Patten Genealogy

A new start

2012-02-08T18:09:00.000+11:00

I haven't blogged here for a long time. Two years ago I took all of the entries I've written here and any new entries to my blog, and placed them onto a new site. A shame then that the web hosts I had gone with were prone to regular hacking episodes. I don't know what sort of security measures are in place at one of the largest web hosts available, but one might have thought it would be decent, rather than absolute rubbish as is the case.

So until I am able to resolve my hosting issues, or beyond, I'll resume semi-regular updates to this, my original blog location.

Moving Day!

2010-03-31T01:00:00.000+11:00

Please don't mind the mess. The new website is online.

Last post?

2010-03-28T16:20:00.000+11:00

Apologies to anyone I haven't replied to as yet, but I've been very busy with a couple of projects. This will probably be my final post here on blogger, before unleashing a new, more easily maintained and organised blog elsewhere. That's project numero uno.

Project two involves a larger scale, collaborative project. More on that when I know exactly where I'm going with it!

Patience!

2010-03-11T16:16:00.000+11:00

Patience is the name of the game, especially in relation to the release of new archival sources to the internet. Do you get excited when you find a new email waiting in your inbox, notifying you of a new research source available at Ancestry? Can you contain your enthusiasm for the regular Lost Cousins newsletter? Or how about notification of new newspaper batches placed onto the NLA newspaper site?

I'm guilty of all the above. It may be particularly geeky to be so enthralled and enraptured by newly available resources, but that's OK. It's just you and I that know, right? I won't tell.

At the moment, I'm drumming my fingers waiting around for the above mentioned NLA newspaper additions. It's been some time since the last official update via email, and one is generally given by February, but there is no sign so far. The crux of Australia's major metropolitan newspapers have been digitized and uploaded, and now, hopefully, we'll see the addition of some more specialized, regional/rural newspapers as the original release list hints. The Sydney Morning Herald has been a gold mine for researching my family history, and for history in general. The Melbourne Age has been interesting and useful as well. But it's the regional newspapers that will give the best results, I think, given that my ancestors were based primarily in the Far North of New South Wales, and around the Murray / Riverina areas. Time will be telling.

WDYTYA, USA - s01e01 Review

2010-03-10T13:27:00.000+11:00

Having viewed the latest iteration of Who Do You Think You Are, I must say that I'm quite surprised! The American edition, produced by Lisa Kudrow and featuring Sarah Jessica Parker as the star of the first episode was an enjoyable piece of television. It remained true to the formula as originally set out by the UK production, despite a sometimes overt push for drama where it only existed in a mild form. Yes, it did have the obligatory American styled 'Entertainment Tonight' angle, pumping up the story, complete with dramatic music, but in most cases it didn't interfere with the basic premise of the show. It allowed for the story to unfold, and with help of the program's focal point (Parker), who offered her voice to the bulk of the programs narration (a welcome change to previous version's relying upon face to camera interviews).

I didn't learn much about American genealogy research, but the show did offer some excellent insights into events such as the Salem Witch Trials, and the California Gold Rush (which I'm interested in for a branch of my mother's genealogy that ventured there from Australia in the early 1850's).

The American WDYTYA is a worth addition to the others so far developed. It may not be a great research help, but it is highly enjoyable.

WDYTYA - USA

2010-02-12T09:38:00.000+11:00

A long time coming, but finally the US series of Who Do You Think You Are has finally been wrapped up and is ready for the public. Great stuff. I've greatly enjoyed the original UK offering, the occasional Canadian episode, and the Australian series has fantastic production values as well. Hopefully the wait for the US series will have been worthwhile and it won't be another in a long line of watered down American translations of a hit British television programs. However, given the quality of the previews so far, I'd imagine it will pass with flying colours.

WDYTYA on NBC

Restricted web searching

2010-02-06T17:36:00.000+11:00

Of the many genealogical tools at your disposal, which do you use most often? Is it ancestry com? How about your local family group? Maybe even a major archive or library? Whilst these are all common and well used research tools, I’d suspect that for most genealogists the most commonly used tool would actually be google.com.

Google is many things. It’s a starting point and a friend when we’re sometimes stumped for ideas, and it’s also so ubiquitous in our daily lives that at times we can barely register the truth of just how often we use it. Google has strangely become a universal font of knowledge, and one that is all too easily trusted, despite the obvious myriad reams of crap one must trawl through in order to find the truth. It is what it is, and quite clearly it’s a search engine. THE search engine.

However, is that about to change? Is google about to find itself caught between a rock and a hard place? The evidence is certainly building to that being the case, with the news that Rupert Murdoch’s News Ltd empire (Sky TV UK, Star TV Asia, Fox USA, Foxtel Australia) is no longer going to allow google to index its websites.

So what does that mean for genealogy? Well, immediately it means very little. But in the medium to long term it means that google, bing, yahoo and all of the other competing search engines are going to find that they will no longer be the one-stop solution that has served us so well.

Currently, search engines are formatted so that an illusion of universal record is maintained. The expectation is that almost every website on Earth has been indexed, and can be found in searches in descending order of popularity. This however is only partially true. Search engines often rank lesser websites ahead of those that have earned their popularity, simply because they provide the engines with a revenue source. They then rank the remaining websites only after the paying customers sites have been indexed.

Can you imagine doing a search for your great grandmother, and only having a third, or less, of all search results that are currently available missing, simply because the websites that contain your ancestors data are no longer dealing with the search engine you most commonly use?

This perhaps is the stark, unfriendly online world that we will face, and only just around the corner. So, enjoy the encyclopaedic form of web searching currently available, as it may soon be a thing of the past.

Websites

2010-01-26T10:11:00.001+11:00

What are your favourite genealogy resources? Are there any that you find particularly rewarding for your own research which would more than likely prove fruitless for the rest of us? Here’s the first part of my list of what I consider to be the best and worst resources for the past year; hopefully there might be a reasonably useful find or two amongst them for you.

Ancestry.com

I’d imagine that for the majority of people in the English speaking world, Ancestry.com is a goldmine for research data. For me, it’s probably the least financially reasonable site I’ve come across (although I did take the plunge this year regardless). The majority of my European ancestors came to Australia before the 1841 census, and a large percentage of them resided in parishes that aren’t as well documented as others. My Aboriginal Australian research receives almost no benefit from the site, save for the rare mention of family in electoral rolls and in the few Australian cemetery records. Despite my personally negative experience with the site, I still see great value in the site for the majority of those of us with American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, British or Irish roots.

Genes Reunited

A useful site and especially to those who are just starting out in their discovery of their ancestral roots. The site allows a user to match their uploaded tree to that of other members, of which there are almost always bound to be a large number who share at least some of your ancestors. So basically, the site model is one that does little to discourage laziness and a reliance on the hard work of others in researching your family.

The drawback clearly for this particular site is that many people fall prey to those who are simply collecting names, and are intent on building huge meaningless databases of loosely related individuals. Your hard work, in tracking down an elusive ancestor may help you to gain contact with a distant cousin, but you also run the risk that your data will be entered incorrectly into that person’s database, and if they are a particularly active member, many other members may naively look to their database as a root source, helping to pollute both genesreunited.com, and other websites with reams of false data.

The risks are the same on most major genealogy websites, however if you are confident in your own research, and don’t mind it being bastardised across the world wide web, those risks may be worth taking for the potential to break down the occasional brick wall and meet relatives you never knew you had.

Lost Cousins

If ever there were a genealogy website worthy of greater recognition then lostcousins.com is it. Whilst the majority of genealogy websites are a hit and miss affair in matching research data, lostcousins results are almost 100% foolproof. Members results are matched via census returns, ensuring that almost no false-positive returns are made. If the site has a downside it’s that not enough people are aware of its existence, thus the number of matches made are far from what may be gained via the endless weeding through mountains of results at genesreunited.com and ancestry.com

AIATSIS

The primary research hub for Aboriginal Australian genealogy and history, AIATSIS has a web presence which is slowly but surely growing, but for the moment their primary use is in first hand visits to their base of operations in Canberra, to see their extensive holdings across all media forms. Online, AIATSIS provides a name index as a handy but inconsistent tool that has a long way to go before it can claim to be of any significant use to the average researcher. Spelling mistakes and inaccurate logging of data are common. Another important tool of use is their index to Dawn and the New Dawn magazines.

Australian Newspapers

I cannot recommend this website enough. It is an absolute treasure trove for the Australian genealogist. Newspapers are logged from 1804 (Australia was first colonised by Europeans in 1788), and the records stretch toward the limit of copyright allowances, with the upper end being 1954. The site includes such treasures as the Melbourne Argus and the Sydney Morning Herald, which is supplemented by further indexing at Google News. If your Australian based ancestors did anything of note, you stand more than a fair chance of finding the details here.

The only drawback, if it can be called that, is that it can be exceptionally hard to wait impatiently for the next batch of newspaper records to be digitised and then given the all clear for viewing.

New addition to the tree

2010-01-22T19:01:00.000+11:00

Just a quick update to make note of the newest and most significant addition to my family tree, my son, Tiriki, born lunch time yesterday. I'm over the moon with pride and joy.

Kreativ Blogger

2010-01-06T12:49:00.003+11:00

I’ve been nominated for a Kreativ Blogger award. Sweet! It’s nice to know that there are some people out there that read my blog, let alone actually enjoy it! It's also rather encouraging.
As part of the nomination, the recipient is supposed to write seven things about themselves, along with nominating a further seven bloggers.

So, seven things about me:

1. There is a strong suggestion in my family of Asian ancestry (Indian, Tamil, Sri Lankan etc), which may or may not be true. I intend on finding the truth, one way or the other.

2. I am slowly, but surely, teaching myself to speak both Bundjalung and Yorta Yorta, my paternal grandparent’s languages.

3. I work in I.T, for the state education department, whilst studying.

4. At university I studied graphic design.

5. I have a family tree that includes roughly 30 or more past and present professional Rugby League football players, which are also joined by a handful of professional Australian Rules football players and professional boxers.

6. My primary interest outside of genealogy and my family is sustainability.

7. Drink of choice – Theakston’s Old Peculier.

Seven nominee blogs to greatly enjoy, in no particular order:

1.    The Professional Descendant
http://professionaldescendant.blogspot.com/

2.    Twigs of Yore
http://twigsofyore.blogspot.com/

3.    George Geder
http://geder.posterous.com/

4.    Ginisology
http://ginisology.blogspot.com/

5.    Genealogy in New South Wales
http://heritagegenealogy.com.au/blog/

6.    Rosie-Cotton
http://rosie-cotton.blogspot.com/

7.    Aussie Maria
http://aussiemariafamily.blogspot.com/

Visiting my grandfather

2010-01-06T11:01:00.000+11:00

I’m currently on holidays, waiting for my wife to give birth, and I’ve got a lot of time on my hands. For the greater part, my time is being spent in entertaining my folks, who are visiting from interstate, waiting for their grandchild to be born. Monday was a special part of that time spent with my folks, as the three of us, and my very heavily pregnant and lovely wife Lucy, all ventured together to Fawkner cemetery, where we visited my grandfather’s resting place (my dad’s dad).

