Trove Tuesday-Help Save Trove

Today is Valentine’s Day but I’m not writing about that. However, I am writing about one of my great true loves…Trove.

You may have heard the news that the National Library of Australia’s (NLA) website Trove lacks funding beyond July 2023. Without the required funds, services will reduce, and at worse, Trove will cease. That news means different things to different people. This is what it means to me and those who enjoy the history of the Western District.

Trove launched in December 2009 and immediately opened the doors to new information not just for historians, but for all Australians. And it was, and remains, free to use.

Historic newspapers, just one feature of the site, saw my family history research of seventeen years suddenly take new directions. Newspapers were already available, but for the broad range of titles Trove offers, it meant hours in a state library trawling through microfilm, never to reveal the level of information one can find at Trove.

Western District Families (WDF) began in April 2011 to share newfound information about my family, along with interesting stories from the Western District’s past, barely read since the time they were printed. Since then, I’ve not only written about Western District families, but also about events in history they experienced, such as bushfires, floods, and earthquakes.

In 2012, a fellow geneablogger, Amy Houston, came up with the blogging prompt ‘Trove Tuesday’, suggesting each Tuesday, geneabloggers share their findings from Trove. Quickly embraced, geneabloggers still publish ‘Trove Tuesday’ posts today. This is my 107th Trove Tuesday post. At one stage, I wrote a TT post for eighty-one consecutive weeks.

I started Passing of the Pioneers in 2012 which led to the addition of the WDF Obituary Index to this site. Today the index has the names of around 1000 Western District people who had an obituary in historic newspapers at Trove. It is still a work in progress and is not possible without Trove.

In 2014, Inside History magazine, with the NLA, ran a poll to select a newspaper from six candidates to be digitsed for inclusion at Trove. The Hamilton Spectator was among them. Past and present Hamiltonians from as far away as Texas and The Hague, who were members of the ‘I’ve Lived in Hamilton‘ Facebook group, got behind the poll. Through the group, they’d seen the value of the already digitised Specs from 1914 to 1918, for learning about the town’s past.

Vote 1 – Hamilton Spectator

The Hamilton Spectator won. Next was a Pozible campaign run by Inside History to fund the digitisation. Again, Hamiltonians stepped up with the $10,000 goal quickly met. The result was Spec-tacular.

Trove Tuesday – Spec-tacular

I’ve written about my love for Trove and its benefits many times. For example:

Trove Tuesday was my first Trove Tuesday post and included the discovery my grandfather appeared as a witness in a murder trial, something his sons never knew.

Trove Tuesday

I wrote One Stop Shop before I found the names of Hamilton men memorialized in a now-lost avenue of honour, Anzac Avenue. Hamilton’s WW1 grew from that with the stories of 160 Hamilton WW1 volunteers, and more to come. Having access to the Hamilton Spectator gives each story a heart. Letters written from the front and published in the paper are invaluable, plus the everyday happenings in Hamilton provide an insight into the feeling of the town during that time.

Trove Tuesday – One Stop Shop

Written at the time of the Trove upgrade in 2016, Troveitis ends with a postscript with news of funding cuts to the NLA, the beginning of what could be the end.

Trove Tuesday – Troveitis

The Western District Families Facebook page with over 11,000 followers is primarily about photos found at Trove. Even the smallest of clues can draw a story out of a photo. Trove newspapers are vital for turning those clues into something more. The story of Daystar and his owner John Ross, below, is an example.

Image courtesy of the Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/771583

In 2015, the State Library of Victoria approached me to digitise Western District Families for the NLA’s digital archive. It’s updated annually to include my most recent posts. If my site were to end tomorrow, I should feel reassured the 458 posts and 205 pages, rich with Western District history, will remain in perpetuity for others to learn from and enjoy. If I tell others my site is in the archives “forever”, I add, “…or until the funding runs out.” That’s not my dry humour. It’s the unfortunate truth.

If you would like to know more about Trove’s future, follow the link to the Genealogical Society of Victoria blog, or The Guardian from 6 January 2023.

