Where Did They Live?

When we research our ancestors, we look at the certificates and see an address but what does it tell us?  Sometimes useful information, sometimes, not.  It doesn't tell us what the buiding was like, how many rooms, how much it was worth or who owned it. Interesting information, that would make that address more 'real' to us.

With the advent of Google Street View, we can often see the street or house mentioned and this gives us something tangable, for our research but that is now, not back then.

These past couple of weeks, I have been searching the City of Sydney, Rate Assessment Books and finding descriptions of some of the places my ancestors called home.

(link to the City of Sydney website https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/   look under the Learn tab)

Now my great-grandmother, Isabella Mary Ann Jasper, nee Vaughan, was born in the Domain Terrace, in 1847. The Domain Terrace is still in use, today, it runs between the Mitchell Library and the State Library of NSW. Back in 1847 this was a row of terrace houses, facing the Domain. Searching for just this address, I found that they were brick and shingled buildings, of two floors, with four rooms, valued at 20pound and owned or managed by William Webb.

Domain Terrace, today.

Isabella married August Jasper, in 1884 and they moved several times, before I found them, in 1911.

This time they were living at 112 Denison Street Camperdown. The description is a brick building, with a slate roof, two floors and five rooms, valued at 28pound. The owner was Edward Porter. They were still there in 1914 but there were now six rooms and valued is valued at 31pound.

The rate books have given me a peak into the past, to 'see' who they lived and worked and has made my research just that much more interesting.

Bye for now,

Lilian.