Hamilton

My Great Grandfather, Patrick Hopkins, was born 1883 at Bellingen, a small village in Northern NSW. His birth, for some reason, appears not to have been registered as there is no official birth certificate for him, however, his year of birth is later given on his marriage certificate along with the place of his birth.

Patrick was the fourth child born to Edward Hopkins, a labourer, and Margaret Owen. Edward Hopkins was born in 1858 in Sydney, Margaret Owen was born at Macleay River northern NSW in 1866 to William Owen and Ellen Bohen (married 1859 Sydney).

Patrick was born into what was to be quite a large family, which was common in those times. The family lived and worked around the region of northern NSW with the children being born in such towns as Bowraville, Bellingen, Macleay River, Missabotte, Macksville and Nambucca. This region of NSW at that time was primarily a timber cutting/logging industry and agricultural region. Given that Edward stated on his children’s birth certificates that he was a ‘labourer’ it is highly likely that he was employed in the logging industry and on farms. Work in that field was plentiful during that time and would have been a necessity for Edward to support his and wife and large family.

Edward and Margaret were married on the 7th June 1878 at Macleay River, at the time of their marriage they were very young with Edward being 20 and Margaret, incredibly, just 12 years old. On the birth certificate of her daughter, Ruby Agnes from 1901, Margaret’s age was listed as ‘38′ which would place her year of birth as 1863 however Margaret’s birth is recorded as being at Macleay River in 1866. That much is certain. Obviously three years was added onto Margaret’s age in order for her to marry - it was relatively easy to do this back in those days before official proof of age was required; my guess is that there was a good chance she was pregnant pre-marriage with son Edward. However here are all the children listed in order of birth:

1) Edward -1879, 2) John James -1880, 3) Mary Ellen - 1882, 4) Patrick - 1883, 5) Peter H - 1887, 6) Francis - 1890, 7)James A - 1894 Macksville, Joseph - 1897 Bowraville, 9) Bertie P - 1899 Bowraville, 10) Ruby Agnes - 17th November 1901 at Missabotte. (It is from the information on her birth certificate that I have recorded this information on the family), 11) Pearlie I - 1904 at Bowraville.

Margaret also lost three babies at birth and early infancy; Francis - born/died Bowraville 1885, Margaret - born/died at Nambucca 1891, Pearlie E - born/died 1896.

Given the large number of births it is unusual that no twins were ever born.

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One great way of learning and picking up new tips and ideas about tracing your family history is to take a look at some of the many genealogy blogs and sites that are online today. Don’t pay too much attention to ‘how the site looks’ but more particularly pay attention to what resources the writer uses and how they layout their data.

Over the past few years I have been in contact with many fellow genealogists and the one thing we all have in common is that elusive ‘missing link’ that exists in just about every family. It pays to spend some idle time just browsing around at what others have written; I certainly do. Step outside of that comfort-zone of the family names you are researching too because there are always things to discover.

Another thing; share your information and be generous. Yes, I know that gathering data can be time consuming and, often expensive, but one thing that really works in this genealogy thing is linking-up. Don’t be the type of person who thinks…”I paid to do this so you go find your own info”. I have encountered this and I do not understand it. Also, if you have old family photos and mementoes…share them with the family, let others have a look and record them. I have a distant relation who is possession of a precious and priceless item in the form of a handwritten diary that my GGG Grandmother wrote in her teens way back in the 1830’s/40’s. Among other items. When I enquired with her about 15 years ago if I could visit her and see these ‘relics’ she refused. She offered to send photos of them but I was not allowed to actually visit and view them. Silly, and so selfish. And pointless. Yet quite a common attitude from what I have been told by others who have experienced the same thing. Some people just do not like to share what they have.

That diary will be the subject of a special post in the not too distant future…

I have shared whatever info I have with various researchers over the years and have found it pays rewards. Take a look at the site of Antony Maitland and you will find a very well detailed stash of info. He contacted me a while back asking for some info and I gave it to him. The result is he was able to extend his work and record it for everyone else researching the same areas as he is. We can all help each other out and it pays dividends.

If you are looking for info regarding Australia then Genealogy in New South Wales will provide a great source of research including convicts, electoral rolls and immigration.

There are many huge and excellent sites around right now such as Genforum and RootsWeb but please consider those smaller sites that are put together by people like you and me. You will find that people are always willing to help out and you never know what you will find!

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If you are an Australian researching your family history you will find that you are extremely well served with regards to obtaining information. The NSW Registry of births, deaths and marriages all provide an online service that is a family historians dream. And the most significant thing is they do not charge money for you to search their database. You don’t even have to fill in one of those annoying online ‘registration’ forms and have to come up with a silly user-name in order to search.

I have been visiting the UK and Irish state registry websites this past week trying to get some info on my partners great grandparents and I was struck by the way these places charge a fee before you can have access to the most basic information. Information that actually belongs to the public. I find this an absolute rip off; fair enough, I expect to pay for the issuing of certificates but I am strongly opposed to members of the public not being able to do a quick and basic online search for a relative who lived a hundred years back or further, for free.

If the NSW indexes can be made available online, for no charge at all, then why not the English, Scottish, Irish and Northern Ireland indexes as well?. To name but a few. Back in he old pre-internet days I could understand a cost being incurred; staff had to search and locate for you and this all took time. But with the internet now more than well established this information should be online and free to access. Right across the board.

Of course, money is behind the reasoning for this. They want you to pay, they want the revenue.

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