One piece of evidence for my great grandmother, Rose-Anne McCann nee Kelly can be found in the 1911 census, which records her birthplace as in 'Ireland--County Armagh'. This is excellent confirmation, as quite often the listing only includes 'Ireland'. It is also included in my grandmother Rose McCann's Birth Registration Certificate (24 October 1882 at 6 Alma Street, Govan, Scotland), which records that her parents Rose Anne Kelly married Bernard McCann in Kilmore, County Armagh on July 13, 1864. Rose was their youngest child. McCann is one of the most common names in County Armagh. The marriage listing for Rose-Ann Kelly and Bernard McCann is in the Catholic Parish Records of County Armagh, Parish Kilmore (Richhill) (from page 1 of ancestry.com records which include Rose-Anne and Bernard's marriage on Image 116, with the Richhill providing more detail as to place. (Wikipedia entry on Richhill). On the record index on ancestry, the area of Mulavilly and Mullavilly were listed with Richhill (Rich Hill) as Parish Variants, and there are two Catholic Parishes associated with Mullavilly, Stonebridge (Richhill) and Mullavilly (refer FB page www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067210710073). In 1993 fire destroyed the Stonebridge church, and as late as 1997 sectarian violence led to the burning of the Mullavilly Parish Church (www.armagharchdiocese.org/13-apr-the-burning-of-mullavilly-church). Parish Records were destroyed, so there is likely to be a lack of full coverage of these, making it hard to access some records. There's an article about the fires at www.irishtimes.com/news/church-fire-in-armagh-unites-catholics-protestants-1.59942.
On a broad search for Kelly's or McCann's in Mullavilly or Rich Hill townlands - there is a Thomas Kelly leasing a building, probably a house, in Mullavilly during the period of the Griffith's valuations - this could put him in the right age bracket for father of Edward. However, fairly risky to assume. There are 29 McCann's listed in the Kilmore parish in the Griffith's Valuations 29 of 32 names are McCann - so this looks a highly probably link to a place. However, how to sort them out? There is a townland area - Ballyhagan - in which there are a number of Keegan's and also some McCann's. There are also Kelly's, McCann's and Keegan's in same or adjacent townlands in the Parish of Kilmore. Bernard McCann's father in my records to date is James McCann and his mother is Mary Ann Maiden Name Kegan (Keegan). This is evidenced on Bernard's death certificate and also reflected in an 1851 Census extract in which James, Mary and Bernard are living in Street Address Mr Thomas Cloughley, Money, Kilmore, Richhill, Co Armagh Parish Kilmore Barony Oneilland West Townland Lurgancot (However, Money (see above) is also a Townland) I think I'm narrowing down the possibilities! My maternal grandparents’ home, in the Melbourne suburb of North Caulfield, holds a special place in my heart. Treasured books were held in a rosewood cabinet in the lounge room, which also featured a shelf or two of piano rolls; sheet music, and a song book which I loved. I couldn’t read music, however, it had the melody in note letters written above the notes which I could follow. Three volumes of Shakespeare in immaculate condition brought out by my great grandfather George Charles Beech Hooper from England in the 1860’s were also shelved there, along with a my mother’s treasured first edition of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite’s ‘Elves and Fairies’ book of poems with illustrated plates. According to my aunt, my mother was a great reader ‘who always had her head in a book’--much to the chagrin of my grandmother, who rarely read and had to cajole her to get her to focus on other things, such as helping with housework! My parents built our home in the post war, increasingly industrial, suburb of Clayton. It was the time of Laminex, of good housewives in full skirted dresses running tidy houses. Few bookshelves were to be seen when I visited my friends. My parents were ‘older parents’, with mum already in her early 40’s and my father in his early 50’s when I was 10. There was no Laminex to be seen in our house. My mother preferred reading to us to doing the ironing, while my father could often be discovered reading books, that is, when he wasn’t checking out the form guide! There were dedicated bookshelves on either side of the fireplace full of books gleaned from various sources in my parents past, to which were gradually added our own books of ‘Black Beauty’, ‘Heidi’, ‘Famous Five’ and ‘Secret Seven’, ‘Biggles’, ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’, ‘Anne of Green Gables’, and then, as we went through our schooling, prescribed literary works such as ‘Great Expectations’, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, ‘The Getting of Wisdom’, books on clear thinking and analysing opinion. There were books which held a special mystery, including The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a book of love poetry which seemed to have been given to my parents by my father’s parents, who were also given a copy when they married*. As I reread Omar Khayyam’s A Jug of Wine, A Loaf of Bread and Thou just now, I felt almost as bemused and confused by it as I was as a child… Dostoyevsky’s Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov, also resonant with images of far off lands, also dipped into, untutored, before I was ‘ready’ for them. The novels ‘Inheritance’ and ‘Hungry Hill’ introduced the world of the industrial revolution, income inequality and class, themes reinforced by the reading of ‘The Tower Room’ by Mary Grant Bruce, awarded to my mother as 1st Prize (Girls) in Miss Fletchers Sunday School class at St Mary’s, Caulfield, and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Inheritance was set in the time of transition from cottage industry to industrial looms, while ‘Hungry Hill’ by Daphne Du Maurier, is a family saga of five generations of Brodricks, Irish landowners and a copper mine, ‘Hungry Hill’, and spans the period 1820 – 1920. Interestingly, both books potentially shed light on the lives of my great, great grandparents as revealed in occupations listed in UK and Scottish census records. The book ‘A House is Built’ by G Barnard Eldershaw clearly belonged to my mother. M. Barnard Eldershaw was the pseudonym used by Marjorie Barnard (1897–1987) and Flora Eldershaw (1897–1956). Their partnership, which lasted two decades, produced five novels, two short story collections, three histories, as well as plays and essays. Their first joint project was the novel A House is Built (1929). There was a section for War Histories, often delved into by my father, then later my brother, and very occasionally, me! 24 Hill Street, Daylesford, my home for two decades, had a room with a wall of bookshelves, from floor to ceiling. I still have most of them in Benalla, even if some are now in the garage. Whatever will become of them all? I recently came across this photograph of my great grand-aunt Emily Heseltine Hooper taken in the library of her family home in Bath. What wonderful bookshelves! Beverley Lee
*Story written for U3A Benalla Family Research class - topic - 'From the Bookshelves', October 2022. I wish I had known my half-brother, born Aaron James Lee to my father, Anthony Lee and his first wife Eleanore Green, in Lismore, NSW, on the 16th December, 1926. Tony and Eleanore 'Nell' separated in 1931. Nell remarried solicitor Albert James Miller in 1933. Aaron and my half-sister Lenore, were caught up in the bitter aftermath of this divorce. My understanding is that Albert would not allow the children to see Tony, to which it appears Tony reacted by not agreeing to Albert’s request to adopt the children. The childrens' names were changed by deed poll, and Aaron James Lee became Aaron James, or ‘Ron’ Miller. My father, who died in 1963, did not speak to us about Aaron and Lenore until we were teenagers, but never stopped caring about them. My mother described how upset he was in 1947 when he became aware that Ron, still in the armed forces, was to be in Melbourne on a visiting war ship and wrote to Albert and Nell asking for permission to see him. It was denied. This photograph was taken of Ron at about the time he would have visited Melbourne. Sadly, I never met Ron, who died of cancer aged 53 in 1979, many years before I met his wife and two daughters, Elle and Kathy, in 2013.
There is so much I would like to have been able to ask and share with Ron. However, I’ll focus on two things Ron and I had in common—the main focus, that we both studied Economics at university, with a minor ‘lead in’ focus, that we were both troubled, if slightly differently, by the McMahon government in the early 1970’s. I remember being in my third year of teaching economics at Yarram High School and planning a move back to Melbourne when the 1972 ‘It’s Time’ election was held. Billy McMahon’s period as Prime Minister had troubled me. Like many others, I felt ‘it was time’ for a change. According to Ron's wife Noreen, working as an economist in the Departments of Treasury and Finance during the McMahon government had proven troubling for Ron. Like me, Ron had studied economics. However, Ron had practised as an economist, with a career in economics/finance related departments at senior administrative levels for a series of federal governments. He had worked for a number of Australia's Prime Ministers (possibly seven), but his bete-noir was to be Billy McMahon, whose erratic and bullying behaviour contributed to his leaving the Federal public service after what had been a distinguished career. I wish I’d been able to visit Ron in Canberra and discuss his working life. I particularly wish I’d known him when I was studying Economics at High School and University. Twenty years older than me, with a rich experience in economic policy, what a wonderful mentor he might have been. Just knowing that I had a brother working in Canberra in the area of finance and economics could have been motivating. Perhaps he would have given me constructive feedback on my essays. That would have been wonderful! The first person in my known family to have gone to university, I always felt so alone in my pursuit of an economics degree. After leaving Canberra towards the end of McMahon’s period, Ron returned to Brisbane to teach Economics at a prestigious Catholic college. How wonderful for his students to have been taught by an economics teacher with such a rich working life in finance and economics in Canberra! I sometimes imagine a slim possibility that I may have met Ron once at a national economics teachers’ conference, as we both taught high school economics during the mid to late 1970’s. It’s a possibility which I hang on to, despite the fact that certainly by 1979 he was severely ill with cancer. There is so much I would like to have known about Ron’s life, so much I would like to have asked and shared with him. Vale, Ron. Bev Lee (Originally written for my U3A 'Memoirs' class in July 2021) Post script - June 2023: A friend of mine has a friend I suspected could, as a young economist, have worked with Ron in the late 60's early 70's. When asked, he did remember 'Mr Miller'! There were two beloved 'Lil's' in my maternal grandfather John Edward Devitt's life, his wife, my ballerina grandmother 'Lil Hooper', and his older sister, 'Lil Devitt'. Born in Adelaide in 1881, Lily Elizabeth Devitt was the eldest living daughter of my great grandparents, stonemason John Edward Devitt Senior and Elizabeth Miller. The family moved to Melbourne after a depression in South Australia the mid 1880's. There were two younger sisters, Victoria, 'good with her hands' who became a milliner, and Adelaide. Adelaide became a bookkeeper in Flinders Lane but was 'good at art' and would have liked to go to art school. Patching together pieces of her life, I think primary school teacher Aunt Lil may have been regarded as the 'blue stocking' of the family. Aunt Lil reading in a hammock outside family home, 18 Balston Street, Balaclava Aunt Lil taught at Caulfield Central School in Balaclava Road near Caulfield Park for many years, including when my mother was a student there. Mum wrote in notes on her life, "Dad’s sister, Aunt Lil, taught sixth grade at Caulfield Central School, but I was in Mr Gollop’s sixth.... On Monday morning we’d have assembly – I can still hear Aunt Lil singing ‘the Grand Old Duke of York’. I don’t know why, perhaps it was to march into class". I thought of Aunt Lil a lot in 1969 when I completed a teaching round at Caulfield North Central School in the old two-story building in which she would have taught during the 1920’s, possibly in decades before and after, sat in the staff room, organized her lessons, prepared the chalk board for each day's lessons, and more. I've long intended to visit the Public Records Office of Victoria to retrieve records of her teaching career from the Education Department archives. I'd like to know more about her teacher training, other schools at which she taught. I wonder at her teaching at a State School, as her family were staunchly Catholic. Perhaps at that time being a nun was required, lay teachers were not accepted in Catholic schools? I have memories of meeting Aunt Lil when she was in a nursing home, remember her having a loving smile and a capacity to engage me as a young child. Perhaps this resulted from decades teaching children, as she never had children of her own. I remember her husband, Irishman 'Jack O'Donehue', standing at her side, watching carefully over her. In her eighties, her body was riddled with arthritis, fingers permanently curled. For most of her life, Aunt Lil would have been considered a 'spinster school teacher', but in 1931 when she was 50, she married widower Jack. Mum told me they had known one another in young adulthood before he married someone else. They seemed to have a happy married life together for over 30 years and clearly cared about one another. I always had a strong sense that my grandfather unconditionally loved and respected Aunt Lil. His renouncing Catholicism by marrying my Protestant grandmother didn't seen to have been a problem for Aunt Lil, who loved and was loved by my grandmother and her children. My mother writes in her notes that 'My sister Joyce was born at Wilgah Street– another home birth. I remember being taken for a walk by Dad’s sister, Aunt Lil, and when we arrived back I had a little sister.' This photo may well have been taken on that day... Aunt Lil’s support would have been important when her older brother Vincent’s wife was hospitalized following a with mental health breakdown in 1914 when their children were only 4, 3 and 1 year old. Aunt Gladys was a patient at the Kew Psychiatric Hospital from 1914 to 1969; Uncle Vin had moved to Perth in 1929 with the children and died in 1942. I wonder if Aunt Lil maintained some contact with, perhaps was the power of attorney for Gladys at some stage?
