DNA analysis: slow progress

My husband Greg and I had our DNA analysed by ancestry.com in May 2016. The results became available in July. Over the last six months I have spent many hours trying to make sense of the results and contacting DNA cousins.

As a way of learning more about our family history DNA analysis has not been very useful.

At the time of testing I put forward three brick walls the DNA testing might help me get past:

• Henry Sullivan (1862-1943), a great grandfather of my husband, was admitted as a state ward in Geelong in 1866 about the age of four. His parents had deserted him. 
• George Young (1826-1890), from Liverpool, a great great grandfather of my husband, provided no information about his parents. 
• Caroline Clarke (1835-1879), wife of George Young and a great great grandmother of my husband, was not specific about her birth and I have been unable to trace her parents, perhaps John Clark(e) and Hannah Sline. She said she was born about 1835 in Tumut. But she also said she was born in Sydney. 

I have made no progress on the history of George Young or  his wife Caroline Clarke.

DNA testing has provided some evidence that the hypothesis I explored for Henry Sullivan's family in my blog post of May 2016 is correct. It adds to the body of evidence which includes newspaper reports, an inquest, state ward records and birth, marriage and death records, all of which point to a connection.

MBH, a descendant of Henry's probable half-brother, has tested. She matches Greg, his first cousin Barry, and a second cousin of Greg's, LB, also descended from Henry Sullivan. My research suggests that MBH is Greg's third cousin,. They share a common great great grandmother but are descended from children of that great great grandmother by different fathers. AncestryDNA predicted the relationship between MBH and Greg as 4th cousins with 21.4 centimorgans shared across two segments.

chart showing family connections of related DNA tests

Three of the test results have been uploaded to GedMatch so that we can look at how the DNA inheritance aligns. However, the DNA from the three samples does not match on the same segments. 

GedMatch shows the match between Greg and MBH as having only one segment on chromosome 1 of 23.4 centimorgans. It predicts their relationship as having the most recent common ancestor within 4.6 generations. By lowering GedMatch's default thresholds I find that the second segment is a match on chromosome 2 of 5.9 centimorgans, a size regarded as not genealogically significant. Lowering the threshold still did not reveal a matching segment shared by Greg with both MBH and LB.

Barry, a first cousin of Greg's, also on the Sullivan side, has tested. He has yet to upload to GedMatch. The tools provided by ancestryDNA show that he shares DNA with Greg, MBH and a third person, IB. Barry separately shares DNA with Greg and LB, that is, Barry and Greg inherited different segments that they share with MBH compared to the segments shared by LB and MBH.

Greg, Barry, and MBH share DNA with a fourth man, IB. IB has a private tree on ancestry.com. Unfortunately he has not responded to my several attempts to contact him. As far as I know he is not a descendant of Henry Sullivan. MBH is unaware of his being a cousin. IB is predicted to be a fourth cousin of Greg's. His tree (865 people) does not appear to contain the surnames Hughes or Sullivan. 

Although it is likely that the DNA matching is for the hypothesised Sullivan and Hughes connections, it is not certain. We don't have enough shared matches on a specific segment to be confident that the shared DNA demonstrates shared heredity.  Greg, LB and MBH have family trees that have been researched over considerable time and go back a number of generations. There don't seem to be any other likely connections between the family trees.

Ancestry.com's DNA database continues to expand rapidly with over 3 million participants to date. Future matches may well provide more definite confirmation of inherited DNA from Matilda Sullivan née Hughes, the mother of Eleazer and probable mother of Henry.

Related post

• Poor little chap

Ripon War Memorial: remembering Vyvyan Hughes (1888-1916)

Yesterday we visited Beaufort, 50 kilometers west of Ballarat. The daffodils planted around the War Memorial were at their best. On the memorial I noticed the name of my great great uncle Vyvyan Hughes (1888-1916).  I have previously written about his war service and death.

