Down a rabbit hole with the Pusells

As I turn my research focus to my Pusell ancestors I am reminded of a story I read on Trove recently. I am not sure which William or Walter Pusell in my tree this chap was. The article reports on a visit by the Rabbit Controller to a property where Pusell was working.

1948 'MORE RABBIT CASES', National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW : 1889 - 1954), 27 November, p. 1. , viewed 14 May 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161680544

 

This article is a fitting analogy for the task facing me. I currently have 424 descendants listed for the Pusell line in Australia which descends from my convict ancestor, James Pusill/Pusell who arrived in the colony on "James Pattison" in 1837.  As much of this research was done in the days before online databases were freely available some of the my records are poorly sourced.  

Like Mr W Pusell in 1948 I will be going down several rabbit holes as I chase cousins and their details. As well as updating my database in Family Historian I will be correcting articles I find on Trove and adding them to my Trove List for Pusell Deescendants. I will leave a website update until I have done a reasonable amount of  burrowing.

I wonder how many more Pusells I will find or if I will need to lop off any branches ! 

Trove Tuesday - Pusells Gazetted

I haven't done any serious searching for my Pusell line on Trove since the Government Gazettes came on line. For this TroveTuesday post I decided to go looking.

The Pusell mob got quite a few mentions some of which I'll share here . The earliest is for a land lease in Rockley, NSW for my convict ancestor,  James Pusell.

James Pusell and his wife Maria Tucker who were my Great-Great Grandparents had a lot of children to feed!

1875 'Apprehensions.', New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime (Sydney : 1860 - 1930), 14 July, p. 208. , viewed 24 Sep 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article252088065

My Great-Grandfather, James Pusell, found himself in a similar situation. 

1891 'Apprehensions, &c.', New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime (Sydney : 1860 - 1930), 4 November, p. 374. , viewed 24 Sep 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article251638923

Great-Uncle Bill also found himself on the wrong side of the law.

1913 'First Offienders Discharged under Crimes Act of 1900.', New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime (Sydney : 1860 - 1930), 19 March, p. 130. , viewed 24 Sep 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article251644528

It seems as though Great-Uncle Dick wasn't faring too well in 1920.

1920 'IN BANKRUPTCY.', Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 2001), 3 September, p. 5275. , viewed 24 Sep 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224610884

These few snippets demonstrate the value of using Government Gazettes for family history research. These references have provided contemporary confirmation of Names, Places, Dates and Activities of my ancestors.

Trove Tuesday - Mining the Government Gazettes

Recently added to Trove were the Digitised copies of the Government Gazettes for New South Wales from 1832 to 2001. As these are goldmines of genealogical data I thought I'd see what sort of information I could glean on my Pusell ancestors and cousins, It's a very simple search as I think most Pusells in Australia descend from my convict ancestor James. 

The examples below from 1868-1987 show how useful the Gazettes are to the family historian.

1868 'APPROVED CLAIMS FOR PRE-EMPTIVE LEASES.', New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900), 15 July, p. 2095. , viewed 22 Nov 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225723891

The following are links to long lists of names that include Pusell.

1885 'In the Supreme Court of New South Wales. ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION.', New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900), 30 October, p. 7077. , viewed 22 Nov 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219880784

1920 'IN BANKRUPTCY.', Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 2001), 17 September, p. 5596. , viewed 22 Nov 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224611413

1925 'IN BANKRUPTCY.', Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 2001), 6 March, p. 1330. , viewed 22 Nov 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223029471

1951 'Government Gazette Appointments and Employment', Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 2001), 10 August, p. 2335. , viewed 22 Nov 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220008797

1968 'NOTICE APPOINTING TRUSTEES UNDER THE COMMONS REGULATION ACT, 1898.—PROCLAMATION', Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 2001), 26 January, p. 351. , viewed 22 Nov 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219986993

The following are links to long lists of names that include Pusell.

For some different examples see my TroveTuesday post for The Hornsby Shire Family HIstory Group. 

Trove Tuesday - Adding to the Pusell story

Nearly everyone in Australia with the name of Pusell (and variants) is related to me. We are descendants of the convict James Pusill. 

My Grandmother Ethel Jane Pusell (Bottom right) and siblings

As I hadn't done a simple Trove search for Pusell in a while I thought it time to repeat the search. I was rewarded with a few more snippets about my Pusell cousins. I found all of these in The Lithgow Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954)  that must have been digitised since I last did this search. While I was at it I also corrected the text in most of the articles I found.

An obituary confirmed much of the infoormation I had on this family and provided some new leads. As the original article is hard to read I am providing a transcription.

