I was mightily chuffed to have my 1991 Barefoot…? included in the untapped.org.au project. Do have a look at the website to see all the works that were brought back into print.
Because of the sheer number of books involved, some corners were cut, especially with larger volumes such as Barefoot. Despite this, those involved did an excellent job. The index of the original edition is missing, as are some of the illustrations but the text is eminently readable.
What I’m planning to do today is supply some of the missing illustrations, and maybe expand the endnotes a little. (I do love a substantive endnote or footnote. Robin Haines is an expert at this . See her Doctors at Sea. Emigrant voyages to Colonia Australia, Or her endnotes for chapter 3 in Irish Women in Colonial Australia. )
Brilliant!
First up are the missing family reconstitution forms. They are for Margaret and Sarah Devlin and Catherine Fox per Earl Grey, Margaret Gerity/Geraghty per Panama,Mary Anne Byng per Diadem, and Ellen Brodie/Brady per Pemberton.
Please forgive my clumsy way with technology. If you want a better copy, do ask, and I’ll see what i can find. Maybe try the search box first. No promises mind.
Imagine what could be done for the history of a local area, over time, using this historical demography technique.
I’m tempted to publish this post straight away simply because NBNco maintenance work may affect my access to the internet over the next three days. In the meantime, I’ll look out the orphan photos that appeared in the 1991 volume.
‘There’s nothing like a fresh of breath air’ or ‘a loyal wifish woman cacchinic wheepingcaugh’. Apologeeds to James Joyce.
A while back when i asked people to think about how discovering a famine orphan in their family had affected them, I had no idea how rich and varied their response would be. The magnetism of Peter’s Ann Trainer, Brenda’s giving her Julia the dignity and protection she lacked in life, Kaye’s desire to know and understand her Bridget, are now joined by John’s mapping and IT creativity. I’m chuffed that he found something useful in my blog. Here’s John’s suggestions not just for his own orphan and the Earl Grey orphans generally but for all genealogists and family historians.
Part 2: A foray into Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
by John Moon
A GIS Approach (with a little bit of Genealogy)
In his #37 of 24 July 2016 our blog host, Trevor McClaughlin, asked the question “Can we create interactive digital maps?”
He continued, Let me demonstrate how this map business might work. Here is a map of the orphans in Queensland c. 1861. I’ve entered a few numbers. If we had an interactive map, what might appear if we clicked on numbers 1 and 2, at Ipswich?
Could we do something …, such as clicking on the dots in the map to bring up all the information we have about the orphan who resided there at that particular time? Maybe there are some probate records? [or maybe a photograph?]
The short answer is “yes”, as is demonstrated in the following screen shots taken from an application of the free GIS software package QGIS for the nine orphans in Trevor’s example.
In earlier blog posts #12 and #17 Trevor asked further questions related to maps, “scattering” and “family reconstruction”.
<#12.> “In the last post <#11> I mentioned a possible use for completed family reconstitutions viz. maps showing the location of the orphans at particular times in their lives. Here’s a couple I used in Barefoot 2–the location of the orphans in Victoria in c.1861. This one is based on the birth records of their children. The second one is the location of the orphans in Victoria at the end of their lives c.1890-1901; this one is based on their death certificates.” In # 17 similar maps for Queensland and NSW were shown. Towards the end of this blog is Trevor’s map of the three states for 1861.
<#17> Under the title Orphan “scattering”, Trevor mentions that I’ve already mapped the origin of the orphans based on the workhouses they were from (see blogpost 4). Could maps be drawn which show their more precise origins in Ireland, as well as their place of first employment in Australia”, and makes the plea “Is there not a computer programme that would allow us to map their movements over time? We could follow them between places of employment, and through marriage, birth and death records for much of their life.
Again, the short answer is “yes”, as is demonstrated in the following screen shots taken from another application of QGIS. (In fact some of the above maps would be relatively easy to develop if the relevant data, including latitude and longitude of the towns, were available in an Excel spreadsheet. Although there may be a – solvable – problem of displaying an orphan’s details when more than one orphan has the same latitude and longitude).
The following map shows Jane Hutchinson’s movements (as discussed in part I of this blog), numbered 1-7, from her arrival at Melbourne to her death in Wangaratta. As a base map an old geofererenced Map of Victoria, including the Pastoral Runs has been used.
As with all “short answers” there is a “BUT”, in fact many buts.
Some of the “buts” relate to the following questions:
(a) “do you want to develop the map for your own use”?
In Trevor’s post 17 of 25 May 2015 he notes that Barbara Barclay has made excellent use of maps in her study of Famine orphans from County Mayo. (see <http://www.historicalballinrobe.com/page/the_mayo_orphen_gilrs?path=0p3p> http://mayoorphangirls.weebly.com/ ). In a comment on the post Barbara noted that I did my two simple maps with my basic grasp of ArcGIS. Any proficient user of GIS mapping software could easily produce the types of maps you suggest – given the data.
Barbara suggests that to answer this question there is a prerequisite of being a proficient user of GIS mapping software. Whilst not wishing to discourage anybody from using say QGIS (free) or ArcGIS (paid) there is a “learning curve” for them that can be steep. However, there are a lot of good YouTube tutorials available to help going up the curve.
(b) “do you want the map as part of a website (e.g. Trevor’s WordPress Site)”?
This is possible but has resource implications. These include the costs (monetary and person-power) of setting up and maintaining the data bases and software as well as those of hosting of a website.
Concerning WordPress Trevor, in a reply to a comment in blog #37 noted that wordpress.com is different from wordpress.org. The latter is where the map plugins are. (In other words, Trevor’s blog is on wordpress.com so the map plugins can’t be used).
(c) “do you want something inbetween (i.e. a map that is not connected to a website but be can displayed in your web browser).
Many GIS software packages have the facility to publish GIS data to “the web”. In QGIS, the plugin is QGIS2Web. Whilst I haven’t used it, I understand that it generates a set of files and folders that can be zipped and shared with others. Once unzipped, it has an index.html file which, when clicked, displays the map in your browser. This map has all the features included by the developer for example the ability to click on the dots in the map to bring up the information on an orphan.
