Edition 22, 2023

Traces

Uncovering the past

Traces2 min read
Welcome To The 22nd Edition Of Traces!
Hello and welcome to edition 22 of Traces! As we bring you this first edition of 2023, one of the biggest issues facing historians and researchers around the country is the fate of the National Library of Australia’s online library database, Trove. F
Traces1 min read
Traces
Editor: Eden Cox Designer: Sam Garland Editor in Chief: Giulia Heppell Contributors (in order of first appearance): Ann McGrath and Laura Rademaker, Karolina Cernoch, Dr David Waldron, Maurie Garland, Dr Peter Hobbins, Ann Wilcox, Lucy Frost, Tara Ol
Traces1 min read
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Everywhen: A New Way Of Thinking About History
The concept of everywhen is the focus of a new book, Everywhen: Australia and the Language of Deep History, which brings together a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars to reflect on time, language and history. At the opening of the sympos
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Master mariner: Captain Jean Benaud
Capitan Jean Benaud was born at La Rochelle, on the west coast of France, in 1818. He arrived in Sydney in March 1840 aboard the French whaler Ville de Bordeaux, which had been whaling since leaving Bordeaux, France, in December 1837. Benaud married
Traces3 min read
Waverley Cemetery
In 1792, Sydney’s earliest graveyard (named Old Sydney Burial Ground) was located where Sydney’s Town Hall, in the CBD, stands today. Situated on the outskirts of the colony, the cemetery lacked proper burial services and registries. The cemetery ope
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Fitzroy’s Hand Of Glory
In a small cottage on Batman Avenue, an elderly woman, Margaret Connor, passed away in a state of extreme poverty and squalor. Yet, despite her apparent indigent circumstances, a search of her home had revealed more than £500 in bank receipts conceal
Traces2 min read
Observatory House, Adelaide
Adelaide’s Observatory House, located at 84–86 Flinders Street, Adelaide, was constructed in 1906 for Otto Boettger, who was known for making scientific instruments and tools Boettger was born in eastern Germany in 1842, not far from Cologne. He spen
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‘So Long, Letty’
Anzac Day was only just emerging as a new tradition in 1917. Aboard Australian troopship A70, routine orders for 25 April included a ceremony to mark the landing at Gallipoli two years earlier. While most soldiers were recent recruits, a special meal
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Embarking On Troopship Research
Until the end of the Vietnam War, Australian personnel deployed overseas usually went by sea. Most embarked on Hired Military Australian Transports – merchant vessels temporarily converted for trooping. These ships retained their peacetime name, but
Traces4 min readCrime & Violence
Convict Orphans Hiding In Family Trees
Most of the children living at the Queen’s Orphan Schools were ‘orphaned’ not by the death of their parents, but by the state. Their childhoods were blighted by a legal system that shipped some 75,000 prisoners from Britain and its empire, to Van Die
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Jobs Of The Streets
Outside the Eastern Market at night, ‘lung testers’, ‘electricians’ and ‘street astronomers’ jostled for trade. The electrician literally gave you a ‘shock’, while the astronomer showed you Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s moons for the price of a glass
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Street Jobs In Art
So many lost jobs can be seen in this 1862 painting by Nicholas Chevalier. It shows a huge crowd gathered outside the post office in Melbourne to collect mail that had arrived by ship from England. The new General Post Office building can be seen und
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Research Tips: Is A Convict Orphan Hiding In Your Family Tree?
If you have ancestors who were transported to Van Diemen’s Land as convicts, or who arrived there as free emigrant workers, two excellent websites will help you check for possible ‘orphan’ connections. Begin with Friends of the Orphan Schools. Formed
Traces3 min readCrime & Violence
Using Case Files For Your Research
Under Section 9 of the Public Records Act 1973, files of a private nature are closed to prevent the violation of personal privacy. After the period set for closure ends, these files can be opened. A broad guide to time periods for closure under Secti
Traces7 min read
Percy Cowan: Light In Dark Hours
Percy Cowan was born in 1884. His mother, Eva, came from a family of house painters and his father, James, made a living auctioning building materials as Sydney’s slums were demolished. Percy’s younger sister, Eva (nicknamed Dolly), was added to the
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What’s That Thingamajig?
This unique contraption is a rope plaiting machine, formerly used at the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind (RVIB) in Prahran, Melbourne. The rope plaiting machine was manufactured by Thomas Barraclough & Co. Limited, based in Manchester in the
Traces3 min read
Hunter Valley ancestors
A few years ago, I set out to write a history of my mother’s ancestors in Australia. Like many family historians, I had gathered heaps of information over many years, and resolved to let this material see the light of day. At first, my imagined audie
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A Link To Ancestors
My favourite family heirloom has to be my grandmother’s rose gold wedding band, made by a local jeweller in Bendigo, in 1932 – the year my grandparents, David Millar and Edna Moyle, married. Although the band is nothing special, it was the best my gr
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The Spanish Swindle
The writer of the unusual Spanish Swindle letters stated that they were a political prisoner, and that before they were arrested, they had hidden a large sum of money. They wanted the money safely secreted away in another country. The plan was to ent
Traces4 min read
Edina – A Hidden Gem
Surrounded by trees and houses, and backing onto a busy road, Edina is invisible unless you know it’s there. This grand building is known today as the Uniting War Memorial Hospital in Waverley – an important rehabilitation hospital. For many of the p
Traces3 min read
What’s New Online?
• Queensland, Deaths: 3,430,354 records• Queensland, Marriages, 1829–1922: 777,661 records• Queensland, World War I Soldier Portraits, 1914–1918: 28,245 records• South Australia, Royal Adelaide Hospital Admissions: 79,924 records• Tasmania, Deaths, 1

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