Thomas Cooper

Thomas Cooper was born in Montacute in 1826. He was baptised on 30 July that year but no birthdate was recorded in the register.

Thomas was 15 years old when his family emigrated to New Zealand in 1841. He first appears on a Jury list in 1847 when he would be 21 as a labourer living in Thorndon Flat. By 1848 he was recorded as a shoemaker and this remained the same until 1850 when he was described as a publican.

Thomas was married in 1850 to Charlotte Pike, another Somerset native who had emigrated with her parents arriving a few months ahead of the Cooper family in 1841. By 1852 his aerated water business, making ginger beer, soda water and cordials in Pipitea Street was becoming established. Thomas had placed advertisements in local newspapers from at least 1853 wanting to buy bottles.

By 1866 Thomas and Charlotte had a family of nine children. For a short time in the mid 1850’s Thomas is thought to have left Wellington and ventured to the Victorian goldfields with his brother James. There is also a mention of him relocating to the Rangitikei area briefly before returning to Wellington to re-establish his ginger beer and cordial enterprise on Mulgrave Street.

It would seem that the business must have operated from the site now occupied by Wellington Girls’ College or across the road close to the site of the old brewery (Staples Brewery est. 1866, later Thorndon Brewery and then Lion Breweries) where New World is now located.

In October 1866, two months after the death of his father, Thomas’s wife Charlotte passed away leaving him with their nine children aged 2-16. Just four and a half months later Thomas mysteriously disappeared. A report of his disappearance appeared in the local newspapers. This one in the Wellington Independent on Thursday 28 February reads:

"MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. – We regret to state that Mr Thomas Cooper, a ginger-beer manufacturer, residing at Thorndon, has disappeared in a very mysterious manner. He left the Thistle Inn about eight o’clock on Monday night, and was seen shortly afterwards by a man named Allison to be going in the direction of Brown’s wharf. It is feared that Mr Cooper, who had been drinking, missed his way and fell into the water, and the drags were employed in that part of the harbour yesterday, but nothing was discovered that would throw any light on the fate of the missing man."

The following week, on 5 March, 10 days after his disappearance his body was found by a lighterman taking ballast out to a ship moored in the harbour from near Plimmer’s wharf. The witnesses at the inquest held the same day at the Te Aro Police Station included a friend who had been with him at the Thistle and his younger brother Frederick. They, and the lighterman who also knew Thomas, identified him by the clothes he was wearing. Ten days in the water is not gentle on a body.

His death certificate records his date of death as 5 March 1867, the day of the inquest, when it is more likely to have been 25 February, the date which he was last seen alive.

I have done a little bit of research and have been able to identify the location of Brown’s wharf. Very close to the Thistle as it happens. Anyone familiar with Wellington will know the stories about patrons of old, including Te Rauparaha, pulling their dinghies or waka up on to the beach near the hotel. The steps outside now take you from the pavement to Kate Shephard Street (formerly Sydney Street West) but back in the days before earthquakes and reclamation the shoreline was right there.

In 1867 some reclamation had begun and of course the earthquakes of 1848 and 1855 also contributed to the changing shoreline. Browns wharf is described in the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection “Early Wellington” published by Whitcombe and Tombs Limited in 1928, as being

“opposite the Royal (now Cecil) Hotel”

The site of the Royal Hotel which later became the Cecil Hotel, was known as the Hotel Cecil Block and was situated on Thorndon Quay where the Wellington bus terminus now is.

Plimmer’s wharf will have been located further along Lambton Quay, close to Plimmer’s Steps near the Old Bank Arcade (formerly Bank of New Zealand). 

Who was looking after the children all of this time while their father was missing ? Who assumed responsibility for them after his death ? More about Thomas’ business can be found here. 

 

 

 

 

John Cooper

John Cooper, my 2 x great grandfather, was born in Montacute, Somerset most likely in the summer of 1822. His baptism is recorded in the church register for St Catherine on 10 June 1822. He was the first born son of Samuel Cooper a tailor, and his 2^nd wife Elizabeth. 

Nothing else is known about John before his arrival in New Zealand, and even that is shrouded in mystery. John was listed on Samuel’s application for passage for his wife and family, first for the Lord William Bentinck and then the Oriental. At the time that the Oriental sailed he would have been 21 years old, perhaps that caused confusion and he should have been recorded separately to the rest of his family because of his age. Whatever happened, he isn’t recorded as disembarking in Wellington with the rest of the family once they arrived after 3 months at sea.