In conclusion, in connecting my story to this month’s International Women's Day theme, I would like to celebrate the role my great aunt, Lily Elizabeth Devitt, played in the education of children in the Victorian suburb of Caulfield and surrounds, laying a foundation in the minds and behaviour of so many young people over first four decades of the 1900's. I'd like to also celebrate her role in our family, as a loving sister to my grandfather, a warm and accepting sister to my grandmother, and a clearly loving aunt to my mother and great aunt to me. Beverley Lee March 2023 Time Travellling! Questions I’d like to ask Aunt Lil – Where and how did she train to be a teacher? Was she a suffragette? What was her opinion of conscription during World War I? What position did members of the Catholic Devitt family take? Why didn’t she teach in a Catholic school? Did she in fact, have contact with Gladys at the Kew Psychiatric Hospital? How did she find her during her visits, when and if they were possible? Was she ‘power of attorney’? And more…. With no one with living memory of him alive, or stories written down, there's a need to clarify what we know about my maternal great grand father George Charles Beech Hooper and his family of origin before it is too late... From notes written on the back of a photograph by my mother, Paula, we find...
"Grandpa Hooper (George Charles Beech Hooper) was 73/74 when he died--appears to have been born in 1846. He was born in Wiltshire - Bath - home 'Bradford on Avon'. His family home, 'Murhill House' B-on-Avon. He went to Blue Coat School, W'shire. There was an Aunt Fanny. Also Edith Crutwell - Auntie Min (Fanny Emily Mary Rose nee Hooper b 1877) used to write to her. Her son Hugh Crutwell was Secretary to the Governor of Hong Kong. During World War II his wife Joyce and first born (at that time only child) Martin were evacuated to Sydney and stayed with Auntie Min for a time. Hugh's father was an historian at Oxford University." _______________________________--- While largely correct, after checking carefully through a range records, also speaking with my sister, it seems that the following edited version may be more correct. I've also added some additional historical information. "Grandpa Hooper (George Charles Beech Hooper) was 73/74 when he died--appears to have been born in 1846. He was born in Wiltshire - Bath - home 'Bradford on Avon'. His family home, 'Murhill House' B-on-Avon. He went to Blue Door School, W'shire. There was Edith Crutwell. Auntie Min (Fanny Emily Mary Rose nee Hooper b 1877) used to write to her. There was also an Aunt Fanny, Grandpa Hooper's sister whose son, Hugh McAuley Crutwell, who attended Bath Gr school and studied History at Oxford, graduating in 1890, was a teacher. Hugh McAuley Crutwell's son Humphrey John Crutwell, recorded by Paula as "Secretary to the Governor of Hong Kong" was certainly a 'Civil Servant, HK' and listed under that occupation in the records of the Stanley Internment Camp in Hong Kong. He appears to have been held at the Stanley Internment Camp by the Japanese from early 1942 to the end of World War II and is recorded in a fellow detainee's journal as having taught German classes while there. "During World War II his wife Joyce and first born (at that time only child) Martin were evacuated to Sydney and stayed with Auntie Min for a time". Possibly a distant cousin, .... Crutwell was an historian at Oxford University, ........, was typecast in many of the novels of Evelyn Waugh. (Still under construction....) This post is currently under construction! Reflective Hypothesis 1 - Seven of the Hooper children, from Minnie to Lily, were connected in the theatre in some way. In this set of photos, I've included the earliest available photo evidence where possible.
Who would have thought I’d choose a pugilist, a boxer, to write about - boxing is such an anathema to me! However, the person I’ve chosen, Scottish boxing champion James ‘Tancy’ Lee (1882-1941) continues to be identified as a family hero during family history contacts. When I first made contact with Bill Tully, a younger first cousin of my decades deceased father, he asked “Have you come across ‘Tancy’ Lee in your research?” Bill, born in 1928 in Leith, had known Tancy and shared stories of him with me. A Sydneysider Lee descendant, contacting me through ancestry, also highlighted the connection with Tancy Lee, sending me a photograph he had come across in going through old photographs in his mother’s collection. Just in the last month I’ve been contacted by someone who shares my Lee great, great grandparents, who introduced herself asking ‘have you heard of Tancy Lee? I’m his great granddaughter…. ‘ James ‘Tancy’ Lee (1882 – 1941), a first cousin of my grandfather, James Lee, also born in 1882, was the first Scot to be an outright winner of the Lonsdale Belt, the oldest championship event in boxing. Tancy's Lonsdale belt 9ct gold enamel sold at auction for 19000 UK pounds in 2005. Inducted into the Scottish Boxing Hall of Fame in 2008, the highs during Tancy’s boxing career were substantial – he not only won the Lonsdale belt, according to thefightcity.com… “his stoppage of the legendary Jimmy Wilde in round 17 led to him taking the British, European and world flyweight titles, …he also holds wins over Charlie Hardcastle, Danny Morgan and Young Joe Brooks and won European and Lonsdale titles at featherweight.” A Google search includes many entries for Tancy, including a Wikipedia entry which provides a detailed list of his achievements.
Tancy also trained and mentored the sons of his sister Ellen Lee, who became Olympic medal winners for boxing - George McKenzie (bronze bantamweight medal, Antwerp Olympics 1920) and James McKenzie (silver flyweight medal, Paris Olympics, 1924). A memorable film of Tancy training others in 1924 can be found on in the British Pathe film archives…. https://www.britishpathe.com/video/tancey-lee-aka-tancy-lee/query/belts The swings and round abouts in Tancy’s boxing career can be found in many reports on the internet. Tancy also experienced swings and roundabouts in his personal life. His father, James Lee, died of tuberculosis in 1891, when Tancy was nine years old. His first wife, Jeannie, mother of his six children died of Spanish Influenza aged 28 in 1918. Two of their six children died in infancy, and very sadly, Tancy was tragically killed when hit by a bus in Edinburgh in 1941, aged 59. Tancy may have been a ‘bit of a villain’! Enlisted as a ‘boy’ soldier in the Royal Scots, at age 15/16 he appears to have ‘gone AWOL’ on the 12th June 1899, resulting in a listing in the UK Military Deserters records on ancestry.com, a record which will forever haunt his family historians. I suspect that, being small at 5’2” and having lost his father at 9 yrs, Tancy may have been drawn to, his uncles may have encouraged him to, learn to box in order to protect himself. Irish Catholic families and community in Leith appeared to work together to raise their young people—there are many examples of this having happened to young family members in his generation of the Lee family. The boxing community in Leith, in particular Tancy’s role as trainer and mentor, would also have provided role modelling and structure for his Olympic boxing medal winning nephews George and James McKenzie, whose mother Ellen Lee died when they were children. Tancy was tiny, courageous and appears to have been a loving father and uncle who contributed to the welfare of his community. He participated in a sport renowned for risk taking and drama and seemed to have survived this over an extended period of time. A family and local hero, he does appear to have been a ‘national living treasure’ in Scotland. The tradition of boxing has not been handed down to my generation, though my brother John drily commented when I asked him, that our father did try to get him to take lessons, to no avail. Bill Tully also said it did not appeal to him, despite efforts to get him to learn boxing in Leith as a child. Initially I thought Tancy may have meant ‘tiny’ as in ‘teensy’…. but apparently it can mean ‘Immortal’. Perhaps, Tancy having made it into the Scottish Boxing Hall of Fame, Pathe Film Archives and Wikipedia symbolizes immortality in some way! Beverley Lee November 2022 Tancy Lee Entry in Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tancy_Lee Pathe Film Archives https://www.britishpathe.com/video/tancey-lee-aka-tancy-lee/query/belts 'Tancy Lee - The Famous Scot' - The Referee (Australian paper) - includes a poem - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/129355032 My great, great grandfather, Jeremiah Taylor, 1790-1853 was described over generations as an ‘East India Man’, possibly also a Ship’s Captain! However, was he really?
