The Northern English Counties Discussion Circle will meet on Tuesday 10 July at 12.30 pm. There will be two brief presentations outlining the resources available to assist those researching ancestors who were agricultural labourers or employed in shipbuilding and allied industries. General discussion will follow. All members of GSV are welcome as part of your membership.
'Angel of the North'. Artist: Antony Gormley, at Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, 1998
We are an enthusiastic group who meet on the 2nd Tuesday of the month (except January), to discuss research and share interests in the North of England, covering the counties of Northumberland, Westmorland, Durham, Yorkshire and Cumberland. For anyone who has ancestors in this region, whether you are just starting out or have been researching for a number of years, we can help.
Announcing GSV's fundraising appeal for new faster computers and widescreen monitors to help your research.
GSV is launching an appeal to raise $15,000 to purchase new faster computers for our Research & Education Centre and for an important IT upgrade. The main aim is to purchase new widescreen monitors, wireless keyboards and mice and faster computers to replace our 10 year old stalwarts. This will improve the experience of members undertaking research at Queen St and the IT upgrade will help those using on-line access from home.
GSV very much appreciates the ongoing commitment of our members and supporters. We would be delighted to receive your support for our fundraising appeal and remember that all donations of $2 or more are tax deductible.
Donations can be made through our website (refer to the DONATE NOW tab at the bottom of the web homepage) or click here DONATE HERE, by cheque, telephone or in person at our office.
Calling GSV History Buffs - RHSV Trivia Night - TRIVIA-AU-GO-GO- Friday 22 June 2018.
Fancy yourself a bit of a history buff? Of course you do! Time to get competitive and test yourself against all those other history buffs at the RHSV Trivia-au-go-go. Battle it out for some great prizes and you are fundraising for the RHSV at the same time. Win-win.
The GSV is pitting its knowledge of history in this year’s RHSV’s TRIVIA-AU-GO-GO night (is that a hint about the swinging '60s??) and is calling for members to make up a table. If you would like to be part of a team, please register your interest with Leonie Lovedaytunari@bigpond.com
When looking for Land Titles and researching land ownership, should you start at the beginning, the end, or somewhere in between?
Land Titles span Old Law Titles - between 1837 and 2 October 1862 - and New Law / Torrens Title after that. But not all Old Law Titles have been converted to Torrens Titles. This can be complex and if you need to research in this area a knowledgeable guide is of great value.
At GSV in May, Susie Zada gave a very useful presentation on the process of accessing Victorian land records. Susie's presentation - Victorian Land Titles and Documents - was greatly appreciated by the over thirty attendees and covered such aspects as:
- where to start
- how to move from old to new and new to old Land Titles
- where to find the primary records, and
- where to find the secondary records.
If you need to research in these records you will benefit from Susie's expertise. Even if you missed this talk you can still access the presentation as it is available to GSV Members via the website. You can find it on the catalogue. Searching subject: 'Land' and author: 'Zada' is the easiest way
If you are not a member of course that is easy to fix. Go to our website here.
Recently the Society of Australian Genealogists (SAG) hosted Bridging The Past and Future - the15th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry, March 9 - 12 in Sydney. This major international event was held under the auspices of AFFHO, the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations. Gayle Nicholas, one of a number of GSV Members who attended, brings us her observations from the Congress. Gayle is a member of the GSV Writers Circle, as well as her local Waverley Historical Society. She blogs at GV Genealogy - a space that reflects her love of history, genealogy and writing. This article is republished with her permission from her blog. You can read more of Gayle's family history exploration here https://gvgenealogy.wordpress.com/about/
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I have just returned from Sydney where hard work by the Society for Australian Genealogists (SAG) and 600 participants contributed to making Bridging the Past & Future a congress to remember. As a new participant I was soon under Jill Ball‘s wing along with 300 other ‘first timers’. Bloggers couldn’t hide in the corner as Jill’s ‘blogging beads’ were a beacon to bloggers seeking a conversation. There was lots of chatting and new friendships as people mixed and mingled with ease.
All these participants at #Congress2018 have blogs for you to read! Photograph by Murray Nicholas.
