Twigs of Yore - Blog

Twigs of Yore site makeover – getting started

2012-02-13T22:09:00.001+11:00

It’s time for a makeover!

My genealogy research website runs on software called The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding (TNG). TNG has recently released version 9, which seems a fitting time to think about a makeover for my site.

It is especially suitable as Kathleen Moore at "Moore-Mays.org Misadventures of a genealogist" is posting a series of tutorials as she redesigns her combined TNG/blog site.

Kathleen’s site is one that I especially admired when I first set up my own research data site. I particularly liked how her research data and blog fit so nicely under the same interface. Such a presentation seemed beyond me so I was content with keeping it simple and just making my research site and blog as consistent with each other as possible.

So far, as I have followed along, I have started thinking about what I want and don’t want on the site. Yes, actual planning. I have also set up a test site for myself to experiment and try things out. I can’t wait for each next instalment!

I’m not sure yet how far I will go with my own redesign. It could be anything from just tidying up the current customisations, to a complete overhaul! I keep on imagining soft silvery colours, like a misty eucalyptus forest… Blog and research data integrated on the one site…?!?!?

For the sake of documentation, here are screenshots of my research site and this blog a few days ago. My research site now differs slightly as I made a bit of a mess of the upgrade and I haven’t completely fixed the customisation again.

This blog, prior to any changes

Research site, prior to any changes

Update on my genealogy world.

2012-02-07T21:53:00.001+11:00

There are a few things happening in my personal genealogy world at the moment.

DNA – Around about New Year, my father agreed to genealogy DNA testing! I purchased him a kit on special from Family Tree DNA. His sample is now at the FTDNA lab with results due back at the end of March. I’m looking forward to seeing the results. At the very minimum they will show which side (maternal or paternal) my matches come from.

More DNA – I’m also excited about the news that Family Tree DNA is accepting uploads of 23andMe data. This is, for now, at the bargain price of $50. I encourage any genealogist who has tested with 23andMe to submit their data to FTDNA as well. Note that FTDNA does not have an ongoing subscription fee. There’s more information on the Your Genetic Genealogist blog, which is where I first saw this news.

TNG – TNG (The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding) is the software that I use for my family tree site, www.twigsofyore.com. Version 9 has just been released. I have purchased the upgrade and am thinking of giving both the site and this blog a makeover at the same time.

See Jill Ball’s Geniaus blog for her interview with the developer Darrin Lythgoe at the recent Rootstech 2012 conference. Go Jill!

Desktop software – I have deliberately avoided customising my Family Historian software until I became more familiar with it. Now I think it’s time to start setting things up to suit myself. I’m starting with setting up a property tab for convenient entry of probate records. I have at least half a dozen probate records or letters of administration that need to be entered so I will be able to put my customisations to the test.

I have also been doing bits and pieces of research, but not in a very focussed way.

Australia Day 2012 – Wealth for toil – All the posts

2012-01-26T21:51:00.001+11:00

Happy Australia Day!

I recently issued an invitation/challenge to geneabloggers to blog on Australia Day (today!). The theme I chose was “Wealth for Toil”, inspired by Australia’s national anthem.

The instructions were:

To participate, choose someone who lived in Australia (preferably one of your ancestors) and tell us how they toiled. Your post should include:

What was their occupation?
What information do you have about the individual’s work, or about the occupation in general?
The story of the person, focussing on their occupation; or
The story of the occupation, using the person as an example.

Responses may be as long or short as you like, and as narrow or broad as you wish.

It was lovely to see so many people reply straight away that they intended to participate, and even better to see the posts start appearing.

So, for your enjoyment, in the order that I found out about them, here are the “Wealth for Toil” posts.

I will continue to add posts for the next day or two. If I have missed your post it’s not intentional - please leave a comment and I’ll add you to the list.

Jill Ball – Geniaus
Frank Duncan moved from job to job

Shauna Hicks – Shauna Hicks History Enterprises
Thomas Price led a varied life

Sharon – The Tree of Me
Dr William Lee Dawson

Helen V Smith - From Helen V Smith's Keyboard
William Busby, stonemason and George Howard Busby, a taste for adventure

Tanya – My genealogy adventure
George Thomas Smede, military and police

Linda Ottery – Questions about my Quest
Toiling in the Tobacco Fields

Merron Riddiford – Western District Families
Haddon family, working on the land and working on the roads

Fi – Dance Skeletons
Arthur Louis Alexandre Bastin, sailor, deserter, miner, bookseller

Kerry Farmer – Family History Research
Commercial travellers

Sharn White – FamilyHistory4u
John Morrison, builder

Pauleen - Family history across the seas
Denis Joseph Kunkel, working on the railways

Judy Webster – UK/Australia Genealogy
William Donald Webster, working with horses

Julie Goucher - Anglers Rest
John Hunt Butcher, magistrate?

Frances – Rebel Hand
Nicholas Delaney, building roads

Cassie Mercer – Inside History Magazine
Tom Readford, convict to innkeeper (and he met Charles Darwin!)

Alex Daw – Family Tree Frog
Harriet Rowland, teacher

Ann O’Dyne – Trying to be Ann O’Dyne
George Sedgwick, carpenter

Shelley Crawford – Twigs of Yore
Daniel Miller Couper, butcher

Australia Day 2012 – Wealth for toil – Butcher

2012-01-26T20:38:00.001+11:00

Recently I invited geneabloggers to join me in Australia Day blogging on the theme “Wealth for Toil” (from the Australian national anthem). The instructions I gave were:

To participate, choose someone who lived in Australia (preferably one of your ancestors) and tell us how they toiled. Your post should include:

What was their occupation?
What information do you have about the individual’s work, or about the occupation in general?
The story of the person, focussing on their occupation; or
The story of the occupation, using the person as an example.

Responses may be as long or short as you like, and as narrow or broad as you wish.

This post is my response to my own challenge. I selected an ancestor for whom I had recently found occupational information, and who I thought I might be able to dig up some more information and context in the time and with the resources I had available.

[I will post a list of all the challenge responses received to date shortly]

The first mention I have of my great-great-grandfather Daniel Miller Couper’s occupation is on his marriage certificate in January of 1879. By then 28 years old, he was a butcher. Whether he already had his own business by then or was working for another butcher, I don’t know. From that time his occupation is uniformly given as butcher in all the documents I have viewed – up until the time it changes to retired butcher!

Becoming a butcher

I have not dwelled on the physical skills needed to become a butcher – I am too squeamish for that and it is certainly not an occupation that would suit me! I had always assumed that Daniel Miller Couper must have gone through an apprenticeship. Perhaps he did as there was an apprenticeship system in place in Victoria, modelled after the English system. However, in researching for this post I’m not so sure.

The requirements for a slaughtering licence outside of Melbourne were quite straightforward - a slaughtering licence could be had for one pound if the local council was satisfied that the applicant was of “unexceptionable character and that the situation of such slaughter-house or place is not objectionable”¹. There was no requirement for any particular training. It seems probable that he learnt the trade from another local butcher, although not necessarily under a formal arrangement.

