Day 5 - 30 days x 30 minutes of Family History Challenge

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Alex on the Family History Scavenger Hunt

Sometimes it's a long and winding road - the good old family history trail.  Today I had to leave my family history organisation and research to the end of the day, as I was busy looking after my grandson.  

Most of the day was spent taking part in a Family Fun Day at the Environmental Hut down the road from us.  We did a scavenger hunt/bingo type activity where we looked for all sorts of things - prickly, rough, smooth, dead, bendy sticks etc. Then we had storytime about famous environmentalists, diminishing species (e.g. the Christmas beetle) and the sounds of the bush, followed by craft activities preparing for Christmas.  Hopefully, the walk to and from home burned off the scones generously provided by the hosts :)

But back to family history.  

Janine Adams from Organize Your Family History challenges genealogists to do this regularly, and boy do I need this! 

Basically - to quote Janine - 

you commit to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research/organizing/whatever for 30 days in a row (i.e. the month of November). The “rules” of this challenge are very fluid. For example, you could decide that, for you, 30 minutes daily translates into 15 hours of activity over the course of the month. 

I am in the process of downloading photos taken on my mobile phone at the State Library of Victoria a couple of weeks ago while doing some family history research into my Ellis ancestors.  George and Isabella Ellis taught at country schools in Victoria, Australia from 1868-1881.

So tonight I downloaded twenty more images. These include very helpful location maps for the schools in the different regions and potted histories of all the schools.  

I found my ancestor G. Ellis listed in Appendix 1 of the History on Page 78 of Volume 1 as one of the first teachers together with J.H.C. Trevan at Norval (formerly Opossum Gully) in 1871. Yay!

Appendix F on page 74 also gave me statistics on the population of Ararat Shire where the Ellises lived and or worked as their son Albert William was born there in 1876 and their daughter Isabella in 1878. The earliest statistic for Ararat in that appendix is 1881 when the population was 5,214.

The first school I can find on the Ellises teaching record is Glenvale in 1868 as per this post here. This school was in the Port Phillip Eastern region and was school number 727.  The history of the school says it opened on 30th October 1865, with 27 students enrolled.  The history also notes that from 1881 the school worked half-time with another school - Number 1244 Upper Plenty.  It went back to being full-time from 1886, closed in 1895 then reopened from 1902-1925 and between 1927 until it finally closed in 1946. 

Glenvale is situated in the city of Whittlesea north of Melbourne.  There is an active local history society that has posted a great picture of the old school on Facebook here.

The next school that the Ellises were recorded at was No. 985 Barkstead. They were here from 1869-1870. Barkstead was located in the Central Highlands region near Ballarat.  The school began in 1869 and was built by the owners of the two saw mills - Thomas Fraser and Robert Anderson.  The history records that the school had a "bark roof - as did most of the homes - hence Barkstead". 

On the 20th October 1870, the wife of George Ellis gave birth to twin sons at Barkstead. These were Henry Victor and James Sinclair (the name Sinclair being a nod to Isabella's ancestors).


Family Notices (1870, November 2). The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved November 10, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244721087


Weirdly - around the same time - just a month before I found this ad placed in the Ballarat Star....

Advertising (1870, September 19). The Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924), p. 3. Retrieved November 10, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article218798554



Could this be our George Ellis? He did have an agricultural background. Was he ever on Maui in what was then called the Sandwich Islands - now Hawaii????? I know Ellis is a common name, but how many people were in Barkstead at the time?

William Henry Archer's "The Progress of Victoria - a statistical essay found online here indicates that Barkstead had a population of 103 at the time.  I think there is a strong chance it is our Mr Ellis, but I would need to confirm by checking the electoral rolls if I can. What an interesting find!!

I'm going to leave it there for tonight as it is well past my bedtime and I have a reasonably demanding day tomorrow.

Happy family history hunting! Oh, and all advice gratefully accepted re research avenues for researching employment on plantations on Maui in the 19th Century.








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