This sailing of the Oriental in 1841 was under charter to the Plymouth Company, ostensibly bringing settlers to settle in New Plymouth in the Taranaki, but arriving by way of Wellington. News of unrest in the Taranaki apparently caused some settlers to abandon their plans to travel on further and some disembarked in Wellington. I am not sure if the Cooper family’s intention was to settle in New Plymouth at all. Since their first application was for a voyage to Wellington, perhaps Wellington was their chosen destination all along. We have wondered though, whether John travelled on to Taranaki after the rest of the family disembarked to survey the situation and report back. However, he is not recorded as disembarking there either. Only recently I discovered that after delivering the remaining settlers to New Plymouth, the Oriental returned to Wellington before preparing to leave to return to England via India. So did John join the crew for the trip to New Plymouth and back and just not get recorded anywhere ?

However, we know he did arrive because we are all here as proof.

Occupationally John followed his father and become a tailor, although on the earliest Jury Lists for Wellington he was recorded as a labourer. In 1860/61 he placed regular advertisements in the Wellington Independent advertising his business on Lambton Quay next to the Eagle Tavern. I have tried several times over the last ten or more years to find out where the Eagle Tavern was situated. No luck at all until last week. Did I choose different search words or just see something I had completely missed before ?

Turns out Lambton Quay didn’t end where it does today, at Stewart Dawson’s corner. For some time it extended around that windy corner into what is now Willis Street – and that was where the Eagle Tavern was; a few building beyond the Commercial (which eventually became the Grand), about opposite Chew’s Lane.

In 1850, John married Mary Ann Barratt. She had arrived in Wellington with her parents and siblings in May 1842. When they married Mary was 17 and John 27. They lived in Wellington until about 1861 when they moved, along with some of Mary’s married sisters, to join her mother and youngest siblings in Kekerengu north of Kaikoura where John had secured a position as a tailor on the sheep station. Their first 6 children were born in Wellington and a further 4 at Kekerengu. About 1871 they moved further south to the township of Kaikoura. It has been suggested by another family historian, that the move to Kaikoura may have been prompted by the Tetley Affair. This involved some mismanagement of finances on the part of the owners of the Kekerengu Station and would likely have had follow on effects for those employed to work there. Another 3 children were born in Kaikoura.

Electoral rolls and jury lists show his occupation as tailor, apart from 1847 where he was listed as a labourer. His death certificate in 1895 records him as a gardener and a photograph has recently been shared with us of him standing outside his shop in Kaikoura where he is “J. Cooper, Fruiterer”.

Charles Cooper

Charles Cooper was the first child of my 3 x great grandfather Samuel Cooper and his 1^st wife Charlotte Hann. He was baptised on 11 October 1818 just 5 months after his parent’s marriage. The cleric made an error with the entry and he is recorded as Charles Hann instead of Charles Cooper – the other details (parent’s names and occupation) are correct.

Not much else is known about him. He is referred to (but not named) in the Churchwarden Accounts for the parish of Montacute several times while the parish contributed financially to his upkeep after his mother died in January 1820. Because residents were not identified by name (unless they were the householder) on the 1821 Survey or Census he hasn’t been identified there. But, he wasn’t recorded as living with his father and does not appear to have been with his paternal grandmother either.

The next entry for Charles in the church records is his marriage to Mary Ann Tavender (sometimes written as Taviner) in 1837. By the time the 1841 census came around, Charles and his small family were living in Middle Street, Montacute. By this time there were two young daughters, Ellen & Jane. Charles was a Chandler; a candle maker or a seller of provisions like groceries.

By searching the GRO indexes it appears that Charles and Mary had four other children by 1850; Matilda, George Owen, Walter Henry and Richmond Tom. To be extra helpful for researchers like me almost 200 years later, Charles and Mary don’t appear to have had their children baptised, at least not in the Church of England.

Charles appears a couple of times in the Churchwarden Accounts living in a rateable property in 1841 and 1847. I haven’t been able to find any further documentation for him post 1850. Did they emigrate too ? And if they did, where did they go ? Or did something else happen ?

The search continues.

