Help with Australia searches please (NSW and Queensland)

[KiteRunner]

If there's anyone who's good at thinking up possible mistranscriptions / name variants, please - one search skill that I don't have enough practice at but it seems to be needed for these databases:

Ethel E M Bristowe, mother Adelaide, death listed 1896 in Broken Hill district, NSW but I can't find her birth. Since there is no father's name given, I would think her mother was Adelaide A L Bristow who was born 1856 Braidwood, NSW.


William C Bristowe born 1865 Liverpool, NSW, parents Henry and Adelaide. Can't find his death before 1903 but I think he must have died before then as his father's obituary says he (the father) left 2 sons and I already know of two who survived him.

And any children of Frederick Louis Thornton Bristow and Ellen Mary Hoare who married in 1878 in Queensland. I found a death for an Isabel Vernon Bristow in 1884 but no birth, and there are two women with the family on later electoral rolls who I think must be daughters - Amelia Mary and Adelaide Ellen.

NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages - Historical Index Search

https://www.bdm.qld.gov.au/IndexSearch/BirIndexQry.m
Any help much appreciated.

[Mary from Italy]

These are presumably William's parents:

V1852668 80/1852 BRISTOW HENRY B GOERTZ ADELAIDE E V JA
V18521327 73B/1852 BRISTOW HENRY B GOERTZ ADELAIDE E V JA

[KiteRunner]

Yes, Mary, sorry I didn't explain properly - I have already got most of the entries for this family but it's just those ones I put in bold that I can't find - Ethel's birth, William's death and births of any children to Frederick and Ellen.

[Mary from Italy]

Possible death for William? (bit of a long shot)

15076/1916 BRISTON WILLIAM T HENRY MARY A GRETA

Can't see a marriage for a Henry Brist* to a Mary in NSW.

[KiteRunner]

I think I've seen a few of those Henry and Mary A ones, so probably not him but thanks for trying! I only realised there could be mistranscriptions on there a day or two ago when I found Henry's second marriage listed under Brislow, and I'm more used to using soundex or wildcards than trying to think of every possible variant and mistranscription!

[Mary from Italy]

I have occasionally found people in NSW with a death but no birth - maybe children who died in infancy and no-one remembered to register the birth? I have also heard that some old church records have never made it to the online index.

[Mary from Italy]

You can use wildcards, although it slows down the searches a lot.

There aren't an awful lot of mistranscriptions in that index, but some are inevitable.

[Mary from Italy]

Qld births:

1878/C4730 / Bristow Adelaide Ellen / Frederick Louis Thornton / Ellen Mary Quaide

1881/C5483 / Bristowe Amelia Mary / Frederick Louis Thornton / Ellen Mary Quaid

1883/C6738 / Bristow Isabel Vernon / Frederick Louis Thornton / Ellen Mary Quaid

1886/C8396 / Bristow Henry William James / Frederick Lewis Thornton / Ellen Mary Quaid

[Mary from Italy]

Qld marriages:

1864/C376 / Hoare Charles / Quaid Ellen Mary

1878/C741 / Bristow Frederick Louis Thornton / Hoare Ellen Mary

[Harrys mum]

Definitely the same Ellen Mary.

She married Charles Hoare 1864 and Charles died 1871.

Ellen died 1906.

[KiteRunner]

Ooh, thanks a lot for those, Mary and Libby. Brilliant.

Mary, when you say you can use wildcards, do you mean in the NSW index or the Queensland one, please? I couldn't find anything in the help for the NSW one about it.

[Harrys mum]

I found five children for Ellen and Charles as well. Yell if you want them.

[Mary from Italy]

You can use asterisks in the NSW index - I often do. It slows things down a lot, but it works.

Some Australian indexes (such as NSW State Records) use the % character as a wildcard.

However, neither * nor % seems to work with the Qld index.

[KiteRunner]

Thanks for that info, Mary. I'd tried the % assuming that if wildcards were allowed that would be it, and when that didn't work I looked at the help and it didn't mention wildcards in there. Anyway, I've found some info someone sent me which says William C died at sea, so that probably explains why I couldn't find his death.

Thanks, Libby, but it's the Bristows who are my relatives so I don't need the Hoare family. But thanks for looking!

[KiteRunner]

Dur- I've just found out that you can put an asterisk in the surname field with no letters in there to search all surnames! Why did I never know that before?!

[Mary from Italy]

Sorry, I didn't think to mention that