Edition 24, 2023

Traces

Uncovering the past

Traces1 min read
Welcome To The 24th Edition Of Traces!
Hello and welcome to Edition 24 of Traces! As I write this introduction, the sun is brightening an unseasonally warm winter afternoon. While I relish the abrupt end to winter, it’s hard to ignore the impacts of climate change on our national heritage
Traces1 min read
Traces
Editor: Eden Cox Designer: Sam Garland Editor in Chief: Giulia Heppell Contributors (in order of first appearance): Dr Ian Hoskins, Peter Baker, Olivia Niethe, Callie Beuermann, Mandy Gwan, Tamuz Ellazam, Shauna Bostock, Marianne van Velzen, Brendan
Traces3 min read
Heritage News
A fire destroyed the heritage-listed RC Henderson hat factory in Surry Hills, New South Wales, on 25 May. Built in 1912 and designed by architect Thomas Pollard Sampson, the milliner produced hats for women and children until 1954. The factory has si
Traces3 min read
The Hero of Waterloo Hotel, Sydney
The Hero of Waterloo Hotel is located on the south-west corner of Lower Fort and Windmill streets in Millers Point, Sydney – a small and historical suburb situated above the western shores of Sydney Cove, and home to many relics of Sydney’s founding
Traces4 min read
A History Of Sydney Harbour
The idea of writing a book on the history of Sydney Harbour came to me three or four years into my role as historian for North Sydney Council. The local government area that I research, write and talk about in my book is only 10 square kilometres, bu
Traces1 min read
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Traces6 min readCrime & Violence
Sideshow Barkers
Reuben Isaac Doodeward was born in 1877 in New Zealand, the eldest child of Abraham and Betsy. For as long as Reuben could remember, the family had coveted a sealed glass jar filled with spirits and a fetus. In the late 1860s, in a deplorable act tha
Traces4 min read
Acts Of Bravery – Lives Saved At Sea
At a time when many Australians could not swim, the bravery required to save a drowning person was perhaps more impressive than it is today. These acts were often publicly celebrated. The Royal Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society of New South Wales (
Traces1 min read
Research Tip: Looking For A Hero?
Sometimes the hardest part of research is knowing where to begin. One useful tip is to start broad and gradually narrow your focus. When investigating stories that are linked to the Royal Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society of New South Wales (RSRHS
Traces4 min read
Finding Skeletons In The Closet
According to research released this year, two-thirds of family historians experience sorrow or anger in the course of their research. In her paper ‘Family History Research and Distressing Emotions’, Swinburne University Emeritus Professor of Psycholo
Traces6 min readWorld
Researching Chinese-Australian Family History
I’ve known since I was a little kid that I have Chinese ancestry; it was never a secret. But I have no memory of being sat down at Grandma’s kitchen table with a glass of Milo and a Chips Ahoy! choc-chip bickie (one of my childhood favourites), and b
Traces4 min read
How Famous Ancestors Can Grow Your Family Tree
When I set out to make my family tree, I never did so with the sole intention of finding famous people nestled in its branches. Sure, it’s great when you find someone famous, but fame is not the treasure – the information that comes with it is. The w
Traces1 min read
What’s That Thingamajig?
Acquired in 1880 from the Kew Observatory in England, this contraption is a Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder and was used by Melbourne Observatory. Providing up-to-date weather information through data collection and analysis was a central feature o
Traces4 min read
When Truth Is A Healer
Many years ago, my uncle, Gerry Bostock, rang me late one night and told me about how he had met a non‑Indigenous woman called Thelma, who had the same family name as ours. She was an avid genealogist who had traced the Bostock family back to the lat
Traces5 min read
Minnie Berrington’s Opal Dreams
Digging shafts in the hot Australian interior may not have been everyone’s cup of tea in 1926, especially if the only other people around were a collection of scruffy, rough and weather-beaten men. But from the moment she drove into Coober Pedy with
Traces7 min read
The Admiralty Islets diorama
Lord Howe Island lies in the Tasman Sea, some 600 kilometres from mainland Australia. This World Heritage–listed holiday destination with approximately 380 permanent residents astounds its many visitors with dramatic landscapes, groves of Kentia palm
Traces3 min read
‘Wait Awhile’ In Western Australia
At the start of 1894, a special correspondent for the Leader newspaper noted that there was an exodus of Victorian miners, artisans and labourers moving west to take advantage of the gold discovery. They were not alone – ships arriving in Albany were
Traces4 min read
What’s New Online?
• Aalst, Births, 1795–1924: 1,013,271 records • Aalst, Deaths, 1796–1970: 578,036 records. • Manchester, Burials, 1800–onwards: 855,785 records. • Karelia, Communion Books, 1729 and 1971: 6,976,389 records • Karelia, Deaths and Burials, 1686–1961: 1,
Traces3 min read
The Iconic Australian Worker’s Cottage
Worker’s cottages have become synonymous with many of Australia’s inner-city suburbs, and the appeal they add to streetscapes today is often carefully preserved in heritage overlays. But the humble worker’s cottage hasn’t always been a cherished part

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