Laying the bait at FindaGrave

In her presentation at the winter edition of THE Genealogy Show I was convinced by Marian Burk Wood to use FindaGrave as cousin bait.  I had mentioned FindaGrave as a source of cousin bait in my presentation at that event but I hadn't fully explored the opportunities it could provide to reel in cousins. I'm not going to spill the beans on what Marian said; you'll have to find her presentation somewhere or invite her to talk to your group.

Prior to this I had only dabbled in FindaGrave managing my parents' memorials and adding a few odd facts to other memorials. I had previously uploaded all grave photos to BillionGraves and not to FindaGrave; I have reviewed that practice. Depending on time constraints I usually take photos of some neighbouring headstones when visiting family plots.

Since being enlightened by Marian I am adding information and photographs to close relatives' profiles and adding profiles for those missing from the FindaGrave database. Thanks to Marian for her informative presentation and to those volunteers who have willingly handed over management of family memorials to me. 

I am not trying to build up a huge collection of memorials to manage; I have no time for that.  I just want to care for memorials of close family members especially those aunts and uncles with no issue.  

I will continue to add value to the memorials of cousins I encounter in my meandering on the site. I'm now leaving plenty of footprints for others to find.

I had fun linking up my Dad's parents and siblings

Surname Study - Q&A time

My post last week on Surname Studies elicited a long reply containing a few questions which I will attempt to address here.

So.....was your choice of ONS host price-based, or do all the ONS websites do basically the same thing as far as support?

My choice of The Surname Society was not just cost based but that was a big factor. The cost to register each surname study with the Guild is 12GBP on top of your subscription, there is no extra cost with The Surname Society. I had been a member of the Guild for a number of years but realised that The Surname Society was a better fit for my purposes. 

I did not need a body to host my study I needed somewhere to list, describe and promote my study. The Surname Society provides that facility for me.

The Guild may provide more resources but, as The Surname Society is new, it  has fewer resources but the collection is growing. There is immediate help available via the Surname Society Facebook Members' Group.

Have you advertised the study in any magazines or any online methods?

I initially advertised my study via several social media channels and received some helpful responses from genies with Curry connections. I have a Wordpress blog/website for the study which I hope will act as "Name Bait" for anyone doing searches on the internet. Having my blog preserved on The National Library of Australia's Pandora Archive will ensure that the Curry stories are preserved. I have added the Curry surname in Australia to a few Members' Interests lists.

http://curryaus.wordpress.com

Because I am still at the data gathering stage and there are lots of resources, both print and online with Curry information available, I don't see the need to promote widely yet. I need to organise  the mountain of data that I have recorded before I start sharing. I've yet to decide how and if I will publish the database I am developing.

With a less common surname with fewer resources available I would probably promote to find connections at an earlier stage. For this I would consider non-genie print publications like major newspaper RSVP columns and any magazines that would provide free or low-cost advertisements.

Have you written to all the Curry names in the White Pages (for eg) to attract other family members who might have information?

With a less common surname with fewer resources available I would probably contact potential family members via the White Pages etc. but for the foreseeable future I will deal with the list of resources I have and organise the information I have gathered from them. There is so much on Trove that I don't think I'll get much further than the organising stage in my lifetime, that is why I chose the CurryAus blog for my A-Z blogging challenge. 

What are you hoping to find out from other Curry family members? In my case I'd like to fill in some blanks back in Ireland, just before the Catholic records start.

Before I move offshore I want to sort out the various Curry families in Australia and record their stories so that they are not forgotten. Another reason I chose The Surname Society to register my study is because their rules aren't as prescriptive as the Guild (although I think the Guild  has loosened up recently).

Are you combining your ONS with any DNA testing? 

Not yet but definitely on the cards. I found my first potential Curry match just this week and have a few possibles who also have Curry in their trees - I may yet just find some Irish cousins..

Currys Downunder

My maiden name is Curry, I am descended from an Irish convict,  Patrick Curry, who was transported to the colony of New South Wales in 1825. In addition to collecting information on Paddy's descendants downunder I have gathered quite a few references to unrelated Currys.

