Random thoughts and observations
My wife Juliet is Afrikaans and her surname is Claassen. One of Juliet’s cousins, Johann, is a genealogist and he contacted me recently after discovering my family history website. Johann sent me a gedcom file, which I’ve now uploaded to show the Claassen family tree. Claassen is a Mennonite name that originated in the Netherlands. [...]
I obtained an electronic copy of my grandparents’ marriage certificate today for $18. Michael John Gorey, farmer of Waubra, married Eleanora Augusta Hermitage Sutherland at 101 Gore Street, Fitzroy, on April 19, 1913. The celebrant was Congregationalist minister John Hosking (pictured). I thought my grandmother was Presbyterian, but she may have been Congregationalist at that [...]
I again discovered something tonight on the National Library of Australia’s digital newspaper archives. Here is a story from The Argus (Melbourne) dated October 5, 1893: An accident happened on the Colac railway this afternoon, between the Pettavel Road and Germantown stations. Violet Gorey, aged 3 and a half years, a daughter of Mr John [...]
I’ve written before about the National Library of Australia’s wonderful digitisation program. Hundreds of historic newspapers are having their pages converted to searchable electronic copies. I’ve already used the resource for family history research. The text appears garbled in most cases. Hence the NLA has asked volunteers to correct digital records as they discover them. [...]
I haven’t done much offline genealogical research since 1999, but I occasionally browse online sources on public holidays, like today. These sources are much more plentiful than they were 10 years ago and most didn’t exist in 1999. Today I checked old digital copies of The Argus on the National Library’s archive. This is a [...]
