Vashti Farrer

"Where would I find. . . ?" 

Would-be writers of historical fiction tend to fall into two categories. They either cringe at the thought of all the research they'll need to do or think they'll find everything quickly on the internet. At a recent workshop I was giving I was asked by one person, "Just how much information is on the net?"(Excuse me?!)  and, the same person later asked, "Is there one book that will tell me where all the sources are?" (Again, excuse me?!) This author had NO idea of the volume of information that's available and obviously wanted a very short cut before starting to write.

In writing historical fiction you can either follow the Patrick O'Brian (author of 20 novels including Master and Commander) school and pack in huge amounts of detail, whether it is relevant or not to the plot, or follow the broad brush canvas method and supply only the bare minimum of facts. There are readers who like both approaches, and personally I tend to fall somewhere in the middle.

The basic rule is that you won't find the kind of detail that brings a manuscript to life in secondary sources. They will provide an overall view of the period and they may have bibliographies with original sources used or footnotes that provide the odd obscure fact you find useful. You have to go back to original sources. To simplify them I'll refer to Formal and Informal sources and Im' talking mainly 19^th century Australia.

"Formal" Sources

By "Formal Sources" I mean archives, anything from government departments such as the Colonial Secretary's papers (here I found a letter asking permission to "stable and victual a horse"). In one Royal Commission report I read of the conditions on board the last troopship back from Boer War. In another I was able to read the questions and answers into the official inquiry that followed Eureka Stockade.

Births, Deaths and Marriages come under government information, because they are kept in government repositories. You can Google the International Genealogical Index for English 19^th century BDMs (as long as you remember there can be mistakes). For Australia, Google relevant state and follow the prompts. You will have to pay for certificates, but they may give you information such as parents' details, how long they had been in the colony, and how many children they had - living and deceased.

A marriage certificate is usually the most reliable (except where the couple have fudged their ages!) because the details were supplied by those present. Birth certificates can get odd details wrong and death certificates being often filled in by the children often get facts wrong (often details they were told). If someone were executed, an execution certificate was produced instead of a death certificate.

The UK Census for any of 1841, '51, '61, '71 and '81 used to be accessible free online, but it now seems you have to join ancestry.com or one of those finders. Information you can find are details like the head of household, occupation, spouse's and children's names and ages.

Institutions such as orphanages, gaols and asylums all had rules and regulations which show the sort of life led by inmates. Rules for some gaols and orphanages are in the Mitchell Library.

The government kept tabs on convicts with indents (lists of who sailed on which ship, age, description, crime, distinguishing scars etc). There were also conduct records kept after they got here, then later tickets-of-leave and conditional pardons, all of which gave information. Such records are kept in the relevant State Archives - in Sydney in The Rocks, and at Kingsgrove, although there are duplicates of some material in the State Library.

Shipping lists of bounty immigrants (those sponsored) and free settlers were also kept. Ship's logs give pertinent details of the voyage. Parts of Captain Cook's log of the Endeavour  (where his ship hit the reef in Queensland and how later he sailed out through the shoals of coral) are in Historical Records of New South Wales. There are also Historical Records of Australia - which overlap some of the same years. These should be available at the State Library. Archival material also includes things like publicans' licences and other such permissions.

As for passenger lists - not all ships listed everyone who sailed: for instance those traveling steerage. Passenger lists may just say how many single men, single women, and families were on board. You need to know the name of the ship and the year and maybe where it sailed from, but names may appear if the health officer reported sickness on board.

© Vashti Farrer 2009

This ends Part 1. In Part 2 of A Writer's Guide to Finding Source Material, Vashti will discuss where to find 'informal' or secondary source material, and provide a useful bibliography.