SOME HINTS ON SEARCHING
"HEADSTONES FROM CEMETERIES OF TASMANIA":
1.
NAMES
All names indexed on the website have been spelled exactly as
they appear on the headstones.
When western cemeteries/burial grounds
were first established in Tasmania, spelling was somewhat ad hoc. Literacy
was neither uniform nor widespread.
As such, names can be seen to have been
spelled in many interesting ways.
For example: the headstone of Urias
Allender (Rokeby Anglican Cemetery) shows Urias spelled as "Youries".
When
searching, you will achieve better results using the surname only - at least to
start with. You may have to try a number of different alternative
spellings,
and do remember that many names were spelled phonetically.
In
addition, members of the same family can have alternative surname
spellings. As an example, consider Bessier, Besier, Bezier, and so
on.
2. PLACES
a) If you are looking for people who
were resettled from Norfolk Island, try Longford (previously known as Norfolk
Plains) and surrounding areas such as Evandale and even as far as Carrick,
Hadspen and Westbury. Norfolk Islanders were also resettled at Clarence
Plains (previously Rokeby), New Norfolk (not included on this website as yet),
and Queenborough (now known as Sandy Bay, Hobart, although the cemetery has been
demolished). You may find Queenborough descendants at Cornelian Bay
Cemetery (see the Links page).
b) Many Irish settlers, particular in
later (colonial) days were settled at Westbury. This is why the town has
its own village green and still has a big celebration on St. Patrick's
Day. I have indexed the Catholic cemetery at Westbury, but still have work
to do with regards to other denominations.
c) If you know where the
person lived, and cannot find them in a local cemetery, do look a little further
afield at other places. For instance, people living at Longford could be
buried in nearby districts, such as at Westbury, Carrick, etc.
3. DEMOLISHED CEMETERIES
Unfortunately, many
cemeteries, particularly those in Launceston and Hobart, have been
demolished. As the townships expanded, the cemeteries were eradicated to
make way for expanding housing, roads, and so on; and also because of health
reasons (e.g., overcrowding; graves becoming too shallow; disease epidemics, and
so on). Major cemeteries in Hobart (Cornelian Bay) and Launceston (Carr
Villa) were the ultimate outcome of this abandonment of older cemeteries.
In a few cases, some remains were removed to the new sites, but usually
not. Similarly, sometimes headstones were removed to the new sites, and
newly deceased persons were buried utilising the pre-existing family
headstone/monument, but this was not a common practice. Carr Villa do have
an incomplete database of persons buried in now demolished cemeteries in
Launceston, and are happy to do searches (see Links page for the web
address). I have not approached the people at Cornelian Bay at this stage,
so I cannot say what sort of records they have.
4. LAND GRANTS,
CLASS AND SETTLEMENT
Land grant information may lead you to
potential burial places. In the very early days of white settlement,
particularly for wealthier free settlers, places in the Midlands such as
Oatlands, Ross, Campbelltown, Kempton (formerly known as Green Ponds), Longford
(Norfolk Plains) and others were major places for land grants. The
north-west coast was opened up in later years, when land in other places was
running out. The north-west coast had dense bush and required a lot of
clearing. Plus it was further away from major populated areas, and was
more attractive to the less wealthy as a place of settling.
5.
AUSTRALIAN CEMETERIES
This website is just one of many places where
you can obtain information. Please do look at the Australian Cemeteries
website (see Links page), as you will find other useful information pertaining
to Tasmanian cemeteries. Australian Cemeteries has a number of dedicated
and selfless volunteers who live in different areas of the island state, and who
are prepared to do look-ups and the like. Furthermore, a number of
cemeteries have photographs or name indexes established on that
website.
6. LOOK FURTHER AFIELD
Van
Diemonians/Tasmanians frequently went to Victoria for various reasons.
They may have had family members there, or went looking for their fortunes
during the gold rush years. A similar thing occurred with New
Zealand. Another aspect to consider is war service. During the Boer
War, WWI and WWII, many Tasmanians lost their lives, and were often buried
overseas. You may find the National Library newspapers useful with such
searches, not to mention the Australian War Memorial archives.
I do hope
that this information has assisted your search. Please email me if you can
think of anything else that would be useful to post here.