Beaufort war memorial August 2016

BEAUFORT'S FINE RESPONSE. (1916, February 7). The Ballarat Courier (Vic. : 1869 - 1878; 1914 - 1918), p. 4 (DAILY.). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74499619

The Hughes family had two sons and a son-in-law serving in World War I. The son-in-law was my great grandfather Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny.

Vyvyan and Olive Hughes shortly before Vyvyan's departure in April 1916.

No title (1916, May 5). Dunolly and Betbetshire Express and County of Gladstone Advertiser (Vic. : 1915 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article152662969

In August 1918 an Avenue of Honour of 500 deciduous trees was planted at Beaufort. The war service of both Vyvyan and his brother Cedric was commemorated in this avenue. Each had a tree.

The Beaufort War Memorial was unveiled in 1927 by Brigadier-General Robert Smith, formerly of the 5th Brigade, AIF. Vyvyan Hughes was one of 70 fallen soldiers whose names are recorded on the memorial.

"BACK TO BEAUFORT" CELEBRATIONS. (1927, April 16). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 11. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3849478

In the Victorian Heritage Database the Beaufort memorial is said to be a one-third size replica of  the Salisbury Plains memorial.

In fact the design is based on a monument called the Poultry Cross in the main street of the city of Salisbury. The Poultry Cross is a market cross constructed in the 14th century and modified in the 18th century.

BEAUFORT. (1920, July 27). The Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article211913472

 The Poultry Cross in Salisbury photographed by Row17 [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

• RIPONSHIRE SOLDIER'S AVENUE OF HONOR. (1918, August 17). Riponshire Advocate (Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119575158
• Monuments Australia: Beaufort War Memorial http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/conflict/multiple/display/30302-beaufort-war-memorial  
• Victorian Heritage Database Report: Beaufort War Memorial http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/126466/download-report

Related posts

• K is for Kanatte General Cemetery in Colombo

A run on the bank in Beaufort

This week's Sepia Saturday picture is a prompt for the topic of banking.


There are several bankers in my family tree. One of them is my great great grandfather Edward Walter Hughes (1854-1922).

E. W. Hughes from Hudson, Helen Lesley Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales ... who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic, 1985.page 81.

Edward Hughes was manager of the Bank of Victoria at Beaufort, Victoria, 50 km from Ballarat. In 1883 when he married at the age of 29, Hughes was working with the Bank of Victoria, though possibly not, so far as I know, at its Beaufort branch. In 1906 he was manager of the Beaufort branch when his daughter Beatrix, my great grandmother, married. His son Vyvyan was born in Beaufort in 1888 but his son Reginald was born in Essendon, Melbourne, in 1886, so I assume Edward Hughes moved to Beaufort about 1887. He retired from his job of bank manager in Beaufort in 1919 due to ill health.

Bank of Victoria, Beaufort, 1890s - from Museum Victoria Reg. No: MM 001094

In mid-April 1893, while Hughes was manager at Beaufort, there was a run on the bank. The branch at Beaufort ran out of bullion and Mr Hughes travelled to Ballarat by the 2 p.m. train for more gold.

A DEMAND FOR GOLD. (1893, April 14). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article193438039

THE BENDIGO ADVERTISER. (1893, April 15). Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 - 1918), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88966637

When I think of a bank run I think of the scene from the film  of Mary Poppins when Michael wants to keep his tuppence to feed the birds.

There was a report that the bank declined to take deposits from some of their customers who had withdrawn their funds at the time of the run.

The Portland Guardian (1893, April 19). Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 - 1953), p. 2 Edition: EVENING. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65442835

The Beaufort depositors in the Bank of Victoria were right to be wary .  On 28 January 1893 the Federal Bank of Australia in Melbourne had run out of cash and closed. On 4 April the Commercial Bank of Australia, then one of Australia's largest, suspended operations. Twelve other banks  followed in quick succession and depositors struggled to retrieve their savings.

