First a reminder that you have ONLY 3 WEEKS TO GO TO ENTER THE GSV 2019 WRITING COMPETITION - CLOSING 30 AUGUST - (See details on our website).

And a tip for your research this month...

As part of National Family History Month BDM Vic has reduced the price of uncertified historical certificates to $20 just for this month. Go HERE.

To prompt you to write your stories, in this post we republish a short article by one of our GSV Writers Circle members, Barbara Beaumont. This was originally published in Fifty~Plus News Nov 2013. 

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You don’t always find what you’re looking for. . .

by Barbara Beaumont

At a seminar on ‘Brick Walls’ in family history research at the Genealogical Society of Victoria (GSV) we were advised to try to go around brick walls rather than confront them head-on. So when I was unable to locate a member of my family, Grace Martin, on the 1891 UK census, I started to look for her siblings, and then for the daughter of her sister Mary Ann, who was on the 1881 census as Elizabeth Martin, age 17, daughter.

Thinking that Elizabeth might have married a few years later, I looked on freebmd (www.freebmd.org.uk) for a marriage and easily found it. On freebmd you can look at the names on the page of the register, which after 1852 generally gives you four names, but does not tell you who married whom. One name immediately jumped out at me – James Hewett. I knew that another member of the family, Ellen Davey, had married a man of this name, but I hadn’t paid the Hewetts a lot of attention previously. Was it the same James Hewett? 

I formed the theory that James had married Elizabeth, that she had died, and that he had then married Ellen. I looked with fresh eyes at the 1911 census for the Hewetts. Eight children were listed, but the census indicated that Ellen had only given birth to six children. So presumably the others were Elizabeth’s? 

On ancestry.co.uk I was able to find James and Elizabeth on the 1891 census, which gave me the names of four other children. So Elizabeth and James had had six children, and James had gone on to have another six with Ellen. Again on ancestry.co.uk I found christening records for several of these children, which not only confirmed the parents as James and Elizabeth Hewett, but gave me the address where they lived at the time of each christening. A death entry for Elizabeth Hewett in St Saviour, Southwark in 1900 seemed likely to be the right one.

A missing link in my chain of research was the 1901 census, which I expected to show James as a widower, with his first six children. I was aware that Hewett was sometimes spelt as Hewitt, so tried a Boolean search using Hew?tt (where ? represents one missing letter). This proved unsuccessful, but by using a search for Hew* (where* represents one or more letters), I found them listed as Hewell and yes, indeed, he was a widower.

I must admit that none of this helped me to find Grace, but it has provided me with an interesting addition to the story of my extended family. 

Barbara Beaumont

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Barbara went on to find Grace Martin. You could read more about that in her article 'The Mystery Woman' in the latest GSV Ancestor journal 34:6 June 2019. GSV Members can read that issue on the website.

Image credit

Photographer Fred Start Jnr. c.1957. Queen's Building (1841), Southwark, London was an early model housing project for workers. If you have connections to Southwark, London you can see lots of interesting information and images on the website London-SE1 https://www.london-se1.co.uk

There are lots of interesting talks planned for National Family History Month in August. Our first talk on ebooks is fully booked but after that on Thursday 1 August at 1.30 - 2.30pm you can learn about 'National and State Archives in Australia'. Then on Saturday 3 August 10 - 11am we have programmed two talks: 'Introduction to the GSV and our Resources' and at 11.15am 'Starting your Family History'. Lots to start you off and FREE for Family History Month. See more details and booking in our Events listing on our website sandbox.gsv.org.au

For a regional event on Friday 2 August at 1.30pm at the Maryborough Regional Library, Robyn Ansell will be the guest speaker for the launch of the digitised Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser 1857-1867. It is a free event which will include the opportunity to go online afterwards to try out the paper on Trove. 

The launch of National Family History Month August 2019 is on Friday 2 August.

The launch includes a short presentation by Celia Blake, Regional Manager South & Director Victoria and Tasmania, National Archives of Australia, and Justine Heazlewood, Director and Keeper of Public Records, Public Record Office Victoria.

A keynote address, Doing it for ourselves – transcription projects, will be given by curator and historian Dr Sophie Couchman.

The launch is jointly hosted by the National Archives of Australia and Public Record Office Victoria.