A major advantage such an approach is that one does not need to be a “proficient user of GIS mapping software” to click on the dots in a web browser. Presumably one could have a link to the zip file in Trevor’s blog.
Whilst this approach makes it easier for the user it still has the person-power costs of setting up and maintaining the data base. I also suspect that the size of the zipped file may become quite large as the number of images of orphan’s information increases (if there was only text data associated with each orphan, then the zipped file size would probably be acceptable – one would have the same facility to click on dots however, it would only be text that is displayed).)
A Genealogical Approach (with a little bit of GIS)
In another blog (#11), Trevor mentions that “One of the research tools I used for the Earl Grey Famine orphans was a modified form of what demographers know as ‘family reconstitution‘.
Family reconstitution is the technique of linking records of demographic events, usually of an ecclesiastical nature, within and between individual lives, in order to recreate individual life histories and the histories of families. While genealogists have always pursued such linking, the intent of demographers is not simply to record chains of descent and marriage but rather to compile information on the demographic rates pertaining to the population of which the individuals and families were a part. E.A. Hammel, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001. (Most social scientists invent new words for the old ways of doing things in an attempt to differentiate their “new” product.)
I pick-up Hammel’s phrase “genealogists have always pursued such linking” and ask myself whether a genealogical software package (with a – limited – GIS capability) may be a better alternative to a full-blown GIS package. Such an approach should in fact have a gentle learning curve as I presume that many readers of Trevor’s blog are familiar with genealogy websites such as Ancestry, My Heritage, Findmypast, Familysearch or WikiTree. I am however thinking of something like the free genealogy software package “Gramps”.
The following screenshots show the output of “Gramps” for Jane Hutchinson, her husband and their children (“family reconstitution” and “scattering”).
The first screenshot shows Jane’s movements from her arrival in Melbourne, employment in Merri Creek and Campaspe River, marriage in Melbourne and movements to Taminick and North Wangaratta. If one clicks on any of the pins a pop-up box appears with details of the events at that pin.
The second screenshot expands the movements to all of Jane’s family including the deaths of two of her children, one in Queensland and the other in New Zealand. Again, clicking on a pin gives details of the event at the location of the pin.
The third and fourth screenshot shows the pop-up box of events at Wangaratta and North Wangaratta.
Jane’s family WangarattaJane’s family North Wangaratta
Further, Gramps can produce various reports and charts and reports including family trees and fan charts as illustrated below.
So, returning to the question “Can we create interactive digital maps?”
As indicated above the answer is “yes”. However what we can display in the maps depends upon the data available. Further, the the development time of such maps depends upon the format in which the data is presented, the preferred format being electronic such as a spreadsheet or other readable database (hard copy printed data, in tabular form, can also be scanned and extracted then read into a database).
An example of a database is that at the Irish Famine Memorial which includes the fields: First Name, Surname, Native Place, Age on Arrival, Parents, Religion, Ship Name and Details (although there are some spelling issues for Surname and Native Place and it is not clear whether the Details field is a text field or a concatenation of other fields such as Employer, Marriage etc.).
Similarly, if the original data from which Trevor drew the maps frozen at specific points in time (1848-50, 1861 and c.1890-1900) for Barefoot vol.2 were available, then these data could be recombined with that at the Irish Famine Memorial to produce a set of general statistics such as age on arrival, age at first marriage, age at death, number of children etc.
They could also be used in a map to view questions such as:
Show me all the girls who arrived on <name of ship>
Show me who married a convict “exile”
Show me which girls were married in <church name>
Show me which girls came from <county or workhouse> in Ireland
Show me first employers and their location
“Family reconstitution”.
The “modified form of what demographers know as ‘family reconstitution‘” that Trevor used for his orphan data cards (see example below) can equally well be represented in a genealogical software package such as “Gramps”. The added advantage of such a package is that various charts and reports can be generated including family trees and fan charts as well as being able to follow the movements of orphans and their families.
Given that such packages are “user friendly”, perhaps their use could also encourage descendants of orphans to provide data on their “family reconstitution”.
John’s suggestions are inspirational. Have a look again at his paragraph just before the last map. A couple of nights ago, about 3am, I even found myself thinking about the possibilities. (It’s an age thing. No it’s not. I spent a lifetime, going through the next day’s teaching in my head during the night.)
One of the interactive digital maps that set me off in this direction some years ago was about the spread of North American railways. The Stanford university interactive map was captivating. I imagined the lives of the orphans could be displayed like that too. Look at the map above. Can you see how the discovery of gold in Victoria has affected where the orphans spread?
Maybe a simpler map to begin with is the way to go. Can we map the movement of the orphans during their lifetime? We have one of the workhouse origins of the orphans already. As John suggests, I’m sure we canalsodraw onerepresentingwhere exactly they were first employed.
Kiss (keep it simple stupid). By happy circumstance my 1991 Barefoot & Pregnant? became part of the Untapped research project out of the University of Melbourne. One result of which is that all the books in the project are being republished by Booktopia. That hard copy should be easier to work with and be the means of identifying the Port Phillip orphans’ first employer. We can then place them on a map of Melbourne and its surrounds, or further afield.
To repeat what John suggested above,thereafter, using my family reconstitutions and the work of family historians, it may be possible to identify where the orphans were, at two or three year(?) intervals, via the birth registration of their children. There are drawbacks of course. How do we find where the married orphans went after their child-bearing years? Maybe their descendants via the Port Phillip Orphans FaceBook page would provide the necessary information? The other most important go-to place, and most up-to-date, is the Irishfaminememorial database.
Recently someone asked me how to find which workhouse their orphan came from. I provided some suggestions, basically how to do the research themselves. Would you like to have a go? Here are some links you will find helpful. https://earlgreysfamineorphans.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/earl-greys-irish-famine-orphans-20/ Trying to sort out the difficuties that have arisen from the next par below.
The first is to the contents of the blog. It is incomplete but it contains what you need for this exercise. Try clicking on the Contents title below, and then on post number 20, at the HTTP link; it’s the one that begins ‘British Parliamentary Papers’, a fair way down the page. It should tell you the names of workhouses that sent orphans for each ship, the early ships anyway.
A more direct but still quite complex method would be to go to the search box that appears at the end of each post, just after the comments.