There are currently several parliamentary petitions set up to support Trove by calling for the full funding of the NLA. The link below will take you to one of those petitions. It closes on 22 February 2023, so please consider signing before then. You may not use Trove yourself, but if you enjoy Western District Families, it’s all thanks to Trove. Please show your support.

Sign Petition

Trove Tuesday-Cemeteries of SW Victoria

During the early years of online family history research, one of my go-to websites was Ian Marr’s Cemeteries of SW Victoria. For around twenty years I relied on Ian’s site to find where my Western District family were buried and like many other was grateful for the time Ian spent photographing headstones and then compiling them into indexes.

Ian even produced CDs of his indexes and then a USB for access to the larger cemeteries such as Hamilton and Portland. I purchased both and would use them in conjunction with the website when I needed a quick look-up. When I started Western District Families, I was able to link through to Ian’s site for some of my posts. It was while testing a link last year, I discovered the Cemeteries of SW Victoria website was no longer.

It was sad to see it go after all the work Ian put into it and I was left wondering how I was going to do without it. Then I remembered the National Library of Australia’s Australian Web Archive, a part of the Trove website. The archive grew out of what was called Pandora, a collection of selected websites with Australian content. In recent years, the archive has expanded to include all website domains ending in .au. Annually, the websites are copied to the archive as they appear at that time.

Sure enough Cemeteries of SW Victoria has been archived. To access the site follow the link

Cemeteries of SW Victoria

Once at Trove, you can navigate the Cemeteries of SW Victoria website in just the same you would have when it was a live website.

Of course, if you didn’t already have a USB with the larger cemeteries you will not be able to access those, however, you can now find the Hamilton Cemetery and the Warrnambool Cemetery online. Also, Carol’s Headstone Photographs site has lists of headstones at some of the other cemeteries on the Cemeteries of SW Victoria USB such as Camperdown.

When you do a Trove search you will notice categories along the top of the results page. Among those categories is “Websites” and that is how you can access the Australian Web Archive. It’s worth clicking on “Websites” as well as the other categories such as “Magazines and Newsletters” because there is more to Trove than newspapers and you never know what you might find.

The great thing about the Australian Website Archive is information from Australian sites won’t be lost. I was delighted to be approached by the State Library of Victoria in 2015, requesting permission to copy Western District Families for the archive when it was known as Pandora. Now each September, WDF is copied and I know that no matter what happens, WDF will live on within the Australian Web Archive and ten years of work on WDF won’t be for nothing.

Trove Tuesday-A Newspaper Photograph

August is National Family History Month so for today, a Trove Tuesday post with a family theme. The digitised newspapers at Trove are a great place to look for photos of family members. When I search, I always filter the results to show any illustrated newspapers…just in case.

Recently, I was searching the newspapers specifically for four and five-generation family photos to share on the Western District Families Facebook page. Such photos were often in the papers, sometimes sent in by readers for “Readers’ Snapshots” pages, or sometimes they made the general news. You may remember a newspaper photo I found of my ggg aunt Amelia Bell (nee Harman) with four generations of her descendants.

My search found the following photo from the Weekly Times of 25 April 1925 taken at Dergholm northwest of Casterton. The caption told me the photo included Mrs. Jones, described as the oldest resident in the Dergholm district, holding her great-granddaughter Heather McCrae. Standing to the left is Mrs. Jones’ daughter, Mrs. McNamara, and standing to the right, her granddaughter, Mrs. McCrae.

FOUR GENERATIONS AT DERGHOLM (1925, April 25). Weekly Times, p. 48.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223165492

When sharing photos on the Facebook page, I like to include some extra information about the subjects. Just using Mesdames Jones, McNamara, and McCrae won’t do. With not much to work with and common surnames, “Dergholm” was going to be key in the search. 

Staying with Trove, I searched for “Jones Dergholm” and quickly found the obituary of James Jones, late of Dergholm in The Casterton News and the Merino and Sandford Record from 1 June 1914. He was the second son of Mrs. Jane Jones and the late Henry Jones of Dergholm. Jane and Henry had ten children, four sons, and six daughters, and among the daughters listed was a Mrs. McNamara. Unfortunately, no Christian name for her, but James’ obituary had me a step closer to confirming Mrs. Jones was Jane Jones. Also, if I wanted to research the whole of the Jones family of Dergholm, there are a lot of good clues to go on with.

