by Dorothy Wickham
Problems associated with tracing gold miners:
If you think your ancestor was a gold miner in the Central Highlands area and you cannot trace him, consider the following suggestions:
Check all church and school records even if the records do not belong to the supposed religion of the family. I have found that parents did not automatically send their children to a school of the family's religious denomination rather children often attended the nearest school or the school considered best for their children's education.
1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition
www.statelibrary.vic.dgov.au/slv_/exhibitions/goldfields/petition/pet_name.htm
The 1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition was presented to the State Library of Victoria by Melbourne collector Dr John Chapman in 1988. At 13 metres in length and bound in green silk, the Petition is considered to be in remarkably fine condition. The Petition, of over 5000 signatures, was long thought lost. Its discovery is of particular value to historians and genealogists investigating the history of social and political events during the period of gold discovery in Victoria.