The first indication I have of Daniel owning a butchers store comes in the Sands Melbourne Directory of 1880. I have not done a thorough enough search to feel confident that this was when he opened shop. His butcher’s shop was on Broadwood Street, Oakleigh, and his slaughter yard not far away at Mulgrave.

Daniel himself had workers at his store. I know this not from employment records, but from when things went wrong.

In 1885, Daniel hired Joseph Jose for 25s per week on a verbal agreement at the Melbourne Meat Market. However, the employment didn’t last. Joseph left without giving the (allegedly) agreed one week of notice. On 6 March 1885 Joseph was arrested at Walhalla. For his part, Joseph said that he occasionally had to work late at night and, in fact, there was money owing to him. Neither party had evidence to support their claims and the case was dismissed.²

Later, in 1900, John J Keppel, a stout 28 year old butcher of fair complexion, was charged with embezzling 11s. 4d. of Daniel’s money³.

Legal requirements

Being a butcher involved a lot of red tape. Slaughterhouses had to give notice in writing at least 12 hours in advance of any animal to be slaughtered. They also had to keep a book with detailed records of the animals they slaughtered that specified the “color marks brands sex and apparent age of such cattle…” and a copy of these records had to be provided to the nearest court of petty sessions every month. The definition of cattle was broad – it included any “bull ox steer cow heifer calf ram ewe wether lamb goat kid or swine”⁴.

The purpose of all the red tape and detailed records was to prevent the theft of cattle, or of any other livestock worth stealing. Failure to comply could mean hefty fines.

Abattoirs also had special mention in the public health laws⁵. In the late 1800s it was well known that unsanitary conditions contributed to the spread of infectious diseases. Inspection of abattoirs and butchers premises was a public health measure.

The public health laws allowed members of the local council and their officers to inspect a butcher’s premises at any time. The local board could give 24 hours notice that any “manure dung soil filth offal coal ashes or other offensive or noxious matter whatsoever” they found was to be removed. Penalties for non-compliance could range from fines up to hard labour.

The fledgling town of Oakleigh struggled with problems of drainage and of livestock being kept within the town limits. On one occasion, as late as 1891, a flock of around 150 sheep belonging to Thomas Jones, a long-time Oakleigh butcher, was found straying on Oakleigh’s streets⁶. It might not have been so bad if a ram hadn’t started butting a woman!

OAKLEIGH POLICE COURT. (1891, December 5). Oakleigh Leader (North Brighton, Vic. : 1888 - 1902), p. 5. Retrieved January 26, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66169778

As the town grew, some slaughtering licences were not renewed. In January 1887 Charles Newport’s application to renew a slaughtering licence at Dandenong Road was refused, on the grounds that the area was becoming more populated. However, the application of one J T Clarke with premises directly across the road was going to be granted. The unfairness of this was noted and the decision deferred to the next meeting.

While Daniel had the occasional slap on the wrist from council e.g. for keeping pigs within the town limits or for leaving bad smelling fat and putrid bones lying around, he seems to have always had his licence renewed.

Technology and advancement

The latter half of the 1800s was a time with many changes affecting butchers’ ability to run a business. Through good management or good fortune, Daniel Couper seems to have navigated them all.

Viable systems of refrigeration had been invented, and as the technology was being adopted, the ability of a butcher to refrigerate his wares was a fact worthy of advertising⁷. Investing in a new technology is a risk, but in the case of Daniel Miller Couper the risk seems to have paid off as he eventually retired a wealthy man.

The spread of the rail network also brought both the risk of losing custom, and opportunities to sell to new markets.

I have only a few details of Daniel Miller Couper’s own business. I have located his butchers shop in Melbourne Directories but this tells me little. I hope to gain more information from newspaper advertisements. In Taking its Place: A history of Oakleigh by H.G.Gobbi mentions Daniel advertising his business – the source is not clear but probably in the Oakleigh and Ferntree Gully Times based on the surrounding source references. This publication is not (yet?) on the Trove Newspapers website and I have not been able to find examples of him advertising in other papers.

Finally

As it happens, Daniel Couper Miller did become a very wealthy man (although that was not why I chose him for this challenge). He was able to retire and lived for many years as a gentleman of independent means, leaving a sizable estate when he died in 1935.

[1] Victoria. “The Licensed Butchers and Abattoirs Statute 1864”. These provisions were retained in later replacement legislation.

[2] OAKLEIGH POLICE COURT. (1885, March 25). South Bourke and Mornington Journal (Richmond, Vic. : 1872 - 1920), p. 3 Edition: WEEKLY.. Retrieved January 21, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70389563

[3] Victoria Police. and Victoria. Police Dept. and Victoria Police Force. Victoria police gazette 4 Jan 1900, p7.

[4]Victoria. “The Licensed Butchers and Abattoirs Statute 1864”. These provisions were retained in later replacement legislation.

[5] Including the Public Health Statute 1865 as well as earlier and subsequent legislation.

[6] OAKLEIGH POLICE COURT. (1891, December 5). Oakleigh Leader (North Brighton, Vic. : 1888 - 1902), p. 5. Retrieved January 26, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66169778

[7] Gobbi, H. G. & Oakleigh and District Historical Society. 2004 Taking its place : a history of Oakleigh marking its sesquicentenary, 1853-2003 / H.G. Gobbi Oakleigh and District Historical Society, Oakleigh, Vic.

Australia Day – Wealth for toil – Don’t forget!

2012-01-24T23:41:00.001+11:00

My reminder is probably coming a little late, but here it is…

Don’t forget to join in the Australia Day 2012 geneablogging!

You don’t need to be Australian, you just need to be able to write about someone in Australia. This year the theme is occupations – “wealth for toil” – inspired by our national anthem. Check my earlier post for the details. I’m happy to offer a little leeway with the timing of your post considering that most of the world experiences 26 January a day later than we do here in Australia.

I’ve been wondering if I will get my own post done in time. Early in December I fell and broke my foot. While I’m well on the way to recovery and can now walk without crutches, I’m still following doctor’s orders and heading down to the local pool to do physiotherapy exercises every day. With two small children, I need to be able to not only walk but run properly! The only time I can get there is in the evening after the aforesaid small children have gone to bed – time that usually goes towards genealogy.

I’m really looking forward to reading all your posts.

Deaths in my tree on Friday the 13th

2012-01-13T18:32:00.001+11:00

When I realised the date, I thought I would see if Family Historian could produce a list of people who died on a Friday the 13th.

No problem! Family Historian allows you to filter on just the day (13th) and just the day of the week (Friday) without needing to do anything too complex. I quickly identified three people who died on a Friday 13th. Curiously, all three were from Scotland.

They were:

James Couper, the two year old son of William Couper and Anne McKenzie. He died of croup on Friday 13th March 1857 at Portmahomack, Ross, Scotland.

Elizabeth Sinclair died in Lybster, Latheron, Caithness, Scotland at age 93 on Friday 13 May 1864. I think she is my 5xgreat-grandmother, but I need to gather more evidence to be sure I have the right Elizabeth Sinclair.

