Follow Friday - An accumulation of my weekly research - 7

It is quite a while since I have published a Follow Friday- An accumulation of My weekly Research post, I shall put this down to annual holidays, Christmas and the shock of having to go back to work in the new year.

Over the past few weeks I have been researching sisters  Emma Jane and Mary Anne Weston who came to Australia at Christmas time in 1856.  Emma Jane was my great great Grandmother.  It is an interesting story of two young girls travelling to the other side of the world to find employment in Australia.

Both sisters have an interesting story, Emma married Thomas Lee in 1858* and settled into the Braidwood and then Nelligen Districts of New South Wales and Mary Anne married the same year to William Pronger  and moved to Gympie in Queensland. I believe William and Mary Pronger moved from the mining gold town of Majors Creek/Araluen district (near Braidwood) to Gympie in the early 1860’s when Gold was discovered there. I have found some very interesting resources on both of these areas which have assisted me in gathering a little of their story.  If you are researching the early gold mining days in NSW and Queensland you might find some of these links useful.

Braidwood/Araluen and Nelligen, South Eastern, New South Wales

1. The Glenville Post Office Directory for 1871, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hcastle/grevilles/grevilles.html.

This is  a great resource and list names of people, and their occupations, living in the NSW settlements in 1871.
2.  A brief history of Nelligen, Batemans Bay and the Clyde River,  http://www.clyderiverhouseboats.com.au/south-coast-history.html
3. The Forgotten Mines of Nelligen, http://www.southcoast.com.au/batemansbay/nelligengold/index.html
4. Araluen, a brief History, http://www.argylecounty.com.au/towns/araluen.html.
5. Braidwood settlers, http://www.visitbraidwood.com.au/bwd.
This has a short history on the settlers in Braidwood and some great photos of times past. 
6. Majors Creek, http://www.visitbraidwood.com.au/majorscreek. 

7. Araluen, http://www.visitbraidwood.com.au/araluen.
8. NSW Cemeteries List, http://www.australiancemeteries.com/nsw/index.htm. 
On this page it is possible to link through to cemeteries in Araluen, Majors Creek, Braidwood and Araluen.
9.  Images of Braidwood in the National Archives: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an11030053-17  
10. Braidwood Historical Society, http://www.braidwoodmuseum.org.au/links.html

Gympie, Queensland

1.   State Library of Queensland: http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/about-us/corporate/information-collections

(You can join this library online, and then have access to quite a large collection of e-resources).

2. John Oxley Library Blog: http://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/jol/. 
This can be found on the State Library site and has some great articles on the history and people of Queensland.

3.  Gympie Now and Then, http://www.gympie.qld.gov.au/library/thenandnow/. 
This site provides you with pictures from the past compared with photos of the same place as they are now). Very interesting.

4. Gympie Cemetry Trust: http://www.gympiecemeterytrust.com.au/

5.  Gympie Regional Council site: http://www.gympie.qld.gov.au/loadframe.asp?PageID=15&ID=154.
On this page there is a link to a PDF copy of “Cooloola Shire… a golden past”, which tells the story of the pioneers of Gympie.
 6.  Historical Index's for BDM in Queensland.  https://www.bdm.qld.gov.au/IndexSearch/BirIndexQry.m..
 The BDM Indexes are of course invaluable for checking vital dates.