Dropping in on Emily

I started writing this blog post on my smartphone last Monday when we were on a roadtrip in country NSW. I had intended tidying it up on my laptop before posting that evening but I forgot to pack my computer. As I found the post difficult to tart up on my phone I put it aside until we returned home.

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Mr GeniAus and I are currently motoring south along the motorway and I am attempting to draft a blog post on my phone.

On the way to our  destination we stopped into Liverpool General Cemetery and Crematorium to visit the grave of Emily Ball nee Royds. Mr GeniAus' Great-Grandmother. A few years ago when we first located her grave we discovered that it was unmarked. We discussed this and decided that we would like to place a memorial on the plot.

It took us a while but around 2016 we approached the cemetery authorities asking for permission. We submitted copies of relevant certificates that showed Robert's relationship to Emily. The cemetery replied that we needed the approval of the plot's owner  (who happened to be buried a couple of rows from Emily). We did find as living descendant of the plot owner who had no objection. We then contacted a monumental mason who was happy to undertake the work for us.

After quite a bit of deliberation we chose a simple plaque and appropriate wording. Around a year ago the monumental mason let us know that the plaque had been placed on Emily's plot.

Since moving house we haven't had an opportunity to visit the cemetery and inspect the plaque. Today as we were motoring south we took a small detour and dropped in on Emily. On seeing the plaque that mentioned birth and death dates, maiden name and place of birth I commented that it looked like a genealogist had input into the information shared on the plaque. Hopefully, in the future, it may help some other genies who are connected to Emily.

While at the Cemetery I also took a couple of dozen photos and uploaded them to BillionGraves. I was on a tight time schedule or I would have added more.

A First Cousin Once Removed

Some time last year when Mr GeniAus tracked down the contact details of his father's first cousin he immediately contacted her by 'phone and asked would she mind if we visited some time.  Then life got in the way.

Finally on Sunday we made our way up the motorway to the Port Stephens region where the cousin resides. We had armed ourselves with some ancestor charts, a narrative on some of her Ball ancestors, copies of photos and some chocolate biscuits. Can you believe I left my camera behind in our accommodation in Newcastle? Luckily Mr GeniAus and I both had our mobile 'phones. I had my laptop in the car but didn't take it into the house initially as I didn't want to overwhelm this octogenerian. 

Mr GeniAus' Grandfather - there is a strong family resemblance

We organised our arrival for 10:00 am so the cousin wouldn't feel obligated to feed us. Of course we stayed longer and enjoyed lunch with the cousin and her husband. The cousin was most interested in her family history but didn't have any certificates or documents to share. She corroborated stories we had heard and gave us some names and dates that provided enough clues to track down references for some BDMs  and burials. She was able to help us identify some family members in our photos and we set her straight on one she had mislabelled. 

It was a Win-Win day - we came away with images of two studio photographs of Mr GeniAus' Great-grandmother one of which was with his Grandfather. This was so special because the only photos we have of these two are a couple of blurry amateur images. The cousin was delighted because of the documents we had prepared for her. 

The icing on the cake was when I fetched my computer from the car and read the cousin an account of her parents' wedding I had found on Trove. When we got home Mr G printed off a hard copy and have mailed it to her with a copy of her Grandmother's will.

I had a fun day today going through the notes and finding references including articles from Trove to add to my database.

Collaboration Rocks.

A New Title in My Genealibrary

As I was doing the Christmas shopping I spotted a book about Australian rock band, Powderfinger. I considered buying it for my son who is a fan of the band but I bought it for my Genealibrary. The book's RRP is $AU45 and I would probably have passed it by at that price. It was on sale at QBD Books for $AU14.95, a more palatable price.

ISBN: 9780733628825

Are you wondering why I bought this for my Genealibrary? 

Not long ago we discovered from a newly found elderly cousin that Mr GeniAus is related to band member,  Darren Middleton. My genealogy software tells me that Darren is Mr GeniAus' second cousin once removed. They are descended from John James Ball and Emily Royds.

This book has a chapter about Darren that contains plenty of information about his life.... true Geneagold!

You can see why I just had to buy it.

Great-Granny in the Minutes

Liverpool Regional Museum Research Facility

Last week Mr GeniAus and I travelled out to Liverpool in search of information on his Great-Grandmother, Emily Ball (nee Royds). We had found many articles about her activities in Trove and expected that we might find some maps, photographs or mentions in the collections at The Liverpool Regional Museum or at Liverpool 's Heritage Library.

The people who assisted us were very helpful and showed a lot of interest but we found very little to add to our knowledge of Emily. While at The Museum we did discover from an index to the Rates Books that Emily owned several properties in the area but we were not able to access the Rates Books to seek further information. Apparently they are suffering from "Red Rot".

