Learning more about German genealogical research

My mother, born in Berlin, now an Australian, still has a few German family documents, and for me these have been a valuable source of information about my German forebears, her side of the our family. However, most of what I know about about my German ancestors I learned directly from my German grandfather, who was happy to answer my family history questions. When I started researching this branch of the family I also found some good leads in the International Genealogical Index (I.G.I.) microform indexes prepared by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Researching German sources from Australia is difficult, of course, and there is much more information online about our British forebears. So I look forward to attending a day's session in August about German genealogical resources and methods for Australian researchers, hosted by Unlock the Past. The main speaker will be Dirk Weissleder, a genealogy consultant, who is national chairman of the Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft genealogischer Verbände e.V. (D.A.G.V.) (at http://www.dagv.org), the umbrella organisation of the genealogical and heraldic associations in Germany. He is President of the Federation of Family Associations (Bund der Familienverbände, BdF). Herr Wiessleder has written extensively about genealogical research in Germany. See, for example, http://www.forum-familiengeschichte.de/haus-der-genealogie-hdgen/.

In Melbourne Herr Wiessleder will be speaking about primary and secondary resources on genealogy in German and about European research generally. He will also be talking about the International German Genealogical Partnership, https://iggpartner.org/about.php, and on archives, libraries and institutions for genealogical researchers in Germany.

Herr Weissleder will speak in Melbourne on Saturday 19 August.

The Roadshow costs $57 for a single day if the ticket is purchasedahead of time, or $60 on the day. On Friday 18 August, a Scottish researcher, Chris Paton,  will be speaking on British Isles research. A combined ticket for the two days is $90. Herr Wiessleder will also be visiting Brisbane, Auckland, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth.

 ---
Disclosure: I have accepted the opportunity to participate in the Unlock the Past Researching Abroad Roadshow 2017 as a Roadshow Ambassadress and agreed to promote the Roadshow in return for free entry. I will write again after the session on what I have learned.

DNA testing results one year on

To see what DNA testing might show about our family history, in June last year my husband Greg and I submitted samples of our DNA to Ancestry.com for autosomal DNA analysis. Greg also took a Y-DNA test through the Family Tree DNA company.

What did I hope to learn?

I had no particular questions about my side of the tree that I thought DNA tests might answer, though I did hope that I might find some of my relatives on my mother’s side who, I had been told, had emigrated from Germany to the USA.

My mother was born in Berlin. After WWII when there wasn't enough to eat, food parcels addressed to her family began to arrive from the United States, sent---she was told---by her American cousins.  When I talked to her about my DNA testing she was a little sceptical but she thought it would be interesting to trace her American relations.

On Greg’s side of the tree there were some dead ends that I hoped DNA analysis might provide a way around. In May 2016 I blogged about these in a post [Poor little chap], with a hypothesis about the parents of Greg’s great grandfather Henry Sullivan (1862-1943).

When our test results came back I quickly found some meaningful matches on Greg’s tree. Some of his cousins had tested too, and we were able to make links between our pre-DNA trees and the DNA information.

I started a spreadsheet to record these matches and, to confirm the links I had found, I sent messages through AncestryDNA's system to people who appeared to have matching results.

My spreadsheet has these fields:

• Who took the test - me, my husband, a cousin
• Match name and/ or Nickname (for Ancestry, GEDmatch, My Heritage, 23andMe alternate names)
• Company or companies testing
• point of contact – sometimes the kit is managed by someone other than the person who provided the sample
• Email address for match or contact
• Received – when I receive a message or email to help me remember and track messages
• Notes – always a handy field
• Line, if known, or grouping of tests- family line, sometimes I know the line from shared matches or other clues, otherwise I can group tests which share matches
• MRCA (Most Recent Common Ancestor) – I enter the 2 surnames of the couple I also use Ahnentafel numbers at the beginning of the field which are handy for sorting generations
• Cousin (cousinship) – eg: 3C or 4C-1R
• estimated relationship
• shared surnames
• linked tests (shared matches)
• Tree – copy in the URL of any tree or site for the match’s tree
• GEDmatch ID number of match
• Chromosome summary
• GedMatch Autosomal Comparison - copy and paste from the Gedmatch comparison (this can get a bit lengthy and detailed so I don't always include it)

A screenshot of the first 11 rows of my spreadsheet where I track matches. I sort the spreadsheet on most recent common ancestor and since the Ahnenetafel number is used to begin the field, the spreadsheet is sorted with more recent ancestors first. (click on image to enlarge)

I also used the 'Notes' field on AncestryDNA when I had contacted the match and added a star to matches so that I could see at a glance who I had contacted, when I contacted them, and the likely match.

