August
2010 Letters
ANYONE FOR TENNIS?
Dear Editor If only they had written the names on the back
of photos…remembering, that one-day, we will be known as ‘they’!
I am referring to the amazing photo in Anyone for tennis?
[p20 May 2010]
Sadly, there was only one ‘possibly known’
person and another ‘could be’. Sadder still, I believe
there is probably no-one alive today who might be able to recognise
any others in the photo. Hopefully, someone will have photos in
their collection that may help solve the problem for Mrs C Riding
of Bathurst NSW.
There are many ‘possibles’ as there
were many families whose roots were in Molong NSW… who all
inter-married. Lillian POCKNALL née
SHREEVES (the only person recognised in the
photo by the sender) son Ivan, married Ruth BURGESS,
granddaughter of William Chapman BURGESS and
Caroline FROGLEY. Caroline FROGLEY
née BURGESS is my children’s great,
great aunt.
In an endeavour to help in this cause I perused
the book Families of Molong and District written by Aileen
Roberson of Molong NSW (who is also a FROGLEY
descendant). I think a clue is to find a member of the GRIFFITHS
family who may have similar faces in their photo tin!
It is in my plan to name all of my photos and
scan them but it is a very time consuming exercise…. but if
I don’t do it my children will have absolutely no idea who
the people are as is the situation in this and I imagine millions
of other instances. ‘Unknown’ is an awful word to see
on the back of any photo.
If only I had done it at the time…if only
there were more hours in the day...if only I had more time. Life
is one big IF….and if only I could still play tennis!
Georgie Frogley (by email)
BRIDGET
CHRISTINA EVA MADDEN
Dear Editor
I
just want to thank you and your readers for the phenomenal response
to my request for assistance in researching my grand-aunt (Bridget
Christina) Eva (MADDEN) HALL
[p26 June 2010].
So far, over 28 people have offered assistance
and many of those have completed research on my behalf and produced
information that is priceless to me.
One reader even went as far as to photograph the
gravestone for me. I have sent a ‘hank you’ to all via
email.
I am now in contact with Eva’s family and
they are delighted with the information and assistance provided
by you and your readers.
Thank you for all your help. Kieran
O’Connell, Ireland (by email)
MISINFORMATION
Dear
Editor Once
again I am writing on the topic of ‘misinformation’ that
has been commented on in recent editions of your most informative
magazine and I must vote in defence of the age of the internet and
its information content, be it ‘true blue’ or ‘downright
misleading’.
I started researching my family history in the
late 1970s when just finding out about my my great-grandparents
was difficult and involved persuading elderly British relatives
to travel into London to search the GRO indexes, then applying for
each certificate at great expense via complicated bank cheques and
a few months of waiting. Similarly, when the NSW BMD Index was released
on microfiche I remember how wonderful it was and journeyed to Sydney
to line up with dozens of other people to view a few microfiche
one at a time on the limited number of machines. How times have
changed.
Since the advent of the internet and the many
public and commercial sites, most of which are free at local public
libraries or LDS Family History Centres, researching information
is all now a complete breeze. I can view swags of the real parish
register entries, including those critical marriages with associated
information for my London, Norfolk, Yorkshire and Durham ancestors,
as well censuses from 1841 to 1911, and my great-grandparents' passage
to Kansas in 1851 with the younger 5 of their 10 children which
was a complete surprise to me. I have broken so many brickwalls
in the last few years that would never have been possible before.
Yes, I have many letters from elderly relatives
in the 1980s which gave me a few clues to the extended family, but
nothing in comparison with the information I have gained since,
especially that in the digitised newspapers in Australia, Britain
and America, remembering of course that much in a newspaper is as
inaccurate as those pesky incorrect trees people publish. One of
my former trees is up there, with that totally incorrect branch
that was shared with people before I lopped it off as ‘not
ours at all’. So be it, I am just one member of hundreds if
not thousands in my family, and am not the sole owner of any information
gathered from the public domain about its various members. Discovering
the errors on those published trees is so much more easily done
these days for those that are really keen rather than those with
a passing interest who are unable to resist the blatent encouragment
to enter ‘their’ tree whenever they log into some of the
commercial sites.
