Archive for October, 2009

Mining Ancestors

October 21st, 2009

In an earlier blog, This Week in History, I mentioned how the Gympie gold rush led to my Victorian families moving up to Queensland. I have a wide interest in mining with various ancestors involved in tin, copper, gold and coal mining in all states of Australia except the Northern Territory and Tasmania. I have even travelled to all of the places my families lived. Today I  started a discussion forum on Genealogy Wise for those with Australian mining ancestors and I invite people to share their mining stories so that we can all learn how best to trace these sometimes elusive ancestors.


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This Week In History

October 13th, 2009

It is interesting to reflect on events that may have impacted on our ancestors lives. On 12 Oct 1838 the first Lutherans arrived in South Australia, led by Augustus Kavel having left Prussia because of religious repression. On 13 Oct 1933 the first traffic lights switched on in Sydney and on 14 Oct 1889 Melbourne’s first electric tram service began between Box Hill and Doncaster.On 15 Oct 1810 Australia’s first horse race meeting took place in Hyde Park in Sydney. On 16 Oct 1867 James Nash, a Sydney based prospector discovered gold in the Gympie region of Queensland. I know one of my families were impacted by the last event because they moved from the goldfields of central Victoria to Queensland. How many individuals and families were influenced by these five events which I have randomly picked from one week in history? Source: Diary of Australia, Richard Perno, Kangaroo Press 1987


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Why is there a crimp on Cornish pasties?

October 8th, 2009

At the weekend I went to the Central Highlands Family History Expo in Ballarat and the Cornish Association of Victoria, Ballarat Branch had a really interesting display and lots of useful books and other finding aids to help people with Cornish ancestors. My mother’s grandmother was Cornish so I have an interest in Cornwall and a fondness for Cornish pasties. One of the things I picked up at their stall was a recipe for authentic pasties and there is a little bit of history as well. The pasty was devised as a meal for miners working in the tin mines (and most of my Cornish ancestors were tin miners) and there is a ‘crimp’ in the pasty so that the miners could hold the pasty and eat from the side. They then threw away the crimp to avoid poisoning from the arsenic on their hands. Learning that gave me an even greater appreciation of the life my ancestors lived in Cornwall. My thanks to the Cornish Association for sharing that recipe with attendees.


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