Samuel Cooper

Samuel Cooper, my 3 x great grandfather, was probably born in Montacute, Somerset or a nearby parish in about 1789, no baptism record has been found for him yet. His parents John Cooper and Ann Pullman had married in Stoke sub Hamdon in the summer of 1784. The marriage record says they were both of the parish although John was described as a Sojourner.

Samuel earned his living as a Tailor, it is unclear where he learned this trade but occupations in the rag-trade feature throughout the census’ of the mid 19^th century. Perhaps his father was also a Tailor, but no records survive to confirm that. Almost as many townsfolk were listed as Glovers, Leather dressers, Weavers and Tailors as were recorded as Ag Labs in the 1841 and 1851 census’.

Samuel’s brothers John and Uriah are often mentioned in the Churchwarden’s accounts for St Catherine’s, Montacute, being paid for work on the roads in the parish, cleaning the inside of the church tower, washing down the wall between the church and the chancel, picking up boundary stones and other menial tasks. Samuel’s father John died in March 1810, most likely a few days after the baptism of his son Thomas, who subsequently died a month later. From the church records for Stoke sub Hamdon and Montacute it seems John and Ann had at least 10 children, however only half of them lived to adulthood. After John’s death Ann often appeared in the Churchwarden accounts receiving financial assistance from the parish.

Samuel’s sisters Ann and Mary married in 1812 and 1818. Mary died just six years later, Ann however lived to be 101, almost 102. Samuel married Charlotte Hann on 11 May 1818 in St Catherine, Montacute, 6 weeks after his sister Mary had married. He and Charlotte had a son Charles in September, followed by a daughter Mary Anne in January 1820. Charlotte died in the same month. It is unclear whether Mary Ann survived, however on the 1841 census there is an Annie Cooper of the right age, a Glover and single parent. There only seems to be one Cooper family in Montacute and Yeovil this whole time, so maybe ?

On the 1821 census, found amongst the documents in the parish chest (and available thanks to the Church of the Latter Day Saints), only the name of the householder is recorded, then tally marks to denote the numbers of people within given age frames and identifying their occupations. Samuel is there, living alone and engaged in a trade. His mother Ann is in a different house, where his brother John is recorded as the householder. John is engaged in agricultural work. The ages of the others, a male aged 10-15, 2 males aged 20-30, another 30-40 and a female aged 50-60 seem likely to be Ann 57, her sons, John 33 & Uriah 13 and two other unknown people. Not knowing the name of Charlotte’s father made it difficult to place Samuel’s children. Hann is a much more common name in Montacute than Cooper ! However the Churchwarden accounts record Samuel receiving assistance from the parish for himself and his child/children up until 1821.

Samuel remarried on 17 September 1821 to Elizabeth Hill. In the margin of the church register is a note "First marriage solemnized after rebuilding of the chancel". There don’t seem to be many people named Hill either in Montacute so nothing is known of Elizabeth prior to her marriage. But, she is definitely a Hill despite many people naming her otherwise in their trees having accepted an error on her eldest son’s death certificate as correct. I now have 4 documents where her maiden name is correctly recorded as Hill.

Of his siblings, Samuel appears to be the only one who could sign his name. He did this for both of his marriages, and also as a witness to another marriage in the parish. Charlotte his first wife signed her name, but Elizabeth did not. As a Tailor and businessman, the ability to read and write would have been necessary, I imagine.

Emigration schemes to New Zealand enticing free settlers to take the opportunity to settle a new colony at the far reaches of the globe began advertising in the late 1830’s. I guess we will never really know what Samuel’s motivation was to pack up his family and leave for New Zealand. At about the same time his brother Uriah was planning to leave Montacute too, although he would make his new life in the colonies which later became Australia.

Competition for work, and overall work opportunities may have been deciding factors. Times were changing in 1830/1840s England. Cottage industry weavers and glovers were being replaced by larger urban factories. Even in a tiny village like Montacute there were about 7 other Tailors in the 1841 census.

Samuel & Elizabeth applied for passage to Wellington on the Lord William Bentinck but did not sail for some reason, re-applying instead a few months later for passage on the Oriental which was to leave Plymouth bound for Wellington and New Plymouth. Their youngest son Frederick was 5 months old at the time of their application for passage on the Oriental. So perhaps they had decided to wait until he was a little older before travelling. He would have been about 8 months old had they sailed on the Lord William Bentinck compared to 14 months when the Oriental sailed. 