Alexander Miller died a pauper at the age of 74 after six months suffering from chronic bronchitis on Friday 13th April 1877 at Bardfellister, Clyth, Latheron, Caithness, Scotland. He is my 4xgreat-grandfather.

If you are related to any of these people, please get in touch. I’d love to exchange information.

Australia Day 2012 – Wealth for Toil

2012-01-02T22:18:00.000+11:00

Last year I was pleased (and astonished) when my timid invitation to join me in Australia Day geneablogging was met with great enthusiasm. I was thrilled to present 22 fantastic responses from bloggers around the world, that provided great examples of quality research and writing with an Australian flavour.

Let’s do it again!

This year I invite you to join me in Australia Day (26 January) geneablogging on “Wealth for Toil”. The theme is inspired by Australia’s national anthem, Advance Australia Fair:

Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free;
We've golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In history’s page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

Australia Day 2012: Wealth for Toil

To participate, choose someone who lived in Australia (preferably one of your ancestors) and tell us how they toiled. Your post should include:

What was their occupation?
What information do you have about the individual’s work, or about the occupation in general?
The story of the person, focussing on their occupation; or
The story of the occupation, using the person as an example.

Responses may be as long or short as you like, and as narrow or broad as you wish.

Publish your post on or before Australia Day (26 Jan 2012) and leave a comment here or send me an email with the URL. I will create a summary post of the responses.

I look forward to learning how your ancestors toiled!

Update: You can find a list of responses to this post here.

Looking backwards, looking forwards: My genealogy year in review

2012-01-01T21:59:00.001+11:00

This post flits past my goals for 2011, reviews my genealogy achievements for 2011 and sets out my hopes for 2012.

Looking back: 2011 goals

In 2011 I didn’t make resolutions as such, but provided a long list of long-term goals. Rather than describe my progress on each item, I will dwell on just one: Don't bite off more than I can chew!

My results on this item for 2012 is – fail. I did get some good things done, but felt burnt out by the second half of the year.

Looking back: Highlights of 2011

Using my first ever FHL film. At one stage I almost lived in the National Library of Australia but my archives research has been limited by distance to the appropriate archive and with small children it’s hard to even get to the library too often any more. Just getting out of the house to do some research was exciting for me and I found all the information I was hoping for.
The Australia Day challenge! In January I issued an invitation for other bloggers to join me in an Australia Day blogging event. I had given quite a bit of thought to the wording of the question as I was hoping to engineer a certain type of response. Yes - I had in mind the type of post I would like to read and asked questions that I hoped would deliver the goods. I was amply rewarded when 21 other bloggers posted fantastic articles – and from the feedback I got it wasn’t just me that liked the results.
“Opening” my research data website www.twigsofyore.com. I have already had quite a few cousin connections thanks to the site. I think that my decision to put up more data rather than less has contributed to people who find the site actually getting in touch. This has lead to lots of new information and I have also been making an effort to gather more information about other descendants of my ancestors, so I’ll understand how my new-found cousins are connected to me.
A joint ANZAC Day blogging challenge with the Central Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries. Again we had a great response. I found the sad stories of the impact of war heartbreaking.
Meanwhile I completed three basic Australian genealogy courses with the National Institute in Genealogical Studies through the year, and have almost completed a fourth. I found that when I did just one course at a time I was wished the course was more challenging (that will come if I move on to more advanced courses, I’m sure), but when I did two at a time any unexpected life event put me in danger of not completing. With a five and a three year old, unexpected life events are to be expected! One course at a time it is for me from now on.
Changing genealogy software. This I did with some sadness, but it was time and I still think I made the right decision. Changing genealogy software can be quite a challenge. There is a lot of potential for data loss and general messing up along the way, but I have come through the process reasonably well and am slowing tidying up my database. I’m very happy with the querying and multimedia capabilities.
DNA. I have now tested with both 23andMe and with Family Tree DNA. I have not yet worked out my connection with anyone, but two of my (half) second cousins tested during the year. Aside from being interesting to see, the results supported our paper trail (phew!) and gave leads on some of our matches.
Giving back. I haven’t joined an indexing project or similar, but I have joined Judy Webster’s “Genealogists for Families” team on Kiva. Kiva is a site that facilitates small loans (just $25) to assist people move out of poverty. It’s hard to call this giving back as you can reclaim the money once it’s repaid, but I don’t intend to. I will reloan it to others who would benefit from help.
Discussions with other bloggers. In particular I enjoyed having discussions in both public and private fora with Jill Ball aka Geniaus and Tanya Honey about the use of our latest toys – Samsung Galaxy Tablets. These Android devices are bigger than a mobile phone but smaller than an iPad. I have enjoyed exchanging notes with Jill and Tanya on the genealogy (and other) uses of our toys. Keep an eye out for Jill talking about our Galaxy Tabs at Rootstech!
More and more Victorian newspapers appeared on Trove through 2011. This has been a goldmine for some of my families (see Bad smelling fat and putrid bones for an example) and I hope to do “more” with some of the information I’ve found and not yet blogged about. I’m still not sure what that “more” will be.

This is one of the advantages of blogging. If I wasn’t blogging I’m sure I wouldn’t be looking back on the year and seeing just how much I’ve done – and I certainly wouldn’t have the blog posts to prove it!

Looking forward: What’s coming in 2012?

DNA. Great excitement. Yesterday my father agreed that he would do a genealogy DNA test for me – just in time to take advantage of the Family Tree DNA sale. As he is a generation further back than me, he will have bigger matches with my cousins who have already tested and this may allow us to narrow down more matches to our shared portion of the family tree. It will also show me whether my other matches are on my maternal or paternal side, and may help narrow down the estimated generation distance of some matches.
Australia Day challenge. It’s definitely on again and this year the topic is… no, wait a minute, that’s another blog post… (coming soon!!)

In terms of resolutions, the main one, once again, is Don’t bite off more than I can chew! I don’t want to get that burnt out feeling again – genealogy is a leisure activity for me, after all! – and so I will be careful to avoid excitedly signing up for anything and everything.

Related to that, I also want to do a better job of planning my activities. Not necessarily to stick scrupulously to the plan, but to be able to make good use of my time when I feel like making good use of it.

As for what else, I don’t know. I will see what eventuates. Who knows what path a cousin contact or DNA discovery may lead me down.

Christmas is the season for lending

2011-12-25T15:28:00.001+11:00

Most years I try to make a charitable donation at Christmas. This year I’ve done something a little different. I’ve made a small loan to help a group of Kenyans obtain low-cost seeds and training that will move them beyond subsistence farming. When the loan is repaid I will be able to redirect it to help others.

I made the loan via the Genealogists for Families team on Kiva. Kiva is a not-for-profit lending platform aimed at alleviating poverty. The Genealogists for Families team was started by Judy Webster because “we care about families (past, present and future)”. You can read more about the team here.

Please join us!