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The GSV jumps into National Family History Month - with a talk about ebooks on Thursday 1 August. Be quick to book - or 'ebook' - this event!

eBooks in Family History

Presented by Glen Wall

Thursday 1 August 12.00pm - 1.00pm. 

The talk will show how you can identify interesting family history and experiences, and prepare them for sharing in eBook form with family, friends and other interested parties.

The presentation will include examples of working with people to help them capture living history stories and prepare them for eBook publication.

At the end of the talk attendees with have a better awareness of how to use the internet and technology to package the results of their own genealogy work in a form that can be handed on for others to benefit.

Free for National Family History Month.

Our presenter, Glen Wall is a Vice President of U3A Network Vic Inc and President of Whittlesea U3A. He has been working with people to help them capture living history stories and prepare them for publication as an eBook.Over the last three years he has been delivering a U3A class on ePUBLISHING for authors wishing to self-publish novels, short stories and family history experiences for access on online platforms such as Amazon.

Bookings are required and can be made online HERE., by email, in person or by telephone 03 9662 4455 (Mon-Fri 9.00am-4.00pm). Joint members please book in separately if both attending.

And there's more!

Go TO THE GSV WEBSITE to find other events that are on at the GSV during NFHM - some are free to all for that month. But as you can see from the calendar, every month is family history month at GSV for members.

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I can't see our Genealogical Society of Victoria marching anywhere bearing arms - but we have them! In 1941 a logo with a tree trunk emblazoned on a quaint tilted shield was adopted. In the early 1960s the GSV endorsed four special interest groups, one of which was the Heraldry Group. Then in 1986 the GSV acquired its current coat of arms through official British channels. That there was some tension between budding republicans and monachists had been shown when, at the GSV's Colonial Dinner in 1985, the National Anthem tape was sabotaged by someone reinstating 'God Save the Queen' for the newly adopted 'Advance Australia Fair'. 

Coat of Arms of the GSV

The GSV's coat of arms, or Ensigns Armorial, was designed and granted to The Genealogical Society of Victoria by the Court of the Lord Lyon of Scotland, King of Arms on 1 March 1986. It is described as:

Azure, five mullets [stars], one of eight, two of seven, one of six and one of five points Argent (representing the constellation of the Southern Cross), on a chief Gules, a pale of the Second charged of an oak tree Proper issuing from a mount Vert, and fructed Or, between two acorns slipped of the Last. Above the Shield is placed an Helm, suitable to an incorporation (videlice: a sallet [helmet] Proper lined Gules), with a Mantling Azure doubled Argent, and on a wreath of the Liveries, is set for Crest on a mound of pink heather a male lyre bird close and in display Proper holding in its beak an acorn slipped Or, and in an Escrol over the same this Motto: "GENEALOGI SEMPER VIGILES". 

Public Register of all Arms and Bearings in Scotland, 69th volume, page 20.

The Shield was based on the arms of the State of Victoria with an oak tree added to represent genealogy. The oak tree is a long-lived tree and its fruit, the acorns, represents the seed origin of the tree from which continuing generations of oak trees and acorn seed will spring. The Crest comprises two parts, the Device, which shows the lyrebird, native of Victoria with an acorn in its beak, and the Mount which incorporates the Pink Heath, the floral emblem of Victoria.

The Motto, Genealogi Semper Vigiles, translates from Latin to 'genealogists always watchful'and is a play on the initials of the Society.

Apparently if you fancy having a coat of arms you can just design your own - whilst being careful not to infringe trade marks. 

The Australian Heraldry Society website has an interesting discussion about the authority of granting arms. The Australian PM issued advice in 2018 that: 'There is nothing preventing any person or organisation from commissioning a local artist, graphics studio or heraldry specialist to design and produce a coat of arms or identifying symbol. Those arms would have the same standing and authority in Australia as arms prepared by the College of Arms in England.'

However like an 'Engrish' T-shirt, or when co-opting any language, it will help if you know what various symbols you use could be taken to mean. The Australian Heraldry Society could help (https://www.heraldryaustralia.org/your-arms). 

When you design your avatar take careful note of the powers and attributes you assign. But your game-playing kids will know all about that.

Bill Barlow

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Ref. 