LITHGOW
DEATHS
MRS. J. PUSELL
Particularly well known in Lithgow district where she had lived for many years, Mrs. Eliza Jane Pusell, late of the Pottery Enclosure, passed away last night, in Lithgow hospital, aged 71years.
Deceased had been a patient at the hospital for the past four months and her passing was not unexpected. 

Although of a quiet, home-loving nature, the late Mrs. Pusell had an unusually large circle of friends who will mourn her passing. Born at Bylong, she is sur-vived by her husband, Mr. John James Pusell and one son and four daughters, members of the family being Mr. John James Pusell, Jnr., of Woilon-
gong, Charlotte (Mrs. K. Ross, of Brisbane), Alice (Mrs. B.Hanby, of Auburn), Mary (Mrs.F. Jackson, of Pottery Estate and Lena (Mrs. R. Delaney, of Kurri Kurri),. to whom sym-pathy will be extended.

A resident of the Pottery Estate for many years, deceas-ed did not take an active interest in public affairs, but was a keen conversationalist and was every ready to help in times of trouble. Her value
as a neighbor and friend was held in high regard and she held the esteem of all who knew her.

The funeral has been, set down for tomorrow, being scheduled to leave the funeral parlors of Messrs. Wood and Wood following a service tim-ed to begin at 4 p.m. for in-terment in the Church of Eng-
land portion of Bowenfels cemetery.

 Source: 1953 'LITHGOW DEATHS', Lithgow Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954), 6 March, p. 2. (CITY EDITION), viewed 17 Oct 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223420813

From 1926 I have a mystery to solve - I don't know which of the Pusell girls is referred to in this article.

1926 '"Miss Lithgow" Candidates.', Lithgow Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954), 31 December, p. 4. , viewed 17 Oct 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224582558

Text Transcription for the above article: 

Miss Pusell, has been nominated by the Lithgow Athletic Club, the members of which are determined to demon-strate they have organising as well as athletic ability. They have several schemes in mind which are calculated to give them a good fighting, fund. Miss Pusell has an engaging personality, and this should stand her in good stead when votes are being sought.

There were details of a fatal accident:

1948 'ANOTHER MOTOR CYCLE TRAGEDY', Lithgow Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954), 12 August, p. 2. , viewed 17 Oct 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219740239

I won't publish the 1948 birth notice I found for a previously unknown cousin of mine as I hope she is still alive and kicking. I have added her to my family history database.

This wedding report gave me further info on family members:

1933 'WRIGHT-PUSELL WEDDING',Lithgow Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954), 12 October, p. 4. (TOWN EDITION), viewed 17 Oct 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219557835

Trove Tuesday - Names and Places

One of my favourite searches in Trove is a simple search for a Surname and Place eg I regularly rerun Duncan Cobar and Tierney Dungog to see if I can happen across new articles about these branches of the family in Trove.

This morning I was thinking about my Pusell branch and recalled that they lived in Burraga and Rockley so firstly I put Pusell Burraga into Trove's search box. I didn't get round to searching for Pusell Rockley because I got some valuable new hits from the Pusell Burraga search. 

The first treasure was an obituary for my Great-great Uncle, William John Pusell:

"PERSONAL

The death occurred at the Bathurst District Hospital last night, of Mr. William John Pusell, of Burraga. He had been ill for some considerable time. Mr. Pusell was born at Rock- ley 88 years ago, and lived in the  Rockley and Burraga districts all his life and was well known and highly respected. He is survived by two sis-ters, Mrs. Davis, of Burraga, Mrs.Godden, of Forbes and one brother, Mr. Jack Pusell, of Lithgow. Num- erous nephews and nieces also survive. The funeral will take place this after- noon, moving from Messrs. MacDon- ald and Moloney's funeral parlors,   223 George Street, for the Church   of England portion of the Bathurst cemetery at 3 p.m. today." (1953 'PERSONAL.', National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW : 1889 - 1954), 23 October, p. 2, viewed 10 November, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161710405)

Reading on I discovered that William had been conveyed to hospital in Bathurst in October 1946 (1946 'GENERAL NEWS.', National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW : 1889 - 1954), 1 October, p. 2, viewed 10 November, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161335588) and in 1952 (1952 'MEDICAL CASE.', National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW : 1889 - 1954), 24 July, p. 2, viewed 10 November, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161527353). 

There are too many of these ambulance reports to list but one from 1949 caught my eye as it named Pusell's residence as "Baldridges, Burraga" giving me a new place lead to follow up. (1949 'AMBULANCE CASES.', National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW : 1889 - 1954), 25 March, p. 2, viewed 10 November, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161699439).