Here’s a screenshot. Type what you are looking for into the search box; i typed the words, ‘which workhouse’, and up came a number of places where these two words appear in my blog, posts 62, 64 and 66, for example
Here’s another screenshot showing part of what came up. You need to click on those different links and search for what you are after.
In this case, post 62, scroll down past “Literacy” and “Sydney Legend” and follow my suggestions. Take your time and work through at your own pace. If you you encounter difficulties, I’m sure there is someone at home, or in your orphan Facebook group who will be willing to help. At some stage you will also need ‘Google maps’ and Peter Higginbotham’s great workhouse website. But let’s go slowly.
What you are doing is identifying the workhouses that sent orphans on your orphan’s ship (blog post 20). Then with information about your particular orphan’s native place (see shipping lists, the https://irishfaminememorial.org/ website, or my Barefoot ) go to Peter Higginbotham’s www.workhouses.org and see if you can find the workhouse your orphan most likely came from. Which was closest to her native place? The method is not foolproof. But it is a good start. [You may need to use the search box again to see how to use Peter’s workhouse site].
Best of luck with your quest. Technology can tie us in knots,especially if we aren’t used to it.
I’d be interested in hearing about your experience. Please tell me, and other people by adding a comment at the end of this post.
May i ask if you found any information about your particular orphan when you typed her name into the search box?
What specific words did you use in the search box that directed you to information that was both helpful and interesting? Have you any tips for other searchers? Have you any queries?
Given how close we are to June 16th, it seems appropriate to finish with a quotation from this work,
The gravediggers took up their spades and flung heavy clods of clay in on the coffin. Mr Bloom turned his face. And if he was alive all the time? Whew! By Jingo, that would be awful!
Lately I’ve been thinking about the relationship between academic and family historians. Is it an equal relationship? Do outsiders always bring a helpful perspective, or does their influence weaken the very personal and emotional tie family historians have with their orphan ancestor(s)? If authority is shared in the best possible way then everyone wins. I’m thinking here of David Fitzpatrick’s Oceans of Consolation and Tanya Evans’s Fractured Families. But it may not always be the case.
Let me test my belief that family historians should be given free-rein to write their particular orphan history. Only they can provide a very personal, passionate and lively engagement. Let’s test the hypothesis.
First is an interesting essay by Peter Hansen from New Zealand describing the effect his orphan(s) have had on him. My sincere thanks to Peter for allowing me to publish it.
PETER and his Irish orphan
It’s 30 years since I first came across Ann Trainer per Derwent as one of my ancestors. The initial shock impact of my discoveries has long gone. Information-gathering has been slow, in fits and starts, and very piecemeal. I’ve done most of the research along with three Whitford cousins, all of us descended from the two sons and the daughter of Ann Trainer/Whitford.
It’s astonishing how quickly families forget their recent family histories and ancestors. At least it is in Western societies. Here in New Zealand the indigenous people, the Maori, know their ‘whakapapa’, their genealogy, for 10, 20, 40 generations or more. I have a Syrian friend who could trace his family back to Adam.
In Ann Trainer’s case, was it because her family didn’t want to remember her because of her colourful history in the Victorian culture of that time? Who knows? Or was it because Ann died young at the age of 41 and there were stories untold to her children?
Or perhaps it was because her daughter Mary Jane Whitford/McKechnie died aged 36. My grandfather was 7 when she died and he and his siblings had little memory of their mother. Stories untold and lost. I don’t even know if any of them knew that their grandmother was buried in a nearby town. Or that she was Irish, and Roman Catholic?
But it’s left me with lots of unanswered questions, questions that perhaps haunt me, or have become obsessional. I have many ancestors I could research but Ann Trainer’s story is the one on which I seem to focus. It’s so out of the ordinary. Reactions from family and friends vary from having a giggle about a prostitute in the family to having a deep empathy for Ann’s life and circumstances.
I worked for many years in social services, chaplaincy and counselling, and am well-acquainted with sad and dismal stories. I was always objective. But that changed when I was affected personally. Subjective, not objective. There was an ancestor in my mother’s respectable family who was a bastard, a prostitute, a drunkard, and frequently in the courts.
It was compounded at the same time when I discovered my father’s Irish famine orphan ancestor in Sydney, NSW, was in and out of the courts and prison, a drunkard and a well-known prostitute. Disfunctional. How much did her earlier tragic life affect her in later years? All published in the media. It was a relief recently to finally learn through a DNA match that her husband was the actual father of my paternal gran’s mother. I could never tell my elderly parents any of this as they would’ve been too shocked. My siblings and cousins knew though.
My mother’s family, Scottish and Cornish were well-educated, liberal-minded, urbane and involved in politics and community. Her father was a bank manager in a prosperous rural farming district in South Canterbury, New Zealand. Very much the country gentleman and sportsman. His maternal grandmother, as I discovered, was Ann Trainer, born only 50 years earlier than he. What a stark contrast there was in their lives.
I’ve found it distressing reading the descriptions of Ann and her family in the Magherafelt Workhouse records, where the keywords are,
Bastard(s), mendicant, very wretched, destitute, no means of support.
It’s left me with an underlying grief, learning about my two Irish Famine orphans. Life was awful. My father’s orphan ancestor’s parents are likely buried in a mass grave in Athy, Kildare along with 10,000 others. Sobering.
The Famine has become very real and personal to me.
In 2015 I spent a week in Sydney researching my father’s famine ancestor. A highlight was visiting a museum, the former Hyde Park convict barracks used from 1819-1848 to house convicts transported from Britain. It was then used as an immigration barracks for Irish female famine orphans coming to Sydney 1848-1850. (Ann Trainer went to the Immigrants’ Depot in Melbourne)
Outside in the yard is a memorial to the Irish famine orphans sent to Australia. It’s stark but very moving and poignant. A metal table and stool, a bowl and spoon. This Australian Monument to the Great Irish Famine was inspired by Mary Robinson, President of Ireland.
I sat at that table in the deserted yard and suddenly found myself overwhelmed and weeping, quietly. A grief welling up inside me for what my ancestors had endured.
