There is a wealth of information concerning ordinary people to be found in the correspondence of the Chief Secretary's department of the Victorian Government, dating from 1851 and spanning over a century until the department's demise in 1979. I have taken great pleasure in searching through boxes of files in the series which have been produced by this 'department of everything', particularly those of the mid to late nineteenth century. In these records it is possible to find evidence about the daily lives of a great many Victorians, many of whom have now been overlooked or forgotten. Among the letters of complaint and letters of application for positions in various government agencies such as police, railways, asylums, industrial schools and the military, in the fine grain of the official record, I found records that contained thumbnail sketches of everyday routines, miniature autobiographies, and revealing social vignettes.

As a case study, this article will focus on one of the many forgotten minor episodes of Melbourne's administrative history: the applications received for the position of Deputy Registrar for Collingwood in 1864. These records are contained in units 61-64 of VPRS 3991 Inward Correspondence II, a series which contains correspondence received by the Chief Secretary's department between the years 1864 and 1884.

By 1864 Collingwood had become a densely populated community with a high number of births and deaths to be recorded. At a pay rate of two shillings and sixpence, the Deputy Registrar's position at Collingwood was more attractive than, for example, in some rural districts where the Deputy Registrar was supported by produce from the residents being left on the doorstep.¹ While reading through the records of this episode, three applicants stood out from the others: David Hume Ross, Caroline Charlotte Allen and Henry William Mortimer.

In addition to the information I found on these applicants in the Chief Secretary's correspondence, I have employed the methods and resources employed in the study of family history to create mini (self-) portraits of the aspirations and ambitions of these three individuals, and to open a small window into the life of their family and community. Above all they demonstrate the way in which social, economic and political connections were used in the 1860s when applying for official positions in government.

Through each of these applicants' records we glimpse a different kind of life story: David Hume Ross's is the story of illustrious origins; Caroline Charlotte Allen's documents family hardship and the invisible barriers confronting women in nineteenth-century Victoria; and Henry William Mortimer's reveals an old colonist's travels around the world and his early involvement in the establishment of the colony.

David Hume Ross
In his application, David Hume Ross gave a great deal of background to his illustrious ancestry. He was born in December 1824 in Edinburgh to Dr Adolphus Ross and his wife Catherine Hume.² Writing to the Chief Secretary in 1864, Ross began by expressing his humble yet earnest desire to be appointed to the recently vacated position of Deputy Registrar of Births and Deaths.³ He stated that he had entered Her Majesty's Service in 1834 at the age of eleven, became an Officer, and was rewarded with two honours and medals for his service in the Royal Navy.

Ross hastened to mention that he was the great-nephew of the historian and philosopher David Hume, grandson of the late Chief Judge of the Exchequer in Scotland, Baron Hume, and cousin to the then Lord Advocate for Scotland the Honourable James Moncrieff. Ross had been Moncrieff's private secretary for a long time and was favourably mentioned in his letters. Unfortunately Ross did not have copies of his cousin's letters at his disposal to support his claim. He did however add that he had 'gained the firm friendship of the Chairman of the Royal Hudson Bay Company by his conduct in their first search for Sir John Franklin in 1847'.⁴ Ross also observed that he had first arrived in New South Wales, where he had re-modelled the Water Police in 1854, and later served with the City Commissioners of Sydney.