Friday 27 March 2015

52 Ancestors Week 12 - Same - surname - ADAMS


I'm a bit late with my week 12 post as I have been busy sorting stuff for a possible move.

The only "same" theme I could come up with was for same surnames in both my paternal and maternal ancestors.  This  "same but different" theme will carry over to next weeks post as well.

The surname ADAMS appears in both my maternal and paternal lines but no connection.

In my sorting today I found an envelope of photos that were sent to me years ago by, Edna Coleman, a distant relative on my maternal side.  Unfortunately, I can't remember our connection and I can't find her name in my database.  This post will double as an extra backup.

They are headstone photos that she took on a visit to Norfolk Island.  I do vaguely remember a fellow family historian mentioning a connection to John Adams of the Bounty mutiny fame, but I can't for the life of me remember where that connection lies either.

My paternal great grandfather was also a John ADAMS whose father was George ADAMS.  No connection though.

The John ADAMS (1884-1959) on my maternal side married  grandfather's first cousin, Ethel Christina FLEMING.

His parents were George ADAMS and Amy KITCHEN.

John's younger brother, Ernest Edward ADAMS (1886-1941), married Florence Eveline FLEMING, sister of Ethel Christina. Are they descendants of the Bounty mutineer, John ADAMS?  Perhaps some of my FLEMING cousins can enlighten me.

The following photos are of the headstones of the descendants of John ADAMS on Norfolk Island.
ADAMS himself is buried on Pitcairn Island.


















Tuesday 17 March 2015

52 Ancestors week 11 - Luck of the Irish - KELLY brothers

I am unsure if the phrase "Luck of the Irish" means good luck, bad luck or sheer fluke.


I have read that it is a mining term that can mean any of these. - mentalfloss.com

My great great grand Uncles Thomas and William KELLY had turned their hands to mining.

Along with their older brother, John, they arrived in Australia from Dualla, Tipperary, Ireland in 1858 to join their sister, my great great grandmother, Alice KELLY.

Thomas KELLY headed to New Zealand around 1861 and did 
quite well for himself in his mining ventures.




His younger brother, William was mentioned in the will of their eldest brother, Michael KELLY, as a
 "speculator with West Australia mining"   I am fairly certain William was mining at Muttaburra, Queensland when he died of TB in 1899.
Michael may also have been a miner.  He came to Australia in 1898 to be with his sister just before he also died of TB.  His death certificate stated he was a "gentleman" bachelor from Kimberley, South Africa which is, of course, famous for its diamond mining.
In his will, Michael bequeathed quite a sum of money to his sister, brothers, nieces, and nephews.


  52 Ancestors Challenge 
                                         by Amy Johnson Crow at "No Story Too Small"

Friday 6 March 2015

52 Ancestors Week 10 - Brain Storming - Thank you Allan FLEMING!

The optional theme for week 10 is 'stormy weather' but I couldn't come up with anything to fit that theme so I changed it slightly to 'Brain storming'  to suit a recent article I found on my mum's cousin, Allan FLEMING.  The print is faded and a little hard to read in places so I have transcribed the article below.  
With all the research I have done for my family history using the National Library, to find out that my mum's cousin was amongst those that made it possible is amazing.  I never knew him but I certainly wish I  had.   Thanks Allan!


The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) 12 Jun 1973 

 Librarian to retire - once more

Writing a book might be next

By Gay Davidson

Mr Allan Fleming, National Librarian for the past three years, will be retiring within the next few months from his fifth but, hopefully, not his last career.

At 61 he has worked in journalism, the Army Defence intelligence, Trade and Industry and the Parliamentary and National Libraries.  Now he is thinking of trying his hand at writing.

Mr Fleming began at the Melbourne Argus and went on to the Brisbane Courier Mail.  During World War II he rose from private to lieutenant-colonel, and after the war spent 11 years in Defence, beginning as director of the old Joint Intelligence Bureau and finishing as controller of the Joint Services Organisation.

