'Updates' Newsletter No. 30   (April 2008)

© Copyright Judy Webster, 30 Apr 2008. Ask my permission (email ) before reproducing any part of the newsletter.

1. QLD marriage/death indexes to 1929 are online.  Qld online historical indexes now include marriages and deaths to 1929 (and births to 1914). However, for events up to 1914 it may sometimes be better to use the CD-ROM version because: (1) It gives the exact date of the event (which also makes it easier to find newspaper notices); (2) You can search on any field or combination of fields (eg, leave the surname and given name blank and search by birthday or mother's maiden name); (3) You can use wildcards to find unexpected spellings.
2. Genealogy seminars at Yeppoon and Rockhampton:
   • Tues. 13 May, 11am-2pm, Yeppoon Library: my two-part talk 'An Introduction to Family History Research' will discuss various sources and techniques for compiling a family history, organising your records and contacting 'new' relatives and 'lost cousins'. Bookings appreciated: ph.4939-3433 or email ylib@bigpond.net.au.
   • Wed. 14 May, 9am-11.30am, Rockhampton Regional Council Libraries (Southside Library): my two-part talk 'Family history research: overcoming dead ends by using basic and unusual sources at Qld State Archives and elsewhere' will cover birth, death and marriage records (and cheaper ways to obtain some certificates); immigration records (and what to do if you can't find them); passport records; wills and intestacies; electoral rolls; inquests; hospital admission registers; mental asylum, benevolent asylum and pension records; Police Gazettes; watchhouse, prison and Court records; murder files; registers of criminal depositions; records of maintenance payments; illegitimate children; people who 'vanished'; etc. The focus is on QLD sources, but some advice also applies to research elsewhere. Bookings essential: ph.4927-0955 or email enquiries@rrc.qld.gov.au.
3. More records of mental asylum patients.  I have discovered another series of records for patients and former patients of Qld mental asylums, with documents dated 1885-1901. One file includes four certificates! To be notified when I index these files, email me at with the subject as 'Insanity_news_please'.
4. If the intestacy file is missing...  Most Qld Southern District intestacies 1946-1968 were destroyed in a fire; but for a few of those people another series of records, 1953-1978, gives name, former residence, occupation, date/place of death, and an inventory. If you need someone to search these files you could use my Archives research service.
5. Copy to USB memory stick or CD at Qld State Archives.  Qld State Archives have some microfilm readers that allow you to copy to a USB memory stick or CD. Take care to type a different file name before you save each image.
6. Local and Family History Fair (Brisbane).  I will have a sales/display table at Brisbane's Local and Family History Fair at Mt Gravatt Showgrounds, Sunday 1 June 2008. See History Queensland.
7. Qld Railway staff: new index 1889-1912.  There is now a second index to Qld Government Railway staff records held by Qld State Archives. It covers 1889-1912 (clerical staff, engineers, mechanics, boilermakers, coachbuilders, station masters, porters, signalmen, gangers, gatekeepers, cleaners, drivers etc.) The other index (1878-1946) covers different registers. For details see Caloundra Family History Research Inc. (their new Website).
8. Central Qld FHA Website news.  Central Qld Family History Association have put their 'Member's Interests' on their website. They are also updating the Central Qld Pioneer Index (download a form for free entry submission).
9. Brisbane City Archives have moved.  Brisbane City Council's archives have moved to 115 Muriel Avenue, Moorooka. For more details email annabel.Lloyd@brisbane.qld.gov.au.
10. Websites worth a mention (Queensland and elsewhere).
    • Wolston Park Hospital.
    • Tips for Census Success.
11. Avoiding junk mail ('spam') & computer viruses.  To reduce spam, my Webpages show an image of my email address. Please do NOT mention that address in mailing list or newsgroup messages, and do NOT put it anywhere on the Internet. Instead, refer people to www.judywebster.gil.com.au for my address, which may change suddenly - or if all else fails, try . To reduce the risk of computer viruses, do NOT put multiple addresses in 'To' or 'Cc' when sending the same message to several people (use the 'Bcc' field instead of 'To' or 'Cc').
12. Advice & published guides for Queensland.  Before asking me questions, please check whether the answer is here:
    • Book Tips for Queensland Research
    • Web page Queensland Research Tips
    • My Web site (use the Google box below to search for a word)
    • Qld State Archives 'Brief Guides'
    • National Archives of Australia 'Fact Sheets'
    • Archives research service.