A screenshot of an AncestryDNA match where our trees correspond and the most common recent ancestors are identified. There is a yellow star on the top left hand side of the screen which can be used to identify matches of interest. The notes field in the middle of the screen can be used to summarise contact, GedMatch numbers and likely shared ancestry.

A screenshot of a DNA match where our trees on ancestry do not intersect. In fact I have identified the most common recent ancestors through correspondence with another cousin and shared DNA. Although I messaged using the green "Send Message" button in the top right hand corner, the cousin did not reply. I also unsuccessfully used the brown "Contact" button on the top right of the screen for the Ancestry Profile - see screenshot below.

Initially my DNA matches meant nothing to me. There seemed to be little connection between my DNA matches and my document-based tree.

However, over the last year I have received replies from people we share DNA with, and have been able to compare our family trees and determine where they intersect. For many of these matches, I have been able to draw some conclusions as to our likely most recent common ancestors, particularly when several of us share the same DNA and have intersecting document-based trees. So far we have more than 30 matches where we can identify the most recent ancestors we share.

DNA has added to the evidence I have used to build and document my family tree. To date I have not found any DNA-based evidence which suggests my document-based tree is inaccurate. Unfortunately I have yet to find any cousins sharing DNA on my mother's side of the family.

Our family tree showing points on the tree where we have common ancestors with  cousins who  share DNA. (You can click to enlarge, but the tree has been reduced in size and individual forebears are not legible)

Related posts

• Poor little chap - considering what we might learn from testing our DNA
• DNA analysis: slow progress
• DNA analysis: taking the tree back two generations
• DNA analysis: matching the DNA results to the"paper tree"

The Legal Genealogist observes in her post of July 2 2017 That YDNA lament "you can't be matched to somebody who hasn't tested" and that there are good reasons for the lack of German DNA matches to date.

Five books I refer to constantly when researching my family history

Jill Ball has suggested writing about five books  especially useful in your family history research.


One of my favourites is the Road to Divorce: England 1530-1987 by Lawrence Stone. Stone's insights on marriage and divorce at different times in history have helped me enormously.

I referred to The Road to Divorce extensively when I was trying to understand the 1849 divorce of my great great great grandmother Charlotte Champion de Crespigny née Dana formerly James. In those days divorces were heard in two courts, the Court of Arches plus a suit for criminal conversation brought before the Queen's Bench,  and also required an Act of Parliament by means of presenting a private bill before the House of Lords. It was extremely expensive to go through the process, and there were only about four divorces a year in England.

In 1987 Fairfax, Some and Weldon published Australians: A Historical Library. While there have been criticisms of the series, for example a 1988 review by Jenny Lee, I have gained a lot from the Historical Statistics volume edited by Wray Vamplew and to lesser extent to of the Events and Places volume. The statistics volume was useful to me when I was trying to understand more about the age at which women marry.

A most encouraging statistical picture of the reduction in the deaths as a result of pregnancy between 1908 and 1980 (click on image to enlarge). 

some statistics on education (click on image to enlarge)

I have often referred to Angus Watson's Lost & Almost Forgotten Towns of Colonial Victoria. I cited it in my post on Carngham. I bought this book direct from the author some years ago. It is now selling on-line for five times what I paid for it.

The page referring to Lamplough - there is a lot of history in the few facts and statistics. (click to enlarge)

I think reading about the context of our ancestor's lives can be most illuminating.  At the moment I am reading London in the 18th century: A Great and Monstrous Thing by Jerry White. I borrowed it first from the library in an attempt to curtail my spending on books - but had to own it, it is so full of information and well written.

My husband Greg is reading Michael Cannon's The Land Boomers which was passed recently to me by my father. He says it is fun. My turn next.

I constantly refer to the family histories written by my relatives. As a way of passing on family history, nothing beats a book!