Their lives still affect me but I’m more objective now in my search for facts. I’ve lots of questions! Who was Cathy Cassidy, mother of Ann Trainer? Who was her family? Why did she not marry? She had her first child when aged 30. That’s late. Who were these men that she had relationships with? James Trainer and a Mr Henry who sired two of her children. Are there secrets in their families?
What made William McKechnie buy the burial plot for a ‘fallen’ Ann Trainer/Whitford whose daughter he married a few months later? We know that he was a friend of Annie’s husband Captain George Whitford. William McKechnie was a well-known businessman, philanthropist and local politician on the West Coast of New Zealand. He was good friends with Richard ‘Dick’ Seddon, Prime Minister of New Zealand. Roman Catholic Bishop Grimes was a guest at William’s hotel in a goldfields town near Greymouth and Hokitika. My grandfather & his siblings used to tell me stories of these people.
This is the world of people that Annie’s daughter lived in. But there’s nothing about Annie Trainer/Whitford, who’s not far removed from these notables.
Her descendants have done well overall and become good citizens in Australia and New Zealand–in all walks of life including the public realm. Though at times some of us have wondered if inherited characteristics from Annie and her husband have been responsible for some of our families’ misfortunes? Just a thought.
Peter J Hansen ( J = James as in James McKechnie, James Whitford & James Trainer)
Born & raised in New Zealand. Family history was important to me from an early age because I had no first cousins. A sense of loss not having extended family to connect into. Well-travelled in my younger days, living overseas for 11 years in the UK & South Asia. I’ve years of family research desperately needing to be written up, and digitised. Ensuring our stories are not lost to our families & communities. That’s my current goal & project. As C.S. Lewis said “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
Peter’s visit to the Irish Famine Monument at Hyde Park Barracks
Amanda Midlam has kindly allowed me to share this with you. I hope you will find it useful. I have made some very minor changes to titles, and the spelling of names, and added a couple of website links.
DEDICATED TO THE REMARKABLE YOUNG WOMEN WHO CHANGED THEIR LIVES FOREVER – AND SOME OF OURS – BY EMIGRATING FROM IRELAND WHILE STILL IN THEIR TEENS IN 1848 – 1859.
HOW TO RESEARCH AND WRITE THE LIFE STORIES OF IRISH FAMINE ORPHANS
By Amanda Midlam
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE
This guide came out of a research project I undertook as part of my studies for a Master of Research, Macquarie University, under the supervision of Associate Professor Tanya Evans. For this project I researched and wrote the stories of Mary Rattigan and Brigid Callery and this guide came out of what I learned along the way.
First of all, I suggest you give this guide a quick read through then keep it as a reference as you research and write your own famine girl stories.
There is currently more information available about conducting research and where to find records than there is about writing up your research, so I have included writing information.
I have a Masters in Creative Writing and love passing on writing skills. The reality is that the research is only half the task. It is what you do with your research that brings the Irish Famine Orphans to life for other people. Best of luck. There are great stories to be found and told.
HOW TO RESEARCH AND WRITE THE LIFE STORIES OF IRISH FAMINE ORPHANS
ACCURACY. Aim at accuracy but keep in mind that telling the story is more important than nailing down a single fact, a feat which sometimes turns out to be impossible. Keep an eye on the big picture instead.
ADDENDUM OR APPENDIX. This is where you can put information that has some relevance or context but is not part of the story, or else slows the story down. Not everything you find has to make it into the story.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. Many people will help you track and trace your famine girl and it is a good idea to keep a list of their names right from the start. You might want to write an acknowledgement page thanking the people who helped and from courtesy you should send each person a copy of your work when it is completed. When people hear about these teenage girls travelling to Australia, usually on their own but sometimes with a sister, they almost always become engaged. Convict ancestors inspire interest, these young female free settlers inspire sympathy and empathy along with interest.
ANCESTRY.COM. Some people find this a great resource and others doubt the accuracy of family research found on this site. See Resources – Primary and Secondary.
ARE THERE RIGHT AND WRONG WAYS OF TELLING THE STORY?
No. There is a format that works – born, workhouse, migrated to Australia, worked, married, had children, died – but which parts you focus on and how you ultimately tell the story is up to you. The way you tell the story does not matter but try to develop the skill to tell it as best you can.
ATTRIBUTIONS. This is a way of acknowledging, in your writing, the work or ideas of others. There can be copyright or ethical reasons for this and, I would argue, literary reasons because attributions can make for a better story. Mary Rattigan’s story was enriched, in my view, by naming contemporary family members and quoting them as this provided a strong link between past and present.
AUDIENCE. Think about who are you writing for. The answer to that will affect the tone of your writing. For a start, are you telling the story for children or adults? It can be helpful to imagine a reader while you are writing. This imagined reader may be a partner, a relative, a friend or a version of yourself. Thinking about your audience will guide you in such things as tone, choices of vocabulary, sentence and paragraph length, and focus of the story.
BAPTISMS and BIRTH CERTIFICATES. Baptism certificates are more likely to have accurate birth dates than birth certificates as there was a fine for late registrations of births.
BAREFOOT AND PREGNANT? IRISH FAMINE ORPHANS IN AUSTRALIA, VOLS 1 and 2, by Trevor McClaughlin, are the definitive books about the subject.
BEGETTING. Avoid begetting, a word no-one seems to use any more. What I mean is the long list of names that purports to explain who someone is by listing all the ancestors. Solomon begat Isaiah who begat Shania who begat Kylie… If you want to list the family line, attach it as an addendum. A list of names is not part of telling a story.
BEGINNING. Where do you begin the research? You start with what information you have. The Irish Famine Memorial database gives you barebones information and that is a great start.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. It is important to create a bibliography because it acknowledges the work of others, helps you keep track of the information you have read, and is a guide for future researchers. Generally the bibliography is in alphabetical order but I found it more convenient to divide it into types such as personal contacts, electronic sources and books. I have included the bibliography for Mary Rattigan as a sample in the addendum. Some of the sources listed here will be general to all Irish famine girls while others are specific, but you can substitute my local sources for your own local one, for example historical societies.
BLOG. Trevor McClaughlin’s blog, “Trevo’s Irish Famine Orphans”, at https://earlgreysfamineorphans.wordpress.com/author/trevo1/ is a great resource. You may find other blogs that are helpful too. Do a search using a key word and the word “blog”.