Crossed the Bar. (1914, June 1). The Casterton News and the Merino and Sandford Record, p. 3 (Bi-Weekly). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74761214

I then went to Births, Deaths, and Marriages Victoria to search for James Jones’s entry in the Death Index. There I confirmed his father was Henry Jones and his mother was Jane Holt.¹  I then searched the Death Index for Jane Jones and found a Jane Jones (nee Holt) who died at Casterton in 1935 aged ninety-two.²  On that, she would have been around eighty-two in the photo. Although there were no further details of Jane’s parents if I wanted to find more about her, from the entry I knew she was born around 1843, possibly at Geelong. But I wanted to find out about her descendants next.

Turning to Mrs. McNamara, I took a punt that she also lived at Dergholm and searched the Birth Index for McNamara births at Dergholm and found three daughters born to Michael McNamara and Eliza Jones. They were Hilda Constance in 1898³, Annie Elizabeth in 1900 ⁴and Queenie in 1909.⁵  One of those girls could be Mrs. McCrae. Queenie was too young. Maybe it was Annie, but I thought I’d start with Hilda.

Searching the Marriage Index for Hilda McNamara, I found her marriage to Alexander McCrae in 1923.⁶  While there, I found Eliza Jones’ marriage to Michael McNamara in 1896⁷ and then back to the Death Index to double-check it was the right Eliza Jones who married Michael McNamara. I found Eliza McNamara, the daughter of Henry Jones and Jane Holt, who died in 1928 at Casterton aged sixty-one.⁸ That was just three years after the photo and seven years before her mother.

The chances of finding more about baby Heather were slim, but I thought I would try it. A Trove search for Heather McCrae found nothing but a search of “McCrae Dergholm” found the following engagement notice from The Argus.

Family Notices (1946, December 26). The Argus,  p. 6.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22387849

A tip for searching Trove using words with a prefix– I get better results if a drop the Mc altogether and search just Crae or Namara, for example. The same applies for “O” and “St” etc.

Back to the Victorian Marriage Index. With the groom’s surname from the engagement notice, I quickly found Heather and Lionel married in 1947.⁹

Something else I found at Trove was a letter Hilda McNamara wrote to “Aunt Connie” of The Weekly Times, published on 13 July 1912 when Hilda was fourteen. The copy is illegible in parts, but if I were related to Hilda, I’d be happy to find it.

INDUSTRIES OF DERGIIOLM (1912, July 13). Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 – 1954), p. 38. Retrieved August 20, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224848393

Harvesting at Dergholm. Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/769396

In a short time and using just two free websites, I found out a lot more about the subjects of the Weekly Times photo. I found names, dates, a nice letter by Hilda, and plenty to go on with if I wanted to. But for now, I can update the caption to read:

Jane Jones (nee Holt) holding her great-granddaughter Heather McCrae, the granddaughter of Eliza McNamara (nee Jones), back left, and the daughter of Hilda McCrae (nee McNamara), back right.

FOUR GENERATIONS AT DERGHOLM (1925, April 25). Weekly Times,  p. 48.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223165492

SOURCES

^{1 Victorian Death Index, James Jones, 1914, Reg. no. 4830/1914
2 Victorian Death Index, Jane Jones, 1935, Reg. no. 12397/1935
3 Victorian Birth Index, Hilda Constance McNamara, 1898, Reg. no. 10478/1898
4 Victorian Birth Index, Annie Elizabeth McNamara, 1900, Reg. no. 25996/1900
5 Victorian Birth Index, Queenie McNamara, 1909, Reg. no. 18510/1909
6 Victorian Marriage Index, Hilda Constance McNamara, 1923 Reg. no. 165/1923
7 Victorian Marriage Index, Eliza Jones, Reg. no. 14/1896
8 Victorian Death Index, Eliza McNamara, 1928, Reg. no. 9356/1928
9 Victorian Marriage Index, Heather McCrae, 1947, Reg. no. 2300/1947}

Trove Tuesday – An Eagle Tale

This post has been sitting in my drafts for six years so today it’s time to set it free, something I wish happened to the subject of the post.  This is my second Trove Tuesday post about a captive eagle and it’s sad they could no longer soar free over the Western District.  The first post was called The Hungry Eagle and this one could easily have had the same title.