On Sunday 30 April the Victorian Cabinet met and in an attempt to manage the financial crisis, decided to close all banks for the following week.

The Oxford Companion to Australian History summarises the crisis:

The drying up of British capital inflow after the Baring crisis of 1890 spelt the end of the over-extended financial system. As asset prices fell and borrowers defaulted, the lending institutions came under pressure.The fringe financiers fell first. Eventually, the banks too began to experience financial losses, falling share prices, and panicking depositors. Thirteen of Australia's 22 banks closed their doors in 1893. All but two reopened within the year. However, all of the survivors had been forced to reconstruct.(page 58)

On 1 May 1893 the Bank of Victoria and other Victorian banks closed their doors for a week.

THE FINANCIAL CRISIS. (1893, May 2). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 5. Retrieved  from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article193419212

The Bank of Victoria re-opened at 2.30 on Wednesday 3 May. (SITUATION IN MELBOURNE. (1893, May 4). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article193417046)

On 12 May the shareholders and depositors of the Bank of Victoria approved a scheme of reconstruction. (THE BANK OF VICTORIA. (1893, May 13). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 15. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article193419451 LARGE MEETING OF DEPOSITORS. (1893, May 13). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 15. Retrieved  from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article193419452)


E. W. Hughes retired in 1919 aged 65. He died in 1922 in Melbourne.

What People are Saying and Doing. (1919, November 13). Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic. : 1885 - 1939), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146472785

I had trouble identifying the building of the former Beaufort Bank of Victoria. In the twentieth century the building, in Havelock Street, was converted to a Masonic Hall. A parapet was added incorporating the Masonic device of a square and set of compasses.  The building has since been subdivided into three flats and sold.

16 Havelock Street Beaufort from Google street view as at February 2010

The Bank of Victoria merged with the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney in 1927. The CBC merged with the National Australia Bank in 1982.


Sources

• Hudson, Helen Lesley Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales ... who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic, 1985.
• Foster, S. G. (Stephen Glynn), 1948-, Aplin, G. J. (Graeme John) and McKernan, Michael, 1945- Australians, events and places. Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, N.S.W, 1987.  
• Davison, Graeme, 1940-, Macintyre, Stuart, 1947- and Hirst, J. B. (John Bradley), 1942- The Oxford companion to Australian history. Oxford University Press, Melbourne ; Oxford, 1999. 
  
• Wikipedia contributors, "Australian banking crisis of 1893," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_banking_crisis_of_1893 (accessed August 14, 2015). 

Related posts

• K is for Kanatte General Cemetery in Colombo concerning Vyvyan, son of E. W. Hughes, who was born in Beaufort and grew up there. Vyvyan died during World War 1.
• Wednesday Wedding : 11 September 1906 de Crespigny and Hughes  the wedding of Beatrix, only daughter of E. W. Hughes, at Beaufort
• The Bank of Victoria in Collins Street concerning another of my great great grandfathers, Philip de Crespigny, who also worked for the Bank of Victoria

K is for Kanatte General Cemetery in Colombo

Vyvyan Westbury Hughes (1888-1916) was my great grand uncle. He was the son of Edward Walter Hughes (1854 - 1922) and Jeanie Hughes née Hawkins (1862-1941). Edward Walter Hughes was the manager of the Bank of Victoria in Beaufort, Victoria. Vyvyan had an older sister, my great grandmother Beatrix Champion de Crespigny née Hughes (1884-1943), and two brothers, Reginald Hawkins Hughes (1886-1971) and Cedric Stuart Castlereagh Hughes (1893-1953).

Vyvyan was born at Beaufort. He was educated at home by a tutor and later went to business college. He had left home at the age of 16 in about 1905. In 1916 he was working as a clerk for the Bank of Australasia in Adelaide. On 26 January 1916 Vyvyan enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in Adelaide. He was 27 years 6 months old, unmarried, 5 feet 6 1/4 inches tall. He had grey eyes and dark brown hair. The only identifying marks were scars from vaccination.