Some of the family history books written by my relatives

I use LibraryThing to keep track of my books and  the books in my study are organised by the Dewey system.

So many books! So much reading! 

Greg tells me however, that the Chinese say, 书山有路勤为径，学海无涯苦作舟, which means, roughly, 'There is a path through the mountain of books. Work hard to find the way. The ocean of learning has no limit. Work hard to build a boat.'

Related posts

• Divorce of John James and Charlotte Frances née Dana
• N is for Naval husbands
• Carngham
• Family stories

Books

• Stone, Lawrence Road to divorce : England 1530-1987. Oxford University Press, Oxford ; New York, 1990. Work identifier on Trove: http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/18069829
• Australians, a historical library. Fairfax, Syme & Weldon, Broadway, N.S.W, 1987. Work identifier on Trove: http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/13063651
• Watson, Angus B Lost & almost forgotten towns of colonial Victoria : a comprehensive anaysis of census results for Victoria, 1841-1901. Angus B. Watson and Andrew MacMillan Art & Design, [Victoria, Australia], 2003.  Work identifier on Trove: http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/11091065
• White, Jerry London in the eighteenth century : a great and monstrous thing. London Vintage Books, 2013.  Work identifier on Trove: http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/163988431
• Cannon, Michael The land boomers. Melbourne Univ. Pr, Sydney, 1967.  Work identifier on Trove: http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/191686018

References

• Steedman, C. (1990). Vomiting in the marital bed. [Review of the books Road to Divorce, England 1530-1987 and Late Victorian Britain, 1875-1901.] London Review of Books, 12(21), 13-16. Retrieved from https://www.lrb.co.uk/v12/n21/carolyn-steedman/vomiting-in-the-marital-bed.
• Lee, J. (1988). Divers observations on Australians: a historical library. Australian Historical Studies: Making the Bicentenary, 23(91), 141-152. Retrieved from https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/34354/66862_00002258_01_Lee008.pdf

Sun charts

I was interested to read about sun charts, a new product from MyHeritage for displaying family trees.  I have seen circular charts displayed at the Genealogical Society of Victoria and thought they looked very elegant, but they were hand drawn and it looked like a lot of work.

In the 1990s a cousin arranged for a de Crespigny family tree to be drawn up by hand. It is very elegant but clearly a lot of work, not only in compiling the research, but also in arranging the branches of the tree and all the descendants.

This morning I signed up to MyHeritage and uploaded a gedcom. The process was easy and efficient.

I have generated a couple of charts and I have had them printed up at OfficeWorks. It was only $4 per A0 sheet and I am very pleased with the results.

The next step will be to add photographs to the tree at MyHeritage as I think this will make the charts more interesting.  I haven't got pictures for everyone but I have quite a few.

This chart is of the descendants of Claude Champion de Crespigny (1620-1695) my eighth great grandfather. 12 generations are shown in the one chart.

This chart is just of the Australian branch of the family, that is the descendants of Philip Robert Champion de Crespigny (1817-1889), my 3rd great grandfather.

This is one of the three sheets of the family tree drawn up in the early 1990s

F is for Fromelles

Leslie Leister (1894-1916), the half-brother of my husband's grandfather, was one of the 250 soldiers who were killed at the battle of Fromelles in July 1916 and buried in a mass grave by the Germans after the battle.

Fromelles is said to have been the worst 24 hours in Australia's history. There were 5,533 casualties and about 2,000 men were killed in one night. (McMullin, Ross. "Disaster at Fromelles." Wartime 2006. Australian War Memorial. Web. 6 Apr. 2014. <https://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/36/article>.)

After the battle many men lay dead in the area occupied by the Germans. It was summer and the rotting bodies had to be dealt with quickly so the Germans buried the dead British and Australians in pits near a wood.  The Germans sent the identification tags of the soldiers they had buried to the Red Cross so relatives could be informed. Leslie Leister's name was on the Red Cross list.

Although many bodies were recovered after the war and reburied in Imperial War Graves Commission cemeteries, the bodies in the graves at Fromelles were not. Lambis Englezos, an amateur historian from Melbourne, began a project to identify the grave site.  Eventually he convinced the Australian government to commission an excavation and the bodies were located and reinterred, with DNA samples taken for identification. 124 soldiers have been identified using DNA, forensic science and historical data.

