At 06:01 24-11-05, Janine Dale wrote: >To add to the inquest discussion, I have a death cert for a g g >grandfather who died at Axedale 1884. The cert states there was an >inquest into his death. >This inquest also does not appear on my Vic inquest cd. It appears >the index has many missing entries. <snip> Hello Listers, The inquest index was a transcription from original departmental indexes which originals had all the ommissions and errors of any index. When I was working on the Supreme Court Equity Case Files, Because I had to sort a dreadful mess of mixed up and broken files, I sought the Supreme Court indexes available and compared what I found in the files with the few surviving indexes which had a partial coverage of the cases. I found, from a so-called complete file for one part of the files, the so-called "Miscellaneous Files", many discrepancies.In comparing the first 4,000 files in that series: 340+ files not included in the original index 47 completely mis-transcribed surname titles (not even lateral thinking would have helped here) 30 indexed under the wrong file number (number ommissions and duplicate numbers) and other minor difficulties. These were found by a physical examination of each file, cross-referencing case numbers, surnames, dates, etc from my listing with the official listing. INQUESTS: The same has been found by the lass who did the original combined departmental inquest index which has been available on microfiche. Last year she was doing for the inquest files what I had been doing for ten years with the 12,000 Equity case files. I sat next to her on many occasions, and she was working through the mis-transcribed names, the files ommitted from the original departmental indexes, the "cause of death" ommitted from the original indexes, etc. I believe, when she has finished (a BIG job) the index will be re-issued and brought up to date. An enquiry to MacBeth's Genealogical publishers might be able to suggest a date for this, though Marge had been working on it once a week for a full day in 2004, I have not been at my usual place at the VPRO in 2005, and my own work has been "on hold". Hence I have lost touch with progress. regards, Ada Ackerly, Melbourne, Australia formerly Ackerly DocuSearch -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.7/180 - Release Date: 23-11-05

Ada I was not trying to be critical of those who volunteer their services to help us. I bet there have been a lot of records gone missing or overlooked or whatever mainly because of the way records were kept in the past, or literacy problems (hence the spelling thing). I for one am very grateful to anyone who takes on a project of whatever proportions to make life a bit easier. When I started to trace my family some 30 years ago we did not even have microfiche, no indexes just guess work on approx death dates and pay a fortune for a search for the certificate or trudging through newspapers and graveyards. So much work has been done since and I don't think many realise how easy we have it now. So if anyone does have a project check that no one has done it or started it then go for it. There are many grateful long distant genealogists. Carmel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ada Ackerly" <aackers@alphalink.com.au> To: <AUS-VIC-GOLDFIELDS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005 10:03 AM Subject: Re: inquests > At 06:01 24-11-05, Janine Dale wrote: > >>To add to the inquest discussion, I have a death cert for a g g >>grandfather who died at Axedale 1884. The cert states there was an inquest >>into his death. >>This inquest also does not appear on my Vic inquest cd. It appears the >>index has many missing entries. > > <snip> > > Hello Listers, > > The inquest index was a transcription from original departmental indexes > which originals had all the ommissions and errors of any index. > > When I was working on the Supreme Court Equity Case Files, Because I had > to sort a dreadful mess of mixed up and broken files, I sought the Supreme > Court indexes available and compared what I found in the files with the > few surviving indexes which had a partial coverage of the cases. > > I found, from a so-called complete file for one part of the files, the > so-called "Miscellaneous Files", many discrepancies.In comparing the > first 4,000 files in that series: > > 340+ files not included in the original index > 47 completely mis-transcribed surname titles (not even lateral thinking > would have helped here) > 30 indexed under the wrong file number > (number ommissions and duplicate numbers) > and other minor difficulties. > > These were found by a physical examination of each file, cross-referencing > case numbers, surnames, dates, etc from my listing with the official > listing. > > INQUESTS: > > The same has been found by the lass who did the original combined > departmental inquest index which has been available on microfiche. > > Last year she was doing for the inquest files what I had been doing for > ten years with the 12,000 Equity case files. > > I sat next to her on many occasions, and she was working through the > mis-transcribed names, the files ommitted from the original departmental > indexes, the "cause of death" ommitted from the original indexes, etc. > > I believe, when she has finished (a BIG job) the index will be re-issued > and brought up to date. An enquiry to MacBeth's Genealogical publishers > might be able to suggest a date for this, though Marge had been working on > it once a week for a full day in 2004, I have not been at my usual place > at the VPRO in 2005, and my own work has been "on hold". Hence I have lost > touch with progress. > > > > regards, > Ada Ackerly, Melbourne, Australia > formerly Ackerly DocuSearch > > > > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.7/180 - Release Date: 23-11-05 > > > > ==== AUS-VIC-GOLDFIELDS Mailing List ==== > The mailing list for the golden triangle of Ballarat, Bendigo and > Maryborough VICTORIA > >

Dear Listers, You might like to take into consideration (found in my experience) that sometimes when a death occured days after an accident, the doctor knowing why his patient died just recorded the death, and no inquest or magisterial inquiry was held. Also after fruitless search through inquests just in case it had been misfiled in a box I was told by the PRO that when court cases were held the inquest papers were often filed with the court files and never allocated a number. Regards, Mary of Melbourne