I never had the pleasure of meeting my grandfather (he died decades before I was born), but when I moved to Melbourne last year, his grave was one of the first places I visited. I don’t know what I expected, but it was a little upsetting to find it as a bare patch of earth, with the grave marked only by a small, broken piece of marble, which had my grandfather’s name faintly etched into it, and probably only legible to someone like myself, familiar with his name.

This time around was my dad’s first opportunity to see his father in some form, since grandad passed away in 1957. A very emotional day, and one that we’re going to make an effort to revisit on a more regular basis, now that I live closer than 24hrs travel by car, as I did when growing up, and that my father now has more reasons to venture south by 12 hours from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.

It was a surprise that recently I found out the identity of the person who had etched my grandfather’s name into the small strip of marble lying upon his grave. It turns out that my dad’s younger brother (now deceased) had visited the grave site in the 1980’s, in the company of his cousin Herb.

It was also surprising to find just how many hoops I’m going to have to go through in order to have a plaque placed on my grandfather’s grave. In all I’m required to order two birth certificates, two death certificates, a statutory declaration of a death and two copies of people’s drivers licenses. I asked that I might plant some flowers on my grandfather’s grave, red, black and yellow (the colours of the Aboriginal flag), and it was stated that the flowers would be pulled out if planted. Flowers in a vase are OK, but I’ve never believed that giving a person a dead plant is a good idea, preferring instead a plant with its roots still firmly attached.

I also asked if I might be able to place a bush rock from my grandfather’s tribal country there, complete with one of the cemetery’s own plaques, and this was also frowned upon. Basically, nothing is allowed unless it contributes entirely to the cemetery’s coffers. If anything, I’m sorry that my grandfather has been interred at what amounts to merely a business without heart or appreciation of those they are supposed to serve. Even worse, that he is buried in the same cemetery as John Batman (1801-1839), the criminal who robbed the Wirundjuri Nation of Melbourne of their tribal lands, in what is still rudely called a treaty.

Births, Deaths and Marriages, but mostly Births.

2009-12-31T09:36:00.002+11:00

It’s the last day of the year and I’m killing time, with my wife due to give birth at any tick of the clock. Maybe today, tomorrow, next week, who knows? I can’t wait. It’s a fantastic way to extend the family tree!

Yep, we know what we’re having, but we haven’t spilled the beans, and we’re not going to, until we’re holding a bundle of joy in our arms. My Dad has gone to great pains to find out the sex of the baby, having tried at every instance we’ve spoken. But, given that he’s correctly predicted the sex of some 14-15 babies in a row, both in and out of our family; I would imagine he’s trying to make me slip up for his own amusement rather than for information.

Beyond my Dad and every other joker trying to learn the sex of the baby, we’ve had to work through the issue of trying over the last month to confirm a name for the baby. This had to be done simply as a matter of courtesy, given that my wife and I chose a Koori (Australian Aboriginal) name for our child, and perhaps only one other person in the world has this particular name, a cousin whom I had never crossed paths with, until speaking over the phone two days ago, to confirm that persons comfort with the use of the name.

In the meantime, it’s been a quiet, but very enjoyable Christmas, and my genealogy has turned a corner, thanks to the efforts of the good folk behind the free Australian Newspaper Archive. Their digitised copies of the Sydney Morning Herald have revealed a number of new elements and hints to my tree, and will continue to do so, with each new week providing another decade’s worth of data to trawl through. Currently at 1922, the website’s SMH digitisation will be complete when they hit 1954, after which attention will turn to a multitude of interstate and small town newspapers, as listed here http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp/selected_newspapers/Future_Titles.html

In other news, the NSW BD&M website should have its index updated in the next few days, as it adds in births for 1909, deaths for 1979, and marriages for 1959, complying with limits as set out by the privacy act. Per usual at this time of year, I expect the site to become very sluggish during peak hours for a few weeks, until everyone has absorbed the new data and sent off for new certificates and transcriptions.

To everyone, I wish you all the very best and a safe and Happy New Year.

Coranderrk

2009-12-20T16:03:00.003+11:00

Recently I ventured an hour west of Melbourne, to the small and pictureseque town of Healesville. There at the outskirts I visited what once was the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve. Today there is one building remaining, the Aboriginal cemetery and Worawa, the local Aboriginal college. I paid my respects at the cemetery to family buried there, and to William Barak, an Aboriginal leader who as a young boy witnessed the supposed 'treaty', where John Batman robbed the Wirundjuri and neighbouring tribes of their lands.

Coranderrk existed up until the 1920's as a hub of activity, where originally the Aboriginal inhabitants were productive to the extent that they farmed their own land, becoming one of the new nation's major hop producers, and enabling their children to gain an education, have medical care and other facilities not seen by other Aboriginal people during the 1800's.

Among those who called Coranderrk home were my great great grandmother Maggie, her son John (my great grandfather), and Maggie's three other children - Bella, Minnie and Jacob. Both Bella and Minnie are buried at Coranderrk. I have yet to find much of a trace of Jacob, and I believe he died as an infant.

For more on the history of Coranderrk, and its significance in Black Australian history, check out the Victorian Museum website dedicated to the settlement, here.

Black Mag

2009-12-07T13:46:00.006+11:00

I've had a major break-through in my research recently, concerning one of my great great grandmothers, Maggie SIMMS. I've located information pertaining to where she is buried, when she died, and of her background.

Maggie was the mother of my namesake, my great grandfather John PATTEN, b. 1874 Corryong VIC, d. 1942 NSW. Maggie's partner, or possible husband may have also been named John PATTEN, or as records hint - John or James PATON (a matter which might only be clarified via a DNA test, if I am able to a willing counterpart descended from Corryong PATON's).

Maggie is listed by my great grandfather on his marriage certificate as Maggie SIMMS. This is a name that she is never referred to in other records. She's only ever called "Black Mag", or "Black Maggie".

I have two photographs of Maggie. The first, shows Maggie standing garbed in a possum skin cloak, holding a baby and in the company of "Black Charlotte". They are listed variously as "the last two full-blooded Aborigines" of the Yaithmathang, Jaitmathang and Dhuduroa. Which of those names are tribes, and which are clans within those tribes, I am uncertain. Of Charlotte's relationship to Maggie I am also uncertain, save for the fact that they were related via being members of the same tribe. The second photo shows Maggie climbing a tree, holding an axe, hunting for possums. This is the photograph as mentioned in an earlier blog entry that forms a part of a somewhat derogatory postcard for the Corryong district.

The books and academic journals that I found these details in, range from being linguistic volumes and anthropology journals, to the ignorant and racist ravings of a self-inflated, big noter.

According to Aldo Massola, in his book - Journey to Aboriginal Victoria (1965), Maggie died at Corryong in 1883 of exposure after drinking through the night.

Given that Maggie and her four children were removed to state care less than a decade earlier, and potentially three of those children died not long after, and that Maggie was then removed from her remaining son.. I'm not really surprised at her sad ending.

Pecan Summer

2009-11-17T14:38:00.000+11:00

Pecan Summer is Australia's first Aboriginal Opera. It tells the story of the 1939 Cummeragunja walk-off and of a pivotal point in black history, when my grandfather Jack PATTEN was arrested for inciting people to leave the Aboriginal Mission Station at Cummeragunja.

Click here for Part 1 in a two part documentary focusing on the development of the opera, and the search for potential Aboriginal opera stars to fill the roles. The documentary was made as part of the Message Stick program on ABC Television.

What to think?

2009-11-15T13:46:00.001+11:00

Finding skeletons in the closet of one’s ancestors is one thing, but encountering the nasty skeletons of the general public, thrust upon said ancestors is another matter entirely, and one that has proven to be quite the source of personal anger.

In researching my great great grandmother, an Aboriginal woman by the name of Maggie SIMMS, I have found that she was viewed by the early settler/invaders of her country as a curiosity and a mark for mockery. She appears on an early postcard, as listed by Jim Davidson in a 1996 Sydney Morning Herald column, discussing the history of postcards in Australian history:

“This carried across to vignette cards with several images, even for such a small place as Corryong. One card, with seven cameos, leads off with the state school and the Church of England; in between is an image of "Black Mag", an Aboriginal identity, climbing a tree. Intentionally or otherwise, she is inserted between school and church as a marker of progress, an indication of how far white civilisation has advanced. Other pictures show the main street, a railway bridge (more progress) and two waterfalls, for Corryong is displaying its attractions as well as its attainments. The pioneering past was so recent that the two could be merged effortlessly into each other.”

How would you feel, to know that there exists a postcard, advertising a small town in the back of nowhere, which features your ancestor, one of the reasons for your existence, as nothing more than a joke, and as an example of a supposedly dying race?

National Newspaper archive updated

2009-11-09T09:36:00.002+11:00

From an email I received this morning:

1. Sydney Morning Herald

The first digitised issues of the Sydney Morning Herald are now available. We have started from the first issue 1831 and are making our way forwards to 1954.

The first 20 years (18,000 pages) are now available as follows:

Sydney Herald 1831-1842

Sydney Morning Herald 1842-1852

Issues from 1852 - 1954 will be made available each week from now on through til early 2010. In early 2010 The Sunday Herald 1949-1953 will also become available.

We would like to acknowledge the financial contribution of the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation who have given $1 million dollars towards the digitisation of this title.

2. The Argus (Melbourne)

The Argus (and its previous title the Melbourne Argus) from 1846 - 1945 are now completed and available. The remaining 10 years (1945-1954) of the Argus will be made available in 2010 (mid to end of year).

The Heat is On!

2009-11-06T16:02:00.003+11:00

It's warming up rapidly here in typically chilly Melbourne. A long hot summer is ahead of us. I hope however, that it won't include the 47C temperatures that dropped in last summer, when so many people lost their homes and their lives in bush fires, about an hour North of where I live.

Yep, Summer is a great time to grab a few books of genealogical significance, and enjoy them under a tree in the park, or perhaps with the family by the water. Better yet, a family excursion to a place of historical significance! Yep, I'm a genealogy geek. And lovin' it!

Last weekend was a triumph for my research. I ventured north to the Blue Mountains, to visit my folks and my younger brother, along with his 18 month old twins. Not only did I enjoy a chance to catch up for the first time with said family, since late February, but I picked up all of my genealogy documents, that had been kept in storage there, since before moving to Victoria. Now I can get back into some hardcore research, at least if or when my study and work commitments slow down!

