Why? Why? Why? Question everything and learn the full story.
I have been researching the Guy family of Madron, Cornwall for over 40 years. During that time, I have discovered all kinds of information about the family of three brothers who came to Queensland in the 19th century at different times.
As everyone knows, we don’t discover everything about a family in a single session. Usually, bits and pieces of information are found as new records are indexed or digitized. Every so often we need to step back and review what we know and what is perhaps still unknown. The question Why? should be running through our mind as we do this.
For example, I knew from an obituary that William Guy and Jane Wearne married in New York in 1875 before coming out to Queensland from the USA. My question was why didn’t they marry in Cornwall? Did they elope? Why not come straight out to Queensland and join other family members?
Remember too to look for images and photographs. This image of New York City in 1865 totally stunned me. I think I had a perspective that it would be like Brisbane in 1865. But no, it had been settled for far longer than Brisbane. The density of living even back then was amazing and that concept could only be understood by looking at a map like this.
New York City 1865 by John Bachman. Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Back to the Guy family story. Just recently these New York marriages were indexed and digitized on MyHeritage. Would this finally answer my question as to why they married in New York? While Jane had an address in New Jersey, William Guy was listed as a miner in Colorado. Obviously, he had gone from Cornwall to the USA for employment and when he was settled, he sent for Jane, and they married.
William must also have been in contact with his brother George Guy in Copperfield, Queensland. George was a successful miner and his obituary revealed that he had also mined in New Caledonia. After the decline of the Copperfield mining field, William and Jane raised their family in nearby Clermont while George took his family north to Charters Towers.
Christoe Street, the main street of Copperfield, 1876. Public Domain. State Library of Queensland
Another brother, James Guy, also came to Queensland. The only way I discovered this was a legal notice about probate in a Brisbane newspaper. He had not married and died in a mining accident. The name of his brother George Guy of Charters Towers and his mother Eliza Guy in St Just in Cornwall in the probate notice was evidence that he was part of this family. Eliza never came out to Australia but from the document trail, we know that she kept in touch with her sons.
George Guy’s wife Elizabeth Trevaskis nee Rosewarne had several siblings come out to South Australia and Queensland from St Hilary in Cornwall. In this instance I became aware of this through correspondence with others researching the same direct descendants. Researching collateral lines can provide more information on a family and even photographs if you are lucky.
Did more than one of your family members emigrate to Australia? Have you looked?
Pick one of the families you are researching and review what you know about them. Why did they come out? Was anyone else with them? Have you looked for a will or probate document? What about an obituary? Any newspaper references? Was the family mentioned in a published local history?
Cornish miners. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
How many questions can you think of asking in this review? For example, what did Cornish miners look like would be one of my questions? What was it like in the mines? In the drawing to the right, I was intrigued by their mining hats and what was on the top. A candle, what else? How could they see below ground without a candle? Not sure I could go about my daily tasks with a lit candle on my head.
Now for the hard part. How many of your review questions could you answer and how much more information on the family do you have from the review process?
Researching is the part of family history that I most love. Finding out the last little detail about my families and how they lived their lives in both Australia and overseas. Research needs to be focused and that brings us back to the Why question. One family at a time, even if you have multiple families from the same place.
Try this focused approach and learn more about your ancestors. Good luck.
Great blog Shauna and continual questioning is the key. You never know when or where that vital piece of information is going to turn up. Happy researching.
Thanks Andrew patience is definitely needed but can pay dividends
This is great Shauna. Sometimes I hesitate to take a deep dive, knowing I’ll be down there for quite some time. However, the concentrated research, over time, is so satisfying when you find the answer.
Thanks Dianne it’s often the little bits of information that help to tell the whole story
Yes but I want to write too. If I don’t stop researching and start writing, I might run out of time to write the stories for my grandkids. Such a problem!
Thanks Di totally agree but I am doing my review as part of my writing process one last look before I finish the chapter on them
Yes Shauna, i do that too and then get carried away again! Fun!
You have nailed my same problem Di. For me, the hunt and the discoveries are the most exciting part of my research. The labeling, sorting and filing, not so much. For every person, i have an on-going story evolving in my head. Getting it to paper, not happening often enough..
and shauna, you are right. I might not have phrased it all in my head as “why?”, but the stories, the photos, the background, eg maps and land records, all of these flesh out the picture of who these interesting and long-gone people were.
Hi Julie yes my favourite thing is the research not the more boring paperwork. By writing up their stories I feel that I know them better and can easily see missing information. Keep having fun
Shauna
Thanks for this reminder, Shauna. I have been so obsessed with proof, only looking for records, that I’ve neglected this bigger picture of ‘why?’, when researching my late wife’s ancestors. However, even the records can be wrong, so at least I have asked ‘why?’ in these cases. For example why did my subject not have his mother’s name on his Marriage Certificate? He was only six-and-a-half when she died, so perhaps he just could not remember her name. And why did his wife have an incorrect place of her birth on their Marriage Certificate? As it was Sheerness, she may have assumed it was Scotland because her father was a Scot. However, she is clearly shown with her family at one month old in the 1861 England Census in Sheerness, Kent.
Thanks Ross. They can be many answers to the why. When mothers die young, children often only remember their step mother. It’s common to get place names wrong so really important to try and get as many sources as possible to piece together the whole story.
Thanks Di it is important to have fun and the thrill of the chase is what keeps me going.
Shauna, Trinity Church was and is quite a church, an important place of worship in New York City, then and now. Of all the places to get married in 1875, why and how did Guy and Jane choose Trinity? Really enjoyed your thought-provoking post.
Hi Marian
Thanks for the info on the church and I have to say that is one question I haven’t asked. Why did they marry there?
More research needed in the never ending search for our family history.
Shauna