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Common names and newspapers

Death and funeral notices, obituaries, accounts of special wedding anniversary celebrations and significant birthdays are just part of the wealth of information that newspapers can bring to family history research.

They can be especially helpful in providing information that identifies when an ancestor arrived in Australia, where they came from, and any surviving family members. This is particularly critical when dealing with common names.

In an interview with Richard Fidler (ABC Radio) recorded in Brisbane at the NAA’s Shake Your Family Tree day I mentioned the obituary of a  Thomas Smith, published in the Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton  on 14 January 1932, which  illustrates perfectly just how useful obituaries can be.

In a single paragraph the obituary tells us the exact date of Thomas’ birth in Co. West Meath, Ireland, the name of the ship that brought him and his parents to Australia, and their date of arrival. These details often make it possible to distinguish the record of your ancestor’s arrival from several recorded arrivals of passengers sharing the same common name. In this instance the shipping information is particularly pertinent as no shipping list for the Great Pacific has survived, the records being destroyed in Queensland floods at the end of the 19th century.

The obituary goes on to describe further details of Thomas’ life and his considerable contribution to his local community.