Vyvyan went into camp at Mitcham, South Australia with the 27th Battalion.He was promoted to corporal on 1 April 1916. On 3 April he married Olive Chatfield in Adelaide. She was from New Zealand. After their marriage they briefly visited Beaufort for Vyvyan's final leave

Family Notices. (1916, April 8). The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59383271

Vyvyan and Olive from a cousin's family photo album

The Riponshire Advocate. (1916, May 6). Riponshire Advocate (Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119571400

On 11 April 1916, a week after his marriage, Corporal Hughes had embarked on the Aeneas at Adelaide. He disembarked at Colombo suffering from miliary tuberculosis, a diagnosis later revised to measles. On 28 April he died at Colombo hospital, the cause of death being a fractured skull from falling out of the hospital window.

Family Notices. (1916, May 4). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 1. Retrieved  from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2110704

Vyvyan's maternal first cousin Harry Lawson (1875-1952), a member of the Victorian Parliament and in 1916 the Attorney-General and Minister for Public Instruction, wrote to the Secretary for Defence seeking further information about his cousin's death.

NAA: B2455, HUGHES V W 4658 Page 35

After the First World War Roll of Honour circulars were set to the next of kin of those who had died.

Roll of Honour circular for Vyvyan Westbury Hughes retrieved from http://static.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RCDIG1068874--112-.pdf

Vyvyan Hughes is buried at Kanatte Cemetery in Colombo, Sri Lanka. His grave fell into disrepair but family members have been advised that it has been repaired by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The grave stone has been replaced with a more modern grave stone. This photograph is held by a cousin.

Family stories

In the fifth week of Shauna Hicks's series of blog posts about genealogical records the topic is family stories.

Before we had computer databases, family history was largely passed down by stories.  For example, my mother-in-law had a very clear idea of who her forebears were for several generations and was able to give brief outlines of their lives for ancestors back to the early nineteenth century from the top of her head. I have been able to verify the family history with records, and what she set out for me from memory was remarkably accurate.

On my side of the family, several relations have written family history books thereby preserving many family stories.

My father wrote Champions of Normandy which covers the early history of the Champion de Crespigny family to the time they migrated to England at the end of the seventeenth century.  Among other documents, it is based on a number of manuscripts held by different family members, as well as the registration of the family with the College of Arms in 1697. (de Crespigny, Rafe Champions in Normandy: being some remarks on the early history of the Champion de Crespigny family. R. de Crespigny, Canberra, 1988.)

My third cousin twice removed, Stephen de Crespigny, has gathered an enormous amount of family history. He collected information, documents and stories, but also had drawn up a comprehensive family tree in the early 1990s.

One of the three sheets of the Champion de Crespigny family tree compiled by Stephen de Crespigny

Helen Hudson née  Hughes (1915 - 2005) my first cousin twice removed, was an enthusiastic family historian.  She compiled a book, Cherry Stones,  covering her forebears (which coincide with my father's father's mother's family). I have found it a useful resource and am very pleased she wrote it.  It was published in 1985 and is an amazing effort considering she too had no computer database or access to the material we now have through the internet.  Helen's father Reginald Hawkins Hughes (1886 - 1971), brother of my great grandmother, had collected papers and paraphernalia of his ancestors and kept it in what she called a "tin trunk" which Helen inherited.  The book has much original material such as transcriptions of early letters. (Hudson, Helen Lesley Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales ... who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic, 1985.)

My great great great grandfather Philip Chauncy wrote  memoirs of his sister and his second wife.  These were republished in 1976. (Chauncy, Philip Lamothe Snell Memoirs of Mrs Poole and Mrs Chauncy. Lowden, Kilmore, Vic, 1976.) The State Library of Victoria also holds a manuscript of his journal of his trip to Australia and other family history and biographical notes he made.

