Degrees of separation

There are lots of degrees of separation.
This is one example.
Bruce Ralston found some sasines and deeds in relation to our mutual ancestors. One such ancestor is William Ralston for whom Bruce found a marriage contract (which I have been unable to find this visit).
But I did find that a William Ralston (which one I'm not quite sure) entered into a Deed of Mortification. This has nothing to do with injured pride.
Indeed a notable jurist, Alexander Irvine,, set out the Scottish legal meaning of a Deed of Mortification.
Alexander was one of the Irvines of Drum Castle. James Hamilton Irvine was a younger son from Drum Castle.
And I used to find my horse at the bottom of [James] Irvine's paddock when I came home for school holidays.
I also used to ride my horse across Campbell's paddock.
Named after William Campbell of Dunmore (whether Victoria, Australia or Kilberry, Argyll).
William Campbell and his two school friends James Irvine and Charles Macknight originally selected Dunmore Victoria in 1842. Unfortunately for William his elder brother James died in 1839 just as William was planning his journey to Australia. Nevertheless William came to Australia but had to return home in 1847. But he retained his investment in Dunmore, Victoria. However, William died in 1865 just when the partnership required funds to purchase the freehold of Dunmore, Victoria.
So the remaining two partners sold part of the run to Thomas Brown of Squattleseamere (where I lived as a child) and acquired short term funds from the merchant Horace Flower.
But misfortune struck again in1873 when Charles Macknight died.
Subsequently my great grandfather Samuel Baulch obtained the Rose Park portion of Dunmore before obtaining the rest of Dunmore (including the paddocks Irvine's and Campbell'sin 1895.)

Liquidate

Just a little post relevant to only a few but I couldn't help myself. I have in the last few days spent time looking at Deeds and Sasines - in Secretary hand, in Latin, crowded on the page to save paper (all for bed time reading at home) or, after the paper shortage has eased, written in lovely copper plate that fills pages and pages.
Yes, there is some information here but what attracted my attention was the penalties for not paying for purchases on time. For example, John Smith agreed to pay John Brown "at Whitsunday next one thousand pounds stirling with the sum of two hundred pounds sterling of liquidate penalty in case of failure".

Thus far

First night in Edinburgh. My room is 58 steps above the street (in the gay corner of town I am told). So it's time for reflection. I'm often asked if I use ancestry.com for my family research. Yes I do but it isn't the only source nor necessarily the best. As the program Who do you think you are illustrates very well there are many others avenues to rich primary source material. Of course not all information is correct. John Burke Ryan's will included his brother Matthew as an executor but Lieutenant Colonel Sir Edward Michael Ryan had died several years previously in 1812 taking dispatches from Java to India. And while I found William Newman in the 1941 Census using Find my Past I can only find him in Ancestry using the piece reference. Of course there are transcriptions and omissions and I have had lots of fun using wild cards looking for Wilberforce (Wilberfoss and Wibberfoss). FamilySearch allows the use of wild cards at the beginning of a name which is really useful. And just because I can't find anything just yet doesn't mean it isn't to be found. Less than 30% of data filmed for London has been indexed for online use. This is despite the fact that about a million indexes are being added weekly I think it was to online databases. I know a little about John Fulford, builder, who died in London in 1824, his son John, his clergyman son John and his Penshurst doctor son John. I have a will of John Fulford of Middlesex who died in 1751 which mentions his son John and his grandson John so I am confident that I shall find more about John Fulford in Middlesex if not in London then in Westminster. Incidentally, I loved his place of worship, St Andrews Holborn. Much preferred it to the new St Pancras which was all Victorian grey stone gloom. Serendipity is a good source too. I walked down from St Pancras to find the Foundling Hospital Museum. Inside was a picture of Christ's Hospital where my ancestor Charles Salter went. Amongst all the portraits of the Governors of the Foundling Hospital. The way to immortality seems to be to get an emerging artist to paint your portrait and then donate it to your charity. Bit like head masters or mistresses.