BOOKS. In my attached bibliography I have listed many books and you will find more relating to life in Ireland, migration at the time, Australian history and related subjects.
CHRONOLOGY. It is best to keep your research in chronological order. The Earl Grey Scheme ran from 1848 to 1850, so the information you gather falls before or after that. With the writing you might want to start the story at a dramatic point then backtrack and that is fine. Keep in mind, if you have doubts about how to tell the story, a chronological telling works and is understood by everyone.
COPYRIGHT. Information itself is not subject to copyright but the way it is expressed is. The copyright lies in the words and the ordering of them. You might find information in a book or on a website that you want to use. If you copy and paste without permission that is a breach of copyright. In that case you can either ask for permission to use the material or rewrite the information in your own words. Sometimes the writing of the material is so beautiful it is worth asking permission to use it.
CREATIVE NONFICTION. If you want to improve your writing skills look up creative nonfiction. Life writing – whether it is your life or someone else’s – falls into the category of creative nonfiction and is beyond plain journalism which purports to be objective (although often it isn’t). Creative nonfiction is writing that is factual but it also has narrative elements. Think of the true story you are writing as having a setting, a central character and a plot. Unlike plain journalism you can use descriptive language and metaphors if you like and you can express emotion.
DEATHS. Death is the end of someone’s life but not necessarily the end of their story. You might want to end the story with a description of a famine girl’s legacy whether that is descendants, the Irish Famine Memorial, or a reflection on her life.
DATES. Dates can be rubbery. One source will give one date and second source gives another. Accurate dates can help you find specific documents in your research but in story terms what happened is often more important than the exact date, so don’t get too hung up. Keep working on the story.
DEADLINE. Set a deadline, otherwise you will never finish. There will always be one more piece of information you are chasing. Set a date to have a finished version of the story that stands alone.
DELIVERY. You may want to set a date when you will deliver the goods, whether it is a printed story or a bog post. This will reinforce the deadline and help you to progress. Don’t make the delivery date Christmas. Even if family members are looking forward to reading what you found, Christmas is too busy for everyone, including you. Maybe make it the date your Irish famine orphan arrived in Australia. The dates are on the database.
DISTRIBUTION. Give copies to people and organisations who helped as a thank you and also because it can add to their information base. Give copies to family networks. Also send a copy to the Irish Famine Memorial. You can publish your work as a blog or in print.
ENDING. While you are researching and writing, keep an eye out for a satisfying end to the story. It may be information you come across, or it may be original writing that sums it up. Once you have an ending it can be easier to build towards it, to know what should be included and what is extraneous, and the tone to take in telling the tale.
FACEBOOK. I found the descendent of one orphan within a day by posting on a community page relevant to the locality where the orphan had lived. That is how I learned family members still lived there. I also found Irish community pages on Facebook to be informative and full of insights into the famine and local conditions at the time. It is a simple matter to look up the name of the county on Facebook and look for local pages then ask to join. There is also an Irish Famine Girl Facebook page for descendants in Australia.
FACT OR NOT FACT? Sometimes it can be hard to tell if information you find is a fact or untrue. If you want to include it, you can deal with this by using words “maybe” or “possibly” or “the family believe that…”. That does not confirm nor disprove but leaves it open.
FAMILY LORE. This can be fertile ground for finding gold. One woman told me there is a story in her family that when Grannie, with her tribe of kids, arrived in the remote bush setting where she was to live, she sat on a log and cried. This is a telling detail. She didn’t just sit down and cry. She sat on a log and that tells us there was nothing but bush. Ask family members for any stories they may remember.
FAMILY MEMBERS. Keep a list of family members who help and send them a copy of your finished story. Keep their names in both your Acknowledgements list and your Bibliography and you have twice the chance of not forgetting anyone.
FAMILY HISTORY. Previously researched family history may contain furphies. Or maybe whoever wrote it had access to records that no longer exist. It can be hard to tell. All you can do is try the best you can and remember you can write about anything questionable in a way that makes it clear it is a possibility and not rock solid fact.
FINISHING. You will never finish, there will always be more information. You need to reach a point, or points, when you produce a written story that feels complete in the sense of being a satisfying read.
FREEMAN’S JOURNAL. This is a Catholic newspaper published in Sydney from 1850 and is found on Trove. https://trove.nla.gov.au/
FRIENDSHIPS. One of the frustrating things is that we cannot find much information about friends. They don’t leave certificates like marriages and births do and they don’t make themselves known in census records. You can look out for the same names popping up in different records and explore further. This is one reason why it is good to go back through the records and documents with a fresh eye looking for different information.
GENEALOGICAL SOCIETIES. Whether you are looking for family members who came before your famine girl or after, genealogical societies have a lot of information and expertise.
HISTORICAL SOCIETIES. These, and the people who run them, are often worth their weight in gold. Historical societies may or may not have a presence on the internet. The nearest library to the locality where your Irish immigrant lived, should be able to direct you to local historical societies.
HOLES. There will be holes in your story – big gaps and leaps of years you can’t account for. If you can’t fill these holes, move on. No-one expects you to find information about every phase of someone’s life. You will find enough information about some phases to tell a great story.
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE. Too many pioneer stories ignore indigenous people. During my current research, I was dismayed to find settler history and Indigenous history to be largely separate instead of shared – even though in the years 1848 to 1850 people of a variety of cultures shared the same spaces, perhaps not fairly but it would be wrong to assume the traditional inhabitants have nothing to do with your immigrant’s story. Check with the local cultural centre and/or land’s council for information and gain an insight into what the locality was like from an Indigenous perspective at the relevant time.
IRISH FAMINE MEMORIAL DATABASE. https://irishfaminememorial.org/orphans/database/ This is a great resource that has some information on over 4000 Irish famine girls. From the data base you can see first name,
surname, native place, age on arrival, names of parents, religion and ship name. If you
click on the surname of the girl more details come up.
IMMIGRATION CORRESPONDENCE. The details on the Irish Famine girls data base may refer to “im cor” followed by numbers. This refers to Immigration Correspondence which is held on microfiche at the NSW State Library.