Two hours in the library

2011-12-21T20:20:00.000+11:00

AMHERST HOSPITAL FETE, 1871. (1871, December 4). Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers (Melbourne, Vic. : 1867 - 1875), p. 219. Retrieved December 21, 2011, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60448591

I had today off work and was without my children for most of the day. This close to Christmas there’s a lot I could or should have been doing…. but instead I made a flying visit to the National Library of Australia. I try to keep note of things I want to check or refer to at the library for when I have a chance to go there. I reviewed my notes and did a little preparation the night before. Although I only had two hours there I think I made good use of my limited time.

Last night I pre-ordered Amherst District Hospital 1859 to 1933 : the outcome of compassion by Bea. Brewster. It was waiting for me when I got to the library this morning. I wanted to find out more about conditions in the hospital where my ancestors had been treated. The sort of information I hoped to find was included in the book, although I haven’t had a chance to digest the material yet.

One thing I did notice was that the publication included a drawing of the annual Amherst Hospital fete (1871) – a quick search of Trove turned up the cited article. The article claimed that the procession included almost 1,000 men, 300 of them mounted, dressed up in what sounds like a quite astonishing array of costumes. My great-grandfather (then aged 7) was treated in the hospital for an injury earlier that year – I wonder if he was at the fete?

I also checked my research plan* for finding James Bennett’s (1831-???) death. My last firm sighting of him was in 1883 – being checked out “cured” from Amherst Hospital, as it happens. I’ve also got a newspaper mention of him in 1896 when his wife died that I think indicates he was alive. She was referred to as “wife of” rather than “widow of”. I checked:

Victorian probate indexes beyond 1925 (up to 1925 is available online)
Victorian inquest indexes

No luck there, but at least now I know that I’ve looked. I was going to make my way through some local directories to see if I could find him and when he dropped out. I decided against attempting that this morning, as there was at least one other James Bennett living nearby and I wanted to collect more information to distinguish between them first.

I then turned my attention to two of my great-great grandparents whose burial place I knew from death records but I hadn’t ever checked for cemetery records. I found that the cemetery has a database online but I wondered if the microfiche at the library had more information. It didn’t, the information was exactly the same. Another case of well now I know.

The vast majority of my known relatives came to Victoria, but I was aware that early church records for New South Wales were available on microfilm at the library. Last night I checked my database for any early New South Wales birth deaths or marriages and found two that looked like good candidates. I’m not used to microfilm (on rolls). For some reason most of the records I’ve looked at have been on microfiche (flat sheets). I’m not sure if I could have kept going with genealogy if it was the other way around as the microfilm whizzing by made me feel quite nauseous! I worked out how the records were arranged and managed to find my target before I started feeling too woozy.

A little advance planning paid off. I think I got good value from my flying visit!

* “Research plan” is a bit glorified for a page with a few dot points but it did have the heading “Research plan” and (and this is important) I was able to find it when I wanted it.

Bad news–Victorian passenger list images no longer on Ancestry

2011-11-26T15:03:00.001+11:00

I’m sorry to be the bearer of sad tidings.

I recently found that I could no longer access images for passenger lists to Victoria, Australia on Ancestry. I asked Ancestry where these images had gone and was advised that "The images were placed on the site by mistake for a couple of days, and were removed afterward".

So, no more Victorian passenger list images.

The Ancestry indexes which remain give a little more information than the free indexes on the PROV website, but not much. Certainly not enough to show which people were travelling as a family group.

I'm not so sure about the "couple of days" claim... I think they may have a funny idea of what a "couple of days" means. I've often been taken to task for using the word "couple" when I mean anything other than two, but I've never used the word to describe a quantity greater than all my fingers and toes together…

The presence of these images was one of the deciding factors when I was considering whether to take out an Ancestry subscription for the first time in late 2010. It's frustrating to know that the digital images exist but I can't see them, even through a paid site. Very disappointing. I hope that whatever arrangements are needed can be worked out and they reappear somewhere soon.

Bad smelling fat and putrid bones

2011-11-05T22:55:00.001+11:00

My ancestor Daniel Miller Couper, a butcher, gives every impression of being a respectable citizen. Well, almost every impression.

I knew there was an 1887 newspaper article that discussed the offensive state of his butcher shop and slaughter yard as I had seen reference to it in a local history book. Sadly, the issue of the South Bourke and Mornington Journal I needed wasn’t available at the National Library of Australia.

The good news is that the State Library of Victoria has funded the addition of a number of Victorian titles to the Trove newspaper collection. Now I can access the newspapers I’ve been wanting, and they are a goldmine for me. Here is the text of the the article in question:

“Shire Council Meetings
Oakleigh Shire Council
Thursday, December 1, 1887
…
“Received. From J. Colville, Secretary, Central Board of Health, forwarding copies of the following reports by an Inspector of the Board relative to butchers' premises at Oakleigh:--"1 Report of John Taylor, relative to D. Couper, butcher, Broadwood street, Oakleigh. Visited this day (24th November); accumulation of manure; two pig-styes with boarded floors in an offensive State; coppers and boiling sheds in an offensive state; accumulation of bad smelling fat, putrid bones and and generally in an offensive State." Slaughter yard about quarter of a mile from the shop; quantity of manure with blood and offal exposed in an offensive state
…
“In reference to Couper's case some improvements had been made, and he had reasons to believe that in a very short time the premises would be in a proper sanitary condition.-- Mr. Leonard moved that the local inspector draw up a report on both matters and forward same to the Central Board.-Seconded by Mr. Lavidge and carried.”
Source: Shire Council Meetings. (1887, December 7). South Bourke and Mornington Journal (Richmond, Vic. : 1872 - 1920), p. 3 Edition: WEEKLY.. Retrieved November 5, 2011, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70029994

This sort of thing wasn’t so unusual. Other butchers were also pulled up for similar offences.

There is a lot more about the state of hygiene in the area in general, and I have some ideas brewing about research I want to do (so frustrated that I am at present an “internet-only” genie) and maybe even papers I want to write (not sure if that will ever happen)… but for now I am trying to be systematic about digging out all the relevant newspaper articles and putting together a timeline.

Australian Federal Electoral Rolls – revisited

2011-10-18T22:30:00.001+11:00

Back in February 2010 I was making heavy use of the Australian Electoral Rolls on Ancestry. Until you have slogged through polling place after polling place on microfiche, I don’t think you can appreciate how wonderful it is to be able to type in a name and see the person you’re looking for pop up in not only an unexpected polling place, but a different electorate.

You kids today have it so easy…

Expanded coverage

My use of the electoral rolls is likely to pick up again (not that I have finished entering all the data I downloaded last time!) now that Ancestry have expanded their coverage of Australian Electoral Rolls all the way up to 1980.

There’s something a little eerie about having the electoral rolls go so far. It’s in my lifetime! Although I was still a long way off voting, I have found my parents on the roll and it’s funny knowing that I was part of that household.

How old to vote?

The expansion of Ancestry’s holdings to 1980 raised a question for me. In what year was the voting age in Australia lowered from 21 to 18?

