Who were they?

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt shows two little French boys, survivors of the Titanic disaster. At the time the photo was taken, their identity was unknown, but publication of this photo and others resulted in them being identified by their mother in France, after their father had taken them away from her with the intention of emigrating to America.

Here is a photograph of two sweet little sisters, dressed in identical check print dresses. The younger child is holding what looks like a pull-along toy of some kind, and the older one is possibly holding a small bag. The photo appeared in an old family album given to my cousin Kim in Christchurch NZ. She and I are doubly related, through my 2x great grandmother Mary Anderson being her 3x great grandmother through Mary's second marriage to Charles Paterson, and my 2x great grandmother Jane Paterson being her 4x great aunt. Hence we have quite a few relatives in common, but despite this we don't know who these two little girls were. We can surmise is that the couple in the following photograph were very likely to have been their parents, because the studio background is the same and they were consecutively placed in the album. Unfortunately we don't have a date for the photographs but they are likely to have been taken in the 1870s or 1880s. I have a similar old family album originally given to Frederick Young in 1881, and although it doesn't contain these two photographs, I was wondering whether they could be Frederick's sisters,  my great grandmother Jane Isabella Young and and her little sister Mary Euphemia. They were born in NZ in 1860 and 1862 however, so they were probably a little old for the photograph to be of them, even though the father in the photograph does look rather like my 2x great grandfather Charles Young, father of Jane Isabella, Mary Euphemia and Frederick, and husband of Jane Paterson.

Could these older girls who are also wearing matching clothes be the same children? I believe they may be Jane Isabella and Mary Euphemia, mentioned above

I'm fairly sure that this is a photograph of Jane and Euphemia's parents Charles and Jane Young (nee Paterson).

There were two other sets of sisters who are possible candidates, namely Elizabeth and Rachel Nancarrow, born 1876 and 1878 respectively, and Leah and Mabel born 1885 and 1888, daughters of Michael Nancarrow and Margaret Paterson, who was a daughter of Mary Anderson and her second husband Charles Paterson.Unfortunately I don't have an identified photographs of these sisters. I do have a photograph of their father but he doesn't look like the same man as the father of the little girls.

So sad to say, unlike the little boys in our prompt, I can't identify who these two little girls were with any certainty. Perhaps publishing their photograph here may help.

For more blogs on this week's topic,

be sure to have a look at Sepia Saturday #313

What the neighbours got up to: A Post for Trove Tuesday

What the Neighbours got up to: A Post for Trove Tuesday

Turner St Malvern East runs between Waverley Rd and Manning Rd.  Just around the corner on Waverley Rd is an impressive-looking building containing shops and offices. These days there's not a lot happening there apart from a florist shop and a solicitor's office, but when initially built in about 1900 it looks to have been quite a busy place. Further shops were added in about 1912.  I've blogged about the history of the area previously,but I hadn't seen the following photograph of one of the shops before.

Photograph from the Stonnington Local History Catalogue, showing the boot and shoe shop, located at 53-55 Waverley Rd, operated by Wm. Howarth

When looking for further information about Mr Wm. Howarth, I came across these two articles, which don't portray him in a very favorable light.

Report published in The Argus, 1 November 1935, snipped from Trove web site

THEFT OF ELECTRICITY

Shopkeeper Fined £20.

Giving evidence at the Malvern Court on Wednesday, Joseph Henry Foster, superintendent for the Electricity Commission, said that his suspicions were aroused when he heard that a shop conducted by William Howarth, boot retailer, of Waverley road, East Malvern, was known as the "lighthouse of East Malvern" , because of the number and brilliance of the lights used. A check of accounts showed that the amount of power used in the shop was far above normal. Howarth pleaded not guilty to a charge of having fraudulently used electricity. 

Llewellyn Hunt, a clerk employed by the commission said that on September 20 he went to Howarth's shop. A 75-watt lamp and a 150 watt lamp were being operated from the power circuit. Current for these lights was being obtained at 2d instead of  5 3/4d a unit.

In defence Howarth said that the fuse in the light meter had blown out about an hour before the inspectors called. As a temporary expedient he had connected two of the lights in the power circuit.

Mr R.E, Stapleton, P.M, said that he believed that Howarth had been defrauding the commission for a considerable time. 

A fine of 20 with  3 3/- costs was imposed.