Whilst in the Mountains, I managed to get my Dad to sit down for a few hours in front of the camera, and we filmed him going over a great number of stories, relating to his own history and that of my grandparents and tribe. It was a highly enjoyable time, and I managed to pull from him a few stories that I had never heard before, which was a great surprise, given that Dad saves his best stories for me, so I usually hear the same ones quite often, whilst strangers hear those that are new to me.

I intend to continue filming my Dad, and other family members, and preserving the footage for the entire family, for generations to come. Currently I'm shooting with a Sony Minidisc Handycam, and am experimenting with a Flip Camera for portability.

I wonder, should I consider posting such footage online, or should it be a more privately held and controlled effort. What would you do?

From the Archives: Cummeragunja - Part III

2009-10-23T16:16:00.000+11:00

From the Melbourne Argus, 18 March 1939. My great Uncle, George Patten, speaking on behalf of black Australia, a few days after the arrest of his brother, Jack (my grandfather), at Cummeragunja.

PLEA FOR ABORIGINES

Moved by an aborigine's description ofconditions among his people, MelbourneUniversity students yesterday decided toapproach the Premier of New South Wales to seek an independent inquiry into the administration of the Aborigines' Protection Board.

Mr. George Patten addressing members of the University Labour Club said that although aborigines were retarded in their education and allowed to rise only to the third grade, they had shown marked aptitude for education at the mission stations. Dr. Donald Thomson was he said, the only anthropologist to plead for them but his suggestions had not been accepted by the Government.

From the Archives: Cummeragunja - Part II

2009-10-20T15:01:00.000+11:00

More on the Cummeragunja Walk-Off, from the Melbourne Argus, Saturday, March 11, 1939.

NSW MISSION STATION

Man Convicted

ECHUCA, Friday.
Intense interest was shown by a large crowd which assembled at the Moama Court today when John Thomas Patten, compositor, of Redfern, Sydney, was charged with having enticed and persuaded Aborigines to leave the Cummeragunga Mission Station, at Barmah (N.S.W.).

Patten, who pleaded not guilty, wasconvicted and discharged on enteringInto a recognisance to be of good behaviour for three months.

First-constable Arthur McAvoy, ofMoama, said that he visited Cummeragunga on February 3, and told Patten about inquiries being made into the manager's complaints that Aborigines had been pursuaded to leave the station. Patten replied, "They are being starved." Patten produced a letter signed, "Secretary, Aboriginal Protection board," authorising a visit to the reserve to address meetings.

When told that he had no authority to tell Aborigines that the reserve wouldbe made a compound, Patten replied that he had that morning telegraphed to the Premier and others that Aborigines were leaving because of victimisation and starvation.

Constable McAvoy described the arrestof Patten, and said that as the policecar departed Patten shouted, "Go to it,boys! Now Is your chance to leave thereserve. I will get all the publicity I want now!" The crowd was hostile, andtrouble might have occurred.

Arhur James McQuiggin, manager ofthe station, said that he was presentwith Constable McAvoy when Patten said that the Aborigines were being intimidated, victimised, and starved. Two families had left after the meeting.

Patten said that as President of theAborigines' Progressive Association, hehad never tried to induce residents ofCummeragunga to leave the reserve. Hebelieved that the people left because ofintimidation by the manager "who droveround with a rifle on his lorry and lookedat them in a hostile manner."

Mr. Hawkins said that he was satisfiedwith the police evidence, which evidencefor the defence had corroborated. Hebelieved that Patten frightened and incited people with the Inevitable consequences that they left. The Aboriginal problem was certainly very difficult, and he gave Patten credit for honestly trying to do his best for his own people although he had adopted a hopelessly wrong method.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12106282

From the Archives: Cummeragunja - Part I

2009-10-19T15:09:00.000+11:00

Over the next few weeks I’ll be presenting a series of articles. Each will be among those that I’ve found relating to various ancestors whose lives have been recorded in some small way, in the online newspaper archives of the National Library of Australia.

Due to the poor quality of some of the article scans, I’ll be reproducing the transcripts that I’ve placed onto the archive site.

In chronological order, I'll begin by posting the articles relating to the struggles at Cummeragunja (various spelling variants), and the eventual walk-off by a majority of the residents following my grandfather's arrest.

The following article is from the Melbourne Argus, Saturday - 4 March, 1939.

ABORIGINAL UNREST

Natives Leave Station

SYDNEY, Friday.
Reference to unrest at the Cummerogunga Aboriginal station which had resulted in the departure of several Aborigines, was made in the Legislative Assembly today.

The Chief Secretary (Mr Gollan) was asked by Mr Davidson (Industrial Labour, Cobar) whether he had called for a report and if not whether he would have an independent inquiry regarding Aborigines who had left the Cummeragunga aboriginal station and crossed the Murray River into Victoria and whether they had migrated to Victoria because of mental hardship imposed upon them by the Administration.

Mr Lawson (UCP, Murray) asked Mr Gollan vvhether he would inquire whether a good deal of the trouble was due to a person from Sydney visiting the area and causing trouble. If so would he take steps to see that there was no repetition of it.

Mr Gollan replied that there had been a little unrest at the Aboriginal station but it was not a fact that the Aborigines had moved because of unkind treatment. It was due to a great extent to a certain man who had been given permission to address the Aborigines at the station. He had had that permission cancelled.

He added that every consideration had been shown to the Aborigines and if they returned to the station they would be treated in the same generous manner as the Aborigines at other stations. This particular man named Patten, who was not a full-blooded Aborigine, would be brought before the Court on March 10.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12104016

SNGF - A Family's Increase

2009-10-18T21:13:00.000+11:00

As per usual, I’m late with my reply to the ‘Saturday Night Genealogy Fun’, as has been dished up by Randy Seaver over on his blog, but as everyone knows; it’s never too late to have fun!

In his latest offering, Randy asked:

1) Pick one of your four great-grandparents - if possible, the one with the most descendants.

2) Create a descendants list for those great-grandparents either by hand or in your software program.

3) Tell us how many descendants, living or dead, are in each generation from those great-grandparents.

4) How many are still living? Of those, how many have you met and exchanged family information with? Are there any that you should make contact with ASAP? Please don't use last names of living people for this - respect their privacy.

5) Write about it in your own blog post, in comments to this post, or in comments or a Note on Facebook.

1. I’ve chosen my great grandparent’s on my direct paternal line, John James PATTEN b. 1874 – d. 1942, and Christina Mary MIDDLETON b. 1885 – d. 1954.

2. I made a descendant chart in Family Tree Maker 2006 (I’ve tried every later version, and still prefer 2006).

3. Their descendants, as best as I can tell, number in each generation as follows:

1. Children: 16 (none living, last died in 1983)

2. Grand Children: 26

3. Great Grand Children: 39

4. 2 x Great Grand Children: 37

5. 3 x Great Grand Children: 5

4. With every generation there are gaps yet to be filled. Records have clearly pointed to my great parents having had 16 children, with only 6 of those having reached adulthood, but I can find records naming only 11 of the children.

The grand children are easiest to trace, but I know that there are still gaps in this generation.

I’ve met most of those that are still living, from each generation.

Jack and George

2009-10-18T20:44:00.000+11:00

A busy few weeks, I’ve been dividing my time between work, studies and calm birth classes (we’re currently at week 29), so there hasn’t been a lot of time for genealogy. Despite that, I have slipped in a few moments here and there, including some time dedicated to helping a friend with her own research inquiry.

I’ve been digging through New South Wales and Victorian Police and Government Gazettes among other files, hoping to find traces of my great grandfather, and I’ve had some success, although, as expected I didn’t come across his photo anywhere.

Apparently, a photo of my great grandfather at one stage was on the wall of the police station at West Wyalong, in Western NSW, where he served as a tracker, but today there appears to be no trace. Hopefully that photo still exists, somewhere, and hasn’t been thrown out, like many photos are, ever so thoughtlessly.

My favourite site for research at the moment is the Australian newspapers website http://newspapers.nla.gov.au I’ve been checking it out, on and off since its inception, but until recently it has been of very limited use, containing a limited number of newspapers, focused on a particular swag of years, which are less than helpful.

That however has been changing lately with the introduction of Argus newspapers from Melbourne, and a greater number of files from the Canberra Times. In the last two days I’ve also noticed that the Sydney Morning Herald files for late 1842 to about 1846 (possibly further) are also coming online, once they have been checked for quality.

The Argus files have been a goldmine, with many articles dedicated to both my grandfather, “Jack” John Thomas PATTEN and his younger brother George Middleton PATTEN. Most articles relate to the Cummeragunja Walk-Off of 1939, the Aboriginal Day of Mourning, and both brothers speaking about Aboriginal Australia, pushing for citizen’s rights and for a chance to determine their own futures. In addition, I also found a few mentions of George having been an actor in a play.

I’ve yet to really find much on my mother’s side of the family in the archive, but I’m sure that I’ll be more successful as more editions of the Sydney newspapers and those from Western NSW come online.

Patten = Paton ?

2009-09-30T20:58:00.001+10:00

The last week has proven to be a highly productive period, allowing me to knock further walls down in my primary goal which is in determining the genesis of my paternal line’s surname in Australia.

Like with every generation, the first born male in my family is named John. I’m John, my father is, and so on and so forth, to my great grandfather, John James PATTEN (1874 – 1942). My great grandfather’s story is one that I knew from an early age, but only in time ravaged snippets, which do little to maintain and preserve the truth of his tale.

The story went that my great grandfather was a well known ‘black tracker’, and was commonly known to the Anglo-Celtic community as ‘Tracker Patten.’ However, a distortion emerged very early on, warping my great grandfather’s exploits, to the extent that he was thought to have lived at an earlier time, and had been responsible for tracking, and capturing one of the better known bushrangers in Western New South Wales. This however was not the case.

Tracker Patten was born in the Victorian high country of the Upper Murray, and as given on his marriage certificate, his parents were John PATTEN and Maggie SIMMS. Until this week, I was sceptical about there being any records that still exist for this particular union, but luckily there are.

Maggie, as I had suspected, was an Aboriginal woman, born in the Upper Murray. This I believed for the fact that SIMMS is a name that is a well known one in at least two distinct Aboriginal families, and I then, as I do now, believe that there should be a way to connect her to one of those, if I continue to unearth the right records. Also, that PATTEN is not a name found among Aboriginal people, prior to the birth of Maggie’s son. The SIMMS hypothesis of course was an educated guess, but was one also based upon the fact that in official government records my great grandfather had always been labelled with the now increasingly offensive term “halfcaste”, ergo Maggie stood with high probability to be the Aboriginal candidate in the partnership.

So, with great surprise, I checked the Genealogical Society of Victoria’s records, searching for Aboriginals in the Upper Murray, and the first and only 3 records to appear in the vicinity were a perfect match. They were Maggie, and listed with her – two daughters, whose names also happened to be the same as what my great grandfather had named his first two daughters.

