Edition 8, 2019

Traces

Uncovering the past

Traces2 min read
Welcome To The Eighth Edition Of Traces!
Welcome to edition 8 of Traces. This year, we have seen surging interest in DNA testing for genealogy. According to research undertaken in February by MIT Technology Review, more than 26 million people have taken an at-home DNA test. I am one of thos
Traces2 min read
Letters To The Editor
Another fantastic edition of Traces [edition 7]! I was most excited to find the article on gold rush photographers, the Batchelders, by John Toohey. I have a set of four cartes de visite at home, which I found in my grandmothers’ belongings after she
Traces2 min read
Heritage News
New exhibit questions William Bligh’s character The Australian National Maritime Museum has opened a groundbreaking new exhibition offering a radical new take on one of Australian history’s most divisive characters, William Bligh. ‘Bligh – Hero or Vi
Traces3 min read
Songs Of Home
Australia has always been filled with music. For millennia, First Nations people have lived in communities shaped by the sharing of song and dance. In 1788, new music began to fill the air in the country of the Eora, Darug and Dharawal, and of the cl
Traces4 min readPolitics
What’s New Online?
• Electoral Rolls, 1893–1949: more than 16 million new indexed records • Quebec, Marriage Returns, 1926–1997: more than seven million new indexed records • Baltimore, Maryland Passenger Lists, 1891–1943: more than one million new indexed records• Hon
Traces2 min read
Old Parliament House, Adelaide
Dwarfed by its next-door neighbour, the new Parliament House, Adelaide’s Old Parliament House can be found on the corner of North Terrace and Station Road in the Adelaide CBD. While less stately than its replacement, Old Parliament House is neverthel
Traces6 min read
Australia’s Byzantine Trophy Of War Part 1
The Anglo-American writer and avowed anti-theist Christopher Hitchens once lamented that there was no fraudulence one couldn’t get away with, provided one could get the word ‘Reverend’ put in front of their name. Hitchens was referring mainly to the
Traces5 min read
Brisbane’s Year Of Disaster
In Brisbane at this time, most buildings were made from timber and had shingle roofs; sawmills, foundries and tanning workshops produced waste and fumes; and infant mortality was 50 per cent by the age of five due to diseases such as typhoid and chol
Traces4 min read
Sydney’s ‘Suicide Brides’
It is hard to imagine a family story more tragic than that of the Slys. In January 1904, in Sydney’s inner-city suburb of Newtown, two young brothers discovered the bodies of their parents in the family home. Thirty-two-year-old Alexander ‘Alicks’ Sl
Traces5 min read
Australia’s First Naturalists
Well into the 20th century, European collectors and naturalists engaged Indigenous people to participate in expeditions that sought to collect and understand the local fauna and flora. Indigenous men and boys were the most frequent participants, but
Traces2 min read
Tapping The Admiral
In the Auditor-General’s annual report to the Queensland Parliament in 1942, it was noted that the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum was missing 40 gallons of rum. There was no evidence to suggest that the rum had leaked out due to a problem with the cask or
Traces3 min read
Turning Genealogy Into A Career
Wherever in the world you are conducting research, the same basic qualities apply: any professional genealogist should have ethics, knowledge, skill and experience. Additionally, they should strive to obtain professional credentials to be able to con
Traces5 min read
So You Want To Be A Genealogist?
Traces spoke with Dr Imogen Wegman, Lecturer in History and Classics at the University of Tasmania (UTAS); and Nathan Wise, Associate Professor in Public and Applied History in the School of Humanities at the University of New England (UNE), about be
Traces4 min readBiology
Using DNA In Genealogy
If you’re just starting out, DNA can tell you where to look and what to expect. A DNA test provides an ethnicity estimate that can provide insight into the possible origin of your ancestors over the last few hundred years. It also highlights DNA matc
Traces4 min read
Writing Family History For Children
A story can be a gift of the imagination from the past, and can capture the quiet heroes in your family’s history. Although I’ve written books for all ages, getting the story right for a young person is the greatest challenge. A specific story for a
Traces3 min read
A Chinese Farmer In European Clothes
This is a story about a Chinese-Australian man who emigrated by ship as a 15-year-old with the support of missionaries. In the 1900s, many Chinese people left an impoverished China and migrated over 4000 nautical miles to Australia, desperate for wor
Traces4 min read
MINA MAGERMAN A Khoisan Woman Far From Home
A violent encounter at a street canteen on Grahamstown’s High Street at the Cape Colony in February 1830 irrevocably changed the lives of the three Khoisan (Indigenous) women involved. One was left for dead; another spent several months in jail; and
Traces7 min read
Point Hicks Lighthouse
For decades, controversy raged about Point Hicks, formerly known as Cape Everard. Was it the site of Lieutenant James Cook’s first sighting of Australia’s east coast in April 1770, or not? Sailing in the Endeavour from New Zealand, Cook, steering wes

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