Over the summer, working as a Research Assistant has been a rewarding experience. I have developed valuable academic skills that will benefit my future beyond my undergraduate degree. My knowledge has expanded in areas such as bigamy, the Australian military, and organizing extensive data sets. Reading military files, something I never imagined pursuing, has enriched my insight into soldiers’ lives. Granted, I only read files for which we suspected the man (and sometimes woman) had bigamously married. Finding that soldiers represent a high percentage of the total bigamy prosecutions is quite interesting. I've had the chance to read numerous captivating military files available online at the National Archives of Australia. The files included various documents ranging from enlistment applications to discharge records. Nearly every file contains something intriguing. Occasionally, I stumble upon rare documents like
musical copyright files or records of female soldiers, which never fail to excite me. I am grateful to Mélanie for guiding me throughout this experience, and I will carry the knowledge gained with me beyond my time at Augustana. As I've mentioned many times this summer, this position is a much better fit for me than working as a cashier!

I started working with Mélanie a few months ago and it has been an interestingly educating experience.   Not only was I new to the topic of bigamy, but Mélanie’s research methods of collecting data on massive excel sheets felt intimidating at first. I realize that I am developing my research skills in using the rich database of Australia's historical papers, Trove, and locating articles pertaining to the bigamists. Sometimes I need to be quite creative in the terms I use to get to the coverage.  One would think that my university courses are helping me with the work as a research assistant, but the more I do it, the more I see that DOING research is allowing me to reach new heights in my courses. I am honing my critical thinking by making sense of each article I find. Another benefit of working as an R.A., I pay extra attention to details. Finally, although the work can be lonely, it is nice to be able to count on fellow R.As (and on Mélanie) when I am stuck. 

While I have only been working with this team for a few months, I have already become fascinated with the topic of bigamy. The research combines my interests with law and gender roles using a topic I never knew anything about previously. Through this project, I have realized how research into bigamy reveals so much history around legal precedent, ideologies, and broader society. I have had so much fun working through cases of various Australian bigamists in the 19th to 20th centuries, and I often find myself eager to share the more bizarre accounts with others. Dr. Méthot has patiently guided me throughout the project, and I have already learned so much about the research process.

Being a part of this team has been a wonderful experience. It has taught me so much about the research process and has allowed me to strengthen my critical reading and writing skills, as well as giving me the chance to learn about a very unique topic. Bigamy had never interested me before I had the privilege to work for Dr. Méthot, but it quickly became an interesting way to analyze how society's perception of marriage, gender, and justice have changed. I think my favourite part of our research is that we are learning so much about the past from seemingly ordinary people who may have otherwise been forgotton to history.

I began my RA journey in early 2021, after becoming curious about my Professor Mélanie's work and the research process in general. Ever since, I have been reading, writing and thinking about bigamy. But not just about bigamy. Being on this team has reminded me to think deeper, to make connections, and to appreciate the process of piecing together facts and narratives. After all, I am not just collecting data on bigamists, but helping form a more profound understanding about and the relationships between marriage, gender, law, and religion.

I was a teenager when I started working for Dr. Méthot, going to the Provincial Archives of Alberta to transcribe prison records onto a huge spreadsheet spanning thousands of entries. Years later, I was lucky to accompany her on her first trip to Australia as her live-in research assistant, where I would digitize the legal case files of bigamists. I learned how to handle documents with care, and develop strategies to take quality photographs. I enjoyed it the most when I handled quantitative data and prepared graphs, tables and histograms on excel and R. Dr. Méthot used the visuals when she presented papers or gave seminars. As a science student, the internship helped expand my horizons, and honed my research, organizational and communication skills. Working with Dr. Méthot and her expanse of data nourished my interest in big data and statistics.

My name is Elijah Schmuland, and I am a fifth-year interdisciplinary studies major at Augustana. I met Mélanie last fall as a student in her capstone course. In taking the capstone under her guidance, I discovered a passion for research and had the privilege of joining a team of research assistants for her after classes finished in April 2021. Bigamy as a topic of research never piqued my interest prior to my RA experience, although I quickly became fascinated with the subject. Particularly, I find myself consistently immersed in the problem solving and critical thinking required to understand the way newspapers chose to frame accused bigamists.

I am a Law Crime and Justice major, so naturally, when Mélanie approached me with an offer to work on her bigamy murder case project in December 2022, I eagerly seized the opportunity. The initial excitement has not worn off to this day. I have thoroughly enjoyed the chance to see what goes on behind the scenes of the research process, as well as facing the kind of challenges individuals employed in the academic field encounter daily. Research is not linear. I am happy to say that I have had a lot of freedom with regards to planning my work, asking questions and providing suggestions, all of which has enabled me to learn and contribute. I am extremely grateful to Mélanie for this amazing experience!