Then he switched to Trade and Industry, with three years in Paris as trade commissioner, four years in Canberra as a first assistant secretary in international and policy divisions and a further year in London as special commercial adviser.  In 1968 ge became Commonwealth Parliamentary Librarian, and two years later National Librarian.

Does not have monument


Mr. Fleming is not a librarian and he does not have a monument to be remembered by, as the last non-librarian, Sir Harold White, has in the actual building by the lake.

But in the past three years he has achieved a solid organisational structure and has begun the research and the committees to produce a national information policy oriented towards user needs.

When Mr Fleming took up post there was just one level one second-division and five senior third-division positions; now there is an assistant National Librarian (on level two) and two more level ones in the second division, plus 11 principal librarians (class 10) and senior third-division computer and publication staff.

"You can't get anywhere without people in libraries," Mr Fleming said yesterday, "but the more I inquire into the library world, the more it becomes evident that speed is an important characteristic.

'Introduced a computer'


"Information is a national asset and a national resource, consequently there is an increasing international competitiveness about it.  That's where computers come in, in integrating all areas of information and making information quickly available to users everywhere.

"Joint intelligence was an information-processing job.  It required indexing, analysis, librarians, linguists, scientists, engineers and economists to collect, process, assess and control a mass of information - and making sure the stuff was distributed to the right people fast.  So I introduced a computer."

"Now we're looking to computers and telecommunications to do that and much more at the National Library.  We're moving toward fulfilling our national functions of maintaining and developing a national collection of information and making the material quickly available everywhere and we're doing it in modern terms."

The National Library has been doing that job in one specialised area for the past three years with the MEDLARS medical literature and analysis retrieval system service.  Material is gathered in Australia, Europe and the U.S, fed into the National Library of Medicine in the U.S. and is available here through tapes sent from America.

Searching Tapes.


The National Library uses the Department of Health computer for storing and searching the tapes, with its own search analysis converting more than 200 requests each month from Australia and New Zealand into search formulation on subjects ranging from the role of the nurse, in Australia and encephalitis in tigers to heart conditions caused by lightning.

For the past 2 1/2 years an eminent connittee of the library, the Scientific and Technological Information Services Enquiry Committee (STISEC) has been investigating the needs and deficiencies in this area.  Last month it presented its report, concluding that a scientific and technological information service system should not be created in isolation, but, as an integrated part of a total information system.

World authority.


During the investigation a lot of use was make of work already done by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development; a world authority.  Dr B. Tell, was brought out from Sweden where he helped set up a national information system, the library began a research committee with a research engineer from the Post-Master-General's Department to look into telecommunication feasibility and costs and seminars were held at the library to begin an education process on users and librarians.

"It has been possible to take information for granted in the past, but not now". Mr Fleming said.

"The actual mass of information will double in the next 20 years, but the people who are here now will still be here then.

Past methods of coping will not be adequate so we must be getting ready for it.  Already we are seven or eight years behind most of the developed countries, which means most of us are up to 15 years behind in our thinking.

"The size of the problem is such that it needs co-ordination and rationalisation in the collecting and processing of material, and it needs to be done in one central place to make information services easily available without duplication.

"That sounds like empire building, but there's no suggestion of our taking over other libraries - we'll simply be linked in to provide access to all that's publicly available.  We do have the national responsibility and a lot of people relying on us.  Besides we have to explain frankly why we need more money and more staff.  The National Library vote is around six million dollars, increasing by 10 to 15 per cent each year.  The initial handling of information material has to be done by people but the later manipulation can be done by computer and the transmission by telecommunication.  We already have som computer-services costs - so its simply a matter of upping our percentage increase and making the computer and telecommunication investments that are needed anyway."

Increasing the budget may well be the "simple matter"  that Mr Fleming suggested.  The President of the Senate, Sir Magnus Cormack, in announcing his retirement from the Council of the National Library, spoke last Thursday of it becoming "the centre of a system of knowledge retrieval....... hooked into a world-wide system".

And the Leader of the Government, Senator Murphy, went rather further in saying that the alteration in the concept of the National Library was "probably the most important even in the progress of Australia".