In addition to articles about Great-great-Uncle William I found enough mentions of other family members to keep me amused for several hours.

Do you return regularly to Trove to carry out similar searches?

Trove Tuesday - Yet more Pusells

We are regularly advised to return to online sources such as Trove and redo our searches. I certainly remind people to do this when I am giving presentations. So I am about to practice what I preach.

My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Pusell and I believe that nearly everyone with that surname is a descendant of my convict ancestor James Pusell.  I 'll do a simple search for Pusell and see if it turns up anything new.

The first article is a wedding report for Mum's second cousin, Horace Keith Pusell. It gives me plenty of new information to add to my Family Historian database.

1948 'PUSELL—KIRK.', National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW : 1889 - 1954), 24 December, p. 4, viewed 29 September, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161677431

The second entry is another wedding coincidentally it is for Keith's sister, Kathleen Mavis Pusell, to Ronald Collins and it is from the same newspaper "National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW : 1889 - 1954)" which  I assume has been recently added to Trove.

I had previously seen the next few entries on the list but this one from the National Advocate about Terry Pusell was new to me. I wonder if it is the same Terry Pusell that was an Altar Boy at Keith's wedding?

1951 'BATHURST CYCLING.', National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW : 1889 - 1954), 2 April, p. 4, viewed 29 September, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161398438

The next article from 1926 about Mum's first cousins comes from another newspaper, "Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative (NSW : 1890 - 1954)".

1926 'The Pusell Boys.', Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative (NSW : 1890 - 1954), 12 August, p. 28, viewed 29 September, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article155948184

What I found is that ten of the twenty hits on the first page of results for my Pusell search were new.

Isn't that awesome!

Trove Tuesday - Pusells and Pandora

As I am wanting to keep the #trovetueday activity alive and the hashtag relevant I am posting something from our Nation's Treasure Trove today.

Genealogists turn to Trove for newspaper articles but Trove can lead us to many more resources. When I logged on this morning I didn't know what I'd search for but then I thought about Pandora, Australia's Web Archive, that is searchable via Trove. I know that my blog and those of some of my Genimates like Shauna and Pauleen are archived by Pandora.

I wondered what results a simple search "family history" would return in results from Pandora. I got an incredible number of hits, the results telling me there were "at least 1,216 sites containing 793,414 page versions". That's quite a bit of material on family history.

Some of the sites that are archived on Pandora and searchable via Trove

Then I started thinking about my ancestors and wondering if within those results I might find something new about them.....and I did.   I often use the surname Pusell in my searches as anyone with that name in Australia is related to me. So I added Pusell to the search string.

The results can be seen below. The first link was to my blog but the second and third were new to me and haven't turned up in the previous Pusell searches I have done on Google.

The third result was the most exciting for me as it took me to a blog I didn't follow (now rectified) that contained a very sharp image that included my Grandmother's brother, James Pusell, and his son George Pusell. The blog, Old Images of Rylstone District, that aims to "share historical information depicted in photos and images of old scenes of the Rylstone District" has a collection of 690 images.

In the photo I found there are some chaps named Cole. As James Pusell was married to Annie Cole I suspect that these men may be relations.

I need to investigate the second link as I don't know of a Samuel Pusell!!!

I hadn't thought of  the Pandora Archive as a potential source of ancestor information. I have been enlightened on this Trove Tuesday.

Now I need to spend some time constructing search strings for my ancestors with pesky names like Curry and Smith and also to search for articles on ancestral towns and villages.

Australian Vital Records on Ancestry

This morning I read a post,Australian vital records indexes on Ancestry, from Chris Paton of Scottish GENES in which he told of this new index's addition to the Ancestry site.

As I have a full subscription to Ancestry.co.uk I decided to explore the database to see if I could find any extra info on my family. For my searches I used a family name, Pusell. After just a ten minute play I wrote this response on Chris' post:

"Chris, Have just tested out the new Australian BDMs on Ancestry - there appear to be some holes.

For deaths of Pusell there are only 12 records for the whole of Australia; on the free NSW Registry indexes (http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/) that give the same amount of information there are 27 records for NSW!

As for births Ancestry lists 20 (for the whole of Australia) the same number as the NSW indexes list.

Ancestry lists 80 Pusell marriages whilst the NSW index lists 19 male and 36 female marriages.

The lesson here is that one should check multiple sources"

I have set aside some time today to further exploer the Ancestry indexes but am wondering how other genealogists with Australian interests find them.