gathering dust

I am of the general belief that every one has in their family tree a celebrity of some sort, in my case it is the husband of my great (x2) great-aunt, Monica Sinclair. They met on the ship to Australia, as the extract below shows. Can you work out who her husband was? MMIGRANTS' CHILDREN. (1848, February 5).  The Sydney Morning Herald  (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 5. Retrieved December 11, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12899825 If you guessed William Arnott (yes THAT William Arnott, the one of Biscuit fame) you'd be spot on! You can find all the #TroveTuesday posts over at  Branches, Leaves & Pollen  or search the hashtag on twitter.

One of my major historical interests is the history of education, something to which my shelved PhD project will attest, so it has always been a pleasure to know that one of my ancestors at least placed great stock in educational opportunity. The letter below with a family bible was given to Charles Robert Muffett of Rosevale, Windellama by the children who attended the schoolroom he built on his property. I was pleased then to find a mention of this school in the SMH REPORT OF THE COUNCIL OF EDUCATION. (1880, May 4). The Sydney Morning Herald  (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved December 4, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13459378 One day I am going to have to trek out to Kingswood and look at the records held about the school by the State Archive. I'm sure it will be fascinating.  You can find all the #TroveTuesday posts over at  Branches, Leaves & Pollen  or search the hashtag on twitter.

... given the state of my house as I emerged blinking from the assignment fog. [No heading]. (1933, September 2).  The Australian Women's Weekly  (1933 - 1982), p. 28. Retrieved October 30, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page4602358 Hope the rest of you Trovites have had more fun with your research than I have the past week :) You can find all the #TroveTuesday posts over at  Branches, Leaves & Pollen  or search the hashtag on twitter.

If you have been paying any attention to the media this week or last you would have noted that it is the 70th anniversary of the Second Battle of El Alamein . The Sydney Morning Herald. (1942, October 26).  The Sydney Morning Herald  (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved October 23, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17814451 The final line of the article comments that the battle  is "likely to develop into one of the decisive struggles of the war" and in hindsight we know this to be true.  The coverage in the press of the desert campaign is extensive and makes for interesting reading . You can find all the #TroveTuesday posts over at  Branches, Leaves & Pollen  or search the hashtag on twitter :) 

One of the things I have been using Trove for is to find out more about places that are mentioned to me by various family members or that come up in the course of research. One such place is Cowra Experimental Farm. According to Nana (dad's mum) her husband, Walter Thomas Muffett ( 9/4/1916-13/3/1958) , had spent three years at Cowra Experimental Farm before they married. The photograph below was taken there. Cowra Experimental Farm sometime between 1934 &1937 - My grandfather, W. T. Muffett on far right. I knew vaguely, that an experimental farm is a sort of cross between an agricultural college, a working property and a science lab, from Trove I was able to find newspaper articles (such as the one below) on it's opening in 1905, and on its continued successes over the next 50 odd years at agricultural shows, irrigation improvements and in developing new hybrids of wheat. Experimental farms have played an important role in the development of Australian agriculture

One of the troubles I have had in researching my family tree is the reticence of one side of the family in talking about the past. Whereas one side is happy to tell you anything and take great delight in all manner of scandals and anecdotes, the other is tight lipped and 'the past is the past' and best not brought up. So tracing the family tree without asking the family questions, challenging but as I am finding out, doable. If that is, you have some place to start. In my case it was  Trove . That sexy little knowledge tool, is quite a minx ;) I started with a surname. On typing that into Trove and narrowing the results to South Australian Newspapers, I now had a list of lots of people in that locality with that surname. Browsing through I spotted a familiar one. A VERY familiar one. Brilliant! In the family notices section of the Adelaide Advertiser, the family had placed birthday announcements. This you see, gave me an address and a timeframe. Family Notices. (1951, D

I used to be a somewhat active researcher, in genealogy and in the history of education, but burnt out from academia I put aside my PhD and all other historical stuff and started on a Master of Information Services (Archives and Records) which I do love and am enjoying immensely. But I did miss the historical stuff. The interesting tidbits about life as well as the historiography. I do so adore historical theory. Yet still, there wasn't really an impetus to take it up again. Until I was given a little push. See, in the last two weeks of September I was on practicum placement in a Library Service. It was wonderful from an Information Services point of view but also as a researcher. You see, the library service I was with has two very passionate research librarians and as part of my program I spent time with them,  attended (and helped with) two of their organised talks. One of these was a presentation with the lovely Emma Kelly of findmypast.com.au  and the other was on Social Med