My sister has a coin which was minted by the British East India Company in 1837. When our grandfather gave it to her, he told her it “belonged to Nanna’s grandfather”, our great, great grandfather, Jeremiah Taylor, 1790-1853. I called my sister to ask her about the coin. Researching it some years ago, she found it to be the coin be a ‘Half Anna’ minted in 1837 by the British East India Company. (Museums Victoria – Bombay Mint, Medal & Coin Makers, India https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/articles/1873) My sister then commented that, while she had heard Jeremiah described as an ‘East India Man’, she’d never heard him described as a ship’s captain as I had done. On reflection, I have found no clear evidence of his being a ship’s captain, so have needed to rethink this. My sister mentioned meeting another of Jeremiah’s descendants, Dean Taylor, who appeared to have a deep understanding of the patriarchal line of his family and who clearly described Jeremiah and his son, Port Phillip Bay ship’s pilot, Henry Taylor, as ‘East India Men’. Interestingly, the term ‘East Indiaman’ was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers (Austria, Denmark, Holland, England, France, Portugal, Sweden) of the 17th through the 19th centuries. ‘East Indiamen’ carried both passengers and goods, and were large, galleon like ships armed, often heavily, to defend themselves against pirates and privateers. The British East India company maintained a monopoly on trade with initially India, then later other Eastern countries, from 1600 until 1834, with the company’s power, and its larger galleon vessels, being phased out over the coming decades. In terms of his age, Jeremiah is likely to have worked with the during the period between 1810 and 1840 when he was twenty to fifty years old. Although Jeremiah was born and spent his childhood in a farming hamlet, Tattershall Thorpe, in Lincolnshire, family records relating to his adult life, including his marriage, births, baptisms, marriages and deaths, list the busy port and market town of Boston, Lincolnshire, as his place of residence during his twenties and thirties. Jeremiah appears most likely to have been employed as an experienced mariner who presented himself to the East India Company for work on voyages as they became available. The ‘half anna’ coin suggests that he was employed by the British East India Company c 1837, when he was in his mid to late forties. He is likely to have done this for periods of time, eventually retiring to Lincolnshire to farm. When his youngest daughter, my great grandmother, was born in 1847, he was 57 and listed on her baptism record as ’farmer’. I need to find records from the 1820’s and 30’s which clearly record that Jeremiah was a mariner. The first available UK census –1841 - appears to contain no record for Jeremiah or his son Henry. Perhaps they were at sea for an extended period? Sea faring mariners and apprentice mariners are likely to be difficult to find in Census. I am certain I have seen records described Jeremiah as a mariner in the St Botolph’s Boston baptism records for his children in the 1820’s and 1830’s – I just need to access them again! I’ve also found that Ancestry.com now has a listing of employees of the British East India Company which I am thinking of pursuing – however there are two hundred or more ‘J Taylors’! Overall, I haven’t fully ‘busted’ the original myth. I have firmed up my hypotheses surrounding Jeremiah having been ‘an East India Man’ and rejected the notion that he was a Ship’s Captain. I’m still looking for more concrete evidence of Jeremiah having been an East Indiaman and have at least two avenues still to pursue! Bev Lee June 2022 Henry Taylor, a Port Phillip Pilot who guided ships through the Heads into Port Phillip Bay, was my great grand uncle, an older half-brother of my great grandmother, Emma Taylor (1847-1931). Henry was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, England in 1823 to Jeremiah Taylor and Hannah Padlay. Family stories abound that his father Jeremiah was also a seaman, perhaps a ship’s captain, certainly an ‘East India Man’. Henry had three siblings, and a half-sister, my grandmother, Emma Taylor, whose mother Emma Jane Jackson, was buried in Boston on the day of Emma’s christening in 1847. Henry appears to have been an adventurous, risk-taking young man, arriving in Melbourne in his twenties if not before. In the 1941 NSW census for Port Phillip/Bourke, a Henry Taylor, ‘Twenty one and under’, is listed as having arrived in the colony ‘free’, religion ‘Church of England’. Henry married boatman’s daughter Mary Colina Cannon in 1852. They had five children, James Henry (1850–1934), Eliza Colina (1851–1907), Charles (1853–1922), Hannah Esther (1853–1891) and Mary (1856–1918). 1856 records list Henry as “Occupation Pilot, living in Queenscliff”. Henry and Mary played a role in bringing up my great grandmother, Emma Taylor, who Jeremiah brought out to Australia before his death in 1853. Emma was only six years old when Jeremiah died. Evidence of Henry’s involvement as a ship’s pilot guiding vessels through the Heads into Port Phillip Bay is recorded many places including in the Port Phillip Government Gazette in 1851. There are many articles relating to his experiences and capacity as a ship’s pilot in Trove, including one featuring his report on the Wreck of the ship Sea in 1853. Rapid tidal currents meet an underwater reef at Port Phillip Heads causing complex turbulence and eddies. Sailing ships required smaller pilot boats with experienced crews to navigate the narrow channels, which were especially dangerous at ebb tide when many wrecks occurred. The 1850’s were also the ‘Gold Rush’ years in Victoria, with many people arriving through Port Phillip Heads in search of gold. Henry died on the 21 November 1858, at 35 years of age, when the wheel of the carriage he was driving hit a rock or rut and he was thrown out, hitting his head and dying instantly. His adventurous nature and bravery is clearly reflected in this letter to the Editor of the Argus newspaper on Thursday 25 November 1858. ‘The Late Captain Henry Taylor’. Sir,—I regretted much to read in your issue of today (November 23) the sudden death, by accident, of Captain Henry Taylor, pilot of Queenscliff. His loss must not only be severely felt by his immediate family and friends, but his memory must he held in grateful remembrance by a large number whom he on more times than one risked his life to serve. I for one cannot forget how gallantly Captain Taylor, in 1852, swam the river Barwon twice unsuccessfully, and a third time only reaching the shore nearly exhausted, to assist the 450 unfortunately shipwrecked passengers and crew of the Earl of Charlemont…. WM. ED. COOK, M.D., Late Surgeon of the Earl of Charlemont. Captain Henry Taylor (1823 - 1858) is buried in the Queenscliff Cemetery. Postscript - 'This was written for the topic 'Obituary' presented at a Family Research class in late May 2022 - it caused lots of discussion,, particularly as one of this group had ancestors who were shipwrecked on the Earl of Charlemont! There were lots of questions relating to what happened to the family after his death - something for another time!' BL
Under construction... Scrapbooks and old photograph albums relating to the Hooper family are held in our family by my younger sister, who has had a long term interest in the family history of our matriarchal line. We have spent time recently pouring over them, trying to work out people, time frames in old photographs, .... I'm trying to date what happened to my great grandfather's first son, George, wondering if a photo taken in his sister's childhood scrapbook may have been him. Could the men's on the balcony on the house in the photo adjacent to his childhood photo have been maternal uncles? Is the time frame similar.... I found this photograph titled 'Man photographed in 1876' from, I think, the State Library. It is, it seems, distinctly possible that the photo could have been taken in the mid 1870's, which would fit with the age of the boy we think could have been George....
During this quiet, socially isolated period (Covid pandemic 2021) in which I haven’t been visited, or visited others, for months at a time, I’ve been visiting and reuniting families virtually, ‘time travelling’. I’ve been photographing documents and photographs found in old albums, shoe boxes, old suitcases and drawers to add to the ‘gallery’ of a multitude of grand, great grand, and even some great, great grand ancestors on ancestry.com. In doing so, I’ve experienced the sense of ‘time travelling’ I’ve often felt when immersed in researching the life of a particular family member, a sense of almost being with them Allowed to visit once again, I've been spending time with my sister, who is collating records collected while researching our maternal grandmother's family history thirty years ago and records secreted away by our mother and grandmother in old suitcases and drawers. Large envelopes labelled for particular ‘great grand’ relatives have been brought into action. My grandmother’s siblings, Beatrice, Ada, Minnie, Edie, Alf, Charlie, Ruby, Violet and of course my grandmother Lily, each have an envelope. We’ve been conferring over old scrapbooks and albums containing photographs, many of which I’ve not seen before. I’ve taken photographs of a multitude of photographs, documents such as my grandfather’s passport; ephemera such as a leather collar box containing my ballerina grandmother's grease paint to add to my family history collection. At least 110 years old - Lily Devitt nee Hooper's grease paint (stored in a collar box) There are so many photographs! Where to start? With a goal of adding at least one photo to ancestry.com a day I have found myself immersing myself in the lives of two great aunts, ‘Auntie Beat’ (b 1872) and ‘Auntie Min’ (b 1877). ‘Auntie Beat’ (Beatrice amy Maud Hooper 1873 - 1959) 'Auntie Beat', my eldest maternal great aunt, never married, looking after her parents until they died, then living with nieces and nephews’ families until she passed away. My only memory of Aunty Beat is peeping into a bungalow to see her while holidaying with an aunt who was caring for her not long before she died. Just yesterday Janette found a loose photo of Beat with a postcard back on which is written ‘Beatrice Hooper – the eldest’. What a find! A dressmaker, Beat is wearing a dark trimmed check dress, standing in front of a rose bush. It was probably taken in the early 1900’s. It’s now sitting in her ancestry ‘gallery’ alongside other gems found in her scrapbook which suggest that she may have travelled with a theatre company to New Zealand. While most of her younger sisters were dancers with J C Williamson’s, perhaps, being a dressmaker, she was in the wardrobe department? Auntie Beat’s profile on ancestry now includes photos across her life span, including some in which she appears to be enjoying time spent travelling with friends. There is a wonderful photo of Beat playing cards with a group of friends, another in an outfit suggesting she may have been a suffragette! ‘Aunty Min’ (Fanny Emily Mary Hooper 1876 - 1964) Do you have a person in public life in your family tree who other relatives all lay claim to? ‘Auntie Min’ is that person in our family. Family stories of her abound across the generations. ‘Auntie Min’, my grandmother’s older sister Minnie Hooper, became quite famous as a choreographer and ballet mistress for JC Williamson and is remembered for having taught Robert Helpmann to dance. While I have many photos of Auntie Min, until my visit to the farm last weekend they were almost all quite theatrical, revealing little of her life. I’d met Auntie Min when visiting Sydney as a child and remember her as a rather serious woman of considerable wealth who lived in a house looking over Sydney Harbour which had a path down to a private boat ramp. I remember her son, John Rose, as being quite eccentric. John was always described by my mother as a change of life baby, born after Min’s husband, Ernest Rose, then aged 51, had already had a stroke. Family research revealed that Min, who had married ‘Uncle Ern’ at 20, had two little boys who only lived for a few months during her twenties, followed by decades working in the theatre, before having a baby, John, at aged 46. John was born with a disability which affected his development, and Min’s beloved husband died at 59 when John was 8 years old leaving her to care for John. Janette’s envelope for Auntie Min contains portraits of Uncle Ern pasted on a textured card and a portrait of John in early adulthood. The photo in the envelope which somehow provides a deeper glimpse into their lives is a photo of Min and Ern sitting together, reading material in their hands. Ern appears to be convalescing. It is an evocative photo in which Min looks less severe than I remember her in latter years. Adding this photo, and the portraits of Ern and John, to their profiles on ancestry a day or two ago, somehow ‘rounded off’ my ‘time travels’ with Auntie Min’s family—at least for the moment.
With Covid moving from pandemic to endemic, I’m likely to continue to lead a quiet life. Underlying chronic illnesses have already impacted on my capacity to travel to places in which my ancestors lived to find out more, and now Covid! However, I can always resort to time travelling! I’m enjoying my current bout of time travelling and have so many more photos to ‘ground’ my research. I sense that I’ll continue to enjoy ‘This ‘time travelling’ Life’, immersing myself in family photographs, documents and other ephemera, well into the future! Beverley Lee October 2021 *This story was originally written as a topic for 'As Time Goes By' - writing memoir stories class at U3A. Sometimes during family history we hold things our parents have told us in our minds, to look at at some future time. My mother believed her grandparents may have travelled as passengers to New York to see relatives before continuing the trip to Australia and spoke of family connections in America. For a time we thought she must have been referring to her Hooper side grandfather, however we also had a suspicion that perhaps her widower maternal great grandparent Jeremiah Taylor may have visited relatives there with his little daughter. her grandmother Emma Jane Taylor, before coming to Australia.