My Great grand uncle James Gordon Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1865 - 1938) wrote a history of the Mainwaring family back to the entry of Whitmore estate in the Domesday Book of 1068. (Cavenagh-Mainwaring, James Gordon The Mainwarings of Whitmore and Biddulph in the County of Stafford. An account of the family, and its connections by marriage and descent; with special reference to the Manor of Whitmore. J.G. Cavenagh-Mainwaring, about 1935.) The estate of Whitmore where my cousins now live has never been sold since the entry in the Domesday book but always been transferred through inheritance, albeit sometimes through the female line.

More recently the wife of my father's cousin, Christine Cavenagh-Mainwaring, has produced an updated  history of Whitmore and the family. (Cavenagh-Mainwaring, Christine and Britton, Heather, (editor.) Whitmore Hall : from 1066 to Waltzing Matilda. Adelaide Peacock Publications, 2013. ) I was very pleased to be given a copy of the book by Guy and Christine when I saw them in Adelaide last month.

Christine provides an update on what happened to Gerald Mainwaring (1854 - ?) though she also has not been able to trace what happened to him eventually.  My blog entry deals with him being tried for murder but he was not hanged as the jury effectively cast a ballot to decide his fate. His sentence was commuted to penal servitude. Apparently he was released on licence on May 16, 1894. The family story is that Gerald made his way to Whitmore where his brother Percy (1857 - 1927), the Rector of Whitmore, would not let him into the house, gave him a five pound note and an overcoat and sent him away.  Perhaps Gerald changed his name and returned to Canada. There seems no record of him after that time.

There are lots of other family stories in Christine's book to follow up on and to research further.

In the 1990s James Kenneth Cudmore (1926 - 2013), my second cousin once removed, of Quirindi New South Wales, commissioned Elsie Ritchie to write the Cudmore family history. The work built on the family history efforts of many family members.  It was published in 2000.  It is a very large and comprehensive work and includes many many Cudmore family stories. (Ritchie, Elsie B. (Elsie Barbara) For the love of the land: the history of the Cudmore family. E. Ritchie, [Ermington, N.S.W.], 2000.)

A collection of family history books.

Emma Rothschild, a Professor of History at Harvard University, has studied the Johnstone family in a scholarly history of the eighteenth century in order to gain an insight into the development of the British Empire.  Barbara Johnstone (1723 - 1765) was my sixth great grandmother and it is she and her siblings who are the subject of this book. The source material included the oldest brother's letter book which was in an Edinburgh library. (Rothschild, Emma The inner life of empires : an eighteenth-century history. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. ; Woodstock, 2011.  Book review: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-inner-life-of-empires-by-emma-rothschild-2347490.html)



Among other stories, I learned from the book that in 1759 Barbara separated from her husband Charles Kinnaird (1723 - 1767). He had succeeded to the baronetcy as 6th Lord Kinnaird in 1758. Barbara awarded £130 per year and £100 pounds for furniture. She did not have access to her children. Her husband stated she had committed no crime other than ill nature.

Barbara, Baroness Kinnaird by Allan Ramsay, 1748 portrait retrieved from http://thepeerage.com/p3036.htm . Barbara Johnstone was the daughter of Sir James Johnstone, 3rd Bt. and Barbara Murray. She married Charles Kinnaird, 6th Baron Kinnaird, son of George Kinnaird and Lady Helen Gordon. She died on 21 October 1765

It is a bit intimidating when so much family history has been written to attempt one's own study.  However, I have found plenty more family history to research while enjoying the stories published by others.

Remembrance Day

The grave of Trooper Philip Champion de Crespigny of the 2nd Australian Light Horse Brigade of Bendigo VIC, who was killed in action on 14 July 1918. This is the original grave which has been incorporated into Jerusalem War Cemetery. Photographed by Oswald Hillam (Ossie) Coulson Australian War Memorial photograph B03314

We seldom pause to remember the men and women, including our relatives, who died in the First and Second World Wars.

This short list includes only our closest relatives.


