Category Archives: Family History

Sydney’s First Cemetery – a NSW Family History Treasure

Family History, Uncategorized

Thousands of people every day make their way across the pavement in the middle of Sydney. Town Hall Square would be one of the busiest places in Australia, with people bustling about doing their daily business. What most of those people probably don’t realise, is that they are walking across the site of the Old Sydney Burial Ground, which operated as a cemetery from 1792 until 1820.

TownHall-1TownHall-2

Over 2200 individuals were buried there, most without any headstones. Many names have been gathered by some pretty thorough research and are divided into those who were definitely buried there, and those who might have been. Those who might have been buried there are people who died in the timeframe in which the cemetery was operating, but for whom the historical records are too vague to provide certainty. There don’t seem to be any denominational divisions in the cemetery, in fact, the cemetery was never actually consecrated. There do, however, appear to have been some social divisions – which, given the nature of Sydney’s population at the time, is not surprising.

If you are looking for someone who was in the early military in the colony, and died in Sydney, some members of the 46th, 48th and 73rd regiments were buried in the Old Sydney Burial Ground.

The good news for those of us interested in NSW genealogy is that the names of the people buried (or thought to have been buried) there are freely available on the internet. Just go to http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/history/people-and-places/old-sydney-burial-ground . You will find a very interesting history of the burial ground and, right at the end, the opportunity to download two documents. The first is the list of names of the individuals interred, or thought to have been interred, in the burial ground. The second document, a Word document, is a complete list of the references for further information about the burials.

Not all the dead people are still under there. After the Colonial Government granted the site to the City of Sydney in 1869 to build the Sydney Town Hall, the graves under the footprint of the proposed building were moved. They were reinterred in the Church of England section of Rookwood Cemetery. Later building works uncovered more graves at various times throughout the 20th century. Even as recently as 2003 and 2007, previously unknown grave sites have been discovered.

So next time you stroll across the paving outside the Sydney Town Hall, or rush out of Town Hall station on your next shopping trip to the City, spare a thought for the city’s early pioneers who once were buried there.

What are your experiences when interviewing older relatives?

Family History

Marilyn Rowan - Accredited NSW Transcription Agent

My mother got up this morning and, as is her habit, swam 20 laps of her local 50m seaside pool. Not particularly remarkable until I mention it’s her birthday today. Happy 80th birthday, mum!

As I wrote last time, my mother was the pioneer family historian in our family. She is one of those remarkable people who have an affinity with older generations. As a single 20-something, after her grandfather died, she moved in with her grandmother to look after her. When she married and we came along, we stayed – so I spent my childhood years in the home of my great-grandmother. I didn’t appreciate what a privilege that was until much later in my life. But thanks to my mother and her interest in the stories of her older relatives, I was given a pretty good start in my family history journey of discovery.

Nelson Kids on Verandah

My Grandmother and her sisters and brother on the back verandah of the house where I grew up a few decades later

Extracting and recording the memories of older relatives is probably the most valuable research job you will ever do – and should be among the first things done! No matter how many documents you collect, or how many places you go and buildings you see, nothing will match the richness of the information that will come from listening to people tell their stories.

The Christmas-New Year period is an ideal time to catch up with relatives and make a start. Here are a few ideas to get you going:

  • Make a time and a place, use an audio recorder or video camera (or even a phone these days) and start talking and listening. The less you say and the more they say the better. Try not to finish their sentences, or interrupt their thought patterns. Their reminiscences can take you to places you never even knew about.
  • Have a list of questions to ask, but these are just “starters” really. What you want is to get them talking. Ask leading questions rather than those with simple answers. “What was school like?” is much better than “Where did you go to school?” – although you will probably want to know that as well!
  • Talk to their long-standing friends as well. Sometimes the best stories come from the people who weren’t directly involved – if there are any family skeletons, often times the family themselves simply didn’t talk about it. But other people did!

If your relatives are reluctant, or shy, or uninterested, just visit with them regularly. Talk about old photos, or steer the conversation to people and places from long ago. Talk about your school days so that they will start talking about theirs. Take notes or write things down straight after you’ve finished. Keep a notebook with you always – you never know when you might be presented with a genealogical treasure.

What are your experiences when interviewing older relatives?

What got you started doing your Family History?

Family History

Marilyn Rowan - Accredited NSW Transcription Agent

A few days ago, Sydney Swans AFL player Adam Goodes was named NSW Australian of the Year.

I was driving to the NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages when I heard 702 ABC Sydney interview him about this honour. Goodes mentioned that he was in Adelaide, filming for the Australian series of “Who Do You Think You Are?” which airs on SBS.

He was enjoying the experience and was finding learning about his family very interesting. He said that everyone should find out about their background and heritage; to learn about their forebears.

This got me thinking – many people think about doing their Family History from time to time, but what motivates people to actually start doing their Family History?

For me it was when my daughter, Natalie, was born. I was working for the Commonwealth Bank, and had a year’s maternity leave. My mother had done a bit of delving into the family tree, so I thought it might be an interesting thing to do and would help keep the cobwebs out of the brain whilst I was on leave. The rest, as they say, is history – and 30 years on genealogy has become a large part of my life.

So… what got you started?

Marilyn