Saturday, 17 April 2021

Opportunities out there - AJCP


Oh! to emigrate there

Out there, over there, on the edge of civilisation however the colonies were viewed in the 19th century, the need for emigrants produced opportunities for those willing to travel and take their families to the other side of the world. 

Posters on talks about Australia, New Zealand and Canada, advertising promotions for ships and sailing dates, letters from emigrants to those "back home" all played their part in the promotion of emigration opportunities. Records such as these are scattered throughout the AJCP collections.

This poster advertises lectures about Australia. It is from the Oxfordshire County Record Office.

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2497766794/view

In 1838 Colonel Wyndham was keen to move his Irish tenants off his estate so he offered free passage to Canada. Those who were above 15 but under 30 could go to Australia if preferred, but assistance would only be provided once families were ready to embark.
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2357708934/view
from the Collections of the Petworth House archives

This 1839 printed poster advertising emigration to New South Wales to married men belonging to Battle Union comes from the East Sussex Record office. Free of Expence - presumably expense but why not interpret this as those with no pence!

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1019291508/view

This one held by the Ipswich branch of the Suffolk Record Office offers a free passage for single women to depart in April of 1836.
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1387821650/view
  
An 1873 poster for the steamship Great Britain 

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1414387178/view
If you view the whole poster there are details about the cost of the voyage in each class of cabin.
The SALOON is provided with every requisite, including Berths, Beds, Bedding, Plate, Table Linen, Crockery, Glass, etc. It is supplied with the best articles of Food, and an abundant Dietary Scale, Live Stock, Poultry, etc. It contains a Ladies' Boudoir, Baths, etc, etc.
No Passenger booking for a berth in a Cabin is to be accommodated in a Cabin by himself, so long as he can placed in a Cabin of the same class or price with another Passenger not booked for a whole Cabin. Should any Passenger shift from the accommodation for which he was originally booked to a berth for which a higher charge is payable, or from a berth in a Cabin to a whole Cabin, he is to be charged the extra fare throughout.

Finally a ticket issued in 1857 for a return journey to Liverpool. Was this an emigrant returning home, or was he just going back to visit?


https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2741187912/view
Passage ticket issued by the Black Ball Line (Melbourne) to Charles Wilson for a passage from Melbourne to Liverpool
Posted by at 6 comments:
Labels: ,

Friday, 16 April 2021

Near Neighbour New Zealand - AJCP


New Zealand's Blue Books

For this post I return to the Records of the Colonial Office. Some of my favourite finds have been in the Blue Books of Statistics. These are made up of forms that were filled in by the Colonial Secretary in each colony. Copies were then returned to London. They contain a comprehensive overview of the status of the colony in any one year. They detail all the government appointments in that year as well as statistical information about population, schools, churches, revenue and expenditure, imports, roads, postage and much more.

In this 1848 New Zealand Blue Book, the headings across the top of the pages which list personnel are:

Office | Name | Date of appointment | By whom appointed and under what instrument | Annual salary | 
On the second page of the spread we find details of whether the appointee was entitled to housing and any other appointments they held. The last column has the date of their first appointment under the Colonial Government.

All this is rich information for the family historian so if you know in which colony your ancestor worked, it is possible that he may have been employed by some arm of the colonial authority. 

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1724415622/view
NZ Blue Book of Statistics 1848

From the page above we see that John Guilding who was appointed as the Landing Waiter in the Customs Department on 1st May 1848 was paid 200 pounds per year. The Boarding Officer, D Rough received 100 pounds a year whereas the Collectors of Customs Henry D'Arch and William Young were both in receipt of 300 pounds per year.

In the same year, 1848, the governor of New Zealand, Sir George Grey was receiving 2 500 pounds per year.