World War 1

• William Stanley Plowright 1893 - 1917
• died 26 March 1917at Lagnicourt, France and is remembered at Villers Bretonneux Memorial
• (and we remember also his mate Johnna Bell 1893-1918)

• Philip Champion_de_Crespigny 1879 - 1918
• died 14 July 1918 at Musallabah Hill, Jordan Valley, Palestine and is buried at Jerusalem War cemetery

• Milo Massey Cudmore 1888 - 1916 
• died 27 March 1916 at St Eloi, France and remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial

• Leslie Leister 1894 - 1916 
• died 20 July 1916 at Fromelles, France

• Vyvyan Westbury Hughes 1888 - 1916 
• died of illness on  28 April 1916 in Colombo, Sri Lanka

• John Percy Young 1896 - 1918
• died 9 November 1918 in England from the effects of a mustard gas attack in France and buried Brookwood Cemetery

• Selwyn Goldstein  1873 - 1917 
• died 8 June 1917 at Loos, Belgium and buried Poperinghe New Military Cemetery

• Walter Fish 1878 - 1915
• died 13 July 1915 at Gallipoli and buried Shrapnel Valley Cemetery

• William Alfred Fish  1890 - 1917
• died 9 October 1917 at  Passchendaele, near the town of Ypres in West Flanders and buried Oxford Road Cemetery

World War 2

• Frank Robert Sewell 1905 - 1943 
• died 22 February 1943 in Queensland of illness and wounds having served in New Guinea

• James Morphett Henderson 1915 - 1942 
• died 11 June 1942 in Off West Africa killed in a flying battle

Wednesday Wedding : 11 September 1906 de Crespigny and Hughes

My great grandparents Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882 - 1952) and Beatrix Hughes (1884 -1943) were married 107 years ago today.

Family Notices. (1906, October 24). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 1. Retrieved September 11, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9656721

When looking at the material on Vida Goldstein yesterday, I noticed that a wedding picture was included in the collection donated by Leslie Henderson who was the young bridesmaid.  The other attendants were Miss Edith Minchin (Beaufort) and Miss M. L. Hamilton (Ballarat). Mr George Perry, of Melbourne, was best man, and Mr Balcombe Beggs and Dr. Dunhill were the groomsmen.

From the State Library of Victoria, item donated by L. Henderson http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/241952

 The book Cherry Stones by Helen Hudson includes a copy of the wedding invitation and a transcription of a long newspaper article on the wedding detailing the wedding and the presents. ( Hudson, Helen Lesley (1985). Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales ... who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic  pages 84-7)

Wedding  - Dr TRENT CH. de CRESPIGNY TO MISS B. HUGHES
(newspaper was not specified)

Trove Tuesday: Vida Mary Jane Goldstein (1869 - 1949)

Vida Goldstein (1869 - 1949) was my first cousin three times removed and stood for the Senate in 1903, 110 years ago. Although she was not elected, she was the first woman in Australia to stand for election to the Federal parliament and one of four women who were the first in the British Empire to be nominated and to stand for election to a national parliament. She was also a key campaigner for the vote for women in Victoria.  She has an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography and also on Trove. (Janice N. Brownfoot, 'Goldstein, Vida Jane (1869–1949)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.  Retrieved September 10, 2013, from http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/goldstein-vida-jane-6418/text10975) (Goldstein, Vida (1869-1949). (2008). In Trove. Retrieved September 10, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-599050)

Vida was a relative from my Hughes branch and I first learned of the family connection through Helen Hudson née Hughes (1915 - 2005) who enjoyed researching the family history and wrote a book, Cherry Stones, which I have found tremendously useful in following up on her research. ( Hudson, Helen Lesley (1985). Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales ... who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic )

Vidal was the daughter of Isabella née Hawkins (1849 - 1916) and Jacob Goldstein (1839 - 1910). Isabella was the sister of my great great grandmother Jeanie (1862 - 1941) who married Edward Walter Hughes.

Last weekend's election prompted me to search for mentions of Vida's political career.  She has been the subject of several books and I have come across a memorial mentioning her name at Parliament House in Canberra.  When researching Avoca at the time of World War 1, I noted that as a candidate at that time only four people voted for her from Avoca; but then again she had not visited the town to campaign.

In 1903 her campaign for the senate received wide coverage.  Trove newspaper search has 353 items in its newspaper database for 1903.  The coverage is across Australia, not only in Victoria; newspapers as far afield as Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, Broken Hill, New South Wales, and Brisbane, Queensland reporting on her campaign.

Meetings were well attended and usually reported on at length with details of the speeches and questions to the candidate.  Here is a short report of a meeting at Echuca in northern Victoria.  It is a small town but she had an audience estimated at 600 to 700.

THE SENATE. (1903, December 11). Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 - 1918), p. 3. Retrieved September 10, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article89494011

Vida gained more than 50,000 votes and ranked 15th out of 18 candidates for the four senate seats.

THE SENATE. (1903, December 22). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 5. Retrieved September 10, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10589115

Vida spoke about the aftermath of the election:
 

A LADY CANDIDATE'S OPINION. (1903, December 24). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931), p. 5. Retrieved September 10, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5025504

My search on Trove found a picture of her I had not seen before.

The image is from the collection of the State Library of Victoria. Their catalogue entry: 

• Title: Miles Franklin [and] Vida Goldstein [picture]
• Publisher: ca. 1900-ca. 1920 
• Date(s): 1900 
• Description: photograph : gelatin silver ; oval image 6 x 4 cm., on double mount 18 x 14 cm. 
• Copyright status: This work is out of copyright 
• Terms of use: No copyright restrictions apply. 
• Identifier(s): Accession no(s) H42756; H42756a 
• Subjects: Goldstein, Vida, 1869-1949 ; Franklin, Stella Maria Sarah Miles, 1879-1954 ; Feminists -- Australia ; Gelatin silver prints ; Group portraits
• Index terms: Australia; women's movement; suffragettes; feminists; authors; Miles Franklin; Viva Goldstein [sic]
• Notes: Title inscribed on mount l.l. and l.r. 
  Detailed view digitised. 
  Miles Franklin was born in Tumut, N.S.W.; published My Brilliant Career 1901; involved with feminist movement; left for the U.S.A. 1906; returned to Australia 1927; died 1954. 
  Vida Goldstein was born in Portland, Victoria 1869; became involved with suffragette movement; ran for the Australian Senate 1903; addressed the United States Congress in 1902; died 1949. 
• Contents/Summary: Miles Franklin is half-length, to right, Vida Goldstein standing behind her. 
• Source/Donor: Donated by Miss Jean Robinson, 1980. 
• Link to digitised item: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/136880 
• Link to this record: http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=MAIN&reset_config=true&docId=SLV_VOYAGER1787491 

I did not previously know of any connection with Miles Franklin, an author whose works I enjoy very much and who came from areas around Canberra which I used to visit often (Brindabella, Tumut, Goulburn, Talbingo). I also wonder of the connection with Jean Robinson, I am not sure who she is, a puzzle for another day.

Exploring further in the State Library's collection I found more items which I must research further to explore this branch of my family. Included were these photos:

Group of people at river, including Vida Goldstein 1885 - 1892. Vida Goldstein - left foreground, holding stick. Col. Goldstein [Vida's father] - seated in centre with a little girl on his knee. I [presumably Leslie Henderson, donor of the photograph] do not know who she is. George Reid - extreme right, standing. From the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/242093

Vida Goldstein at a picnic, probably at Lorne. Vida is second from right in front row holding a paper & with a billy in front of her. The donor of the photograph, Vida's niece, Leslie Henderson (1896 - 1982) did not know any of the other people in the photograph. From the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/242166 

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There are many more items for me to follow up in the State Library's collections when I get a chance.