In February 2009 my husband Greg received a phone call from a researcher and former police officer, Tim Lycett, about the excavation of the soldiers from the Fromelles battlefield.  Although there had been several news stories I hadn't paid any attention because at that time I didn't know there was a family connection. Tim worked with other researchers, including a genealogist called Sandra Playle, to identify men who might be buried in battlefield mass graves.

In November 2009, one of Tim and Sandra's stories appeared in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald.  They said about Leslie Leister:

But the real eureka moment was Lesley Leister: "It took months,'' says Playle. ''We had nothing but an adoptive name as a starting reference and still we uncovered the truth about his illegitimate birth, identified his true parentage, established his birth name and located his descendants. Oh, we did a little jig with that one!" (Totaro, Paola. "Face to Face with the 'lost' 85 Diggers of Fromelles." World News. Sydney Morning Herald, 7 Nov. 2009. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. <http://www.smh.com.au/world/face-to-face-with-the-lost-85-diggers-of-fromelles-20091106-i25h.html>.)

We had seen the gravestone of Greg's great-great-grandparents, John and Sarah Way (1835-1911 and 1837-1895), in Parkes cemetery. Their grandson Leslie Leister is mentioned, but as a nephew. Beside the Way grave is the grave of Robert Leister (1871-1925) and we assumed that Leslie was a nephew of Robert's and did not understand that he had a more direct connection to the Way family.

Gravestone at Parkes photographed March 2009.  The inscription reads: In memory of our dear father John Way died June 11, 1911: aged 76. And our dear mother Sarah Way died April 7,1895. Aged 58. Also our dear brother John, died April 21, 1896, aged 24. Erected as a memorial of our loving nephew Leslie Leister killed in action in France July 20,1916. Aged 22. At rest.

Greg's great-grandmother Sarah Jane Way (1863-1898) married twice.  Her first husband was Robert Whiteman, by whom she had two children. He died of pneumonia in 1884. Ten years later she married John Young (1856-1928) in Melbourne. Sarah Jane had also had a third child, Jack Walsh [Whiteman] born on 13 August 1894 at Parkes in New South Wales, just weeks before her marriage to John Young. The child's father is not recorded on the birth certificate. Leslie Leister was brought up in Parkes by Sarah Jane's sister, Eliza (1865-1940), who married Robert Leister in 1896.

The information to trace the family history is there in the World War I dossier, NAA:B2455, Leister Leslie. In his letters to the Defence department, Robert Leister always refers to Leslie as his wife's nephew. The linking document is a letter from the Mutual Life and Citizens Assurance Company at folio 52 which refers to his birth name. Without that information we might never have identified him.

folio 52 of NAA:B2455, Leister Leslie

We believe this is a photo of Leslie Leister. It was in a family album and Leslie is the only soldier who fits within the family tree who is not otherwise identified.

Leslie enlisted on 2 October 1915 at Holsworthy Barracks near Sydney.  He had been working as a postal assistant at Lambton, Newcastle, New South Wales. On 8 March 1916 he embarked for Egypt on the troopship HMAT A15 Star of England. In 21 April 1916 at Ferry Post, on the Suez Canal, he was transferred to the 55th Battalion. On 29 June he sailed with the 55th on HMHT Caledonia from Alexandria to Marseille. On July 19 he wrote to his adoptive parents from "somewhere in France" that he was quite well. Robert and Eliza Leister received that letter on September 9. On July 20 Leslie was dead, killed at Fromelles.

Photograph from the Australian War Memorial image id A01562.  Unknown photographer. Portion of the German 2nd line held by the 31st Battalion, AIF, throughout the night during the Battle of Fleurbaix which took place on 19 July 1916 and 20 July 1916. Note the attempt at consolidation. This photograph was taken during the morning of the 20th July whilst the Germans were re-occupying their old position. Note the three German soldiers at rear. Retrieved from http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/A01562/ https://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2008/07/18/the-worst-night-in-australian-military-history-fromelles/ : For a long time afterwards many would refer to the events about to unfold as the battle of Fleurbaix, but eventually the name of Fromelles stuck and today it is by that name that the battle is known.

Leslie Leister is one of the soldiers who was identified. His grave in the new cemetery is marked with the same inscription as his grandparents' grave at Parkes.