There were many high quality presentations with Judy G. Russell‘s Plenary Session Just Three Generations standing out as one of the very best for me. If ever a genealogist needed justification for their work this presentation provided it! Judy stated the need to deliberately and accurately pass down our family stories. She urged participants to look for the truth in family stories, to verify them and pass them on. I have memories of my grandfather telling stories to a lounge room full of people in Brunswick East. I now have the Amiens Cathedral made of cards that hung above the fireplace and I can remember Grandad standing there. I can remember the laughter but I do not remember the stories. I was so very young. No-one has been able to answer my question, ‘What were Grandad’s stories?’ All I know is they were about what the soldiers got up to in France when they were not at the front or about his time as a Scout Master. Three generations and the stories are lost.
Angela Phippen’s Oops – I wish I’d checked the original!brought home loud and clear the importance of checking references thoroughly. Using The Letters of Rachel Henning Angela demonstrated the difference that can occur through a published work and an original work. The results were stunning and we will all be seeking original copies of documents from now on!
Jan Worthington told us to avoid the ‘black holes’ in her Your Story session. I was thinking, “How does she know I am obsessed with ‘just one more bit of research’ i.e. in a black hole?” The key is to start writing. It’s time to stop Hunting Henrietta; it is time to ‘walk in her footsteps’ and write her story!
Our heads spun as we soaked up research know how and How-to tips, trying hard not to miss even a little piece of wisdom. English and Irish research sessions were popular and, while people seemed to shake their heads at the complexity of DNA research, you could see no-one was going to give up. We travelled from seventeenth century to the modern day and still had the enthusiasm to learn new techniques and take on new ideas.
The Cockle Bay room was almost full for the last session Create a free Google Earth Map Collection for Your Genealogy Research with Lisa Louise Cooke. While many wondered where the time was coming from it was evident others were ready for this new mapping challenge. People dispersed quickly after the closing ceremony: some for a drink, many for a rest and others, like us, headed straight to the airport. Many times I heard the same farewell, 'See you at the next Congress!'
The Genealogical Society of Victoria helps people to trace their forebears. In doing so, people can find out who their ancestors were, details of their lives and why they decided to come to Australia. By learning more about our ancestors, we learn more about ourselves.
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THE CHRISTMAS DECORATION
- The decoration is typical of an English Christmas door wreath. Through a metaphorical door one can glimpse into the past.
- The tartan ribbon represents Scotland.
- The shamrock represents Ireland.
Immigrants (especially convicts) from these three countries made up most of Australia’s earliest arrivals.
- The Family Bible and lace represent the small treasures immigrants brought with them to Australia.
- The scroll is of an old British Census Record and instantly recognisable to genealogists.
- The gum leaves and nuts represent the new country, Australia.
- The gold nuggets represent the Victorian Gold Rush of the 1850s.
At the last meeting for the year of the GSV Writers, we considered topics for next year's writing exercise. Members are invited to try writing about a particular topic such as a family object, a place or a journey. One suggestion, that we write about a particular research experience or archive, reminded some of us of Kath McKay's story of visiting the archives of St Patrick's Cathedral in Ballarat. Her memory of researching by an open fire warmed our hearts. Though this is a bit unseasonal, it might encourage your research over the holiday period ahead - if you can fit it in between more immediate family festivities.
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Beyond the web
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.
Kath McKay
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This article was first published in 'Fifty Plus Magazine'.
Before Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1536-9, the monasteries took care of the poor in England and Wales. With the monasteries gone, this responsibilty was shifted to each parish. An entire system of laws and documents grew up around caring for the poor. For the researcher, these documents can be invaluable in tracing migration of families, both poor and not poor, in England and Wales. Poor law documents can also reveal family relationships as well as giving insight into living conditions of ancestors. Poor law records are also known as parish chest records. This is because a chest kept in the church or the priest's house was used to store parish records.
With another act of aggression lashing out against civility in our city yesterday, I thought of the city's motto - we gather strength as we go- and I believe we do, as we become a large, truly cosmopolitan city. I would not have known our city's motto except that the day before I looked in on the current exhibition at the City Gallery in the Melbourne Town Hall - 'Emblazon': Melbourne's coat of arms' (7 September - 30 January 2019).