Upon further research, I found that Maggie had been allowed to place her two daughters into the local school, in the 1870’s only to then be forced from her tribal homeland, to an Aboriginal reserve on the other side of the state.

Maggie was ordered by government decree to be placed at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station in 1878, along with her four children: Isabella, Minnie, John and Jacob.

I was stunned. Sometimes genealogy drops a million tonnes on top of us, and we just don’t know what to do next, at least until we’ve had time for all the details to sink in.

I’d considered the possibility that my great grandfather had siblings, but now that I know he had at least three, I’m finding it hard to regroup my thoughts, to find them in the tangle of myriad archival documents.

Coranderrk is a story unto itself, which I will visit in a later post. But briefly, it is a place like many other reserves and mission stations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The life expectancy and birth rate of Aboriginal people on such reserves plummeted massively.

I have anecdotal evidence that my great grandfather’s sister Isabella survived her time at Coranderrk, but I don’t hold great hopes for Minnie, or young Jacob, who was 7 months old at the time he was incarcerated there. Even my great grandfather found matters very tough, as he was listed by the age of 10 as an orphan and by 11 was recovering from typhoid.

John petitioned to be able to leave Coranderrk in 1887, at the age of 14, but of course this was refused, because his labour was required. However, appealing to a higher government authority, John was granted leave the following year. Where he went in the next decade I don’t know, as he only resurfaced in 1889, not long before marrying and establishing himself as a tracker of note, with the Wyalong police force, in Western New South Wales.

My question now however is, whilst I’ve determined the truth behind the name Maggie, I now must ask, who was “John Patten”?

So far, I have found no evidence that a man by that name has ever lived in the region in question, nor does there appear to be a family in the region, bearing that particular surname. I have however found numerous people with the surname “PATON” there and with one particular candidate being more likely than the rest.

Keeping in mind, that the area in question (Towong, Corryong, Mitta Mitta etc), during the 1860’s was sparsely populated, it would seem exceedingly unlikely that there is not a correlation between my great grandfather and those with the surname PATON. What do you think?

William MORTIMER, Where art thou - Part II

2009-09-23T16:29:00.001+10:00

After my visit to the Genealogical Society of Victoria’ library earlier this week, I’ve come a little closer to cracking the mystery that is my William MORTIMER. Whilst he does remain somewhat elusive, I now feel a lot more confident about my abilities to track him down, given that I now have access to a much wider array of resources at the GSV and have partially cracked an associated brick wall.

Originally working within the premise that William MORTIMER and his wife Johannah Hazel MORTIMER (nee BLACK or BLACKALL/BLACKHALL), had been marked somewhat accurately in their shipping records, where stating that they had been born respectively in “North Allerton Devon” and Winchester, I now know that the latter is incorrect.

Via the East Sussex parish records, I’ve now located William and Johannah’s marriage, in 1829, at the parish of Hollington, Sussex, which opens itself up as yet another possible interpretation for William’s possible place of birth (North Hollington?).

Searching through the Sussex marriages index, I also located Johannah’s baptism in 1805, and she was born at Winchelsea, Sussex, rather than Winchester as had been indicated on her shipping record. Johannah’s name on the marriage record however provided the most interesting clue, being “Joanna Haisell BLACKHALL”. Haisell, rather than Hazel. This record not only confirmed that Johannah’s surname was indeed BLACKALL/BLACKHALL, but also that her parents names “William & Elizabeth BLACKALL” as indicated on the shipping record are accurate, with their own marriage having been documented in the parish records at Winchelsea in 1810, being the marriage of William BLACKALL and Elizabeth HAISELL.

William and Johannah’s daughters’ baptism records also came to light, with those being in the parish of St.Mary in the Castle, and were as follows” Matilda 1830, Harriet 1831, Johanna 1834, Mary 1835.

Further to the above, when I arrived home from the library, I did a google search, and found in the UK National Archives the following:

Bastardy examination PAR511/34/1/59 12 Jan 1803

Former reference: PAR511/34/1/59

Contents:

Elizabeth Haisell, singlewoman, charges William Blackall of Winchelsea, servant, as father of her bastard daughter born at the house of Thomas Hailsell on 18 Oct 1802

And

Vestry resolution PAR511/34/1/58 13 Jan 1803

Former reference: PAR511/34/1/58

Contents:

Agreed that William Blackall shall pay 2s 6d and Elizabeth Haisell 6d towards the maintenance of Amy, their bastard child

So now I know from these, along with several other mentions in the records that:

William BLACKALL a servant of Dr. A. SCOTT of Winchelsea, and Elizabeth HAISELL had a child called Amy circa 1801 (baptised in 1802). I also know that Elizabeth at the time was living in the home of a Thomas HAISELL, and that after closer inspection he appears to be her father, with Elizabeth STONEHAM her mother. Thomas and Elizabeth appear also to have had at least four other children, as documented in parish records at familysearch.org

Having also searched using a combination of above surnames, I have also found William MORTIMER in 1840, being paid a handsome sum for stonework done for the church, in the parish of his residence, St. Mary in the Castle, a year prior to going to Sydney NSW to “work on the new Church” there.

GSV Membership

2009-09-22T20:02:00.001+10:00

Following on from a recent post, I’ve finally allowed myself the free time to join my first family history group, the Genealogical Society of Victoria.

So far so good! As previously suggested, my last attempt to join a family history group didn’t go so well. It was akin to the dream where you find yourself at school, naked, and everyone is staring at you. Discounting the fact that I actually streaked naked across a roof-top during my school years, the situation as suggested was one of considerable discomfort.

This time around however I’ve had no such feeling. My visit to the GSV was an absolute joy. Helpful staff and volunteers were welcoming, giving me a quick introduction to the available resources, and assisted me with an initial inquiry.

At first glance I’d have thought that the fees were a little steep. But given that I’d managed to knock down a brick wall within 15 minutes of having been granted access to the appropriate resources, and that I was able to find some great material on another line, my membership has almost already paid for itself.

Great place, good people, and well worth the 10 minutes spent locked in the bloody stairwell, racing up and down frantically before having to set off the fire alarm (yes, this is what happens when you try to be exercise conscious, taking the stairs instead of the elevator).

Prezi

2009-09-17T12:38:00.007+10:00

I’m impressed.

Working as an ICT technician in an education environment, it’s not often that I find a new piece of technology that impresses me. Almost every piece of software, hardware and other miscellaneous resource tends to be no more than a bland rehash of what we’ve already seen before, just as most ideas are in general. Which is fine. But a few new bells and whistles are a lot less impressive than when an existing idea is completely overhauled, and re-imagined.

Google did it with the search engine, Mac did it with the Ipod and Iphone and I suspect that email and web forums will (kind of) fall by the wayside too, once Google Wave is through it’s testing phase. Big changes are afoot, and right now I’m excited about the potential for presentation software.

I recently had the chance to play with prezi.com and to road test the site and it’s built-in presentation application for its potential use in a classroom environment, and after only a 30 minute introduction – I’m absolutely wrapped.

Prezi takes the idea of a traditional slide show or powerpoint / keynote presentation and throws it out the window, replacing it with a more logical approach that is more intuitive to how a mind works. Rather than forcing the user to flip through page after page, in a linear, book-like presentation, our data is instead placed onto a digital canvas, akin to how a child might create a project on a large piece of cardboard. With Prezi it really doesn’t matter where you place each paragraph, photo, video or other material, or even if it’s sideways or upside-down, because potentially those create extra interest and will all ultimately be displayed correctly when played back by the user.

For a fantastic example of this brilliant resource and an idea for how it might be applied to a genealogical presentation, click here.

For my own first effort, click below.

A quick, no-frills Family History presentation (a work in progress).

Wordless Wednesday: Egypt

2009-09-16T22:15:00.000+10:00

Photo taken in Egypt during WWII. My grandfather, Jack Patten.

Baryulgil

2009-09-12T16:14:00.002+10:00

A place dear to my heart is the small Aboriginal town of Baryulgil. It is where my parents were living when I was conceived and where untold generations of my paternal grandmother’s line have lived, smack dab in the heart of the Bundjalung Nation, in the New England and Northern Rivers regions of the state of New South Wales.

Prior to relocating to Victoria, it had been an annual pilgrimage for my family and I to travel from whichever town we called home (Yamba, Grafton, Newcastle, Blue Mountains, Wagga Wagga), to venture north to Baryulgil, to camp at Christmas time. Each year we would spend about two weeks, camped on a tributary of the Clarence River, near Baryulgil and Washpool State Forest, enjoying nature, the quiet and the company of nearby family.

Dad, Mum, my brother, Uncles, Aunts and cousins, all would spend time in our camp, or share it with us, sitting around the campfire, beneath a stand of ancient Bunya Pines, listening intently to stories of our family history. I would spend time with my older cousins, learning to hunt kangaroo and goanna and dive deep into the river for turtle. It was a great time in my life, and it’s a tradition I intend to continue with my wife and our growing family. Sometimes however, traditions can be threatened by matters of the past, as is the case with Baryulgil.

When my folks were living at Baryulgil, it was for four years in the 70’s when my dad was working at the local mine. It wasn’t great pay, but it allowed the small tight-knit Aboriginal community of Baryulgil to survive and in some sense – to thrive, when others were struggling to exist at all.

Dad’s job was to stand on a cubic slab of stone as wide as a car and to split it in half with his sledge hammer. He, just like the other workers would do this, repeatedly, until their stones were many small, flaking, stones - small enough to be picked up and thrown into a skip. Dad having not long been out of the game as a professional boxer and football (rugby league) player was able to get his quota filled a few hours before most others and perhaps in the long run, this, along with his fitness was what saved him from the stones. Baryulgil mine after all was an asbestos mine.

No shirt, no mask, no protection of any kind. It’s no wonder then that very few men that worked in that mine alongside my dad are alive to tell their own stories.

Linked below is an mp3 recording, made by the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) in 2001 and dealing with the history of Baryulgil Asbestos Mine, which had been owned and operated by James Hardie industries. In the audio file are interviews with my Uncle Ken ‘Linky’ Gordon and his wife Pauline (my dad’s sister). Uncle Linky was one of the many unlucky ones, having been diagnosed in the 1980’s with Asbestosis, the primary disease, among others, associated with asbestos. He’s been gone now since 2006.

Whilst I do love Baryulgil, it’s the area and the people, rather than the small parcel of land identified as Baryulgil Square that mean a great deal to me. Relatives continue to die there. Children with ocular cancers, and having had an eye removed because of asbestos are typical of what the community faces. Both my mum and dad in recent years have had scans with the Dust Disease Board, to certify that the currently are disease free, and I can only hope that continues to be the case.

