GSV News

I see that in 1897 in the Bendigo City Court my great grandfather was one of six men charged by Mounted Constable Lysaght with having neglected to vaccinate their children against smallpox virus. At the close of the 18th C this contagious disease killed 400,000 people in Europe each year and 80% of children who caught it died. After 1853 all Australian colonies, except NSW and Queensland, introduced compulsory vaccination for smallpox, and it wasn't until 1980 that WHO declared it eradicated.

My ancestor was fined 10 shillings and 2/6 costs for failing to provide a vaccination certificate, whether through preoccupation, laziness, or misguided principle we can't know.

***

The Genealogical Society of Victoria (GSV) could help your COVID-affected small business during this difficult time.

Do you, or does someone you know, have a small business in Victoria offering services to the family-history community? If your business is having a tough time in this locked-down world tell us what you do and the GSV may tell others on this popular blog Family History Matters, which goes out to over 3000 people.

Maybe you provide genealogical or record-searching services, research and write about people or old houses, offer publishing or print services for family historians, provide photographic and digitisation services, photo-restoration, or provide archive material or skills. COVID-19 has reminded us of the importance of our connections to others, to the past and to our family's future. The value of whatever you do to help us capture our family stories is all the more apparent as we live through the pandemic of our own times.

You could also consider helping the GSV by: 

- donating HERE

- advertising in Ancestor, our quarterly journal. See PLACING AN AD for rates and details (copy for Sept closing end June)

- becoming a member or giving a membership - JOIN HERE

- engage us for paid research. Find out how HERE.

Contact us with your story at blog@gsv.org.au

Book an ad in Ancestor at ancestor@gsv.org.au

***

'Small Pox in Melbourne'; Illustrated Australian News, David Syme & Co, 3 Sept 1884 (SLV Accession IAN03/09/84/133).

This week I decided to go for a trip and visit the church of St James* in Haslingden Lancashire. I had been finding lots of records of Barnes family in the 1800s from there courtesy of the MyHeritage database access for GSV Members. (see below).

'Exciting to be getting out' I thought, so I drove up from Manchester and got off the motorway on to the A680. Shortly I entered the valley village of Haslingden nestled between the high moors and the Forest of Rossendale to the east. After some to-and fro-ing I could see the way up a side street to the church gates on the hill. It was great to see it and also great to get out after a few weeks of 'iso'. From the air I had seen the little cleft in the moors to the west that had enfolded the old village of Grane and Blackhill Farm where my ancestors had probably been for centuries. So I thought I would turn up Heap Clough, a small side road and have a look on the ground. I could see up the old track, so I stopped, got out to walk - and fell into a black void of undocumented nothingness. Google Street View© hadn't been there.

***

Good news for GSV members. More databases can be accessed from home, Jenny Redman, GSV President announced this week.

'I hope this finds you virus-free and well, with plenty of time to continue your family history research. We are pleased to be able to tell you that we now have access to two more databases for you to use from home. This is in addition to the access we already have to MyHeritage.

The library versions of findmypastand TheGenealogistare now available for GSV members only. Instructions for accessing these databases can be obtained by logging into the members area of the GSV website. Allow time for these instructions to be received as emails are replied to between 10am-4pm on Monday to Friday.Please note that members cannot use any personal subscription to findmypastat the same time as using this library version. Also note the 20-minute time limit and the need to logout when using TheGenealogist.

For those less familiar with the content of the major databases there is a very good introduction at https://www.rootstech.org/video/comparing-the-genealogy-giants?lang=eng

This is a video link to Sunny Morton’s talk 'Comparing the Genealogy Giants: Ancestry, FamilySearch, findmypast and MyHeritage'at the London 2019 RootsTech conference.Sonny’s basic message about finding which records are on which site is to look at the Catalogues at each site (subscriptions not necessary).

findmypast has good Irish record collections, 1939 census, maps and extensive UK parish records (many quite early and not available elsewhere).

