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.