Here's the corresponding report from the Age, which additionally reports that when the officers attempted to inspect the meters Howarth offered obstruction and tried to prevent them from climbing a ladder. The police had to be called. The Magistrate placed no reliance in Howarth's explanation.

Report published in The Age, 31 October 1935, snipped from Trove web site

I rather wonder what Mr Lllewellyn Hunt and the Electricity Commission would have thought of a number of current local residences in Malvern East such as in the following picture, that are 'lit up like Christmas trees' in the month of December!

Balls for Christmas

Push ball isn't a game I know, so I thought I'd stick with the simpler kind. Here's one of our boys on his first Xmas Day, 1982, spent in Canberra with family and grandparents. It was a big ball for a small  person, and at 8 months old he thought this present was pretty good. So did his cousin, when she tested it for bounciness on a hard surface.

He could take his ball for a walk, or perhaps try playng cricket with a smaller ball. In later life he became adept at numerous ball sports such as soccer, tennis, baseball, volleyball and juggling, just to name a few. I've blogged about the latter for example, in a previous post.

His big sister got a ball you could hang on to, known as a Happy Hopper. Her father and uncle probably had a go of it  too.

33 years later and here's a very big shining ball: the full moon settng on a fine Boxing Day morning while we were once agan visiting the city of Canberra. Both the grandparents and the children's aunt who I believe must have taken the group photograph are now gone, but photos like these above keep them shining and alive in our memories.

For more balls and ball players big and little, just bounce over to Sepia Saturday # 312

Market Square, Leicester

I'm rather late for Sepia Saturday #311 because we've been away relaxing at the beach over the Christmas/New Year week, but I would like to share these photographs taken by my late father-in-law Bob Featherston in Market Street in the city of Leicester.  Bob was held as a prisoner of war for over two years from January 1943 until liberation in 1945, first in Stalag V111B in Lamsdorf and then in Stalag Luft 111 in Sagan. I'm not sure whether he took these photos while serving in the RAF before he was captured following an unsuccessful mission, or after his release when the war was officially over, but in the first image the Air Raid Shelter sign is clearly visible above the market stalls.  

I've attempted to scan or photograph these images from Bob's large negatives, so they're not terribly clear, but nevertheless I think they convey the grim mood of the period, which is probably what struck Bob when he took them. The next image shows a large queue of customers lined up outside Folwells butcher shop in Market Place. Rationing would have been in force and of course meat was an essential food item, probably in short supply. In the next two photographs that I've cropped from the main photograph, you can see the signs for Pies and Sausages in one window and for Hams and Bacon in the other.  Once they had made it to the head of the queue and had been served, the customers would have no doubt made sure they got what they were entitled to, like the lady seen checking her change in the second cropped shot.

 I doubt  whether these purposeful shoppers would have had time to stop for a coffee, but to the left of Folwells you can see the sign for the Mikado Cafe, which was located at 67 Market Place. According to an article published in the Leicestershire Historian, the Mikado "was owned by a London firm, Nelson & Co, and dated from the turn of the century. In spite of its name, the decor, with its murals of coloured tiles, was definitely Turkish. A common sight was a man in a chef's hat roasting coffee beans in the window, the aroma drifting across the Market Place. In its later years an attempt was made to modernize the downstairs part, which was in three sections, with the intrusion of plastic and formica, but the upstairs dining room, with its wicker furniture, remained unchanged. The Mikado Cafe was closed and the premises sold in 1966. It is described by William Cooper in his novel Scenes from Provincial Life, published in 1950." 

Together with the first image, these next three photographs show customers buying fruit and vegetables at the market opposite the shops. You can see a sign for the milliners Gee Nephew & Co Ltd above their shop behind the cartload of produce. Again the sense of determination to get what they need is conveyed.  There probably weren't too many of them who had gone out simply to buy hats at this time, but you never know - there are quite a few men and women wearing hats here.

Just click here to discover more Sepia Saturday contributions involving shops, shopping, markets and produce. Happy New Year to you all!

Memories of Christmas 1994

                                      

Most of the decorations on our tree have some particular significance, in that they were handmade or given to us by friends or family, or they formerly belonged to people who are no longer with us. These four mini stockings that come out every year fit into the first category. They were cross-stitched by yours truly 21 years ago, in 1994, as you can see from the designs on two of them. I must admit that I haven't done much cross stitch since. This inspired me to look for photos of Christmas 1994.