Related posts:

• K is for King and Country : looking at the official correspondence which survives in Leslie Leister's World War I dossier, NAA:B2455, Leister Leslie, between the next of kin and the Department of Defence following his death
• L is for Eliza Leister : concerning Leslie Leister's aunt and foster mother

D is for dog licences

I am very fond of my dog Toby. Perhaps learning about him will help you understand me. Knowing about my family's pets would give me a better understanding of my family history.

This is a picture of my mother-in-law Marjorie with her family's dog at Castlemaine.

Marjorie with Pop's dog

All my Irish ancestors had left Ireland before 1866 and so my own research does not benefit from  the Irish dog licence registers, which can be searched through FindMyPast.  The annual dog licence was first collected in 1866 in Ireland and on average there were 250,000 registrations a year.  If you have Irish forebears in the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries, it could be worth looking whether they had any pets registered.

An example from the Irish dog licence records digitised by FindMyPast - an extract from records for Lowpark Court, County Mayo, 1882.

Closer to Ballarat, local dog licences for Ballan have been indexed for 1871, 1872 and 1873. A link to the indexes can be found at http://vipsinc.wordpress.com/projects/

Extract from the Ballan dog registrations compiled by Dorothy Wickham and Roy Huggins retrieved from http://vipsinc.wordpress.com/projects/

I found it fascinating to see the different breeds. Not a 'Cavoodle' or 'Golden Retriever' can be found.

Some dog licence records for Ballarat are still extant but they are yet to be indexed. Fortunately, though, they haven't been thrown out and so one day some work can be done with the records. They are held by the City of Ballarat council.

You can see why this information would be useful for family historians. The receipt gives the surname, address and a description of the dog.

My dog Toby's licence registration fee is due this month. The City of Ballarat have his name misspelt on the computer. I will have to fix the error. I can't be sure though that in the future the computer records will be available for family historians to find.

Toby on the sofa

Toby was a rescue dog who joined our family in June 2009. These pictures are all from that month.  The last picture is Toby seeing the sea for the first time (we think he hadn't seen the sea before).  He loves romping on the beach but discovered that he can't drink seawater.

.
In this picture you can see his dog licence tag hanging from his collar.

B is for Births, Deaths and Marriages registration in Australia

In  Australia, the births, deaths and marriages registration system is known as the Archer system after the man who designed it.

William Henry Archer (1825-1909), a statistician, arrived in the colony of Victoria in December 1852. He had trained and worked as an actuary in England. Legislation had recently been passed to introduce a compulsory system for the civil registration of births, deaths and marriages. Governor La Trobe appointed Archer as a clerk to advise on the new system soon after Archer's arrival.

In February 1853, in an address to the Legislative Council, the Lieutenant-Governor of the colony of Victoria, Charles La Trobe,  said that the purpose of civil registration was proof of births, deaths and marriages and to assist in tracing pedigrees.

From the address by the Lieutenant-Governor (La Trobe) to the Legislative Council on February 8 1853 

The Argus. (1853, February 9). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 4. Retrieved March 9, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4789655

The Melbourne Argus wrote on the importance of the new legislation, in particular the legislation's intention to minimise disputes about identity.

The Argus. (1853, May 14). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 4. Retrieved March 9, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4792610

Civil registration was designed to help resolve questions of identity. New immigrants were so far away from family and from the community they had grown up in, so questions of identity could arise, including when it came to making sure that property acquired in the colony went to the correct next of kin after somebody died. 

The Archer system, named after William Archer, is very useful for family historians to trace anyone's pedigree.

At http://www.jaunay.com/bdm.html , Graham Jaunay, a South Australian genealogist, has usefully summarised what information can be found on civil registration certificates of the Australian (colonies and) states.

New South Wales and Queensland adopted the Archer system from 1856. The other colonies adopted the system later.

Indexes of civil registration certificates are available in various formats, and online. The indexes can also help to identify siblings and other relatives, because information on the indexes usually includes parents.

PDF images of historical certificates can be purchased online from Victoria and Queensland. From the end of April 2014 a similar system will be available for New South Wales.

So, how does it work?

In Australia, historical census returns are destroyed, so we do not have the useful information about families and their location every ten years that those tracing their nineteenth century family history in the United States and England.