DESERVING OF RECOMPENSE. (1879, April 25). Riverine Herald (Echuca, Vic. : Moama, NSW : 1869 – 1954), p. 3. Retrieved August 3, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115122329

If only the fledgeling hadn’t popped his head over the side of the nest. Instead of a trip to New South Wales, he could have lived out his life soaring over the rolling hills and valleys around Byaduk.

HARMAN VALLEY, BYADUK

You can read more than 100 previous Trove Tuesday posts on the link – westerndistrictfamilies.com/category/trove-tuesday/

Trove Tuesday – In Tandem

It’s been a while since I’ve brought you a Trove Tuesday post so it’s time for another.  If you’ve only recently come across Western District Families, you may not know about Trove Tuesday.  It was a blogging prompt started several years ago by an Australian geneablogger for fellow geneabloggers to share their discoveries found at Trove, the National Library of Australia’s wonderful site.  At one stage I had posted eighty-two consecutive Trove Tuesday posts.  Most of the posts are about quirky and amusing articles I’ve found while researching Trove’s digitized newspapers.  This week, it’s another of those quirky stories.

I have read many articles about horses coming to grips with the mechanised age, from shying at steam engines pulling threshing plants to cars sharing Western District roads.  Not all had a happy ending.  Bicycles were around from the 1860s in Australia, but it wasn’t until the arrival of the “safety” bike in the 1890s when cycling took off as an alternate form of transport. Even ladies fashion evolved as a result.

THE CYCLING VEALE GIRLS OF LAKE BOLAC. Image courtesy of the William E. Veale collection of Lake Bolac. State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/89464

Bikes also became popular among shearers moving between sheds in the Western District.

CYCLING SHEARERS AT CASTERTON c1900. Images courtesy of the Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/767593

Although the bicycle was a quieter form of mechanisation, they were still mind-boggling for a horse, especially bicycles built for two as discovered near Macarthur in 1896:

Items of News. (1896, May 7). Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918), p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225871697

A TANDEM BIKE AND STANDARD BIKE. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/184376

You can read my earlier Trove Tuesday posts on the link – Trove Tuesday archives

Trove Tuesday – Five Generations

Recently, while searching for newspaper photos of Portland, I stumbled across a photo of my 1st cousin 4 x removed, Amelia Harman, with four of her descendants published in the Weekly Times in 1952. Standing back left is Amelia’s daughter, Elsie May Harman. Elsie married Herbert Skipworth in 1909 at Heywood. Back right is Elsie’s daughter Doris Eveline Skipworth. Doris married Samuel Porter in 1929. Sitting directly in front of her is Doris’ daughter and her daughter Lynette Wilmot.

Weekly Times,  9 April 1952, p. 42  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224015421 

I’ve previously posted a photo I found of Amelia photographed with her granddaughter, great-granddaughter, and great-great-granddaughter. You can read more about that photo in the post Matter of Relativity.

MATTER OF RELATIVITY, The West Australian, 14 December 1951, p. 8  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49005300

Amelia was the eldest daughter of Jonathan Harman and Elizabeth Oliver of Byaduk. She died in 1956 at Portland, aged ninety-one. Her husband Chris Bell predeceased her by twenty-seven years.

Trove Tuesday – A Highway of Treasures

Recently at the Western District Families Facebook page, the page followers and I completed a virtual tour of the Hamilton Highway “stopping” at historic sites along the way. After 185 kilometres and eight weeks, the virtual tour rolled into Hamilton.  I could not have done it without Trove.  Using Trove as my search engine, I was able to locate relevant out of copyright photos held by the State Library of Victoria and the Museums Victoria Collection.  Also newspaper articles from Trove’s digitised newspapers along the way.

