Lesser known family history resources

Lesser known Family History

ResourcesKirsten Perris

State Library of Queensland

Aims• To develop an awareness of lesser

known family history resources held at State Library of Queensland

• To provide examples of the type of information that can be found in these resources

What areas do the resources cover?• “They came direct” booklets

Queensland passenger lists, 1860s & 1870s – missing, damaged, incomplete

• “Ances-Tree” journalsLost German passenger lists

What areas do the resources cover?Family History Indexes• Colonial Secretary’s Correspondence

Letters received relating to Moreton Bay1822-1860

• People called before Queensland government committees 1860-1920

• Queensland Mining accidents 1882-1945• Queensland railway appointments & removals

“They Came Direct” series• Queensland immigration series compiled

by Eileen Johnson• Covers immigration vessels from the 1860s

and early 1870s• Contains all known information relating to

the voyage of a particular vessel that could be located at time of publication.

• Information comes from newspapers and government sources

Example of covers from the series

Example“They Came

Direct - Young Australia

1862”

Passenger List

Example“They Came

Direct - Young Australia

1862”

Newspaper article

Queensland State Archive material

“Ances-tree” journal• Journal of the Burwood & District Family History

Group• Lost or problematic German passenger lists• Articles written by Lisa Burton or Jenny Paterson• 3 series

German immigrant ships to Eastern Australia – Resources & problems

“Assisted German immigrants” who weren’t assisted

German ships with no lists

Information in “Ances-tree” journalThe articles contain:• Information related to the voyage• Brief history of the ship• Sources with information, including

names• ‘Likely’ passenger list

Types of sources used:• Birth, marriage, death indexes• Naturalisation / Certificate of Alien

Registration records• Obituaries, newspaper articles• Government records e.g.

hospital/asylum admission records, prison registers

• Trades/occupations

Example of “Ances-tree” journal

SLQ - Family history indexeshttp://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/family-history/eresources

Colonial Secretary’s CorrespondenceIndex to Letters received relating to Moreton Bay and Queensland 1822-1860http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/family-history/letters

Information in the pre-1859 CorrespondenceThe business of administration including:• establishing the Moreton Bay settlement• dealing with convict and immigrant matters• decisions about employment and payment• use and construction of buildings• surveying, sales and use of land• growing of crops and grazing• responses to petitions (individuals &

groups)• decisions about public expenditure

Format of the indexA descriptive index including:• reel number, letter number and date• origin of letter• content and people involved• keyword searchable• a work in progress

1822-1855, 1859 covered

Use of index• valuable source of primary source documents on

Moreton Bay• a launching pad to other valuable resources including:

Queensland early pioneers indexes 1824 -1859 aka Queensland Family History Society Pre-Separation population index of Moreton Bay region 1824-1859 which includes 78 sources

Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) Images, newspaper sources Diaries, books

Example - NaturalisationsSearch by “Naturalization”

Example - NaturalisationsSearch by “ship name” e.g. Diana

Naturalisation pre-1859

• Name of the ship of arrival provided

• Possible to find names of those from missingship lists.

Persons called before Qld Committeeshttp://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/family-history/committees• Published in the Queensland Legislative

Assembly Votes and Proceedings / Queensland Parliamentary papers.

• cover a range of topics including education, immigration, mining, railway construction and the police force.

Persons called before Qld Committees• A wide variety of people from different

backgrounds & occupations were called to give evidence i.e. farmers, publicans, civil servants

• Those called before government committees were often invited because of their knowledge or expertise in the topic being discussed.

Use of Index

Example

Queensland Legislative Assembly Votes & Proceedings 1867 Vol 2 pp 694, 695

Qld Mining Accidents 1882 - 1945http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/family-history/mining-accidents

Published annually in the Queensland Legislative Assembly Votes and Proceedings

Information included:• Date of accident• Name of miner involved• Name of the mine involved• Brief description of the accident• Year, volume & page number for the

Queensland Legislative Assembly Votes and Proceedings / Qld Parliamentary Papers

How to locate the indexhttp://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au

Example of an index entry

Example

Check “Trove digitised newspapers” for articleshttp://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

Queensland Legislative Assembly Votes & Proceedings 1901 Vol 4 p.465

Qld railway appointments & removals• Published in the Queensland Legislative

Assembly Votes & Proceedings / Qld Parliamentary Papers

• Each entry provides name, position, wages and reason for appointment or removal.

Qld railway appointments & removals• Two indexes

Qld railway employees 1890-1901(Published annually)http://fhr.slq.qld.gov.au/qldrail/

Qld Southern & Western railway employees 1866-1876http://fhr.slq.qld.gov.au/swrailway/

How to access the index

Example of index

Example

Queensland Legislative Assembly Votes & Proceedings 1896 Vol 4 p.367

Aids to accessBefore coming to the library:• Check the indexes• Make a note of the references you

want to follow up on• Bring a USB so you can save what

you find

Aids to access: free library membershipJoin up online http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/services/membership/how-to-join

Use your free membership to login to these services:

• free internet access for 3 hrs a day at SLQ onsite

• home access to some databases• ordering closed access items before your

library visit or when onsite via catalogue

Aids to access : copyingCopy from film or fiche in the following ways:• Scan the page on the computer then print.

A4 = 15c ; A3 = 30cAdd value to your library card in copying room then print in the reading room with the card.

• Save your document and email it home using a web email e.g. Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc.

• Save to a USBNB: Note copyright conditions

Summary• SLQ holds useful family history resources

that are not well known• Different sources, beyond the common, can

lead to further information.• The indexes can lead to new directions• The resources covered in the indexes aren’t

readily available online• SLQ offers a free 2 hour research service.