We haven't been able to find Jeremia or Emma on the shipping lists at all, so in the name of 'cluster research', I opened up Jeremiah's family branch on ancestry.comto see if in fact any evidence of his siblings or children migrating to the United States. I revisited the valued work on the Taylor family by Keith Taylor, who had corresponded with me and encouraged me, through his research, to locate Jeremiah with his family in Tattershall and Boston localities in Lincolnshire. Keith already had Jeremiah living in Australia when I found his tree and had used old church records for St Botolph's and other BDM records to develop the list of Jeremiah's siblings as well as his 'families of procreation' to spouses Hannah Padlay and Jane Jackson. I remembered that some of his latest work has involved putting 'flags' for destinations of relatives, with a David Taylor, younger brother of Jeremiah, having a USA flag with a destination state listed as Illinois, and Jeremiah's son Charles, also having a USA flag, with a destination state listed as Indiana. It seemed it was time to look into brother Jeremiah and son Charles a little more closely. Perhaps this would throw some light on Jeremiah and Emma's 'passage to Australia'...as we have kept having 'black holes' when searchng passenger and migration lists. To be continued.... As we downsize, my sister Janette has joined forces with me in collaborating about photos we have found in family albums and 'shoebox' like collections of papers and ephemera. Across collections we've found some beautiful photos of my grandmother, Lily Hooper, with friends, many taken while on tour with a J C Williamson company. I've photographed them and 'tweaked' them a little to make them as clear as possible. Over the next month or so, I'm going to gradually add them to this slide show and to ancestry.com. I hope you enjoy looking through them. The following photographs feature Lily with two of her closest friends, the earlier photo with Florrie Sutherland (later Pearce), the second with her lifelong friend Cora, photographed together during the NZ tour with JC Williamsons. My beautiful maternal aunt and godmother, Joyce Adelaide Hooley, passed away on the 10th July 2021 at her nursing home in Warriewood, near Narrabeen, Sydney's northern beaches. ‘Auntie Joyce’ was 103 years old, just a month short of her 104th birthday. Her funeral was watched online, as Sydney was in Covid 'Delta' lockdown, with Melbourne to return to its fifth lockdown in two days. A funeral with no more than 10 mourners, in this case my cousin, her husband, their two daughters, spouses and children. 'Auntie Joyce' was my godmother and a quietly loving presence in my life for over 70 years. Had I lived in Sydney I know I would have found all sorts of reasons to drop by to spend time with her, however I visited her at least every two years, with my last visit in October 2019, not long before the continuing Covid pandemic disrupted our lives. I loved spending time with her - she seemed to accept me with 'unconditional positive regard', which I treasured. Born on 28 August 1917, Auntie Joyce was the third child of John Edward Devitt Jr and Lily Mabel Florence Hooper, who married in 1912. Her sister, my mother, Paula Alice Devitt, was 3 when Joyce was born. A baby brother, Gordon, was born in June 1916 but died in late July at 7 weeks, a ‘blue baby’ with a suspected hole in the heart. Eight years after Joyce’s birth, her brother, Lex Devitt was born. Both sets of grandparents lived fairly close by, with the Hoopers living in Carnegie and John Edward Devitt Sr and Elizabeth Miller living within walking distance of Testar Grove. Devitt grandchildren Paula and Joyce, and their cousin Marie Kirsch, described to me treasured childhood memories of Saturday lunch time gatherings with Dinky and Elizabeth. These photos from an old album appear to have taken place at such a gathering during 1918, when Joyce would have been perhaps 10 to 18 months old. In the first photo, Joyce's grandfather John Edward Devitt Sr, or 'Dinky', is holding her. 'The Shack', a holiday cottage at Newport, owned by my grandmother Lily Hooper's loved sister Ruby, and her American husband Alva Moses was part of the family's life for many years. Aunty Joyce and her husband Bill had lived there early in their marriage while their house was being built. This is confirmed in the electoral records. Aunty Joyce also spent time there as a child, evidenced by these wonderful photographs found in an old album of my grandmother's. I have memories of Aunty Rube and Uncle Alva visiting Aunty Joyce and Uncle Bill for Sunday lunch. A glamorous couple, even in older age, they always dressed well for the occasion. Childless, Aunty Rube had a special affection for Paula and Joyce when they were children, and remained close to Aunty Joyce and her family, who also lived in Sydney, throughout her life. Memories of Aunty Joyce’s ‘Devitt side’ family reputation as being 'good with her hands' are many – of watching as she made Bill's niece Frances's magical wedding veil during a childhood visit; of watching her knitting and creating clothes for her grandchildren. My mother, Paula, wrote this poem about her sister, Joyce - ‘Joy Devitt’ for hats… Kooyong Road, North Caulfield around 1939-1942 My sister Joyce is a milliner Her talents beyond dispute Her hats are quite fantastic All ages she can suit. She started in a workroom That’s where she learnt her trade Then opened her own business Her fortune to be made. Her hats were always special She really had a flare They were the latest fashion and Were easy styles to wear. She gave up many years ago Now only does a few May be just for the family, or when Melbourne Cup is due! Paula Lee nee Devitt, aged 97.5, October 2010 Like other members of ‘the Devitt’ family, Joyce worked in Flinders Lane, Melbourne, renowned for being the centre of ‘the Rag Trade’. Joyce learnt to become a milliner at Latiners’ in Flinders Lane, where her father, ‘Jack Devitt’ worked as a commercial traveller. Latiners was owned by Rupert Kirsch, brother-in-law of Joyce’s aunt, Victoria Kirsch, nee Devitt. ‘Auntie Vic’, a milliner, is also remembered as being creative and ‘good with her hands’. Before commencing her four-year apprenticeship at Latiners in 1931, Joyce attended Caulfield North School in Balaclava Road, in walking distance of Testar Grove. Another Devitt aunt, Lily Devitt, was a teacher there. “I started working in Latiners, I was only 14, you were allowed to leave school then. The job was created for me really - without Dad I wouldn’t have got that job. The women there were nearly all fully qualified milliners, as each firm could only employ so many juniors. We sat at long tables. The first table I sat at I was under the strict eyes of Miss Penny. She wasn’t a bit friendly, she just sat at the end of the table watching to make sure that people didn’t start chatting and not finish their work. I moved from that table to Miss Gilding’s table. I was much happier there. I remember Miss Penny coming up to Miss Gilding’s table to look at the hats. Picking up a hat I had made, she asked, “Who made this hat, Miss Gilding?”, and Miss Gilding said, “Miss Devitt”. Miss Penny just said ‘Oh’. She didn’t pass on any praise, but she liked it apparently! At that time the technology we used was simple– the felt hats had to be steamed and pressed into shape – we just did this over a tin kettle at Tasman House”. After Rupert Kirsch moved the firm into a new building in Brunswick, which proved difficult to get to from North Caulfield, Joyce left Latiners - “One of the travelers, Mr. Featherstone, recommended me to a Miss Webb who had a shop at Caulfield Junction and needed a milliner. I worked there for three or four years, at times being left in charge of the shop while Miss Webb went on holidays. I eventually decided I could do this work for myself and set up my own business. I worked all hours to make sure I had hats ready for clients for the Spring Racing Carnival’s 'Cup' Days... they all wanted new hats, or old hats retrimmed or renovated. Mum would give me a hand, I had so much work to do!” Joyce married soldier William John Hooley in Sydney in 1942. L to R: Maggie Hooley, Fred Murphy, Arthur Palmer, Thelma Bisset (nee Hooley), Bill Hooley, Joyce Devitt, Minnie Rose (Joyce's Aunt), Lily Devitt, Jack Bissett, Merva Palmer (nee Hooley) When Bill resumed active service, Jean returned to Melbourne with Bill’s 8 year old daughter Jean. Bill’s first wife, Vera Hooley nee Stewart, had sadly died in childbirth in 1934. Joyce and Jean lived at Testar Grove with Jack and Lily Devitt and Lex for a few years, returning to Sydney when Bill returned from the war. Paula lived ‘just around the corner’ in Balaclava Road, and loved spending time with Jean. William was born in Sydney in 1945, then in 1953, Barbara completed the Hooley family. A treasured memory of Aunty Joyce was her close relationship with my mother, Paula, who was three years older. They stayed in regular contact throughout their lives. I was always thrilled to hear them chatting away together on the phone, at least once a week, when I stayed with my mother at her unit in East Malvern, where she lived until she was 96. A teacher, once a year during the school holidays I would drive with, and later drive, Paula to Sydney where we would stay at 15 Heights Crescent with Auntie Joyce. Mum would stay in 'Barb's room', while I would stay in the little flat, 'under the stairs'. I loved hearing Mum and Joyce chatting happily together upstairs. I could head out for a day in the city, Manly or other beaches, knowing that they were happy in one another's company, with their own plans for the day, and wouldn't miss me one bit! It was wonderful that, in their retirement years, they were able to travel overseas together to visit children, nieces and nephews. I treasure memories of their visiting me in Canada in 1982, of the trips we took together. The time spent with Jean and her family in New York was treasured by my mother, and I know by Auntie Joyce. Joyce’s love of her home, and the 'secret garden' below the cliff-like drop at the back of the garden, was unbounded. I don't think she was passionate about cooking, however she always remembered that I loved crumbed brains and bacon and cooked them for me whenever I visited. Had it not been for lockdowns in both Sydney and Melbourne at the time of her funeral, I know that my sister Janette and I would have driven to Sydney for Aunty Joyce’s funeral. We do, however, have very happy memories of our trip to Sydney for her 100th birthday party almost four years ago. I already miss Aunty Joyce, the knowing that she would be there if ever I visited Sydney, the happy visits she made to spend time with my mother in Melbourne. I loved her very much. Auntie Joyce would have celebrated her 104th birthday yesterday, had she lived. RIP Auntie Joyce. Beverley Lee 29 August 2021
