Thread: 1872 Balmain, Sydney, Australia

Are they any Australian researchers that might be able exam the St Mary's Parish Church, Balmain register or microfilm for the marriage of Richard Balshaw and Emma Tomkins on the 1st of October 1872 (entry 475) and confirm for me the respective Father's names, Mother's names and maiden surnames.

Im not in Sydney, so cant help unfortunately.. On the other hand im not sure how open the church is about letting their old records be viewed at random.

If worse comes to worst.. the record is available at the NSW BDM and if you order a transcript through Joy Murrins website http://www.joymurrin.com.au/NSW%20BD...SCRIPTIONS.htm

.its nearly half the price of a government one..the Info you need for an application is

1077/1872 BALSHAW RICHARD TOMKINS EMMA BALMAIN

Thanks for the lead. Do you know if Joy Murrin's transcriptions are from a microfiche of the original record or a copy of the government transcription? I only ask because I think the government transcription could be in error.

hi,

She has a licence to access the government records. Going by the way it has been listed it appears to be the govt one. The NSW govt took over the registrations in abt 1856. If it had been the parish record, in place of where it says 'Balmain' it would have had a two letter code for the church/parish. The data was usually lodged by the church, so 'should' be the same as the information in their ledger.. If something looks wrong on the info I gave you,, it doesnt necessarily mean its the same as the original information.. I have found more errors than I can count on the online database..typing errors/mis-reading poor handwriting happens all the time.

On the other hand I've also seen informants give incorrect info (specially ages) whether on purpose or by accident..who knows?

If you really want the church record you could try writing to the parish priest. Im more than likely pessimistic, but I doubt they would take the time to look it up, and if they do I'd take a guess they would ask for a fee/donation

I've had similar experiences with recording errors throughout my searches in every database in several countries so far. I have a transcription of this marriage record but this seems to have been based upon an earlier transcription in 1916 (?). Do you know if the actual govt ledgers were microfilmed or are the micro films just copies of an earlier transcription. All sounds rather complicated but I hop you get my drift. In the meantime I'll try the personal letter approach when I find out where the parish records are held... according to Google Earth St Mary's church is now a hole in the ground!!!

The earlier microfiche ive looked at is handwritten... I think they are transcriptions from whatever was submitted by the parish priest to the govt office..

This is the link to the Archdiocese of Sydney, which Balmain definitely falls within.. Maybe there is a contact link on it where you can make further enquiries

http://www.sydney.catholic.org.au/home.shtml

You may also be interested in the fact that I have found 2 children to this couple.



They had a son Richard Herbert in 1974 in Sydney. Registration No. 913/1874



and a daughter in Victoria.



Florence Gertrude 1877 Carlton Victoria Registration No. 13687.



Don't know where they went from there as I can find no other marriages or deaths for any of them.



From what I have found the only St. Mary's Parish Church in Balmain is an Anglican Church. This is the direct link to information about the church. The Post Code for Balmain is 2041. They have not put this on the website.



http://www.darlingst.org.au/aboutus/whereweare.htm



Scroll to the bottom of the page for St. Mary's



The Microfische of the Parish Registers may be available at larger Libraries.



Joy Murrins transcripts are usually pretty accurate as I think they go off the originals that were submitted to the Registrar. I use Laurie Turtle for transcriptions I want as he lives very close to me. I needed a death certificate for one of my GG Grandfathers and for $15 AUS I got everything that was on the certificate including the minister who conducted the service and the Funeral Agents. In the case of my GG Grandfather the name was wrong on both the Government Registration and on the Original as my GG Grandmother was German and had a very strong accent and it was mis-heard by the person Registering the death. As so many of the early records were filled out by the Registrars because many of the people involved were illiterate and they did not know how to spell their own names anyway some of the variations of names were quite ingenious.



If you don't have any luck contact me and I will see if I can get to one of the big Libraries to see if they have the Parish Registrars on Microfishe there.