Trove Tuesday : Finding a link

Following on from last weeks Trove Tuesday post featuring Catherine Mary Auld, several questions have arisen in regards to;

1. Does Catherine Mary Auld belong to a new branch of Australian Aulds, or; 
2. Does Catherine Mary Auld belong to an already existing Auld branch that has been previously identified, and if so, which one?

...and could Trove be used, in combination with other resources, to help answer either of the two questions posed.

The parents of Catherine Mary Auld

Last week we identified Catherine's parents as William AULD and Louisa Ann BARNES by using the Queensland historical BDM indexes. A further search the Queensland marriage indexes revealed a marriage circa 1896 (index number 1896/C588). Hoping that details of their marriage had been published in a local newspaper that was currently available on Trove, I started the search. Unfortunately all results were unfruitful.

Newspaper marriage notices invariably list the parents of the individuals being married, so it was a little bit of a disappointment to not find a marriage notice. Knowing that the titles being added to the National Library of Australian Newspaper Digitisation Program is a continually expanding list, it is always worth checking the new titles coming page. A check here reveals there are several titles on the list that may be helpful that cover the late 1800s time period. So, although Trove can't help at this particular time for the marriage, it will be worth doing this search again, when the titles are made available online later this year.

Death of Louisa Ann Auld nee Barnes

Having no joy with the marriage, I concentrated on the deaths of the parents. A search of the Queensland death indexes for a Louisa Auld over the time period 1896 up to 1983 give only one result. Louisa Anne AULD died circa 1931 (index number 1931/B13629) - her parents are listed as Charles BARNES and Mary Anne MADDERN, thus confirming Louisa's maiden name of Barnes.

Three extended funeral notices appear in The Brisbane Courier on 21 March 1931 for Louisa, they read as follow:

Source: Family Notices. (1931, March 21). The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), p. 12. Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article21680576

Although no clues can be found to answer either of our two questions posed, there is a wealth of information to be found in the notices for potential research leads in the future.

Death of William Auld

Looking for the death of Catherine's father William Auld in the Queensland death indexes, we find five potential candidates:

1. 1937/C1660 William Auld - parents William AULD and Barbara HUNTER
2. 1950/B26252 William Charles Auld - parents John AULD and Ada ROBERTS
3. 1952/C3294 William Auld - parents Andrew AULD and Charlotte SCARBOROUGH
4. 1953/B45153 William Auld - parents Archibald AULD and Catherine UNKNOWN
5. 1957/C4633 William James Auld - parents William Milne AULD and Dorothy May PRICE

Using a process of elimination with Trove as our tool, a search for "William Auld" and narrowing our search to the identified years listed above, we can confirmed that the William Auld that we are interested in passed away in 1953. Three bereavement and funeral notices were published on The Courier-Mail on three different dates. The notices include the following:

Source: Family Notices. (1953, September 2). The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954), p. 16. Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51086551

Source: Family Notices. (1953, September 3). The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954), p. 14. Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51095593

Source: Family Notices. (1953, September 19). The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954), p. 16. Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51069754

Question Answered

The information provided in the Queensland death index for the death of William Auld in the year 1953, lists the parents as Archibald and Catherine. For a moment we will assume that William Auld was also born in Queensland until evidence suggests otherwise. A search of the Queensland birth indexes reveals only one William Auld born in 1872 (index number 1872/B13910) to parents Archibald AULD and Catherine HEAPS.

The immediate family of Archibald Auld and Catherine Heaps are known to me from information submitted to the Australian Auld database by 5th generation descendant Kay Youngberry. The son of James Auld and Agnes Whyte, Archibald was born in Muirovonside Stirlingshire Scotland. One of ten children in a coal mining family, Archibald married Catherine Heaps in 1854 and immigrated to Moreton Bay (then part of New South Wales) onboard the Alfred in 1858 with his wife and two children Jane / Jean and James. Once settled, Archibald and Catherine went on to extend their family with Agnes, Thomas, Archibald, Margaret, Andrew, Robert, William, John and Catherine. Archibald died in 1885 aged 54 years.

From the information previously provided all we knew of Archibald's son William was that he was born 4 May 1872 and died 1 September 1853. Through the valuable resources found on Trove, we can now add another generation of the Auld family to the database. Thus linking in Catherine Mary Auld to an already existing Auld branch that had been previously identified.