However, in the decade since Saadia began her search, there has been an incredible growth in the nature and number of resources online and in many ways that has fundamentally changed how the case study could be undertaken. Originally, five CDs of the Queensland School Pupils Index and six CDs of Commonwealth Electoral Rolls (indexed by QFHS) could be searched individually in the QSA reading room [or in the Family History area at Strathpine Library]. It might take an afternoon of searching across these multiple databases to identify a single change of address for a family, which would then set-up your next search phase.
Now members of QFHS have access to a single search interface that can be applied to all those sources at once (from their own home). In addition, a decade ago there were very few digitised images of School Admission Registers (which explained the huge popularity of the QSPI indexes). Now there are so many downloadable pdfs of school enrolments available in ArchivesSearch that researchers are disappointed when they find that the document of interest to them is not (yet) available.
These changes in the availability of relevant records prompted Bob to retrace (some of) Saadia's steps in a modern re-creation.
Saadia showed us the admission register for Thallon State School that recorded the initial enrolment of Loveday and three siblings (Clyne, Joan and Mildred) in 1927. But a further search of that document reveals that younger siblings Nevel (1929) and Fay (1931) also attended that school.
As the youngest, Fay Finn is a good candidate to look for later school enrolments (since her school-age years would extend later). In QSPI, there are two later entries for Fay
- Primary Correspondence School on 23 April 1934, and
- South Brisbane Intermediate School on 7 February 1939.
(There are actually more entries for "Fay Finn", far too recent to be the same person. But they might be for a niece?)
From ArchivesSearch we find that the Admissions Register for the Primary Correspondence School recording enrolments between 8 February and 20 August 1934 is ITM613216 and is available for digital download as a pdf. Scanning the pages to locate the correct date, shows that 29 children were enrolled on that day including #23565 Fay Finn (date of birth 4 Feb 1927) the child of Walter A Finn a railway fettler working at Borallon on the B V (Brisbane Valley) Line. Fay received correspondence lessons only in 1934 and was marked as having transferred elsewhere in January 1935.
A search for the 1939 Registers of South Brisbane Intermediate School shows that ITM791889 has also been digitised and can be freely examined at home. Only two new students started on 7 February and #3181 Fay Finn was listed as being born on 4 February 1925 (and so was then old enough to leave school) but her parent Walter Albert (a ganger) living at 28 Clarence Street South Brisbane had enrolled her in Year 7. Fay completed that year before leaving school in December 1939. Helpfully, teachers at South Brisbane Intermediate recorded the previous school of transferring students; we are told that Fay had been a student at Glasshouse before 1939.
The admission registers for the Glasshouse State School(s) have not (yet) been indexed in QSPI by the volunteers from QFHS. ArchivesSearch includes two series of Admission Registers that might be relevant - for Glasshouse Mountains State School and Glasshouse Tobacco Settlement Provisional State School; but neither is available on line. It would require a trip to the Reading Room at Runcorn to inspect them to confirm Fay's enrolment at one or the other.
Another possible source of confirmatory evidence could be the electoral rolls, of which there are two series - compiled separately (then) for State and Commonwealth elections.
A search of the Commonwealth electoral rolls from 1903 to 1941 for Walter Finn shows him enrolled at
- 1903 Tallwood Maranoa
- 1913 Goondiwindi Maranoa
- 1922 Goondiwindi Maranoa
- 1934 Ipswich North Darling Downs
- 1941 Windsor Lilley
The absence of a roll compiled between 1934 and 1941 means that we can neither confirm nor refute the claim that Fay (and her parents) were living near Glasshouse school.
The State Electoral Rolls available online are more closely spaced and show Albert enrolled at
- 1903 Tallwood, Maranoa
- 1905 Welltown, Maranoa
- 1913 Goondiwindi, Maranoa
- 1916 St George, Maranoa
- 1917 St George, Maranoa
- 1919 Moonie, Maranoa
- 1922 Goondiwindi, Maranoa (also 1925 and 1926)
- 1928 St George, Maranoa (also 1930 and 1932)
- 1936 Caboolture, Wide Bay (also 1937)
- 1943 Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
Where there are records in each set at (approximately) corresponding times, they agree. And the State Rolls provide new information on Wide Bay (1936-37) but miss Ipswich (1934).
In 1936 and 1937, Walter and Mabel were living within the Caboolture Sub-division of Wide Bay with their address given as Glasshouse Mountains and their occupations railway ganger and domestic duties respectively (confirming that this is the correct family) . There is no-one else of the same surname enrolled at that address indicating that any of their children aged over 21 (that is born before 1916) had left home to live elsewhere.
Since Fay would have been only 10 (or 12, depending on the birth date you believe), she would not be included on the Electoral Roll. But she could appear in the newspaper, such as this report of a "mock debutante's ball" from Trove. |