Unfortunately, the metadata on Ancestry is very poor. Changes to voting requirements and eligibility over time are skimmed over with the years that changes occurred mentioned in only vague terms. They don’t mention the voting age at all!

Fortunately, this lack of information had bothered me enough in 2010 that I sought out the answers myself and wrote about it in this blog:

Australian Federal Electoral Rolls - part 1
Australian Federal Electoral Rolls - part 2

Part one provides a summary of the information and a link to the Australian Electoral Commission's Australian Electoral History page. Part two describes how I was using the electoral roll at the time.

Referring back to my earlier posts, I see that the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1973. This means that I could use the electoral rolls to narrow down the birth year of people who born up to about 1962, who would first appear on the roll as 18 year olds in 1980.

The Ancestors' Geneameme

2011-10-17T21:43:00.001+11:00

Geniaus is on a geneameme (her term) creating roll! I’m a bit late in joining this one as I only arrived home from a holiday on Saturday night.

She says:

“I invite anyone with an interest in genealogy to participate. If you don't have a blog and wish to participate you can send your responses to me in an email and I will pop them into a blog post on the GeniMates blog. Please let me know when you participate by a comment on this post or by email and I'll collate a list of responses on this blog.

“It would be appreciated if genealogists would let the meme run its course before copying and republishing it with alterations and amendments.”

Here’s my response:

The Ancestors' Geneameme

The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type

You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item.

Which of these apply to you?

Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents
Can name over 50 direct ancestors
(About 100 for whom I have both a first and last name, with varying degrees of certainty)
Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents
(I would like to. I have photos for seven out of eight. If anyone has a photo that is or even might be James Henry French 1849-1915 who lived in the Avoca, Victoria region, please please please get in touch!)
Have an ancestor who was married more than three times
Have an ancestor who was a bigamist
Met all four of my grandparents
(This is not possible as all of my grandparents are deceased. I met three of them. My paternal grandfather died before I was born)
Met one or more of my great-grandparents
(Again, not possible, but I would have liked to!)
Named a child after an ancestor
Bear an ancestor's given name/s
(I do bear an ancestral surname)
Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland
Have an ancestor from Asia
Have an ancestor from Continental Europe
Have an ancestor from Africa
Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer
(Probably – my neglected Irish ancestors are described as farmers)
Have an ancestor who had large land holdings
(I think some of them did – I haven’t looked into those records yet)
Have an ancestor who was a holy man - minister, priest, rabbi
Have an ancestor who was a midwife
Have an ancestor who was an author
Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones
Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng
Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X
Have an ancestor with a forename beginning with Z
Have an ancestor born on 25th December
(my great-great grandfather William Tregonning was baptised on 25 December 1825)
Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day
Have blue blood in your family lines
(Not that I know of. Someone once told me that my Carey ancestors descend from Anne Boleyn's sister. I’ve never bothered looking into it until about ten seconds ago when I Googled and found this. So there we have it – I descend from Henry VIII )
Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century
Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier
Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents
(I have original marriage certificates of some of my great-grandparents so I’ve seen their actual signatures)
Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X
Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university
(No – I was the first generation to attend university)
Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence
(Not that I know of – but if I do I would like to know about it)
Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime
Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine (Tell us where) (Bits and pieces on this blog)
Have published a family history online or in print (Details please)
Have visited an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries
Still have an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family
Have a family bible from the 19th Century
Have a pre-19th century family bible

Wordless Wednesday–A life in pictures–Marjorie Lloyd Stannus

2011-10-05T21:41:00.000+11:00

Marjorie Lloyd Stannus (1911-1984)

Perhaps just a few words...

Marjorie Lloyd Stannus was my Nanna. She was warm and fun – Nanna and Pa were the grandparents who could be counted on to spoil us!

I think it fascinating to see a person represented across their life span. I have often thought about putting together a collage like the one above for some of my ancestors – but it seemed like too much work. Then I revisited Picasa and was impressed with how well the facial recognition did. All but the youngest baby photo were correctly identified by Picasa as belonging to the same person. I created the collage above using Picasa’s collage function – it took about a minute. I would like to do more “Life in Pictures” posts, but there will only be a few. In most cases I’m glad if I even have one photo of my relatives and ancestors.

The Tech-Savvy Genealogist Meme–extended remix

2011-09-19T22:07:00.001+10:00

Geniaus created The Tech-Savvy Genealogist Meme. She came up with 50 items. John Newmark at the TransylvanianDutch blog expanded the list to 80 (items were renumbered), and also reworded two of her entries. His additions are marked by a (*).

The instructions are:

The list should be annotated in the following manner:

Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type

Feel free to add extra comments in brackets after each item

Which of these apply to you?

