F is for ...

F is for… Fanny, Florence, Francis, Frances, Frederick, fabric, flannel, frugal, family. 

I have had a very productive day at a Quilting Workshop today. So my thoughts are filled with all things sewing….fabric, flannel, just to name a few. 

My 3 x Great Grandmother Elizabeth Selwyn was sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia for stealing. She stole an article of clothing. 

Was it a flannel petticoat? During the 18th century flannel petticoats provided warmth under garments of the day.

Flannel petticoats were one of the items of clothing given to convicts from the government on arrival in Australia. Along with other articles of clothing … jackets, shifts which they wore over their petticoats.  

I feel that Elizabeth would have “hankered” after a red flannel petticoat. But alas she would have been given the government stores variety of white. 

But whatever colour, it must have been a luxury after the rough tattered rags that convicts were clothed in on the voyage. The soft texture on her skin must have been a comfort after the long ship voyage. 

I like to think of Elizabeth as being frugal with whatever fabric she obtain during the early days in the colony. I am sure that she would have “up cycled” her petticoat when it no longer served the purpose it was designed for. Along with other items of clothing from her partner to provide warmth in the form of quilts for her children.

I picture her saving all scraps of fabric to make items of clothing for her family. I picture her sitting by candlelight sewing the scraps of fabric together. I picture a basket set aside to house all her scraps of fabric for later use. 

I wonder if she referred to these as her “stash” as I do in this century!

I am sure she would be aghast to see me cut up perfectly good fabric into little bits to then sew back together to make quilts. 

I like to think that my love if fabric has its roots in my heritage. I hope my Elizabeth got pleasure from some form of sewing.

E is for

E is for “E” christian names in my tree, Electoral Rolls and everything in between. There are plenty of females with “E” names Elizabeth, Eliza, Eliza-Jane, Edith, Eleanor,Ellen, Elsie, Ethel, Ella, Emma, Esther but only one male “E” name Edward.

Elizabeth, Eliza and Eliza-Jane feature a lot on my maternal side. My 3rd maternal great grandmother was a convict transported to Australia for 7 years. Her story is feature elsewhere on this blog with creative non-fiction stories and Uni Essays. 

I feel she was a strong woman, especially for her time and situation. Many of the early woman in the new settlement of New South Wales, Australia were strong women. They had little choice. From her name of Elizabeth there are many descendants who show up with the variation of her name…. Eliza, Eliza-Jane. 

Electoral Rolls have given me lots of information on ancestors over the years. Many places of residence have been found on Electoral Rolls along with occupations, spouses and siblings. 

As for everything in between? Who of us know when we start on the Family History journey, what we will uncover.

It is not just about finding names.

It is not just about building a tree with with lots of branches.

It is not just about filing cupboards filled to overflowing with documents.

It is not just about the DNA connections trying to find unknown relatives.

The everything in between is about connecting with and honouring our ancestors by finding them and telling their stories. 

The people who although unknown, shaped who we are and where we are going. 

The everything in between shows that we are the product of many who have gone before us. They faced many hardships in a new land and they paved the way with courage and tenacity.

D is for...

D is for David, Doreen, Demarius, Dulce, Descendant, Death Certificates.

I have a few “D” Christian names in my tree. The most interesting is Demarius, though. The origin of this name is from the USA but I am confident that this Demarius came from England. She is on my husband’s side and I have not done a lot of research on this side yet, due to the bountiful ancestors in my own family. But my curiosity encouraged me to look up it’s meaning and I found that it meant “Warlike”. 

One of my favourite Certificates to purchase is a Death Certificate. There is usually so much information on them. 

In Australia we are given the following information, although sometimes it may not be correct, especially if the informant is not a close relative or the deceased was prone to porky pies! 

Decease’s Full Name
Date of Death
Address
Occupation
Sex
Age
Conjugal Status
Place of Birth
Time in Aust. colonies
Father
Father’s Occupation
Mother
Place of Marriage
Age at Marriage
Name of Spouse
Children of Marriage
Informant
Cause of Death
Length of Illness
Medical Attendant and last seen
Date and Place of Burial
Minister and Religion
Undertaker
Witness
Cremation Details
Registered Date
Notes 

You can glean so much information from these certificates and they often give you other areas or names to search, if the informant actually knew the correct details. 

