When I met my now husband – all the way back in 2003 – I was living on Rainey Street, Chermside; a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Today I found a cool real estate map from 1925 on the State Library of Queensland website of what was then named ‘Raineys Hill Top Park’ in Kedron.
Raineys Hill Top Park Estate, 1925
75 years later, I rented a flat built on Plot 30.
Although I can’t remember if it was ‘free from dust, and delightfully cool’ as advertised in newspapers at the time, it did have ‘water and electric light’. Unfortunately, I was too late to utilise the tram system which appears to have run along Gympie Road a few blocks away. (All Brisbane trams had stopped running by 1969.)
It was a lovely place to live and we have fond memories of our time there.
You may have seen a lot birthplace pedigree charts posted online recently.
I created charts for my own and my husband’s family’s countries of birth knowing that it would visually represent something that I think is pretty rare.
My pedigree:
My husband’s pedigree:
Notice anything?
5 generations of English heritage on both the maternal and paternal sides, all the way through.
And this pattern has continued further back too. In fact, the ONLY ancestor I’ve discovered not born in England (so far) was born in America (6th generation) to English parents, due to her father’s service in the British military. Surely, she is considered English too?
Either way, I’d like to know anyone else who has this. I’ve been led to believe it’s pretty rare due to a programme aired (ten years ago now) where people who thought they were completely English found out they were anything but.
Is it so rare?
If you would like to compile your own chart, head to AnceStories for a pre-made template.
The wonderful Tasmanian Archives site has a wealth of records available online – particularly for those researching their convict ancestors.
My ancestor, Elizabeth ALLEN arrived in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) aboard the convict ship, Margaret in 1843. The details given by her where recorded upon her arrival.
Coming from a large city like Birmingham, with a relatively common name, I had lost hope of finding who Elizabeth ALLEN’s parents were. For some strange reason – perhaps I was having trouble reading the handwriting or deciphering the code used – I didn’t realise how much family information was contained on my ancestor’s arrival record when I first viewed it. After looking again at her arrival record, I could now see that the information I needed was there waiting for me.
Allen, Elizabeth
Height: 5/2 1/4
Age: 20
Calling: [Domestic Servant] & Needlewoman
Where Tried: Warwickshire, Birmingham Boro QS
When Tried: 21 October 1842
Sentence: 10
Native Place: Birmingham
Married or Single: S
Children: [blank]
Religion: CE
Read or Write: R
Relations – Apprenticeship – Where Last Residing: F Isaac at Churchill 2B Josiah & Wm 1S Mary Ann with my father; 9 [months?] on the Town
Ship Character: Fair
Offences: Stg a shawl [from? Gt?] Hampton St; once for same 3 mos
My interpretation:
F = father Isaac at Churchill
2B = 2 brothers Josiah and William
1S = 1 sister Mary Ann
These siblings (or at least Mary Ann) are living with her father in Churchill.
(‘9 months on the town’ seems to indicate that Elizabeth had also been prostituting herself).
Using Family Search, I searched the IGI for the birth of Elizabeth ALLEN around 1822, including her father’s name Isaac. I found an appropriate entry for 29 Sep 1822 in Harborne, Staffordshire. Harborne was so near to Birmingham that it became a suburb in 1890 (source).
To check this was the right record and accept her mother’s name as Ann, I then searched for her siblings birth entries. I was able to find Josiah and Mary Ann, also born in Harborne (no record of William as yet). Ann was recorded as Ann PHILLIPS on Josiah’s record, Anne Philis on Mary Ann’s and simply Ann on Elizabeth’s.
I was also able to find the likely marriage record for Isaac and Ann – 26 Aug 1821, Halesowen, Worcester – Ann was recorded as Ann Phillis GEALEY/GALEY. So was Phillis another Christian name or a mistranscription of Phillips?
I’ve been MIA the last few weeks as I travelled back to Australia for my brother’s wedding (which was lovely).
Sadly, my grandmother’s health has deteriorated and she has now moved to Sydney to be closer to my uncle. (Interestingly, she is a direct descendant of the BUCHAN lunatics I’ve been blogging about and is also suffering from senility).
However, this move uncovered many photograph albums that I think even grandma had forgotten existed. She told me once that she had thrown out all her old photos because she didn’t think anyone was interested (!). Happily, this has turned out not to be the case and I pored over loads of antique photographs of her life (which until now I had never seen). More on those when I have access to a scanner…
In other news, I am currently reading a new book entitled, ‘Tasmania’s Convicts’ by Alison Alexander, which I found whilst in Australia. I am less than halfway through but find it addictive reading and am happy to recommend it to anyone researching convict ancestors in Van Diemen’s Land. It even mentions my ancestor Elizabeth ALLEN (very briefly) who was transported there in 1843 for stealing a shawl.
My brother has just returned from his honeymoon in Tasmania, where he had spent part of it ‘researching’ at Port Arthur. I hope to receive some information from him in the near future.
My head is swimming with genealogy right now so I’ve decided to focus on my convict ancestors for a while to give me a bit of focus. No doubt when I get this scanner, I’ll be flitting around again though.
Hobart Town from the New Town Road by J.S. Prout (1844) (source)
Carrying on from last week’s Black Sheep Sunday post. I have managed to have find some more snippets of information of my Black Sheep duo – George WHITE and Elizabeth ALLEN.
World Vital Records offered free records until the 18th (tomorrow) so I took them up on their offer. I must say, I do find the site a bit of confusing. Searches for records of specific places (such as UK, Australia and New Zealand) tend to also include the American records in the results. This may be something an experienced user can combat but for me, time is of the essence!
Tucked away in the Hobart Town Gazette of 1844 were 2 references for each of my beloved convicts.Elizabeth Allen, Margaret, to Zachary Pocock, Hobart:
Hobart Town Gazette – 8 March 1844
George White, George III., from J. & R. Meikle, Murray-street, to Thomas Allcock, Hobart Town.:
Hobart Town Gazette – 16 August 1844
George White, George the Third, by Thomas Allcock, Liverpool-street, 2 months, 21st ditto [October]:
Hobart Town Gazette – 12 November 1844
Elizabeth Allen, Margaret, by George Lewis, Restdown, 1 month, from 10th ditto [September].:
Hobart Town Gazette – 8 October 1844
These snippets refer to whose private service they entered as a passholder.
From 1840 convicts usually served an initial period of “probation” in government work gangs, before becoming “passholders” who competed in the labour market. In the context of high unemployment, this meant that thousands of serving convicts joined ticket-of-leave holders and emancipists to roam the island in search of work. The sight of these workers, who by necessity or choice often lived rough in the bush, horrified and frightened the free settlers…(Source: Van Diemen’s Land by James Boyce – found via Google Books).
Next steps:
Search for other issues of the Hobart Town Gazette
Research the employers listed for some background information
My husband’s pedigree:
