A member of the research community suggested it would be a good idea to have a register so that different people weren’t working on correcting the same title. I think this is a great idea!
Over the next few weeks I will be working to implement a proper register, as well as the capacity for the website to indicate which titles have been corrected.
For now, if you would like to register your focus on a particular title, please enter the following details in the comments section below. Thanks!
Title ID #
Title
Author
Newspaper
This is where you can register a title to work on.
Title ID # 185510009
Title: His Last Chance
Author: Nat Gould
Newspaper: Brisbane Telegraph
Title ID: #185510009
Title: His Last Chance
Author: Nat Gould
Newspaper: The Telegraph/The Week [Brisbane]
Title ID # 160105109 and following chapters
Title: Sowing the Wind
Author: Sweetapple, Anna Mapleson
Newspaper: Adelaide Observer
Chapters 1-6 corrected so far.
I wonder how many Australian authors of the time set their work in the UK/Europe?
Quite a lot I think, though the reverse also occurred. Of the 19th century Australian authors we’ve identified, in about 10% of publications the title appears to originate in Britain (i.e. it’s called a “Tale of British heroism” or prominently describes British scenes with a first person narrator).
Very interesting! I’ve done Chapters 1-11 now, but hit a gap of 7 missing chapters. Have to read the next set of instructions.
Can’t handle the suspense! (or the number of exclamation marks!!)
Fingers crossed those instalments are digitised or you might end with an unintended cliffhanger!!! !!!
I’ve now completed this title. So many questions about Helen’s inability to make a single good life choice; everyone’s inability to have meaningful conversation about any of their problems; and their propensity to lengthy fevers on the receipt of bad news.
Title ID # 15065
Title: Mistaken Identity. A South Australian Novelette
Author: Reynolds, Charles
Newspaper: South Australian Chronicle
This is a full story of five chapters published in one issue 1891.
Title ID #5735
Title: Half a Century Ago
Author: John Nottage
Newspaper: Launceston Examiner
Chapter One – Over their cups of tea
Chapter Two – Firwood and its inmates
Story set in London so far. Twenty chapters altogether, although Chapter 4 appears to be missing at the moment.
Title ID #5735
Title: Half as Century Ago
Author: John Nottage
Newspaper: Launceston Examiner 1880
Completed two more chapters. I found chapter 4 and was able to add it to the database. I am now quite interested in the story so I will keep working on it.
Yes! One of the more prolific of the new novelists discovered! Glad you found and were able to add the chapter and I hope you keep enjoying the story
I would like to edit Recollections of a Pioneer by Captain Underwood published in the South Australian Advertiser
Title ID # 44061101
Title: How I Came to Australia
Author: Sweetapple, Anna Mapleson
Newspaper: Barrier Miner 1890
Beginning Chapter One -A Headstrong Girl
Hope to continue
Title ID #: 204
Title: A Doctor’s Story
Author: Unattributed, unknown
Newspaper: The West Australian, 1981-06-20
Title ID 17
Title: Lost in the Winning
Author: “Dramingo” – Favenc, Ernest
Newspaper: The Queenslander (Brisbane 1866-1939)
Serialised: 1879-08-16 – 1880-01-17
I have so far edited Chapters I – XII. The story is written from the point of view of a pet Magpie living with a Brisbane family but also features a mystery in outback Queensland.
That sounds very interesting!
Title ID # 63610683
Title A double Dealer
Author Rice Farly (or Farley)
Newspaper Illustrated Sydney News 1890-04-03
Title ID 91533005
Title A Fatal Affinity
Author Stuart C Cumberland
Newspaper South Australian Chronicle 1889
Title ID #64160333 and onward (hopefully)
Title A Theatrical Marriage
Author Bruce Elder
Newspaper Traralgon Record
Just starting this process today. Wish me luck!
Sorry, author is Elder Bruce.
I’m loving this process and having so much fun!
I have a question about the editing and am not sure if this is the forum in which to do it?
I’m editing a story from the Traralgon Record. There was a significant patch of text where the writing was not discernible, so I went to the other version in the Morwell Advertiser to fill in the gaps and made a note of this in the comments. Is that what I should have done (I’ve also done it with the odd line when it appears as though there is a crease in the paper!)?
Thanks
Emily
Hi Emily. I’m glad you’re enjoying it! If you meant that you made the comments in the Trove database then that’s correct, though if you integrated them into the To be continued database that’s also fine. I’m glad you were able to find an alternative version so you weren’t left hanging without knowing the end of the story! Best wishes, Katherine
I have now finished A Theatrical Marriage. What a drama!
I’ll now work on:
Title ID #149478601,14947715, 149481848
Title: Ruby
Author: Alberta L. Fenton
Newspaper Daily Telegraph, Launceston
I’ve finished Ruby now.
Both titles would fit in to the Romantic genre.
Ruby was awarded a prize for a native Tasmanian under 21.
I’m not sure what other information is useful, but happy to provide anything that might help.
I really enjoyed reading your newsletter yesterday.
Thank you
Emily
Thanks Emily – for letting me know about the title and for your comment on the newsletter. I’m working to make space for members of the community to add those sorts of comments to the titles they read/correct – i.e. that it was prize winning and a romance story. In our records we’ve already noted the prize (press on “view title” when you’re looking at the different chapters) but I’ll add that it’s a romance story. Thanks again!
My next project is:
Title ID #162340158 onwards
Title: Thistledown
Author: Esther Hackney
Newspaper: Adelaide Observer
Thistledown was also a romantic novel, but this time set in England (the other two: “A Theatrical Marriage” and “Ruby” were both set in Australia).
I’m now moving on to
Title ID # 117026075, onward (Chapter two’s id is 117020864)
Title Plot and Counter Plot. In Two Parts
Author Rice Farley
Newspaper Evening News Sydney
I’m not sure what do do as the first chapter is showing as chapter 3 in your data base (ie. it is showing in non-sequential order). I’ll edit as is, but thought you should know.
Thanks
Emily
Hi Emily. Thanks for this news on what you’ve been editing! The ordering of the chapters is an issue that I have on my to do list for a FAQ post. We’ve had a bit of trouble working out how to integrate Roman and Arabic numerals and the system gets confused when there’s a mix (e.g. II.5 or 3.III). I’ve edited the initial chapter headings so they’re all in Arabic numerals, which always orders properly, but if there’s no other parts you could just remove the 1. from the first three and revert to Roman numbering (I, II, III). Thanks again for your editing!
Thanks Katherine for that information.
My next story will be:
Title ID #61245441
Title: Neuroomia: A New Continent
Author: Eucalyptus
Newspaper: Clarence and Richmond Examiner (Grafton, NSW).
For something completely different I’m now working on
Title ID: 174633246
Title: The Three Programmes or The Great Divorce Case”
Author: Luke Smyley.
Seems very modern so far!
I also noticed that where words are split at the end of lines (i.e. with a hyphen) they have already been joined in Trove. This wasn’t the case with the last text I did.
e.g.
co-
incidence
has already been put on one line as
coincidence
Have you changed the preprocessing?
In this text there is a chapter (Chapter 1 – The Husband’s Story) that hasn’t been separated off from the first chapter. Not sure what to do about this?
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/174633246#
Chapter III is also attached to Chapter II and needs to be separated
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/174633269#
The zoning of articles is set by the digitisation process and sometimes they separate chapters and sometimes not. If you find an article with more than one chapter you can do I-II then III-IV or I, II, III, IV then IV, V (because sometimes the same chapter will appear on more than one date). It’s on my to do list to have a FAQ for this.
Likewise Chapter V is connected to Chapter IV
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/174633302#
Yes, we changed the text preprocessing. Might produce errors in hyphenated words but will remove a lot of the unnecessary hyphens.
Looks good so far!
I’ve finished this one – fascinating reading about divorce in the 1870s! Enjoyable read even if the ending was a bit weak. Also, learned a new concept: “eye dialect”, which I hadn’t come across before.
Neuroomia: A New Continent!!! So many questions! I’d be fascinated to know why the author used a pseudonym (and why ‘Eucalyptus’), whether the author was male or female, they obvious had a background in foreign languages. It was an adventure story and it became political too, then of course romance had to be included (in a very clunky way), then it was suddenly all over!
My next story will be:
Title ID #60431182 onward
Title: Dingo Creek: A Christmas Tale of the Yarra Track
Author: Echo
Newspaper: Evelyn Observer, and South and East Bourke Record
Thanks! I’m afraid I don’t know who Eucalyptus was. There are lots of mysterious pseudonyms in 19th century newspapers.
I have now finished Dingo Creek and will now edit:
Title ID # 63334781 onwards
Title: Olive Vanstone
Author: Edith
Newspaper: Illustrated Sydney News and NSW Agriculturalist and Grazier
Olive Vanstone was a romance.
My next story will be:
Title ID #92298884
Title: From Shadow Land; or A Traveller Returned
Author: Mrs. Julia S. Harris
Newspaper: South Australian Chronicle
From Shadowland was a ghost story, which made a nice change.
Now I’ll move on to:
Title ID # 64512524 (which I added) onwards
Title: Adventures and Observations in Australia
Author: Alister MacAlister
Newspaper: Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser
Just starting “The Pity of it: A Sydney Story” by Ambrose Thorne, published in the Sunday Times in 1896.
No idea what it is about, but I was intrigued by the title which seems so apt!
Title ID 3201
Christmas at the Traveller’s Rest
W. H. Trail
Queenslander
Mostly done. My eyes got a bit crossed hand-entering 3.5 columns of the story which weren’t scanned.
Hi Katherine
I’ve spend a great deal of time on chapter XVI of Adventures and Observations in Australia. The text reproduction is REALLY hard to read so I have included lots of ??? where I just could not fathom what was written. Hopefully the next chapter will be easier.
I think you asked about descriptions of aborigines at some point?? There are some interesting descriptions in chapterIX of this story.
Thanks Emily! Sorry to hear the quality of the newsprint is so bad but I’ll look forward to reading that chapter.
Just found another brief aborginal mention in Ch XVIII.
TitleID: #234541168
No Easy Way
Naomi Jacob
Smith’s Weekly
Title ID # 111526402
Title: Western Homes, A Love Story, Under Fictitious Names
Author: An Australian Born Lady
Newspaper: The Herald (Fremantle, WA)
Hi Katherine,
I’m not sure if we’re still using this as a communication tool and/or if you are still looking for references to aborigines?
However, I thought I’d let you know there’s a description (a bit randomly) of a corroboree in the final chapter of the above story.
One woman was distressed by the aborigines’ “degraded state”, but other descriptions included: “despicable creatures” and “the very lowest grade of mankind”.
Quite incredible!
I hope this is useful to you.
Hi Emily, Thanks! Sad to read but interesting to know. Thanks for your editing! Katherine
Title ID # 63621343
Title: An Australian Tale of a Perfected Phonograph
Author: Edward Bevan
Newspaper: Illustrated Sydney News
Hi Katherine, loved your keynote at the IPEd Conference!
I’m going to attempt correcting Anna Mapleson Sweetapple’s short stories set in Australia, beginning with:
Title ID #44061101
Title – How I Came To Australia
Author – Anna Mapleson Sweetapple (Silver Wattle)
Newspaper – Barrier Miner
Hi Saira, Thanks so much! I hope you enjoy the story (:
I’m currently editing the stories of the Bush Naturalist in the Queenslander: “The Bush Parson & the Great Flood” is done – all sorts of incidental excursions into geography and flora and fauna and bush and survival skills, as well as glimpses into the social hierarchies in the days of the Squatters. I’m now in the middle chapters of “Old Lllewellan”, lost in the desert but suddenly off on a tangent to find all about the ‘lowan’ (mallee fowl) and its nesting habits!
Discovered your site through the IF conference, after using Trove for family history, so thought I’d contribute to something a bit bigger. Fascinating stuff.
Hi Sharon, Thanks so much for your work on the project! Quite a few of the stories I’ve read and edited have multiplying tangents as authors – maybe trying to keep up their word count for the week – add in interesting details and subplots. I hope they make it out of the desert ok.