Trove Tuesday: A Roman Holiday

I really enjoy Audrey Hepburn movies, and I particularly liked Roman Holiday, and ever since we settled on spending three days in Rome on our honeymoon I have had the music from the movie going around in my head!

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002695150/

1954 '"ROMAN HOLIDAY".', The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder (NSW : 1913 - 1954), 8 October, p. 2, viewed 17 May, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article100730727

1954 '"Roman Holiday" For The Odeon.', Goulburn Evening Post (NSW : 1940 - 1957), 2 September, p. 2 Edition: Daily and Evening, viewed 17 May, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103493871

Calling all Trove Users - Who Wants a Trove T-Shirt?

Fellow Trove-ites,

The National Library of Australia has commissioned a research company, Gundabluey Research, to help them evaluate customer satisfaction with Trove and have asked us to participate!

Our participation will contribute to the ongoing development and improvement of the Trove service.

The online survey will take around 15 minutes to complete depending on your experience, and every completed survey goes into the draw for one of ten $100 Coles Myer vouchers or one of 20 Trove T-shirts.

Whether you’re a new or experienced user, an academic or a family researcher, or just use Trove to pursue your interests, the National Library would appreciate your time. Your comments will remain confidential.

Please follow this link to start the survey: http://iquestion.completemr.com/Q219867/

I encourage everyone to take the survey, by participating we can help ensure that Trove continues to be an amazing resource!

Amy.

P.S. If you have any questions about the survey itself, or require assistance please do not hesitate to contact the research company directly: Sarah Wrigley from Gundabluey Research on 03 9844 2678 or sarahw@gundabluey.com. If you would like to check the bonafides of the survey, please contact Rosemary Turner on rturner@nla.gov.au.

Trove Tuesday: John Wardley, Convict per Blenheim, 1850

John Wardley was convicted and sentenced to seven years transportation on 22 October 1847 at the Westmorland (Kendal) Quarter Sessions.

His offence: "Larceny before conv'd of Felony (two ?Conv's?)"

Class: HO 27; Piece: 83; Page: 346.
Home Office: Criminal Registers, Middlesex and Home Office: Criminal Registers, England and Wales; Records created or inherited by the Home Office, Ministry of Home Security, and related bodies, Series HO 26 and HO 27; The National Archives of the UK (TNA), Kew, Surrey, England.
Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.

The Blenheim, with her cargo of 294 male convicts, was expected to depart Plymouth on 15 March 1850.

1850 'SHIP NEWS.', The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880), 17 July, p. 469, viewed 7 May, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65975909

1850 'SHIP NEWS.', The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880), 27 July, p. 492, viewed 7 May, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65975127

1850 'Domestic Intelligence.', Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 - 1857), 26 July, p. 2, viewed 7 May, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8767595

The Blenheim eventually departed Woolwich on 23 March 1850 and Plymouth on 10 April 1850, arriving in Hobart Town on 24 July 1850.

Just two days later, an article appeared in the Colonial Times, advertising the men who had arrived for hire, outlining the various skills they held. Most of the convicts who arrived on the Blenheim were unskilled labourers, but amongst them there were also blacksmiths, butchers, bakers, carpenters, clerks, stonemasons, and shoemakers, to name a few.

1850 'COMMISSARIAT.', Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 - 1857), 26 July, p. 2, viewed 7 May, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8767598

1850 'MIDLAND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.', Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), 27 July, p. 5 Edition: AFTERNOON, viewed 7 May, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36266616

From another article published in the Launceston Examiner on 27 July, it appears that the Ramillies, which arrived the same day as the Blenheim was actually carrying the wives and children of the convicts on the Blenheim. I doubt this was the case, as another article published in Hobart on the same day describes the passengers of the Ramillies as bounty immigrants and private passengers. The same article says there were 28 women and 48 children on board the Blenheim, as well as the convict men.

1850 'SHIPPING NEWS.', The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 - 1859), 27 July, p. 2, viewed 7 May, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2962409

1850 'SHIPPING NEWS.', The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 - 1859), 27 July, p. 2, viewed 7 May, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2962409

Unfortunately, John Wardley's entry in the description lists does not shed any light about his trade or origins. It doesn't even have his age!

DESCRIPTION LISTS OF MALE CONVICTS CON18/1/53 State of Tasmania, Archives Office of Tasmania

Thankfully, I have more luck with the Indents of Male Convicts (CON14/1/33) and the Conduct Registers of Male Convicts Arriving in the Period of the Probation System (CON33/1/95):

John Wardley is 42 years old, 5'8", is married and has seven children. And his trade... Labourer. (I was disappointed... I wanted him to be one of the skilled trades, so he would be easier to trace!)

But, these items do tell me something exciting - John Wardley is from Dalton, Lancashire, England. Now I have somewhere to look for his birth, marriage, and children!

