50-Day Family History Blogging Challenge - Day 7
Fragments of Family History – Beware of Newspaper Family Notices
Jennifer Jones from TRACKING DOWN THE FAMILY has initiated a 50-Day Family History Blogging Challenge. This is a big writing commitment but I have decided to participate. I have decided my topic will be “Fragments of Family History”. I will write short posts of newspaper items or single stories connected to my family history. This may expand over the 50 days.
Beware of Newspaper Family Notices
Newspaper Family Notices are useful for filling in names, dates, family relationships and addresses. However, consider the following funeral notice. It seems straightforward, except for one thing, this funeral is not for Robert Brown. It is for his brother Richard Brown. Robert was alive and well for another 30 years! There was no correction the next day, on the day of the funeral. I assume some people were surprised when they turned up at “Robert’s” Funeral and he was alive!
THE FRIENDS of Messrs. JOSEPH and JAMES BROWN are respectfully invited to attend the Funeral of their beloved BROTHER, Robert; to move from the residence of Mrs. Thomas 111, York-street, TOMORROW (Thursday) MORNING, 20th instant, at 9 o'clock to Balmain Cemetery. Mrs. THOMAS and SON, Undertakers, 111, York-street.
THE FRIENDS of Mr. BERNARD BERGMANN are respectfully invited to attend the Funeral of his deceased BROTHER-IN-LAW, Mr. Robert Brown; to move from the Residence of Mrs. Thomas, 111, York-street, TO-MORROW (Thursday) MORNING, 20th instant, at 9 o'clock, to Balmain Cemetery. Mrs. THOMAS and SON, Undertakers, 111, York-st.
Richard Brown, son of Robert Brown & Elizabeth Leighton, died on 18 July 1882 aged 25, at Sydney Hospital.1 He was in hospital for 10 days. He died of Typhoid Fever and Pneumonia. He was a labourer. Richard is buried in Balmain Cemetery next to his father Robert Robinson Brown.2 His father died on 10 July 1882, just 8 days before Richard.3 Robert died of Chronic Bronchitis aged 83.
Balmain Cemetery was turned into Pioneers Memorial Park in 1941 when it fell into disrepair.4 Mass exhumations were deemed too expensive. Headstones were moved to the wall and a parkland was created.
New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Death Certificate of Richard Brown (Registration Number 1439/1882).
Ancestry.com. Balmain, New South Wales, Australia, Cemetery Records, 1868-1912 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2020. Original data: Central Coast Family History Society, East Gosford, NSW. Balmain Cemetery Records, 1868-1912.
New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Death Certificate of Robert Robinson Brown (Registration Number 3415/1882).
Balmain Cemetery Memorial, https://balmaincemetery.org.
A surprising error but other sources, eg death index as well of course the correction help to straighten things out. I found a gravestone that was in error by a year and the death index and newspapers helped to confirm the actual date of death.