THE ABC OF FAMILY HISTORY

As many of you may know in a former life (what now seems a lifetime ago) I managed and investigated allegations made against members of staff, in my employer organisation, pursuant to the NSW Ombudsman's Act.  Immediately pre-retirement I managed a team of investigators and my advice to them in conducting an investigation was to follow these rules.

Accept Nothing

Believe Nothing and,

Check everything.

I was recently part of a group discussing tips and tricks to conduct Family History Research and it occurred to me that these rules could apply to these "investigations"  as well and could be taken a little further.  What follows is my A - Z of conducting Family History Investigations

A - Accept all information you are given with an open and inquiring mind

B - Believe nothing

C - Check everything and Cite your sources and don't forget about what is written on headstones in cemeteries 

D - Document every step you take in your research. Your Direct Line is a good starting place as it shows  descendants  traced through persons who are directly related to one another as a child and parent

E - periodically Evaluate your methodology and your evidence will be your proof. Enjoying your research is key.

F - Find people who share your interest in Family History. One way to do this is to join a local Family History Society. I like to use Family Group Sheets which is a  form that presents genealogical information about a nuclear family 

G - Grow your tree - keep adding information to your family tree as you go along.  Once the process is started it is ongoing because families are dynamic, transitional and flexible. Go digital

H- Help others in their research as they may have information that will help you

I - the Internet is a valuable tool but don't believe everything you find without going back to ABC

J- Jump in and just get started you never know where it will lead you

K - Keep your focus. Although you will go off on different tangents along the way (and this is something I do and it can sometimes lead to amazing discoveries) it is important to have a plan for your investigations.

L - Look for alternative sources of information and don't forget the local and regional libraries hold great repositories of information

M - Make time for your research and think about the use of mind maps. It is also important to remember the maternal line which is the line of descent traced from the mother's side

N - Networking both online (using social media for instance) and in person is a great help in your research

O - Oral history can be provided  by older relatives and you never know when opportunities will present themselves

P - Plan your research - think about what you know and what you would like to find out.  

Q -  Question everything - ask why, when, who, where, and how.  Plan some quiet time for review

R - Read about the general and local history of the time you are researching.  Be respectful of your fellow researchers 

S - Sometimes work Sideways - if you cannot find the information on a particular ancestor look at siblings or siblings of parents

T- Thank people who provide you with information.  Whilst wills can provide important information remember that people were often described as testate - meaning they died without leaving a proper will

U - Understand new things - for instance, DNA technology and AI are making major inroads into family history research

V - Verify your sources of information.  If you find something on a website for instance by accessing another researcher's family tree don't accept that it is accurate until you have checked and verified it.

W - Write your story and the story of your ancestors. Wills can provide important family information

X - Xylographer - this is a term used for a person who used and made wooden blocks used in printing illustrations. Sometimes you will come across words, phrases, occupations, diseases, and causes of death that are no longer in common use and this takes some research

Y - interest Younger family members in the information you are compiling

Z - use Zoom in your research to connect to relatives and other researchers

Happy Researching

John Jennings (my great-grandfather’s brother)

Curator of Sydney Cricket Ground 1899-1911

John Jennings was born in Arbut, Galway, Ireland in about 1863.  He was the third child of Thomas (1837 – 1917)and Bridget Jennings nee Conroy (1839-1908).  As a one-year-old, he travelled to Australia with his parents, and two older brothers Jeremiah (1858- 1944), and William (1861-1931)  on board the vessel Sirocco, arriving in Australia on 28/1/1864.

By 1865 convicts were not being transported to Australia so the colony was experiencing a labour shortage.  There had been an influx of immigrants during the 1850s when gold had been discovered and the lure of making a fortune led to many making the decision to make the voyage to Australia. The journey to Australia was arduous, taking up to four months or more. Because of poor hygiene and cramped living conditions, the death rate was high.  One in 10 adults and one in 5 children were known to perish.  Storms presented a particular problem; when the crew “battened down the hatches” it meant the passengers were confined to their quarters.  For those in cabins this was bad enough for those in steerage it would have been intolerable.  They were confined to their quarters with all the other passengers, in total darkness, with no ventilation and limited toilet facilities.  Seasickness was rife at these times because of the boat pitching in the storm.  

After a short period of quarantine, the family would have been “released” into the care of Bridget Tiernan.  Bridget was Thomas’s older sister who had travelled to the Colony with her sibling Margaret on board the Hilton in 1855.  Bridget had sponsored the family’s migration to Australia allowing them to travel as Assisted Passengers during the voyage.

Initially, the family lived in Pitt Row, Sandhills (which was the area around Nobbys) with Bridget and her family. Sometime later the family moved to the Adamstown area. 

Once in the Colony, the family had four more children Thomas (1865 – 1866), Patrick (1867-1940), Mary (1869-1869) and Michael William (1870 – 1943).

Whilst not much is known about his early life in Newcastle, John’s father Thomas had various periods of incarceration, generally for offences relating to alcohol use, with sentences ranging from a day to a week.  Thomas was always in work however but I imagine his childhood would not have been easy.

On 12/01/1889 at the age of 25 John married Casina Elizabeth Hickens (Kickens)  (1861-1919 )in Sydney. Casina had a troubled background have spent several years from the age of 6 at the Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children following her father’s desertion. In 1875 at the age of 13, she was apprenticed to Mrs G Berne of Bega. This was the year that Mr Berne died under mysterious circumstances. Returning on horseback from an auction, carrying 500 pounds his body was washed away in the Bega flood. The cash was never located but an empty money belt and the remains of a foot in a riding boot were found weeks later. The local bootmaker was said to have identified the boot as Mr Berne’s.  The Bernes’  eldest daughter Dagmar was the first woman to enrol in medicine in Australia at the University of Sydney in 1885.  

In 1899 John Jennings or Jack as he was known took on the position of caretaker of the Sydney Cricket Ground. The couple had no children of their own and lived on-site at the SCG. Family stories and research indicates many of their nieces and nephews visited them there. John held the position till his untimely and unexpected death from bowel cancer on 30/09/1911.

In an article on the SCG “From Horses to Computers – Curators of the SCG” the SCG wicket was credited as one of the best batting strips in the world under John Jennings’ curatorship. 

This was largely due to his introducing covers for the wicket and levelling the rise that had developed in the Randwick end of the wicket area due to years of constant topdressing. 

Casina passed away in Sydney on 19/03/1919. At this time she was residing with a niece at Florence Villa, Cameron Street, Rockdale NSW.