I met my paternal grandfather, 'Grandpa Lee' in late 1951/2 when I was four five years old. Memories of meeting him, his capacity for comforting hugs and the delightful way he called me 'happy face' remain, captured in a bubble surrounded by an aura of light and happiness in my brain. A widower for seven years when we visited, James Joseph Lee lived in a flat in an historic building in Manly, not far from the harbourside beach where the ferries berth and depart. He died in 1957. I remember my father preparing to go to Sydney for his funeral, returning saddened with memorabilia, including a watch inscribed JL, and his war medals, of which I now have the miniatures which my grandmother probably wore at Anzac Time. I knew that he had been a printer, had run printing businesses in Sydney and Lismore, NSW; that he had lost these businesses during the Great Depression after holding on to his staff for as long as he could. I also knew that he had grown up and married In Leith, the port city adjoining Edinburgh, In Scotland where my father was born. I believed that my ancestors on the Lee side were Scottish. That was about it! I didn't know his parent's names, whether he had any brothers and sisters. His early live and 'family of origin' were a mystery to me. Where to begin? BMD (Birth, Marriages and Deaths) documents retrieved online from Scotland's People proved invaluable, The Birth Certificate for my father, confirmed his birth to James Lee and Rose McCann in Leith in 1904. A breakthrough came with the Marriage Certificate of James and Rose, as it listed their parents. Suddenly I had the names of Grandpa Lee's parents - Anthony Lee and Barbara Sullivan. I knew about 'Lee', fancy being a 'Sullivan'! I was thrilled to find that my father was named after his grandfather, also an Anthony Lee, and then on finding my great grandparent's wedding certificate, found that I had Irish great, great grandparents Michael Lee and Margaret Reilly! A UK Census Record for Scotland from 1871 revealed my Great Grandfather Anthony Lee, was, along with brothers and sisters, born in Ireland of an Irish father and mother. What a wonderful resource! Later discovered Catholic Church Baptismal Records from Kilronanan County Roscommon, confirmed his grandparents, but also his aunts and uncles, with all names this time recorded in Latin. 'Michaelem Lee married Marguerita Reilly, and had children Eleonaram (Ellen), Mariam (Maria), James, Antonium (Anthony), John (Joannem) and Michael (Michaelem), before leaving Ireland, having a daughter Margaret, in Scotland. Margaret died as a child, however her birth and death records, falling after the Scottish documentation was more formally registered in 1855, resulting in even greater clarity in some of the details, including the knowledge that my great, great grandparents had married in ....... . Unless, as is possible, the Lees left Scotland for Ireland, perhaps during the troubles or an earlier migration, Grandpa Lee's ancestors were Irish, and he grew up in Leith with Lee side Irish grandparents, aunts and uncles, surrounded as a child by Irish accents. Tracking the family later through Scotlands BMD records, I was relieved and delighted to find that Grandpa Lee, an eldest child had lots of cousins to play with when he was little. Playmates also included uncles, as his mother's younger brothers Francis and Edward Sulivan, were his age. Francis Sullivan, also a 'compositor', was the best man at Grandpa Lee's wedding. I discovered that Grandpa Lee had 10 younger brothers and sisters. The family lived for many years in what was probably a tenement in street called Cables Wynd, near the whisky distilleries located near Leith Docks. During the 1880's a brother, Patrick; and sister Ann were born, however Anne died at 4 yrs. In 1890's Anthony, Mary Cecilia, Barbara, Winnifred, Elizabeth and Phillip were born, however like their sister Anne, Mary Cecilia and Barbara died in early childhood;. Another Barbara, who also died in early childhood, was born in 1901, while in1904, his youngest sister Mary. and born, as was (her nephew), my father Anthony Lee. In 1908 his brother Anthony died of tuberculosis. Like Grandpa Lee, my father had Aunts and Uncles who were close to him in age. Born in 1883, James younger sisters Elizabeth was born in 1898, with another sister, Mary born in 1904, and brother Phillip were born in 1899. An only child at that time, there is a strong likelihood that he would have spent time with them as a child before leaving for Australia in 1912. Grandpa Lee's Birth Certificate revealed that at the time of his birth his father Anthony was a dock labourer Leith was a busy port at that time, and his father remained working on the docks until his death in 1917. Old Postcards and images of Leith found through Facebook groups provided some idea of what Leith must have been like in the 1880's as Grandpa Lee grew up. It's possible that his father Anthony was involved in the Leith Dock Strikes of 1889 pictured in one of these images. Grandpa Lee's Australian war records made reference to his being in the Leith based Royal Scots Divisions of the British Army for at least eight years before coming to Australia in 1912. I have had problems locating his documents in the UK military records, largely because a cousin, also named James Lee and born in Leith in the same year, had a long military record in the Royal Scots. This James Lee, a prize winning boxer affectionately known as Tancy Lee, was and possibly still is, considered a national living treasure in Scotland. His army records keep 'getting in the way', testing my patience, but I'm persisting. I'd love to visit the archives of the Royal Scots in Edinburgh to access the documents. Shipping records revealed that James, Rose and Tony had immigrated to Australia in 1912 when my father was eight years old. Business Directory entries show him as running printing businesses in Sydney, Electoral Records reflect the years in Sydney ; while Trove records flesh out some stories about a fire in the George Streetbuilding in which he had just started his printing business in 1913 and the family's social life in Manly and North Sydney. Facebook groups such as 'I Love Leith', have helped me to picture the life which Grandpa Lee had in Leith. There's a wonderful postcard series which was published in 1904, the year when James, aged only 21, and at the time I think in the Royal Scots, became a father - the year my father was born. Ancestry.com, and to a lesser extent My Heritage, have enabled me to further Grandpa Lee's extended family and led to treasured connections with Grandpa Lee's nieces, nephews. I knew nothing of them when I began my quest. HIs sister Elizabeth's son Bill Tully, who emigrated to Vancouver was a wonderful link to the family's life in Leith; his niece Barbara Lee, remains on my international phone list to call up from time to time in Toronto, Candada. I have Elizabeth's grandson on my list to visit if ever I go to Leith; Bill's daughters to visit in Vancouver; and have visited.... daughter in law in Brisbane. It has been such an adventure, with many treasured discoveries along the way.
So now, when I look at the photo I have of Grandpa Lee in uniform during World War I, I picture a young man with a large extended family who grew up in the Irish Catholic community of South Leith. Many of his male Lee relatives worked on the docks, however his mother's sister appears to have married a well to do printer. Grandpa Lee trained as a printer /compositor, then went into the army where his printing experience seems to have led to him specialising in communications and signalling. He established his own printing business briefly before immigrating to Australia in 1912. He established a printing business in Sydney, however returned to England in late 1915 with the Australian military forces. He was recommended for an award for bravery in relation to signalling and mentioned in despatches during the First World War. He was a much loved father to my father, loved by his daughter in laws, and highly respected by family and friends. Bill Tully, the son of his sister Elizabeth, explained to me once that the Lee family in Leith were "very proud of James, who became a Lieutenant in the Australian Army". I am too. Although I only met him once, I've always loved the fact that he nicknamed me 'Happy Face' and suspect that he was indeed a 'kindred spirit'. As I graduated from childhood to struggle through adolescence, my nose became an quite an issue. Self consciously growing into it, I despaired about the bump in my nose to my parents on many occasions. (This must have been difficult for them at the time, as neither had the cute, turned up nose that I longed for...) My father's response was always to explain to me that I had a special nose, one to feel proud of, a 'Roman Nose'. He tried to help me to reframe my perceptions, to see my Scottish 'Lee Side' nose as having distinctive 'Roman Emperor' connotations. Wikipedia states "An aquiline nose (also called a Roman nose or hook nose) is a human nose with a prominent bridge, giving it the appearance of being curved or slightly bent. The word aquiline comes from the Latin word aquilinus ("eagle-like"), an allusion to the curved beak of an eagle." Now that doesn't make me feel any better at all! It also suggests that my aquiline 'Roman nose' may have genetic links on both sides of the family, as I would describe my mother as having the rather aquiline nose of her paternal 'Miller' grandmother. The Miller clan - of Scottish/Irish descent - sported a number of Roman noses. Kaustubh Adhikari (2016) wrote in 'The Conversation' that 'the history of nose beauty ideals has been changeable and at times dark. For example, in early Europe the hooked “Roman” nose signified beauty and nobility. The Nazis on the other hand despised it and saw it as a characteristic of Jewish people. Even more broadly, Jews like Shakespeare’s Shylock typically ended up being portrayed with a hooked nose to represent evilness.' The Romans do appear to have invaded the southern part of Scotland and have garrisons there for periods of time between 43 AD and about 400 AD, even if they were unsuccessful across most of Scotland. So there is some, if very slim, chance that there may be some Roman genetic matter in my DNA (perhaps I should have a DNA test afterall!). However some respondents to web discussions suggest that while the casts of Roman Emporers do tend to feature Roman Noses, photographic evidence can be found of Aquiline, Roman like noses in the American Indian; Indian subcontinent; and other ethnic groups. Others have concluded that 'a nose is a nose', rather than being race specific. Their conclusion, appearing during my somewhat cursory research into Roman Noses, is not particularly welcome. You see, I have become comfortable with the possibility that a genetic link to my Roman Nose had arisen out of the Roman occupation of Scotland and had passed, not only genetically, but through family stories over centuries which my father had passed on to me A PhD would probably be needed to research this 'warm and fuzzy' hypothesis (....and is unlikely to proceed if left to me to do!) Interestingly, a genetic link to my Scottish Lee/McCann paternal line became obvious when my 'long lost' first cousin, Chris, visited Benalla some years ago. My sister, knowing that my nose has always been 'an issue' for me, suddenly exclaimed over dinner 'Bev, Chris has the same nose as you do!' Next thing I knew, she was arranging for us to stand side on looking at one another to take a photograph of our profiles to confirm this. Perhaps we do have the same nose, but my argument would be... "it looks better on Chris!" Reference and banner photograph image:
Kaustubh Adhikari 'The Conversation' May 24 2016 - 'How we found the genes that control nose shape and what they say about us'
"At 0649 on the 22nd May 1915, troops from the 7th (Leith) Battalion, Royal Scots, were en route for the Dardanelles. Heading south, they had not yet left Scotland when the train they were travelling on collided with an empty, stationary train which was on the same track, detailing the cars and rupturing the gas lamps. Then, sixty seconds later, a northbound express bound for Glasgow smashed into the wreckage. Many men were killed either in the first or second collisions, but the flames from the ruptured gas lamps caused an inferno and there was nothing available to extinguish it. Trapped men had to have limbs amputated by whatever means necessary to get them out of the fire. Others, who could not escape, begged to be shot, rather than be burned to death. 226 men died, 82 of whom were burned beyond recognition in the fire which wasn't extinguished until the following day. Most of the dead were returned to Leith, in Edinburgh, where they were buried in Rosebank Cemetery.
The cause of the crash: Signalling error. "At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them." From a post by Nick Field on the I Love Leith FB page on 22/5/2020.
Today is the anniversary of tragic death of many members of the 7th Battalion, Royal Scots, in the Quintinshill or Gretna Rail Disaster. My grandfather James Lee's military records reveal that he had been a soldier in the 3rd and 5th Royal Scots prior to migrating to Australia in 1912. James is highly likely to have known many of the men involved in the train disaster, either a during his time in the army or while living in Leith, where his family still lived. It is said that everyone in Leith knew someone who had been killed or injured in the disaster.
The Leith Battalion from Rare Bird on Vimeo.
Two years after the train tragedy, on 12 December 1917, 'James' sister, Winnifred Lee, married Matthew Donovan. Attested to the 7th Battalion, Royal Scots in 1911, 21 year old Matthew was seriously injured in the Gretna train disaster. In Military Pension Records available on line, Matthew is described as being 'Injured in Gretna Accident 22-5-2015'; and being 'Discharged permanently medically unfit' on 31 January 1916. Sadly, further tragedy befell Matthew on 6 July, 2018, when Winnifred died of eclampsia, a pregnancy and childbirth related condition. Marrying Winnifred and expecting their first child must have been a period of renewal of hope for Matthew. How bereft he must have been at their loss.