Amateurs and Experts: a history of The Genealogical Society of Victoria 1941–2001,by Elizabeth Ellen Marks, Penfolk Publishing, Blackburn, 2001.

The Australian Heraldry Society Inc. website (accessed 13 July 2019)

https://www.heraldryaustralia.org/heraldic-authority

8 weeks to go! Enough time to finish off that family history story for the 2019 GSV Writing Priize.

The closing date for entries is 4 pm on 30 AUGUST 2019. So you still have time to START writing!

Last year Helen Pearce won with her entry exposing the story of a murder in Adam Elphinstone's family history. GSV Members can read past winning entries in back copies of Ancestor in the members area of our website.

But you don't need murder to make for an interesting story. It is a writing prize. So use this year's GSV Writing Prize as a prompt for you to capture the story you have been researching, but never quite written up.

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This year we have extended the eligibility criteria, enabling more people to enter, and made some changes to the judging panel. Full entry details and conditions can be read on the GSV website at https://sandbox.gsv.org.au/gsv-writing-prize

Purpose of the Prize

• to encourage the writing of family history
• to provide an opportunity for recognition and publication
• to publish the winner as an example of quality family history writing

The article should:

• have a family history / genealogy theme
• be the author’s own original work
• not have been previously published in any format, or be under consideration or accepted for publication by any other publication
• be between 1200 and 2400 words (not including title, image captions, endnotes and sources).
• contain citations of sources

The Prize   

We are very pleased to announce that Ancestry™ is again generously sponsoring the competition with an enhanced first prize of a 12-month subscription to their Worldwide Membership and an Ancestry DNA test kit.

Eligibility

The competition is open to GSV Members and all members of GSV Member Societies.

Members of the Ancestor Editorial Team, the judges, GSV staff and the winner of the previous year’s prize are not eligible to enter.

The winner will be announced at the GSV’s Annual General Meeting in October and the winning article will be published in the December 2019 issue of Ancestor magazine.

Not only will your family read your story but it will be published and hence discoverable in our wonderful State and National libraries by future unknown descendants in years to come.

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IMAGE CREDIT

Photo of Adam and Elizabeth Elphinstone from 'Elphinstones: Pioneer Farmers in Northern Tasmania', Elphinstones Committee, Launceston Tas, 1988? courtesy of Helen Pearce.

Geelong Heritage Centre is handing the public the keys to the Vault – Victoria’s largest regional heritage archive catalogue is now just a quick click away. 

The Geelong Heritage Centre (also known as ‘the Vault’ or ‘Kim barne thaliyu’) Archives catalogue includes over 46,000 records and can now be searched online for the very first time by visiting archives.grlc.vic.gov.au.

From golden gowns and dinner sets, family diariesand football socks, researchers can uncover the rich heritage and unique local treasures that exist within the Vault from the comfort of home.

The Archives are a unique recorded history of Geelong and surrounding areas (stretching from Portarlington to Lorne, Belmont to Lara, Geelong to Meredith and everywhere in between) and include countless memories and stories which live on in the extensive collections of public and private records, newspapers, maps, plans, photographs, and extensive catalogues and indexes.

For those who would like to view a collection item in person, an email or simple ‘contact us’ form allows details of the item to be sent to Geelong Heritage Centre staff, who will retrieve the item from the repository for viewing. 

Specialist staff at the Geelong Heritage Centre can assist visitors to browse the collections, view an item or use the cutting-edge digital technology on offer in the Reading Room, and are on-hand to provide expert research advice. 

Geelong Regional Library Corporation (GRLC) Chair, Councillor Ron Nelson, believes that offering the catalogue online represents a significant opportunity for the community. 

“The collections held at the Geelong Heritage Centre are of huge significance to the local community, and provide an invaluable resource for researchers,” Cr Nelson says. 

“By enabling people to start their research online, we have opened up the Archives – and access to the heritage of the region – to the world. In fact, the first visitor to the website was in New York,” Cr Nelson finished. 

Mark Beasley, Manager of Heritage Services at the GRLC says the online catalogue will save researchers a lot of time, but a visit to the Geelong Heritage Centre can complete the experience. 

“The hunt for something can be a lot of fun and take you on an incredible journey of discovery. Of course, nothing beats being able to view an historical item in person, and a visit to the Geelong Heritage Centre – located in the wonderful Dome building – allows you to do just that.” he said. 