Coats of arms and heraldry are a somewhat old-fashioned part of our genealogical wanderings. But this small exhibition telling the story of Melbourne's coat of arms is worth a visit. The City Gallery is easy to find and too easy to walk past - located on the main Town hall frontage sharing its entrance with HALF-TIX ... see CITY GALLERY WEBSITE.
'Emblazon' Exhibition. City Gallery window at Melbourne Town Hall, 8 Nov 2018
Sevres vase 1880. City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection (photo: W. Barlow, 2018)
The exhibition includes many examples of the 'arms' from street signs, street bollards, documents, a cast iron roundel from the old Eastern Markets, a Sèvres vase (1880) and three quirky takes on that vase commissioned by MCC in 2018. Our official 'arms' includes a fleece, a cow, a whale and a ship as 1840s symbols of the city. One of the 2018 vases, Yhonnie Scarce's memorial urn, contains 'symbols of lives lost since the British arrived'.
Our family histories are embedded in the social history of our cities and places. City of Melbourne can be congratulated for its City Gallery, and these quarterly exhibitions, which have been showcasing our shared heritage.
You should visit.
Gallery with 2018 vases by Brennan (L) and Wedd (R). (Photo: W. Barlow, 2018)
Bill Barlow
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'Emblazon: Melbourne's Coat of Arms', exhibition catalogue, 2018.
Exhibition Curator: Alisa Bunbury / MCC Art and Heritage Collection team.
Sevres vase, Sevres Porcelain Factory, 1880
'Urn with Nature Pot', vase, Angela Brennan, 2018
'She gathers Strength As She Goes', vase, Gerry Wedd, 2018
The GSV is regularly adding to its Cemeteries Index with its ongoing project of transcribing records. So you need to check this to see if recent additions can help you.
An almost illegible early 1850s gravestone in Cemetery Reef Gully Cemetery, Chewton, Vic. (Photo: W. Barlow, 2017)
This index contains nearly a million references from cemetery records mostly relating to Victoria. It includes memorial inscriptions or burial registers from our collection.
GSV has been transcribing cemetery records since the 1950s and although there are now online websites for cemeteries (with many including photographs), some of those early headstone have disappeared or become illegible or even destroyed by vandals.
So make sure you try this database. You can see a guide to this Index HERE ON OUR WEBSITE.
Recently added to Cemeteries Database:
Trafalgar cemetery transcriptions 1886 -1996. 2nd ed
Trafalgar cemetery headstones 1882-1979
Voters' roll for the... District of Epping, for the year ending July 1870
Steiglitz old & new cemetery register & headstone transcriptions 1854-1997
Mornington cemetery headstones 4/1/1861 to 18/2/1985
Orbost cemetery headstones 5.4.1882 to 12.8.1982
Winchelsea cemetery register and headstones 1858-1981
Yalca North cemetery headstones 1/10/1895 to 26/5/1977
Goroke cemetery register and headstones 14/3/1890 - 13/9/1982
Gormandale cemetery headstones 8/11/1895 to 13/7/1982
Guildford cemetery records 1871-1st Nov 1998
Ashens cemetery headstones 1890-1908; includes some Ebenzer Mission cemetery headstones
Flinders (Cerberus Naval Base) Boot Hill Naval cemetery records 7 June 1925 to 11 February 1980
'Angel of the North'. Artist: Antony Gormley, at Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, 1998
GSV very much appreciates the ongoing commitment of our members and supporters. We would be delighted to receive your support for our fundraising appeal and remember that all donations of $2 or more are tax deductible. 
Calling GSV History Buffs - RHSV Trivia Night - TRIVIA-AU-GO-GO- Friday 22 June 2018.
When looking for Land Titles and researching land ownership, should you start at the beginning, the end, or somewhere in between?
All these participants at #Congress2018 have blogs for you to read! Photograph by Murray Nicholas.
Cousins! ‘Not too distant for me’
'Emblazon' Exhibition. City Gallery window at Melbourne Town Hall, 8 Nov 2018
Sevres vase 1880. City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection (photo: W. Barlow, 2018)
Gallery with 2018 vases by Brennan (L) and Wedd (R). (Photo: W. Barlow, 2018)
An almost illegible early 1850s gravestone in Cemetery Reef Gully Cemetery, Chewton, Vic. (Photo: W. Barlow, 2017)