My mum’s contact with the dust is limited in comparison to the miners. Uncle Linky in particular, who worked in an enclosed room, would finish work with his hair grey and asbestos fibres in his nose and ears. I have another uncle, who is still picking shards of asbestos out of the tips of his fingers and toes as his body tries to expel their poison. Sure, my mum only had to wash the dust covered clothes, but it only takes one shiver (a shard of the asbestos rock) to cause the sickness. The once dirt roads near Baryulgil were once literally made of asbestos and the local school kids played in a sand pit filled with the fibres.

Although where my family has always camped is not an area contaminated in the slightest per the township itself, I must now wonder, how greatly should I be concerned for my own health?

Awaye! Podcast: Burying Baryulgil (mp3 format, 25mb)

Labour History, Vol. 92, 'The Mine at Baryulgil, Work, Knowledge and Asbestos Disease' (May 2007)

Images: Top, is my dad relaxing at our camp in 2004. Bottom is my Uncle Ken 'Linky' GORDON, circa 2000. A still from a television documentary 'Black Fella, White Dust'.

Wordless Wednesday - 1957

2009-09-09T06:38:00.000+10:00

February 11, 1957. Johnny Jarrett (my Dad, John Trevor PATTEN) v. Brian SMITH @ Sydney Stadium. Main event, Bantamweight bout.

Oral Tradition and skewing the truth

2009-09-07T09:58:00.000+10:00

Family oral tradition is golden. I love it. The spoken word as offered usually by a member of an older generation is a fantastic, tried and tested means with which to introduce a younger audience to family history. It allows the potential budding genealogist to have their imagination stoked and it provides impetus and the perfect launch pad to the discovery of greater detail, and truth, via new genealogical detective work.

Slipping beyond the veil of oral tradition and its inherent pitfalls can however bring a mixed bag of emotions. Usually, the person offering the family stories, believable or otherwise, is a person who is both loved and respected. Having such a person’s stories potentially turned into dust or into a comical mixed-bag of truth and the wildly inaccurate can potentially drive a newly emerged researcher in the wrong direction – away from oral tradition, if not genealogy altogether.

If great Uncle Bob’s time in the Navy turns out to be the time he spent playing piano in the bar of a cruise liner, should we lose faith in oral history? Should we ignore our source of oral record?

Being discouraged is only natural. It’s all too easy to fall in love with family folklore and the often flamboyant and inaccurate portraits that our family members have painted, but turning away from those stories or discarding them completely would be a dying shame.

Inaccurate oral accounts aren’t worthless. They provide an opportunity, and a starting place where perhaps no other sources are offered. Folklore and skewed oral tradition are as much a part of our histories as the accurate accounts are. They add colour to history and to the hopes and dreams of the times they were conjured, and they deliver to us a colourful backdrop against which we can display the truth.

Secret Societies

2009-09-04T21:03:00.001+10:00

When I first started down the road toward researching my family history, I looked to do practically everything myself. I ordered certificates, wrote down what I had learnt, and used those notes to proceed onto the next level of certificate ordering. It was linear, amateurish, and I missed a lot of clues, but that’s the pitfall of tackling this obsession as a loner.

A couple of years of research passed before I finally ventured into a local Historical Society or Genealogical Research Group, and whilst I’d love to say I joined up and found some handy contacts, made rapid progress in developing new research skills and even made a few friends along the way, that’s just not the case at all. Instead, I walked in, stood at what I assume to have been the reception desk, waited for the tumble-weeds to pass, looked back at the troupe of elderly researchers who were piercing my skull with an icy glare, exchanged a few words with an exceedingly reluctant volunteer and walked back out highly disappointed.

Are all groups like the one I described? I’m sure they aren’t. But the memory of my sour experience was refreshed this week when listening to the latest Genealogy Guys pod-cast, whilst fighting boredom on my long train trip to work.

In the pod-cast, a listener had written in, speaking about his own particularly negative experiences in attempting to make a contribution to a local genealogy group. This immediately had me thinking back to my own experience, and seemingly it fed into the recollections of the hosts, in their travels as well.

Is this a common problem? I’d hate to think that my, or anyone’s next foray into a Historical Society will be met with disappointment.

I was living in a small town of about 15,000 when I faced that clique, and now I’m in a city of 4 million. At least now I’ve got a wide choice of organisations to be potentially shunned by!

Whilst I appreciate that genealogists in their 20’s, as I was then, aren’t exactly a common sight to the typical septuagenarian researcher/volunteer, I still feel that a level of common courtesy and decorum should be extended to all who would venture through such a groups door. New blood and new members are a good thing, right?

The Great Unknown

2009-09-03T06:34:00.007+10:00

As daunting as it was to have leapt into the great unknown, and into exploring the genealogical mists of time, I took my first steps towards finding that particular magic bag of genealogical answers in the spring of 2005.

I started out just like most people do. I had asked an occasional question of both my parents, my uncles, cousins and aunts, and had listened to stories of family history as I was growing up. I had listened intently, and was easily drawn into the romance of both history and discovery. However, at the same time, I’d also sat on my backside and I did very little to satisfy my curiosity and a growing thirst for detail. It was all too hard, and would be too costly, and I probably wouldn’t get very far. You know the story. These were the fleeting and typically ignorant thoughts that plague most people who have yet to bother, and are unaware of the joys of family history and genealogical research.

Even now, I type those words “joys of family history” and it still sounds a slightly bizarre sentence. Perhaps because I, like most people, had been conditioned to not care enough about history and our past, other than via what Hollywood and our schools deliver in generic, bite-sized, non-consequential samples. There are after all, more pressing matters to concern ones self with than knowing where we came from, even though I can certainly guarantee that watching “reality” TV and updating facebook to notify others of your boredom, are not among them.

So, into the mists I threw myself. I started out slow, having ordered my mother’s birth certificate and my paternal grandfather’s death certificate from the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, and I really had no idea what to expect.

My mum’s history was a complete blank and I had a lot of catching up to do. I didn’t know my maternal grandparents names, and I had no idea what had ever happened to them. Ordering my mum’s birth certificate enabled the both of us to confirm a faded memory, of my mum’s original surname being FISHER. This had been muddled because my mum had been raised in an orphanage at Lane Cove in Sydney, and under the name SMITH which had been the only surname’s she has ever used prior to marriage.

I’d asked mum a few times when I was a kid what she remembered of her parents. The answer then, as it is now, is one of a few hazy memories. None of which have been particularly helpful as yet.

Both my mother, Margaret Ruth (b. 1943) and her younger sister Joanne Dell (born in about 1945), were raised at St. Anthony’s orphanage, in the Sydney suburb of Croydon, under the surname of SMITH. Mum recalls that on occasion that both girls were able to visit with their “father”, a man by the name of Jack SMITH, who lived at 4 Kettle Street, Redfern. There both would also see their brother, John SMITH.

I’ve never met my Aunt Joanne, or Joan as she is listed in an occasional record. I have no idea if she’s still alive. So asking her for clues, or asking her anything isn’t really currently viable. The last time that mum saw her sister was in the late 1970’s, before I was born. The last time that my mother saw her brother John, was when she was in her teens and he was living with his “father” at Lane Cove.

Basically, on my mother’s side of the tree – mum is all I’ve got!

Well, that’s not entirely true. Since having started my research, I’ve met a 5th cousin face to face, spoken to a 4th cousin over the phone, and had a number of highly enjoyable conversations via email with my 2nd cousin, once removed (I’m getting closer!). There are other researchers as well, who have been for the most part a friendly and helpful lot, but whom I haven’t exchanged much more than a few documents, kind words and data. I am after all, still a somewhat disconnected stranger, and one whose dominating background would seem quite alien to most researchers.But I digress. Let us return to my maternal ancestry!

My mother’s memory is pretty good. She remembers Kettle Street and her time at the orphanage just fine. She remembers the hardship of life when she turned 18 and was turfed out by the Nuns, without any viable career skills. She also happily recalls going off to work at the old “Pick Me Up” sauce factory in Sydney, and her time working in childcare. She can even break my heart, relating how time spent with Dad at their lowest ebb, living on the streets for several months and calling home to a cargo container, whilst waiting for my dad to have an operation in Brisbane became a reality.

Mum went through a lot of hard times, and so has my Dad. I don’t ask about the harder times much and I don’t ask about my mum’s first marriage. But I do ask about perhaps the hardest subject, that of how my sister, Susan-Marie, my mother’s first born, had been stolen from her by the Nuns hours after giving birth, when Mum had returned to their “care” at 21 years of age. My sister’s out there somewhere still, I hope and both my mother and I want to find her, but as can be imagined, my Mum finds matters terribly daunting.

As can clearly be seen, my Mum’s story is a bit of a rollercoaster. But there are as many happy highs to match the terrible lows that I’ve mentioned, and life for my parents since finding each other has seemingly only gone from one joy to the next. They have a happy home in the mountains, two sons, a dog, cat and two strong, cheeky, nappy/diaper-filling grand-children.

Still, when looking back at my maternal genealogy, there are still a few questions that burn brighter than others, and I’m not convinced that I’ll ever truly be able to have those questions answered. They however do remain as a constant challenge, and as prominent reasons among many, to keep pushing forward.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-02T15:55:00.004+10:00

My Dad, John Trevor PATTEN aka JARRETT (1936 - ). Back when he held the Australian Bantam-weight title in the late 1950's.

Ancestors I've known

2009-08-30T10:53:00.001+10:00

As part of Randy Seaver’s ‘Saturday Night Genealogy Fun’, here is my reply to the latest challenge:

1) Write down which of your ancestors that you have met in person (yes, even if you were too young to remember them).

2) Tell us their names, where they lived, and their relationship to you in a blog post, or in comments to this post, or in comments on Facebook.

This one’s going to be relatively brief.

The only ancestors I’ve met are my dad, mum and my nanna (my dad’s mother). My paternal grandfather died in 1957, twenty years before I was born, and my maternal grandparents died in 1950.

John Trevor PATTEN (1936 - ), my father, resided in Baryulgil, Copmanhurst, Grafton, Sydney, Engadine, Bomaderry, Gulargambone, Wantabadgery, Cummeragunja, Ulmarra, Melbourne, The Philippines, Yamba, Brushgrove, Newcastle, Lithgow, and probably a few that we’ve both forgotten.

Margaret Ruth FISHER / SMITH (1943 - ), my mother, resided in Sydney, Melbourne, Ulmarra, Baryulgil, Yamba, Brushgrove, Newcastle, Lithgow

Selina PATTEN (nee AVERY, 1909 – 1983), my grandmother (my dad’s mum), resided in Baryulgil, Tabulam, Grafton, Sydney, Engadine, Casino and Bomaderry.

