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.

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.

The post Raineys Hill Top Park appeared first on Geneageek.

When visiting the Derby Local Studies and Family History Library, I happened to mention my interest in ‘The Shamrock‘ and the enormously helpful staff located a map out the back – Map of the Boro’ of Derby shewing the number and position of Houses Licensed for the Sale of Intoxicating Drinks.

This map was produced seemingly to illustrate a problem. According to the figures, a total of 574 premises for a rather precise ‘estimated population’ of 103291 circa 1897, meant there was a licensed drinking house for roughly every 179 people.  But not only does the map give me an insight to the lifestyle and issues of the area,  it has also been helpful to pinpoint a more precise location for The Shamrock.

From research outlined in the previous post, The Shamrock was a licensed beerhouse located on Goodwin Street between 1857 and 1908.  The map shows 5 establishments on Goodwin Street alone:

The key helpfully narrows things down by identifying each type of drinking house.  Therefore, the location of The Shamrock must have been located at the triangle symbol:

Unfortunately the area was demolished in the 1930s so I am unable to visit the actual building, but having this map somehow makes me feel a little better about that.

The post The Shamrock – part II appeared first on Geneageek.

John Daly, a Royal Artilleryman, was charged with attempting to break into the dwelling house of Thomas Palmer, almost opposite the Police Station, on the previous night. The prisoner was heard at the shutter by a policeman who was going to bed, and he gave information to a brother constable on duty, upon which he went outside the station gate and there saw the prisoner, without a jacket, standing by the window of the house, the shutters being open and partially broken. On seeing the policeman he ran away and was afterwards taken by P.C. Gibbs in a passage in North-street. Mr. Palmer, the occupier of the house, proved fastening up the house about 9 o’clock the previous night. Prisoner was committed for trial.

So now I knew that he lived “…almost opposite the Police Station…”.

Unfortunately, the police station no longer exists on South Street after being destroyed by enemy action in 1941.  I found a photograph of the building in 1949 on the Gosport Heritage site but it gave me no other details.  Luckily however I found a c.1896 map which marked the location of the police station which made the description, ‘almost opposite’ make sense.

Interestingly, there is also a photo on the Gosport Heritage site captioned; ‘Portland Place; south side of South Street, running north-south almost opposite to the OLD police station.’  I’m pretty sure Palmer’s old book shop is just out of shot on the far left of this image (behind the first building).

That’s probably as close as I’m going to get but since the buildings on that block are long gone now, I still feel strangely accomplished.

(Previous post in series: Book ’em, Danno | Next post in series: Book ’em Once More, Danno)

The post Book ’em Again, Danno appeared first on Geneageek.

If you lived in the West End of Derby in the 19th century, you were considered to live in the slums.  It is here that the families I’ve researched lived mainly in what was known as court housing (some more information on court housing here).

An article on the Derby Telegraph site mentions that this area was part of an 1849 report to the General Board of Health on “The Sewerage, Drainage and Supply of Water and the Sanitary Conditions of the Inhabitants of Derby”;

 In Willow Row, Court 1, 103 inhabitants shared two privies and residents reported that milk would turn to curd when mixed with water from the communal pump…

Observations of Walker Lane, where 75 cases of typhus fever were reported between June 15 and September 14, 1847, were: “The houses are of the most inferior description and the inhabitants of a piece with their houses; to crown all, there are lodging houses, which are the principal headquarters of vagrants, and of those comers and goers who, for reasons best known to themselves, prefer darkness to light.”

It is in these conditions that Hannah Bates, William Lamb and their families lived most of their lives.  The slum clearances of the 1930s mean that the court housing is now long gone but it’s important to keep these living conditions in mind when researching the people of the area and trying to understand their lives.

Note: the Derby Telegraph article mentioned above is no longer available online [referred to: area-poverty-abounded-rich-community-spirit-pride/story-11591093-detail]

The post The Slums of Derby appeared first on Geneageek.

In the Dumfries Kirk Sessions of 1822 (which are searchable online), James BROWN was “named as the father of Jean Smith’s child; [and] gave satisfaction for this in the parish of Applegarth” (Archive Ref: CH2/537/12).  I believe ‘gave satisfaction’ (in this sense), meant that the father gave monetary compensation to the parish for their support of the child.