Often the information on a Death Certificate was supplied by one of the children and their interpretation of events could be sketchy at the best of times. Many of our ancestors had little schooling and access to records, they relied on word of mouth and this could lead to interesting variations of spellings. 

I have a couple of Death certificates with unusual spellings.  For example one of my ancestor's Death certificate in 1883 lists his place of birth as Waber, Sweden.  I have yet to find a Waber in Sweden but I have an inkling that this may be Warberg, Sweden.  I also have his wife's Death certificate in 1915 listing her place of birth as Wessen, England.  Once again I have yet to find such a place!

As to ancestors being prone to "porky pies", I think I have the prime example with this same above couple.  On the 1883 Death certificate for the husband it lists the place of marriage as Launceston, Tasmania.  The age at marriage given would put the year as 1870.  

But here is the "porky pie", because the Marriage certificate for this couple clearly lists the year as 1883!  So this couple had been living as Mr and Mrs for thirteen years and had seven children. The wife was the informant, so she would have known precisely the year she had married and I don't think she could have made a mistake of thirteen years!  

What was she thinking, was she trying to save face?

Whatever her reasons, she took the secret to her grave as the informant her eldest son, also gave the same date of 1870 for her marriage on her Death certificate.

But even so, a Death certificate is still my favourite for gleaning tidbits of information. How about you?

C IS FOR...

C is for Caroline, Charles, Clara, Colin, Cordelia and Cornelius to name a few christian names found in my family tree. All these names belong to Collateral relatives of mine.

When searching for information on a direct ancestor, I have found that Collateral ancestors sometimes give me information that has been very elusive in my search. 

A Collateral ancestor is someone who is not your direct ancestor. Collateral ancestors are siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews etc of your parents, grandparents, great grandparents etc. 

In other words sideways searches. 

In the early days of my research I always thought that it was a waste of time looking at aunts, uncles and distant cousins. I wanted to concentrate on my immediate relatives. 

But I soon learnt that those aunts and uncles had the same parents as my ancestors, and their records could well have information that is not on my ancestor’s records.

I have sometimes found what I was looking for on one of these Collateral ancestor’s records. 

For example parent’s names in full on a death certificate. As I have said before in a previous post, Death Certificates rely on the informant knowing the correct information. So the informant for a great uncle’s death certificate may have known more information than the informant of my great grandparent’s certificate.

It is wise to have a research log and a research plan before you start though. It is very easy to go down “rabbit holes” that have fascinating tidbits of information. 

Without a plan you will find yourself hours later with no relevant information on who you were looking for but a lot of other possible names for your tree. Don’t get me wrong, it can be a very satisfying journey down one of these “Rabbit Holes” but only if you have the time to wander!

But where do we draw the line in who goes on our tree? I feel that is entirely up to each individual Family Historian. 

I save information about relatives as I find them in one of my Collateral “rabbit hole” searches. Then once the information is proven that they belong on my tree, they are added. 

I enjoy finding relatives that I didn’t know and feel all of our past needs acknowledging, it may make my tree a bit cluttered, but I am fine with that.

I am looking forward to the day when I wander down a rabbit hole for my above Cordelia because...

“It's such a perfectly elegant name” ![1]

______________________
[1] Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud), 1874-1942. Anne Of Green Gables. Boston :Godine, 1989.

B is for .....

Ask most Family Historians and they will gladly elaborate for many hours on their particular Brick Wall or Brick Walls. Most family member's eyes start to roll or glaze over at this point in the conversation!

BRICK WALLS! We all have them, some more than others!

For the uninitiated a Brick Wall is simply when your research of an ancestor comes to a complete halt. You may have spent many hours of research getting very excited and suddenly you hit that Brick Wall. You go down another research path(rabbit hole), and another and many hours and days, months even .....…. 

But to no avail.

One of my Brick Walls goes something like this.

I have evidence of my paternal great grandparents living in Tasmania, Australia in 1870 where their first child was born. I then have evidence of them settling in country New South Wales, Australia.