Samuel and his family don't appear on the 1841 census in Montacute - and so far nowhere else either. The census was taken on 6 June 1841 and the Oriental sailed from Plymouth on 22 June. I have wondered if they were somewhere en route, or perhaps even on board as ships in port were not enumrated in 1841. However being on board twelve days prior to sailing seems a bit extreme, especially since I discovered another family who emigrated on an earlier sailing still at home on census night. Perhaps they just decided not to complete the census as they were leaving.

Samuel’s son Charles, from his first marriage, was married with two children by 1841. He has been a little elusive to track since then – but I think I might have found him in Yeovil. Some more research is required.

Once in Wellington, the family lived in Thorndon Flat, around Little Pipitea, Mulgrave and Molesworth Streets. Samuel continued to make his living as a Tailor. Samuel and Elizabeth had one more child after their arrival in Wellington. Most of their children had married and were growing their own families by the time Samuel died in 1866 and Elizabeth in 1869. Like most early settlers in Wellington they were buried at the Bolton Street Cemetery.

  

Z - Zero, Zilch, Zip, Nada

There are a number of people who could fit in this category.

Great-great-grandfather Julius Fuller for one, who after 50+ years research still only appears on two official records in England before he emigrated to New Zealand in 1859.

But instead I thought I’d choose someone I really don’t know much about at all.

Ann Blackman.

She is my daughter’s 4 x great-grandmother. I haven’t been able to find her baptism in England, arrival in Australia, marriage or the birth/baptisms of the three children her death certificate says she had. That death certificate is only one of two documents I have found for her in 30 or so years of looking. The second is her daughter’s marriage certificate where she is recorded as a parent.

Ann was 64 when she died 3 May 1870 in Queanbeyan, New South Wales. The informant on the death certificate was her adult daughter. The only child I know for sure. But did Sarah REALLY know the details ? Here is what she supplied.

Name and occupation of Father:

____ Blackman, Blacksmith

Name and maiden surname of Mother:

Not Known

Where born & how long in the Australian Colonies or States:

Hastings, Kent, England; 33 years in New South Wales

Place of marriage, age and to whom:

Sydney, Not Known, Joseph Dickinson

Children of marriage:

Living 1 male, 2 females

Eight years later when Joseph Dickinson died, his 2^nd wife was the informant on the certificate and she stated 2 children to a former wife. Very helpful – not. 

The information provided by her Sarah suggests that Ann arrived in New South Wales about 1837. Sarah was born about 1845/1846, deduced from information on her marriage certificate. In 1862 she was 17, her father’s consent was given to the marriage and noted on the certificate. She may have been younger though since at the birth of her 2^nd child in 1864 her husband gave her age as 18. Therefore Ann & Joseph's marriage must have taken place between 1837 and 1846. Joseph Dickinson was a convict, there should be an Application to Marry for him; unless the marriage didn’t take place until after he received his Certificate of Freedom in 1841. There doesn’t appear to be an application – although there is something in that dataset which could do with a bit more investigation. The only Ann Blackman marriage I can find on the NSW indexes is around the right time - but not to Joseph. 

In 1850 Joseph Dickinson was charged with grossly abusing his wife, and later in the year jailed for breaching the conditions set in court. No children were mentioned in the newspaper coverage of the court case.

So far no DNA matches are clearly aligned to this little piece of the tree either. So there you go. 

Zero, Zilch, Zip, Nada.

This brings to a close my A-Z blog challenge for Family History Month 2020. I hope you have enjoyed it, maybe discovered something you didn’t know or maybe even been inspired to give it a go yourself.

 

 

Y - Y.M.C.A

No, this in NOT about the Village People !

This little discovery came when I was scouring newspapers on PapersPast for an article I knew I had seen, but had failed to record where. Let that be a lesson to you all. Document your sources !!

I was looking for the name of a house which my great-grandfather’s brother had built in Cambridge, New Zealand. I found an obituary for his wife instead, which I don’t recall having seen before. Harriett and her husband were first cousins. Their mothers were sisters, so obviously she was my great-grandfather’s cousin too.

Her obituary in the Waikato Independent, 26 August 1939, page 4  gave some details about her family, birth place and arrival in New Zealand. She had come with her parents – who were 2^nd cousins – to Auckland and then the Coromandel. She was their only child. Her mother died at Shellback Creek near Tararu in 1869 when Harriet was about 14. Her aunt and uncle lived at Tararu too so I daresay they helped her widowed father care for her.