Monopoly and Family Feuds

Kings Cross Station, Fenchurch Street Station (known as something else now) and Liverpool Station (or was it Liverpool Street? Seen Trafalgar Square, Pall Mall, Angel which isn't a street in Islington). And haven't gone to Jail. Found a map about my ancestor John Fulford's proposed development near the Foundling Hospital in late 1780s early 1790s together with insurance and surveyor's certificate. The Mews houses are still standing but the actual houses were demolished in the 1920s. Today found a Chancery case where John Burke Ryan's younger brother threw the book at him over the management of their father's estate. Contains lots of lovely information - about 200 camera frames worth so I am now in the market for a good stitiching program to put it all together. I also have in mind a barrister to explain to me the equity of redemption and why the Sheriff exceeded his authority in selling the assets of John Burke Ryan who had been declared an outlaw for not paying is debts - almost three hundred pounds for wine bought. In genealogical heaven!

William Lord

The wealthy could afford to pay for their passage to Australia. The poor could qualify for government assistance to help them migrate. But what about the ones in between? Such as William Lord perhaps who, with his family, arrived at Portland, Victoria in January 1857. The family was Protestant, literate and the children were all teenagers or in their early twenties so were able to work.
Was it this ability for all the family to work once they arrived in Australia that enabled them to select land in the township of Cavendish? Or did they bring some resources with them? For William Lord is listed as having rateable property in the parish of Kilmmuckridge, County Wexford in Griffith's valuations completed between 1847 and the 1860s (see http://www.askaboutireland.ie/). Or had the potato blight driven them into poverty and off their land after the valuation was done?
The Lords were the only family from Wexford aboard the Mary Ann. How did they travel from Wexford to the Mary Ann which eventually left from Plymouth?

Copper, cuckoos and coffee

Just as I am preparing to leave I have found that the Cheescake Factory serves coffee in a china cup, that there is a bookshop two train stops away in a shopping centre that is pleasant and doesn't remind me of what I imagine the factory outlet for the $2 shop would look like or what a town suffering from the GFC might look like.
Sunday before last we went out to Keneecott copper. The mine must be the only thing that is in full swing on a Sunday. Just a big hole where a mountain was really. There even must be a bigger one in the world as Kennecott's claim to fame is confined to the North American continent. Has the Chilean copper mine taken over as the biggest, deepest etc/
Past lots of new houses built roof to roof like the new estates at home. Notice I didn't say eaves to eaves. Copper seems to sustain the local economy.
As well as the church. Suffered a sermon (albeit short) two Sundays in a row now. Confining the choir to female voices (with the first descant I have heard), clarinet, flutes and a harp doesn't make the melody bright and beautiful. Nor does singing When I sruvey the Wondrous Cross at the speed of a dirge impart any wonder into the voices. I like my Hymns Ancient and Modern. Although not so modern anymore I suppose.
Which brings me to the cuckoos. Which are driving me ... To introduce tourists to the wildlife in Utah some of the walk signs are sounds of local bird life. Including said cuckoo. And what sounds like a Indian miner suffering heat stress.
I now have four door cards, left my money behind when I went to the Post Office yesterday and asked for help because the photocopier wasnt' recognising my room card as a photo copy card. So I think I have the hang of this place.
Trying to cram in a few more films before London. And then lots of work in Edinburgh.

Squire Turner (1763 - 1830)

Well today is one of those days that I rarely get in genealogical research. I was able to add up to four generations of Squire Turner's ancestors to my family tree. I have 52 records (excluding any burials I find along the way) to scan from the one film for South Molton, Devon, England.
This has all been due to the serendipitous find of Squire Turner's marriage on a 16mm film. The entry was in the middle of the middle column of what looked to be an A3 page on which the transcriber had copied entries for the Bishop's transcripts. Most of the records are of siblings I do confess for I follow the ASD rule - Ancestors, Siblings and Descendants.
I am finding juditious use of the exact option in FamilySearch as well as the wild card options yield good results. My proficiency in searching FamilySearch has increased markedly. And I am remembering to take a screen dump of my searches for recording because I am doing so much I haven't a hope of remembering it all.
I shall have to return to the Family History Library as I haven't completed even a quarter of what I want to do. I haven't even finished looking at my maternal grandmother's ancestors. Jan has an eye on a fellow Victorian to take over her research trips sometime in the future so there should be plenty of opportunity to come again. Not next year as it will take more than a year to absorb what I have found so far on this trip.
I thought I had become an expert in finding Marriage Bonds and Allegations (required by anyone who married by special licence)  - having found a couple under the Deanery of York. It does require a scan of the whole year as the records are filed by year but no further than that. But unfortunately there are no records here for Somerset.
I've not set aside time to look at Poor Law Union records nor Parish Chest information nor Land Assessment records in the appropriate time frame.
So much more to do. Tomorrow I shall look at some of my brick walls again.

