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 wonderful resource. Some items I discovered:
- James Gorey (my great-great-grandfather) was an elector in South Bourke in 1856 who supported the successful candidate Sidney Ricardo to represent the “agricultural interests” of Heidelberg (now a suburb of Melbourne).
- James Gorey helped unsuccessfully to extinguish a fire at the Harvest Home Hotel, Boggy Creek, according to the Kyneton Guardian, reprinted in The Argus on March 3, 1874: http://ax.lv/15.
- Michael Gorey was the licensee of the Royal Mint Hotel, Little Lonsdale Street, in 1884 (http://ax.lv/16). I’m not sure if this is the eldest son of James Gorey (my great-grandfather’s brother), but I’ve never come across any other Michael Gorey in Victoria during this era. Little Lonsdale Street was Melbourne’s brothel precinct at that time.
I have also reactivated a Google Group for discussion and questions.
