Thankful Thursday - Two heads are better than one

I am extremely thankful for my family members who are fellow researchers.  


Not that they have two heads of course.


It is so rewarding when two heads (or more) get together and solve a family mystery.


I am very lucky to have a few wonderful rellies who I can research with, toss ideas around with, argue with,  ask questions of and they all have their own areas of expertise.


Some are "Google masters"


Some have that "gut feeling" about a person we are researching and that gut feeling is nearly always right.


Some can find a story or document in the most improbable places.


Some can decipher the most illegible scribblings on documents


Some know instinctively when "that photo" was taken or can assess every aspect of a photo and give it a very accurate date within a year or two.


Some are great with dates and others can tell an awesome story.


I am also extremely thankful for the family historians who have gone before me and done such a power of research.


Building on the information already found is one hugely rewarding aspect of family history.


One example of this sort of teamwork that really sticks in my mind was the finding of information for my Great Grand Uncle, George Adams junior.


Christine is my fellow family researcher of the Adams line and we only had a birth year for George jnr. 


He was born in North Melbourne in 1856; the second child and first born son of George Adams and Catherine nee Barry.


From his father's death certificate in 1921 we knew he was already deceased and wondered how he had died so young.


Anyone who has ever tried to find information on a George Adams in Australia will know that you first of all have to claw your way past all the TATTERSALLS information!


I had gone through the Vic BMD indexes endless times searching for Geo Adams deaths in those years.  We left it, deciding he would show up one day somehow.  Every so often it was re-visited.


Christine was searching the newspaper archives and found an article about the death of a young labourer named George Adams.  This death took place at Dookie, way North of where they lived at the time.  We just sat on that for ages.  Then one day I decided out of the blue, as I do, to have another search through the Vic Indexes.  I narrowed down date, ages etc and was left with only a couple of Adams that could fit.  
Interestingly one of these was a Page Adams.  Weird name!   With father George and mother Catherine.  

Death certificate for Page Adams

The date of this death registration was the same year as an Inquest was held for a George Adams.  1876 not only tied in with how old our George jnr would be but it also tied in with the newspaper article that Christine had found ages ago.

From The Melbourne Argus 18th January 1876

With team work we had found our George junior.   A relative we could relate to as being a fun loving Aussie Larrikin.  I would love to have known him.


Now we just have to find his brother DAVID ADAMS ............ arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

Those places Thursday - My Irish ancestors.

Those places Thursday is a current theme for blog posts. 

 As soon as I saw the words "Those places" I immediately thought of my reaction whenever I would purchase or read a marriage or death certificate looking for an Irish ancestors birth place.

All they would say was TIPPERARY, IRELAND, or LIMERICK, IRELAND, or WEST ARMAGH, IRELAND.  

When I was new to genealogy research, one more experienced informed me that a town-land name was necessary.    

Hmmmm, I didn't have a clue on how to find out what town-land my MORGAN'S, KELLY'S and BARRY'S came from.  I went through all the Irish surname maps but with such common surnames what hope did I have.

My great great grandfather, John MORGAN from West Armagh came to Australia in 1855.  Here in 1858 he married Margaret Alice (known as Alice) KELLY who was from Tipperary.

For years I had only Australian information on them apart from their parents names from their marriage certificate.
Alexander Morgan and Agnes Lennon were John's parents.  
Cornelius Kelly and Mary Moloughney were Alice's parents.
  
I managed to find a sister to John Morgan, also in Australia but still no town-land name.

It wasn't until I had searched Trove and came across John Morgan's death notice in the Argus newspaper saying "New Zealand and Gippsland papers please copy".

That sent me off on a search to try and find which family members were in New Zealand.   
I hadn't had any luck finding other siblings and there was only one son, Alexander Morgan, that I hadn't found a death or further information on.

Into the newspaper archives for New Zealand.  My jaw nearly broke hitting the ground when I came across news articles from 1904 for an Alexander Morgan receiving news of his mothers death in Essendon, Victoria!

This also delivered Alexander's uncle, Thomas KELLY!  
 (the name Charles was found to be a misprint by the newspaper)

So I purchased Thomas Kelly's New Zealand death certificate and BINGO ....... there were the correct parents AND the town-land name of Dualla, (was also known as Dually) Tipperary for my Kelly family.   

After finding THOSE PLACES I have moved further and further forward with my Irish ancestors.