Aged 50 years in 50 minutes!

April 26, 2015 4 Comments

Geelong and District RegionLast night I was on a fast-track into the Guinness Book of Records – the oldest woman alive in Australia.

I thought it was about time to add some indexes I had to the Geelong & District Database as it had been a few months since I had done this.  More than 1.63 million entries live in an MS Access Database.  Indexes of all sorts to be added are compiled into an MS Excel spread sheet then copied and pasted into the MS Access form before uploading to the SQL database online.

Everything was honky-dory until I tried to paste – as I have done hundreds and hundreds of times before.

ERRORS – and nasty ones.  It wouldn’t even let me manually add a single entry!

What had changed since I last added entries?  I had upgraded MS Office to version 365 [actually version 2013].  I wasn’t about to uninstall the new version as that included months of University assignments but surely it was just something really simple that would fix the problem.

I had older versions backed up – didn’t come down in the last shower and I was able to update the database on the old Notebook running Vista.

Hours and hours of Google work showed I wasn’t the only one with problems but none of them were exactly the same – and certainly didn’t solve the problem.  By then I had about 8 versions I was experimenting with.

I then sat quietly and spoke quietly to myself saying there HAD TO BE a logical answer.  Then I tried attacking it from a different angle.  The Geelong & District Database is probably one of my oldest LIVE MS Access databases.  So I tried a new more recent one – NOT A PROBLEM!

I won’t bore you with the next four hours of experiments – I’ll just give you the outcome.  The MS Office upgrade should have converted the database to work in the new version.  True BUT NOT IF YOU HAVEN’T UPGRADED every time there was a new release.  I couldn’t afford that and so somewhere along the way where I didn’t pay for an upgrade until there were a couple of versions, it skipped a step that no longer works in the latest version.  Very convoluted but after another couple of hours I had all the data, queries, forms and reports working in a brand new database.  Basically I had to completely recreate the relationships as well as the Forms and Sub-Forms but I’m no longer heading for the Guinness Book of Records!

I’ve lost nothing [unless you count a bit of sanity], added the new indexes and uploaded the entries to the online database.

Haven’t had any sleep since last night but hey – IT’S WORKING!  What a relief.

Filed under New Indexes and content Tagged with ,

Geelong & South Western Rail Heritage Society

April 7, 2015 Leave a comment

Biregurra Railway StationI do love it when groups in our region progress to having a real web and blog site.  We have an addition to this category in the last month.

Obviously they still want to add more to their site but they are well and truly up and running and it’s worth checking them out.  The Geelong Rail Heritage Society web site includes an amazing range of up-coming tours and events.  They also have a great range of books / publications.

Congratulations and keep up the good work.

Filed under Events, Local Societies, Spotlight on Societies, Spotlight on web pages, What's new

When and where was this photo taken?

April 4, 2015 Leave a comment

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe Bellarine Historical Society presents Our Boys at War – a tribute to the local lads and indeed all soldiers that served in the First World War.

The Society has prepared a display in the Old Court House Museum to remember the centenary of the battle for Gallipoli.  Working in conjunction with the Drysdale RSL, the Historical Society is creating a ‘walk into the trenches’ display with memorabilia, photos, written articles and an audio/visual display pertaining to WWI.  [This photo was taken in the entrance to the Old Court House Museum in the last few days.]

Following a very moving RSL ANZAC Day remembrance service at the Cenotaph in Drysdale, a very special memento of Gallipoli will be moved into the Museum next door and the display will then be open to the public.  We hope that the whole community will take the opportunity to visit and remember those sacrifices so long ago.

The Museum will be open for this special display from 10:00am – 4:00pm both Saturday 25th April and Sunday 26th April, then the following 1st Sunday of the month in May, June and July between 1:30 – 4.:30.  We would also welcome contact by any schools or groups that would prefer a private visit during weekdays.

BendigoBankThe Bellarine Historical Society and the Drysdale RSL acknowledge the sponsorship and support of the Bendigo Community Bank for this project.

Further information can be obtained by phone Bob (0425 844 429) or Lynette (0417 133 177).

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More than I expected to find

January 22, 2015 3 Comments

Fyansford Paper MillsOne of the followers of this blog asked a simple question.  My initial reaction was … yet another person asking for help.  Depending on what resources I have open at that instant often governs my reply and depth of involvement.  I don’t normally give a flat “no” but further requests often end up with my “standard” reply – if I helped everyone who asks for help I’d never get any records added to the Geelong and District Database and I certainly wouldn’t have more than 1.6 million records there.

