Month: December 2015

Letter C challenge

Miss W. Smith, Tedman , , , ,

There were so many choices for this letter:

Christmas traditions, convicts, certificates

But I chose two that were more specific to my research.

Cemetery at Cockle Creek near Catamaran

Many of you know I have been researching my whaling captain, William SMITH. But this post is more about his wife’s family. Sarah Ann TEDMAN and her sister Rosetta Caroline Tedman married on the same day, one to William Smith and the other to Domingo Jose EVORALL.

The marriage took place on September 30, 1874 in Burnett Street, Hobart Town, under the rites of the Congregationalists. Witnesses to the marriages were William Tedman, William John Tedman and Mary Ann Tedman. They all made their mark on the license.

Both William Smith and Domingo were mariners of full age and bachelors who could write their own names, while Sarah Ann age 19 could not and left her mark instead; her sister age 17 could write her own name. Both girls were daughters of a splitter.

Now that you know the closeness of these two families you will see my reason for choosing these words for this week’s letter.

My grandmother on the Smith side had property left to her at Cockle Creek and we would often go down to camp there when I was younger. We knew there was a cemetery in among the sand dunes but had never really looked at it until I started doing the family history. It was then we found the following graves. These are the before and after shots from a day of clearing around the graves.

December 2010 001 December 2010 017

 

The three graves with headstones belong to William Tedman and Mary Ann Tedman and John Edward Louis Evorall. We don’t know who the other grave spots are for as there were no headstones or footstones to give us clues.

William Tedman
William Tedman
John Edward Louis Evorall
John Edward Louis Evorall
Mary Ann Tedman
Mary Ann Tedman

 

Readers: Please leave a comment about my post or something beginning with C that relates to your family history or your research.

letter c

Letter B challenge

Miss W. General info , , ,

 

Book Launch

Books and book launches

Ever since I was a young child, I have enjoyed reading and even wanted to be a librarian until I found out I would have to dissect books to look for themes and nuances etc. Well that was not for me! Instead I began buying books related to the teaching profession and the Tasmanian Curriculum as it was then. I always preferred to have my own copy of the book rather than a photocopy – must have known about copyright early in my teaching days.

But I was also interested in history, particularly Australian and Tasmanian history. I inherited this from my father who was and still is, a collector of Tasmaniana. But now he is getting older, he is starting to sort out his office shelves so I am getting many of his books about Tasmanian people and places.

He is a member of the Bellerive Historical Society and we both attended a book launch last week in the Rosny Barn. This book about the City of Clarence and its history was written by John Sargeant, the president of the society. I am a member of the Sorell Historical Society and received an invite to a book launch today at Orford. It was held at Malunnah, a beautiful cottage owned by descendants of the Meredith family, and it was the launch of Louisa Anne Meredith’s books My Bush Friends in Tasmania which she first published in 1860. The event was hosted by the Glamorgan/ Spring Bay Historical Society.

I rarely buy books now as I already have so many, but what do I look for in a history book?

  • an index giving names and places
  • appendix or bibliography of other books used
  • sources or references I can check if I find something relating to my family history

Ways to find books that might relate to your family history is to join historical societies for towns or counties where your relatives lived. Look for books that might mention the social scene of the time your relatives were living there; this might give you clues for more research through newspapers where your relatives might be mentioned by name.

Readers: Please leave a comment about something beginning with B that relates to your family history or your research.

letter B

Letter A challenge

Miss W. Uncategorised , , ,

National Film and Sound Archive

Archives

I used to spend hours in the local archives in Tasmania before they started digitizing the records. I was part of RAOGK (Random Acts Of Genealogical Kindness) and would research convicts for anyone who asked me through my email or rootsweb mailing lists.

Much of the research for my great great grandfather Captain William Smith needs to be done at the Tasmanian archives – looking at lots of Marine Board records. While visiting Samoa a few years ago, I went to their archives to look for birth records of William Smith who is half Samoan. I was very concerned to see the original record books were just kept in storage in a room, not temperature regulated and that I didn’t need to use gloves when touching the original documents. Some of them were crumbling under my hand when I tried to turn the pages that were stuck together by heat and dampness.

When researching my great great grandmother Rebecca Jackson while I was travelling in Ireland, I visited the Donegal county archives in Lifford to have a look at local court records. I found lots of interesting information there about the offences that caused Rebecca to be sent to Van Diemen’s Land as a convict in 1847. Here is a link to all archives in Ireland.

Readers: Please leave a comment about something beginning with A that relates to your family history or your research.

letter A