First, was he old enough to be involved in this?  Although I don’t have his birth record, the 1851 census suggests he was born in 1801, which means he would have been 21 at the time – a prime age for this kind of crime.

Next, was he near enough to be involved?  Applegarth is roughly 20 miles from Dunscore and about 30 miles from my James’ home, Glencairn.  Not a short walk, but not impossible distances.

So I can’t rule out my James Brown as the father of Jean Smith’s illegitimate child and I have kept hold of this genealogical tidbit. To get any closer to proving this, I would need to check for further information in the Kirk Session records and the Applegarth parish records for any further information on Jean SMITH and her child.

Next Steps:

• Check for further information in the Kirk Session records
• Check Applegarth parish records for the child’s birth

Update: Checked Applegarth, Dunscore, Glencairn and Lochmaben parishes (via ScotlandsPeople) for any birth with Jean SMITH as parent (between 1800 – 1825) and any SMITH birth (between 1816 – 1825) – no likely entries found (all have listed fathers).

The post More Antenuptial Fornication appeared first on Geneageek.

After his second wife died, George seemed to move around, lodging at various places in London. His marriage to second wife Emily FELLA was so short that it didn’t feature in any of the censuses (they married in 1873 – she died in 1875). Luckily for me, Emily’s death certificate lists George as the informant and his residence as 54 Swinton St, London (Emily also died here).

A quick search of Rumsey’s site informs me that houses still exist at this site:

I am aware that house numbers changed at some time in the past and need to check that number 54 Swinton St today is the same number 54 Swinton Street of 1875. Even so, it’s another address for me to visit when I’m in London. I like being able to get a feel of how my ancestor’s lives may have lived.

I used Google’s street view for a quick peek at the area. (Click and drag the orange man on to the map and use the on screen tools to have a look around.)

Did the PALMERs live (and in Emily’s case, die) in these buildings:

Or these?

 

Read 3rd part here.

The post Future House Call (Using Google Street View) appeared first on Geneageek.

I don’t have many links to London in my tree. The only significant person in my tree to reside in London was George Wright PALMER and part of his family.

George was born in Portsea and his job in the Royal Navy caused him to move around a bit. For some reason, George was in London at the time of the 1871 census. He was living at 33 Marshall St with his first wife, Mary Ann and youngest son, Edward.

Here is a photograph I took of what I believe to be 33 Marshall St (I found it the hard way but using this map overlay it was so quick and simple):

Here is a picture I found of 33 – 36 Marshall St, taken in the 1960s (annoyingly from the opposite direction to my picture):

It’s hard to say how long George and his reduced family lived at this address. Mary Ann died the next year and he married his second wife, Emily Jane FELLA in 1873. Tragically, she died just two years later.

I’m not often able to find detailed information on the houses in which my ancestors lived, which makes the details I found at British History Online even more special:

Most of these buildings […] were erected in the 1820’s by or under the supervision of Thomas Finden after the closure of Carnaby Market […]. This redevelopment was uniformly planned, small in area and scale, but forming to-day an unusually pleasant oasis for pedestrians, and offering facilities for shopping away from the through streets. There is accommodation for shop-keepers over the shops, as well as for chamber trades such as tailoring. The least altered parts are the block bounded on the west by Newburgh Street and on the south by Ganton Street, and the two pedestrian courts west of Newburgh Street—Lowndes Court and Marlborough Court.
The prevailing form was the four-storey terrace house fronted in stock brick, two windows wide with plain window-openings, and a continuous plain parapet with stone coping. The windows, most of which have their original narrow glazing-bars, have stone sills. The ground floors were built as shops from the beginning, for this was the period of the planned shopping street…
The ground floors of Nos. 33–36 Marshall Street have thin pilaster-strips and a continuous entablature; space appears to have been provided for shop-windows but, except at No. 35, these spaces have only one domestic-size window each. The ground floors of Nos. 20–22 Peter Street are similar.

(From: ‘Marshall Street Area’, Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32: St James Westminster, Part 2 (1963), pp. 196-208. via British-History.ac.uk (Date accessed: 10 Jan 2010). 

[Bold font added for ease of reference]

Read 2nd part here.

The post House Call appeared first on Geneageek.