Table of contents for May-Jun 2016 in Traces

Q I’m thinking of submitting a DNA test to find out more about my paternal grandmother’s line. Who should I also ask to take this test? Should I ask male or female cousins or does that not matter? What sort of things would the results tell me? And what sort of DNA test should I ask for? I know there are different types. Thank you! — Melinda Smith, NSW Join us on Facebook for more expert tips, or ask our community for help with your research. Visit facebook.com/insidehistorymagazine A. Because the line from you to your paternal grandmother involves both sexes, the most relevant DNA test for you is probably an autosomal test. The three main testing companies all offer autosomal tests: Family Tree DNA (familytreedna.com) call theirs the ‘Family…

The unveiling of Claude Limonaire’s life story up to his mid twenties is only possible now due to the availability of records held by a number of different federal and state agencies together with Ancestry and the generosity of his family in Queensland. Access to Claude’s World War One army service record, at the National Archives of Australia (naa.gov.au), marked the beginning of answering many questions. The Australian War Memorial’s digitised collection of photographs (awm.gov.au) provided our first picture of Claude in the 45th Battalion band. New South Wales State Records holds the Supreme Court of NSW proceedings of the divorce and annulment in 1920-21 and, crucially, their holdings of prison records provided the haunting photographs of Claude at the beginning of his sentence together with details of his tattoos.…

ETHEL MADE her way to Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, and went to work. Again using her movie star name Gloria Grey she plied her trade in only the best establishments, cashing cheques from a bank account she had opened with only one pound, and obtaining numerous luxury items. When things got a bit hot in Melbourne, she dyed her hair a different shade and travelled up to Sydney. Under the various names of Florence Dunkley, Elizabeth Gardner, Elizabeth Anderson, Elizabeth King, Lady Betty Anderson, Ann Derson, Florence Derson, Gloria Grey and Pamela Pilkington she took Sydney by storm, passing valueless cheques, from the city to Ryde and the quieter northern beach suburbs — all new areas for her. She even managed to convince one gullible jeweller that she was Mrs Fingleton,…

Kerry Farmer “Ask our experts”, page 20 I would like to test the DNA of King Edward III from 14th-century England. Statistics suggest that a modern English person with predominantly English ancestry is more than 99 per cent likely to descend from Edward III. Helen Stagg “Communities on the edge”, page 34 Bruno Alfred August Hintz, born in Lyndoch, South Australia in 1870, is my mysterious great grandfather. He had a colourful youth, marrying Lillian Dollman in Box Hill, Victoria, in 1897 under the assumed name of Wilfred Bentley. A DNA test would show whether he was in fact the father of the first four children born to Lillian prior to the marriage. Bruno disappeared from the records after Lillian’s premature death in 1904 and remains my genealogical brick wall.…

Eveleigh Stories Free; desktop compatible Sydney’s Eveleigh Railway Yards are regarded as some of the finest historic railway engineering workshops in the world. This website shares the heritage and stories of this historic precinct. Tracing the site’s past from pre-European history through to World War Two and beyond, Eveleigh Stories explores the site’s former uses: as wetlands and home of the Gadigal people, to the colonial-era paddocks of Major Cleveland – and, of course, the railway yards themselves. Eveleigh Stories is an engaging website that really brings the precinct to life. Visit eveleighstories. com.au for details. KinMapper Free; desktop compatible KinMapper is a nifty app that maps the locations where your ancestors lived over the generations. After logging in to your FamilySearch account, the app updates its world map with…

MY MOTHER told me of her wartime in London as a member of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) with enthusiasm. She only left the services because she was pregnant with me. It was a very special time in her life as my father had never allowed her to work outside our home. It came to me that I should collect the precious stories of the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) and dedicate a book to my lovely mother, sadly killed in a road accident years before. Women in wartime Joan Weir, who originally told me of her time as an AWAS, is 91 now and we are still close friends. Many of the AWAS she introduced me to are no longer with us. These remarkable women served in many…

What’s new on Trove Trove, the National Library of Australia’s much-loved online discovery service, recently underwent one of its largest upgrades ever, launching Trove 7. The site’s upgrades will make it faster to search, and more user-friendly on mobile devices. New features include a ‘Browse’ function, and additions that make it easier to navigate, correct text and customise the look of the site for your own preferences in terms of zoom, font, and contrast. In conjunction with the State Library of New South Wales, the National Library of Australia has also been working to make the NSW Government Gazettes available on Trove from 1832 to 2001. These gazettes are a fantastic resource and offer a range of information, from descriptive snippets about convicts to official notices relating to land, trade…

ANCESTRY • Australia Commonwealth Public Service Lists, 1904; 1920 • Australia Electoral Rolls, 1903–80 (updates) • Ireland Catholic Parish Registers, 1655–1915 • Queensland and Victoria, Australian Directories, 1859–1947 • Queensland Death Inquest Index, 1859–97 • Queensland Hospital Indexes, 1872–1908 • Queensland Naturalisation Index, 1851–1904 • Queensland Police Gazette Index, 1881–1945 • Queensland Will Index, 1857–1940 • South Australia Police Gazettes, 1927–47 • Sydney Cemetery Headstone Transcriptions, 1867–2002 • Tasmania Police Gazettes, 1884–1933 • Tasmania Railway Employment Records, 1903–77 • Tasmania Teacher Employment History Cards, 1886–1945 • Victoria Police Gazettes, 1914–24 • Western Australia Convict Records, 1846–1930 • Yorkshire Probate Records, 1521–1858 • Yorkshire Quarter Session Records, 1637–1914 Visit ancestry.com.au FINDMYPAST • British Royal Navy Seamen, 1899–1924 • Devon, Plymouth and West Devon Parish Chest Records, 1556–1950 • Irish Catholic Parish…

ON A cool morning in mid September 1920 a troubled young man stared at the lens of the official photographer’s camera in Goulburn Gaol. As the shutter clicked his gaze was momentarily averted, perhaps reflecting on how it had all come to this. “Turn left” was the next command; his profile satisfactorily captured, he was escorted back to a cramped and foreboding cell. The last few months had been tumultuous. Indeed, the last five years had seen turmoil and adventure beyond his imagination as a boy growing up in rural Queensland. Two weeks earlier Claude Limonaire had been convicted of the crime of bigamy in the Newcastle Quarter Sessions and sentenced to 12 months hard labour. His ‘marriage’ in February 1919 in Sydney had been discovered by his wife in…

MY MOTHER Madge Marion Belfield (right) was born in Mt Morgan, Queensland in 1920. Madge finished school at the end of Grade 10 and secured a job as a receptionist with Irving Studios, a photography firm in Mt Morgan. Frank Irving soon realised Madge’s potential, and she was trained in the art of photo colouring. At age 17, Madge moved to Rockhampton to take up a photographer’s assistant position at Irving’s main studio. As Madge was very photogenic, Mr Irving also enlisted her services as a model to test new film, lighting and settings. Consequently, my siblings and I grew up thinking our mum was a movie star, as she had a drawer full of beautiful studio images, such as this image, all coloured by herself. In 1946, Madge married…