Visit archives.grlc.vic.gov.auto start exploring today.

This week is National Volunteer Week and we would like to recognise, applaud and celebrate the great work our volunteers do at GSV.

There would be no GSV without our Volunteers.

Nearly 180 of our over 3000 members give their time and expertise to run our organisation. When you walk in the door with your first request for assistance - our rostered Volunteer Research Assistants are on hand to help you get started. As you progress and need in-depth help there is someone who knows. Behind the scenes they work on projects to augment and update our Collection and our databases. 

Many work from home (long before they were requested to isolate). And through these last months they have continued. Another team put together our journal Ancestor: writing, editing, commissioning articles, proofreading and even the creative layout is the work of a Volunteer (not naming anyone, but thanks Jay). Others manage our social media and all our Discussion Circles and Groups. Our specialist IT volunteers do a wonderful job maintaining our computers and our digital media, Facebook, Twitter and keep this blog going. How important this is can be seen in these lockdown times, as we can provide many services from home thanks to their efforts. The launch of our online Forum membershelpmembers is another testament to our Vols. But they also work in administration, library maintenance and planning and running all our Events, talks and classes. Even our two paid part-time Library staff generously volunteer in their own time.

And certainly not least, our President and Councillors volunteer to keep our Society flourishing. On behalf of all our members and everyone in the wider world of genealogy we take this time particularly to recognise your work and thank you

Vols, we miss you at the moment. THANK YOU for your contribution!

And here is some cake to celebrate your work!

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Photo and cake:

Jennifer Pallion jennifer@foodess.com

In the present COVID-19 emergency it has been interesting to see how we have reacted to new regulations and the evolution of social constraints. Very quickly we saw individuals prepared to fight over toilet rolls and to raid supermarkets in small towns.

Our responses have ranged from wealthy skiers who believed the laws didn't apply to them, to 'innocent' young women who had their brush with the law just by walking on the sand. And of course, politicians who demanded to see the 'science' so they could decide whether a rule about not playing golf should be followed.

Many of us in Australia are here because of our forebears' conviction under the onerous property laws of 19thC England. And poverty and economic depression often meant continued lawbreaking here. If our ancestors fell foul of the law we can often find out more about them in the extensive and detailed newspaper reports of their capture and trials than BDM records will tell us. Before the era of WW1 studio photos, the only photograph of an ancestor might be the one in the Criminal Registers, where from the 1870s photographs were included for those with sentences of 6 months or more. Presumably not their most flattering look! 

Their transgressions and bad luck are our good luck as social historians. Clive Luckman describes the rich source that the Police Gazettes offer. The GSV can help you find Police Gazettes and the many other sources of encounters with the legal system. [Ed.]

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Police Gazettes in the 1800s

We may not want to recognise it, but many of us with 19^thcentury Australian ancestors may well had one whose name appeared in a Police Gazette. Before you get upset let me hasten to add that these Gazetteshad names of many people who were not criminals or “of interest” to the Police.

There were, of course, names of criminals in the Gazettes. The main purpose of the Gazetteswas to promulgate news about crimes and criminals. Descriptions about the crimes themselves (from murder through to illegal sale of alcohol) were often included, as were reports about wife desertion, bigamy, drunkenness and abandoned children. Also there were notices about missing persons – not only people reported as missing but also people seeking lost friends.

There were notices about licences granted for the sale of alcoholic beverages, tobacco and other regulated products, and licences for the conduct of regulated activities such as auctions. All police and magistrate promotions, dismissals, appointments and retirements were published.

During the gold rushes skippers of visiting ships often had some of their crew desert, which must have left those ships sometimes in a perilous position for their return journey. Ship’s deserters were certainly amongst those sought by the Police. Sometimes a deserter changed his name to evade detection, thereby presenting an interesting challenge to genealogists.

Details about those being sought by the Police were often published in several States as well as in New Zealand. There was a great deal of traffic across "the pond" between Australia and New Zealand in the 1800s.

On a personal note, a convict allocated to one of my Tasmanian ancestors absconded and a notice reporting that appeared in the Victorian Police Gazette.

Later in the century photographs were sometimes published, as were details such as eye and hair colour, height and characteristics such as tattoos or scars that might aid the Police. 