Australian birth certificates records when and where the baby was born, the names of its parents, their ages and their birth places, where and when they were married , the names of siblings both living and dead, and who the informant was (usually a parent).

A marriage certificate has the date and place, the names, whether they have been married before or are widowed or divorced, the birthplace of the bride and groom, their occupation, their exact age in years (that is, not just whether the person is over 21), their residence both present and usual, and for both bride and groom, the father and occupation and the mother and her maiden name.

A death certificate gives the name, when and where died, usual place of residence, occupation, cause of death, duration of last illness, when last saw a medical practitioner, name and occupation of father, name and maiden surname of mother, informant, burial, where born and how long in the Australian states or colonies, marriage spouse, at what age and where, and whether the spouse was still living or whether divorced, issue in order of birth with names and ages. Death certificates of course depend on the knowledge of the informant and thus are the least reliable. The subject of the certificate is not in a position to contradict or supplement the information.

The collection of certificates gives a comprehensive history and most people most of the time filled in their details conscientiously.

You learn a lot about people from the birth certificates of their children, their patterns of movement around the country and what jobs they had.  For example, in the case of John and Sara Way, I could follow them through three states, with John changing his occupation from labourer in Adelaide and Melbourne to shepherd near Yass in New South Wales and then to a miner in Parkes in New South Wales.

 

John left very few other pieces of information. He didn't appear in the newspapers, and we have inherited no letters or diaries. The certificates have been most revealing.

Similarly for George Young. Thanks to the certificates we could follow him from rush to rush until the birth of twins caused him and his wife to settle in Lamplough. He didn't move when the gold rush there ended.

For Australian family history I believe it is essential for the researcher to purchase  certificates for all members of the family being researched, particularly if the family moved around. With each certificate you learn something new and for many people these are the only records we have of their lives.



.

Mapping the birthplaces of the children of John Way and Sarah née Daw

My attention was drawn to a marvellously elegant utility mapalist.com by Sheri Fenley on her blog The Educated Genealogist at http://sherifenley.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/mapping-my-ancestors.html (thanks Sheri :) ).

As Sheri explains, you enter the place names you want in a spreadsheet in Google Drive and the utility uses those names to mark the places on a Google map.  I had a try with the birthplaces of the children of John Way (1835 - 1911) and Sarah Way née Daw (1837 - 1895), my husband's great great grandparents.  

It was very quick to enter the data and generate a map. I used a separate column to enter the Australian state to ensure correct disambiguation of the place names.

Google map terrain view modified using mapalist.com to show the birth places of John and Sarah Way's children

John and Sarah married on 2 March 1854 and left England four days later arriving in South Australia on 28 June 1854 aboard the Trafalgar. 

They had the following children:

• Louisa (1855 - 1926) born Adelaide; John's occupation  on Louisa's birth registration was labourer.

• William John (1857 - 1858) born and died Collingwood, Melbourne; John's occupation was labourer. William's cause of death at age 6 months was congestion of the brain.

• Mary Jane (1859 - 1859) born and died Collingwood; John's occupation was labourer. Mary Jane died of cancer of the eye aged 4 months 19 days.

• Mary Ann (1860 - 1938) born Collingwood

• Sarah Jane (1863 - 1898) born Barborah Creek near Binalong, New South Wales (no birth registration found)

• Eliza (Elizabeth on her birth certificate) (1865 - 1940) born Brittons Dam Station, Kitticara, nr Murrumburrah, New South Wales;John's occupation was shepherd. 

• Emily (1868 - 1952) born Grenfell, New South Wales; John's occupation was sawyer

• Harriet Elizabeth (1870 - 1879) born near Reece's Foundry, Grenfell, New South Wales; John's occupation was sawyer on her birth registration but when she died of typhoid fever at three months, John gave his occupation as miner.

• John (1872 - 1896) born Grenfell, New South Wales

• Martha (1874 - 1875) born and died Parkes, New South Wales; John's occupation was miner.

John and Sarah both died at Parkes.

The birthplaces of their children show their migration around the country. It was an enormous move from Collingwood, Melbourne to Barborah Creek near Binalong.  I am not sure how they found a job there or how they travelled.

John identified as a miner for the rest of his life - the marriage and death certificates of his children consistently give miner as their father's occupation. He also gave it as his occupation when he wrote his will.