Experts In Genealogy

DIVORCE IN THE 19TH CENTURY DIVORCE - 1896 Leonard Shelford BIDWELL vs Susannah BIDWELL nee WARBURTON I didn't know a lot about my 2 X great grandfather or great grandmother.  But after a few years I became curious and started searching for information.  Now remember, this was way before the internet and in libraries and research rooms, it wasn't a simple 'push' of the button to find this information.  So I hunted and hunted and eventually found a Divorce Index, which I curiously looked at.  I had no idea, that they had divorced.  In fact, it wasn't that common for people to divorce, one of the reasons given, was because of the expense involved. So I needed to investigate more about the Divorce of the Bidwells. But I couldn't discover any more information other than the Divorce Index.  Susannah BIDWELL nee WARBURTON The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 in England gave men the opportunity to divorce their wife if the wife had committed adu...

Scientific How to Make a Phonograph. By Shelford Bidwell, M.A., LL.B.    I SHALL assume that readers are acquainted with the nature  and principle of the instrument.  The most important part of it is the cylinder. This, in  my phonograph, is a hollow brass casting, 4 1/2 inches long  and 4 1/2 inches in diameter. It is mounted upon an iron  spindle, 3/4 inch in diameter and 16 inches long, at one end  of which is a winch handle. Upon that part of the spindle  which lies between the handle and the cylinder a screw is  cut, having eight threads to the inch. The other end of  the spindle is left plain. The cylinder having been turned  perfectly true, a screw is cut upon its surface of exactly the same pitch as the screw upon the spindle — i.e., eight threads  to the inch. Tbe depth of the spiral groove thus formed is  1-16 inch, and its breadth is 1-16 inch. It is better to cut  it square, and not V -...

William Lockart Morton's Carrum Swamp Drainage Scheme In the early days of settlement in Victoria, there were large pockets of land that were swamplands.  They could not be used for grazing, except in the summer time.  In the winter, with the rain, there was a boggy wet mass of land. The Government of Victoria, set up a Swamp Commission to look into the reclamation of these areas. This is part of that time and in particular, the story of the Carrum Carrum Swamp. Carrum Carrum Swamp There was a pocket of water that extended from an area around the Mordialloc Creek all the way down to Frankston and extended as far east as Dandenong.  For people to get to Frankston they had to travel around this big wet area, which added considerable time to their journey. In a newspaper column, appears some scant information about the commission underway to decide how to treat the flooding that prevented the land to be used to it's best purpose:  "From an advert...