of the evidence. One of my wife’s US ancestors was described as being engaged in “Mercantile and railroading” in a book written about the family in 1903. Sounds rather grand to me. In another document he claimed to have been be an engineer with the Brunswick and Albany Railroad. But the most credible evidence is that he was a ticket collector on the trains of that Railroad.

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This article (June 2007) by Clive Luckman of GSV was previously published in Fifty-Plus News .

At the Genealogical Society of Victoria we have expert volunteers to help members find where details of occupations can be found, and help solve the many problems encountered by family historians. See dev.gsv.org.au for more information, or email gsv@gsv.org.au, or phone +61 3 9662 4455 for information about the Society.

How often do we hear someone say that they wished they had asked their father to tell them more about his early life!

Prompt and help the dads in your family to discover and record their stories and those of their fathers by giving him a Membership of the GSV on Fathers Day. For the year ahead he can receive help to discover his family history with access to databases at GSV and more importantly, to friendly knowledgeable volunteers who can help him find his way and suggest other sources. He will receive four issues of the Ancestor magazine, have access to free and discounted talks and can join special interest groups to share their insights. He can also participate in the GSV Writers Group where he will get assistance and guidance to write up his story in a lasting form for the family.

You can find out more and join online Membership or just call the office on +61 3 9662 4455.

Kath McKay

Much as I love my computer and the internet, some of my most precious family history knowledge has come from being able to seek out original documents.

In spite of searching for decades, previous family historians had not been able to find the marriage certificate of our great grandparents: an Irish coach maker and a young maidservant from Wiltshire. We knew they had about ten children in the 1860s and 1870s in Ballarat, but didn’t have a clear record of the children’s names, births or even number. Online indexes didn’t help a lot.

Then I had a little brain-wave. I knew that branch of the family were all Catholic so I contacted St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat to enquire about records. They eventually replied saying they had all their original records but none were digitised or indexed. However, I was most welcome to come and look for myself.

So one freezing July day I took the train from Melbourne to Ballarat. In the cheery Parish office, warmed by a fire in the hearth, I pored over the huge leather bound tomes brought out of the archives by the Parish Secretary. These are daunting books indeed, nearly a metre by half a metre and several inches thick. They record the births, marriages and deaths of the parishioners, documented in careful copperplate with pen and ink on parchment. I had a fair knowledge that the first child was born about 1860 and the last, my long-dead grandmother, in 1877. So I started with 1860 but it revealed nothing, nor 1861, 1862 and on through the whole decade. The Secretary cheerily brought volume after volume and the piles grew around me. She also kindly made me several cups of tea.

By the time I got to the 1870s with nothing, I was beginning to doubt all I had believed about this branch of our extended family.

Then I found them! In the late summer of 1875, two little girls were baptised, one aged two, the other six. At last! I had found something! Then I turned the page and found the death record for the little six-year-old who had just been baptised days before. Most of the rest of the page and many after that, were taken up with deaths of little children – all from measles in an epidemic that must have swept Ballarat in those early days before immunisation.

Another few turns of the giant pages and there were the rest of them! Five children baptised together, boys and girls aged from 1 to 14 in one job lot! Another page turn and there was the death of the first baptised little girl, the two-year-old. This was followed quite quickly by the baptism of a new baby. Our poor great-grandmother was pregnant when she was nursing, then burying, two of her little daughters. Sad times indeed.

But I still had not found the object of my original search, the marriage of my great-grandparents. More volumes, more page turning. And, finally, in January 1877, after they have had ten children and lost three, this pioneer couple marry. We had been looking in the wrong decade!

A few months later, in April 1877, their new, and last, baby was baptised: a daughter, my grandmother.

Just another family story that was not handed down.

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At the Genealogical Society of Victoria we help members plan their family history search. This post's author Kath McKay is a member of the GSV Writer's Discussion Circle. See dev.gsv.org.au for more information, or email gsv@gsv.org.au or phone +61 3 9662 4455 for information about the Society.

Louise Wilson continues her musing on the journey of discovering family history. ***

The true essence of family history research is the journey – your own journey of self-discovery.

Let’s start with the genes you inherited. Most of us know less about our own genes than your average grazier knows about the genes of his cattle. You only have to watch one episode of ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ for that fact to be obvious. How many of us know the backgrounds of our two sets of grandparents – just four people? By the time we get to our parents’ grandparents, we are lucky to know anything at all. We might know only one story about our family background, and that story then tends to dominate our thinking, as if it formed our entire identity. We forget all the other forebears who’ve contributed to who we are.

