LOOKUP Please: Biograph. Index of South Aust

[cando]

Sashar I think Petersburg was the former name of Peterborough.

There appear to be two families...one at Port Adelaide and Kapunda.  Lots of information on TROVE.  The families are also noted as MAGUIRE which doesn't make for easy research.


Cheers
Cando

[Aussie1947]

Hi,

1865 South Australian Almanac & Directory
KADINA, MOONTA & WALLAROO
Maguire Francis, smelter, Wallaroo.

KAPUNDA, LIGHT & BELVIDERE
Maguire Francis, carpenter, Kapunda Mine.

Gerry

[goddles1]

Thank you Cando (& Essie) for the BIAS details.  Also, thank you to everyone for the helpful input.  It has added to our knowledge and given us more of leads to follow.

[mcgesc]

I just picked up this 2012 post, doing own fam. hist. of same name.  Are you located UK?
A railway employee Frank McGuire dob:28Dec1869, location Petersburg (now Peterborough), record exist.
Same as earlier posts, cannot track birth John, f:Francis.
BISA has inaccuracies.

[Rhonda May]

Hi mcgesc

I wonder which birth year was correct - 1868 or 1869?

A Francis MAGUIRE and Mary MULLINS/MULLEN had a son Francis born ‘1868-12-28’ (according to the CD Index) at Koonunga near Kapunda.  Reg.  Kap/book 31/page 491
A daughter Ann was born 20 Jan 1865 at Wallaroo Bay

Francis MAGUIRE aged 25, father named Michael, married 8 Jun 1861 at Kapunda to Mary MULLIN.

A Francis MCGUIRE died 11 Feb 1870 at Mount Bagots Head Station near Kapunda. (I believe Bagots Head Station was actually at Koonunga)

Rhonda

[mcgesc]

Yep, I've seen the Book/Page 46/375 marriage Francis & Mary Mullin (f:Thady Mullin) at St John nr Kapunda.
The SAR record shows Frank in service 1891 - 1895 (resigned), and so it is possible the dob entered is 1 year wrong. The handwriting is clearly "9",   On other hand, the SA BDM record could be 1 year out. The 'official SA Govt records were compiled from local church records, despatched on an adhoc basis to Adelaide. Also, being late Dec, registration would occur the next yr. It is not uncommon for ppl to quote the prev. yr.
I know descendants of the Francis from Bagots Hd Stn. Shall check if he fathered a John.
There were several McGuire families in SA 1850+, time for accurate mapping.

[cando]

The official SA Govt records were compiled from local church records, despatched on an adhoc basis to Adelaide.

Your statement is not quite accurate.  I usually link this interesting article but find that many don't bother to read links.  There is also a book about the  SA BDM's and its inherent problems in South Australia but unfortunately long out of print.  I hope you find the following interesting and informative.

In July 1842 the colony was effectively divided into two District Registries based on Port Lincoln and Adelaide headed by District Registrars answerable to the Principal Registrar in Adelaide. Every 6 months the District Registrar had to file a copy of his certificates with the Principal Registrar. All people living outside the defined areas had to make their way to the nearest Deputy Registrar.
Parents were compelled to register births within 6 weeks or face a £10 fine. Some late registrations had their birth dates adjusted to comply with this requirement and avoid the fine, while other just failed to register. Some groups in the community and especially Catholics and Scots were reticent to register births.
The responsibility for reporting marriages lay with the celebrants who had to supply a return to the District Registrar every quarter.

At the peak of the system there were 22 districts.  Within each district, agents were set up to service local areas. They were local people of some repute, such as a postal officer, a police officer or a landowner. Their task was to pass on notification to the District Registrar who in turn created two certificates, one of which was retained and the other forwarded to the Principal Registrar as the official record. There are a considerable number of known differences between the two certificates.

There were many opportunities for events to be not registered or the registration to be lost in the chain of reporting.

Cheers 
Cando

[mcgesc]

I read your blue text refers to reporting mechanism, as it was designed to work.
Humans are human; and droughts, floods and sickness and staff-changes will foul any system from time to time.

Given (your quote) "All people living outside the defined areas had to make their way to the nearest Deputy Registrar." the adhoc basis is supported.

Your statement "Some groups in the community and especially Catholics and Scots were reticent to register births" is interesting. Do you have firm evidence?

[majm]

Your statement "Some groups in the community and especially Catholics and Scots were reticent to register births" is interesting. Do you have firm evidence?

I cannot speak for Sth Australia's citizens, but I can definitely confirm that there were very serious issues along those lines in the colony of New South Wales.    It revolved around civil laws and if they were trying to impose secular rules as superior to Church Laws....   In NSW the debates raged in NSW Parliament for decades....   One of the signifant issues for family history buffs is that in NSW BDM records, there are many records where only part of the information was sent through to the Registrar General's office....  NSW Reg Gen's office established for BDM 1856.   Not until 1912 did the NSW BDM Reg Gen even start to get their 'house in order' re marriage registrations covering 1856-1895.  They have not ever completed that task.     I see no reason to suspect that the issues in the 1840s for South Australia would be any different from the issues for the 1840s NSW in the debates for Church v State. 
 

Cheers,  JM