American Storytelling & The Stolen Generations

2009-08-29T14:39:00.008+10:00

Recently I’ve been exploring the world of genea-blogs, which isn’t too surprising, given that I’ve only just thrown my own hat into the ring, after having given it previous consideration, weighing up firstly whether I can afford the time required to make a descent fist of the matter. A genealogical blog is however a change of pace for me. Previously I’d always used my blog as a form of personal diary, a means to let off some steam, or entertain myself, rather than writing in the hope of gaining the attention of others. The change in direction has been well worth it though.

Seeing what other genealogy researchers have to offer, be it as pure research, statistics, stories, advice or any number of combinations of those and more factors, is both an eye opening privilege and an enjoyable adventure. In exploring the genea-blogopshere I’ve recently come across one of the finest examples in the genre, maintained by George Geder.

George Geder's blog is first and foremost a well researched genealogical record, but beyond that it is a fantastic collection of well written and thoughtful stories. Each family tale invites the reader into a welcoming embrace and allows for the research of an unfamiliar author and researcher to be become both accessible and highly enjoyable.

Personally, I found great interest not just in a well presented blog filled with great family stories, but in the parallels to be drawn between George’s African American history and my own Aboriginal Australian history.

Despite the common perceptions of most Australians, slavery did happen in this country. Segregation was common to both the US and Australia, and prejudice was, and still is a major issue, despite the many forward steps continually being made across the board. On top of the socio-economic and political similarities between black Australia and America, there are also the many cultural parallels as well. So there are many factors that make African American history and American history in general an interesting and captivating point of conversation and thought.

Having commented on George’s blog after reading one of many subjects of interest, I drew a response and a question regarding my own culture, and one I’d already planned to write about, sooner rather than later. I was asked for my thoughts on the Australian film “Rabbit-Proof Fence.” My first and immediate thought was – good movie. Only a moment later however, I was keyed into the more serious side, and how it related to my own family.

As best described by Wikipedia: Rabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian film based on the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara. It is a true story concerning the author's mother, as well as two other young mixed-race Aboriginal girls, who ran away from the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, in order to return to their Aboriginal families, after having been placed there in 1931. The film follows the girls as they trek/walk for nine weeks along 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of the Australian rabbit-proof fence to return to their community at Jigalong, while being tracked by a white authority figure and an Aboriginal tracker.

An important film, Rabbit-Proof Fence is a tale that practically every Aboriginal person in the Eastern States of Australia, along with a high percentage in every other State and Territory can identify with, as having impacted their own families.

In my own family, I believe that my great grandfather was the first in the family to have been removed from his parents. By the age of 10 in 1884, he was living on an Aboriginal reserve called Coranderrk, near Healesville in the state of Victoria, studying at the station school, receiving good marks and slowly recovering from typhoid that had almost claimed his life a year earlier. There my great grandfather lived as an orphan, despite both his parents’ names having been known to him. What had happened to them, I have yet to discover, but standard practice at the time was to round up every Aboriginal child and to place them into government care on one of several reserves, with or without parents or other family.

For the next generation, matters only went down hill. Although my great grandfather grew into manhood, had married and had a productive life, as a sergeant and tracker, working with the NSW Police, that stood for very little, when the government tried to take away his children. My great grandfather moved across state borders and went west in order to protect his children. My great grandparents, John and Christina were lucky, and none of their 6 surviving (out of 16) children were taken from them. However, Theresa - my great grandmother’s sister, wasn’t as fortunate.

My great Aunt Theresa CLEMENTS (nee MIDDLETON) had four daughters of which only the youngest was spared. Their tale is preserved for future generations in the autobiography “If Everyone Cared” by my cousin, Margaret TUCKER (nee CLEMENTS). The book recounts how Margaret was taken by the police one day when she was at school and how her white school teacher had stalled the officers long enough that word could be sent to Margaret’s mother. When she arrived, Theresa pleaded, and the police seemingly relented, at least allowing her to accompany the two children. This however was only the cruelest of tricks, and Theresa was forced from the police car many miles outside of town. There she would lie, crying, like a wounded and tortured animal on the side of the road, until her family found her.

The same sort of story was told time and time again in my family. My dad and his five sisters were also taken, as re-counted on the page I’ve dedicated to my grandfather, Jack PATTEN.

To many Australians the recent (2008) Apology to the Stolen Generations, as offered by the current Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, isn’t an action that made a lot of sense, and that’s a damn shame. It was seen as the government apologising for something that is generally seen and taught to be ancient history, rather than a matter that people are still trying to come to terms with. The apology, on behalf of all Australians was seen as being one where the government was helping the general population to take the blame and guilt, when the reality is that sorry sometimes means nothing more than “I am sorry that your family had to go through such pain”, which is all that was really hoped for in this case; no more than an extended hand, some understanding and reasonable empathy.

King or a pauper - Telling the stories

2009-08-27T13:28:00.005+10:00

I've always found it a surprising matter that my parents each have such wildly contrasting ancestral lines. Not in regard to ethnicity or social background, but in the exploits of ancestors, be they famous, known or partially forgotten. This I believe is due to how little I know of my mother's family, and how I have a long way to go in being able to release the many stories that are still entombed within the genealogical ether.

On mum's side of the family I've so far found interest in the stories of a famous land owner and state politician, a pair of First Fleet convicts, one among the first three European females born in New Zealand, the founder of a township in the North West of New South Wales and a child who had allegedly been the first European male born or christened in New South Wales. They make for interesting starting points, but without real in-depth research they aren't worth a hill of beans in terms of value as research, self enlightenment and or shared entertainment.

There are others too, but the list of characters I've any in-depth knowledge of shortens rather quickly, and perhaps that is because I am yet to truly rip in, grapple and tear open such family lines with the focus and zeal required. Granted, it's only a matter of time, but for now I have several key brick walls that far too easily borrow my concentration and time.

For my dad's side of the family, I find people who stand out in a few particular categories: Sports stars, artists and political activists. The list is astonishingly long. I count professional boxers, including world and Australian title holders, dozens of professional Australian rules and Rugby League football players and many of the pioneers of the black civil rights movement in Australia. All are fascinating individuals, and are found in numerous academic volumes and archives.

However, despite this wealth of historical significance, I feel that the most amazing stories that can come from family history are those that are far more personal tales. Those that speak of experiences both hard and heartfelt, where 'no-names' have struggled to make their way in the world and to provide a better life for their loved ones. Indeed, I would suggest that in the age of the internet, genealogy has matured somewhat, to the point where the true family historians/storytellers are common and the name collecting know-nothings are a dying breed. Or at least, I imagine that is probably and hopefully the case.

Many researchers might start out with a curious flair, searching for those names whose individual brilliance or notoriety might be linked to us in some way, but if genealogy takes hold as a passion then short focused interest in the extraordinary often gives way to long term fascination in the ordinary. What was life like in 1845? What illnesses did people have in the late 1700's? What entertained people in 1908? All of these and a million more questions are interwoven into our rich tapestries of family history, and they teach, enrich and elucidate our stories, bringing them to life in sometimes the most amazing of ways.

Finding a link to a European Monarch, a Major League baseball player or famous author should capture our attention, and perhaps offer us a small slice of pride in our ancestry, but I argue that we should take no less pride, or enjoyment from the challenge of fleshing out the lives of those who were Ag labourers, file makers and servants to the landed gentry. After all, it's the supposedly boring and mundane folk who make the high achievers shine in the first place!

Is the story of a famous explorer risking his life for adventure really any better than that of a farmer who lived his entire life in one location? One might readily say yes, but that answer would more than likely be based on the anticipated ease with which the researcher might be able to build atmosphere and depth to the tale, and not on the reality where any subject can be made interesting, provided that the writer has the skill and passion necessary to the task.

No individual in a given family tree is of any greater value as a potential noteworthy story than the next. Each person is a character subject to the same pen, and any family historian worth their salt should be given to helping their ancestors from all walks of life have their stories fleshed out, valued and held to our hearts.

Photo restoration #1

2009-08-25T06:20:00.004+10:00

A photo restoration I did some time ago. The photo is from about 1920 and the girls from bottom left, going clockwise: Selina PATTEN (nee AVERY) my grandmother, Muriel COMBO (nee AVERY), Ellen BROWN (nee AVERY), Carrie ROBERTS (nee AVERY).

William MORTIMER where art thou?

2009-08-23T01:30:00.007+10:00

In what is best considered technical genealogy terminology, William MORTIMER and family are a royal pain in the backside!!

Most of us have a brick wall or three, but I’d imagine that in many cases there is a brick wall in particular which stands out as a greater challenge than the rest, or at least one that has become a primary obsession, deftly out-manoeuvring the other elusive characters we’re attempting to trace. The MORTIMER family is mine, and I’m approaching the end of my tether!

William MORTIMER (c1803-1852?) came to Australia in 1842 aboard the barque “Palestine”, arriving in Botany Bay on 6 March 1842 as an assisted immigrant, having left Plymouth in England 26 October 1841. Along with William came his wife Johannah and their four daughters: Matilda, Harriet, Johanna and Mary and a young girl by the name of Agnes HALLETT, whom William had known for several years in England. According to the immigration records William had ventured to Sydney in order to work “at the new church in Sydney.” I’m not certain as to which new church the documents refer, but one would easily assume from such wording that it was a reasonably well known, relatively new, and large church in the city and not one in an outlying town.

Amongst the MORTIMER immigration records, William’s parents are named as Elias and Mary MORTIMER. His mother is listed as being alive, and I take this tentatively to mean that his father is deceased. Johannah’s parents’ names are given as William and Elizabeth BLACK. However, this is written to the edge of the form, and it appears that the lettering continues, only that is has been obscured. This fits in with detail from Johannah’s death certificate, on which her second husband Henry LARKIN has given her maiden name as BLACKALL. With this information I’ve had a lot to work with. In addition, I’ve also got listings for William and Johannah’s place of origin, with those respectively being what appear to be “North Allerton, Devonshire” and “Winchester”. Now, I know that there isn’t a North Allerton in Devonshire, so this first part of the information I’ve taken with a grain of salt. I had until recently only been in possession of hand copied transcript of this record, in turn these had been viewed as part of a microfiche reel at the New South Wales State Library. Revisiting the record via Ancestry.com however, I have viewed the original file, and have seen that “North Allerton” isn’t so cut and dried as I had previously thought.

Could I be looking at SOUTH Allerton?

A lot of options: North Allerton, South Allerton, South Allington, Alvington, Aller, Northallerton in Yorkshire.. and none of these increasingly unlikely options can be definitively ruled out.

So, to William’s father Elias; could he be the keystone in this mystery? Well, I had hoped he might, for quite some time. Now I only find Elias to be a nuisance as great as his son.

Will the real Elias MORTIMER please stand up?

In the 1841 Census of England and Wales, William, Johannah and their four daughters all appear. This little ray of hope I was very thankful for, given that many of my family branches had left England and Ireland long before this important opportunity for tracking had materialised. In the Census return however William and co are shown to be living not in Devon or Winchester, but St. Leonards, Sussex. Why were they there?

