Dr. Roger Austin - His Guyana Research
We have missed Roger since his passing in October 2007. He was a dedicated genealogist who loved to share his research with others. This page continues the sharing of Roger's work as he had begun with his own website. We all very much appreciate Roger's work and his generosity in sharing it with us.
Please note that the files below are PDF files, which require the free Adobe Reader to view.
Transcriptions:
* Booker Brothers & Company Lists: No doubt everyone from Guyana or researching has heard of Booker Brothers who owned many sugar estates. Roger has transcribed two listings of personnel who worked for this company over the years.
* PARTNERS and CLERKS List
* Sugar Estates Owned and Engineers
* Book Lists - A listing of books on the subject of Guyana and the people compiled by the late Dr. Roger Austin
* Book Transcriptions: Roger transcribed a book about Guyana and edited another - both shared below. The third book was transcribed by Roger's Austin relative, Tim Smellie.
* History of the Colonies of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice, by P.M. Netscher, 1888 - Roger's “Transcriber's Note”:
“Readers should be aware that this book was written in Dutch by P.M. Netscher, translated into English by W.E. Roth and was typeset in Utrect in 1888, probably by people who were not familiar with English. Hence it is not surprising that the resulting text is less perfect than modern idiomatic English and contains numerous typographical erros and inconsistencies. I have omitted the summaries of contents of each chapter in the Contents. Occasional References in the style (nn) have been retained although they are not referenced in the English translation. Otherwise, with very few exceptions, I have transcribed the text as it stands in the original translation, retaining the spelling and typographical erros and idiosyncratic grammar. Although I have tried to eliminate them, some errors of transcription may have remained undetected in the present version. Readers may check the transcribed text against an image of the original pages if they wish to resolve any doubts about the accurary of the transcription.
Roger B. Austin, Cambridge, U.K. 2002 “* ‘History of British Guiana, From the Year 1668 to the Present Time ”, Volume III, 1833-1893, By James Rodway, F.L.S., Georgetown, Demerara Timothy Smellie's “Transcriber's Note”:
“This book, originally printed in British Guiana, has been transcribed into its present form from an original copy of the printed version.
A few of the most obvious spelling/type-setting errors have been corrected, otherwise the text, written as it was towards the end of the 19 th Century and including certain archaic words, is unaltered. The modern spellings, Essequibo and Mazaruni have been used in the transcription instead of the older forms, Essequebo and Massaruni, respectively.
The chapter numbering has been retained but each chapter has been given page number starting at 1. This is reflected in the Index.
Rodway occasionally refers to certain events &c. in former chapters. These will be found in Volumes I and II of his ‘History of British Guiana' which contain the chapters I to XXVI. ------ Timothy J. Smellie, U.K. 2003 “* Reports by Sir Robert H. Schomburgk, printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office by Harrison and Sons, St. Martin' Lane, Lond, August 1896; Further documents relating to the question of boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela; Edited by Odeen Ishmael, Washington, D.C., March 2000; Comments and Suggested corrections made by Roger Austin, January 2003.
These 18 documents comprising Schomburgk’s Letter and Reports on his survey of the boundaries of British Guiana (during 1841-43) were presented to the British Houses of Parliament on command of Her Majesty the Queen in August 1896. They formed part of the evidence to support the British Case before the Arbitral Tribunal meeting in Paris in 1898-99.