The Hamilton Highway was once the main route to the south-west of Victoria from Geelong and Melbourne and some of the earliest buildings, such as the Elephant Hotel at Darlington, date back to the 1840s.  There was such diversity in the history along the highway.  From Cressy, where local schoolmaster Gabriel Knight documented the growth of the township in the 1910s through to the German settlements between Penshurst and Hamilton dating back to the 1850s.  In between, we visited the beautiful homesteads, learnt about 19th century murders and visited former RAAF bases.  There were volcanoes, bank robberies and many faces from the past.

It was at Hexham that I almost stalled and could have quiet easily got sidetracked.  It had everything I enjoy, homesteads, historic gardens, horses and 1920s/30s glamour.  The Hexham Polo Club began in 1884 and polo really took off in the 1890s.  Families such as the Hoods, Manifolds and Urquharts were there in the beginning and some of their descendants are still members.  The polo drew visitors from Melbourne and the districts around Hexham and was a highlight of the social calendar as were the associated parties and dances.  The following photos are from a tournament in 1936.

“POLO CARNIVAL AT HEXHAM (V.)” The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 – 1946) 29 February 1936: 27 (METROPOLITAN EDITION). Web. 27 Feb 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article141769891&gt;.

 

“POLO CARNIVAL AT HEXHAM (V.)” The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 – 1946) 29 February 1936: 27 (METROPOLITAN EDITION). Web. 27 Feb 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article141769891&gt;.

It wasn’t easy to drag myself away from the polo but I had to keep motoring along but I then came across Boortkoi.  The State Library of Victoria holds photos of Boortkoi as part of the J.T Collins Collection.  This is one of just many collections the State Library hold and I am constantly grateful to John Collins and his photography for the National Trust he left to the library.  

BOORTKOI, HEXHAM J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/231806

Boortkoi was owned by the Manifold family and when I did some newspaper searching at Trove, I found this beautiful wedding photo.  On 7 March 1933, Andrew Manifold, son of Edward Manifold of Boortkoi married Jess Robertson of Melton South at Frankston.

“Table Talk of The Week” Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic. : 1885 – 1939) 16 March 1933: 4. Web. 27 Feb 2017 .

Jess Manifold was beautiful and stylish and I wanted to find out more about her and the life she and Andrew had at Boortkoi. Searching for Jess took me to Table Talk one of my favourite publications digitised at Trove.  I found Jess played tennis in a Camperdown tournament in 1935, a popular social event for the Melbourne socialites.  Table Talk reported on 3 January 1935, Jess had two tennis outfits a pink chukka skirt and a white linen skirt.  Also, at a wedding in January 1937, Jess looked stylish in a cinnamon brown chiffon cocktail dress with a straw toque (brimless) hat adorned with the latest trend, opalescent flowers.  And, at a cocktail party at the Menzies Hotel in 1937, she wore dusty pink with a blue hat, scarf and sash.  I also found Jess was at least twice voted one of Melbourne’s best best-dressed, the only country woman named.

“”Grannies” among best-dressed” The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957) 12 January 1950: 3. Web. 28 Feb 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22804008&gt;.

In early 1935, the couple moved into the rebuilt homestead at Boortkoi.  During my Trove searches, I discovered Andrew and Jess had commissioned Edna Walling to design a new garden. The following image is Edna’s plan for the garden.

Edna Walling Collection, State Library of Victoria. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/236209

I love Edna Walling.  I’ve read her books, tried to emulate her style in my garden (and failed) and looked through her photos held by the State Library of Victoria, another of the wonderful collections they hold.  With Edna Walling now part of the Boortkoi story, I again started losing my way looking through Edna’s photos again, one of which is among my favourite photos I’ve found at the State Library of Victoria (below).

Edna Walling Collection, State Library of Victoria. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/280983

The touring has now turned to the Henty Highway from Cherrypool to Portland and has just “arrived” at Branxholme.  There is so much history along the twenty-five kilometre stretch from Hamilton to Branxholme, it’s taken ten days to make the trip.  So why not join us.  You’ll find the Western District Families’ Facebook page here.