Postscript: In 1921 Matthew married Anne McDougall Uter and in 1928 had a daughter Agnes Marion (Esma) Donovan. Anne died in Dumbarton, Scotland in 1956. Matthew was the informant listed on Anne's death certificate; it is unclear when he died - he may have moved to England to be nearer Esma, who lived in Berkshire.
‘Beatrice Ada; Minnie; Edith; Alf; Charlie; Ruby, Violet’- I learnt my ‘Hooper side’ great aunts and uncles names off by heart as a child. I remember meeting them all at least once and have built up pictures of them over time based upon family stories, conversations and old photographs. Portraits of their parents, George Charles Beech Hooper and Emma Jackson, could be found hidden in a dark cupboard at my grandparents’ house. My grandmother Lily was their youngest sister.
‘Aunty Beat’, born in 1873, was already over 80, with arthritis and mobility problems, and possibly slowly dying, when I first met her in the 1950’s. I remember being frightened of going into her darkened bungalow bedroom at my aunt’s dairy farm near Dandenong when on holiday there. A woman of rounded curves who had never married, my memories of her have softened as I’ve aged. I feel sad that I was frightened of her and do hope that seeing me and my cousin peeping around her door as she lay in bed had given her pleasure rather than pain. Auntie Beat had cared for her parents as they aged, then in later life rotated amongst family members when she needed care. Reputed to have been a beauty when young, Auntie Beat apparently had a suitor who wanted to marry her, but Grandpa Hooper had forbidden this. ‘Aunty Ada’, next in line, was petite and finely boned like my mother, very approachable and loving. I have warm memories of visiting her and her interested, well-educated husband, Uncle Wal Kemp, in Dandenong as a child. Mum told wonderful stories of going on hayrides to country dances with her cousins May and Les when visiting the Kemps’ farm in Cranbourne during her youth. A chance discovery concerning Auntie Beat and Auntie Ada surprised my sister and mother during a family history quest some years ago. Checking out the death certificate of my great grandfather, George Charles Beech Hooper, they found him listed as having children with two women. A marriage certificate was found only for the first, a Janet ‘Jessie’ Wipers. Jessie was the mother of a boy George, two girls, Beatrice and Ada, and a baby girl who died shortly after birth. We will never know the story behind the collapse of this marriage. Perhaps Jessie, who had four children in a short time one of whom died, became unwell, perhaps with PND, and moved to Sydney to live where here parents lived, taking young George with her. Perhaps George wasn’t free to marry again? It seems that he and our great grandmother, Emma Jane Jackson, were never married. How did great grandfather George meet my great grandmother Emma Jane? We know he was a clerk at the Melbourne Steamship Company which was owned by a member of Emma Jane’s late brother’s family. Perhaps Emma Jane had been employed as a governess for little Beatrice and Ada? Was she ‘in the picture’ before Jessie relocated to Sydney. We will never know. The existence of our great grandfather’s first wife Jessie Wipers came as quite a shock to my mother and her cousins! Whether married or not, my Hooper grandparents, George and Emma, are remembered as a loving couple. Beatrice and Ada were raised as their children. They had seven other children together who all, interestingly, appear to have worked with J C Williamson’s Theatre Company in some capacity, the girls as dancers and choreographers, the boys in stage management, book-keeping roles. Born to Emma Jane in 1876, ‘Auntie Min’ was, by the time I knew her, a formidable woman who achieved acclaim and some notoriety as a ballerina/actress, then as J. C. Williamson’s ballet mistress and choreographer. Music scores and programs from the ballets Auntie Min had choreographed were kept amongst theatre memorabilia at my grandparents’ house; hearing about them was a magical part of my childhood. The family was particularly proud that Auntie Min ‘had taught Robert Helpmann to dance!’ Clearly a woman of spirit, Auntie Min had taken J C Williamson’s to court when they refused to pay her for two weeks when the theatre was closed during the Spanish influenza epidemic. Although Auntie Min received recognition and accumulated considerable wealth, her life was affected by sadness. Her son, John Rose, who mum described as a ‘change of life baby’, had a disability related to encephalitis and struggled throughout his life. Through family history research I discovered that Auntie Min had given birth to two little boys prior to John, both of whom had died not long after birth. A devout Christian Scientist who owned a beautiful house overlooking Sydney Harbour, widowed Auntie Min left her wealth to the Christian Science Church in Cremorne who had promised to watch out for John. John died alone and anonymously, with our family not being informed of his death until making enquiries many years later. ‘Auntie Ede’ or Edie was always spoken of in relation to farming however had also been a dancer, with an early photo of her in a Pierrot costume amongst family photos in an old trunk which found its way to her granddaughter in Yarrawonga a year or so ago. A beautiful young woman, Auntie Ede left the ballet to marry John Moore, a young Englishman who was keen to farm in Australia. They moved to Foster in Gippsland, establishing a farm and raising four daughters, Violet, Dot, and twins Ida and Ena, none of whom became dancers. Perhaps Edie told her daughters that working in the theatre was a very hard life, as my grandmother had told her daughters. I enjoyed visiting Aunt Ede in her 90’s when she was in care at Toora Hospital in 1971-2. Auntie Ede had my grandmother’s wide smile and reminded me of her. I was teaching at nearby Yarram High School - It was good to be able to report back to my grandmother about my visits to Auntie Ede when I returned to Melbourne. I met my grandmother’s eldest brother, ‘Uncle Alf’, once or twice in Sydney. He lived in Chatswood near my aunt who took me to visit him when I was there on holidays. A kind and friendly man, Uncle Alf struggled with health issues throughout his life. Tall and thin, he may have had polio as a child as he is reported to have had a limp. ‘Later in life’ Uncle Alf married a woman our family barely spoke of, however my understanding from her relatives is that she loved him deeply and that he was treasured by her family. Auntie Ede’s family told me Alf always corresponded with her and often visited their farm in Gippsland. ‘Uncle Charlie’, a rather dapper gentleman, didn’t really make an impression on me, however I do remember his wife, another ‘Auntie Ada’. Auntie Ada was a talented dressmaker who had taught dressmaking at the Sydney Technical College. I have memories of seeing a dressmaker’s dummy and beautiful embroidered lingerie lying on a table at their house. Ruby, their only daughter, was much loved by my mother. ‘Kindred spirits’ of the same age, they shared many memories. I loved diverting to Cooma to take mum to visit Ruby when we were en route to Sydney. They would talk for hours, then walk hand in hand back to the car like little girls when it was time to leave. ‘Auntie Rube’, possibly my grandmothers’ favourite sister, was still beautiful in her seventies when we had afternoon tea with my mother’s sister Joyce in Sydney. Ruby was with her loving ‘Studebaker’ car selling husband ‘Uncle Alva’ (Alva Moses), possibly the first person from the United States I met. Auntie Rube dearly loved my mother and her sister as children, spending time with them whenever possible and spoiling them with presents. Perhaps she couldn’t have children herself. Auntie Rube had apparently had other suitors before meeting and marrying Uncle Alva when she was 34. A dancer then dance mistress with J C Williamson, Auntie Rube lived in an apartment on the top floor of a blue stone building in ‘The Rocks’. We loved visiting there. My brother and I would spend as much time as we could in the beautiful wrought iron but rather clanky lift cage, going up and down as we pretended to be lift attendants. Like Auntie Min, and through astute investments, Auntie Rube at one stage was apparently one of the wealthiest women in Sydney. Finally, my grandmother’s closest sister in age, ‘Auntie Vi’. Regarded as a Melbourne beauty, Auntie Vi danced but also had a beautiful contralto voice and spent some time with the Royal Comic Opera. On a concert tour of New Zealand, Violet met the love of her life, tall and handsome widower ‘Jack’ Carl. My mother described them as a very close and loving couple. Jack became the doorman at Her Majesty’s Theatre when he moved to Melbourne where their lives continued to be involved in the theatre. Jack’s sudden death in 1942 left Auntie Vi bereft and lonely. I remember visiting her little single fronted terrace house in a square near Rathdowne Street in Carlton. My grandmother would always check to see how Auntie Vi was before children were invited in. I can remember sometimes waiting on the porch outside and suspect that, when we weren’t allowed in, Auntie Vi had been drinking. Auntie Vi and Jack Carl are still present in my life as I have her oval mirrored oak dressing table and Uncle Jack’s cedar chest in my bedrooms. I discovered during my family history journey that Uncle Jack had had a son in New Zealand and was able to send his tiny gold edged bible, signed by his mother in 1899, to his granddaughter Penny, who was thrilled to receive it. There you have it! I have cherished memories and stories of Beatrice, Ada, Minnie, Edie, Alf, Charlie, Ruby and Violet. My grandmother Lily, along with my mother and aunt, clearly loved her brothers and sisters and wherever possible included them in our lives. I feel so lucky to have known and be able to write about Beatrice, Ada, Minnie, Edith, Alf, Charlie, Ruby and Violet who were all born almost a century and a half ago. How truly amazing to be able to do this! Next project…. ‘The Devitts’…. Bev Lee February 2020 Someone very dear came in to my life in 2011 who linked me to the paternal ancestry about which I knew so little - a then ‘80 something’ year old first cousin of my father Tony Lee. Bill Tully, the son of my great aunt Elizabeth Lee, speaking with the rich Scottish brogue gained from growing up in my father’s birthplace, Leith in Scotland, established the ritual of phoning me from Vancouver at least monthly on a Sunday morning at 10 am Australian Eastern Time. A reciprocal relationship, we would take it in turns to call. If we were a week out one of us would always make contact. Bill generally took the lead, gallantly excusing himself for doing so by saying that his telephone plan made it cheaper for him to talk for up to an hour than to pay postage. Being so happy to establish a connection with me was perhaps for Bill a way of connecting with my grandfather, his ‘Uncle James’ who had emigrated to Australia before he was born. Bill described hearing about Uncle James, an uncle he said the family was very proud of. He knew his Uncle James was a Lieutenant in the Australian Army stationed in England and France during the Great War and described stories passed down of Uncle James, with his wife and son, my father Tony Lee, visiting their Scottish family in Leith during or not long after the war. He talked to me about my paternal great grandmother, Barbara Lee, who he remembers from childhood, and about his mother, my grandfather’s youngest sister, Elizabeth Lee, and told stories about my paternal great grandfather, Anthony Lee, who was apparently very fond of whisky. Bill’s mother Elizabeth would have been alive when I visited Edinburgh in 1972 and 1976, but I didn’t know. How I would have loved to have connected with the Lee’s in Scotland. Bill, his wife Susan, and daughters Sarah and Kate, lived in Vancouver where Bill had migrated in 1957. I often visited Vancouver in 1982 during a teacher exchange to Kamloops in Canada, but didn’t know they were there. A further irony - Bill had visited Australia with Susan but had not known about us; and was so disappointed that he had visited Melbourne and Ballarat less than a year before we spoke to one another for the first time. He was so very close, but he didn’t know I was here. Finding Bill, a story in itself, helped me to confirm and elaborate upon the emerging ‘Lee side’ history of my family, the side I knew so little about. I treasured our conversations, which were wide ranging and never boring. Rituals were established. Each