Because I was in the middle of doing similar searches for my own projects I threw this one into the mix and was about to say “enough” when I threw some keywords into Trove and the Geelong Advertiser.

What I found explains why I’ve included the photo of the Paper Mills at Fyansford!

Along with thousands of other people, Ada GOULD was included in a list of unclaimed money – discovered by the blog follower.  Ada had a Geelong address and the reader was hoping we could help find Ada.  It didn’t take long to confirm that Ada GOULD nee BAILEY was deceased, as was her husband.  It also appeared that they had no children so Ada’s siblings would be the nearest relatives.  Most of Ada’s siblings were born in Skipton, Victoria.  The task of tracking each sibling was above and beyond … I had other projects on which I had to focus but a quick look at the Geelong Advertiser completely threw me.

Ada BAILEY took on a whole new meaning – now it’s time to call in reinforcements – can any of you help with tracking down Ada’s living kin?

The story so far:

Please let me know if you find anything to add to this family and perhaps find Ada’s next-of-kin.

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Geelong Advertiser – get involved in the Poll

December 26, 2014 1 Comment

Man's best friendWe’re looking for ideas and trying to get a feel for the amount of interest out there – have a look at the summary of our past blogs on the ditigising of the Geelong Advertiser and participate in the online Poll we’ve set up.

Spread the word and the link to this important blog where you can participate in the Poll.

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Geelong Advertiser – even more!

December 26, 2014 4 Comments

CelebrateHave you caught up with what Father Christmas has been up to with the Geelong Advertiser?  If you’ve registered with TROVE / NLA to be notified via email then you’ll know what I’m talking about but you probably don’t know who was hiding in the Santa suit!

You might remember how much we celebrated with the Geelong Advertiser online editions taking us all the way up to the end of World War One.  But have you noticed the change to the dates?

Those dates might continue on from the previous group but the source of funding has changed.  Unfortunately this is not [yet] reflected online and this omission needs to be rectified.

The Alfred Deakin Prime Ministerial Library / Deakin University Library provided funds to take the digital collection of the Geelong Advertiser from 1919 to 1924.

Thank YouOn behalf of all researchers in our region [in fact most of Western Victoria covered by the Geelong Advertiser] we say a huge Thank You.

We have a few ideas for extending that funding and therefore the years covered but this blog should stand on its own as a sincere and heartfelt THANK YOU.

See further updates and Poll.

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Geelong database – latest additions

December 1, 2014 Leave a comment

Ocean Grove Certificate of TitleI love original documents and there is nothing better than Victorian Certificates of Title – a real work of art and so full of information.  Sometimes people are dazzled by the front page and miss the massive amount of information on the reverse and subsequent pages.  To date, 17,036 transactions for land in “Old” Ocean Grove have been added to the Ocean Grove Land database together with a growing number of photographs for different properties.  These have been consolidated for the Geelong and District Database down to a total of 7,560 entries so far.

Since the last major update on 25 October, there are now 1,628,809 entries in the Geelong and District Database.  Latest additions include:

  • Geelong Infirmary & Benevolent Asylum: Annual Report 1882 – 1,300 entries
  • Geelong and District: Geelong Football Club players missing photographs – 209 entries
  • Surnames of Interest entries – 15 new entries [1,133 submitters in total]
  • Old Ocean Grove land titles: sellers and purchasers – 3,856 entries

Details on these indexes can be found in the Geelong & District Potpourri pages.

And don’t forget to search again for your ancestors in the Geelong & District Database – they could have been in the last load of additions!

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Worth entering

December 1, 2014 Leave a comment

cyber-monday-giveaway-smallOK – I’m not proud and when you’re unemployed you have to try to reduce costs any way you can.

Please follow this link to get a chance to win some great prizes – as well as increasing my chance to win!  It costs nothing and there are no strings attached.

Ends 6 December 2014.

Filed under Events Tagged with

Is your ancestor in this list?

November 23, 2014 1 Comment

James DEW c.1912

The Geelong Football Club needs your help … I’m sure there are many people who don’t realise that their ancestor or relative played for the Geelong Football Club but you could just be the person that the club wants to contact.  We found this photo of James DEW who was President of the Shire of Bellarine.  Unfortunately it’s many years after he played for Geelong [in 1880] and the club would prefer a photo of DEW when he looked about 30 years younger! :-)  If they can’t find photos of players in GFC uniforms, they will Photoshop appropriate photos into the GFC uniform for the relevant year – I think the Shire President would look a tad old in club colours if this photo was used!

From the GFC web site:

The Geelong Cats are nearing the end of an enormous project.

We have spent the last several years, gathering images of every player who has played with Geelong, since 1877… whether he played 1 game or 300 games.

