Category Archives: Death certificates

Treasure in the Death Certificate

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My family history is full of Scottish immigrants who came to Queensland in the mid-nineteenth century and stayed in Queensland. With that in mind, I wondered why my grandfather’s brother, Robert James Porter, had a daughter buried in the Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney.[1] Robert married Annie McIntosh in 1907 in Pittsworth, and their daughter Gladys Ann was born ten months later on 10 June 1908.[2] Gladys died at age nine months on 6 March 1909 in Sydney. What was Gladys … Continue reading

One very small sentence

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One very small sentence – ‘Brother in N.S.W.’ And so began the search for one ‘William Spooner’ who morphed into one ‘Patrick Toohey’. ‘Say what, that doesn’t make any sense!’ I hear the cry. But it will… be patient… I’ll explain. It was 1856 and that short, nearly illegible line scratched onto the immigration record next to the name of Eliza Butler (nee Spooner/Spunner) ‘brother in N.S.W’, was to lead one merry ‘family history dance’ some 164 years later. Eliza … Continue reading

When did he find out? Did he ever find out?

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It is really important to always “Roadmap Your Records” to know how and why a record is produced as this can give information about the record and its contents. Civil registration in Queensland began at the same time as New South Wales registration in 1856, as Queensland was still part of New South Wales until 1859. Queensland indexes are available online with each index date range increased on 1 January by one year. You do need to be aware of … Continue reading

A Dickens of a connection: tangents and fundamental mistakes

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By Cathie Sherwood. Many of us can often be heard complaining bitterly about the erroneous information in family trees on Ancestry and MyHeritage and elsewhere. We are all too aware that once one person gets a date wrong or has an ancestor marrying the wrong person, that information is copied across numerous trees without any further checking to determine its veracity or otherwise. These kinds of mistakes can easily be made by beginners who may lack an understanding about the … Continue reading

Family history revealed through death certificates

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Many researchers consider it important to trace their ancestors from birth through marriage to eventual death and final resting place. My focus has been more on my ancestors’ birth, family, including parentage, and what they did during their life. As long as I have a date of death or burial, I haven’t always bought a death certificate to find out actual cause of death or sought out a final resting place; UK certificates are not as informative as Australian ones. … Continue reading