Tuesday 28 May 2024

Teacher's Pet podcast, Missing Wife, Missing girls

 Hmm.
Seems that a "missing wife" is more than just a missing woman.
Yeah, yeah, WE all know that but it seems the penny has just dropped for some law people in Australia; if Teacher's Pet has taught us anything it's that WE SHOULDN'T JUST RELY ON THE HUSBAND.

Just a small, slight consideration that hasn't jumped up and slapped a whole gender in the face, apparently.

I digress.
Pottering amidst the glories of archived news at Trove, I've often come across "missing wife" or "missing wife and children" headlines and sometimes I go looking to see if the wife and/or kids turned up in the births/deaths/marriages.
Most times, there's a further trace of them.
But sometimes there's not a speck.
One of the "missing wife and children" was one of those that never, ever showed a sign of life: hubby didn't report the disappearance for at least 4 weeks, and no follow-up news reports.
Likewise with searching "Missing girls" in the Sydney area during the early days of The Great Depression; I was following a hunch regarding a certain serial killer I'd been researching and, worryingly, I was unable to trace a good number of the reported "missing girls" - any number over zero is too fucking many.
But few police or news follow-ups, while casual trawling through the NSW Birth/Deaths/Marriages found gaps.

How many family trees have sudden stops on people's lives..."born 1922 disappeared 1945" ... 

And the odd thing I've noticed is - 

when a bloke goes missing in the news archives he usually turns up again, whereas women don't.


Thursday 25 January 2024

When Bribie Island lost its cemetery. 1936

 To lose a cemetery is rather careless, but how one goes about losing it in the first place is so easy - just don't use it!



Source;

The Township That Lost Its Cemetery

Further Reading;

Bribie Island History - Cemeteries Why You Can't Be Buried On Bribie Island.

When a grave digger is left to his own devices... 1936

 ...he, or rather, this one in particular, had a novel idea to solve the pesky problem of uncovering previously interred bodies when digging new graves - evict the original residents into a nearby mine shaft.



That harsh sound you hear are the sounds of thousands of genealogists heads exploding.

Source;
Bones In Old Mine Shaft

Wednesday 24 January 2024

Wednesday 17 January 2024

The Wedderburn Mystery 6 January 1937 Unsolved

 It's safe to say the two blokes having a scratch around in the dirt at Wedderburn got a nasty shock when the remains of a man were uncovered.



Despite following up leads for years afterwards the police were never able to identify the victim.


They even made a death mask of the man's face, then a sculpture of his head, the very first of its kind in Australia.



But they never solved the mystery of his identity or who killed him.

Further reading -

Wedderburn Mystery Murder Suspected

Sculptor Helped in Death Probe

The Great Wedderburn Mystery The Body in the Shaft

July 5 Australia History On This Day

1788 Governor Arthur Philip sent a despatch to the British Under-secretary of state cos Oz was turning spectacularly into Destination Fucked...