Melbourne Weather

Two days ago it was 99 Fahrenheit. A record here for this time of year. Then a change came through from the north east with such strong gusty winds that visibility was reduced because of the dust and a semi tray was blown over at the top of one of the mountain passes causing chaos for the afternoon peak hour.
After the change it has been cold with frosts on some of the exposed plains. Just like home really. Though I don't experience much of it being inside most of the day.

Only in America

The end of my first week here and I haven't done nearly as much as I wanted to do. I think another trip is in order.
Friday night and we are sitting with a glass of cider (non alcoholic of course) watching the US public TV broadcasting Les Miserables as a fund raiser.
I fancy that this town is something apart. Last night I could see snow on the mountains with smoke on the horizon from a "wildfire." Oh for a leisurely morning coffee and for a Geelong match on the weekend.
The library is next door so you would think I wouldn't get any exercise but walking back to get something I forgot and walking to lunch adds up.
We lunch at the other end of Temple Square. I am getting used to putting together the ingredients of a meat and salad on pumpernickel bread for lunch and paying for it with a credit card as the credit card is the fast lane. Less than $4. Half at lunch and half for tea. We pass the reflection pool on the way and only one day hasn't there been brides having their photos there. Bit like across the road at home really.
Everything is polished clean within an inch of its life. I feel sorry for all the garden flowers who look as though they were only planted last night or that the chooks have run amok.
The Library starts with searching for a record at a computer. And walking around. When something likely is found there's often walking to the microfiche drawer first, then walking to the film cabinets, finding a reader and then, when I'm lucky, scanning the result onto a usb drive. Or looking at books.
I have looked at parish chest material and land assessments before on FHL film. I also found a marriage bond for an ancestor in York. If your ancestors married by special licence do consider looking for these marriage bonds and allegations.
Not my Wilberforce ancestors who must have spoken with a local brogue as I have found it spelt in all sorts of ways. But now we can use wild cards at the beginning of a string as well as in the usual manner searching is much more effective.
I dipped my toes into Irish research this afternoon. Without success as it will have to wait until I get to Ireland. Tomorrow I shall venture a bit further and then later in the week into sasines and burgher records.

Data extraction and search engines

Such is the apparent dominance of Ancestry.com that I'm often asked whether I use Ancestry in my own family research.
Just to be a pedant, I generally use ancestry.com.au and ancestry.co.uk but now ancestry.com as I don't have any direct ancestors who went to America. So Ancestry hereafter.
The answer is yes, I do use Ancestry, probably in conjunction with Familysearch.org  but not exclusively as this little case study illustrates.
William Newman, a plaisterer, arrived in the colonies unheralded (jargon for I can't find him on any passenger list) to marry in Melbourne in 1852.
That means he was possibly captured in the England 1841 and 1842 Censuses and in London as he said that he was born in London.
But I've never been able to find him in either Census using Ancestry. Today I found that he is there all the time.
It was a gentle reminder to try other websites. Fortunately I found him in FindMyPast (http://www.findmypast.com.au/), the very first of six other websites I was prepared to try.
Why the success with one site and failure with another? There could have been a few reasons:

• the original census data may have been filmed more than once yielding different results,
• the data may have been indexed more than once with differing results,
• different pay to view subscriptions may have meant that different data was available or
• what I think was the case with William Newman, results may be presented differently. For example, a couple of small tests showed that although I thought my search parameters were sufficiently directed to a search in London I got lots of rubbish presented before the really critical information and I had given up before scrolling down the reuslts that far. By the way, I still haven't been able to put the basic research parameters into to get my required result. I used some of the source data which I had found on FindMyPast as keywords to show that the record for William Newman is indeed on Ancestry.

We had an excellent lecture from Phil Dunn, an English researcher, on using FamilySearch. The best bit was that wildcards can be used at the beginning of a text string. His lecture also reminded me that putting an ancestor into their social context may help to find them or answer the question "why did they do what they did." His talk also highlighted that the United States has been around a little longer than Australia!