Research came to me in a sort of roundabout manner; In reality, I was a lucky history student (one of the few) that Mélanie approached when she unexpectedly received some seed funding. But research and my love for the process of uncovering history has become a passion of sorts, something that relaxes me, and during the turbulent year it has been constant. It would not be fair to say that I found bigamy interesting initially, but now I can see how the larger theme of marriage (and thus bigamy) influences or is influenced by society. I have learned so much about myself through the process of research, something that is nonlinear and requires an investment of time. I want to finish with a thought I had recently:

"What a privilege to be a knower of history and an uncoverer of stories."

I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of Mélanie’s team, working through bigamy cases in Victoria during the latter half of the Second World War. My personal research interests lie primarily within the realms of women’s history with a focus on the female lived experience in the twentieth century, so I was excited to explore the overlap in our interests. Whilst I had not worked with legal cases before, approaching bigamists through newspaper articles was more familiar territory, yet Mélanie’s support encouraged me to conduct a deeper analysis of these sources at a more academic level than I had experienced before. Conducting this archival research and analysis gave me the opportunity to hone my research, critical thinking, organization, and communication skills. Initially, I worked through a range of cases from 1943, but a few young female bigamists stood out and sparked my interest in exploring the wider themes surrounding their lives. This led me to explore the role of love in bigamous marriages, as well as whether the context of war changed or intensified these relationships. I am a history undergraduate at the University of Manchester in the UK, and whilst I have been conducting this internship remotely, Mélanie’s guidance and knowledge have been invaluable, and her passion for her subject is infectious!

I started working with Melanie in July 2022, and have discovered so much about both Bigamy in Australia, and the value of quantitative social research in history. In particular, analysing the case of a famous skater, Frederick Richardson, has revealed to me how crucial the critical analysis and cross-comparison of primary sources can be, and highlighted the conflicting personal interests that can lead to misinformation being recorded in the press, and even in official government and legal sources. From this, I moved to analyse trends in Truth’s Melbourne newspaper, looking at how the paper’s editorial philosophy was reflected in the statistics of its coverage of bigamy cases. In ‘letting the data speak for itself’, working with Melanie has dramatically improved my own historical research skills, especially in the analysis of primary source material. I have thoroughly enjoyed uncovering the stories that can be found at the intersections of religion, law, gender, and fame.

Whilst bigamy in Australia, to me, seemed like a particularly niche topic of reserach, I have found that it combines many of the larger themes I find most interesting: particularly sexuality, religion, and crime. I am currently a history and English literature undergraduate at Durham University in England, and tend to work on 17th century European gender history. Working on 19th century Australian history has taught me to be more open to exploring new areas of the world as well as time in my research, and I have found class relations in Australia especially interesting to work on. Furthermore, working on the McLeod case, for which I went through over a thousand newspaper articles, taught me a good deal of perseverance. I had never worked with such a big body of data before, and perhaps that's why the feeling of it making sense more and more was especially rewarding. Lastly, Mélanie's enthusiasm and dedicated mentorship have made working on this project an absolute pleasure.

As a Law, Crime and Justice Studies major at UofA Augustana, I have always been intrigued by the roles and processes of the legal system in society. Coming out of my first year after taking one of Melanie’s classes, I was presented with the opportunity to be a part of her research team on her Much Married project. Reviewing archival court documents on bigamy prosecutions made me better understand how these procedures have been entrenched in society, much like marriage. I was not only enticed by the relatability of the research to my major, but also how the depositions and newspaper articles were organic - they once told the stories of the people who lived before us. Reading the different perspectives of the bigamists, victims, and witnesses fascinates me the most. The people that came before us felt sadness, relief, anger, elation, and heartbreak - feelings that many today can connect with. One archive document that I came across contained a postcard mailed in 1911 to a bigamist from his second wife with a quote stating, “You Know You’re Not Forgotten By The One You Can’t Forget”. When the third (!) “wife” found the postcard, she reported the bigamist to the police. I find this quote very impactful as it reminds me to reflect on the people and the important relationships present in my life - the ones I can’t forget. Discovering the more personable side of history through instances like this postcard has led me to a greater appreciation for history and Melanie’s research - I am thankful to be working with her.