While there we also had a chat with Jennifer from The Liverpool Genealogy Society which shares the building with the Museum. I was impressed by their tidy, well organised and wekk resourced premises.

Mr GeniAus with Rate Book Index 

Our next stop was the library, a huge building in Liverpool's main street. I had visited the library when it first opened in the late 90s and remember saying that it reminded me of an RSL club on steroids, the gaudy decor has faded over the years but is still gross.

The staff we encountered were helpful but they had not been able to find any relevant photographs for us and, as the maps that might have been useful are uncatalogued and in map drawers somewhere, we were not able to access them. As we were preparing to leave a staff member who had been on the periphery of our conversation asked did we know that the old Council Meeting Minute Books had been digitised, were online and were searchable. She showed us how to access them and did a preliminary search for Ball.

When we hit home Mr GeniAus fired up his laptop and went through the minute books. He hit gold. Searches of each of the files showed that Emily, who lived in the area for over 30 years, had many dealings with Liverpool Council, each of these instances added a little more detail to her story.

The lesson here is to ask if the Minute Books from your ancestors' Local Government areas have been digitised. You never know what you might find.

In Search of Emily

I don't know why I have never gone looking for Mr Geniaus' Great-Grandmother's grave but I hadn't until yesterday.

Emily's plot

Before we motored home from our trip to Wagga Wagga I checked my database to see if there were any country cemeteries I needed to visit but there were none within 50km of the motorway. We were approaching the southern outskirts of Sydney when I thought of Emily Ball (nee Royds), Mr Geniaus' Great-Grandmother, so I suggested we take a detour via Liverpool Cemetery to find Emily's grave.

This smallish cemetery has a rather modern office, lots of new mausoleums, some older graves and a computerised grave locating kiosk. We quickly found that Emily was buried in Anglican Section B, Row 5, Grave 79. Finding the grave was another matter; the cemetery office gave us a paper diagram that gave the location of various sections in the cemetery but no further details; there is no signage to help one decide which section or row is which.

We identified a few possibilities for Row 5, Grave 79 and none of them had a headstone or marker. By a process of elimination (to identify the rows we noted names on adjoining plots, drove back to the office and entered them in the kiosk) we found Emily's unmarked plot. It's such a disappointment when one finds an unmarked grave; one feels sort of cheated.

I had thought that Emily was buried with a male that I couldn't link to the family. When I got home I checked my files for the reference to that information. In

• Liverpool General Cemetery Volume 2 published by The Liverpool &​ District Family History Society Emily is recorded as being in Grave 74 with Sydney James Williams and her plot, Number 79 is shown as having no records. As a result of this error I had spent a few frustrating hours some time ago trying to connect Mr Williams with the Balls. No wonder I had no success. 

Emily's entry in The Liverpool General Cemetery Index from Liverpool & District Family History Society

• It just goes to show that one mustn't rely on one source. 

We had better luck finding the grave of Emily's daughter, Emily Deadman (nee Ball) and her husband, Eric Gladstone Deadman. It had a headstone that we were unable to clean as we were not equipped for a cemetery trip. 

I am also sorry that my devices were running low on power and I was unable to use them to photograph some graves for BillionGraves.

It's just like a box of chocolates...

...which should I take first?

You may have noted that the Geniaus blog has been quiet over the past few days.

On the weekend we visited for the first time an elderly cousin of Mr Geniaus. She has been into genealogy for a number of years but, due to failing sight, is unable to devote much time to her hobby. She shared her cache of certificates and photos with us and told us a number of family stories in our two visits that we have recorded on a voice recorder. I have come away with more work to do as Mr Geniaus volunteered my assistance in solving a mystery for her!

Mr Geniaus was thrilled that she had two group photos that included his great-grandmothe, Emily Royds. We had not seen a photo of Emily previously.

Late last week I was contacted by Marilyn who shares my Kealy descendants. She had been visiting my website and noticed some holes in my data. Marilyn contacted me with further information and an offer of photos and documents, these started to arrive in a series of emails on Monday. I have yet to examine the goodies Marilyn has shared.

As I am interested in following my grandchildren's family lines for them I sought out a pertinent book, Recollections of childhood : memories of the Holroyd girls / [compiled by Marilyn Pidgeon & Margaret Flynn], on my visit to The National Library of Australia last year. Unfortunately when I put in a request to see this item I was told that the book could not be found and is presumed missing fromt the collection. On their recent visit to Tasmania my daughter and son-in-law were given a copy of this book that they have lent to me this morning.

It is just like being faced with a chocolate box full of my favourites. Which flavour should I savour?

Genealogy - how sweet it is.