Trove Tuesday - James, Francis and Frank

My Duncan ancestors have constructed a huge brick wall that I need to topple. Every so often I return to Trove to see if I can find some clue that will help me identify my 2xGreat Grandfather, James Duncan, whom I believe was born in Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland but I have no hard evidence to prove this. Although I have been looking for him for nearly 30 years I haven't been able to find a death for he or his wife Mary Criggin/Creegan (and half a dozen other spellings).

Francis Duncan b. about 1853 in Moonee Ponds is their son and his son Frank b. 1895 is my Grandfather.

I added a few new items to my Duncan story after a Trove search last night.

Frank was a junior member of the GUOOF.

1905 'Local and General.', The Cobar Herald (NSW : 1899 - 1914), 2 December, p. 4. , viewed 17 Jul 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103839572

The following article tells me that Francis and his partner Harriet Holmes were resident in Cobar in 1900.

1900 'Local Land Board.', The Cobar Herald (NSW : 1899 - 1914), 22 December, p. 4. , viewed 17 Jul 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103834809

In the following article I learnt that Francis did some work for the local council in 1904.

Source: 1904 'Cobar Municipal Council.', The Cobar Herald (NSW : 1899 - 1914), 27 February, p. 2. , viewed 17 Jul 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103845680

(FIREWOOD. It was decided, on the motion of Aldermen Morrison and Padula, that Mr. Francis Duncan be given a  con-tract to cut and deliver 50 cords of firewood at the Water Works at 13s per cord, payment to be reserved to May next.)

This next article provides evidence that Francis was in Byrock in 1891 where young Frank was born in 1895 (we have no birth record for Franks as his parents Francis and Harriet never married).

1891 'DUBBO CIRCUIT COURT.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 9 October, p. 3. , viewed 17 Jul 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28266947

My biggest find was the following notice. As Francis was a labourer I had never looked for a probate file for him. As soon as I can I am off to NSW State Archives and Records to view his file.

1921 'Advertising', Western Age (Dubbo, NSW : 1914 - 1932), 9 December, p. 2. , viewed 17 Jul 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137162973

And the wall came tumbling down....

One wouldn't think that George Izzard was a common name in 19th century NSW but I've had trouble trying to work out which of three possible Georges my great-grandmother, Catherine Molloy,  married after the death of my great-grandfather, Thomas  Curry. A son from this marriaage died in infancy and one daughter, Millie, survived.  My great-grandmother died in 1904 after only a few years of marriage to George and  he subsequently remarried and had more children. George and his new wife raised Millie and my grandfather and his siblings lost contact with Millie and her new family.

Fast forward to the 1950s when my mother was working in Farmer's Department Store in Sydney. A customer noticed that Mum's name was Curry; they got talking and discovered that the customer was Dad's Aunty Millie. There were then a few family get-togethers held irregularly over the nest twenty years or so. At this time  I wasn't into family history.

From their marriage certificate and the death certificate of their son I had deduced that George was born near Mittagong, NSW around 1863. Because I am a skniflint I did not want to purchase more certificates on the offchance they would identify George. Without his parents names I could not be sure which was my George in the NSW BDM indexes.

I was virtuously scanning a pile of docs at my new scanning station yesterday when I came across a letter from one of George and Catherine's descendants to my mother.  I put it aside because I had resolved to concentrate on scanning.

A few hours later when I was preparing dinner I looked at the letter again. It gave the names of two of George's descendants from his second marriage.

After dinner the hunt was on... I opened a few of my favourite sites in separate tabs on my browser. I firstly checked the NSW BDM Indexes  and then dropped into the The Ryerson index for any possible deaths. then I found one of the names, Lynn Izzard, in the Australian Electoral rolls on Ancestry in 1933, this told me that this person must have been born before 1912 (enough time for George to remarry and have offspring). She was living on a farm in Mittagong, NSW. Interestingly there was a George Izard listed above her in the list but on another farm. In a subsequent electoral roll she was living with a George Izard and a George Thomas Izard! 

Trove to the rescue: a search for Izard and Mittagong brought up George's death notice in the Sydney Morning Herald and that confirmed that he was our George via the list of children's names including Millie. It also threw up a link to George's next wife's death notice. By dropping a z from the surname I was able to find their marriage in the NSW BDM indexes.

With a bit more jumping around from resource to resource I found George Izzard's (two z's) birth in 1865. A search on Google found a well-researched site that listed George's ancestry back to a convict from the second fleet ship Juliana and beyond to the Mother Country. I now have a big job checking the sources given on this site. I will upload the Izard/Izzard details to my family site before I check all the sources so that cousins can find me but I promise to go back and source everything.

I was elated when I finally identified old George and communicated my joy to Mr Geniaus (who isn't too interested in family history). He replied "I don't know why you are excited, he wasn't a blood relative", was his reply. I reminded him that this was my great-grandmother's husband.

I did a solo Genealogy Happy Dance when that wall came tumbling down.