INTERPRETATION. All history is interpreted. The past happened – and that doesn’t change – but any story we tell about the past is not an exact replica of that past. It is an interpretation.
INTERVIEWING. You may need to interview people who have important information. If the word “interview” is daunting use expressions like “talk to” or “have a chat”. Know what it is you are after and have specific questions ready, so you don’t waste the person’s time while you try to figure out what to ask next. Two questions I ask that sometimes provide new insights and telling details are, “What interests you most about the famine girls/ the locality at that time/ the treatment of the Irish…”. And a similar question that sometimes yields surprising and valuable results is, “What surprised you the most about…”
LIBRARIES – LARGE. The NSW State Library has lots of information of use to family historians and you can ask librarians for assistance in finding what you want. You can apply for a library card online or in person. The National library also has great family history resources and again you can apply for a library card which allows you to access online resources.
LIBRARIES – LOCAL. You might not be able to join the local library where your famine girl lived if you live out of the area but it is worth visiting. Let them know you are coming and make an appointment. Tell them you would like to look at their historical collection and give them information about your particular interest. Your own local library can arrange interlibrary loans if there is material held in other libraries that you’d like to borrow. Unfortunately this often does not apply to historical collections as often there are materials that are fragile and irreplaceable.
LIFE WRITING. Life writing means writing from life. It does not mean writing a whole life. Do not think you need to show all phases of a famine girl’s life in the same amount of detail and length. If one phase really fascinates you, you might want to write just about that.
MAPS. Try to find old maps of where your famine girl came from and where she settled. There are plenty of maps on line. It helps to visualise places and gives insights for example on how isolated she may have been.
MUSEUMS. There are many museums that can help with your research. Before visiting larger museums do some research to know what it is you want to see in their collections. Go looking for smaller museums too. These are varied but can give insights into lives and times. Some of these museums may be in localities you are interested in but others may be elsewhere but have themes of use such as pioneering.
NEUTRAL TONE. There is no need to adopt a neutral tone. Your interests will show up anyway. You are an individual. The famine orphan you are writing about was an individual. If everyone wrote their stories in the same neutral tone, there would be a sameness to their stories and what we want is richness and that comes from a variety of voices. So be yourself.
NOTEBOOK. I am old fashioned and keep a notebook just for this project and I jot down everything from research ideas to contact details. I like paper and pen and can carry the notebook around with me. Others may prefer to keep everything on their computer.
ORGANISING INFORMATION. Keep your research in chronological order. It will help you find it and you can see where everything fits in. With the writing chronological order may not be imaginative but it works and it does not confuse readers. If you have a better way of organising the material and it works, go ahead, if you don’t stick to chronological order.
PERMISSIONS. You may need permissions to use items such as photographs. It is best to ask as you go and keep a record.
PHYSICAL RESEARCH. It is useful to walk in a famine girl’s footsteps. On a site visit to the Kiah River I discovered how quiet it was. There was nothing to hear except birdsong and the breeze in the trees. Mary Rattigan had come from the Parramatta hospital which would have been busy and noisy. Before that she was on the Digby with 200 other girls. Before that in an overcrowded workhouse. Before that in a small community where land holdings were tiny and neighbours were close. I doubt she had previously ever experienced such quiet.
QUOTES. Quotes enliven writing. As you research make notes of great quotes you come across that you would like to use. A couple of Irish people I found on Facebook gave great quotes about conditions during the Famine in the localities where my famine girls came from. I asked for and was granted permission to use them. These quotes were far more colourful and deadly than any description of the Famine that I could have written myself.
RACISM. The English in Australia looked down upon the Irish and Catholics. If this aspect interests you will find a lot of information.
READ ALOUD. It is very important to read your written work aloud before you show it to someone else. You catch many typos and clumsily expressed phrases this way. It is far more effective than reading silently. I rely on the Read Aloud function on Word which is found under the Review tab.
REFERENCING. Do you have to use references? It depends on the audience for your written work. Certainly keep up with referencing during the research. Later on you will want to check something and it is really frustrating when you can’t figure out where you got certain information from. The easiest way to keep information and details of where you found it together is to put the details in brackets immediately after the info.
REFLECTIVE WRITING. Writing about your experience of researching can be revealing. You can reflect on your thoughts and feelings and it can help you to clarify and focus. It is up to you if you use reflective writing as a tool or include it, or some of it, in the story you are writing. See Voice.
RESOURCES – PRIMARY AND SECONDARY. Primary sources are documents like birth, wedding and death certificates, shipping and census records, and any other records from the time of the life you are writing about. I would include Trevor McLaughlin’s books and blog as primary resources too. Secondary sources are what other people have put together from primary sources. Blogs, family history websites and previously compiled family histories are secondary resources. If you have a primary and secondary resource with conflicting information, rely on the primary.
REVIEWING and RE-READING. Along with researching and writing, reviewing is an important task. Don’t store your records away from sight assuming you know what’s in the documents and images. You may think you’ve got the information you wanted from a baptism certificate, but it is extraordinary how many details hide that later pop out. I had that happen when family members and I wondered what help, if any, Mary Rattigan had when giving birth. I looked again at the birth certificate of her son and spotted a squiggle next to the witness’s name. A magnifying glass showed the squiggle said “Nurse”.
SCHOLARLY WRITING – Unless you are a scholar or aiming at a scholarly publication, don’t try it. Scholarly writing is written for scholars, not general readers. It is tedious and avoids surprises. The surprising twists and turns of someone’s life are going to be a feature of the story you write and does not suit scholarly writing.
SHIPPING LISTS. The Irish Famine Site database has information about which ship each girl arrived on.
SKIMMING. Develop skimming skills for looking through masses of information. You develop these skills by doing it. For electronic sources you can use the search function but many old records are not digitised. It was by skimming that I learned the ships surgeons the girls travelled with were not employed by the ship but were hired to look after their health. They were not answerable to the captain.
SOCIAL MEDIA. If you have social media skills, use them. Social media is a great way to network. I found it helpful to use Facebook to make contact with people living in the Irish communities Mary Rattigan and Brigid Callery came from. For these people in Ireland, the past and the Famine was still fresh in memory and they gave me insights.