Selected items from 'Updates' Newsletter No. 29   (Feb 2008)

© Copyright Judy Webster, 23 Feb 2008. Ask my permission (email ) before reproducing any part of the newsletter.

1. Update re my services.  I now spend several days per week away from Brisbane, caring for my father who is in poor health. I will continue to provide an Archives research/copying service, but please be tolerant of delays. I give priority to paying clients. Anyone seeking free advice should follow the instructions in 'Advice & published guides' (below).
2. Cooktown residents in 1874: signatures on a petition.  In Oct 1874, householders of Cooktown signed a petition. This signature may be the only surviving example of your ancestor's handwriting. Names are indexed.
3. Web pages updated.  More names have been added to:
   • Interim index to various sources.
   • index to friends and relatives sought, missing persons, alleged offenders, prisoners, wife/child deserters, victims of crime etc. mentioned in Qld Police Gazettes.
4. On-line index to some Qld wills to 1910.  Qld State Archives' on-line indexes now include Northern, Central and Southern District wills 1857-1900 plus Southern District Wills 1900-1910. Note that they only cover the ecclesiastical series. To find wills in Public Curator Orders and Elections or 'intestacies' series, you must use different indexes (in the Public Search Room).
5. History of the Port of Brisbane Corporation.  The first instalment of a history of the Port of Brisbane Corporation is on Peter Ludlow's website.
6. Residents of Qld before 10 Dec 1859.  If you are researching someone who lived in Qld before 10 Dec 1859, Qld FHS invites to write an article about them for publication in 'Qld Founding Families: Biographies of Families who resided in Qld before separation from NSW'.
7. Qld State Archives e-bulletin.  The first Qld State Archives' e-bulletin includes a list of school admission registers received recently.
8. Qld electoral rolls: Ancestry.com and Qld FHS.  A database at Ancestry includes Qld electoral rolls for 1903, 1905, 1913, 1919, 1925, 1930 and 1936. Qld FHS is indexing rolls for some other years.
9. Irish research using English sources.  "From 1800 to 1922 the capital of Ireland was London... Galway was a county of the United Kingdom on the same terms as Wiltshire, and a Kerryman appears in many categories of British records for the same reasons as a Yorkshireman... Many young labourers went over to England just for the summer; many girls went over to be servants; many couples spent years in the industrial towns and [later] went home... [many families] spent a few years in England and records of them may be there." This is an extract from 'English Records for Irish Family History' by Michael GANDY, in From Gold to Federation: papers from the Fourth Victorian State Family History Conference (N. OKE, ed.; Wodonga FHS, 2001). This paper describes many English sources and records of Government that contain information about the Irish. It includes a bibliography and useful addresses. [If the book is out of print I can supply a photocopy of this paper.]
10. Websites worth a mention (Queensland and elsewhere).
    • Australian Dictionary of Biography.
    • Australian artists to 1870.
    • Google genealogy helper.
    • Darryn Schneider's family trees and Antarctica information.

© Copyright Judy Webster. Ask my permission (email ) before reproducing any part of the newsletter.

Selected items from earlier Newsletters

© Copyright Judy Webster. Ask my permission (email ) before reproducing any part of the newsletter. More information from previous newsletters is on my Web site or in the latest edition of my book Tips for Qld Research.

My family trees. My family trees have been given a facelift with a brilliant programme, Second Site, which processes data in 'The Master Genealogist'. See my families with British origins and my families with German origins.

Nurses and Masseurs (male & female). Those registered in Qld in Dec 1929 are listed on www.judywebster.gil.com.au/nurses.html. The original source gives a category (General, Midwifery, Child Welfare, Massage, Mental) and usually an address (interstate, overseas or in Qld).

Deserted wives, children & illegitimate children. 'Indexes in Progress' includes hundreds of names (men and women) from a register of Brisbane maintenance payments re deserted wives, children and illegitimate children. Registers for other times periods and places also exist. See Tips for Qld Research.

Illegitimate children: identifying a father. See Tips for Qld Research.

Web pages updated. I have added titles of papers from the Australasian Congress in 2006 to the page about Published papers from genealogy conferences. A wide range of topics and geographical areas are covered. If you have British or Irish research, take particular note of the papers by Sherry IRVINE and Michael GANDY. In May 2007 there were major updates to the advice re 'Births deaths & marriages', 'Immigration records', 'Wills & intestacies' and 'Mental asylum patients' on www.judywebster.gil.com.au/tips-qld.html.

