e-Muster August 2012 - Central Coast Family History Society Inc.

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Page Page No: No: 13 Journal of the Central Coast Family History Society Inc. FINDING BRIDGET! I’m sure we all have that ancestor for whom we just can’t find that elusive piece of evidence for a birth, death or a marriage. You know the feeling. You keep searching the NSWBDM website hoping that miraculously the name is going to jump out at you to no avail. No amount of wildcard searching or trying spelling variants produces anything. Brickwall! My maternal great grandmother was one of these until I was directed to use the Index to the Microform Collection of the Society of Australian Genealogists 1990. This is an index to the Church and Parish Registers for New South Wales that are on microfilm held at the Mitchell Library in Sydney. It is affectionately called the “blue book”. Shamefully, it took me another four years to follow up this advice. I tagged along on one of Marlene’s recent State Library tours. After a great morning being shown the resources and equipment now set up for the serious family historians at State Library and with the hunger pangs satisfied at their wonderful “Trim” restaurant, Marlene and I decided to spend the afternoon in the Mitchell Library. I have to say I wasn’t too hopeful of finding anything having already spent about 20 years of various searches to find the baptism and hopefully birth of great grandmother Bridget WYCHE. The other problem I faced was that the surname for her three older siblings had been variously recorded as VOYAGE, VOIGE AND VOIAGE! It must have come about by the combination of the Lancashire accent and the hearing of the Irish priest. Not to be deterred and armed with the information from the “blue book” I located the film in the Mitchell. I just had to find the Parish record for St Nicholas of Myra at Penrith and search around the year 1855 as all my previous information indicated this was her birth year. Have you ever been in the Mitchell Library and had that “Eureka” moment. You know what I mean, then, when I say I just wanted to shout out “I found her”! There on the page was her baptism and birthdate; baptised April 1855, born 15 February 1855 to parents Peter VOYAGE and Bridget HARTNET. Another VOYAGE in the family! Luckily for me each entry has had the mother’s maiden name and that confirmed I had the correct entry. The Muster – August ugust 2012 2012
The Muster – August 20 2012 20 2012 12 Journal of the Central Coast Family History Society Inc. Not satisfied with this find, I wanted to know why couldn’t I find her on NSWBDM if she was in the Parish register? At the suggestion of Kay Radford, I checked the two preceding entries on this page Isaac GARLICK and Owen STAPLETON to see if they appeared on NSWBDM. This would either alert me to the fact that the whole page had been lost between parish and Registrar or just my Bridget had been missed. Interestingly the two preceding entries are listed on NSWBDM. So what happened to Bridget? Now armed with the Volume number for the 1855 entries of these two boys in Penrith, I searched the films we have of pre-1856 Baptisms Marriages and Burials. The boys’ entries were for March 1855 and knowing Bridget was baptised in April, I searched for her entry. Alas! There was a note saying “No entries for April”. The entries were for March and then May definitely nothing for April. So the page had either been lost or misplaced. Of course, if the Registry was using this register to transcribe the baptisms, it explained why Bridget does not appear on the NSWBDM website. I now have a copy of her baptism confirming her birthdate as well. Always follow up advice, especially if it is from someone who has already done the research the hard way…..preinternet. Google doesn’t have all the answers! Margaret Ertner - Member No. 1252 NOTE FROM THE EDITOR I have decied to change the font used in The e-Muster. From this issue I have used one of the default Windows fonts CAMBRIA (16pt) which reads very clearly and looks great. Just one more thing I should remind our budding story tellers. When composing your family stories please remember that all SURNAMES should be displayed as capital letters. Grabs the attention of the reader! Page No: 14 14 14
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e-Muster August 2012 - Central Coast Family History Society Inc.

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