Has anyone else found that their days get fuller and fuller as they spend more time at home? Projects seem to multiply by themselves and, at the same time, there are so many conferences and webinars available at the click of a mouse. All of this is an excuse for why it is taking me so long to get on with my Australian research. It's still ongoing, but in the meantime, I found that I had more information already at hand than I realized.
When I research, I look for information to answer a specific question. At this stage in my Australian research, I was looking for the marriages of the McKay daughters to find their new last names. The entries I've found so far have provided me with surnames to bring the generations forward. In two cases, I was able to find copies of the actual parish register documents on Ancestry. The first was for the 1897 marriage of Florence Annie McKay to Edward Horace Woodley and, the second, for the 1906 marriage of Martha Alice McKay to George Frances Langford.
Did I look any further? Well yes, I made sure that the place of marriage on the record and the names of the McKay girls' parents matched what I knew. In the meantime, I was still searching Trove to see if I could find out more about the girls' father, William McKay. What kind of work had he taken up once he had left the military and started a new life in Australia? That search was coming up empty.
It was frustrating as the father's occupation might give me a better idea about the family's lifestyle, which was so dependent upon the breadwinner's status in that day and age. But then I took a closer look at the parish marriage records that I had at hand. They looked very much like English General Record Office (GRO) certificates except that they named the parties' mothers as well as fathers. Also included were the occupations of the groom and both fathers. Right there on the record for each McKay daughter the occupation of their father was spelled out. On the 1906 record William McKay's occupation was given as a clerk but the 1897 record was more intriguing as he was working as a school sarjeant. That's an occupation that I've never heard of before but no doubt his military background fitted him for the role. Now to see if I can find out more.
Sources:
Ancestry – Sydney, Australia, Anglican Parish Registers
Images:
By Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons - https://www.flickr.com/photos/anmm_thecommons/8875762232/, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42149400
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