Contacting others researching your family. A good way to find out whether someone else is researching your family, is to use WorldConnect and (for Britain) Curious Fox. If your relatives (direct or by marriage) are listed in the 1841 British census or 1880-1881 censuses for Britain, USA or Canada, enter their details at Lost Cousins to find out who else is researching those people. Note that for the 1841 census only, you must enter names/ages as they appear in the handwritten census. For other censuses you use details from the transcription (even if it is wrong). I have had several 'new' relatives contact me via my entries at Lost Cousins, Curious Fox and WorldConnect.

Ryerson Index (newspaper notices): new address. The Ryerson Index has moved to www.ryersonindex.org. It has over 1.5 million entries (mainly deaths) from over 130 Australian newspapers. See also 'AUS-NEWSPAPER-EXTRACTS', a Rootsweb mailing list.

Anglican churches: Kangaroo Point, South Brisbane, Mitchelton, Toowong. Australian Decorative & Fine Arts Society has a free enquiry service re Anglican churches at Kangaroo Point (St.Mary), South Brisbane (St.Andrew), Mitchelton (St.Matthew), Toowong (St.Thomas). Details available include names of those commemorated and their families, and donors. Email Marianne Eastgate, marianne.e@swiftdsl.com.au, stating name sought and reason required.

ArchivesSearch: new address. Qld State Archives online catalogue is now at www.archives.qld.gov.au/research/searchdatabase.asp.

Qld Commonwealth electoral roll, 1934. The 1934 Qld Commonwealth electoral roll (a searchable database on CD-ROM, like the 1903, 1913 & 1922 rolls) has been published by Qld FHS.

Websites worth a mention:

• Lost medals found (can be returned to the soldier's family)
• Arrivals in Fremantle WA including many passengers who travelled on to eastern States.
• Picture Queensland.
• Helen HARRIS's indexes (some Queenslanders are mentioned).
• Some applications for employment in the Victorian government (19th century)
• Cora NUM's list of Websites for genealogists.

Immigration indexes: a WARNING! Immigration indexes on the Qld State Archives Web site do NOT include all records for those periods. To locate entries in three other volumes of passenger lists (Z31, Z32 & Z33) and various Immigration Agent records, use the main card index to immigrants. You may also need to check (at Qld State Archives) the card index to Land Orders, card registers of nominated immigrants, etc., and (in libraries) the Kopittke indexes to emigrants from Hamburg to Australasia. For more advice see Tips for Qld Research.

Immigration records: unusual entries. Some immigration records mention pension enquiries (with a date), proving that the person was still alive then. Others show that the name in the immigration records was incorrect, or that the immigrant used a different name after arrival [eg, Mary FLYNN / Nora O'FLYNN; Alex POLLOCK / George TAYLOR]. There are comments such as 'stowaway'; 'died on voyage'; 'baby born on board - Eng. Dist. Registrar Warwick 6.2.34'; 'previously in colony'; 'blind'; 'insane'; 'died in quarantine Melbourne'; 'enquiry Public Trustee Sydney 22.5.33'. Some female passengers are listed under their maiden surname with a note showing their husband's name.

Naturalized more than once. In Enemy Aliens: Internment and the Home Front Experience in Australia 1914-1920 (University of Qld Press, Brisbane, 1989) Gerhard Fischer says that naturalisation entitled a person to the rights of a British subject only in the colony where the naturalisation was registered, and not in other Australian colonies. So, if your non-British ancestors moved about, they may have been naturalized in several Australian colonies/States, and some of those records may be better than others. Qld State Archives hold many naturalization records and indexes.

Picture Queensland photographs. Many images from the John Oxley Library's photographic collection (including ships) are indexed on Picture Queensland.

Email problems / Alternative address. I am sometimes unable to reply to enquiries because your Internet Service Provider (ISP) won't accept mail from mine. If you have a second email address with a different ISP, please quote both addresses in your emails, as it gives me another way of contacting you. (My alternative email address, which is subject to change, is always on my main Web page.)

Finding books and newspapers in libraries. Search the Australian National Bibliographic Database to find which libraries hold a particular book, map, picture, microfilm, newspaper etc. See http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au, which leads to a search screen.

Special Google search facilities. The Google boxes on my Web pages can be used to search my site or search the Web. They have been specially customised so that Web searches tend to produce results with a genealogy 'flavour'.

© Copyright Judy Webster. Ask my permission (email ) before reproducing any part of the newsletter.