Liberating lives: Invisible Australians and biographical networks

Liberating livesInvisible Australians and biographical networks

www.invisibleaustralians.org

Tim Sherratt@wragge



Charlie Allen was born in Sydney in 1896.


His mother was Frances Allen (sometime sweet shop owner and brothel keeper), his father Charlie Gum (a buyer for Wing On company).


Charlie was raised by his mother, but in 1909, at the age of 13, he was taken to China by his father.


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.


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.


The following year Charlie enlisted in First AIF (well actually he enlisted three times, and was discharged as medically unfit each time).


Charlie married in Sydney in 1917 and had two daughters soon after. He returned to China in 1922 for 7 months.


Charlie Allen died in 1938 as the result of an industrial accident. He was 41.


How do we know about Charlie Allen?


NAA: ST84/1, 1909/22/41-50


NAA: ST84/1, 1909/22/41-50


NAA: A1, 1911/13854


NAA: B2455, ALLEN C A


NAA: SP42/1, C1922/4449


NAA: ST84/1, 1909/22/41-50


Between 1901 and 1911, 400 circulars were issued to port officers about immigration restriction.


The confidential manual on immigration restriction grew from one page in 1902 to more than 200 in 1912.


For the years between 1902 and 1948 there remain:

● More than 50,000 CEDTs● 90 shelf metres of records● 15,000 case files


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


http://www.invisibleaustralians.org

http://www.invisibleaustralians.org/


NAA: ST84/1, 1909/22/41-50


● Crowdsourced data extraction● 50,000+ CEDTs● Other files● Match identities● Eeek!




Pauline Ah Hee, 1906.NAA: ST84/1, 1906/111-120


Pauline Ah Hee, 1906. NAA: ST84/1, 1906/111-120


Choy Hing family including their adopted daughter, Pauline Ah Hee, 1906. NAA: SP244/2, N1950/2/4918


Pauline Ah Hee, 1906. NAA: SP244/2, N1950/2/4918






Pauline Ah Hee, c. 1950. NAA: A659, 1950/1/1954


Pauline Ah Hee


Shadee Khan, 1916. NAA: E752, 1916/8


Shadee Khan, 1916. NAA: E752, 1916/8


Shadee Khan, 1921. NAA: E752, 1921/21


Shadee Khan, 1925. NAA: E752, 1925/7


Shadee Khan


Pauline Ah Hee

Shadee Khan



History walldefining.net.au/wall

http://www.defining.net.au/wall


Use URLs to identify things in the real world


This is me:http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-479364#foaf:Person

http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-479364#foaf:Person


Wragge’s identity browserwraggelabs.com/identities

http://wraggelabs.com/identities/


The Flickr Machine Tag Challengewraggelabs.com/fmtc/

http://wraggelabs.com/fmtc/



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Liberating lives: Invisible Australians and biographical networks