| Rhonda Houston's Genealogy Research Hot Tip for January 11th, 2001 |
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| Genealogy Resources: Australian Research And The American Connection |
Australian Research Information -- Note: This article was previously published by Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG, Missing Links, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2001"20,000 Ausie Brides Carried To America"by: Nick Vine Hall, Genealogist and Maritime Historian Australian genealogists receive a constant flow of correspondence and e-mail from the children of Australian war brides seeking the Aussie half of their ancestry. The handwriting on the envelopes is always the same. I always recognize those envelopes by the familiar uniform American scripts which must have been taught to every school child over there in the 1950s. There were some 800,000 U.S. marines in the Pacific region in World War II and many came ashore in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne on R&R leave. It wasn't long before a sizeable crop of American family trees was planted in Australian soil. That was about 55 years ago, which is just about the age we start getting interested in our family trees. Before that, many thousands of Americans had flocked to the Australian gold rushes in the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria in the 1850s, when the gold ran out in California -- and more family trees sprouted. There were about 60,000 diggers and their families on the Victorian gold fields by mid-1853. Of these, 23,000 were at Bendigo. In June 1853, an Anti-Gold-Licence Association was formed at Bendigo to give voice to the many grievances of the diggers, centering on the monthly licence fee they had to pay. One of the three leaders of the association was an Irish-born American, Captain Edward BROWN. The three drew up a petition, signed by diggers at Bendigo, Ballarat, Castlemaine, McIvor, Mount Alexander, and other diggings. The petition carried about 8,000 names collected in June and July 1853, and was presented to the lieut. governor in Melbourne on 1 August 1853. All of the signatures seemed to be men, and their occupations (often "digger" or "gold digger") and locality are sometimes stated. Some random entries are:
On the same page were five names written in Chinese characters. One particular signature, which jumped out of the page was: "Jno. I. HUMPHEREY, altho not subject to her Gracious Majesty, but a gold digger born American, would add his prayer to this petition." In spite of the petition, most of the demands of the miners were rejected and eventually this culminated in Australia's famous Eureka Stockade uprising in 1854. According to one report, there were more than 400 Americans on the Ballarat field at the time of the rebellion. One, Captain James McGILL, accompanied by about 200 of his countrymen, formed a body called the Independent Californian Rangers. McGill had military training and was promptly appointed second in command, being responsible for tactical arrangements. The government brought in troops and the resulting battle in the early hours of Sunday, 3 December 1854, put down the uprising, leaving 22 miners and five soldiers dead. Needless to say, the miners had made their point, and the next year the government reformed its gold field laws and fees. There was great jubilation. The "Ballarat Knocker" became a popular drink of celebration. It comprised a mixture of Jamaica rum, cayenne pepper, opium, and methylated spirits, cooled by ice from the U.S.A. The ice was cut from the ponds of Massachusetts, packed in sawdust in the holds of sailing ships bound for Australia, and carted by bullock wagons to the gold fields. The American ice was given as the reason for the high price of drinks and any ice left in a glass was quickly tipped into fresh drinks.
PERMISSION TO REPRINT articles from MISSING LINKS is granted
unless specifically stated otherwise, PROVIDED: (1) the reprint
is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; and (2) the
following notice appears at the end of the article: Missing Links, Vol. 6, No. 2, 10 January 2001. RootsWeb: http://www.rootsweb.com/ BOOK LINKS
TRACING YOUR FAMILY HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA: A GUIDE TO RESOURCES,
second edition, by Nick Vine Hall.
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| Rhonda Houston's Genealogy Research Hot Tip for March 16th, 2001 | ||
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| Genealogy Resources: Subject: United States Merchant Marines | ||
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| Rhonda Houston's Genealogy Research Hot Tip for March 17th, 2001 | |
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| Genealogy Resources: Subject: United States Texas Rangers | |
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| Rhonda Houston's Genealogy Research Hot Tip for March 21st, 2001 | |
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| Genealogy Resources: Subject: Solving Some Genealogical Problems | |
Book Review Index:
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If you wish to contact Rhonda Houston you may do so through the following ~eMail address: |
On Site Search Engine UtilitiesTo save time MacLinks has installed an onsite search engine
for your convenience on this page and on Rhonda's Research and Data Center
page. Simply insert your 'keyword' and LookSmart will scan the entire
MacLinks site to find your information. There is a second button on the
form that will search the entire internet for you.
On Site Navigational Form to Your Page/Links of InterestIn the interest of those who wish to go where they want quickly, we have added a navigational form. Press the small up and down arrows and go to where you want. No buttons, no confusion, no names - same simple old big page! At the bottom of each page the same navigational form will appear to take you where you want to go.
Enjoy - Dave MacLennan (MacLinks Family Connections) & Bruce McLennan (Clan MacLennan - Worldwide)
Would you like to add or become part of the our Genealogy Resource Group? Please feel free to contact Dave or Rhonda at; dmac44@rogers.com.
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