Reading the list of newspapers waiting to be released by the NLA’s Trove, I noticed the Port Fairy Gazette would not be far away. Out of interest, I ran a search for “Port Fairy” and bingo many “coming soon” articles came up. As my Harman and Bishop families lived in Port Fairy at various times, I went straight for a search on “Harman”. Eleven matches came up with nine relevant to my Harmans. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw one of the article previews:
“Mr James Harman, Byaduk, aged 85, died last week. He landed in Port Fairy in 1853 and…..”
It looked like it could be my ggg grandfathers obituary. I search for his obituary every time Trove releases a new paper. To date all I have found is the following snippet from The Argus:

COUNTRY NEWS. (1916, August 22). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1956), p. 8. Retrieved August 29, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1630566
Brothers Walt, George and Jonathan all had lengthy obituaries why not my ggg grandfather. Even the shadow dweller, brother Alfred had a Family Notice when he died!. It did seem that my only chance was to search the microfilmed Hamilton Spectators at the Hamilton History Centre . The hard part about that is getting to Hamilton.
Trove’s release of the Port Fairy Gazette (1914-1918) happened today and yes, the much-anticipated article was available. I clicked on the link. This is it, I thought. What did I find?

Personal. (1916, August 24). Port Fairy Gazette (Vic. : 1914 – 1918), p. 2 Edition: EVENING.. Retrieved August 29, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88010281
Twelve more words than the preview. Only 12 words. How can I expect any more in The Hamilton Spectator? How I can ever expect to find any mention of the death of my ggg grandmother Susan Read, wife of James, who died in the same year?
On the bright side I found a couple of good Bishop related articles and a nice article about my gg uncle Charles James Harman prior to his departure for Egypt during WW1. So far, only 1916 is available but based on the results so far, I think I’m bound to find more when the other years become available.
It was a big day for Trove today with 13Victorian titles released and another Western District paper, the Portland Observer and Normanby Advertiser (1914-1918) was among them.
Also of interest to me are the Flemington Spectator (1914-1918) and the Wangaratta Chronicle (1914-1918). Sarah Harman and her husband George Adams lived in Flemington and so far I have found plenty of “Adams” matches in the Spectator but none for Sarah or George yet. Herbert George Harman, nephew of James Harman was a reporter for the Wangaratta Chronicle for over 50 years and I have found matches for both him and his father George, mostly to do with their Masonic activities.
Looks like you’ll be having a lot of fun, even if some of the hoped-for stories don’t live up to expecations Merron.
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Yes Pauline. It is always fun despite the outcomes.
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thanks for your post Merron, I didn’t know about the Flemington or Wangaratta papers becoming available. Off to search. Wonder if any of those Adams are mine. If you ever happen to stumble across a David Adams Chris and I are still searching. He is the only one we haven’t located yet.
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Happy to help. I hope you found something.
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