Week 50 (Dec. 9-15): Chosen Family

The theme for Week 50 is "Chosen Family." Family isn't necessarily just those you are genetically related to. What about the special family friends who become "Aunt" and "Uncle"? Special friends who are as close (or closer) than siblings?  Who was chosen to be part of your family?

One such 'Chosen Family' member was William Knox, known to all as Uncle.  For many years Uncle lived next door to my maternal grandmother, a close family friend who attended many family gatherings and took an active interest in my grandmother's children and grandchildren.

Pictured here in 1954, by the time I was born he was quite elderly.  I don't recall Uncle having any family of his own, but every time I visited by grandmother as a young child, a visit to Uncle was a highlight.

My mother could recall visiting Uncle when her parents were busy or ill, childhood trips to the theatre or cinema, or walks to the local shop to buy sweets as a treat.

"Chosen Family" indeed.

Trove Tuesday

As the Christmas season approaches, this week's Trove blog looks back at how mail has helped people connect with each other around Christmas time for decades.  Every Christmas, is seems, we are reminded by the Post Office to make sure we send our Christmas letters, cards and packages early to ensure their timely arrival.  In more modern times, we are also urged to complete our online shopping early to ensure delivery.

In the early twentieth century soldiers had limited ways to contact their family while serving their country. Christmas was a time they could sometimes send postcards or letters to their family to let them know they were safe and well, and perhaps receive letters or packages from home. During the Second World War Japan even agreed to let Prisoners of War send Christmas mail to their families.  During the First World War embroidered postcards became a popular item for soldiers to send to loved ones back home. These postcards were known as war silks and were especially popular around holidays like Christmas.  

Then there were children writing hopeful letters to Santa, assuring him they had been good and listing toys and gifts they hoped to receive, many promising to leave out a snack for Santa and his reindeer when they visited.

The National Library of Australia holds a letter to Santa from award-winning author Patrick White in their collection. He was six years old at the time of writing.  The letter reads, “Dear Father Xmas. Will you please bring me a pistol, a mouth organ, a violin, a butterfly net, Robinson Crusoe, A History of Australia, some marbles, a little mouse what runs across the room. I hope you do not think I am too greedy but I want the things badly. Your loving Paddy”  

Perhaps the most famous letter to Santa comes from New York newspaper The Sun’s 1897 editorial featuring 8-year old Virginia O’Hanlon. Some of her friends had told her Santa wasn’t real, so she wrote to the paper to ask:  ‘Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?’  

The response penned to Virginia was so moving that it has continued to be printed in global newspapers for decades.  “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there was no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.”  One such version of the article was published in the 18 December 1926 edition of Sydney's The World’s News.

Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

The latest issue of Who Do You Think You Are magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines.

Inside this month's issue : 

• Census websites tested What's the best website for searching census results?
• Al Murray The comedian and podcaster on his new book about the Battle of Arnhem
• Reader story Megan Harrison's ancestor was a campaigner for women's education
• The RNLI How to trace lifeboatmen in your family tree
• Children's Christmas traditions The origins of beloved festive activities
• Around Britain Herefordshire family history
• And more.....
  

Week 49 (Dec. 2-8): Handed Down

There is so much that can be 'Handed Down' by family.  Heirlooms, certainly, but we are also handed down so much more.  Stories are often handed down by generations, family legends that may or may not be 100% accurate.  Traditions are also 'handed down', some of which are common, some cultural and some unique to your family.  Family traits are handed down in our DNA.  Even names can be 'handed down' within the family, used generation after generation.  The list goes on.

I have blogged several times about my family's Christmas traditions, which started last Sunday when my Christmas tree went up and decorating began.  As usual, the tree will stand un-decorated for a week until my cat loses interest, and tinsel will not be used in my decorating as he sees tinsel as a food group (his stomach and vet both disagree).

A few years ago I posted about my experience of my sister and I cleaning out the family home after the deaths of our parents - our father in 2013 and mother in 2015 - and the importance of knowing the stories behind the many treasures tucked away in cupboards and drawers, or out in the shed.

Cleaning out the house, we came across treasures in every corner.  A hand tinted photo of my mother as a child, a box of slides and negatives from early in our parents' marriage, a small garnet brooch that belonged to my great grandmother, a bronze alligator nutcracker made by my grandfather, and so much more. 

Then there is my heirloom garden gnome.  Some family treasures are small, portable and easy to take with you when you move.  Some, like my gnome, are not.  He is about 50 cm tall, and my family purchased two of them for my father's 50th birthday, back in January 1976.  When we sold the family home my sister and I decided we wanted to keep one gnome each.  At the time we first brought them, there was a rash of gnome-napping happening where we lived, with gnomes disappearing from gardens, never to be seen again.  So my father filled the concrete shells with solid concrete, then installed them on concrete plinths about 30 cm in diameter and 10 cm thick, out in our front yard.  They weigh a ton, and needless to say, they have never been successfully 'gnome-napped'.

Then, there is the heirloom hare's foot fern.  The original hares-foot belonged to my grandmother.  Before she passed away, my mother took a cutting from her plant, brought it home and potted it.  It thrived in our greenhouse and by the time my parents passed away it had overgrown its pot, attached itself to the wooden shelf the pot sat upon, and was firmly attached to the shelf.  Clearly it was not moving with me to my new home.  So much as my mother had done, I took a few cuttings, potted them and hoped for the best.