Trove Tuesday: Of Interest to Women

1930 '[No heading].', Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), 2 January, p. 58, viewed 30 April, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page8826592

I love browsing through the newspapers on Trove, seeing what I can find to read on a coffee break from research, and today I found this sweet little collection of things "Of Interest to Women". And talking of careers for women, particularly country girls moving to the city, the author writes "some day we shall all be keeping pet Angora rabbits in the backyard or skinning the goldfish for shoulder posies, but until then I admit it is a problem." [What on earth are shoulder posies and why would we skin goldfish for them?]

Oh, how things have changed since 1930!

However, I do keep an adorable Cashmere house rabbit ... who runs our lives. He even has his own Facebook page.

HRH Mufasa, the Sultan of Kashmir (aka Sultan) - hanging out on my desk at work for Easter.

April A to Z Challenge - X Marks the Spot

Does anyone else feel like they are on a continuous treasure hunt with their research? Do you sometimes wish you had a treasure map with an X on it to show you where you need to be?

Did you know that you can use Google Earth to map your ancestors’ lives? Okay, I know it isn’t a treasure map … but sometimes it feels like it!

The best in the business when it comes to using Google Earth for genealogical purposes is Lisa Louise Cooke from Genealogy Gems. She even has a free presentation of Google Earth for Genealogy on her website.

It was from listening to Lisa’s podcasts that got me into blogging in the first place, so if you’re in need of some inspiration, I can highly recommend listening to them! 

This is a post for the April A-Z Challenge. This Challenge will cover each letter of the alphabet, one per day (except Sundays) for the month of April. I didn't register my blog with the organisers, but I'm going to follow along anyway. You can too! See www.a-zchallenge.com for more information.

April A to Z Challenge – Wardley One-Name Study

Earlier this year, I joined the Guild of One-Name Studies and registered my surname study of Wardley.

I had been aware of the Guild of One-Name Studies for a while, and had considered joining, but did not want to do that until I felt ready to commit to conducting a one-name study on at least one of my rarer surnames.

The Guild has been around for over three decades, and its members work hard to promote the research of the genealogy and family history of people with the same surname, and to facilitate the preservation and publication of the data collected.

If you haven’t already, I would urge you to see if a member of the Guild is studying any of your surnames – you can search for your surname from the home page. All members of the Guild are obligated to reply to your enquiry, and they may just be able to help you break down that brick wall you have. Perhaps even consider joining the Guild, you do not have to register a one-name study to be a member.

Origins of the surname Wardley

As far as I can gather, the surname Wardley is a local or topographical surname. According to the 1860 book ‘Patronymica Britannica: ADictionary of the Family Names of the United Kingdom’ by Mark Antony Lower, which is available in full on Google Books, the Wardley surname originates from a parish of that name in the county of Rutland. Further to that, according to Henry Harrison, author of ‘Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary’, the name suggests a combination of ‘Ward’, i.e. a guard, watchman, or keeper, and ‘ley’, i.e. a meadow.

Frequency of the surname Wardley

According to the ‘Surnames of England and Wales’ website Wardley had a count 1,110 people in 2002. According to advice from the Guild, that means I can multiply that by a factor of 3.5 to estimate the total number of people who have held the surname since the mid-sixteenth century. This small number makes the Wardley One-Name Study relatively easy to manage.

At the time of the 1841 England and Wales Census, there were 394 Wardleys. By the time of the 1911 England and Wales Census, there were 1,008 Wardleys.

Distribution of the surname Wardley

There are still Wardleys living in the UK, as well as scattered around the world in smaller numbers, typically in Canada, the USA, New Zealand and Australia.

Progress of the Wardley One-Name Study

I have collected all of the data available in birth, marriage and death indexes for Australia and New Zealand, and I am in the process of reconstructing families with this data where possible. I have also been using articles found on Trove and records available on the NAA website to assist with the reconstruction.

I have also started collecting all of the data available from the English parish and civil registers, but the reconstruction of this data is still in its infancy, apart from the data I already had which pertains to my own Wardleys.

If you have any Wardleys in your family tree, please contact me. I’m happy to share what information I have, and would appreciate your input into the Wardley One-Name study.


This is a post for the April A-Z Challenge. This Challenge will cover each letter of the alphabet, one per day (except Sundays) for the month of April. I didn't register my blog with the organisers, but I'm going to follow along anyway. You can too! See www.a-zchallenge.com for more information.

April A to Z Challenge – V is for Vital Records

Vital Records are the lifeblood of genealogical research – the births, marriages and deaths of our ancestors.

Family history is more than vital records though – it is the bits in between. Family history uses vital records as a skeleton, and then puts flesh on those bones.

So, are you a "genealogist", focused on the lines of decent and the dates and places of vital events? Or are you a "family historian", who likes to use those vital records as a skeleton to start the story, and then write in and around them, sharing the stories of your ancestors (not just their vital records)?

I’m a bit of both – I love data entry and “perfect” statistics – so I love having all of the vital records in place before I start on fleshing out an ancestor’s story. But then, I love finding out about what my ancestors got up to in between being born, getting married, and dying.


This is a post for the April A-Z Challenge. This Challenge will cover each letter of the alphabet, one per day (except Sundays) for the month of April. I didn't register my blog with the organisers, but I'm going to follow along anyway. You can too! See www.a-zchallenge.com for more information.