Where there's a will, there's a way

Well, it looks like life got busy and my poor little blog went unnoticed for a while. A lot has happened in the last 6 months. I left a job that I loved to take the scary and exciting plunge to start my own business with a like-minded, passionate historian. Together, Lee Hooper and I have established ‘Born and Bred Historical Research’, which does just that – historical research. And what a ride it has been thus far. We have helped solve mysteries, broken down brick walls, presented to eager and enthusiastic local history groups, and aided people in their unique and exciting historical research. So, I thought it was only fitting to talk about some of the accessible and valuable records that can be utilised in family history research. And sometimes the juiciest!

Will and probate records can be one of the richest sources of information when it comes to genealogical research. The death of a person can help to paint a picture of the life that was lived. An individuals’ Last Will and Testament can and often is the final ‘say’ from the deceased, and sometimes that final word can be eye-opening, horrifying, illuminating, fascinating and hilarious.

In Victoria we are lucky enough to have access to will and probate files through the Public RecordOffice Victoria (PROV) from 1852 to 2010 (and digitised from 1852-1926), which are easily accessible to the general public. Anything from 2011-present day is still held with the Supreme Court of Victoria.

I have unearthed wills for circus performers, bitter ex-spouses and even a Scottish Knight. I have discovered large land holdings, family heirlooms and family rifts just by reading will and probate records. However, it was only recently when I was undertaking some research for a few friends, who had little interest in their family history (in fact they thought it was a bore and a fairly dry line of work). Always trying to make a convert, I said that I would do a little preliminary research into their families. Wouldn’t you know it, I struck ‘family skeleton’ gold almost immediately.

Mr Watson, Mrs Watson & Mrs Parker

Mrs Watson passed away in the early 1990’s. She was a kind woman, with a strong will that had dealt with much in her 66 years. She and Mr Watson, along with their 3 children had been part of the post-World War 2 Migration Scheme from the UK when they arrived in Melbourne in 1964 to start a new life. Living out their latter years in Geelong the couple overcame the death of a child and welcomed several grandchildren to the fold. When Mrs Watson died in June 1991 she left a will made three years prior. The standard clauses applied with money going to several grandchildren and possessions given to her surviving daughter. However, it was the last few lines of the will that dropped a bombshell and opened up another avenue for researching an already tricky genealogical puzzle. It read:

            “My husband is not entitled to any of this [estate]. If he is still living I will ask my daughter, after this is all settled to grant him $1,000 to return to Burnley and carry on where he left off in Feb-Mar 1986. I’m sure Mrs Parker will be glad to see him even if her husband isn’t.”

Who was Mrs Parker? And what did Mr Parker make of this? We know that Mr Watson did in fact return to the UK after the death of his wife (and the court case to contest her will), however did he meet with Mrs Parker before his own death in 1994? That’s a mystery I will keep trying to solve.

A scandal hits the papers

Spry vs. Spry Divorce, 1916

Research for another friend unearthed a scandal. After beginning the search doing basic births, deaths and marriages, I went on to confirm branches with will and probate files. Searching through her maternal side unearthed a will that didn’t seem to fit. It appeared that her great great grandfather, upon his death, left his entire estate to his wife, which is not unusual. However, this wife did not happen to be the woman he had married in 1892, nor the ancestor of my friend. Not being able to establish a death date that fit with the marriage of another woman, it appeared that there was something fishy going on. Hopefully ruling out bigotry, the next step was the investigate divorce cases. Bingo! It seemed that her great great grandparents, Mr and Mrs Spry had divorced in 1916. What a scandal! Being able to access the divorce records unearthed and few more pieces of the family tree and helped put some more branches into place.

A matriarch's final wishes

Mr & Mrs Russell, with Erica and
friends at Barwon Heads, c. 1938

My own (paternal) great grandmother left a will that unearthed a few skeletons. It wasn’t so much the will that left family members questioning the past, but the court proceedings that followed. When my great grandmother passed away in 1989 she left provisions for her grandchildren, great grandchildren but only one of her two children - her daughter – my grandmother. It had been stated explicitly in her last will and testament that her son was to receive nothing of her estate when she died as he had been fairly well provided for in his adult life. Her son’s children and their children were recipients in the will, however he was not. Yet, Thomas was not happy with the decision his mother had made about the final statements in her will. So he contested on the grounds that he had not been adequately provided for in his life or in his mother’s death (his father had pre-deceased his mother by more than a decade, and their wills reflected one another). In the legal proceedings statements were made by members of the family in favour of the wishes of the deceased, however Thomas, in his greed and battle for money declared that he was not provided for in his father’s will because he had caught him in an adulterous affair, therefore money was being withheld. Whether this is in fact true has never been determined, however Thomas won his battle to gain funds from his deceased mother’s estate.