As of today we have gathered around 1117 images, and we are now only looking for 206 to complete this exciting work.

We don’t expect to get an image of the player in a Geelong jumper. The best style of image is a football team photo, where he is looking straight into the camera. wedding images are also good as they usually show this “face on” style of image. of course, any images will be helpful!

We are looking to complete this work before the end of the year and so, we need these images before 20th December 2014.

If you think you may have a photo of any of the past players listed, please contact:
Mr. Bob Gartland,
Vice President
Chair, Honouring the Past Geelong Football Club
Mobile: 0418 522 526
Email: bob@gartland.com.au

Please have a really good look at the list of names and see if you can identify anyone.  If you have a photo you may be able to help the club with this project.

Player Year(s) played
ALLEN, Jim 1935
ANDERSON, 1894
ANDERSON, Ernest 1898
ANDERSON, L Bruce 1919
ARBREW, Jack 1909
ARMSTRONG, Ossy 1915
BAKER, Jack R 1901-02
BAMFORD, Ray 1944
BARCLAY, Lionel 1944-45
BAXTER, 1891
BEACH, Henry 1883
BINDER, Robert 1890
BLENCOWE, Jack 1914
BLUNT, Fred 1887
BOOTH, Bob 1876-79
BOOTH, W 1878
BOURCHIER, Bert 1908
BOYD, James 1880; 1882-83
BOYD, R 1888
BROSNAN, George 1891
BROWN, Bill 1905
BURKE, 1889
CALDER, Thomas 1886-87
CALDWELL, Harry 1880
CHEESEMAN, Henry 1904
CHISHOLM, Les 1908-09
CHRISTENSEN, Ross 1983
CLARKE, Angus 1881-82
COLLOCOTT, Harold 1900
CONLON, B? 1886
CONRADI, Harold 1914
COOK, 1885
COOKE, Walter 1898
COOPER, George 1890
CROHAN, Frank 1875-77
CRONIN, Fred 1902-03
CROSSLEY, Len 1888
DAVIE, Jack 1902
DAVISON, Norman 1906
DAY, Alf 1907
DE GRUCHY, Bill 1900
DEW, James 1880
DOBBYN, W H 1880
DOOLEY, 1887; 1890
DORE, Jack 1898
DUPE, Alf 1906-07
EDDY, Barry 1974-75
EDOLS, John 1882
EDWARDS, T 1896
ENFIELD, Stan 1897
EVERETT, Ern P 1918
FANNING, James 1890
FEDER, Ted 1921
FISCHER, Henry 1906
FOWLER, 1895-96
GALLAGHER, Billy 1906
GATEHOUSE, James 1900
GAUDION, Jack 1936
GIBNEY, James 1890
GLENN, Tom 1891
GLOVER, Bert 1910
GORMAN, Christy 1910
GRAHAM, Dick 1894; 1896
GRIGG, Norm 1911
HALL, G 1885
HARPER, Jim 1906
HARRIP, Ray 1957
HARRIS, George 1923
HARRISON, Vic 1935
HARTLEY, 1886; 1890
HAYNES, Ray 1971
HEARD, Harry 1941
HIGGINS, Charles 1891; 1893-94
HODGINS, Frank 1915; 1917-18
HOGAN, J 1878-79
HOLDEN, Frank 1935-36
HOLLIGAN, Joe 1913
HOOPER, Walter 1888-89
HORMAN, George 1904
HOUGHTON, Fred 1894
HURLEY, John 1902
JAMES, Bill T 1957
JAMES, Jack 1893
JOHNS, W 1880
JONES, Bill D 1915
JONES, G 1878
JONES, Percy 1929
KEARNEY, Con 1885
KELLY, Joe J 1905
KEON, Johnny 1908
KERLEY, Michael 1885
KING, Alec 1898
KINSELLA, Edward 1883
KIRK, Rupert 1876; 1879-80; 1882
LAIRD, John 1957
LAWLER, Jack 1887
LEE, Jack 1903
LEGGETT, George 1906
LIDGERWOOD, Vin 1944
LINEEN, Jock A 1921
LORD, Don 1901
LUKE, Arthur 1948
LYONS, Jack R 1934
MACKAY, 1893
MARSHALL, Nick 1907-08
MARTIN, Tom 1911
MATHIESON, 1885
MATTHEWS, Charlie 1885-86; 1888
McCOY, D 1885
McGORLICK, Norm 1908
McINNES, John 1905
McKAY, Bill 1897
McKAY, Hugh 1907-08
McKEEGAN, Tim 1901-02
McKENZIE, John G 1906
McKENZIE, Sam 1896
McMURRICH, Peter 1896
McMURRICH, Peter 1904
McNEILAGE, Jim 1907
McPHERSON, Jack 1895-96
MESLEY, Arthur 1903
MILLAR, Alf 1905
MILLER, Keith A 1941
MITCHELL, George 1891-92
MOIR, 1890
MOLAN, Henry 1904
MOODIE, Bill 1901
MOORE, John 1883
MULLER, Nick 1936; 1940
MULLIGAN, Frank 1880-81
MULROYAN, Cyril 1926-29
MUNDAY, Bill 1902
MURPHY, Johnny 1905-06
NICHOLLS, Fred 1895
NUTTALL, Chris 1894
O’DONNELL, Pat 1899
O’HALLORAN, Ian 1957
O’LOUGHLIN, Jack 1898; 1901
OLIVER, William 1876; 1878
ORGAN, Geoff 1939
PALMER, George 1901
PARK, Keith 1945-46
PATTERSON, Pat 1969
PAYNE, Valentine 1878
PENDER, Laurie 1912
PETERSON, Tommy 1918
PITMAN, Herb 1902
PLUNKETT, Jack 1928-30
PREEN, John 1974-77
PRIDDLE, Frank 1894
PROSSER, 1887
REED, Doy 1919
REID, Alan L 1951
REID, Alec 1885
REID, Peter 1883
REID, Walter 1884-85
RICKETTS, George 1910
RITCHIE, Charles 1883
RITCHIE, Robert 1908
ROBERTS, Jimmy 1904
ROBERTSON, Bill 1898
ROCK, William 1884-85
RYAN, Con 1907-08
RYAN, Pat 1885-86; 1888
RYMER, Vern 1895
SANDFORD, George 1893; 1895
SAXBEE, George 1901
SCOTT, David 1975
SCRIVENGER, Alfred 1886; 1888
SHARKEY, Jack 1897
SHERIDAN, Jack 1918
SHERRY, Tom 1907
SIMSON, Andrew 1883-84
SMITH, Sid N 1911
SPARROW, Wheeler 1873-79; 1881
SPEED, M 1879
STANLAKE, Robert 1900
STEVEN, Robert 1977
STEWART, Walter 1905
STOKES, Dick 1915; 1917
STONEMAN, H 1885-86
STRICKLAND, Len 1900
STUBBS, Edgar 1906
SUTTERBY, Reg 1919
SYKES, S 1888
SYNNOT, George 1867-77
TANSING, George 1908
TAYLOR, Al 1890
TAYLOR, Bill M 1926
TAYLOR, George 1896
THOMAS, 1891
THOMPSON, J T 1882
THOMPSON, Jamie 1915
THOMPSON, Paddy 1892
TUOHEY, 1879
TUOHILL, Jack 1944
TURLEY, Patrick 1887
ULBRICK, Fred 1881
UPTON, Ralph 1907
WATT, Ernie 1875-77
WAYTH, Stan 1903
WHITELAW, F 1879
WIGHTON, Jack 1906
WILLIAMS, Herb 1905
WILMOTT, G C 1883
WILMOTT, H 1885
WILSON, George 1887; 1889
WOODS, Bill 1909
WOOLLARD, Thomas 1877