Unfortunately the video does not include TheGenealogist, a good UK-based site for census and parish (especially non-conformist) records, tithe maps, war and many other records.

I should also remind you that the free “Quick Lookup” service for members is still available despite the GSV Centre being closed.

Enjoy your researching and stay safe,

Best wishes,

Jenny Redman, GSV President

***

Where will you go next week?

Me? I've got to write up this week's trip and the story of the Barnes of the Rossendale Valley first.

* No doubt eagle-eyed readers picked up that St Chads was incorrect, that is in Rochdale and also Poulton-le-Fylde. Of course.

***

How are you going in your research of the women in your family tree?

Some of the discussion circles this month are talking about this, eg CONE (Counties of Northern England) on 8 March.

This is a photo of my great great grandmother Emma Pearson nee Rowden, born 1853. Her father had left for Australia in 1855 so she would barely have known him. Her mother died in 1857. There is a gap in my research from then until she emigrated to Australia in 1864 aged eleven.

She came to Australia with a widow, Elizabeth Bowden nee Downing. Elizabeth became Emma’s stepmother and they lived in Melbourne city.

Emma married in 1874 in Geelong to Frederick Augustus Pearson. My great grandmother, Florence May (May) was born nine months later.

As we often find, it’s always easier to research the men in our families. Sometimes we only learn where our women ancestors lived and what they did because of our research of these men. Emma and Frederick lived in Geelong. Frederick was a professor of music, a composer, a band master and a piano teacher. His body was found face down in deep water near Limeburners jetty, Geelong in 1884 aged just 36 years.

Emma was now a widow with five small children. One of her sons had died in 1882 at six months old. Emma may also have been an accomplished musician, as I found her working as a piano teacher in Geelong in 1888.

She died in 1889 of acute gastritis. Her daughter, May, was fourteen years old and the youngest son was only five. Emma’s father and his third wife took the children in and raised them.

My research of Emma is much more difficult than my research of her husband or father. But by trawling through BDM certificates, PROV inquests, PO directories, and Trove family notices, business advertisements and court inquest reports, I have been gradually joining the dots.

Jackie van Bergen

The GSV has recently released a new feature which enables members to enter and display the family names and brief details of ancestors and special interest areas they are researching. This database is only able to be accessed by members of GSV.

Log into the GSV website, select Members Area, then select Member Research Interests Database.

You can access this database to search existing entries, and to submit or edit your own entries.

It’s really easy to use. There are ‘?’ buttons beside each field for clarification.

You must select a ‘Discussion Circle/SIG’ or ‘Other Interest’.

There is a Comment box for additional information.

Your email address is not seen by others viewing the database.

Use the search boxes at the top of the screen to filter to database to identify shared interests.

If you wish to follow up an entry submitted by another member, you can click on that person’s name. This takes you to a form where you can type your response or query and this is emailed to the member.

If you have questions, there are lots of answers in the FAQ section of the Home page of the GSV website.

What have you got to lose?

Maybe you’ll break down one of those brickwalls, or find a long lost relation!

Apologies if you received a garbled copy of this!

---------

A busy few weeks ahead

Zoom talks start again this week. It looks like being a busy month with eight events in this later part of January.

Meg Bate kicks off the year on Wednesday with a small interactive class on accessing Australian BDM records from home and at the GSV library.

On Thursday 20 January, David Down discusses the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act. These are very useful records for those wanting to learn more about the places that your ancestors lived and worked.

The following week sees the resumption of our discussion circles and a talk introducing the 1921 census of England and Wales on Monday 24 January.

Mary McKee of FindMyPast will provide historical context, answer questions and give you all-important tips for effective searching. Book in and learn how to track down those elusive relatives.

All these events are free, so pop over to the GSV website and book yourself in.

Jackie van Bergen

A busy few weeks ahead

Zoom talks start again this week. It looks like being a busy month with eight events in this later part of January.