1. Own an Android or Windows tablet or an iPad
2. Use a tablet or iPad for genealogy related purposes
*3. Use a Kindle, Nook, or other e-reader for genealogy related purposes [My tablet functions as an e-reader]
4. Have used Skype or Google Video Chat to for genealogy purposes
5. Have used a camera to capture images in a library/archives/ancestor's home
6. Use a genealogy software program on your computer to manage your family tree
*7. Use multiple genealogy software programs because they each have different functionalities.
8. Have a Twitter account
9. Tweet daily
10. Have a genealogy blog [This one]
11. Have more than one genealogy blog
12. Have lectured/presented to a genealogy group on a technology topic
13. Currently an active member of Genealogy Wise [I’m a member but I’ve never really taken to it so I would not describe myself as an active member]
14. Have a Facebook Account
15. Have connected with genealogists via Facebook
16. Maintain a genealogy related Facebook Page
17. Maintain a blog or website for a genealogy society
18. Have submitted text corrections online to Ancestry, Trove or a similar site [Love Trove!]
*19. Have added content to a Person Page on Fold3 (formerly Footnote)
20. Have registered a domain name [www.twigsofyore.com]
21. Post regularly to Google+ [although not all that frequently]
*22. Have participated in a genealogy-related Google+ hangout
23. Have a blog listed on Geneabloggers [This one]
*24. Have a blog listed on Cyndi's List
25. Have transcribed/indexed records for FamilySearch or a similar project
*26. Have converted a family audiotape to digital [Don’t have any]
*27. Have converted a family videotape to digital [Don’t have any]
*28. Have converted family movies pre-dating videotape to digital [Don’t have any]
29. Own a Flip-Pal or hand-held scanner
30. Can code a webpage in .html
*31. Can code a webpage in .html using Notepad (or any other text-only software)
*32. Can write scripts for your webpage in at least one programming language
*33. Can write scripts for your webpage in multiple programming languages
34. Own a smartphone
35. Have a personal subscription to one or more paid genealogy databases
*36. Have a local library card that offers you home access to online databases, and you use that access. [If the National Library of Australia counts as a local library… it is in the same city, after all.]
37. Use a digital voice recorder to record genealogy lectures
38. Have contributed to a genealogy blog carnival
*39. Have hosted a genealogy blog carnival [Does the Australia day event count as a carnival or a meme?]
40. Use an Internet Browser that didn’t come installed on your computer
41. Have participated in a genealogy webinar
42. Have taken a DNA test for genealogy purposes
43. Have a personal genealogy website [Had my first genealogy web page 10 or so years ago, a free page hosted by Rootsweb. Now I have my own site at www.twigsofyore.com]
44. Have found mention of an ancestor in an online newspaper archive
45. Have tweeted during a genealogy lecture
*46. Have tweeted during a family reunion
47. Have scanned your hardcopy genealogy files [I’m well on the way but there are still too many gaps to claim I’ve scanned them all]
48. Use an RSS Reader to follow genealogy news and blogs
49. Have uploaded a gedcom file to a site like Geni, MyHeritage or Ancestry [only Ancestry]
50. Own a netbook [it’s lying neglected now that I have a tablet]
51. Use a computer/tablet/smartphone to take genealogy lecture notes
52. Have a profile on LinkedIn that mentions your genealogy habit
53. Have developed a genealogy software program, app or widget
54. Have listened to a genealogy podcast online
55. Have downloaded genealogy podcasts for later listening [That’s how I motivate myself to do the ironing! If Lisa Louise Cooke ever gives it up, my family will be getting about in crumpled clothes.]
56. Backup your files to a portable hard drive [But not as often as I should]
57. Have a copy of your genealogy files stored offsite
58. Know about RootsTech
59. Have listened to a BlogTalk radio session about genealogy
60. Use Dropbox, SugarSync or other service to save documents in the cloud
61. Schedule regular email backups [I should get on to this]
62. Have contributed to the FamilySearch Wiki
63. Have scanned and tagged your genealogy photographs [Well on the way, but I have a better scanner now so I am redoing them]
64. Have published a genealogy book in an online/digital format
*65. Brought a USB device to a microfilm repository so you could download instead of print. [That’s so old school. I upload to Dropbox so they sync straight my home computer.]
*66. Have a wearable USB device containing important files. (Watch, keychain necklace, etc)
*67. Created a map on Google Maps plotting ancestral homes or businesses.
*68. Recorded the GPS coordinates for a tombstone, or ancestral home
*69. Edited the Wikipedia entry for an ancestor, or their kin
*70. Created an entry at FindAGrave for a person
*71. Created an entry at FindAGrave for a cemetery
*72. Uploaded the MediaWiki software (or TikiWiki, or PhpWiki) to your family website.
*73. Have downloaded a video (for genealogical purposes) from YouTube or other streaming video site using KeepVid.com, or in some other fashion
*74. Have transferred a video from a DVR to your computer for genealogical purposes
*75. Have participated in a ScanFest
*76. Have started a Genealogy-related meme at least one other geneablogger participated in.
*77. Have started a Genealogy-related weekly blogging theme other geneabloggers participated in.
*78. Have used Photoshop (or other editing software) to ‘clean up’ an old family photo
*79. Done digital scrapbooking
*80. Printed out a satellite photo from Google Maps of a cemetery, and marked where a tombstone was located on it.

Thanks to Geniaus (and John) for a great meme!

Ten years ago today – remembering 9/11

2011-09-12T07:00:00.000+10:00

Ten years ago today it was a beautiful, sunny day in Christchurch, New Zealand. I was nearing the end of a holiday with my sister and my fiancé. We had spent the previous fortnight travelling New Zealand in a hired car, finding our accommodation as we went along.

Two weeks wasn’t long enough to see even our limited itinerary and I didn’t want to waste a minute of our last days there. When I emerged from the shower ready to go and found my fiancé and sister glued to the television, I reacted with impatience. My fiancé was a news junkie. I knew he had felt disconnected from the world on our trip, but seriously… what news could be so important that it held up our holiday?

Then I saw what had happened overnight in New York.

I have scheduled this post to coincide with the approximate time that I saw the news, on the morning of September 12, New Zealand time, several hours after the events had taken place. Ten years ago at this moment I was stunned. Like the rest of the world I was mesmerised and horrified by the news footage, not quite able to take it in.

We were outside of Australia, yet in a country where we felt very safe. Even news reports about the imminent failure of our airline hadn’t worried us (Ansett stopped flying the first time just three hours after we landed at home). We didn’t know anyone likely to be in New York, but we mourned the thousands. We watched the news for a while that morning but it was still the same limited footage repeating with no new information coming through. We spent the rest of the day quietly, exploring Christchurch.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be in the USA when the planes hit, let alone in New York. The stories were heartbreaking.

I have written this post to mark the day.

99 Things Genealogy Meme – Aussie style

2011-09-05T21:17:00.001+10:00

Geniaus has ‘dinkumised’ (see end of post for explanation*) the ‘99 Things Genealogy Meme’ that Kinexxions put together in 2009, and has thrown open the challenge to both Australian and foreign bloggers to join in.

It sounds like fun!

Here is my contribution:

Belong to a genealogical society.
Joined the Australian Genealogists group on Genealogy Wise
Transcribed records.
Uploaded headstone pictures to Find-A-Grave or a similar site.
Documented ancestors for four generations (self, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents)
Joined Facebook.
Cleaned up a run-down cemetery.
Joined the Genea-Bloggers Group.
Attended a genealogy conference.
Lectured at a genealogy conference.
Spoke on a genealogy topic at a local genealogy society.
Joined the Society of Australian Genealogists.
Contributed to a genealogy society publication.
Served on the board or as an officer of a genealogy society.
Got lost on the way to a cemetery.
Talked to dead ancestors.
Researched outside the state in which I live.
Knocked on the door of an ancestral home and visited with the current occupants.
Cold called a distant relative.
Posted messages on a surname message board.
Uploaded a gedcom file to the internet.
Googled my name.
Performed a random act of genealogical kindness.
Researched a non-related family, just for the fun of it.
Have been paid to do genealogical research.
Earn a living (majority of income) from genealogical research.
Wrote a letter (or email) to a previously unknown relative.
Contributed to one of the genealogy carnivals.
Responded to messages on a message board.
Was injured while on a genealogy excursion.
Participated in a genealogy meme.
Created family history gift items (calendars, cookbooks, etc.).
Performed a record lookup.
Took a genealogy seminar cruise.
Am convinced that a relative must have arrived here from outer space.
Found a disturbing family secret.
Told others about a disturbing family secret.
Combined genealogy with crafts (family picture quilt, scrapbooking).
Think genealogy is a passion not a hobby.
Assisted finding next of kin for a deceased person.
Taught someone else how to find their roots.
Lost valuable genealogy data due to a computer crash or hard drive failure.
Been overwhelmed by available genealogy technology.
(No! Bring it on!!)
Know a cousin of the 4th degree or higher.
(We haven’t met in person though, does that count?)
Disproved a family myth through research.
Got a family member to let you copy photos.
Used a digital camera to “copy” photos or records.
Translated a record from a foreign language.
(I found someone else to do it for me)
Found an immigrant ancestor’s passenger arrival record.
Looked at census records on microfilm, not on the computer.
Used microfiche.
Visited the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.
Used Google+ for genealogy.
Visited a church or place of worship of one of your ancestors.
Taught a class in genealogy.
Traced ancestors back to the 18th Century.
Traced ancestors back to the 17th Century.
Traced ancestors back to the 16th Century.
Can name all of your great-great-grandparents.
Found an ancestor on the Australian Electoral Rolls
Know how to determine a soundex code without the help of a computer.
Have found relevant articles on Trove.
Own a copy of Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills.
Helped someone find an ancestor using records you had never used for your own research.
Visited the main National Archives building in Washington, DC.
Visited the National Library of Australia.
Have an ancestor who came to Australia as a ten pound pom.
Have an ancestor who fought at Gallipoli.
Taken a photograph of an ancestor’s tombstone.
Can read a church record in Latin.
Have an ancestor who changed his/her name.
(If I have an ancestor who changed their name I’d like to find them, but I don’t wish for an ancestor who changed their name)
Joined a Rootsweb mailing list.
Created a family website.
Have a genealogy blog.
Was overwhelmed by the amount of family information received from someone.
Have broken through at least one brick wall.
Done genealogy research at the War Memorial in Canberra.
(Seems a bit silly that I haven’t since I live in the same city… but there you go…)
Borrowed microfilm from the Family History Library through a local Family History Center.
(Almost, I borrowed it through a local family history society. I don’t mind who I borrow it through, so long as I can borrow it)
Found an ancestor in the Ryerson index.
(No, but I have found relatives)
Have visited the National Archives of Australia.
Have an ancestor who served in the Boer War.
Use maps in my genealogy research.
Have a convict ancestor who was transported from the UK.
(I don’t mind either way, so long as I have the proof)
Found a bigamist amongst the ancestors.
Visited the National Archives in Kew.
Visited St. Catherine's House in London to find family records.
Taken an online genealogy course.
Consistently cite my sources.
(You’re not going to check this, are you?)
Visited a foreign country (i.e. one I don't live in) in search of ancestors.
Can locate any document in my research files within a few minutes. (See 88)
Have an ancestor who was married four times (or more).
Made a rubbing of an ancestors gravestone.
(That would be naughty)
Followed genealogists on Twitter.
Published a family history book (on one of my families).
Learned of the death of a fairly close relative through research.
Offended a family member with my research.
(Not that I know of… perhaps I’m just insensitive…)
Reunited someone with precious family photos or artifacts.
(I hope she’s looking after it)
Have a paid subscription to a genealogy database.
Edited records on Trove.

* ‘dinkumised’ will immediately be understood by any dinkum Aussie to be derived from the word ‘dinkum’ - which the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1992 defines as a colloquial expression meaning ‘genuine, right’. Australian’s will further understand that the genuine or rightness referred to is most frequently used in reference to the Australian-ness of the item being described. So, when Geniaus says she has ‘dinkumised’ the list she means that she has made it genuinely Australian.

Changing genealogy software – how it’s going

2011-09-04T22:44:00.001+10:00

I recently mentioned that I’m changing genealogy software. Three weeks on, I’m still happy that I made the right decision.

The most surprising thing to me has been feeling like a newbie! I’m used to being very proficient in the software I use – not expert, but better than average. I knew there would be a learning curve but I didn’t anticipate the newbie feeling that came with it. I’ve got a lot of clicking on menu items and trying things out to do!

The transfer itself was reasonably smooth. I found that 232 people had been detached from their parents on import. I think this was due to a flaw in the GEDCOM export for some (but not all?!) of the people in my old database. Fortunately I had an error listing which told me who the people affected were, and their parent families. It took me about 1.5 hours to link everyone up again. That was not how I wanted to spend my time, but not the end of the world, either.

That was the only unexpected hitch, and the most serious one. The other hitches were all expected…

My main challenges now include:

Deciding how to handle all the witnesses to other people’s events. Genbox had a “witness” feature, Family Historian doesn’t, so I will have to re-input that information… but how? For now I’m taking my time about it, reading up on forum posts and other internet discussion to see how people handle witnesses in software without “witness” features before I commit to an approach.
Any comments on how others do this would be welcome.
Adding details back into the source information. In most cases all the critical information transferred, but there are a few instances – mostly references to BDM index entries – where the detail, such as it was, didn’t seem to come over.
Hooking up all my multimedia properly. This isn’t the fault of my software, I’ve obviously rearranged things without telling my database about it! Broken links are a bit more obvious in Family Historian and to some extent can be batch fixed. Again, I’m taking my time about this and trying things out before I rush in.
Correcting errors in my information. Again, these are clearly not the fault of my software. With a slightly different view I’m spotting little errors that, I guess, used to be like part of the furniture to me.

The best surprise about Family Historian is its amazing capacity to query your data. I knew that its querying was good when I bought it, but as I’ve played with it more I’ve been thrilled with its ability to set up complex queries that run in a flash. I’m also realising just how customisable many of its other features are.

So yes, there was a little pain but I think the gain has been worth it.

Analysis of a second cousin DNA match

2011-08-30T23:37:00.001+10:00

Recently, one of my known cousins took a DNA test with Family Tree DNA. He’s a half second cousin to me. We have a great-grandfather in common but descend from different wives. I’ve been looking forward to seeing the results and figuring out what they reveal.

Direct comparison

The DNA test came back as a match, showing us as predicted second cousins with a range of second to third cousins. Spot on. We have a total of 141 cM in common over 20 segments of shared DNA, with the longest block being 33 cM.

Here is FTDNA’s representation of where my known cousin and I are half identical (only half due to the other half of our DNA coming from the other parent). Our shared segments of DNA are marked in yellowy-orange. Only segments of at least 5 cM are shown in this view.

This tells me that half of those yellowy-orange areas of my DNA came to me from our shared great-grandfather.

I think that’s a pretty cool thing to know.

Matches in common

My cousin has confirmed our relationship as second cousins in Family Tree DNA, and I can now see who we match common. I have 63 matches in total on Family Tree DNA, three of whom also match my known cousin.

I can add our matches in common to the comparison. One match shares a segment of DNA in common with both myself and my known cousin. The other two must obviously match my known cousin elsewhere, and I assume that they match each other at the location shown, although it’s possible they don’t. I think it would be reasonable to pencil that location of my DNA in as (half) coming from my great-grandfather.

Our three matches in common are unfortunately predicted to be fairly distant cousins so I’m not optimistic that we will work out our connection. I do hope to contact each of them before too long and tell them which branch of my tree our common ancestor falls in, though. Perhaps I will be proved wrong. That would be good!

Matches not in common

Finally I looked at anyone who matched at the same location as my known cousin, but wasn’t a match in common with him.

Unfortunately the relevant segments for the people who met these conditions were quite small. I can’t draw the conclusion I had hoped to – that my common ancestor with these people is on my mother’s side. Because the segments are only small, they may be related to my known cousin but not meet FTDNA’s threshold for declaring someone a match.

Here’s an example of a comparison of my known cousin with another of my matches (who doesn’t match him) that almost shows what I was hoping to find. This time segments of 3cM and larger are showing, as this match didn’t share any segments of 5cM or more with my known cousin:

All in all, I think this new information has given me a few edge pieces of the DNA jigsaw puzzle.