SOUND LIKE YOURSELF. Your writing will be stronger if you sound like yourself. Try not to write the story in the way you imagine a family historian should write. You want the story to be engaging and fluent. You don’t have to sound authoritative; sounding interested or passionate about your subject is fine.
SPECULATION. It is fine to speculate but make it clear that is what you are doing. To say your orphan was heartbroken at leaving Ireland may make a strong impact but, if you don’t have any evidence for this, you have strayed into fiction. Some girls actually lied about their age and even their marital status in their eagerness (or maybe desperation) to be accepted in the Earl Grey scheme. Use words like “maybe”. “Maybe she was heartbroken, or maybe she was relieved that she was escaping starvation and a hopeless future…”. In Mary Rattigan’s story, I quote a descendent saying she liked to think Mary had a friend because she could not bear to think of her all alone. She and I speculated about who such a friend could have been, a couple of possibilities having turned up in the research. This does not mislead anyone but the speculation raises the important issues of loneliness and friendships.
STARTING POINT. Start the research with whatever information you have. The database on the Irish Famine Memorial was the start for my research. I suggest you start the writing sooner, rather than later. There are three reasons for this. The more you write, the more writing skill you develop. Secondly, as you find more information you can fit it in into the framework of the writing you have already done. Thirdly, writing is a form of thinking. Writing forces you to find the words and make sense of what you are learning.
STICKING POINTS. There will be times when you get stuck either in the research or the writing. The solution is to work on what you can. You move on to something else. Later on you can come back to the sticking point and decide what to do with it. No story is going to contain all details of all phases of someone’s life
STRUCTURE. Structure in writing is equal to architecture in building. It is going to work better if you have a plan, even if that plan needs to be re-worked. Stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. Readers expect this. The difference between a list of events and a story is structure. Develop an idea as soon as you can of where your story begins, where the middle is, and where it ends. Also look for turning points, places where the story changes direction, for example a move to a new location.
STORY. Try to have an idea of the story as soon as you can. That is, not just a list of dates and names and places, but some idea of how her life, or part of it, was shaped. Remember always that a story has a beginning, a middle and an end. Look for those beginnings and ends.
VOICE. Most stories are written in the first person voice, using pronouns such as “I”, or third person, using pronouns such as “she” and “her”. The big difference is that in third person, the person telling the story is invisible. It is up to you if you want to be part of the story, a path that allows you to reflect and explain how you found an important piece of research, or if you prefer to write in third person, in which case you don’t appear in the story at all. Some people will instinctively know which voice is right for them, other people might like to experiment and write a sample of each to decide.
VOLUNTEERS. Usually historical and genealogical societies are run by volunteers and often they are older people who may be frazzled by technology. They are incredible sources of information about particular and general research. Treasure these resources.
WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW – If you are a farmer and your Irish famine orphan was a farm servant, research farming methods at the time. What did they grow? How did they sell their produce? If you love the sea, maybe focus on the voyage. You don’t have to write what you know but it can be an interesting angle and add breadth.
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? If you are a fan of this show or others like it, keep watching. If you are not, try viewing some episodes. They are really good examples of what information is found and where it is found. Importantly they also use experts to interpret the material. You can follow this idea by asking historians (from the library or historical society) and genealogists (from a genealogical society) to interpret documents and explain context. These programs build a strong story about some information, rather than trying to find every single detail. Also, importantly, they look at the relevance, how what they have found has importance and impact today.
WONDER. It was wonder that got you interested in the first place and it is wonder that can drive you forward and give you direction to tell a unique story. You can revive your wonder by writing a list of questions that begin with “I wonder…” Here are some examples. “I wonder how her diet changed from Ireland to Australia” – you could research this. “I wonder if she was religious” – church records may provide an answer. “I wonder if she left siblings behind in Ireland and if so what happened to them” – you could search for the answers.
Best of luck with finding and telling stories.
All the best,
Amanda
Amanda Midlam is a freelance writer of Irish descent who has Roscommon ancestors on both her mother and father’s sides. She is proud to be a member of the same family as John Hubert Plunkett who prosecuted the perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre. She has not found any Irish famine orphans in her ancestry.
Reading the excellent series of orphan stories, written by descendants, in the free online magazine tintean.org.au has reminded me of something else we need to do: that is, make a thorough search for those orphans who spent time in an institution in Australia, whether it be prison, a Benevolent asylum, a mental hospital, an Industrial school, a Lying-In hospital, or an asylum for destitute children. [ Should we widen the search to include the orphans’ children] ?
I’ve said before the numbers involved were not large, probably only ten percent of the whole. That is a familiar gut-reaction. But it is a gut reaction: we shouldn’t make up our minds and prejudice the results of our research before it is complete. It is becoming easier to do that research as more and more primary sources are digitised, and made available online. Trove is the obvious example. There are others. See http://www.geelonginfirmary.net/how_to_use.htm
But that search for ‘Irish orphans in Asylums’ is still a daunting project, one that may require a team of researchers, especially if the intention is to cover the whole of Australia. If a student came to me with such a project proposal, I would ask him or her, ‘is it do-able? Show me how’. The student might reply, ‘it’s not about numbers. Sure, there will be records that haven’t survived. It’s more than that. It’s about digging deeper; it’s about truth-telling; it’s about discovering the darker side of Australian life some of these Irish orphans endured.’
Benevolent Asylum Dunwich records
Note how informative these records can be. But they don’t always allow us to identify our Irish orphan ‘girls’.
No 89 Ellen Flynn or Cunningham admitted 21 August 1879 from Toowoomba Hospital having lost her sight for the last six months. She was from King’s County, Ireland, daughter of John Dooley, a farmer. She was Roman Catholic, could read and write, and married John Flynn at Wollongong when she was 17 and he, 23. Her husband was a Lockup Keeper at Tenterfield. He died about thirteen years ago. She had seven children alive, three were in Tenterfield, two in Roma, two in Warwick. Two girls had died. She came to Sydney with friends as an immigrant per Tippoo Saib about 1855. She lived in New South Wales for many years. Her husband was 12 years in the Police.
Now is this the orphan Ellen Dooley who arrived by the Tippoo Saib in 1850? The information so far accords with the information provided by Ellen’s descendant, Ann Faraday, for my Barefoot volume 2.Ann had no record of Ellen after 1861.