How they came to be in Australia is a mystery. I am fairly confident that they were’t born here and they weren’t convicts. I haven’t been able to find them on any Ship’s passenger list. Did they come to Australia in a row boat?

This Brick Wall is mainly exacerbated by the fact that I haven’t been able to find their birth records. Their death certificates give me some clues as to their parent’s names, but not enough to help with research. My great grandfather's death certificate only gives his father’s name and mother as unknown and the place of birth in Sweden is not a known town. My great grandmother’s death certificate isn’t much better as it shows the father’s name and mother’s christian name only. Also the place is not a known place either. The trouble with death certificates is that they rely on the informant knowing the correct information!

It is amazing how many people have surnames and christian name’s the same when you set out researching someone.  These same names which sometimes are exactly the same, mind you, may or may not be who you are looking for!

But Brick Walls are made to be broken. Mine may or may not be broken by me. But I do like the thrill of the chase though, don't we all?

I hope someone in my family catches the Family History bug and eventually brakes down some of my Brick Walls.  

One tip I would give any new/budding Family Historian is:

If you have relatives/ancestors still alive, ASK THEM ABOUT THEIR LIFE AND FAMILIES. 

I know I never gave it a thought and I regret it til this day.

A is for.....

A is for Alfred, Ancestor, ancestry.com.au, Aubrey, Addiction, to name just a few.

I have an ancestor by the name of Alfred Ludwig Brandt. I have spent many hours of research on this particular Alfred. I have currently hit a brick wall with my research on him, but there are plenty of other ancestors to fill my time.

In the first unit for my Diploma of Family History in 2015 I used this particular Alfred for my essay. My Research Plan on Alfred was the first of many essays and or stories that would evolve in the next two years and 8 units of the Diploma.

Alfred taught me many things along the way and sparked my love of hanging out with “dead people”. Ask any Family Historian and you will be told that ancestors are addictive!

I have posted my essays on Alfred on this blog before, so I am not going to do so again. Just suffice to say that when I find anything more of interest on him, this blog will hear about it.

Over the past three years I have spent many an hour trolling through the website “Ancestry”. It is here that you can find many records. It is here that you can spend many hours. Also it is here that “shakey green leaves” can entice you to add names to your tree.

But I have learnt to act cautiously with these hints as all information connected to “shaky green leaves” is not necessarily my ancestor and shouldn’t be added willy nilly to my tree. It is amazing the things you can come across on some people’s trees on Ancestry that are not correct.

I have found the main thing with Ancestry is to prove all things for yourself before you add any of the information to your tree. The allure of those “shakey green leaves” is very appealing but just adding them, without seeing the proof for yourself, can lead to wasted time on the wrong ancestor! I have been amazed at some of the “facts” on different people's trees with no sources cited, to prove it.

Another of my favourite “A” words is the name Aubrey. I have always loved the song “Aubrey was her Name” by Bread from the 1970s. So when I discovered an Aubrey in my heritage I was pleased. Imagine my surprise when I discovered my Aubrey was a male.  Even though further research showed that Aubrey was traditionally used for males, somewhere overtime it became unisex. It also taught me that when it comes to names there really are no rules.  So I am looking forward to the day I find time to research this particular ancestor and wonder what his story will be. 

So as you can see the letter A will keep me busy for many years to come, along with all the other letters for this challenge.

How about you, do you have a particular story in your family history relating to A?

A to Z (2019 CHALLENGE)

This year I hope to complete the 2019 A to Z Blogging Challenge. I have found Challenges an excellent way to motivate me to post on my chosen topic of my Family History. 

In this Challenge I have to post every day of April except Sundays. The prompt will be the 26 letters of the alphabet.

I signed up for the 28 day Writing Challenge in February of this year. Although I managed to participate in 2017 and 2018 in this Challenge, unfortunately life got in the way this year and I didn't end up participating.

I also signed up for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks in 2018. I made it to week 24.

In this A to Z Challenge I hope to write about things relating to Family History. I may write a short story on an ancestor. I may just share my thoughts of my Family History journey.

I basically write for myself and family. But if others read and enjoy it all the better.

Anyway, as tomorrow is Day 1, watch this space if you choose.