UNCLAIMED LETTERS
1849
Various States
Unclaimed letters can be a great source of information, though on the surface, quite scant... the main thing is that it can give you an idea as to where to look. Of course, we would love to know who sent the letters, what connection they had with the addressee .. why was the letter sent and if only we could read those elusive letters.
Some will mention a destination that is more than a town.. it might be sent care of a hotel, or school or even a church... sometimes a workplace. However the majority will give little else but a place if you are lucky. That's when we need to look for TROVE mentions, check any kind of rolls or lists of businesses, is there any mention of others with the same or very similar names... can you find a postal directory.. Were the names you are looking for ever named in a State or Police Gazette?
You will notice that the lists of unclaimed letters appear in various forms over the various states. I will be posting simply in order of date..I don't have any further information on any of these entries.
Happy hunting...
You can click on images to enlarge
Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Friday 5 January 1849, page 1
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4768260
New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900), Friday 12 January 1849 (No.8). National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230364002
Did you notice that this list has quite a lot of information where as the Victorian one had just names? Here you have place names, sometimes the ship they came on...often "care of..".. that could lead you to relatives or friends or employers perhaps. Some give occupations...When you see place names such as Brisbane, they have been most likely returned to Sydney as the place of origin. So you can assume that at some time, the address was in say, Brisbane. Check cemetery indexes, hospital records, shipping lists...even the Qld Gazettes in this case.
Knowing the trade/occupation of the addressee could be helpful. These are in alpha order, so that can be easier to look through, though keep an open mind re spelling.
You will some listed as 'currency lass'...
Currency lads and lasses (collectively known as currency or the currency) were the first generations of native-born white Australians. They were the children of the British settlers and convicts who arrived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, beginning with the First Fleet in 1788.
I'm afraid that the answer to the oft asked million dollar question..
"Where can I read these letters?" is still the same... you can't. However, I'm always the optimist and have found one by simply Googling.. no, not letter I hate to say, but someone had come across an empty envelope.. unfortunately, there was no more on the envelope than had been listed in the Gazette. The lady who had it had bought it for the equivalent of a dollar many years before, simply because it had the same name as her mother's surname. I could find no connection to the person whose family I had been looking for.
Further reading:
It’s very interesting what you can deduce from the lists, but if only we could read our ancestors’ letters. Were the recipients able to request the actual letters if they found their names in the published lists?
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is interesting, and yes, it would be great to be able to read the letters. Sadly, most would have been destroyed after a time. From what little I could find, there didn't seem to be a standard time as to when the letters were destroyed.
ReplyDeleteSome perhaps were claimed for instance, if the person they were addressed to, was known in the area and had moved to another place..perhaps for work, and then returned. I somehow doubt that many were, they would have had to have seen the list published, or someone had to have told them.
I wonder also if many simply didn't want to be found.. maybe running away from relationships , maybe debt collectors or former employers, perhaps running from the law or simply couldn't read.
Unfortunately, we can but surmise. Thank you for your comment.