According to the Census, Johannah and her daughters were all born in Sussex. ARGHH!!

Given that civil registrations had begun in 1837, there was a chance that Willy and family were among those who did the right thing and had their children registered where born in 1837 and beyond. BZZT, wrong. Or at least, I haven’t found the right record yet. It was probably too much to ask for, especially since only one daughter (Mary Jemima) could possibly have fit into the required time frame. Bugger! (yes, this is yet another one of those important technical terms used in genealogical research).

So far, Parish records have turned up little, although that might have something to do with being limited by distance and to Familysearch.org and the few other scraps of viable sources that venture forth onto the Weird Wild Web.

Having done a search for the name Elias MORTIMER in as many sources as I could find, I’ve come across several individuals who I thought might potentially be a brother to William and son to Elias and only one early enough to qualify as the man himself (c1761 North Bovey, Devon). It’s going out on a limb to draw links between Elias and his namesakes, but Elias isn’t exactly the most common name, and it never did appear to have been a common one, so what could it hurt to check? Interestingly, the candidates live only in: Devon, Sussex and further a field in Wales. They do occasionally appear listed as MORTIMOR or MORTIMORE, but then so does William in both his daughters marriage certificates and in Sydney Morning Herald marriage notices.

Searching for MORTIMER and BLACKALL candidates has so far proved fruitless in English results. In Australia, it’s been slightly better record-wise, but not by much. I know that William and family were living in Dixon Street, Sydney, not long after establishing themselves in their new country. I am familiar enough with Dixon Street today. It’s the heart of Sydney’s Chinatown, and somehow I don’t think trees dripping in gold and guardant dragons clutching spheres are what the MORTIMER family had come to know in their day.

Australia had been both cruel and kind to the MORTIMER family. Late in life, William was described as a gentleman of Independent means, whilst on the other hand, Johannah had fallen pregnant a further three times, in 1843, 1846 and 1848, with none of those children surviving their first year.

Starting in 1850 and on through onto 1854, all four of the surviving MORTIMER children grew into womanhood and married. Matilda, the eldest daughter married James MARSHALL, a mystery man from Manchester in 1850. Johanna married in 1851 and then again, moving to Queensland with her husband William LANGFORD. Harriet married in 1852 and remarried in 1861, finding herself with her husband Austin ABBOTT in the thick of the California gold rush, settling in Tuolumne County. Finally, in 1854 Mary married Simon ONSLOW, and the pair lived variously in Sydney and other parts of New South Wales.

This wild and unkempt early branch of my family had an adventurous spirit and a grand touch of wanderlust. They ventured from one side of the Earth to its antipodes and explored many points on the Australian map in the ensuing generations. It annoys me that I cannot as yet dig further back into their and my history, but as is the case with any good genealogist – I love a good challenge.

DNA Testing

2009-08-21T08:48:00.004+10:00

For some time I've been considering the possibility of taking a DNA test, to see what if anything I might uncover about my genealogy. I had previously understood that a Y chromosome test would be the most useful, as it tracks the paternal line and would enable to me to test some proven links along with those that remain theoretical. However, having someone spell everything out in black & white rather than in a dazzling display of techno-geek intermeshed with sci-babble is one very important aspect I've been in need of. Thankfully then I've come across the UK National Archives Podcasts, and one in particular focusing on DNA testing as applied to genealogy, and presented by Chris Pomeroy. I heartily recommend it as being both an interesting listen and one that is also highly informative.

As to why I'm interested in DNA testing, that I can answer in three parts. The first is that I am curious just how closely I am related to various kin (those who are my distant cousins via tribal links). The second is the question of my Patten family, one that is predominantly an Aboriginal one, and if we are at all related to those Patten families that came from Europe, as has been suggested by some among them from time to time.

The third part is the most exciting, but also most unlikely prospect, and that is the possible link to having Tasmanian Aboriginal or even African ancestry. There are several anecdotal pointers to this, but without any DNA evidence to support the suggestion and circumstantial evidence so far unearthed, it's a leap in the dark.

Remembering Jack Patten

2009-08-20T09:18:00.007+10:00

Whilst I would consider that my mother's genealogy began as the great unknown, my dad's has been quite the opposite. My paternal heritage is known, only that I want to fill in the gaps and unearth the dormant stories, sharing them with anyone who will listen!

When I had begun my research I knew a good few things about my paternal grandfather, Jack PATTEN (1905-1957). I knew that he had written and published the first Aboriginal newspaper, the "Abo Call", had led the Cummeragunja walk-off in 1939, had been arrested and labelled variously a NAZI and communist in the Sydney press, and that his father had been a tracker with the police force in West Wyalong for 30 years. There was plenty more that my Dad had shared with me, along with my Nan, but those listed above were the key points to granddad's life and they would provide the platform for my further research.

Since beginning my research into Jack's history I've found mention of the man in more than 50 books, and have been lucky enough to dig up a treasure trove of stories in sources ranging from oral accounts and newspapers, to scholarly papers and military records.

Some of the key elements to Jack's life that I've collated is shared with the public here, on a dedicated website: Remembering Jack Patten.

I take great pride and inspiration in being descended from Jack. His life has made a great difference to the plight of Indigenous Australians, and he served to inspire the actions of his contemporaries and those that came afterwards as well.

Whilst I continue to scour bookstores and dusty archives for further tales of my grandfather's exploits, I'm satisfied that I've done a reasonable job in putting the jigsaw back together, and in documenting the man that Jack was.

Now my attention has turned primarily to my great grandfather, a much more elusive fellow, Jack PATTEN Snr. His story is an equally interesting one, but there are a number of gaps to fill and they are probably going to take a few more years to satisfy my curiosity enough that I might better construct the book(s) I'm writing.

Playing catch up: my 16 g-greats

2009-08-19T15:54:00.002+10:00

In belated answer to a somewhat recently posted genealogy game, over on Randy Seaver's fantastic 'Genea Musings' blog:

1) List your 16 great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.

2) Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.
3) Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 - 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).
4) If you don't know all 16 of your great-grandparents, then do it for the last full generation you have.
5) Write your own blog post, or make a comment on Facebook or in this post.

OK, this one's a lot of fun, although it really does expose just how much work I have ahead of me!

01. John PATTEN: b. unknown, d. unknown - unknown, is likely to be ENGLISH

02. Maggie SIMMS: b. unknown, d. unknown - unknown, likely to be ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN

03. George MIDDLETON: b. circa 1840 Woperana NSW, Australia, d. 1925 Barham, VIC Australia - ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN

04. TOOLANYAGAN / Maggie TOODLES: b. circa 1849 Moira District, VIC/NSW Australia, d. 1899 Moama NSW, Australia - ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN

05. James AVERY: b. unknown, d. unknown - unknown, either ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN or ENGLISH

06. Sarah MORGAN: b. unknown, d. unknown - ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN

07. "Charlie" CHARLES: b. date unknown, Northern Rivers, NSW Australia, d. date unknown, Baryulgil NSW, Australia - ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN

08. Mariah LITTLE: b. circa 1855 Baryulgil NSW, Australia, d. 1930 Baryulgil, NSW Australia - ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN

09. Samuel Hallett FISHER: b. circa 1846 Dorset, England, d. 1932 Sydney, NSW Australia - ENGLISH

10. Emma Jane DEMPSEY: b. 1850 Camden NSW, Australia, d. 1909 Sydney, NSW Australia - IRISH

11. James Andrew MARSHALL: b. circa 1856 Chippendale NSW, d. 1906 Grafton, NSWAustralia - ENGLISH

12. Elizabeth Caroline TATHAM: b. 1867 Middlesbrough, England, d. 1943 Rockdale, NSWAustralia - ENGLISH

13. John Alfred MCNAMARA: b. 1853 Dubbo NSW, Australia, d. 1916 Surry Hills, NSWAustralia - IRISH

14. Maria MORRIS: b. 1853 Wellington NSW, Australia, d. 1928 Surry Hills, NSW Australia - ENGLISH

15. John SMITH: b. circa 1846 Stockholm, Sweden, d. 1928 Walgett, NSW Australia - SWEDISH

16. Ruth GAUNT: b. 1856 Chewton, VIC Australia, d. 1933 Marrickville, NSW Australia - ENGLISH

Phew!

An enjoyable exercise and one that gave me another way to look at my ancestry, which itself is always a positive thing. Being able to see matters from a new perspective can help to break down the walls that one might normally see as too great an obstacle.

You'll note however, that in this exercise I didn't include my "ancestral ethnicity percentage." The reason for its exclusion is that for most Aboriginal Australians, like myself, being asked to attach a percentage to our Indigenous heritage has become a sore point and for a variety of reasons, as I will endeavour to explain. Before I do go on though, I'll also hastily point out that I did not take any offense to the question of ethnicity as offered on the Genea Musings blog.

The Australian Government has had a long history of wanting to classify Aboriginal people in one way or another, via the White Australia policy (this is the model that South Africa's apartheid policy was based on), assimilationist policies and preparing for an imagined extinction. All of these and more were a series of methodologies that was very quickly and easilyadopted by the general population in this country.

People in some cases really can't help but want to try and put Aboriginal people with mixed ancestry (me included) into a category that fits with their own particular world view. Racist terms were invented in the 1800's to help satisfy that urge. Halfcaste, Quadroon and a myriad others were used to not only classify, but to dehumanize Indigenous Australians and those of mixed heritage in many other parts of the world, irrespective of their particular cultural and ethnic makeup. This was done in order to separate those with non-Indigenous ancestry from our darker skinned families, to exploit us as lowly paid and non-paid servants (slavery) and to control all other facets of our lives; a policy which only really fell by the wayside in Australia during the mid 1970's, the decade in which I was born.

Today, when occasionally asked if I'm Aboriginal, or what percentage Aboriginal I am, I will reply politely that such questions are offensive to most who find themselves being asked that question, but I don't hold it against the person for asking. On the surface it's a reasonable enough question, but in this country it ignores historical usage, and sidelines current issues as well. "You don't look Aboriginal" however is an entirely different matter, which is offensive no matter which way it is said, despite usually being said innocently enough. To me, that would be like suggesting that General Colin Powell doesn't look very Irish, despite his having an Irish ancestral line as pronounced as that of his African side. Why should anyone be prejudged, or categorised to fit into the narrow views of the ill informed?

Yes, I'm Aboriginal, yes I am of English descent, and yes I have Irish and Swedish ancestry. But I am not part of an impossible to formulate, mathematical equation. How can anyone be a quarter or an eighth of anything?