Anyway, back to the discovery. One sentence.

“It is of interest to note that Mrs Davys was the second cousin to Sir George Williams, the founder of the Y.M.C.A.”

What ?

If Harriet was his second cousin, then chances were that her husband and his siblings, including my great-grandfather were too. So I had to search and see what I could find.

George Williams was born 11 October 1821 at Ashway Farm near Dulverton. He was the youngest child of Amos Williams and his wife Ann/Betty/Elizabeth (just to be confusing). I didn’t have any other Williams in my tree, apart from an odd one here and there, so who was his mother ? She had to be the key.

Cue flashing lights. 

Wikipedia says his parents were Amos Williams (tick) and Elizabeth Vickery. On the same page Wiki also says her name was Ann “Betty” Vickery. Hmmm. BUT, I do have a bunch of Vickerys mixed in with my Norman paternal great-great-grandmother’s family….and BINGO ! Harriet’s mother Caroline and my great-great-grandmother Sarah were Norman sisters. Harriett’s father was also a Norman (2^nd cousin – remember ?) Jane and Caroline’s mother was Sarah Vickery, who had married her 1^st cousin William Norman. Nothing out of the ordinary it seems in Huish Champflower !

Off I went to find the baptisms on Ancestry and build a tree to look for the link. First I found their marriage to get a starting point to look for baptisms. They married at Withiel Florey on 15 August 1807 and their first child John Vickery Williams was baptised 14 January 1808, in the same parish. The father of my 4 x great-grandmother Sarah Vickery was John. Was this another lightbulb flashing ? A quick diversion to check what siblings I had for Sarah, found she did have a sister Betty Ann baptised in 1785 (the date is illegible on the page of the church record book).

That solved the problem of how Sir George Williams could be the 2^nd cousin of Harriett, and proved that he was also the 2^nd cousin of my great-grandfather. But how did this youngest son from a farming family happen to be the founder of the Y.M.C.A ?

George was the youngest of 7 sons, he also had one sister. As career paths go seventh sons are way down the list. Not much chance of taking over the family farm there. Wikipedia says he attended Gloyn’s in Tiverton, Devon until he was 13 when he began working on the family farm. His family sent him to Bridgwater where he was an apprentice in Henry William Holmes’ draper shop. What is it with drapers and this part of the world ? They keep popping up in all my branches.

In 1837 he left the Church of England and joined the Zion Congregational Church and in 1841 he moved to London where he worked as an apprentice at Hitchcock & Rogers, a draper’s shop. In London he became a member of the King’s Weigh House congregational church. After three years with Hitchcock & Rogers, George was promoted to department manager.

On 6 June 1844, appalled by the terrible conditions in London for young working men, like himself, George gathered a group of 11 fellow drapers in the living quarters of Hitchcock & Rogers to create a place that would not tempt young men into sin. The name Young Men’s Christian Association was agreed on at the suggestion of Christopher W Smith, one of the 11. The aim was to put Christian principles in practice to develop a healthy “mind, body & spirit.” One of the earliest converts and contributors to the new association was his employer, George Hitchcock.

Nine years later in 1853 he married the owner’s daughter and was taken into the business as a partner. The business was renamed George Hitchcock, Williams & Co., and when George Hitchcock died in 1863 George Williams became the sole owner. George and his wife Helen had seven children. One son Albert went on to marry the granddaughter of Thomas Cook who had founded the travel agency Thomas Cook and Son. George’s nephew John Williams married the only child of Matthew Hodder of the publishing business Hodder & Stoughton. Matthew had been George’s lifelong London friend.

George Williams was knighted by Queen Victoria in her 1894 Birthday Honours, this same year was the silver Jubilee of the Y.M.C.A and the year he received Freedom of the City of London. He died on 6 November 1905 at the Victoria and Albert Hotel in Torquay aged 84. His funeral was attended by 2,600 mourners at St Paul’s Cathedral on 14 November 1905 and he was buried there. After his death he was commemorated by a stained-glass window in the nave of Westminster Abbey. A blue plaque is at No. 13 Russell Square, London where he lived from 1879-1905 and another plaque can be found on the façade of Ashway Farm where he was born. His portrait can be found at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

The things I wish I had known when I was in London !