I remember hearing during the late 1990s of a
DNA study undertaken by a university in England on cystic fibrosis
and as part of the study a voluntary blood sample was taken from
each parent and child. The researchers were somewhat surprised to
find that a much larger percentage of fathers than they had predicted
could not possibly be the parent of the afflicted child. It posed
a dilemma for them, as they could not reveal this fact to the parents
which would have been highly unethical. So where does that leave
us in tracing our paternal lines? Humans have erred or, more sadly,
been sinned against since Eve and a certificate purporting that
child A is the daughter or son of B and C might just as easily be
a fabrication but, blood related or not, they were still a much
loved family member.
So what family history boils down to for those
of us who love it, is that it is a wonderful hobby. The most enjoyable
part is the thrill of the chase and discovering likeminded souls
on a similar expedition who also get excited on finding that great-great
uncle James was the captain of the first lightship off Constantinople,
not just a lighthousekeeper; that great-great-great aunt Hannah
liked to list her father as her husband in two censuses just to
stop the indignity of that busybody censustaker discovering she
was a single Mum with two children who ran an illegal betting shop;
and the final proof that grandfather Edward had indeed attended
Dulwich College as he claimed, but the school had denied over the
last 30 years until recently, when his entry records were finally
unearthed - his win in the college piggy back race in the 1880s
as reported in the newspaper that gave me my evidence.
Like all my ancestors, one day I will die and
I don't particularly care what my children will do with the massive
amount of research I have accumulated over the years. They certainly
wouldn’t have room to house all the paperwork, but I have just
had such a wonderful time doing it and using it as a guide to various
interesting holidays around Australia and the world. Once I get
around to writing ‘that book’ and they read it, they will
never have the opportunity to know the sheer joy of discovering
the family's past for themselves.
Gillian
Kendrigan (by email)
PETERS DIGGINGS
Dear Editor
Congratulations! Your magazine continues to live up to its name.
One of your Victorian readers made a connection
with the photograph of my great-grandmother you kindly published
on p2 of the May 2010 magazine.
The letter I received explained that the birthplace
of my great grandmother, Peters Diggings, no longer appears on any
maps due to the transient nature of ‘gold towns’. All
that remains of Peters Diggings are a few lumps and bumps in the
paddocks, the bases of a few chimneys and a grave with a headstone.
Located now in the rural parish of Carapooee Victoria, the Diggings
are about 12km south east of St Arnaud, which itself is about 250km
north west of Melbourne and half way between Bendigo and Horsham.
Your reader also very kindly provided me with
the name and address of the ‘local historian’ and the
St Arnaud Historical Society, c/- St Arnaud Post Office, St
Arnaud Vic 3477.
I have written to the reader to express my thanks
and delight in receiving this information, but am also keen to share
it with your readers. Keep up the great work!.
Philip
Marston (by email)
THE
NAME GAME
Dear Editor
While reading Philip Marston’s article The Name Game
in the July 2010 magazine, the name CRAVEN
jumped out at me as my great-grandfather had that name as one of
his christian names. I had never thought of ‘surnames’
being used in future generatons as ‘first’ names.
I have wondered why he had such strange names
and, given that he had two ‘surnames’ as his christian
names, it's now evident that he may have been named after his grandparents.
Unfortunately my research has had to come to a standstill for the
present time so I’m unable to confirm this.
My great-grandfather, Thomas Craven Baldwan BROWN/E,
was born in 1863 in Mt Pleasant, Glusburn, Yorkshire, England and
died in 1938 in Hornsby NSW. I have contacted Philip Marston in
case there is a family connection between my ‘Craven’
and his William CRAVEN.
Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed his article and
it has given me a new ‘insight’ into the names of our
ancestors.. Irene
Green (by email)
