liberating lives: invisible australians and biographical networks
DESCRIPTION
Presented at the 'Life of Information' symposium, ANU, Canberra, 24 September 2010.TRANSCRIPT
Liberating livesInvisible Australians and biographical networks
www.invisibleaustralians.org
Tim Sherratt@wragge
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Charlie Allen was born in Sydney in 1896.
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His mother was Frances Allen (sometime sweet shop owner and brothel keeper), his father Charlie Gum (a buyer for Wing On company).
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Charlie was raised by his mother, but in 1909, at the age of 13, he was taken to China by his father.
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His father returned to Sydney, leaving Charlie in China. He lived with relatives in the town of Shekki (inland from Hong Kong) for 6 years.
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Charlie was homesick, but had no means of getting back to Australia. His mother attempted to enlist government help but to no avail. Charlie finally returned in 1915.
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The following year Charlie enlisted in First AIF (well actually he enlisted three times, and was discharged as medically unfit each time).
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Charlie married in Sydney in 1917 and had two daughters soon after. He returned to China in 1922 for 7 months.
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Charlie Allen died in 1938 as the result of an industrial accident. He was 41.
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How do we know about Charlie Allen?
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NAA: ST84/1, 1909/22/41-50
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NAA: ST84/1, 1909/22/41-50
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NAA: A1, 1911/13854
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NAA: B2455, ALLEN C A
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NAA: SP42/1, C1922/4449
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NAA: ST84/1, 1909/22/41-50
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Between 1901 and 1911, 400 circulars were issued to port officers about immigration restriction.
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The confidential manual on immigration restriction grew from one page in 1902 to more than 200 in 1912.
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For the years between 1902 and 1948 there remain:
● More than 50,000 CEDTs● 90 shelf metres of records● 15,000 case files
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What changes when we examine the world through the collected fragments of knowledge that we can recover about a single person, reorganised as a biographical narrative, rather than as part of an archival system?
– Tim Hitchcock
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http://www.invisibleaustralians.org
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NAA: ST84/1, 1909/22/41-50
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● Crowdsourced data extraction● 50,000+ CEDTs● Other files● Match identities● Eeek!
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Pauline Ah Hee, 1906.NAA: ST84/1, 1906/111-120
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Pauline Ah Hee, 1906. NAA: ST84/1, 1906/111-120
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Choy Hing family including their adopted daughter, Pauline Ah Hee, 1906. NAA: SP244/2, N1950/2/4918
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Pauline Ah Hee, 1906. NAA: SP244/2, N1950/2/4918
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Pauline Ah Hee, 1921. NAA: SP244/2, N1950/2/4918
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Pauline Ah Hee, 1926. NAA: SP244/2, N1950/2/4918
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Pauline Ah Hee, c. 1950. NAA: A659, 1950/1/1954
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Pauline Ah Hee
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Shadee Khan, 1916. NAA: E752, 1916/8
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Shadee Khan, 1916. NAA: E752, 1916/8
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Shadee Khan, 1921. NAA: E752, 1921/21
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Shadee Khan, 1925. NAA: E752, 1925/7
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Shadee Khan
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Pauline Ah Hee
Shadee Khan
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Use URLs to identify things in the real world
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This is me:http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-479364#foaf:Person
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Wragge’s identity browserwraggelabs.com/identities
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The Flickr Machine Tag Challengewraggelabs.com/fmtc/
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● Make links● Give advice● Create tools & examples● Help!
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