International Council on Archives Congress Brisbane 2012

National Archives of Australia

The Ancestors' Geneameme

My contribution to "The Ancestors' Geneameme" - another great meme challenge from Geniaus, Jill Ball!

The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item

Which of these apply to you?

1.  Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents [No, I wish - one day!]
2.  Can name over 50 direct ancestors 
3.  Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents
4.  Have an ancestor who was married more than three times
5.  Have an ancestor who was a bigamist
6.  Met all four of my grandparents
7.  Met one or more of my great-grandparents
8.  Named a child after an ancestor 
9.  Bear an ancestor's given name/s
10.  Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland [Irish & proud!]
11.  Have an ancestor from Asia
12.  Have an ancestor from Continental Europe [Denmark]
13.  Have an ancestor from Africa
14.  Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer [Diary & wheat farmers, Orange to Inverell, NSW, Australia]
15.  Have an ancestor who had large land holdings
16.  Have an ancestor who was a holy man - minister, priest, rabbi
17.  Have an ancestor who was a midwife
18.  Have an ancestor who was an author
19.  Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones [Smith alias Fitzgerald]
20.  Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng
21.  Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X
22.  Have an ancestor with a forename beginnining with Z
23.  Have an ancestor born on 25th December [I have a brother-in-law & 2 on Australia Day!]
24.  Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day
25.  Have blue blood in your family lines [Related to William the Conqueror but isn't everyone?]
26.  Have a parent who was born in a country different from that of my birth
27.  Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth [Bournemouth and Islington - London, England]
28.  Can trace a direct family line back to the 18th century 
29.  Can trace a direct family line back to the 17th century or earlier
30.  Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents [GGGGG grandparent - Edward Turley Smith]
31.  Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X [Jane Maher, partner to Edward Turley Smith]
32.  Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university
33.  Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence [Many, 7 convicts all up. Crimes ranging from fraud, theft, receiving stolen goods, brothel madam, bushranger, highway robbery etc etc etc]
34.  Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime
35.  Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine [AFTC, regional daily newspapers, SMH, Inside History, Irish Wattle]
36.  Have published a family history online or in print [One Family History: 220 years in Australia - http://irishwattle.com/products]
37.  Have visited an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries [Cunningham Creek , home of Thomas Readford in Ilford, NSW. Thomas was father to Harry Readford, the bushranger Captain Starlight]
38.  Still have an ancestor's home from 19th century or earlier in the family
39.  Have a  family bible from the 19th Century
40.  Have a pre-19th century family bible

Cascades Probation Station Heritage Protected :: Tasmania

Cascades Probation Station, Tasmania

A rare part of Tasmania’s historic heritage in the form of a probation station has been protected forever. The Cascades Probation Station on the Tasman Peninsula has been entered in the Tasmanian Heritage Register.

Chairperson of the Tasmanian Heritage Council Michael Lynch said the Cascades Probation Station is one of the most intact probation stations remaining in Tasmania and therefore shows a rare aspect of Tasmania’s historic heritage.

“The probation system of managing convicts replaced the assignment system where convicts were assigned to private individuals. The probation system provided stages through which convicts arriving under the probation system would pass, depending on their conduct,” Mr Lynch said.

“In the first stage, convicts were in gangs without wages or allowances, in the second stage they worked on public works for wages and in the final stage they worked for private employers on a wage basis. “This system of managing convicts was unique to Van Diemen’s Land and was introduced in 1839. Work on the Cascades Probation Station began in 1842 and by 1845 at its peak, the convict population reached 442. “While it operated many buildings were constructed including convict accommodation, the superintendent’s quarters, hospital, cookhouse, bakehouse, cells and school, officers quarters (known as Rotten Row), and workshops. Some of these buildings still remain.”

The Cascades Probation Station was closed in 1855.

“The Cascades Probation Station has several owners, but the largest single section of it now operates as a tourism accommodation venture, directly showing the economic value of Tasmania’s historic heritage through tourism. “The owners of this rare piece of Tasmania’s history recognised the significance of the place and actively pursued heritage listing, and in so doing have recognised the contemporary value of this heritage place,” Mr Lynch said.

The current owner of the largest chunk Cascade Probation Station, Don Clark, said that it had been in his family since the early 20th century. “Before the family bought it in 1915 my great-grandfather, Moses Clark, worked here for the then owner, Henry Chesterman a timber merchant, so we have a strong association with this place,” Mr Clark said. “We farmed this land initially, but since the early 1980s have also run it as a bed and breakfast, and function centre. “We actually initiated the group heritage-listing of this place, as we wanted to ensure it was protected into the future.

The Clark family have converted many of the remaining convict buildings into accommodation, including Rotten Row which originally housed the married officers.

“When we first bought the farm we were orchardists, but with the declining export markets of the 1970s we pulled most of the orchards out and developed a long term future which capitalised on the terrific convict heritage we have here. “We have also created a private museum which tells the convict history and the later orcharding history of this beautiful place,”

Tasmania is rich in heritage and there are many other sites worth travelling for. Discover Tasmania today!

Tuesday, 11 October 2011 - Press Release

[For more information, contact Tasmanian Heritage Council; enquires@heritage.tas.gov.au]

Maritime Heritage - A nation's start and source of its diversity

Ship "James Craig" - Sydney, 2011

"on opening the scuttle in my cabin, I perceived an aromatic odour, as of spicy flowers, blown from the land" - Welcome Wall, Australian National Maritime Museum [ANMM], Sydney.

Last Saturday we were walking away from a farmers market in Prymont Bay Park and we decided to walk along the shoreline of the city of Sydney. We didn't go far before we saw the ANMM's Welcome Wall and it has way of stopping you from walking past. The names of immigrants to Australia and snapshots of their stories holds you, and takes your mind to another time from the 1970s to the start of our nation in the 1790s.

If you're in Sydney, whether as a resident or visitor, then definitely visit the Australian National Maritime Museum and make sure you follow them on facebook or twitter for exhibition updates.

Or sail around Australia with the ANMM! The HMB Endeavour is circumnavigating Australia from April 2011 to May 2012, and you can join the journey! In April 2011, the magnificent replica of James Cook's HM Bark Endeavour started its historic circumnavigation of Australia. Built as a gift to the Australian people, Endeavour will follow in the wake of our earliest European explorers, visiting major and regional ports right across Australia. Find out more and sail away!

Other maritime museums in Australia:

• Western Australian Maritime Museum
• South Australian Maritime Museum
• Queensland Maritime Museum
• Maritime Museum of Tasmania