You can find the State Library of Victoria’s collection of photos on the link here and the Museums Victoria Collections on the link here.  Always check the copyright status of the photos and if there are any particular citing instructions.  The SLV has special instructions on their collections such as the J.T.Collins collection and the Museums Victoria also has guidelines for using their photos under the Creative Commons licence.  While I could look for my photos directly on those sites, I find using Trove is much easier for searching, filtering and working with the results and I can easily tag for future reference and keep my newspaper and photo discoveries together.

Trove Tuesday – Hometown News

It was a chance discovery while searching the fifteen or so years of the Hamilton Spectator available at Trove. There in the search results was an article from 1910. That wasn’t expected when only the WW1 years and the decade 1870-9 were available.  Curious, I tried a search of “Harman” and the result was dozens of articles from the 1880s to 1910. Trove had surprised me adding a further three decades of Specs and I couldn’t have been happier.  Since that day a couple of months ago, I have searched, tagged and found out an incredible amount of new detail about my Hamilton district families.  Also, surnames, street names and locations bring such a sense of familiarity when reading my hometown newspaper, even issues from 100 hundred years before I was a resident.

One of the first items of interest I found was an obituary for my gggg grandfather Joseph Harman from 1893. His son James converted to Methodism around 1851 while still in England.  Joseph, entrenched in the Church of England, didn’t share his son’s enthusiasm for Methodism. However, when the Harmans moved to Byaduk in 1863,  the first church built was Wesleyan Methodist and James Harman, by then a Local Preacher, was one of the forces behind the church.  Joseph had little choice but go along to Methodist services, but as soon as a Presbyterian Church was built at Byaduk eighteen years later, he made that church his Sunday morning destination. There were no family loyalties when it came to Joseph’s faith. It would seem that although the new church wasn’t Church of England, it was more to his liking than the teachings of John Wesley. Granted the Presbyterian Church was less than a mile down the road from his home but the Methodist church was only that distance again further on.

“Items of news.” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 30 March 1893: <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225177127&gt;.

Also found was a rare obituary for a female family member.  Although it doesn’t tell me much about my ggg grandmother Sarah Hughes‘ life, the 400 mourners at her funeral tells me something of the sort of person she was.

“Items of News.” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 23 May 1885: <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225661135&gt;.

 

There are also some great articles about Sarah’s husband James Bishop but I’ll save those for a post just about him because he was a character.

Something I enjoy reading in old newspapers is the seemingly mundane day-to-day goings on in a town. Of course, it’s even better when a story includes a family member.  Like the time in 1899 when my gg grandfather Richard Diwell of Hamilton complained about the night soil man.

“HAMILTON BOROUGH COUNCIL.” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 14 October 1899: 2 (SUPPLEMENT TO THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR). .

The night soil man Frederick Malster was given the right of reply after the investigation into Richard’s complaint.

“HAMILTON BOROUGH COUNCIL.” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 28 October 1899: 2 (SUPPLEMENT TO THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR). .

One of the best finds so far were a number of sketches included in a Hamilton Spectator supplement in 1888. The Spec had the sketches of businesses and scenes of Hamilton made by a Ballarat company. Sketches such as these give us a chance to see how things have changed…

 

 

CORNER OF GRAY & THOMPSON STREETS IN 1888. Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 17 April 1888: 2 (SUPPLEMENT TO THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR).

 

THE PRESENT VIEW OF THE CORNER OF GRAY & THOMPSON STREETS.

And how other things have barely changed at all…

 

HAMILTON SPECTATOR IN 1888. “VIEW OF HAMILTON VICTORIA.” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 17 April 1888: 1 (SUPPLEMENT TO THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR).

 

THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR AS IS IT TODAY.

 

Trove Tuesday – Early Settlers

A welcome addition to Trove has been the Weekly Times, Victoria’s favourite newspaper for country readers and still in publication.  The editions at Trove cover the years 1869 to 1954 and with a rural focus, I anticipated its arrival. Familiar with the newspaper, I was sure the Western District would be well represented and I wasn’t disappointed.  The photos alone are fantastic.  I’ve found some great Hamilton photos and have shared those to the Facebook group I’ve Lived in Hamilton, Victoria. Some from the 1950s have included faces familiar to many in the group.