Some Australian Currys 1970

Since joining The Surname Society recently I have registered a surname study for the Curry Surname in Australia. As I have never seriously undertaken a surname study before I am on my L plates, I have taken on board advice that has been shared in the Society's forums and information on the Guild of One-Name Studies site (I'm a member there too).

How will I go about this?

• I have opened a new project in my Family Historian software into which I have imported my Australian Currys. Several Society members already use  Family Historian for their Surname studies so there is much help available.
• I will add any new Curry references I fins to this project.
• I have set up a Wordpress blog through which I will share Curry stories, trivia and news as wll as reports on my research. This blog which is currently private will be launched early in 2015.
• I already have 8,000+ Curry references in an Excel spreadsheet. I am currently massaging this data so that I can use Colin's free XL to Ged utility to convert the data in the spreadsheet to a gedcom file that I can import into my Family Historian project.
• I will set up a few Google alerts that will hopefully retrieve some Curry news from the web. I will have to put some thoughts into crafting these so that I don't get lots of news about Indian cuisine.
• I will search the various databases at my disposal to find Currys.
• I will see what Mr Google can find for me on the web.
• I will promote my study on social media so that others will be aware of  the study. The hashtag will be #CurryAus and the URL of my blog will contain CurryAus.
• I will use Evernote as a tool to keep track of the blog and its posts.
• Apart from that I will just learn as I go.

If you have any Australian Currys in your tree or among your friends and neighbours I'd love to hear about them. 

I just spent $AU9.35

Quite a few years ago I had a website called Too Hot to Handle: a cyberhome for Australian Currys.

It was a pretty ugly and basic site on which had over 8,000 references to Currys, not necessarily related to me, but who were descended from Australians who shared my maiden name - Curry. I took the site down about ten years ago but kept a copy of  the site and all associated files and spreadsheets.

My old website

I have always wanted to carry on with this surname study but felt that I could not undertake a worldwide study on Curry, a name that is relatively common. I joined the Guild of One-Name Studies thinking that I would register another less common name in my tree for a world wide study (and I might still do that) as I couldn't register my Curry interest with their current guidelines..

This week I learnt of the launch of the new Surname Society that had been mooted on social media, when I read their press release and visited their website I was impressed by how much work the committee had done prior to launching the Society. I like the way that the group is using social media and hangouts to connect with members around the globe and that its committtee is international.  When I saw the names behind the Society I knew that it was in good hands so tonight I coughed up  $AU9.35 or Five GBP to join. Within a minute I had received an activation code  to enter the Members' area on the site which I have yet to explore.

As the requirements to register a surname with this group are not as prescriptive as those of the Guild I think I will resurrect my Australian Curry study and register it with The Surname Society.

Fresh Bait

I've been a little quiet on the blogging front this weekend. I've had a visits to the theatre, movies and the ballet in the past few days that I really enjoyed but I should space these out rather than have them all bunched together.

Today Mr Geniaus volunteered to help me do our Christmas cards and I wasn't going to miss an opportunity to have some assistance, we had done the overseas ones earlier in the week but I was dragging the chain with the local ones. His cousins, friends and former colleagues will get a surprise this year when they see his handwriting on the cards and envelopes.

After completing that task I rewarded myself with some research time. I wasn't doing anything too involved, I was just going though my Curry (my maiden name) cousins, looking for obituaries and newspaper articles on Trove, attaching some missing sources and seeing if I could find any new connections on Ancestry. I found a couple of potential cousins, some clues that helped solve some questions and also a host of inaccuracies.

After spending a few hours on this task I uploaded a gedcom to my family site, http://www.geniaus.net.

Import Completed 

 Hopefully the fresh bait extra names and details I have added will reel in some new cousins.

Trove Tuesday - Burns

Years ago I read in Alan Atkinson's Book, Camden: farm and village life in early New South Wales, about the story of a young Curry ancestor who was tragically burnt to death in a house fire.

