My grandfather served in World War Two after all
I have written previously about how I hadn’t realised my grandfather had a defence forces service file until I saw his name in an index. The file hadn’t been digitised when I searched for it, so I ordered it and waited.
I recently got an email from the National Archives...Read More »
If there's an index, check it!
My mother had always said that her father didn’t serve in either of the world wars. The stories I remember were that he was too young in the First World War and too old in the Second World War, and that he was a farmer and needed at home to...Read More »
Where did my convict die?
Most convicts lived to finish their sentences or obtain their conditional pardons and continued to live long and productive lives. Some didn’t live productive lives, and some didn’t survive to finish their sentences.
The Register of Convict Deaths lists convicts who were known to have died whilst still serving their sentence.State...Read More »
Charles Johnson, prisoner and father
When the grandmother of one of my clients was born there was no father listed on the birth certificate. When she married she stated her father to be a Charles Johnson, but there was no other evidence of this, or indeed of any link between Charles and and the mother...Read More »
A conditional purchase application
Conditional Purchases were introduced in 1862 as a way of getting small landholders on the land. They selected a portion of land, paid an initial deposit of %10 of the value, and then had to pay it off. The conditions were that they had to reside on the property, and they...Read More »
A World War I service file
The National Archives of Australia holds the service records of Australian defence servicemen and women from 1901. Records are closed for thirty years. If your ancestor served in the Boer War, World War I, World War II or in between, the records you need will be in Canberra.
Many of these...Read More »
A surprise in the Colonial Secretary's Correspondence
I found a surprising document when I was researching a convict at State Records New South Wales at Kingswood last week. John Webster arrived in 1830 on the Lord Melville (2), received his certificate of freedom in 1836, married a convict in the same year, and had a number of children...Read More »
Research a Local School
Where did your ancestors go to school? Did they go to school at all? How long did they go to school, and what was being taught at the time?
To understand your ancestor it’s important to know what sort of education was available at that time and in that area, if...Read More »
Reuniting Wives and Families of Convicts
The separation of convict husbands from their families was usually a traumatic event for the wives and children left behind. Even in cases where the crime of the husband was such as to justify divorce in modern times, the loss of the breadwinner was a calamity that rendered all other...Read More »
Don't forget the relatives - a NSW immigration story
This is a story from my own family tree, in particular it is about my g-g-grandfather Richard Eason. When I started looking into my family history I got his NSW death certificate from 1922 on which the informant (his son Irwin) stated that he was born in County Tyrone, Ireland;...Read More »