"Stand" is a term used in shearing. It is the area in which one man shears his sheep . A shearing shed can consist of either one stand or many more . The way of describing a shearing shed is something like this " It is a ten Stand shed", meaning that it has ten stands for ten shearers to shear sheep. I do not know if this is the terminology applying to your letter. wsymonds@bigpond.net.au www.users.bigpond.com/bill_symo.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: "Karen" <karens@optushome.com.au> To: <AUS-NSW-WEST-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 6:34 PM Subject: [NSW-W] Terminology - whats a stand? > In our family research we have uncovered a letter written by my grandfather > to his son in Queensland. > My grandfather lived and worked on properties in and around Nyngan from 1892 > until 1930. > In the letter he mentions the need to "stand" one of his sons to get work. > Does anyone know what a stand was / is? > It sounds like some sort of surety? bond? or maybe to purchase gear to work? > The actual wording is........ > "Tomy is not doing anything at all, I have no money to stand him again, if I > could get one pound it would do to make another stand" > To put it into context - they had come from Nyngan to Sydney as there was > obviously no work in Nyngan for them. This was June 1930, the middle of the > depression and they had no money, the only person in the family working was > a 12 year old son who was earning a "few bob a day" In the letter they are > making plans for the older boys to make their way to Bendigo to look for > gold. It never happened, my grandfather died a few months after the letter > was written and Tomy was killed in a horse accident 6 months later. > Any thoughts? > > Many thanks > Karen > > > ==== AUS-NSW-WEST Mailing List ==== > Have you registered your surnames on the NSW-WEST home page??? Go to http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~surreal/NSWW/ and from there to Surnames for further details. >