Family History Mail

Tonight, I started writing my post about the In Time & Place Conference I attended on the weekend. I was not even two sentences in, when Dad asked me to accompany him to the Thai restaurant to get dinner. We stopped by the PO Box on the way, where I was surprised to find a thick A4 yellow envelope waiting for me. As soon as I saw who it was from I could hardly contain my excitement. My cousin had sent me family history stuff! Stuff I knew I had not seen before because we talked on the phone about what documents each of us had a few weeks ago.

Me, literally. Agnes, not Edith. 

I knew as soon as I opened the package that I was not going to finish my planned blog post. Instead, I wanted to blog about one of the many things I received. There are 12 plastic sleeves, some with two pieces of paper, others with three. Basically, there is a lot for me to process!

TREASURE!

I have been going back and forth choosing what to post. I decided that as it is after 10 pm and I'm ready for sleep, to stick with something simple. Ladies and gentlemen, the first photo I have EVER seen of my 3x Great Grandfather David Gill.

L-R: Louisa Jenkins, Harriet Prince, my 3x Great Grandfather David Gill,
& baby Winifred Jenkins. Four generations. Photo taken April 1922.

I'm so happy to finally put a face with a name. David Gill and his wife Alice Wright have always intrigued me. I had seen a photo of Alice before, but not David. He was born in 1842 to Silas Gill and Mercy Catt in New South Wales. In 1864, he married Alice Wright near Kempsey. They had 11 children - Louisa, Elizabeth (my ancestor), Harriet, Caroline, William, Silas, Edith, Charlotte, Alice, Ernest and Edwin.

Then things get interesting. David passed away in Wondai, Queensland in October 1922 at the age of 80. Where did Alice pass away? Melbourne, Victoria in 1926. They went in opposite directions, literally. He went north, she went south. I have no idea if they separated or divorced. I have not been able to find any evidence supporting that. What I do have is David Gill listed in the 1919 Electoral Roll in Wondai and Alice in Melbourne. I also know that they each had other family members living near them. That might have influenced them to move. Will I ever know why David and Alice went in completely opposite directions? Who knows!

Well, I hope you enjoyed that little tangent.

A massive thank you to my cousin for sending me such wonderful documents. I'm going to have a lot of fun in the next few days.

What was the last family history document you received in the mail?

Great Genealogy News!

Firstly, findmypast.com.au are working with the NSW State Records to digitize and publish wills from NSW from 1800 to 1952. They will hopefully be online later this year. This is super news! My Australian side of the family comes from New South Wales, and I have no idea if any of my ancestors left wills. This will be a big help! Check out the article from Gould Genealogy here.

Secondly, the Queensland Birth Death Marriage registry now allows you to purchase a certificate and download it instantly! The digital copies are $20, while a full historical certificate (posted to you in the mail) is $28. This is going to make researching Queensland ancestry much more easier & convenient. Gould Genealogy’s article about it is here.

For me, there is only one ancestor of mine who lived in Queensland - my Great Great Great Grandfather David Gill. He grew up and married in New South Wales, but for some reason, his wife Alice moved to & died in Victoria, while he moved to & died in Queensland. He died in 1922. I’d love to see if his death certificate has any clues about the separation. I went to order his death certificate moments ago, and it gave me this -

Historical Death Image unavailable? Whyy?! Oh well. I guess I’ll wait a few days and check back then. If it’s still unavailable, I’ll order the certificate as per normal.

[13/01/14 Edit: At the end of June I discovered that downloadable images of death certificates are not available for the year David Gill died. I went to the BDM Registry which is in the Brisbane CBD & purchased a copy of his death certificate.]