Using information at the State Library of NSW

[Eric Hatfield]

Hi, I am desperately searching for any information on my grandfather, Ernest McQuillan Hargraves. (This thread outlines some of my difficulties.)

I went into the State Library of NSW today, with little success, but now I have a couple of questions please.

1. After his marriage in Melbourne in 1913, the family story is that he and his new wife travelled immediately to NSW, where he worked as a cook at the Jervis Bay Naval base. According to the Navy records he wasn't a naval serviceman, and it seems that the college was being built in 1913 and it didn't open until February 1915. My grandfather therefore must have worked as a cook for the labour force, and he presumably left when the work was completed.

I thought I would try to confirm this through electoral rolls.

• So far I cannot find him on any 1913 Commonwealth electoral roll (when I presume he "should" have been listed under Tomerong sub-district in the Eden Monaro Electorate), but his wife Olive is still on the roll in Melbourne under her unmarried name (Olive Blanche Clark at St Kilda), so presumably they didn't advise of the change in location immediately.
• I cannot find him on the 1915 roll either (he should still have been shown at Jervis Bay I think because it takes some time for people to update their movements) - but neither is he in Gwydir (Gunnedah) where they lived next. But there is a problem here, for by 1915 the naval base was made Commonwealth territory (known as Jervis Bay Territory) and is clearly excised from the Eden Monaro electorate. Later, the territory was added to the electorate of Fraser in ACT, but it didn't exist back then. The staff at the library were unable to tell me where I would find the list of voters in the territory in 1915.
• Both Olive and Ernest appear on the 1916 and 1917 rolls at Gunnedah (Gwydir).

So, can anyone tell me please where i might find Jervis Bay Territory electorate lists for 1915?

2. I am not familiar with the library's records. Has anyone got any suggestions please for any other information they might have there that I would find on Ancestry or Find My Past?

Thanks.

[Neil Todd]

1st don't believe family stories, they are rarely right and are generally the figment of someones imagination in the past.!!

If he was enrolled to vote and I say this advisedly then he may have been AND he was enrolled at Jervis Bay then he should show on the ACT electoral role.

BUT he may have only worked for a short period at Jervis Bay and could have been enrolled anywhere.

Have you tried TROVE for any mentions of either him, his wife or any births that may have happened, lots of insignificant mentions were in old newspapers.

Neil

[Neil Todd]

Is you fellow "Ernest McQuillan Hargraves" the Chap that passed away at Kingsford Sydney 1939 aged 57 years and was cremated at Woronora Sutherland?

Could his mother have been "Mrs Georgina Mary Hargreaves"??
Neil

[Eric Hatfield]

Hi Neil

Thanks for taking an interest in my difficulties.

1. I agree about family stories - most of what my mother (Ernest & Olive's second daughter) told me turns out to have been wrong! That's why I want to confirm that he was there.

2. Are you sure that he would have been on the ACT rolls in 1915? At the State Library, the ACT microfiche only start in 1928 (if I remember correctly). Of course that doesn't mean there weren't ACT rolls in 1915, but I haven't been able to find any information online or in the State Library. Where would I find that information?

3. I think he changed his name sometime in the period 1900-1913, so he may be on the electoral roll but I wouldn't know. I have absolutely no reference to him before his wedding in 1913, where he gave Jervis Bay as his address - but like you say, he may not have lived there. I think they married in haste to escape Olive's alcoholic adoptive mother (that's the family story, and I know she was alcoholic, was investigated for the possible murder of an adopted child, and E & O were married on a Thursday). So Ernest could have lived anywhere before 1913.

4. I have tried Trove and found some later things, but nothing around this time. From 1915/16 when his two children were born, I know his movements. Yes, he was the EH who died in 1939.

5. His mother could have been almost anyone for all I know. Do you have a reason to connect him to Mrs Georgina Mary Hargreaves?

At this stage, my first question is finding the 1915 Jervis Bay electoral rolls.

Thanks.

[majm]

Hi Eric,

I will pull my thinking cap down harder too.   I know that the ACT was orginally named the Federal Capital Territory, rather than the Australian Capital Territory.    I will contact an elderly rellie, a former public servant, (Archivist originally with NSW SL and then with NLA in Canberra) and see if he can give some clues, albeit he was not born until 1920, so it will still be second hand info. 

Cheers,  JM

[majm]

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/102405633
Kiama Independent, and Shoalhaven Advertiser 25 July 1914

In the meanwhile,  read this and see if you think Jervis Bay was still part of NSW territory in July 1914

(A tad too early to contact rellie, likely he is still out on his 1 hour morning walk)

Cheers,  JM

[majm]

  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jervis_Bay_Territory

http://foundingdocs.gov.au/item-sdid-126.html

   20 February 1915

[majm]

The electoral rolls were only printed once an election had been called and the rolls updated.  If there was not an election called in a particular year, then there was no need for the rolls to be printed, and therefore, no opportunity for a printed roll to be lodged at the State Library for historic records.  (NSW Archives Office was initially a section of the NSW Library, and was not hived off until the 1970s).

There was NO FCT self-government until 1988, so the only time the rolls would have needed to be printed would be for Federal elections. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Capital_Territory_Legislative_Assembly

Now, to wait for a return phone call from my elderly rellie....

Cheers,  JM

[Neil Todd]

The reason I came across the name "Mrs Georgina Mary Hargreaves" was because she is listed as NOK for a serving Lighthorseman but from Inverell NSW, so probably not the right one. The AIF member name and age are close??

Neil