Historical research and analysis has been one of my passions for as long as I can remember, and this genuine fascination with all things historical was the initial connection point between myself and Mélanie when I began taking her classes. While bigamy in Australia had never on my extensive list of topics to research, exploring the many stories of matrimonial ingenuity has proven to be a pleasantly surprising and often entertaining way to use my time. Digging into archives, correspondence, and case files has introduced me to a wealth of new skills and interests, including but not limited to legal history, reading nearly-illegible handwriting, Australian geography, and of course Mélanie’s favourites, critical thinking and collegiality. As someone who (in Mélanie’s words) “loves anything and everything”, I have found the earnest and enthusiastic research community Mélanie has curated to be nothing less than inspiring.

I certainly never expected to find myself doing bigamy research, but through this opportunity with Mélanie, I discovered a delightful insection of my two favorite things about history: primary source documents (like letters and newspaper articles) and the human capacity for love, folly, laughter, joy, hate and (sometimes) sure stupidity. These qualities continue throughout time and allow us to connect with past generations. For example, my favorite tidbit from my research was one bigamist whose 2nd "wife" informed on him. They were in the police station being interviewed on another matter when she told the police "you should know, my husband is a bigamist." Did she intent to get him in trouble? Was he especially annoying that day? Was she not thinking through the consequences at all? I'll never know for sure, but it's fun to imagine.

I worked as a Research Assistant for Dr. Méthot for just over a year while completing my Undergraduate Degree at Augustana. When I first started I thought it would be a chance to gain research, critical thinking, and data collection skills but quickly realized that I had a newfound passion. I devoted some time to a side-project researching the Holt's Matrimonial Agency after I read a scathing review of the marriage business in an 1894 Australian newspaper. The research uncovered an entrepreneurial woman who found a passion in providing matrimonial services and ran a successful and prominent business in Melbourne. I feel privileged to have gained the ability to uncover the stories of love, heartbreak, and bigamy, but even more privileged to share the stories. As a future high school Social Studies teacher, I hope I am able to instill an enthusiasm for history in my students as Dr. Méthot has for me.

My experience as a research assistant with Professor Mélanie Méthot was invaluable. With the freedom to persue a wide range of perspectives on the topic of bigamy in Australia, I began by trying to gain an understanding of the prevalence of the crime on a broader scale. Employing online resources on crime such as the Prosecution Project (https://prosecutionproject.griffith.edu.au/about/) and historical newspapers available on Trove (https://trove.nla.gov.au/), I developed novel excel-based data management systems for crime, population, and journalistic data. Taking to heart Professor Méthot's mantra of 'letting the data talk', I analyzed the facts and figures available to me and discovered an interesting phenomenon. Between 1890 - 1930, when bigamy rates were at some of their lowest levels, Australian newspapers were talking about bigamy more than ever before. In seeking to explain this, I examined the impact of marriage legislation, the growth of 'New Journalism' and the turn towards an increasingly sensationalized press. This broad overview of a period of hundred years was then used to contextualize a smaller bigamy case study from the early twentieth century. Throughout the research process, the writing and communication skills I had learnt through my history courses at university were just as necessary as new data interpretation and presentation skills I developed over the course of the internship.

At the time Dr. Méthot approached me, I was a chemistry student with little experience in history outside of some introductory courses. I believed wholly that history was a record of the past. While I did expect to gain valuable research skills and an attention to detail, I have also earned an understanding and appreciation for the essence of historical analysis. Historical research through a lens as narrow as bigamy develops a context within which any social issues can be explored. These themes of love, loss, betrayal and sacrifice are no less pertinent today than they were 100 years ago. I have this extraordinary opportunity and Dr. Méthot to thank for valuable lessons like this one that will carry throughout my life.

I was very lucky to be part of the bigamy research program. While I minor in history the work I have done and skills I have learned have been indispensable for my major as well. For me critical reading and writing, teamwork, and pretty much every other academic skill has been honed throughout the research. Reading articles and gazettes about bigamy is consistently exciting, and often very humorous. Learning about what peopled used to consider scandalous and improper has been very interesting and a great source of entertainment over the pandemic. Researching has provided a lot of flexibility between work and studying, which has reduced the stress put on me as a student many times over.

Working for Mélanie on her research was not only a skill enhancing experience, but fun. My friends and family could never comprehend my joy over conducting historical research, poring over old newspapers and articles was such a mundane sounding task to them. To me however, it was enriching - especially as bigamy was a topic I hadn't delved into before I met Mélanie. From convicts transported to Australia for their crimes to seemingly innocent war brides hoping for more than one widows pension, one never knew who a bigamist truly was behind their regular facade of a seemingly unremarkable individual who would normally pass the interest of historians unseen. That is perhaps what I loved most about Mélanie's research: focusing not on the famous individuals of time, but those whose stories would be forgettable if not found by the most curious historians.

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