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I'm not sure WHERE to make this post, so here goes!

I have a couple in my family, William and Charlotte Yates, who migrated from England to Australia in 1875 aboard the Great Britain on its last voyage to Melbourne departing August 26, and arriving in Melbourne on 20, October 1875.  William had married Charlotte Lakin on 14 August 1875 in Leicester.
William was born on late 1851 or early 1852 and Charlotte in 1856 in Leicester, England according to Census and other records. So at the time of their marriage, William was 24 and Charlotte 19 years of age. William's occupation was boot and shoe riveter, a profession shared with his grandfather. Charlotte was a worsted spinner. Both thus filled roles in two common occupations in Leicester at the period and there was nothing in the family histories to suggest either had significant financial resources, though they apparently paid their own passage to Australia. For several generations their families had been in similar employment.
When they embarked for Australia on board the Great Britain William and Charlotte gave their ages as 35 and 32 respectively (i.e. 11 and 13 years older than they actually were) and William's occupation as grocer.
 
My questions are two:
why this couple might have given these exaggerated ages and
why William might have claimed to be a grocer. (It appears that in later years the family knew how old William was – certainly they did before he died in 1898, but it was only on her death in 1939 that family came to realise that Charlotte was 13 years younger than she claimed!)
Within 2-4 years of arriving in Australia William had been in partnership in at least two Boot and Shoe manufacturing businesses and shortly thereafter built a large factory for his own business in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.  (The factory still exists, is National Trust Listed and is apparently the only remaining factory of its type in Melbourne.)  The boot and shoe industry in Melbourne was growing very rapidly at the time and the positions advertised available were numerous. One might have thought it would be of advantage to claim a trade useful in the industry in Australia.
I'd be interested in any comments on my questions.

Thanks folks!

Thanks folks for these suggestions.

So far Fairfax (who own the Grenfell Record) have not responded to my enquiry.

I already have the two NLA/Trove references thanks JM.  The Cootamundra paper gave the Title and Author of the notes in question so was quite important for me.  WB Filby was my wife's great grandfather. He was quite prominent in Grenfell from 1868 (I've written a book chapter about the family during the near-century they lived in Grenfell). The Bathurst paper gave me an approximate return date for WB Filby from the Kimberley and confirmed some names.

Thanks, I hadn't thought of the council as a source.  We know the Historical Society/Museum folk quite well and they know I am after that paper, and why.  They were unaware of other material in town that could be useful.  I'll look at the State Archives and also see if there is anything I can turn up in other towns around.  I have pretty well given up on thinking there may be a copy of the issue of the Grenfell Record without the missing column.

Thanks again for the thoughts, time and effort in responding.

DY

Thanks for the responses. The original posting on RootsChat was not, in the end, fruitful despite a generous effort on the part of a member here.

Wivenhoe, I have tried the local history room, but thanks for the suggestion. I've also tried the present owner of the newspaper. I've had great cooperation from the British Library, but so far to no avail.

The missing text I want because of the information it must contain. Some of it I have obtained/reconstructed by scouring scores of other reports, letters and some genealogies I have prepared but critical information is still missing from the narrative.  Of course I'd like the text for completeness as well.  I have a deadline approaching for submission of a book chapter.

Yes, you are correct.  This isn't a letter but a report by the (probable) leader of a party on his return to home base, Grenfell, after unsuccessfully seeking gold. It's a pity that his remaining family papers don't have any record of the journey in question.

Thanks again.

Thanks JM,

Extensive searching doesn't show that any other paper printed this report in original or modified form either before or after the date. There is one brief letter criticising the report and that is how I know the author and title. There are numerous references to the party over several newspapers and several other reports of similar trips from Wyndham to or from the now Halls Creek area.  This letter was sent to the Grenfell paper for the benefit of Grenfell residents as it refers to quite a number of their community.

It is rather difficult to search for the article on the previous page (other side) as it was completely removed!  There appear to be 75 lines missing from the item of interest and presumably this gives some idea of the size of the clipped item too.

I'm looking for the content of the first 75 lines of the letter by WB Filby entitled "Grenfell to Kimberley" published in the Grenfell Record and Lachlan District Advertiser, 16/10/1886, p2. This would have included an introduction of some sort, a date of writing, possibly the location in which it was written (probably Grenfell, but possibly Sydney), the details of the journey from Grenfell to Sydney and from Sydney to a port (probably Wyndham, WA), perhaps details of the horses and donkeys, equipment and supplies involved and daily details and distances for the first several days travel from Wyndham toward the Elvire River. It may also have included details of O'Donnell's map followed.

Grenfell Library/Historical Society do not have the newspaper and they had not even been aware of the expedition of interest here.

I would be more than grateful to hear from anyone who has a copy of the page involved or of the previous page or any other related information.  I've face quite a number of brick walls in my family history research in the past, all of them further back than this and none that looked as ominous as this one does at present.

Thanks for your attention and interest - and with the hope of some positive response.

DY

Folks
I am not sure this enquiry belongs in Rootschat, but I’ll try anyway. A direct ancestor of mine was John Argles Robinson. He came from the Westminster district of London to Adelaide with his young wife Sarah.  He drowned in the Yarra, Melbourne, on the way to the Victorian goldfields in December 1851 leaving Sarah and a baby in Adelaide. I believe I have just found him in Adelaide, and am wondering what information I might gain from the two following links to Adelaide newspapers.

Do these tell me that he owned land/a house in Angas St, Adelaide? What else do they tell me? What does “acre 411” mean?

John Argles Robinson may be found in these two places:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/207006413?
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165043277?

I’d appreciate any comment/suggestion about what this information might mean, please.

Thanks in advance

DY