These documents are a good source of family history as well as other facets of history. Genealogists can use them to see if they will reveal details of their ancestors’ life (at risk of repeating myself, whether your ancestor was a criminal or not). The Gazettesmay allow you to get your ancestors in perspective – details about how they lived, indications of their wealth, of their occupation, and where they resided. And details that help you understand how society in that century behaved.

Family history is much more than discovering the names, dates of births, marriages and deaths, and the names of wives and husbands. These things are critically important because they obviously must precede the thrills of the chase for the social, financial, demographic and other details of your ancestors. I find that these thrills are the best.

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This article was originally published in Fifty-Plus News in June 2007.  Clive Luckman contributed many articles Fifty-Plus News.

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Further reading

PROV Registers of Male and Female Prisoners (1855-1947)

https://prov.vic.gov.au/explore-collection/explore-topic/justice-crime-and-law/register-male-and-female-prisoners-1855-1947

Using the Victorian Police Gazettes to research your ancestors, SLV Blog Jan 19 2015

https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/family-matters/using-the-victorian-police-gazettes-to-research-your-ancestors/

Update from Jenny Redman, GSV President

On Monday March 23 it was decided that the GSV Centre, both the library and the office, would close from today Wed March 25 until further notice.

All member queries to the GSV are to be directed to the email: gsv@gsv.org.au 

Staff will continue to work from home.

Subscriptions can be paid by usual methods excepting via telephone

Research Requests including quick lookups will be processed where possible.

We will endeavour to maintain regular contact with our members and provide them with updates and information to help with doing their family history research at home. We are currently working on supplying more online content for members, so keep an eye on the website for updates.

Please keep safe and enjoy the time at home doing your family history

Jenny Redman

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Family Historian told to stay home indefinitely and work on family history!

There are such a lot of family history projects that I have on my to-do list that this current edict sounds like an unbelievable opportunity - if it wasn't also tinged with great concern for our community. Many of us did not directly experience life during  WW2 but, from our parents, we knew about the family deaths, hardships, rationing cards and the long recovery that followed. Helping each other was then, and will be now, the only way forward. 

It is amazing how much we have moved online. Today the Ancestor Edit Team has been working collectively on the articles for the next Ancestor journal. This means our copy has to be finalised by the end of March. The members of the GSV Writers Circle have received one of the writing pieces scheduled for review at the now-cancelled April meeting. Our online forum membershelpmembers is available for any queries and members can check our catalogue and databases from home. I am spending too long on my computer with the MyHeritage Library edition, now also made available for GSV Members to use from home. 

So lots to do - STAY HOME!

The logo for the President Updates shows a laptop computer balanced on a Sands & McDougall Directory. For many years this amalgam of old and new-world technology was a feature of the meeting room back in our Collins Street offices.

If you would like to publish a family history story on this blog just email me at blog@gsv.org.au. [Ed.]

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My mother often wished her brother would self-isolate. Later in life she would often complain that her brother had rung again, but all he ever talked about was yet another distant cousin he had discovered in the family history. We all know the feeling. Our research is often not interesting to other family members.

Self-isolation is what family history writers - and all writers - are good at. It is a necessary and sought-after precondition for our research and our writing. 

In a new development, if GSV members are stuck at home they can now access the GSV's Library edition of MyHeritage database from home. Simply sign on to our website as a Member, go to the Members Area and select MyHeritage.

GSV Members can also use the new online forum membershelpmembersto link with others who may be able to answer questions or give advice, and they can use our online catalogue and unique databases. 

You can see our Presidents notice to members on Covid 19 on our website here https://sandbox.gsv.org.au/article/gsv-responding-covid-19

Many of us, or even most of us will have documented sad stories from our own families of Spanish Influenza epidemic of the 1918/19. In Australia 40% of the population fell ill and 15,000 died. In 1921 there was a peak in diphtheria cases and over the following decade 4,000 died. In the 19th C this infectious disease occurred often and many children died. In 1872 the Victorian Government held a Royal Commission into its nature and treatment. In my family young John died in Molong in 1886 aged 11, only two years after its cause had been identified in Germany. By the mid 1890s an anti-toxin was available. Too late though for him. Later vaccination programs have almost eliminated this death from our family histories.

We sincerely hope you are all well and treating yourself and others with kindness and reason.