The Diamonds in the Detail

Genealogy is, of course, much much more than just knowing the names, births, deaths and marriages of our forebears. It's also about knowing their stories... how they lived their lives.

I spent the day recently exploring a brilliant online resource for researchers in Australia. TROVE - http://trove.nla.gov.au - a web service supplied by the National Library of Australia allows researchers to search the library's formidable collection of online resources from one simple interface.

The resources available at a mouse click include NLA's entire digitised colection of newspapers,  picture and photographic collections, diaries and personal papers, maps and even music and video.

The newspaper collection is particularly useful and covers major Australian newspaper titles from 1803 to1954 including major mastheads like The Sydney Morning Herald, The Argus (Melbourne) and the Adelaide Advertiser and less well known titles like the Hobart Town Gazette and The Western Australian Times.

If your ancestor has a common name  - like my second great grandfather David Davis - then it might be difficult to sort out which references refer to them however if you have a less common name in your tree - like my third great grandfather Solomon Schlossman - you can find all sorts of fascinating minutiae that fill in the details of their lives.

For example: On February 17 1894 Solomon advertised a  "...Splendid opportunity for any person wishing to join party of experienced miners leaving for field immediately full particulars Solomin Schlossman 69 Liverpool St. Sydney". He was heading for Coolgardie (just outside Kalgoorlie), the site of a new gold rush.

On February 23rd Solomon advertised his business and all his household goods for sale by auction. It's only a small thing but the ad lists a the assets of the business and household items and paints a picture of the state of the business at that moment. Assets included an engine & boiler, sausage machine and filler, chopping blocks, a marble counter and marble tables and gas fittings throughout the house and the shop. It's given me a vivid image of the business and the house.

Trove also delivered me some other treasures including several advertisements for various family business interests, and insolvencies (a recurring theme in my family). On Wednesday 13th January 1926 the Sydney Morning Herald reported that "Cyril Browny, aged 26, appeared at the Central Polico Court yesterday to answer a charge of having stolon a motor car, valued at £210, the property of Sadie Jane Davis, on January 4" Sadie Jane being my great grandmother. Again, it's only a small thing but it adds another brushstroke to the bigger picture.

TROVE is also, of course, a quick and easy way of tracking down all those birth, marriage and death notices from major papers without having to leave the house.

All in all TROVE is full of treasures for those willing to mount an expedition to trawl its database depths.

NSW State Records

On Thursday (April 22, 2010) I paid my first visit to the Western Sydney Reading Room of the NSW State Records. It's a great place with very helpful staff.

I'd already spent many hours combing the online databases of the Archives (www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/indexes-online) but there is so much more available if you make the effort to go in. The reading room is a quiet place with researchers clad in blue plastic gloves bent over precious documents or searching through miles and miles of microfilm.

I came armed with some printouts from the Register of Firms index. The research assistant took me through the process of ordering up the actual registers - they arrived in minutes from the stacks - and, donning my blue gloves, I gingerly turned the pages to those indicated on my lists.

Disappointingly the actual registers did not yield that much more information than the indexes themselves however there is something wonderful about leafing through these large books and seeing your ancestors name in perfect cursive script.

I did find a few fabulous treats.

In the probate files I discovered the Last Will and Testament of Arthur Isaac Davis (pictured), my great grandfather. Arthur was the first member of his family to become a professional - he was a conveyancer. Music was an important part of Davis family life and in his will Arthur specifically bequeaths his piano, gramophone and records and music books to his daughter, Elwyn Lilian. His wife, of course, gets the house.

I also found my 2nd great grandfather Myer Rothbaum's application for naturalization, which contained specific reference to when and on which boat he arrived in the colony. This is useful because I cannot find any record of him in the shipping lists.

I have a lot more work to do in the State Records - and in PROV in Victoria too - but my first experience at NSW State Records was certainly pleasant and rewarding.