Lahndrigan

2009-08-17T09:47:00.018+10:00

My great great grandmother Lahndrigan (c1855- 1930) is one of the first ancestors that I remember being told about when I was a young boy. She had been born into a time of upheaval, when Europeans had only just begun their violent move into her home country, that of the Bundjalung Nation, a collection of about two dozen clans or tribes, whose territory stretched along the Far North Coast of New South Wales from Grafton in the south, to the Logan River in the North, and close to Tenterfield in the West. Within that vast territory, Lahndrigan and her family lived on the Clarence River at a place called Baryulgil (85km N.E from Grafton), in what would later be known as the New England and Northern Rivers region, and part of the Australian State of New South Wales.

Living a traditional way of life, Lahndrigan's first language was the Wehlabul dialect of the Bundjalung language, and she was known to sing whe

n the Wehlabul clans would hold their corroboree's (traditional ceremonial gatherings).

Unlike the Aboriginal people in most other regions and States of Eastern Australia, the Wehlabul were able to maintain strong links to their tribal heritage, culture and customs, right through to the present day. This was possible primarily due to a

n agreement made between the Wehlabul Bundjalung people and with the first Europeans to permanently encroach upon their territories at Baryulgil - the Ogilvie brothers, Edward and Frederick.

Edward Ogilvie (1814 - 1896), the son of a naval officer during the Battle of Waterloo, was a successful squatter during the 1830's in the Hunter

district of NSW. He was one of the first settlers who had imagined and then acted upon the potential for opening up the Northern Rivers to cattle, logging and other industry. To help in his efforts, Ogilvie kidnapped a young Bundjalung child by the name of Pundoon (the Wallaby), and over the next year learnt from the child how to speak the Bundjalung language. The plan was simple - learn to speak the local language and negoti

ate a peace in turn, to help minimize the battles between settlers and the local Aboriginal population.

When Ogilvie returned to the Clarence River and where he stole the child from, he called out, to the astonishment of the tribesmen, speaking to the B

undjalung people in their own language. They replied unseen, calling for Ogilvie to go away, and to leave the hills for the black man, as the Europeans had already driven them from the plains and the majority of their low lands and sources of water. Ogilvie replied that he would not take further land, and that he only wanted to run his cattle, and would allow the local tribe to continue to hunt and live traditionally, unmolested by white influence if they would promise not to kill his men and cattle.

Thus, with such a fair offer, a treaty was forged in trust. The Ogilvie family was able to build a cattle empire that still exists today, and the Wehlabul people on the Middle Clarence were largely able to avoid the massacres and brutality that prevailed in other parts of the Bundjalung Nation, and across the Australian continent as a whole.

Whilst the treaty that the Bundjalung and the Ogilvie's forged is one that benefited both parties, it was inevitable that life in Bundjalung country would change forever. Ogilvie, although more considerate in how he would treat his Aboriginal neighbours than most other settlers, was still one to take advantage of them where possible. Ogilvie set aside a small parcel of land for the tribe to live on and turned them to working in his employ. This was a kind gesture, but one that was somewhat paternally condescending. Soon, with m

uch of their hunting territories reduced by neighbouring squatters, and with little other means for feeding their children, the Wehlabul turned to working as farm hands for Ogilvie and were paid in rations, clothing and minor wages, and given occasional vegetables from the Ogilvie's gardens.

For my ancestor Lahndrigan, matters were similar. She worked for the Ogilvie's as a laundry woman (this being suggested as the source of her tribal name). Living to a ripe old age, she saw her tribal way of life become cross-pollinated, and saw the Ogilvie's establish 'Yulgilbar Castle', their family home for several generations.

The castle, built by a team of German masons imported specifically for the job, was a grand manor. It received many important visitors in its time, including the celebrated Australian artist, Tom Roberts, best known for his works - 'The Shearing Shed', and 'Bailed Up.' During his stay, Roberts chose to paint a portrait of a local Bundjalung woman working for the Ogilvie family. I came across the portrait, in its quick, half rendered state, being displayed on the NSW State Library website. Called Maria in the portrait, the woman is one whom the Europeans called Mariah LITTLE, but one whose family knew better by the name of Lahndrigan - my great great grandmother.

Primary interests and mysteries

2009-08-16T11:00:00.010+10:00

I'm in a rare situation with my genealogy. I'm one of the few people who are able to look at having both Aboriginal and colonial/convict ancestry and be able to speak with reasonable authority on both. Certainly, On my father's side of the tree I can trace my Indigenous Australian roots to the days of first contact with Europeans, and on my mother's side I find a swag of free settlers and First Fleet convicts. It is then a surprising matter to other genealogists, that I am able to point to the fact that my Indigenous genealogy is in fact better documented than my European, despite the fact that I can trace some of those ancestral lines to the mid 1600's.

I've always had a pretty good grasp of my Koori ancestry. I grew up in Northern NSW, in touch with family who speak our native tongue, who taught me to hunt for my own food, and filled my head with occasional stories of my ancestors. I knew that my grandfather had been a great political figure of the 1930's, and that he had fought for Indigenous rights, and had served in WWII. I knew that my Great great grandmother's traditional name had been Lahndrigan, and that she had worked for the aristocratic Ogilvie family, at Baryulgil Castle on the upper Clarence River. Knowing so much was wonderful, but I still wanted to know more.

My mother's side of the tree however was a totally different kettle of fish. Mum had been raised in an orphanage in Sydney, along with her younger sister, and as it turns out, she wasn't even 100% sure of her family's last name.

I grew up sharing my mother's belief that she had been abandoned by her family. Instead, upon having acquired a copy of her birth certificate, we found that both her parents had been quite ill, and that they had both died in the same year when mum was the age of 5, and possibly after having separated from each other. Having later found a photograph of the inner city shack that her parents had called a home in the 1940's it was easy to also understand how both my maternal grandparents had become so gravely ill.

I still didn't know anything really about my mum's family. I also wanted to know a lot more about where my paternal grandfather came from, and about his people in the south, living on the Murray River. So many mysteries, where was I to start?

The registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in NSW had provided me the first clues I had been seeking and they helped greatly in the second wave of sleuthing as well. I first obtained my mother's birth certificate. This gave me not only my mother's true surname, of FISHER (rather than SMITH), but it also gave me my maternal grandparents names: Urca MCNAMARA and Horace FISHER. This provided me with the opportunity to search the online index to find evidence of some of my mother's other siblings, if there were to be any.

I also then purchased a copy of Horace and Urca's marriage and death certificates. What the certificates were able to tell me was rather confusing, and perhaps slightly confronting. Urca had died in 1950, the same year as her husband, Horace. She died in Orange NSW, and he died in Sydney. However, on Urca's death certificate, her spouse was listed as John SMITH. I was quick to consider that this John SMITH may have been my mother's stepfather, hence why she had grown up with the SMITH surname, and why she remembered visiting her father in hospital, knowing him only as Jack SMITH. On Urca's death certificate it also showed that John SMITH had listed my mother and her two siblings (a brother and a sister) as their children, and not those of Urca alone.

This was all very well and good. It all made some sense, even if it opened up a few more questions. Well, that's what I thought until I had seen the NSW Electoral Rolls and found both Horace FISHER and Jack SMITH variously living at the same residence, at the same time. Was there an affair? Were they the same guy? I have no idea, and I'm still puzzled.

Free time!

2009-08-15T17:07:00.001+10:00

Like a lot of other genealogy hounds out there I often find myself struggling for time to allocate to my favourite hobby. It's very easy to want to spend a large number of hours in succession, focusing solely on knocking down the next brick wall, or rooting around in parish records for the slender hope of making another connection, but more often than not life asks that such interests be set aside for what are really far more important matters - raising children, going to work, spending time with friends and family, eating, breathing etc. So it helps when we can sometimes cut corners, and that's best achieved by utilising the dead time that we so often fail to use to our advantage.

Five days a week I'm given three hours of dead time. Commuting to my job takes 1.5 hours each way, and that is time that I could easily find wasted, if not for the convenience that mobile devices can now bring the genealogist on the go. Ipod, iphone, android, netbooks and laptops - each and every one of them are brilliant tools with which to not only fill your dead time with, but are a means to push your genealogical productivity through the roof.

For example, let's say you've got 30 minutes to kill, waiting for an appointment, or like me you spend a lot of time on public transport. Firstly, the night before, you hook your ipod or other digital music player into itunes on your computer, and you download and perhaps subscribe to one of the many podcasts that are dedicated to genealogy. My primary interest is in Australian genealogy and history, but as a starter I'd definitely recommend "The Genealogy Guys" or "Genealogy Gems." Neither of these podcasts is focused on Australian records, but as a introduction to research methodology, the community, news, North American and occasional global sources both are great places in which to start (more on these in another post).

So, morning comes, and you disconnect your ipod one it is fully charged, and you find yourself at some point in the day with some time to kill. I do suggest that you listen to such podcasts when you really do have no distractions, or you're likely to miss something interesting simply by being distracted.

In addition to your favourite podcasts, I also recommend that you consider taking with you a mobile version of your family tree. Because when you're at a library, family history centre or anywhere else for that matter, if you need quick access to your database, accessing it via a small device that resides inside your pocket, is going to a be a lot better than having to haul around a large notebook, or page after page of family group sheets. Besides, if you're using a device that allows you the freedom of reading your entire family tree database, you're also more than likely able to access free wireless internet hotspots at academic institutions and greasy fast food chains and be able to search the web and access your email without waiting for a library computer to be free.

Notebooks are helpful - but the alternatives are going to save you both time and money in the long run, despite any initial outlay.

Subject Matter

2009-08-10T14:17:00.001+10:00

I suppose the first question that begs to be asked is - why? Is there a particular need for this blog? Is the world screaming out to hear or read what I have to say? No, I guess not, but I think someone, somewhere, might hopefully find some of its content of interest.

I've been researching my family tree for about, oh.. 5-6 years - or there bouts. In that time perhaps the one element that has been missing in this adventure of mine is the social interaction that most other hobbies and obsessions can bring, in one form or another.

For the greatest part genealogy hasn't been like that. Not for me anyway. I've delved deep into archives, flung myself into library and internet forums and read many books, but generally I've asked few questions openly, and instead have gone looking for published answers, sidestepping healthy debate and conversation, seeing it often as an unnecessary diversion of time. Was this the right way to go? Probably not, but it certainly wasn't the wrong way. I've enjoyed the thrill of the hunt, and have unearthed a great deal, but it's been a solitary effort. So, it would be nice to not only share what I've learnt, and swap stories, but to learn about the efforts of others that share this hobby, be they solitary dimly lit room dwellers, or social butterflies flocking to the new wave of social networking websites for genealogists.

So what I'm going to do is get out there, and where time allows me this luxury, I'm going to find the best genealogy blogs the web has to offer, share some tips (some of them obscure), offer an occasional helping hand and in the process I'm going to have one hell of a fun time!

A beginning

2009-08-10T14:08:00.000+10:00

So here it is, a new blog based on my obsession with genealogy. Join me in my madness won't you please!