So, whilst will and probate files are an amazing resource when it comes to your family history research, opening up avenues you may not have dreamed of, putting branches in place and knocking down brick walls, they can also be confronting if there is something unexpected written within it’s sheaths. But, if you’re willing to take that risk, you may just come out the other side with a few family treasures. 

Back to the search!

Phoebe 

References:

PROV, VA 2549 Supreme Court of Victoria, VPRS 283/P0 Divorce Case Files Melbourne, Unit 240, 1916/15, Spry vs. Spry Divorce.

PROV, VA 2620 Registrar of Probates, Supreme Court, VPRS 28/P21 Probate and Administration Files, Unit 284, 1046/946, Watson, E., 1991.

PROV, VPRS 28/P19, Unit 52, 1006/318

Trove digitised newspapers

Skeletons and scandal

I am extremely lucky to be able to do something that I love; both in a professional work sense and also for pleasure. Recently I was asked to do some genealogical research for two separate friends. One was as a gift for another family member, as something a little different and one, which is still in the works, is purely out of interest. Whilst, my love of genealogy is spurned from my interest in my own family history, it doesn’t take much for me to get ingrained into someone else’s story. To explore and flesh out the stories within a family, and ultimately the path that has led them to be here today.



Family tree as a gift.

 

The first family tree was more ornamental, than a huge research project. Don’t get me wrong, it did involve research, some of which I would not have been able to do without the help of several resources and people. The final piece charted seven generations, any further and I would have had to commission an art work the size of a wall to be able to fit any further ancestors onto the tree. I was extremely proud of the finished product, and am happy to say that the recipient and her family were happy and intrigued with the work I had laboured over.

The second tree will be a slow and steady work in progress. This particular friend had often questioned my intrigue with history, and in particular family history. However, once this project got under way, she quickly became enamoured with her own history. Mind you, hers is quite interesting. While I am still a long way off completing the research, the several generations I have garnered information about have thrown out a few curve balls. One branch of the tree is sending up road blocks left, right and centre, the other is juicy, juicy, juicy. Thus far I have found a divorce in 1916, together with several visits to the Royal Park Hospital for the Insane. And I have only just started.

Making headlines. Trove coming up with the goods

What looked to be straightforward look into a couple in the late 1800s-early 1900s came to a few fuzzy points. The husband in question had (thankfully) left a will, and in it named a woman I was SURE wasn’t his wife. If she had of been, then I had failed dismally in my line of work. It turns out that the woman named in his will was indeed his wife, whom had predeceased him. This was odd; the woman I was looking for had died after her husband. After getting increasingly frustrated that I had made a wrong turn somewhere, I decided that maybe, just maybe there had been some scandal in the family. Could there have been a divorce? They were a rarity in the early twentieth century, however were known to happen. I quickly consulted the digitised divorce causes books from PROV (VPRS 5335/P5)

Voila! I found a case for the couple I was looking for. There it was, the cause of the question mark hanging over the confusing will and the separate living quarters listed on numerous census lists. Over 50 pages detailed that the husband divorced his wife - who was not present at the trial - under the reasoning of ‘desertion’. The husband’s case detailing his ‘desertion’ argument, included the particulars about his wife’s admittance to the Royal Park Hospital for the Insane and her unwillingness to share the marital bed. I eagerly read through the whole case, wishing that there would be an argument from the wife in her defence. Alas, there was not and one can only assume her side of the story.

The research is still underway, and with all other genealogical research, it will never be completed (currently finding ancestors in Switzerland and France). I am sure, like most families, there are plenty more skeletons in the closet.

Thanks to the invaluable records available through PROV, and in particular their digitised records (divorce causes book, wills up until 1925) and their newly digitised wills and probate index, I have been able to begin to flesh out what looks to be an intriguing record of a family.

 

Phoebe