"If one were to select a project on which money should be spent", he said, "I suppose there is no endeavour whatever in Australia ..... which would be more important.  There is no project which is more deserving of support from all Australia than this concept of a national information centre which we hope will be fairly soon realised".

In spite of being immersed the new concept for three years and now beginning to see some public awareness of its importance, Mr Fleming is convinced that he will be able to stop, relax and leave it alone in three or four months.

French village


But just to make sure, he is thinking of taking off to a French village for a couple of years, making trips around Europe and starting his first book.

"I don't know what it will be".  he admitted.  "I haven't had time to think anything else through recently.  I suppose it's a bit late now but I did have a plan to move in fast when Ian Fleming died.

"I even wrote the first sentence:  'The son of James Bond slowed his Maserati down to 160 miles an hour and lit a cigarette' ".

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110714168


52 Ancestors Challenge 
by Amy Johnson Crow at "No Story Too Small"

Tuesday 3 March 2015

My 52 Ancestors 2015 challenge list



Following is the  list of my posts for the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" Challenge by Amy from "No Story Too Small"






Week 1 - A Fresh Start - My great-great-grandmother, Margaret Alice KELLY, known as Alice, was one of many other Irish people who made a fresh start in Australia.

Week 2 - Edward "King" HULME - My maternal 3rd great grand uncle was known as Edward "King" HULME.  In about 1891 he wrote a very interesting small book called “A sketch of Life - A Settler's 35 years experience in Victoria, Australia".

Week 3 - Tough Woman - I would call my great-grandmother a tough woman after finding many years of newspaper articles telling of her court battles to get my great-grandfather to pay child maintenance for their two youngest children.  One of those children was my grandmother.

Week 4 - Closest to my birthday - My 3 x great grandmother, Isabella BEATON, is the ancestor whose birthday (day and month) is closest to mine.

Week 5 - Ploughing through - Being an Aussie, my spelling is PLOUGH despite spell check. It is not a plough in the photo, but I'm sure these beautiful animals have pulled plenty of them.

Week 6 - So far away - Mary KELLY nee MOLOUGHNEY - My great great great grandmother, Mary KELLY nee MOLOUGNEY is one I consider so far away both in distance and research results.  So I was incredibly excited to receive this photo of her last week.

Week 7 - Forbidden Love - It is not known how or exactly where Jane and Bernard Riley met, but it seems they eloped which no doubt would have caused quite a stir in her family.

Week 8 - Good deeds Joan OSTER. - My subject for "Good Deeds" is my late Mum Joan OSTER, nee FLEMING. (1937 - 2012)

Week 9 - Close to Home - W. F. Fleming - The ancestor who lived closest to where I live now would be my great great grandparents William Findlay FLEMING and his wife Ann Jane, nee KNIGHT

Week 10 - Brain Storming - Thank you Allan FLEMING! - The optional theme for week 10 is 'stormy weather' but I couldn't come up with anything to fit that theme so I changed it slightly to 'Brainstorming'  to suit a recent article I found on my mum's cousin, Allan FLEMING.

Week 11 - Luck of the Irish - KELLY brothers - The Theme "Luck of the Irish" About my Irish Kelly family from Tipperary and their luck in mining.

Week 12 - Same - surname - ADAMS  - The Theme for week 12 "Same"

Week 13 - My different Morgan ancestors. - Theme for week 13 "Different" I chose to write about both my Maternal Welsh Morgan ancestors and my Paternal Irish Morgan ancestors.

Week 14 - Favourite photo - My favourite photo is of my maternal grandmother, Daisy Marion MORGAN and her sister Clarice May MORGAN.

Week 15 - How do you spell that? - Is it spelt Bartsh or Bartsch?  Probably both.

Week 16 - Live Long - If only she had - 3rd Anniversary of my Mum's passing.
Looks like I missed Week 17.

Week 18 - Where There's a Will - Where there's a Will there is usually a dispute as was the case with the Will of my Paternal 2nd great-grandmother, Alice Morgan nee Kelly.

