Vashti Farrer

In Part 1 of A Writer's Guide to Finding Source Material, Vashti Farrer gave the 'basic rule' of finding source material, and discussed where to find 'formal' sources (that is, original sources).

In Part 2, she talks about 'informal' (or secondary) sources, and provides a useful bibliography.

"Informal Sources"

Informal sources I think of as letters, diaries and journals written by ordinary people, and other eye-witness accounts. Some of these have been printed as facsimiles - eg eye-witness accounts of the gold-diggings. Old paintings, prints, and photos if available are also useful. Look for the detail, such as clothing, buildings, businesses.

Don't overlook contemporary newspapers - here and in England - which sometimes published early letters from the colonies in gentlemens' and ladies' magazines.

You have to read newspapers on microfilm and there is a wealth of information. I recently read The Sydney Morning Herald from January 1941 to September 1945 this way. It was hard on the eyes, but it really brought those war years to life: the fear, the excitement, the courage and the sadness. I read the Herald for 1900 for another project.

Newspapers are also useful for weather conditions if you need them. They will tell you if it was blowy on a particular day. It's up to you how far you choose to take it (whether you choose go down the purple path of prose and have the autumnal leaves swirling around your ankles). The Bureau of Meteorology may also be able to help with weather. It has records for some stations, such as Sydney's Observatory Hill going back 151 years, but at other smaller stations they may only one or two years' worth of records. If you need to consult the weather bureau, email them on - http://www.climate.nsw@bom.gov.au

Several military records are available under the freedom of information act, unless there is still a reason for the material to be exempt. Personal records can be obtained from Australian War Memorial website and there is more information available from the National Archives website. WWI and WWII material is held in the National Archives and later conflicts, if more than 30 years old, can be obtained by applying to the Dept Defence which will arrange for the records to be made available through the Archives.

Language - words like prithee, Gadzooks and Yea, verily,  can ruin an otherwise well researched book and using modern expressions or slang is just as bad because it leaps off the page as an anachronism and annoys the reader. Contemporary words and phrases can add life and veracity to a manuscript. Terms such as pleading her belly commonly heard in Old Bailey or the word  tournebroche, meaning the dog who turned the spit in 18^th century kitchens. You find these in old dictionaries or dictionaries of slang. Generally speaking, allow 40 years for a word to become part of the vocabulary; if the dictionary lists it 40 years later than your period, it was still probably part of the everyday speech in your era.

Specialists and institutions: Never be afraid to ask for information. Specialists won't write pages of notes for you, but in my experience if you explain what you want to know (in one or two brief questions) and why, they are usually very helpful. Over the years I have contacted vets, pathologists, mining experts, museum curators, war veterans, and academics. I have written to a brewing museum, the archives of an order of nuns, the archives of the Bank of New South Wales, the people who run tours of a gaol, a police museum, and a gaol museum to ask for the calculation required to hang someone.

Interviewees: If there are still people alive who were eyewitnesses to your period interview them. Even if they were only children, it's amazing what people can remember, and the little details are invaluable for bringing a manuscript to life.

Don't ignore relics, jewellery and clothing. Jewellery made of black jet was worn by women in mourning in Victorian times. They started off wearing black, including a black lace cap like the Queen's, but after a suitable period they could wear a white lace cap and move into mauve or heliotrope. Convicts on chain gangs had pockets in their trousers to keep their pipes and tobacco, and buttons down both legs so they could undo them to go to the loo without having to have their manacles removed.

You can find out about children's lives by the kinds of clothes they wore and the kind of schoolbooks, lessons and sums they did. For instance a  typical schoolbook book of 1812 was: Scientific Dialogues Intended for the Instruction and Entertainment of Young People in Which the First Principles of Natural and Experimental Philosophy Are Fully Explained, which came in six volumes and had topics covering mechanics, pneumatics, electricity and so forth,  set out in conversations between children and their father or mother or tutor.

Place - even if you are writing about somewhere in the 19^th century, still try to go there. There may be trees still there which were only saplings at the time or buildings - even the ruins of buildings - can give you an idea of the layout and no matter how good your imagination the sense of place you convey in your manuscript will be much better after going there.

Don't be scared of research. Most things can be tracked down but you have to be patient. You won't necessarily find what you are looking for in a library catalogue, or the online catalogue or on the internet and you may find out by accident. For instance, I discovered that Sydney Parkinson, the young draftsman on Cook's Endeavour  had himself tattooed in Tahiti. How? By reading the whole of his journal of the voyage. Even had I known beforehand I would not have found it in the catalogue under "tattoo" or "Endeavour"  or "Parkinson, Sydney".

Just how much detail you want to put into your manuscript largely depends on you and how much research you are prepared to do, but the sources are available.

Bibliography:

Banking Under Difficulties or Life On The Goldfields of Victoria, New South Wales and New Zealand. By a Bank Official (G.O. Preshaw) - Edwards, Dunlop & Co - 1888

Letters from a Miner in Australia - Antoine Fauchery, Georgian House - 1857, trans.1965

A Lady's Visit to The Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53, Mrs Charles Clacy - A&R 1963

The Eureka Stockade - Raffaello Carboni, J.P. Atkinson & Co, MDCCCLV

The Complete Costume History -  Auguste Racinet - 1888 (reprinted)

What People Wore. Visual History of Dress from Ancient Times to 20^th Cent - Doug. Gorsline

The Convict Ships -1787 1868 - Charles Bateson's

The Penguin Dictionary of Surnames ­-  Basil Cottle - Penguin 1967

The Faber Book of Reportage  - edited by John Carey

A Dictionary of Historical Slang - Eric Partridge - Penguin 1972

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue - A Dictionary if Buckish Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence - Captain Francis Grose - Bibliophile Books, 1981

A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words - obsolete phrases, proverbs, ancient customs from XIV cent - James Orchard Halliwell, F.R.S. - George Rutledge and Sons, 1904

Notorious Strumpets and Dangerous Girls - Convict Women ion Van Diemen's Land 1803 - 1929 - Philllip Tardif - Angus & Robertson 1990

Prison Boys of Port ARTHUR - F.C. Hooper - F.W. Cheshire, 1967

Historical Records of New South Wales - 1762 - 1811 - Govt Printer 1893 -

Historical Records of Australia - 1788 - 1827 Commonwealth Govt 1914 - 1922

Royal Commission Report on Goldfields of Victoria 1855 - Govt Printer - 1855

Book of The Calendar, Months and Seasons -   Vol IV Instructor - John Parker & Son 1853

Scientific Dialogues - Natural & Experimental Philosophy - Rev Joyce. Johnson Co, 1812

Mss journal and accounts book - unknown - on flyleaf - "Cronology - 1821 the 26 May a considerable quantity of snow fell in the Parish of Hambledon"

© Vashti Farrer 2009