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Resource List thread - Inaccuracy in official records

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rbartlett said:
My two cents worth- I reckon they are the same player in the photo
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Probably must be the same person, Rhett. Someone with that name was at St Kilda in 1901 then disappears, then a player with that name is at Richmond a year later, all seems to fit nicely. The photos were taken three years apart as well.
 
35Daicos said:
Probably must be the same person, Rhett. Someone with that name was at St Kilda in 1901 then disappears, then someone with that name is at Richmond a year later, all seems to fit nicely.
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I've just looked through 1901 and 1902 RFC Annual Report, 1901 and 1902 Minute Books.
Nothing to indicate where A Richardson came from.
One must hope there's a permit sentence somewhere to be found that says Richardson (Stkilda to Richmond)
 
I'd say they were of the same bloke for these reasons. When he was at Leopold he was likely to be a bloke who was physically more distinctive than his fellow players ( as reports speak of his height). At Richmond, he was likely to be around more blokes who physically matched him.

From recollection his height was 179cm which sounds small these days but in 1900, blokes were significantly shorter due to dietary and social reasons, so 179cm in context isn't particularly small.
 

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Well here's an article on Archie Richardson from 1934 that's quite interesting.
It seems he wrote many article for Sydney's paper The Referee (which are on Trove), on American sport.

In this article he says he played for Richmond (but no mention of StKilda)
Perhaps that will pop up in one of his articles somewhere
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136115202

And a Referee article here http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136116857

And here where he says he played for Richmond 1902-1904
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article185067324

And here http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article181680326
 
rbartlett said:
Well here's an article on Archie Richardson from 1934 that's quite interesting.
It seems he wrote many article for Sydney's paper The Referee (which are on Trove), on American sport.

In this article he says he played for Richmond (but no mention of StKilda)
Perhaps that will pop up in one of his articles somewhere
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136115202

And a Referee article here http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136116857

And here where he says he played for Richmond 1902-1904
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article185067324
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When he enlisted for WWII he described himself as a free-lance writer, and as a musician at the time of his WWI enlistment ( https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Richardson-6050 ). What was he doing joining up aged 62 (WWII)?!!
 
35Daicos said:
For what it is worth, Richmond had an H. Archie 'Pony' Richardson play for us from 1902- 1904 in the VFA for 49 games 2 goals. A member of our first premiership

Rhett
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You can compare the Leopold 1900 (then St Kilda) A. Richardson with the one at Richmond in 1903 (Punch 6 Aug.) in these photos. I'm not too sure, but maybe not the same person. Opinions, anyone!:-
http://www.boylesfootballphotos.net.au/Richmond+Team+Photos
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/198176009[/QUOTE]

I think they do look to be the same person myself.
Especially when looking at a clearer shot of the Leopold team which I found on the great Boyles photos site:
http://www.boylesfootballphotos.net.au/article47-Class-and-Warfare-The-MAFA-and-the-VFL-Seconds

The hair seems to be parted in the same place and even the way he folds his arms looks similar - right hand palm flat under left armpit rather than clenched.
 
35Daicos said:
When he enlisted for WWII he described himself as a free-lance writer, and as a musician at the time of his WWI enlistment ( https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Richardson-6050 ). What was he doing joining up aged 62 (WWII)?!!
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His Wikipedia page says he enlisted for Australian Army in WW1, but his entry in 'Harder Than Football' book says he enlisted in US Army in 1918 age 38, and then served later in US Army in WWII. I suspect his entire war service was in the US
 
RedmanWasHere said:
Slightly off-topic but, with the same researching energy exerted into this thread, would anyone be up for a genealogy thread that can help knock over brick walls?
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Yes, be very happy to be participate in a genealogy thread.
Still finding fresh info when reviewing my own family history notes of many years past,
and also when helping enquirers in my day-to-day job.