There are also family photos and for Trove Tuesday I thought I’d share this lovely photo of Macarthur Pioneers Frederick Button Huggins and Frances Mary Trowell.  Both born in Kent, England in the mid-1830s, they married prior to their arrival at Portland in 1856, settling at Macarthur two years later.  Frances died in 1920 at Macarthur aged eighty-five and Frederick died in 1927 at Macarthur aged ninety-three.

“EARLY SETTLERS AT MACARTHUR” Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 – 1954) 6 September 1919: 25. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222567748

During the 1880s, there was a mass exodus of families from the Mount Eccles district near Macarthur.  They included the eldest children of Frederick and Frances Huggins, James, Agnes, and Frances Susan.  With them was Henry Condon, husband of Agnes Huggins and my relatives Walter and Lydia Harman and their children.  Tired of the volcanic stones from nearby Mount Eccles covering their selections making the land unfit for cultivation, they were in search of a fertile place with good rainfall, unlike the often drought prone southwest of the state. That place was Omeo in Victoria’s High Country and they settled there from the mid-1880s.  Henry’s uncle John Condon had lived there since at least 1880 and when his first wife Mary Jane died in 1886, he married Frances Susan Huggins in 1888. 

One of the fifty great-grandchildren of pioneers Frederick and Frances Huggins was the subject of a past Western District Families post.  Witness for the Prosecution from 2011, includes the story of the suspicious death of the wife of the Omeo Methodist Rev. Ronald Griggs.  Lottie Condon, a great-granddaughter of Macarthur’s Frederick and Frances Huggins was unwittingly involved. Lottie’s grandparents James Huggins and Elizabeth Skipworth, both from Macarthur, married in 1881 prior to their move to Omeo.  Their daughter Frances Ethel was born in Macarthur and was only a small child when they moved.  At the age of twenty-one, Frances Ethel Huggins married John Henry Condon, a son of John Condon and his first wife Mary Jane. In 1907, Lottie Elizabeth Condon was born at Omeo to John Henry Condon and Frances Ethel Huggins and twenty-one years later became mixed up in the murder trial of Rev. Ronald Griggs. 

The Harman connection with the families continued with the marriage of Walter and Lydia’s daughter Susannah Harman to William Condon in 1898.  Also, Susannah’s brother Henry was a good friend of Lottie Condon’s parents strengthened by their connection with the Methodist Church at Omeo and in 1928, he too became involved in the murder trial of Rev. Griggs.

To search the Weekly Times, you can follow this link – Weekly Times.  If you would like to read more about Frederick and Frances Huggins’ great-granddaughter Lottie Condon and the murder trial of Ronald Griggs, follow this link – Witness for the Prosecution. 

 

Trove Tuesday – Troveitis

As I write, it is seventeen hours and twenty-one minutes since Trove went offline to prepare for the launch of Trove 7 on Thursday 25 February.  And yes, I’m already missing it.  Not a day goes by when I don’t turn to Trove to find a photo, a parish map, information on events in Australian history or book details.   But I’m reassured knowing in two days this wonderful free resource we are so lucky to have will be back new and improved.

Of course, the online newspapers are my favourite Trove feature especially little gems such as the following article my “Electronic Friend” from Trove sent on Friday.  The article from The Ballarat Star of 18 July 1881 is about my ggg grandfather James Harman.  At age fifty-one in 1881. James and his old horses, pulling a Lennon plough, were a great team, often winning local ploughing matches.  James lived another thirty-five summers but I’m guessing not too many more summers passed after the article before James laid the horses to rest on his Byaduk property Mt Pleasant.

 

“BREVIA.” The Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 – 1924) 18 Jul 1881 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219331682

 

**Postscript – Since writing this post I’ve become aware of funding cuts to the National Library of Australia, the home of Trove.  It would be terrible if it meant Trove’s digitisation program was restricted or worse, the introduction of a paywall.  You can read more about the funding cuts here.