conversation would include the sharing of news about Bill’s daughters, Sarah and Kate, and grandson Matthew. His wife Susan, who had battled with cancer and passed away two years previously, was a presence in our conversations, particularly in the early years when Bill’s grief about the loss of his beloved life partner was still being worked through. I would share news about my mother, brother and sister and our newly re discovered first cousin, Christopher, who lived in London and had not long ago visited us in Australia. I had always wondered whether connections were maintained by my grandfather with his Scottish family. I had recollections of my father speaking about his mother’s sister, but knew nothing about ‘The Lees’. In an odd and yet quite profound fashion Bill was able to provide ‘primary evidence’ that communication did take place between his Uncle James and his mother Lily via correspondence between James’ daughter, my ‘Aunty Bunty’, and Lily’s daughter, his sister Barbara. Bill sent me two envelopes sent to Scotland with Australian stamps on them in the 1940’s which his older sister Barbara had given him and which he had kept for so many years with his childhood stamp collection. Although the envelopes did not include their contents, they included the address of his mother, Mrs Barbara Potter, written in my aunt’s handwriting and Australian stamps long treasured. When I first met Christopher on his visit to Australia a year or so later, I gave him these envelopes, as Bill had intended. I was hoping they had significance for Chris whose life had been affected by the bitter breakdown of his parents marriage as a child. Chris had not seen his mother since he was four years old, nor ever seen her handwriting. Treasuring them myself, I took photographs before giving them to Chris. I was so lucky to have almost seven or so years of monthly conversations with Bill. Over these years there was much sharing of family history which we would revisit and add to over time. I would send Bill documents and ‘time lines’ of our family story and he would write or call back, providing additional information and embellishing facts with related stories. In later years Bill told me he was writing many of his memories down for his family. It was such a thrill when I received his wonderful document in the mail. We also had seven or so years of sending special greetings on St Patrick’s Day, birthdays, Christmas Day and New Years Eve, when ‘Auld Lang Syne’ would often feature, usually in the wonderful Jackie Lawrence e-cards which we both enjoyed sending and receiving. Of course health issues featured in our conversations. Bill actively volunteered for the Cancer Council in Vancouver, a way of valuing the care Susan had received. He described his own experience of the big C. During the seven years in which we developed and shared our conversations, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My journey from discovery to treatment through to five years being free of cancer was shared with Bill during our monthly talks. An active learner, Bill enjoyed attending university courses in Vancouver as a community student, latterly electing courses without examinations. Then, with his ‘fourth age’ imminent, Bill shared his decision to move from his apartment to a residential setting closer to his daughters and of his transition there. I have a treasured photo of Bill taken wearing his kilt on ‘Robbie Burns Day’ over which he officiated at an dinner time activity that year. Perhaps a year or so ago Bill disclosed that test results had come in which suggested that his cancer had returned. Always positive and upbeat, he didn’t dwell on this. We remained in contact, but aware that he may not be well, I began to take the lead role if too much time went by between calls. In one conversation Bill explained to me that as it was becoming more difficult for him to keep in touch with everyone, to send emails and to manage his affairs and that his daughter Sarah would be taking over these roles in the near future. My heart sank, however as always I admired his wisdom and capacity to share such information in such an honest and thoughtful way. I kept calling, often leaving messages if he didn’t pick up the phone, and was delighted one day when he did, saying ‘I’m still alive, I’m still alive’. Not long after, almost certainly supported by his grandson Matthew, he sent me news on his iPad and a photo taken of a family dinner when his sister Barbara’s son Lee Potter with his wife Liz and daughter Adeline arrived from Edinburgh to see Bill. Then came the email from Sarah, Kate and Matthew explaining that Sarah would now be Bill’s contact person. After waiting some weeks for news from Canada, I located Bill’s nephew Lee in Edinburgh who was able to tell me about his recent happy visit to see Bill. Then, three months ago as I write, an email from Sarah, Kate and Matthew saying that Bill had been admitted to hospital and was receiving Palliative Care, followed not long after by an email telling me that head passed away peacefully. I cherished knowing Bill. I cherished each conversation with him and loved hearing his voice on my message bank if I happened to be out or away. Indeed I found myself erasing other people’s messages and just leaving his on until they began to take up most of the available time, when I recorded them on my mobile phone for future reference, knowing there would be a time when he would phone me no more. I still have part of a message from his on my message bank which for some reason I missed, in which he says ‘Ho, Ho, Ho, A Merry Christmas from up here in Vancouver… ‘ which still cheers me up as I listen to my messages. Rest in Peace, my very, very dear cousin Bill Tully. I have been quietly bereft since you passed away in a city so far away. I have treasured the times we have shared together at least once a month for seven years and always think of you on Sunday mornings at 10 am. I will miss our calls so much. I will miss the way you ended our conversations in such endearing and hopeful ways. Although we never met in person you are a family member of particular importance to me and will always have a special place in my life. Beverley Lee July 22 2018 I've been thinking about Winifred Lee lately, perhaps because the person who was able to tell me something about her, my father's first cousin and my dear relative Bill Tully in Vancouver, is very ill.
Winifred was my grandfather James Lee's oldest of three surviving sisters, with three sisters dying as toddlers before Winifred was born. My work on Scottish People's BDM's had left me with the impression that Winifred may have been quite a strong and loving person who shared family responsibilities, particularly as her older brother James, my grandfather, had migrated to Australia or away at War or on other military service; another brother Anthony had died of tuberculosis aged 18 in 1908; and another older brother, Patrick having married and appearing perhaps to have not coped particularly well with life, committing suicide in 1932. She was quite possibly often responsible for supervising and supporting her younger siblings Elizabeth (Lily) 1896, Phillip 1894 and particularly Mary (May) b 1904. Bill described Winnie as being held in deep affection by his mother, Elizabeth. Although born 10 years after Winnie died, Bill spoke of her with great warmth. Winifred was also remembered by the daughter in law of Phillip's son Anthony (Tony) Lee when I caught up with her in Brisbane through stories Tony had shared about her. When I first discovered Winnie, I remember being very happy to have a great aunt on my father's Lee side who seemed so wonderful. This was followed by deep sadness when, pursuing records father, I found that she died only a year after she married Mathew Donovan of the pregnancy related condition Eclampsia and what would have been associated heart failure. I remember at the time finding an RCE notice which recorded a required variation to her death registration, which listed not just that she had died at Pathhead Ford. I wasn't sure quite what this meant then, nor am I now. Bill provided some information which I've been mulling over ever since. I can remember, when telling with him that, according to her death registration record, Winifred had died of Eclampsia, that he said he remembered hearing that she had died of tuberculosis. Perhaps tuberculosis, or 'pthisis', was not the cause of her death, however it may have been an underlying condition. Certainly in the one photo I have of Winifred taken in c 1917, she looks quite frail physically. With the anniversary of Winifred's death 100 years ago next month, I've decided to spend some time 'with her' by looking into her records and the possible conditions surrounding her life a little more deeply. I want to look into 'Pathhead Ford'; 'Eclampsia' and 'Eclampsia and Tuberculosis'; Tuberculosis treatment in Edinburgh in the late 1890's to 1920; and I also want to consider, given that there is a famous railway bridge at Pathhead Ford, what she may have been doing there to mean that perhaps she was not able to access medical treatment for her eclampsia. ..... More to come..... During 'Over There' at U3A late last week we watched a documentary on the Great War titled 'Hell', What a truly pointless war, with the loss of so many young lives. I began thinking of my grandfather James Lee and of a young 'second cousin 1x removed' killed in action in France. My great grandmother Emma Jane Taylor's nephew Charles Taylor's son, Lieutenant Albert Laurence Deane Taylor, a young Flying Officer/Observer in No 3 Squadron was killed in action in France over the Somme. I had discovered Albert during my earlier work on family history. Triggered by a hint via an ancestry email about him which referenced a new 'Find A Grave' record, I followed this up and added it to my records, finding as I did so that the 100th year anniversary of his death falls on the 20th May 2018 - 100 years ago today as I write this post. "Lieutenant Albert Lawrence Deane Taylor BIRTH unknown DEATH 20 May 1918 BURIALVignacourt British Cemetery Vignacourt, Departement de la Somme, Picardie, France PLOTII. B. 16. MEMORIAL ID56434374 · Gravesite Details Lieutenant, 3rd Squadron, Australian Flying Corps. Killed in action. Son of Charles and Elizabeth Taylor, of 4 Ferguson St., Williamstown, Victoria, Australia. Native of Williamstown, Victoria. Age 21". On the base of the photo of Albert's headstone is written 'Per Ardua ad Astra', the motto of the RAF and other Commonwealth Air Forces such as the RAAf. It can be translated as 'through adversity to the stars' or 'through difficulties to the stars'. Albert's War Service record is digitized and in the Australian War Memorial's records: http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1927412 (hopefully this will open directly). Lieutenant A. L. D. Taylor is mentioned in Chapter XIX 'No. 3 Squadron's Operations over the Somme' of First World War Official Histories - Volume VIII – The Australian Flying Corps in the Western and Eastern Theatres of War, 1914–1918 (11th edition, 1941) on page 261 (https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/awm-media/collection/RCDIG1069820/document/5519299.PDF) More from Find a Grave... "Vignacourt is a village in the Department of the Somme on the west of the D933 road from Amiens to Doullens. From the D933 take the D113 from Flesselles and 5 kilometres along this road the Cemetery will be found at the entrance of the village. When the German advance began in March 1918, Vignacourt was occupied by the 20th and 61st Casualty Clearing Stations. It also became a headquarters of Royal Air Force squadrons. The cemetery was begun in April and closed in August, and the burials reflect the desperate fighting of the Australian forces on the Amiens front. Six burials made in the communal cemetery between October 1915 and March 1918 were brought into the cemetery after the Armistice. Vignacourt British Cemetery contains 584 First World War burials. There are also two burials from the Second World War. The cemetery was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield. The cemetery also contains a monument erected by the village in honour of the Commonwealth dead, unveiled in August 1921. It is a statue of a French soldier, on the base of which are engraved the words: "Freres D'armes de L'Armee Britannique, tombes au Champ D'Honneur, dormez en paix. Nous veillons sur vous." ("Brothers in arms of the British Army, fallen on the field of honour, sleep in peace; we are watching over you.")" Williamstown Chronicle, Saturday 24th May, 1919 (via Trove).