Meg Bate kicks off the year on Wednesday with a small interactive class on accessing Australian BDM records from home and at the GSV library.

On Thursday 20 January, David Down discusses the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act. These are very useful records for those wanting to learn more about the places that your ancestors lived and worked.

The following week sees the resumption of our discussion circles and a talk introducing the 1921 census of England and Wales on Monday 24 January.

Mary McKee of FindMyPast will provide historical context, answer questions and give you all-important tips for effective searching. Book in and learn how to track down those elusive relatives.

All these events are free, so pop over to the GSV website and book yourself in.

Jackie van Bergen

Hope you all had a good one despite everything!!

And you know what this means! It is soon time for New Year Resolutions! And it is easier this year - DON'T plan to travel much or far! DO plan to keep in e-touch with family and friends to the limit of the possible. DO plan to enrol in those INTERESTING GSV- events.

Also DO plan to finish that memoir and give it to the kids, and circulate that piece of family history research you have been keeping to yourself. Remember the research will never be finished (so that's not an excuse). Maybe publish in Ancestor - or even on this blog.

GSV OPEN between CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR

GSV will be open on Wed, Thurs and Friday 29-31 Dec so this is a great time to do some quiet research - and the city will be VERYYY quiet. Our office is on the edge of the city so quite safe and easy to pop in there.

UNTIL 31 DEC you can still use your State Library Victoria membership to access Ancestry database free online from home.

***

Events not to miss in January

24 JANUARY 8 to 9pm  - The 1921 Census is coming

FindMyPast has spent many years digitising and transcribing this unique snapshot of our recent history and is releasing the census on 6th January 2022.  The presentation will provide, along with the historical context, tips for effective searching and using it to trace elusive relatives. Presented by:Mary McKee,the Head of Content Publishing Operations at FindMyPast.

***

20 JANUARY -10.30 to 11.30am. 

Using the Tithe Apportionment Records of England and Wales

This talk will discuss the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act, which required tithes in kind to be converted to monetary payments. The resultant records and maps are a valuable resource to assist help learn about the places that your ancestors lived and worked. Presented by David Down.

***

Farewell

After 5 years and 247 posts this is my last post as Blog Editor. I hope I have cajoled, prompted and encouraged you in your family history pursuits. I have enjoyed turning a phrase and sharing some of my own interests and thoughts. Bill

If you have ancestors from the British Midlands and might be interested in forming a Discussion Circle to share your interest, join us this coming Wednesday. This would be a group for GSV Members only, but others are welcome if they join the GSV.

Researching English Midlands Counties

Wednesday 15 Dec 1.30-2.30 pm.

Presented by Vicki Montgomery via Zoom. Duration 1 hour.

The Midlands of England broadly correspond to the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia (527-879 AD).  It was arguably the origin and heartland of the industrial revolution. The area includes a wide variety of localities from the very rural to Birmingham, the second largest city in the United Kingdom. This will be a brief introduction to researching ancestors in the Midlands with a view to starting a GSV Discussion Circle.

Counties in the Midlands of England: Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire.

J.R.R.Tolkien (1892-1973) based his fantasy setting of Middle-earth, and in particular the region of The Shire, on the area of West Midlands. His fictional language of Rohan was derived from his study of the Mercian dialect.

However, you will not be able to trace your ancestry to the Hobbits!

***

Register online as a Member on the website to join in this discussion.

Free of charge, GSV members only. Please log in to receive the discount.

Round off an interesting year, with these family-history attractions in December - before you collapse into Christmas and holiday mode.

