People who cannot accept truth in skeletons.

[Jane Gee]

I have a relative that appears to have been murdered by aboriginies in Australia I would like to try to find out which tribe they belonged to because I feel that there may have been a good reasonfor the murder. I have been told that the botany expedition he was with may have violated some sacred ground or animal. However I know this could still be a very sensative subject which means I will have to be very careful.

Jane

[benny1982]

Hi

That sounds interesting Jane. I think with some people pride can get in the way of family skeletons in the cupboards that can fall out once you open the door.

The origin of that saying "Skeleton in the cupboard" is quite obvious. Murder victims originally and the term was then probably used for other dark secrets in the families like thefts, suicides, etc.

Ben

[Izzycat]

I think skeletons can make research interesting & make sense of some family stories & behaviours; BUT I also recognise that not everyone will want to know about it & that it can cause distress to some.
My favourite skeleton is my gt grandmother - my grandmother was adopted at age 2 & many false stories were told by her adoptive parents to protect her from knowing the truth about her parentage. It turns out that her mum may have been selling her affections on the streets of Cardiff; either that or she was a very enthusiastic amateur. Sadly, it appears that she was probably suffering from a mental illness & she died as a homeless person. I find her story fascinating but have not made this info available to all my family as I am aware that it would cause great distress.

We cannot change the past, but I think we have a duty of care to those members of our families who would be upset by the facts we unearth, not to inform them. They have a right to remain ignorant just as we have a right to know.
Izzy

[Jane Gee]

Hi Benny
I should have said is definite that he was murdered just trying to find the murder trial at Sydney but no luck in newspapers after 14.4.1855 australian newspapers beta so will wait for Sydney morning herald. Have lots of other bits and pieces but only found this out by tracing living relatives who knew the story and had details of a memorial stone in Gillingham Kent (long since gone) he was a brother of my gt grandfather but the information was never passed down to our side of the family.
It can pay dividends sometimes if you can trace 2 and 3 cousins removed I have been very lucky as one of them has now died and he was my original contact and what he knew was absoutely fabulous.

Best Wishes
Jane

[Sandra Parker]

Hi Jane,
Have you tried the following?
Australian National Archives https://www.naa.gov.au/collection/rec...rch/index.aspx
NSW Archives https://www.records.nsw.gov.au
State Library of NSW - https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au
National Library of Australia - https://www.nla.gov.au/home.html
Australian Historical Association - https://www.theaha.org.au
Australian Council of Professional Historians Associations - https://www.historians.org.au
Unfortunately, many hundreds of Aboriginal people were killed over the years, often in killing expeditions set up for the purpose, to punish any group that happened to be in the area and were supposed to have been involved in some anti settlement activity. Sometimes they were, but not always. The attitude of some of the law makers, police, soldiers, settlers and developers left a lot to be desired and many innocent people were subject to 'punitive expeditions'!
Whole groups were often killed including women and children. There are still many aboriginal people only one generation away from the last of these massacres in the Northern Territory. The skeletal remains of almost an entire clan group from one of the last NT massacres, are still in caves not far from Wave Hill. A few non aboriginal men have been to taken this site in recent times, by the descendants.
So it isn't that surprising to find that on occasions, they had had enough of being 'imposed upon' and retaliated. Again they had also had no way of knowing that they had identified the person/s they were holding responsible.
Many of these stories are well documented.
If you have your relative's name and the date and area, then someone at one of these sites, should be able to set you in the right direction to find a record of such an event.
I'm sure you will find the accounts most interesting.
Sandra

[Jane Gee]

Hi Sandra
I really appreciate your reply I am under no illusion that the reason Frederick Strange the botanist Henry Gittings(my ancestor) and others were killed for no good reason at all. I have been in touch with the Forbes society and have read various papers relating to the Percy Islands the newspaper articles are very one sided (I feel) and this is why I would like to find out more about the natives/aboriginies who were on the Percy Islands. I know they were taken after being captured by people on board HM Torch the ships log is very factual and to the point ie landed on island looked for natives found them and took them to Moreton Bay.
My problem with the newspapers of the time are that in one they said there was no interpreter but they could quite clearly tell that the natives were saying killed man and described (sign language) what they had done with them.
I want a fair account of what happended so this can be passed down to my family
I will be checking out all the things you have sent.
Best Wishes
Jane

[benny1982]

Hi

very often couples or someone fled the area after a skeleton in the closet. They did it escape a scandal, debtors, an irate person etc.

My 3xgreat grandparents ran away after the birth of their first child due to it being illegitimate but as said they wed within a few months after settling in London. They did that to also protect the baby for obvious reasons. One the illegitimacy and two the fact her dad was still married when the mum was pregnant.

Many people fled their residences to live with relatives far away in order to escape scandals etc.

Ben

[Jane Gee]

My hubands grandparents did moonlight flits due to debt but when they had retail shop of their own and made some money they seemed to forget about this when their son married a working class girl. They looked down on her.
My aunt was a labour member (fully paid up)all of her life but when she had a business of her own she seemed to change her allegiance I do find people can be quite funny at times.

[benny1982]

Hi

Oh yes in later life the Roberts ran a beer house in Walworth in 1878. Thomas was the beer retailer and he appears on a March 1878 rate payers book. They gave it up in September 1878 and were in Holborn by November when they applied for poor relief. I wonder if they had debts and moved to another part of the capital to escape another scandal which was the reason why they moved to London in the first place 15 years earlier.

Ben

[beachbaby]

Had a great grandfather who left Manchester England in a hurry after he thought he killed a man in the iron foundry where he worked. He had some sort of argument with the man and hit him with a hammer. The other man lived, but gramps ended up in Boston. My mother was mortified when we told her about this and refused to believe it. I figured, well, it's up to her whether she wants to or not, but I didn't bother telling her anything scandelous (interesting) after that.

What was the use?

Teri