Memorial Day

Yesterday I had the pleasure of listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (see http://mormontabernaclechoir.org/). The choir has about 230 voices supported by a full orchestra and an organ of some thousand pipes. I can't remember how many thousand but picture FIVE keyboards, the stops as well as the foot pedals. So the performance was big yet the Tabernacle is big enough to accommodate the music. It was also full for Memorial Day. Our group were honoured guests along with a young Czech director here for the film festival, two men from Tajikistan (I think I have the right stan) here to see how religious freedom works and the whole balcony was filled with some basketballers who had arrived earlier in an endless line of buses.
The performance is broadcast live for its half hour duration so we were lucky enough to LISTEN to two performances - the full practice as well as the live presentation.
Of course, being Memorial Day, there was America (those old enough to sing the anthem God save the Queen felt we should stand), The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the service finished with my favourite hymn "God be with you till we meet again". Unfortunately Randolph by Vaughan Williams wasn't used. Picture this being sung at twice the speed as we finally get out of school at the end of term: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWIIpMDhRZw.
This was the last performance before the service moves to the Conference Centre (capacity 23,000) for the summer tourist centre.

Welcome to my blog!

This is where I share my family stories.

Grannie Learmonth told her family stories leafing through her photograph albums. Grandpa Baulch (and everyone else in the district it seemed) had their favourite story about Samuel Baulch. This spot is where I shall share some of those stories as well as other stories I have collected from family and friends who have shared, helped and encouraged me over the past 40 years or more.

My particular interest is in the history of Dunmore pastoral run. The Dunmore licence was originally taken out by Campbell, Macknight and Irvine in 1842. The Dunmore Diaries were mostly written by Charles Macknight from his arrival in Australia in 1840 to his death in 1873. Dunmore was purchased by my great grandfather Samuel Baulch in 1895 and there are still Baulchs farming part of Dunmore today.

There are many delightful stories hinted at in these diaries and many people mentioned who, for various reasons, had a connection to Dunmore. I shall also tell some of these stories here as well.

And perhaps there will be room to ask for assistance in finding other stories to tell but which stubbornly remain brick walls at the moment.

From Nottingham chimney sweep to Echuca farmer

Lydia Watts, my second great grandmother, emigrated with her husband and two young children, aboard the "Africa". The Africa left Liverpool on 16 April 1858 and arrived in Melbourne, Victoria four months later on 14 August.
After the death of her father in 1845 Lydia's family had fallen on hard times. Lydia, aged 12,  looked after her  blind mother by working as a factory girl.
I had always thought her younger brother Lazarus had not survived the slum conditions in Nottingham but recently found him apprenticed to a chimney sweep in the 1851 England census and then aboard the Africa! Lazarus must have travelled to Ballarat with his sister's family for he found work as a sawyer at Mt Egerton before selecting land near Echuca. He became a successful farmer and died many years later.
It's heart warming stories such as this that make family history research worth while.
I wonder whether his sister's son-in-law, Samuel Baulch, only a few years younger than Lazarus ever stopped in Echuca on his way to and from his Cowabee farm?

Framework knitting

There is sort of a symmetry between children of today and children of 200 years ago. Children today will probably go on to work in jobs that have yet to be invented. Children entering into apprenticeships 200 years ago gained skills and specialities that are no longer required.
Sure, some things haven't changed. Bricklaying, for example, still continues. Walter Wilberforce, a bricklayer of York 200 years ago, apprenticed his eldest son, William, in 1811 and his second son, Henry, in 1816 to follow in his footsteps.
But have you heard of the speciality of FWK recently? For LOL it seems to be just another of those three letter acronymns.
My Porter and Watts ancestors of Nottingham were cordwainers (shoemakers rather than just shoe repairers). The Porter and Watts apprentices in Nottingham included apprentice framework knitters (FWK). They generally knitted socks (to go in the boots made by the cordwainers?), hosiers, a stocking needlemaker and a bobbin or twist net maker.
I found apprentice curriers and an apprentice perriwig maker in York.
But I am still looking for William Newman, London plaisterer who arrived had arrived in Victoria by 1852, aged 20.

Checklists

My overcoat was bought for Melbourne winters. So it's only natural that it has stayed in Melbourne. I have been packing for more than fifty years - boarding school, moving house and travelling. Neither practice nor checklists has seemed to help. I always leave something behind. Except for once. I left a packed case open on the bed in the sun with woollen jumpers on top to come back to find I had extra luggage - three cats. It's all Dad's fault. He once made my school lunch. It was the best sandwich I have ever had. Lots of Mira plum jam on thick slices of Keast's fresh bread. Not only was there no room for the rest of my lunch in my school box there was barely enough room for the plum jam sandwich.