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The importance of being diligent!

November 22, 2014 3 Comments

VicAsstImmFollowing an interesting discussion on the Victoria Genealogy Facebook page today, I realised I needed to share a file I produced some years ago.

We were discussing what details you find about immigrants to Victoria on the various “passenger lists” when in fact people were talking about different things – searchable indexes on the PROV web site or Ancestry or TROVE or State Records of New South Wales or wherever.

Apart from people not understanding what they were looking at there was also a lack of knowledge on just what was available.

Although many of these lists are being digitised, the microfiche [images] of these passenger lists are still readily available in many archives and libraries.  And even when the lists of passengers are fully digitised and indexed I bet all the invaluable introduction “pages” on the Assisted Immigrants microfiche never see light of day.  That’s a tragedy because there is SO MUCH INVALUABLE information on those pages – including a full alphabetical list of all ships with Port and Date of Departure, Port and Date of Arrival, info re Nominal and Disposal lists, and Comments such as the scheme the ship was sailing under.

I’ve added some pages to the beginning of the file – a quick reference to determine exactly which fiche on which you’ll find the relevant Book / Page number.  Basically I got sick of guessing and trying fiche after fiche before finding the right one.

Here is my Reference / Information file for Victorian Assisted Immigrants.   Take time to look at it – I hope it will help with your research.

Filed under Family history Tagged with ,

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