When Trove came online I found newspaper reports that gave me a fuller picture of the accident. I won't paste a copy of the articles to this post as their copy quality is poor but I will paste a transcription of this article:

1862 'CAMDEN.', Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875), 9 May, p. 5, viewed 16 September, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60475137

MAY 7TH -FATAL ACCIDENT.- A little child, only
sixteen months old, named; Ellen Currie, daughter of  Daniel Currie, farmer, of Cobbitty Paddock, near Cam-

den, was burnt to death during the absence of her mother,  on Sunday last, the 4th instant. The mother had shutdeceased and another child up in a room, while she wentto the paddock for the cows, and it would seem that theelder child managed to open the door which led to theroom in which was the fire. The poor woman, on herreturn, found the child in flames, running to meet herabout a rod from the house, and so severely burned, thatdeath terminated its sufferings shortly after. A magis-terial inquiry was held on Monday, by W. Antill, Esq.,brother of our district coroner, and a verdict of acci-  dentally burnt returned.

On the weekend I was doing some more Curry research and found an article about another Curry Infant, Doris Maude Curry, who is the first-cousin once removed of Ellen Curry (1861-1862) mentioned in the previous article. Doris was my second cousin twice removed and Ellen was my first cousin three times removed.

1918 'CHILD SUCCUMBS TO BURNS.', The Bathurst Times(NSW : 1909 - 1925), 18 July, p. 2, viewed 16 September, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121229751

And here is a transcription of that article:

Doris Maude Curry, infant daughter  of Mr. Thomas Joseph Curry, of Hope'sCreek, near Oberon, who accidentallysustained injuries through burning, hassuccumbed. It appears that the deceased was left in the kitchen with heryoung brother, aged three years, whilstthe mother was engaged outside feeding fowls. Therewas an open fire in  the Kitchen at which the child's' cloth-ing caught fire, after which the two

children ran to the front door of thehouse, and by their cries attractedtheir mother's attention. Mrs. Curryran to the assistance of tho child,took her in her arms and immediatelywrapped a 'blanket round the childwith the object of extinguishing theburning clothing. A realtive namedGeorge Roberts who was riding past atthe time, was attracted by the criesand smoke issuing from the front door.He assisted the mother in renderingfirst aid, and subsequently conveyedthe sad news to the child's father, whowas engaged at Tillsbury — about four

or five miles distant. The' father returned with all haste, and upon seeingthe condition of the child at once conveyed her in a sulky to Oberon, whereshe was rendered every possible attention by Dr. E. E. Griffiths .Upon' ar-rival at the doctor's surgery, the child  was found to have extensive burns  about the face, abdomen, and legs, andto be suffering very much from shock.

The Gift of the Gab

My ancestor Patrick "Paddy" Curry as an Irishman from Limerick probably had the gift of the gab but, as he died 130 years ago, I never had the chance to meet him.

Fortunately some of Patrick's words were preserved in a Sydney Morning Herald article from  Thursday 8 June 1848. This and many other great stories can be found at The National Library Of Australia's Trove website.

For this 21st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy I am posting a copy of that article in which Paddy demonstrates that he had The Gift of the Gab.

Sydney Morning Herald 8 June 1848

 This post has been prepared for  the 21st edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture

Moving House

As one of my children takes possession of a new house today I got to thinking about the photos of family homes in our family's albums. We do not have many original photos of our ancestors' homes so those we have are very precious.

Tocelebrate the latest new home, of which I already have collected photos for posterity, I am sharing a picture from my Uncle Kevin's album, taken of their former family home in Canowindra, NSW in 1937. Kevin was my Dad's youngest brother.


 

Free access to SMH archive from Google News Archive

I somehow missed last week's announcement that Google had quadrupled its searchable archive of historical news articles.

Included in the new offering is free access to The Sydney Morning Herald archives. Although I cannot find information on the dates covered I have done a few test searches and recovered free articles for the time period 1840-1950.

Although personal notices do not appear to be searchable there is still a wealth of information in the archive for genealogists. In looking for my birth notice I came across an article on November 19,1949 about a relation of my fathers, a linesman who was electrocuted in the course of his work in 1949. The contents of this small article give me lots of information about young Eric.

I am going to have a wonderful day searching the SMH archives. Thanks to Diane Haddad, The Genealogy Insider for alerting us to this news.