This Ellen married again in 1885 to Michael Cunningham, himself an inmate of Dunwich. The Register records her frequent stays in the Benevolent Asylum and when she was absent on leave, from 1887 to her death 16 September 1898.
No 259 Eliza Scholes admitted October 10th 1889 from Brisbane Hospital suffering from rheumatism. She was from Belfast, Ireland, a domestic servant, Church of England, could read and write, daughter of Anthony Rodgers, engraver, and Jane Harver. [Now you would need to know that an Eliza Rogers daughter of Anthony and Jane was one of the infamous Belfast girls on board the Earl Grey who were banished directly to Moreton Bay in 1848.] Eliza said she was married in Brisbane at age 14 to Charles J. Worth (dead) and at age 42 in Sydney to Jacob Scholes (address unknown, last heard of in Victoria), 7 children by her first marriage. Addresses unknown all in Queensland…No property, no cash. She was last seen by the Medical Superintendent Nov. 21 1894. She died and was buried a day later 22 Nov. 1894. [ElizaScholeswas an inmate of Toowoomba Women’s prison serving three months for vagrancy in 1888, and six months, early in 1889].
NO 453 Ellen Agnes Hickson admitted October 29 1895 from Goodna Asylum, daughter of John Leyden, farmer and Mary Cronin. [This is another orphan who arrived by the Thomas Arbuthnot in 1850. She has appeared already at the end of my post about “Some Sad Stories” https://earlgreysfamineorphans.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/earl-greys-irish-famine-orphans-9/ Once again you will need prior knowledge to recognise Ellen as one of the Earl Grey Irish Famine orphans].
No 498 Mary Clark admitted 19 January 1897. She was from the Brisbane Depot suffering from a bad leg. She was from Belfast, Ireland, Roman Catholic, could read, daughter of Charles Murray, a leather cutter, and Mary Donnelly. She married twice, first to William Campbell when she was 26 at Armadale (sic), NSW, and second, to John Edward Clark when she was 34, also at Armadale. She had four children by her first marriage, three of whom lived at an address unknown,. The fourth, Charlotte Campbell was married to H. Lambourne in South Melbourne. ‘Came to Australia 49 years ago by Ship Roman Emperorlanded at Adelaide S. A. stayed there 18 years, went to N.S.W, lived there 15 years then came to Brisbane and staid (sic) there ever since.
Last 2 years at Brisbane working and assisted by the Benevolent Societies and Government, and at Brisbane Depot’. The giveaway here allowing us to identify Mary as one of the orphan ‘girls’, is the name of her ship and the date and place of its arrival.
No 506 Ann Gregory admitted 16 March 1897, born in Boyle, Ireland, a housewife and ladies’ nurse, can read and write, daughter of Andrew Heggerty and Salina Reynolds. [Ann Haggerty arrived in Sydney with her sister Catherine, the daughters of Andrew and Sarah, both dead, from Boyle, Roscommon, by the Digby in 1849. Both had their indentures cancelled in the Sydney Water Police Office and sent to Moreton Bay]. Ann married John Gregory when she was 18, in Brisbane. According to the information she gave the Benevolent Asylum, she came to Australia in 1848 and landed in Brisbane, She had lived in Rockhampton, Charters Towers and Brisbane, and had no money and no property. She died 30 May 1900.
No 549 Eliza Dwyer admitted May 4 1898 from Brisbane suffering from bronchitis, born Belfast, Ireland, Roman Catholic, housewife, can read and write, daughter of John Frazer, Bootmaker, and Margaret Gallagher, married Edward Dwyer when 20yo at Brisbane, husband dead 4 years, 5 children alive, one dead, has information about the other 4, came to Australia 50 years ago, landed Moreton Bay, been in Brisbane ever since as nurse and housework etc, last 2 years living with daughter Ipswich Road. No property, no money. Last seen by Medical Superintendent 1 December 1903, died 2 December 1903, buried 3 December 1903. [Eliza Frazer was one of the “Belfast girls” on board the Earl Grey, sent directly to Moreton Bay by Surgeon Douglass].
Ellen Dooley, Eliza Rogers, Ellen Leyden or Lydon, Mary Murray, Ann Haggerty and Eliza Frazer were all ‘Earl Grey Irish workhouse orphans’.
‘There are even two women in the Register who arrived by the James Pattinson the vessel that brought young Irish women to Sydney in 1836; Susan Gillan from Mountmellick, daughter of Edward Finlay and Mary Keogh, and Jane Richards nee Turkington’, i said to the student.
‘The project is a goer’, says my student. ‘I’ll need to look at the Registers again to see if there are some you’ve missed. Trove will also open up more information i’m sure. I certainly won’t leave anyone in limbo. There is a lot i can do. I’ve already had a look at a doctoral thesis at the University of Queensland. Dr Goodall says Dunwich was far from the ideal retreat some contemporaries claimed it was. ‘Inmates quickly developed institutional behaviours…they were subject to overcrowding, senseless regimentation, little or no recreational opportunities…infantilisation and poor quality and unappetising food, he says’.
It doesn’t sound like they had a good quality of life in the end. And look how many Irish women go there towards the end of their life.
It will be interesting to see what Benevolent Asylum records in Sydney and Melbourne throw up. I’ll have to get permission to gain access to some of those particular records, won’t I.’
‘Are you thinking of narrowing down your project already’? i answered. ‘What about the orphans who went to gaol, or into a mental asylum? Maybe we should talk about this next time’.
Allow me to update the contents of my blog. By clicking on the url you will be taken to the post. The titles are not that informative. But note the Search Box at the end of the post that should take you to wherever you want to go. Goodness me. Try typing ‘Hyde Park Barracks Monument’ or ‘Irish sources’ or the name of a particular orphan. Good luck.
This list should make it easier to navigate the blog. Some of the bits and pieces, photographs, maps, graphs and family reconstitutions et al., are meant to illustrate what I’m saying in other posts.
Clicking on the http:// link should take you directly to that post. At the end of each post, after the ‘Comments’ there is a Search box. Type in what you wish to search for and you will see if I’ve said anything about what you are looking for
trevo's Irish famine orphans 
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