The ‘ah hah’ moments are therefore quite thrilling if we set out to discover the full mix of ingredients in our personal cake. It’s no surprise to find the usual collection of general labourers, agricultural labourers, Cornish miners and female servants lurking in your background. In my case, some were convicts on the First, Second and Third Fleets. But I was very surprised that my genes also came from gentlemen farmers, innkeepers, artists, musicians, teachers, doctors, soldiers, clergymen, merchants, slave-owning sugar planters, bankers, mail coach entrepreneurs and turpentine factory owners, plus a solitary butcher, printer, chemist, engineer and circus proprietor. No wonder I found it difficult to choose a career. I wish I’d known this, when young. Such knowledge is powerful, perhaps giving permission to break away from family expectations. That eclectic mix of genes might explain why I eventually turned into the first writer in my line of the family.

Each generation that we step back permits us to make broader-brush discoveries. I was amazed to realise just how Anglo-Celtic I am. Three hundred years of an almost fully-completed pedigree chart, detailing eight generations of my ancestors, revealed only one forbear who did not originate in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland. He came from close by – northern France. As I flinch from the skin specialist’s spray can of liquid nitrogen, I readily understand and accept that my fair skin was never meant for Australia, although my forbears here date back to 1788.

What other health record do we inherit? My grandmother, an unlikely feminist, loved to tell her granddaughters that we descend from a long line of strong, independent women. Fanciful? No, my research proved her right. In her father’s family, from 1790, successive fathers and sons died of illness aged 52, 45, 62, 37 and 43. Their widows, left to raise the children, all lived into their eighties.

Health issues of a different kind were the focus of the powerfully-told and very moving episode of ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ where Susie Porter discovered recurring patterns of serious mental illness in her hitherto-unknown female forebears. Susie gained sudden insight into her own black moods and was never going to be the same person again.

Your family history research can change you and add great meaning to your life.  

At the Genealogical Society of Victoria (GSV) we help members explore and write about their family history. This month’s author, Louise Wilson (www.louisewilson.com.au), belongs to the GSV Writers’ Discussion Circle. For more information about the GSV, see dev.gsv.org.au, or email gsv@gsv.org.au, or phone +61 3 9662 4455.

We have a full program of events in May for your ongoing family history research or to help you get started.

May 11 -  'Timelines to help your family history'. Speaker Meg Bate. Looking at the use of timelines in family history and a study of good practice when researching and documenting records. Bookings are required and can be made online, in person, by email or by telephone. Members $5, non-members $20.

On May 13 - 'Newtown in the 1840s'. Port Phillip Pioneers Group Inc. Speaker: Michael Moore from Fitzroy Historical Society. Entry $2. Refreshments provided.  2:00 - 4:00 PM. At Wesley Hall, St. Andrew's Uniting Church, 253A Burke Road, (cnr. Malvern Road), Glen Iris, Vic. Phone: 0418 106 219 - Email: jacobsonbeverley@gmail.com

On May 25 -'Death and Dying in Australia' - Speaker: David Down. An examination of the history of death and dying in Australia as illustrated by the various memorials in the Fawkner and Coburg Cemeteries. Bookings are required. Members $5, non-members $20.

On May 31 - a day seminar on Irish Family History with speakers from the Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast. Program includes Scots-Irish research, landed estate records, census substitutes, church records, Using Registry of Deeds. Irish Poor Law records. Seminar covers all of Ireland, not just the North. Bookings Essential  $45.

There are also the regular meetings of GSV's Discussion Circles and Groups - Writers, DNA, Scottish, Irish, South West England (SWERD), and International Settlers, plus classes to help you with your family history projects.

Some of these are members-only (but you can always JOIN), others are open to all for a fee. Full details are on our website at https://dev.gsv.org.au/ and you can book online, in person, by phone: +61 3 9662 4455  or by email: gsv@gsv.org.au

Looking ahead for a genealogical research opportunity : 18-19 August

If you are researching ancestors from the British Isles and Europe, you might be interested in a two-day event that focuses on how and where to research in these two areas.

As part of this program, the GSV will make a short presentation on the British Isles resources available at the GSV Research and Education Centre, 85 Queen Street, Melbourne.

It will be held on 18 and 19 August 2017 at the Veneto Club in Bulleen.

For more information and enrolment details, go to www.unlockthepast.com.au/events/researching-abroad-british-isles-european-ancestors-melbourne