The contents page for each of these Blue Books details the types of information recorded about the colony for that year. The Civil Establishment records where employment details are found, sometimes start at about page 69. That is unlikely to be image 69 in the microfilm, you may need to go further.


https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1724392810/view

Blue Books of Statistics are available for New Zealand from 1840 -1854. They can be found in the Colonial Office Records  or by combining the search terms in the Trove search bar.
These are just some of the records specific to New Zealand across the range of  AJCP collections



Other colonies

Blue Books of Statistics are also available for Fiji and the Australian colonies.
By combining search terms and adding a year e.g. Blue Book AND 1847 AND AJCP one is led to more specific results.
Once a record is obtained, choose Browse then zoom in on the Contents page for that year to find the number of the starting page for the Civil Establishment records rather than having to scroll through all the images.



Rates of pay are interesting to compare to the cost of goods advertised in the newspapers in the same years to get an idea of the cost of living for your ancestors. 

Blue Books of Statistics provide an excellent overview of each colony across a range of years. These are available in the Colonial Office collection.
  • Western Australia 1834 – 1869
  • South Australia 1840 – 1865
  • Tasmania 1822 – 1858
  • New Zealand 1840 – 1855
  • Victoria 1851 – 1856
  • NSW 1822 – 1857
  • Fiji 1874
  • Tonga 1883
Posted by at 5 comments:
Labels: ,

Thursday, 15 April 2021

Mining the records of the Missions - AJCP


Making Missions Matter

Many Christian organisations established missionary branches to promote their beliefs in England's far flung colonies. The records of some of these societies are very well documented and so provide valuable information about their personnel and the places to which they were sent. The records of a wide range of such organisations are available through the M series. 

One of the most comprehensive of these collections is that of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 

Applications for positions in the missions required the intended missionary fill in a detailed form providing background details about his/her date and place of birth, family details and faith commitments. These detailed forms also included work history, salary and aspirations. What a bonus for the family historian to find an ancestor's signature.

Series. Testimonial Envelopes, 1860 - 1930 There are hundreds of names here.




https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2641124680/view
The first 4 of 16 questions to be answered by applicants


The Series. Missionary Rolls, 1846 - 1910  also supply similar information but in this case they detail the appointments actually made.
Here is George Henry Farr's 1854 acceptance to proceed to Adelaide as headmaster of St Peter's Collegiate School on the understanding that he was to receive 300 pounds per annum.
Sarah Coomes, off to Borneo in 1856 was to be given 100 pounds for passage and outfit and to receive 40 pounds per annum 

Just a reminder: searches within the Trove interface will find any of these records

The alternative is to search a surname from within the Finding Aid of the society.

Additional Missionary Organisations

Church Missionary Society - This collection dates from 1799 up to 1914. Letters, Minute books, Journals and miscellaneous collections with a large quantity of material about the society's New Zealand missions.
Church of Scotland 1848 - 1936 
"This collection includes letterbooks and minutes from the Church of Scotland Foreign Mission Committee; Bombay Corresponding board; Women's Association for Foreign Missions; Colonial Committee; United Presbyterian Church Foreign Mission Committee; treasurers; mission board; Free Church of Scotland Foreign Mission and Colonial Committees and United Free Church of Scotland Colonial, Continental and Jewish committee."
London Missionary Society  - There are many early accounts of voyages to and the establishment of missions across the Pacific. Missionaries wrote reports in the form of letters and later more formalised reports were completed from a wide range of outposts in the islands. 

As with many Finding aids the names of the missionaries writing these reports can be found with a simple search from the AJCP portal page, so "William E Goward" is found in 42 instances in the South Seas missions.

This collection is related to the Marist mission in Fiji.
Hundreds of missionaries names in the letters written. 
St Joseph's Foreign Missionary Society Covers Records of the Maori Mission, 1882 - 1972

Try a surname search from the AJCP portal page to locate those missionaries whose names have been recorded in Finding Aids. The guides often provide historical background information about these societies and their extent of operations. By browsing the guides (finding aids) one can get an overview of the context and extent of the records.

Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Enjoyed this post? Want to see more?