"Never assume" was something learned in the early years of working life in a history centre and
that has held true all the way through these three decades long.
 
rbartlett said:
His Wikipedia page says he enlisted for Australian Army in WW1, but his entry in 'Harder Than Football' book says he enlisted in US Army in 1918 age 38, and then served later in US Army in WWII. I suspect his entire war service was in the US
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Yes, Rhett. I think that is right.

Have glanced at National Archives of Australia site, and at AIF database,
and cannot find any evidence that he served in the Australian Army.
 
rbartlett said:
His Wikipedia page says he enlisted for Australian Army in WW1, but his entry in 'Harder Than Football' book says he enlisted in US Army in 1918 age 38, and then served later in US Army in WWII. I suspect his entire war service was in the US
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You can see his paperwork from when he enlisted at this link:- https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Richardson-6050
I posted it up the page a bit (and on the previous page). It says he was 39 for WWI.
 

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the croucher said:
Yes, be very happy to be participate in a genealogy thread.
Still finding fresh info when reviewing my own family history notes of many years past,
and also when helping enquirers in my day-to-day job.

"Never assume" was something learned in the early years of working life in a history centre and
that has held true all the way through these three decades long.
Click to expand...


Don't assume your family's squeaky clean yes.

What board should it go in?
 
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35Daicos said:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/201647152 (The Age, 7 May 1904)

Permits to transfer were granted ~~~
A. Richardson, St. Kilda to Western Australia:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/25088058 (The West Australian, 11 May 1904)

Permits
Richardson, St. Kilda to Perth;

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/82947131

Probably him in the Perth team a few weeks later. But is it the (same) St Kilda player from years earlier?
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Mmm.. interesting...about three weeks earlier this page (Daily News, 22 April)
mentions a Richardson from Richmond (Vic) possibly joining Subiaco
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/7831635
 

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35Daicos said:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/201647152 (The Age, 7 May 1904)

Permits to transfer were granted ~~~
A. Richardson, St. Kilda to Western Australia:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/25088058 (The West Australian, 11 May 1904)

Permits
Richardson, St. Kilda to Perth;

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/82947131

Probably him in the Perth team a few weeks later. But is it the (same) St Kilda player from years earlier?
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I reckon you may have cracked it. H Archie Richardson in his numerous reports for the Referee never refers to his service with St kilda and this has struck me as extraordinarily odd.

There may be an alternative narrative. H archie Richardson (I shall call him HA) we know went to to the US and upon his return let's suppose he played solely for Richmond. This may explain the lack of a clearance and the lack of any press about any move from St Kilda to Richmond.

A Richardson, late of Leopold, moves to WA ( and hence is never of again). So we then have A Richardson of St Kilda and HA of Richmond and then possibly a W Richardson in 1900 and who knows who Richardson in 1898 in which case we don't just have a historical inaccuracy....

Time to investigate WA.

By the way H Archie stands for Henry Archibald, if that has not been put on the record already. I know this because he wrote a book under the name H Archie which was then stated to be by Henry Archibald Richardson. The book was called ask Archie.
 
Finding out the first name of the Richardson playing for Perth in 1904 would obviously be very handy. He seems to have been an accomplished player as he went straight into the team and looks to have done well (though I see he wasn't named for the last couple of games of the year, including the Grand Final), so it's believable that he was a senior player at St Kilda a few years earlier.
 
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A preliminary search of shipping records for Fremantle for 1903 indicate that 3 people with the initials AK , AH and AR Richardson arrived in 1903.

Now there are far better geneologists on this board than me so they may be able to come up with more.
 
the croucher said:
Yes, that is a fair point.
Rhett's Tigerland Archive does have Richardson playing in VFA with Richmond from 1902 to 1904.
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Our records indicate Richardson's last VFA game for Richmond was a practice game vs Marylebone (Gee) on September 24 1904. The scheduled VFA GF between Rich /North on Oct 1 was forfeited by Richmond.
We don't have Richardson appearing anywhere in the pre-season practice matches of 1905 for the club.
 
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