Week 19 - William Cluff HULME's sticky situation - My 3rd great-grandfather's bankruptcy.

Week 20 - Black Sheep - Only a couple of Black sheep in my lot.

Week 21 - Military - Allan Shannon FARQUHAR - The military service of U.S. Rear Admiral Allan S Farquhar of Ohio who was the nephew of my great-great-grandmother, Janet "Jessie" FORSYTH nee FARQUHAR.   

Week 22 - School commencement - My first school photo at Gowrie Street Primary School, Shepparton in 1964.  

Week 23 - Wedding - Daisy Morgan and Archie Fleming 1932 - My maternal grandparents were married on the 8th of October 1932.

Week 24 - Heirloom - I treasure the "fancy dress" my maternal grandmother made. 

Week 25 - The Old Homestead - I wrote about the Hotel owned by my paternal Irish great-great-grandparents, John MORGAN and Alice nee KELLY of the Cross Keys Hotel, Firebrace Street (now Pascoe Vale Road) North Essendon.

Week 26 - Halfway is Robert FORSYTH - My halfway subject was whoever was born halfway between my earliest confirmed direct ancestor (1748) and myself (1958).  This turned out to be my great-great-grandfather, Robert FORSYTH who was born in 1852 in New Aberdour in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Week 27 - Independent - The American Declaration of Independence took place on the 4th of July in 1776.  As I have no direct ancestors that I know of in America I wrote about an ancestor who was born in that year. According to the 1841 census my 4th great grandmother, Agnes CUNNINGHAM, was born in 1776 in Largo, Fife, Scotland.  

Week 28 - Road trip - After his arrival in Australia from England in 1855, my 3rd great grand-uncle, Edward HULME, wrote about his epic road trip from Melbourne to the Beechworth goldfields.

Week 29 - Musical interview by Allan FLEMING. - I don't have any musical ancestors but in looking for news articles written by my mum's cousin, journalist Allan FLEMING, I found an amusing interview he had done in 1939 with the famous harmonica player, Larry Adler.

Week 30 - Challenging - some of my more challenging ancestors.

Week 31 - Easy to research? - My maternal great-great-grandfather, William Finlay FLEMING, left us quite a lot of information about himself in his interviews with journalists in the early 1900s.  In that respect, he was easy to research

Week 32 - Mary KELLAM - one of my 32 third great-grandparents.

Week 33 - Alexander FORSYTH - Theme - In 1880, there was a special U.S. census schedule for “Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes” — the blind, deaf, paupers, homeless children, prisoners, insane, and idiotic. Do you have someone in your family tree who would have been classified as such?

Week 34 - Nominal Rolls - As 2015 is the 100th anniversary of WW1 my week 34 post is a tribute to my family's brave soldiers.

Week 35 - School Days - Some family school photos and report cards.

Week 36 - Working for a Living - My farming grandfather.

Week 37 - Large Family - 52 Ancestors - Week 37The largest family in my ancestry would have to be my Mum's FLEMING family.


Week 38 - My favourite place to research - My favourite place to research would have to be what is now known as Moonee Valley which is part of the North-Western suburbs of Melbourne.

Monday 2 March 2015

52 Ancestors week 9 - Close to Home - W. F. FLEMING

The ancestor who lived closest to where I live now would by my great great grandparents William Findlay FLEMING and his wife Ann Jane, nee KNIGHT

The ancestor who lived closest to where I live now would by my great great grandparents William Findlay FLEMING and his wife Ann Jane, nee KNIGHT.

I currently live at Bunbartha, William and Ann Jane FLEMING settled at Kotupna, Victoria in around 1873 where he purchased 185 acres.

Kotupna is 30 kilometres (18 miles) North West of Bunbartha.


In 1900 the Fleming's left Kotupna, Northern Victoria and moved to Edi in the King Valley , North East Victoria.

Ann Jane and William Findlay FLEMING. 
52 Ancestors Challenge 
by Amy Johnson Crow at "No Story Too Small"