Over the years I've been a repository for an eclectic collection of family memorabilia - siblings and cousins have equally eclectic collections which interestingly came largely from Jack and Lily's home at 11 Testar Grove, North Caulfield, perhaps via Lex, Paula or Joyce. Over the past two and a half years I've been attending a 'Collectors' group at U3A at which I've taken photos each month of items brought along, including mine. This slide show comprises the photos of the items which I've taken along to Collectors - my 'eclectic' collection of family memorabilia! Flinders Lane is one of the 'places' which features in Devitt Family stories across the first half of the 20th Century. I've always pricked up my ears when Flinders Lane is spoken about it and love wondering along it and the now cafe filled lanes which seem to emanate from it. I keep an eye out for photographs of Flinders Lane taken at the time when my grandfather, Jack Devitt; two Devitt grand aunts -Victoria and Adelaide and their husbands, mother Paula Devitt, aunt Joyce Devitt family members worked in and around Flinders Lane, part of the 'Rag Trade'. I'm looking forward to writing about Flinders Lane and to set the scene, have included a photo perhaps in the 1920's/30's... Flinders Lane - Image acknowledgement - 'State Library of Victoria'
I'm currently looking out writing relating to family history which I've posted elsewhere since I began my family history quest in 2010. This process is likely to result in an even more eclectic blog! The following post features something I wrote in 2013 or thereabouts for my 'Armchair Economics' blog ( I still post to it, but very intermittently)... While doing family history over recent years, and with a background in economics, I've found myself reflecting on my family's role in the economy over time - dancers; milliners; coal trimmers; riveters; printers; soldiers; bookkeepers; farmers; bookkeepers and accountants; secretaries; sales representatives/commercial travellers; stonemasons; coal trimmers; teachers and more. I've found myself thinking about the entrepreneurs and the workers; the wealthy and the impoverished, and more. I've also come across evidence of the impact of economic instability in their lives. In a small photograph album created by my grandmother, Lily Hooper, I found this photograph taken during her time as a ballet dancer with J C Williamson in the early years of the 20th Century. The picture is of young dancers working with the J. C Williamson company in the early 1900's--I think perhaps Lily's in the back row - second from your RHS - as I see a resemblance to photos of my uncle at about the same age. My grandmother's family were associated with the theatre 'industry', with at least five Hooper sisters becoming dancers - Edie, Minnie, Violet, Ruby and Lily - and Minnie and Ruby moving on to become ballet mistresses, choreographers and owners of their own dance schools in Sydney. Both went on to become quite wealthy women in Sydney, with large share portfolios and significant estates. There are rich narratives in my family about their stories and they feature heavily on 'Trove' (National Library of Australia's online archive).
I started to wonder whether there is in fact, a field of economics known as 'cultural economics', and it seems there is. Looking into the area of 'cultural economics' seems worthwhile, and timely given Cate Blanchett's eulogy at Gough Whitlam's funeral service, which spoke tellingly of the role of arts and culture in the socio-economic life of Australia. Cate Blanchett referred to the production of culture as an end in itself. The production and consumption of 'widgets' is very different from the way in which cultural goods are produced and consumed as an end product during a performance by hard working, fit, skilful ballerinas at a theatre such as Her Majesty's in Melbourne. My grandmother was one of those dancers. Of seven Hooper daughters, at least five were dancers. While Lily's older sisters, Minnie and Ruby, become highly regarded ballet mistresses for J C Williamson, my grandmother did not encourage her daughters to become dancers, describing it to them as a very hard life. These young dancers worked very hard and may have been exploited. My grandmother's world in the paid work force was competitive, her career had a very limited life, there was an intensity about her life which became the substance of dreams - her trips to New Zealand; the ephemera in her treasured trunk; and now for me, the articles about her world I find in Trove. In terms of family narratives .... forward 50-65 years from the photograph, and I remember my grandmother, with my grandfather (her stage door Johnny)... living on their pension in Caulfield North, Melbourne. They owned their own home, had interesting furniture which they kept well polished and preserved, ate well because they knew how to cook nutritious meals out of 'the basics' and Poppa's well cared for vegetable garden. They didn't have extensive bank deposits, perhaps because my grandfather had been attracted to the 'sport of kings', but also because he had been a commercial traveller, then in older years a men's clothing salesman at London Stores. I always saw them as producers - of nutritious meals, which I loved seeing made and then eating together; of vegetables and lemons from their always to be remembered lemon tree, in front of which their are countless photographs of relatives standing as family photographs were produced. Poppa was always the family 'shoe shine' and repair man; and of course the gardener. They saved their pension to travel to visit their son Lex, an unmarried farmer on a bush block in the North East. While there they would work hard to support him; providing nutritious meals; mending his clothes; cleaning; painting; chopping and piling up the wood heap, and more - often going back to Melbourne for 'a rest'! They would provide child care and food and board to grandchildren, from toddler hood to late adolescence, who always loved visiting them, and provide some respite for their older daughter, my mother - who sometimes needed a bit of extra support. They provided produce to others; my grandmother was always knitting for someone - keeping Poppa and Lex supplied each year with a new cowl neck woollen jumper. They had regular routines and a well balanced life which enabled them to productively contribute to their own and other people's welfare and standard of living. Now I'm out of the paid workforce myself, living on an only very slightly topped up pension, in my own home, and producing more in terms of a 'household economy' ... making instead of buying cakes and Christmas gifts; contributing to my friend's and family members quality of life via family history projects; making my home operate more efficiently in a greenhouse sense; maintaining and updating my own computer system; discarding paper to recyclers, old clothes to opportunity shops for redistributing, and more; until recently providing love and support and assistance with evening meal and monitoring service to my beloved 100 year old mother in a nursing home. While I did most of these things while working - they were less frequently done... I continue to pay someone $25 a fortnight for mowing and tidying my garden, with other expenses paid on an as needs basis eg. pruning; removal of branches and sometimes gum trees... I'm also involved with U3A and have been spending some time testing the website and contributing to its updating and further development. Sometimes I think of the imputed value of what I'm contributing to GDP. The imputed value of the services provided by members in the provision of U3A courses would be considerable - barely reflected at all in the financial accounts of U3A... Armchair theorizing about the role of the Household Economy has begun to preoccupy me more since my retirement , reminding me of the work of the wonderful then Melbourne University economist Duncan Ironmonger who inspired me to think about it during the late 1980's. My memories of my grandparents, Jack and Lily Devitt, provide a rich vein for thinking about this. (Armchair theorizing about: Paid and unpaid work; Gross Domestic Product and the Household Economy; Imputed values; Measuring the Quality of Life; Safety Nets;Traditional and non-traditional gendered roles in work - and more!) It is always a thrill when 'oral history' family stories passed down generations are confirmed during family history research, when they suddenly make more sense. Like my sister, I've found that remembered stories, stories passed on by our mother, are usually 'right' and can often provide wonderful 'leads'. Oral histories suggested that my grandmother, Rose Lee (McCann) had worked 'in the canteens' in England during World War I. My grandfather James Lee's war records show that he had been stationed at Perham Downs on the Salisbury Plains in Sussex during the war - coming across a photo of the Perham Downs canteen gave me goosebumps, as this could have been the canteen in which she worked. Other stories suggested that she may have run a boarding house and even a hotel at some time. Now while I don't have evidence of this, a cousin posted this picture on Facebook some time ago, with the caption 'having breakfast using my grandmother's cutlery'. Rose's cutlery is rather beautiful, isn't it. A copy of 'The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam' treasured by her mother, my 'Aunty Bunty', was equally treasured by this cousin. Intrigued, I took the photo below. The publication date, 1896 suggests that it could have been given my my grandfather to my grandmother, or perhaps by a family member to them both, as a wedding present in 1904. It made me feel quite strange looking at it, as my parents had a copy of 'The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam' in our bookshelves when I grew up. None of my friend's families seemed to have a copy in their bookshelves. Did my father's parents give this to my mother and father as a present at their war time wedding in Sydney 1942? If not, did my my father give it to my mother, remembering that his parents had a copy? What of an Irish connection? My mother passed on her understanding that my grandfather's Devitt forebears had left Ireland for Liverpool, moving on from there to Newcastle Upon Tyne in Northern England where they settled. This all appears to have been true, though there was an intervening period in which my Irish born bricklayer/stone mason great great grandfather Edward Patrick Devitt and his wife Anne (possibly Rourke or O'Rourke) lived in Manchester where my great grandfather was born in 1858 (1871 UK Census).
Sometimes oral history is a bit sketchy and there are 'holes' even 'black holes', often resulting from family secrets! My Scottish born father died when I was fifteen, limiting my accress to Lee stories to those told during my childhood. I knew my father was born in Edinburgh, remember him talking about Leith and 'The Firth of Forth', I thought I was a Scot through and through on my father's side. However reading through Scottish census data during the 1800's I realised I was much more Irish than I thought. My great grandfathers, Anthony Lee and Bernard McCann were both born in Ireland, as was Rose Anne McCann (Kelly), my great grandmother. While my other great grandmother, Barbara Lee (Sullivan) had been born in Scotland, her father had been born in Ireland. All my paternal great great grandparents had been born in Ireland, appearing to have migrated to Scotland in the Irish Famine decades or after political unrest or economic decline in Ireland. This has led me to reflect on the depth of the Irish connection, to think about whether it has influenced me, to look for remnants of my Irish history in my life. I've come up with one or two - the first is that above our kitchen table when I was young was an illustrated poem which I loved to look at. The illustration featured a road up to a house on a hill. It has taken me some time to fully remember, but now I realise, and my brother has thought back to confirm, that it was 'The Irish Blessing'..."May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of his hand". I wonder why it was there, who chose it, and why? No one else had an 'Irish Blessing' at their house and my father seemed to be quite fond of it. On St Patrick's Day at 'the Northo' in Benalla just a few weeks ago, my sister and I were singing along with the Scottish fiddle band 'Nessie' playing as part of St Patrick's Day celebrations. We were singing along with 'Cockles and Mussels'... you know, 'In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty'... Suddenly we looked at one another, knowingly, recognizing that when we were little we sat around the kitchen table after meals, singing this song with our father, who had taught it to us. I was telling this to my father's also Scottish born cousin, 90 year old Bill Tully, son of my paternal grandfather's sister Elizabeth, who now lives in a nursing home setting in Vancouver. Bill laughed and said, that is strange, as it is a song which he has chosen to sing recently with his carer. His grandfather, my great grandfather, was born in Ireland, first appearing in the Scottish census in 1871 after the family had migrated from County Roscommon in Ireland. So, sometimes it is the family story, the somewhat 'out of place' treasured family object or paperwork, or the rather odd family tradition, which has a place in the search for meaning during the family history journey. 'Alive, alive oh... Alive, alive oh, singing cockels and mussels... ' Bev Lee April 9 2018 |
The Journey ...An 'occasional blog' recording elements of my renewed family history journey. This is the second wave in my 'family history' journey. The first lasted from 2010 to 2014. with intermittent bursts since then. It's time to revisit, to share more stories, to edit, to tackle uncertainties... Categories
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