Monday 9 December 2013

I love Trove, but sometimes ......

I don't know of one genie out there who doesn't love Trove for newspaper searches related to our ancestors, but sometimes, no matter how well we fill in the search fields the article we know is there just won't show up. This was the case for my gg-grandmother, Ada MORRANT (1864 - 1913). I'll write her story another day, as it's quite a doozy. 

I was searching for any kind of death notice in the paper for her,  so I was typing my fingers down to stubs on Trove, looking for her using a name-based search. Nothing. I tried variations on the spelling of her married name, Barrett, as well as her own name, Morrant - still nothing. I KNEW it was in a newspaper because I'd found it on the wonderful Ryerson Index, another resource us Aussies are lucky to have at our disposal.

Ryerson Index result for Ada Barrett's funeral notice

Luckily, there is more than one way to skin a cat (apologies to cat lovers). Instead of searching using Ada's name, I searched as if I was reading an actual paper edition of the Sydney Morning Herald for 27 December 1913, and virtually turned each page until I got to the Funeral Notices. And there she was. 4 times! How Trove didn't OCR these entries correctly I'll never know, but at least Ada was there, and well loved by her children and friends judging by the notices.


Sydney Morning Herald funeral notices 27 Dec 1913
So even though I've had a whinge about Trove in the past here, still 

4 comments:

  1. I find I often have to do this with Ryerson references because the OCR hasn't correctly recognised the words in the newspapers.

    I have a personal policy of correcting the text of the notice when I find it as well as the notices above and below the one I have sought. If I have more time on my hands I will correct a few more.

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    1. Thanks Jill. I'll go back & see if I can correct the text so it can be recognised in a search. A little project for the public holidays coming up.

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  2. I use TROVE a lot too and besides correcting what I am researching, I tag the article with the names of everyone mentioned. That way it may be easier for others to find them. Nan

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    1. Hi Nan, yes that's a great idea, thanks. Must do that myself :)

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