ATTEND A FASCINATING PRESENTATION

'The Melbourne Socialite & The Turkish Diplomat'

DEC 9 - THIS COMING THURSDAY - 9 DEC at 10.30 AM - by Zoom

Speakers: Patrick Ferry & Janan Greer

London, 1913: A wealthy young woman from a stately country home falls in love with and secretly marries a handsome young diplomat from the Turkish Embassy. It sounds like a plot line from the hit British period drama Downton Abbey. But it is the real-life story of Melbourne socialite Florence Winter-Irving. Florence’s story is told through records held by the National Archives of Australia, contemporary newspapers and treasured family memorabilia and traditions. Her story is set against the backdrop of patriarchal nationality laws, which stripped women of their own nationality when they married ‘aliens’ –  foreign men who were not British subjects.

This is for GSV members and limited in number. So go online and quickly book a spot. 

BOOK HERE

Our presenters

Patrick Ferry is the State Manager, Victoria for the National Archives of Australia. He is a professional archivist, local historian and author. Patrick’s most recent book Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: Remembering the Pakenham District’s WW2 service personnel, 1939 – 1945, won the 2020 Victorian Community History Award for Best Local History Project.

Janan Greer is the great-granddaughter of Florence Winter-Irving. Janan works in marketing and communications and has a passion for family history and storytelling. She is the custodian of many family photographs, letters and documents relating to her paternal family lineage.

READ OUR JOURNAL - ANCESTOR

Members will have received the December issue of our award-winning Ancestor journal. If you are not a member you can always take out a subscription for 4 issues a year for $70.00, including postage.

You could give a friend a subscription for Christmas!  SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Our current edition features the winning article from the GSV Writing Prize, which is ‘The mystery of the extra Booth Hodgetts’ by Susan Wight. Other articles include an account of a medical orderly in the 3rd Light Horse Field Ambulance in the First World War; the story of an unmarried mother in 19th Century Scotland, and Paul Magill's intriguing story of the bureaucratic goings-on of two men, John Lanktree and Matthew Jackson, who migrated to Australia and were appointed to senior positions overseeing the building of the Yan Yean Reservoir.  Jennifer MacKay relates the story behind the ‘The children in the lockup’ sculpture commissioned by Moonambel Arts and History Group to commemorate an event from 1896, and how, with the help of the GSV, she was able to trace a descendant of one of the children.

FINALLY THIS MONTH, GET DISCOUNTED VIC BDM CERTIFICATES

To say thank you to their valued family historians, the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria (BDM Victoria) is offering downloadable uncertified historical certificates for $15 each for the entire month of December.

GO TO WEBSITE HERE

This is a saving of $5 per certificate. You can also subscribe to BDM Victoria’s mailing list for future offers, updates about system improvements and user guidance.

***

LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS GIFT GSV MEMBERSHIPS -

Easy to do – just go to the GSV website or GO HERE TO PURCHASE.  

***

Image citation: Florence Chefik Bey (born Winter-Irving), NAA: A659, 1940/1/1640, p. 34.

Want to avoid the shopping crowds this December?

Why not buy a special Gift Certificate for a friend or relative from the GSV online!

It’s an opportunity for you to introduce a friend to the joys of family history research.

With the gift of a GSV Membership your friend or family member could benefit from GSV research assistants helping them track down family facts. They may like to join any of the Special interest groups and discussion circles - making new friends sharing problems and discoveries. They also receive the award-winning quarterly Ancestor journal.

The Gift Certificate will be for 12 months membership of the GSV for the special price of $105.00. The normal joining fee of $20.00 will not be charged.

Once you have submitted your payment, you will receive a Gift Certificate by email, containing a secure link for the recipient to redeem their gift. Then you may forward the Gift Certificate by email, or print it and send it by post or present it in person.

Easy to do – just go to the GSV website or GO HERE TO PURCHASE.  

Membership will commence only from the day it is activated. If the recipient is already a GSV Member the Certificate will extend their membership by a further 12 months. If you have any difficulties, please simply email us at info@gsv.org.au

Do friends or family need another set of bathroom products or a bottle of wine?

Well, maybe ...but this GSV Gift Certificate would be a gift for the whole family.