These two little cuttings have thrived.  They quickly outgrew the little pots I had started them in, and have since been transplanted to bigger pots.  They sit, one in my main bathroom and one in a stand in my dining room, and I think of my mother and grandmother whenever I see them.  I have recently taken a new cutting from one of these plants and potted it for a friend.  And so the heirloom hares-foot fern continues the be 'handed down', hopefully for many years to come.

What items do you have tucked away in odd corners that you hope to 'hand down' to the next generation??  Do your children or grandchildren know the stories behind those treasures you have stored away??  If they don't, chances are they will dismiss those items as junk and they will be lost.  If your children don't know the story behind Great Aunt Mary's tea set - or even that the tea set in the shed was Great Aunt Mary's and not something you picked up on a whim at a jumble sale - then they will have no reason to keep it, value it, and ultimately pass it - and its story - on to another generation.

Trove Tuesday

This week's Trove Highlight focuses on researching the history of your home.  For many family history researchers, discovering the history of the family home can help flesh out the story of how the family came to live there, and tell stories of their lives in that house.

The article discusses the best way to locate information on the history of your house on Trove, using not just newspapers but also Australian architecture and home design magazines from yester-year which published editorials on beautiful and interesting homes and discussed changes in architecture which provide clues about when your house was built and how it may have looked originally.

Then there are Post Office Directories, Town maps and plans, and even photos and images of your home locality which may be available on Trove.  These resources all help in researching your family history via the homes your family lived in.

Once you have exhausted the resources on Trove, there are still state and territory public records offices which may hold property records - sales, changes to the property, building permits, and more.

So try researching the history of the homes your family lived in - you never know what you might find!

Week 48 (Nov. 25-Dec. 1): Very Funny

Throughout my childhood, my parents were fond of telling stories about their lives and our early years on the sheep station 'Para'.  I loved hearing those stories, and in my late teens started writing them down and checking facts where I could - it is how I got started in family history.  So I thought immediately of several stories in response to the prompt 'Very Funny' this week.

Animals were always a big part of Dad’s life and throughout my childhood a succession of cats, dogs and other animals filled our home.  Dad loved them all, and was particularly close to our cat Lucy, the last pet in our household before Dad's death.  

Lucy was 18.5 years old when she died, and in the last yearss of her life was frequently referred to as the geriatric attack cat.  When my little dog Kiera had died aged 15 a few years previously, Lucy took over her guard dog duties, a task she clearly took very seriously.  Many was the time I looked out our back windows to see Dad walking around his garden, his faithful hound … err cat … at his heels.  As if she understood his failing eyesight, she was always about a metre behind, never in front, never under his feet.  And woe betide any stranger who came near HER DADDY while Lucy was on guard.

I happened to be home the day, a few months before Lucy and then Dad passed away, when an electricity meter reader came to the house.  Dad was asleep on his couch on the front verandah, his cat at his side.  Inside the house I heard a strange voice yell and shot out, to find the meter man retreated off the veranda, Lucy with tail like a bottle brush squarely between him and HER DADDY, and Dad still blissfully asleep.  

Standing on the stones in out driveway, blood trickling down his arm, the man told me what had happened. As he entered the gate and approached the verandah, Lucy woke, sat up and hissed.   When he kept coming she jumped off the couch, fluffed herself up and started to growl.  When he stepped onto the veranda, she flew him, biting, clawing and yowling.  The man quickly retreated, and that's when I came out.  There Lucy stayed, firmly between this stranger and HER DADDY, determined he was not getting any nearer.

In the end I held her while the man edged past, quickly read the meter, and retreated again.  "I’m wary of the dogs," he told me, "but I’ve never been attacked by a cat before!"  Fortunately he saw the funny side, as she had drawn blood and I had visions of her being taken away in kitty sized handcuffs!

Over the next few weeks I relayed the story of the geriatric attack cat several times, and was quite taken aback by the number of other visitors who responded that Lucy had warned them off as well.  Friends, our gardener, delivery people, the lady from the chemist delivering Dad's medicines - everyone commented to me that Dad often never woke up as they went about their business, but that cat watched every move they made!  And fortunately everyone found it 'Very Funny'!

Look History in the Eye - Episode 14

Episode 14 of the Public Records Office of Victoria podcast series Look history in the Eye "The Brookside Girls" focuses on Erica Cervini, an award-winning education journalist, researcher and family historian who recently wrote an article for Public Record Office Victoria's Provenance Journal about the Brookside Reformatory for Girls in Cape Clear, ten miles from Scarsdale Victoria. The episode delves into her research, including the cruel and unusual treatment, multiple escapes, and what we can learn from its ultimate failure today. 

The focus of the podcast is Jessie Nairn. Jessie was sent to Brookside in 1896. Jessie was one of the Brookside girls to escape the reformatory. Scared, cold and with nowhere else to go, she ended up handing herself into police.

Jessie and several other girls who escaped were sent back to the reformatory, though their claims of abuse against the institution made it from the police to the newspapers, igniting discussions as to whether the institution was too hard on the girls who lived there.  Jessie and her cohort weren't the first to escape Brookside. Annie Duce escaped many times before! After multiple escape attempts, she ended up back at Melbourne Gaol serving out her sentence for larceny. 

Episode 14: The Brookside girls

Duration: 32 min