Is there anything else I could have drawn from this or should have considered?

Colours of the 1830s

2011-08-24T21:32:00.001+10:00

Australian Dress Register – Tartan Skirt

You never know what you’ll find on the web even as you go about the most mundane task. Today at work, while looking for something completely different, I stumbled across the Australian Dress Register. The site which is by the PowerHouse Museum in Sydney seems to have been around for a few years, but it was new to me. The purpose of the site is document men's women's and children's dress from or relating to New South Wales up to 1945.

I was immediately captivated – but couldn’t stop and browse as I was at work. Poking around history and genealogy sites isn’t part of my job description. I’ve had a chance to look at the site now and I think it would be of great interest to readers of this blog.

Each of the garments shown has extensive notes on it’s provenance, construction, and some genealogical details about the owner.

The skirt above was made by a woman named Sarah Thomas en route to Australia in 1838. I have never put much thought into what colour my ancestors clothes would have been but I wouldn’t have guessed pink, purple and green.

There’s are plenty more items of clothing to look at on the site, which I am sure would be of interest beyond New South Wales, plus videos about how to photograph clothing and how to dress a mannequin, among others.

Well worth a look.

Changes at my family tree site, www.twigsofyore.com

2011-08-20T16:06:00.001+10:00

This post is for the benefit of visitors to my family tree website, www.twigsofyore.com.

I am changing the way I manage the site, flowing on from my change in desktop software.

You probably won’t notice any difference, but if you have created bookmarks or saved links to particular individuals they may no longer point to the same person. Aside from a brief disruption as I make the transition, this should be the only negative.

Allowing myself time for the unexpected, I hope to have the first upload from my new software in place by the end of the weekend.

Advantages of these changes for you will be:

Immediately -

More information included generally as more of the information from my database transfers in.
More deceased people visible eg people born 200 year ago for whom I have no birth or death date, thanks to more accurate setting of living flags.
The automatically generated part of the “what’s new” page should show what’s actually new.
More frequent updates with more information added on each occasion.

Longer term -

Inclusion of information on “Witnesses” to events.
Improved source citations (after initial loss of detail in some cases).
Less use of “est” dates.

Now everyone cross your fingers that all goes to plan!

An ending, and a new beginning

2011-08-10T21:23:00.001+10:00

I've made a big decision. I’m leaving the one I love. After indecision and agonising, I'm changing genealogy software. This isn't something I take lightly as I still remember how much work it was the last time I changed (from TMG to Genbox) nearly seven years ago.

I've been thinking about it for some time but, perversely, it was Kerry Scott's post Why It Doesn't Matter Which Genealogy Software You Use way back in February that gave me the final push I needed.

That post had stayed in the back of my mind and as I agonised over the idea of changing, I went back and reread it. I thought it would persuade me to stick with what I had. No! As I read, I realized that the thing that was holding me back from changing was that I placed too high a priority on all the things I love (and will miss!) about Genbox, but things have changed, and they are no longer so relevant.

You see, in the last seven years the way I research has changed. The internet allows me to find more records, more quickly. I have always liked to trace down at least a few generations from my ancestors, but over seven years I have pushed back a few generations and 'tracing down' now involves different types of records, most notably census records.

Features that were a high priority for me seven years ago, aren’t so much now. Kerry's post helped me to realise that I will live without the special features I love. While desirable, they are not essential. Thanks Kerry for the perspective!

So having more objectively considered which features will best suit my needs, and after much experimentation and consideration, I have decided to switch to Family Historian.

Factors that weighed in on my decision:

It appears that the product is still being actively developed. They recently put out a call for more beta testers for the upcoming version 5.
Using GEDCOM as a native format means that I have a better idea of will go through when I upload to my family data site. I can also edit the file myself in word or even Excel if I want which makes the initial clean up much quicker and easier.
Ancestral Sources, a free program designed to work with Family Historian, allows form based data entry for census and baptism records, with more records types coming. I find census records in particular very time-consuming to enter.
Alternatively, merging in other GEDCOMs seems to work well, opening up the possibility of using something like Geves (described previously) for focused data collection on a branch and then importing and merging. I wouldn’t want to merge on a wider scale. My early tests looked promising.
Auto-citation feature where you designate a source to be added to anything you add, until you tell it to stop. Genbox also does this and it’s something I would prefer to keep.
I can live with less granularity to the source citations (Genbox allows you to set different sources for date, place, details etc of an event). So far as achieving quality citations goes, I think I’ll follow Randy Seaver’s lead and use freeform text. Again, I’ve experimented with this a bit already and I’m sure it will improve the sources that go onto the website – which is the public face of my database. This wasn’t a concern seven years ago!
Multimedia capabilities look promising - I need to explore that more.

Now that the decision is made I’ve no regrets and am very excited by the change. I’m looking forward to learning more about my new software!

New treasure on Trove – Oakleigh Leader

2011-08-04T21:09:00.001+10:00

This evening an item came up in my Google reader which made me exclaim a delighted “Oh!”.

One of the many great features of the Trove site is all the RSS feeds. As all of my immigrant ancestors settled in Victoria, I have signed up to the RSS feed for newly added titles from that State. It has been fantastic seeing more and more newspaper names relating to regional areas appearing.

This one in particular made me sit up and take notice because my COUPER branch had a long history in the Oakleigh area, being some of the earliest pioneers and also sitting on council. They also have the sad distinction of the known first burial in Oakleigh Cemetery – Christina Couper was buried there on 11 December 1860, aged just 7.

Naturally I jumped right in. A search on COUPER gave me 69 hits. Many of them were advertising for “Dr Couper-Johnson”, and not likely to be of interest to me. When I eliminated those I still had 22 results. Sadly, 21 of those results are still undergoing quality control so I can’t see them!

The one result I can see is notes from an Oakleigh Shire Council meeting, where my butcher ancestor’s request to renew his slaughtering licence was considered, but postponed. I will have to do a manual search for meeting notes for the next month to see what happened. I know that he continued as a butcher for many more years, so presumably he got the licence but there must have been a reason for consideration of the request to be postponed.

OAKLEIGH SHIRE COUNCIL. (1888, December 22). Oakleigh Leader (North Brighton, Vic. : 1888 - 1902), p. 7. Retrieved August 4, 2011, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66176226

I must remember to search on Cowper and other variations as well.

Moving on there were tantalising glimpses of promising articles which were in the results but not yet viewable. Like this one:

What sad event?! What was his role in it?

There were also several mentions of a D.Couper in Court of Petty Sessions reports. I will just have to wait and see what they contain.

Something to look forward to!

It’s my Blogiversary? Oh yes, it’s my Blogiversary!

2011-07-29T10:14:00.001+10:00

Thanks to Ginisology for the happy blogiversary message! I’m a bit snowed under with non-genealogy matters at present so the day could easily have passed me by.

Who would have thought that my little blog could be two years old already… they grow up so fast…

Happy Blogiversary, me!