Bluestone Genealogy

One of the things in genealogy that turns me absolutely green with envy, is the availability of census information for Britain and the USA. Before censuses, musters were the most common way of recording information about the population. However census records contain much more detailed information such as the specific address, who is the head of the household, who is living in the house at the time of the census date, their relationship to the head of house, everyone's age, where they were born, and their occupations. For genealogists, census records are a valuable source of information. The earliest systematic collection of information about Australia's residents occurred in 1788, with the colonies and states regularly collecting data via musters or censuses, up until the first Australian national census in 1911, ten years after Federation. However, in 1892, all surviving Victorian census records...were pulped. Pulped! There are a few records that contain small a...

An elderly (but obviously fit) worker at the Cox and Rizzetti foundry, c.1988. Copyright Yarra Libraries. Source:picturevictoria As I mentioned in last weeks post, I am participating in Amy Johnson Crow's #52ancestors in 52 weeks challenge. This challenge provides weekly prompts to get us to think about our ancestors and share something about them, with the purpose of getting that knowledge out of our heads / filing cabinets / genealogy software and doing something with it. If you are a user of social media, check out the #52ancestors  hashtag to follow along and read some of the really amazing stories that have already been shared.  This week's prompt is 'longevity.' As soon as I read this, I knew whose story I would share; that of Mr. John Shannahan, my fourth great-granduncle, who lived to be an amazing 98 years old, in a time when the average life expectancy for a male was around 43 years.  I only recently began delving into the life of John Shannahan,...