Trove Tuesday - Dimond bros

Having a wonderful Trove Tuesday, looking up Dimond Bros.

Why?

Because I think they were the makers for a lot of opaltype photographs I have been looking at. I knew that they sent out salemen, or "canvassers with bicycle" (1919), but I wasn't sure of the exact business relationship. 

Enter Trove. Quick search, and found an account from the Adelaide Advertiser, where one of their agents tried to diddle the firm in 1910. There is was, all laid out in detail as to the schedule of commissions, when it was paid, and other goodies. Bit more in an earlier account, when he was first committed for trial.

Seems to have happened to them a bit - it was the same at Richmond, in Melbourne, as early as 1890. That one was acquitted though.

Thanks Trove!

Has anyone else got any of their photographs on white glass, hand-touched? Or any old framing with a label on the back? Would love to see photos of them.

Trove Tuesday - Looking for Orange Blossom

When the Cahill Collection of about 170 photographs and two autograph albums came into the Stratford Historical Society in the 1990s, with it was a small box with an orange blossom bridal head-dress that had seen better days. Accompanied by a note that it had been worn by 17 Dargo brides.

Recently we have been looking at the Cahill Collection again, and realised this 1920 photograph of Elsie Cahill shows her wearing it when photographed in Melbourne.

So, not knowing who any of the brides were, we decided to get creative, and see what we could find on Trove.

We think Margret McCarthy of Waterford in 1904 is close enough to Dargo to qualify as one, and Mary Nolan of Dargo who married at Cassilis in 1909 is probably another. Both are described as wearing a wreath of orange blossoms. So if there is anyone out there researching those famillies, who happens to have a photograph of the bride, it would be much appreciated if we could see a copy. Or photographs of any Dargo brides.

Other potential brides are Edith Cahill in 1902, and Maud Cahill in 1911, before Elsie in 1920, above.

There is just one other option, who is Edith Traill of Wurruk (but of the Waterford Traills), who married Norman King of Dargo in 1939. Could this have been in use for 40 years? 

If we include her, that is potentially six we can name - only eleven more to go. Amazing what you can find on Trove when you get creative. Can anyone think of any other ways to find them?

Trove Tuesday - Hotels and More Hotels

Trove Tuesday is when bloggers of a certain ilk post something about finds on Trove.

Mine for this Tuesday is the absolutely unbelieveable story I found when I put "Shakespeare Hotel" Stratford into Trove for the Maffra Spectator and for the Gippsland Times. (I have just learned, in passing, that unless it is The Times of London, one does not capitalise or italicise "The" in front of newspaper. Nice to know. Thanks Trove Forums)

Not only up came the Shakespeare Hotel, and there is was losing its licence in 1886, but also it was part of the very first successful Local Option vote in the state, aimed at decreasing hotel licences. We definitely didn't know that. As we followed its fate through the hearings, and then the compensation hearings, we found two other hotels we had never heard of that also lost their licences, plus saw a lot of others we knew about losing theirs. In many cases we were given wonderful detail of number of rooms, types of customers, if the police had reservations about how the hotel was run, etc etc.

In the end, of the 19 hotels in the Stratford Licensing District, nine lost their licences, to rationalise them down to nine (one seems to have gone first of its own volition). And we ended up with a book. We definitely wouldn't have known about this if it had not been for Trove. To read the publicans, some of them women, speaking in their own voices in the hearings, as they fought to keep their hotels, was precious beyond belief.

Trove Tuesday - Joseph Shires

There is a bit of a thing around amongst genebloggers for Trove Tuesday - when we celebrate all that is good about Trove. In my case - all the newspaper articles I have found. So this is just a quick post to say that, despite a difficult surname, I have had a wonderful time with Joseph Shires, and I am about to do a full expose on him, but on paper - in the Stratford Historical Society Bulletin.
Shires was in Gippsland by the late 1850s, but all through the 1860s, he was running around Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, selling his snake bite remedy. Amongst his tricks were having cats and dogs bitten, and allowing them to die, and then having himself bitten and saving himself with his remedy.
He was doing fine, until he gave in to a police magistrate in Melbourne in 1868, who insisted Shires allow a snake to bite him to prove they weren't venomous - and he died.Shires was charged with murder, but acquitted (by that time it was manslaughter), and he disappeared for a time.
In 1876 Joseph Shires married Helena Connell just down the road from Stratford, at the Ramahyuck Mission - if anyone can find out what happened to her, you are a friend for life. He was active in the fishing industry on the Gippsland Lakes, and finally died in Bairnsdale in 1892. He is buried there in an unmarked grave.
All found on Trove, in newspapers all over the place - except for the marriage.
Anyone else got a Trove Tuesday story?