Now here are a couple of other things I discovered in the search. 

When I was adding the baptisms of George’s siblings to my tree in Family Tree Maker a message popped up for one. “Is this Robert Williams the same Robert Williams married to Betsy Davys ?” A little bit of checking and yes, he is. Uh-oh, now I’m related two ways. Betsy was a daughter Thomas Davys and Patience Palmer…Thomas was a younger brother of my 4 x great-grandfather. This Robert is the father of George's nephew who married the daughter of Matthew Hodder mentioned earlier,

When I first found the Wikipedia entry for George Williams in April 2020 it was called “George Williams (YMCA)” and included the comment that he was the 4 x great-grandfather of Boris Johnson, the current British Prime Minister. Today, the entry is retitled “George Williams (philanthropist)” and that comment is no longer included. However, I was able to verify that that was the case, by checking his family’s well documented entries in Wikipedia, a BBC Who Do You Think You Are episode and church records.

Just the other day on facebook I saw a post from someone who had bought a Bible in a thrift store. The flyleaf said it had been presented to the original owner by Sir George Williams. She had done a little research and discovered who George was. She had also found his will where he requested Bibles to be given to the members of his family. I think that might be a will I need to find and read myself. I wonder if any such Bible made it’s way to New Zealand to his family there ? I haven’t heard of one, but who knows ?

 

 

X - Marks the Spot

Look at this great map of Somerset !

I know it is crooked, but I didn't scan it so I'm not accepting any griping about it, I found it on Reddit after a Google search. Apparently it could have been inspiration for Game of Thrones. But I just love it. Dating to the mid 17^th century, with the parishes named and represented by church icons in varying sizes…or are they manor houses ?

There is this one too which dates from about the same time, but has slightly clearer writing - also from Reddit.

A lot of my family came from Somerset to New Zealand, and all had lived in particular areas for generations. Funnily enough they were all living near borders which moved and were not static until fairly recently. The Davys’ in the parishes on either side of the Somerset Devon border and the Bartletts and Coopers near the Somerset Dorset border.

I was surprised to see how closely the Bartletts and Coopers lived to each other. The same names pop up in both parishes. When you consider how widely the Davys family travelled and moved in their little part of Somerset, it is amazing that the Coopers and Bartletts don’t seem to have done the same thing. We did get a couple of DNA matches who descend from a Cooper person who married a Bartlett cousin of my great-great-grandfather in 1862. But as far as I can see that Cooper family is from the same area as the Bartletts – for generations. Maybe mine were too, maybe one of them just left at some point and went a bit further north over the Hamdon Hills…time will tell.

When I am trying to find people in my research I often refer to maps. I love the digitised Ordnance Survey maps at the National Library of Scotland. Great detail and easy to zoom in and navigate. Often when reading a census I look for a map as close to the time period and find the street. Sometimes the footprint of the buildings is marked on a map and if you are lucky the same shape is still there today when you look at a google map of the area. The streets might have changed a little, laneways disappeared, but by comparing the current map and the old you can often work out where things used to be. If it looks like the building is still there, street view is my next step. Until I can work out a way to teleport to the other side of the world, walking down streets looking at buildings and countryside courtesy of a google camera car is the best alternative. Sometimes I just walk down country lanes, unchanged in centuries, to “feel” what it was probably like for my ancestors who trod the same paths or rode along them by horse and cart.

I also use the Phillimore Atlas maps to check neighbouring parishes. These can give me an idea of where else to search when a marriage, baptism or burial isn’t recorded in the parish I expect it to be. My Davys’ and their cousins, for instance, married and baptised their children in almost every parish from Morebath, Clayhanger and Ashbrittle in Devon to Luxborough, Monksilver, Lydiard St Lawrence and Taunton in Somerset.

Lots of local libraries and museums have maps too. It was on such a site that I found an Insurance map for part of Melbourne and was able to identify the house where my great-great-great-grandmother had lived. Also, on another site I found similar maps for Sydney and could work out – with the help of a street directory of the time – where my daughter’s great-great-great-grandparents had lived in Surry Hills. Some maps, particularly in America even show who the landowners were. Sometimes the maps at local libraries haven’t been digitised and you need to go there. A bit of a pain at the moment with the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions curtailing many of those visits.

You can make your own map too, to record where a family moved to, mariner’s voyages, family farms, schools attended. You name it, you can do it.