                            

Here is our younger son admiring his grandparents' tree and the pile of presents below it at Christmas that year. If you click on the photo and look closely you can see at least three of my stockings hanging there for the first time.

In 1994 my parents Jean and Ian Cruickshank moved permanently from Canberra to Wamberal on the Central Coast of NSW. They had bought the house a few years earlier and had used it as a holiday home up until then. We usually spent Christmas with them. Here are the cook and her assistant in the kitchen, which was always spotlessly organised and ultra tidy  - unlike mine, there was no such thing as a 'jumble drawer' in Jean's kitchen! It looks like she is about to cut up pumpkin ready for roasting, together with potatoes, parsnips and brussel sprouts for a hot Christmas dinner, regardless of the outside temperature.

                               

 I think that year we may have gone to the family service at the local church on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas morning after present opening was over and all was tidy, we would enjoy a drink with one of Mum's lovely mince pies before roast dinner was ready to be served.

In the afternoon we might have gone to the local beach at Spoon Bay for a dip, or perhaps this was a photo taken on Boxing Day, when we always went out somewhere for a picnic, taking with us Mum's NZ style bacon and egg pie for lunch.

                              

Christmas tea was also a fairly 'set menu', with things as a dressed ham, rice or potato salad, hard boiled eggs, green salad, meringues and Christmas cake on the menu. The party hats come from the Christmas crackers, the remnants of which you can see on the table. On the walls behind are paintings by my uncle Graeme Morrison and my grandfather's cousin Charlotte Petrie, which I now have hanging on the walls here. I also have one of those Royal Doulton picture plates. My sister has the other one, and I'm 'minding' Uncle Graeme's painting for her until she can work out how best to get it over to NZ, as well as the little wooden side table with ingrained decoration that you can see on the left of the drinks photo, bought by Jean and Ían in Florence in the 1970s.

                                  

The house itself is still there in Dalpura Rd Wamberal but it has been altered so much as to be barely recognisable. Ian passed away in 2000 and Jean moved elsewhere, renting the home out until she decided to sell a few years later, but it was then discovered that the basement had sustained quite major structural damage. This may have occurred as a result of the earthquake that struck Newcastle in 1989, and had worsened since that date. With a grim warning that some kind of collapse could occur at any time, we felt we had to give the tenants notice and were just happy to secure a sale at well below what would otherwise have been market value to some builders who were able to assess and fix the problem.  Luckily Ian did not know about all this! 

So here is our tree this year, with those little 21 year old stockings adorning it, together with other mementoes, such as the fairy on top that was made by my late sister-in-law. The rocking horse that belonged to Jean is patiently awaiting the next visit of a grandchild.

                                                 

 We won't be spending Christmas itself at home this year, but we're having a pre-Christmas tea this coming Saturday with three of our four children and their partners, and the fare will be similar to that served by Jean in 1994. Most of the meal will be cold, which will suit us just fine, with the temperature forecast to reach 41 degrees C. 

                      

You can see more Christmas blogs here at http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/sepia-saturday-310-christmas-and-new.html       

                                                             

                          

                                                                   Merry Christmas to all!

Looking for Mr Gridley. A post for Trove Tuesday and Sepia Saturday

According to the quote on the Sepia Saturday prompt this week, 'a man may be down but he's never out'. This provides a rather tenuous link to the subject of my blog, which concerns a man who is in fact 'out', as in out of sight, disappeared without trace, at least as far as I can discover to date.

Lately I've been trying to find out a little more about my husband's great grandmother Margaret Splatt Neilson, who was the eldest child of Daniel Neilson and Elizabeth Bernard, Scots immigrants who married in Ballarat in 1868. Margaret was born in Mount Pleasant, Balłarat in 1869 and was 21 when she married Joseph Featherston there in 1890.  Here's a report of their wedding from the Ballarat Star:

Ballarat Star, 2 October 1890, from Trove web site

                                              

                                            

                                                 Believed to be Joseph Featherston

Joseph and Margaret Featherston had 5 children but to date I've discovered no family photographs, other than the one above. According to the electoral roll in 1909 the family were living at 8 Nelson St, Ballarat East and Joseph's occupation was carter. In 1914 he was listed as a groom and the family address was 65 Eureka St. Joseph died on 1 December that year, when youngest daughter Lillian Myrtle was aged 14. Their third son Albert Leslie Featherston was killed at Monquet France on 8 August 1916.

In 1924 Margaret Featherston, her two daughters Sylvia and Lillian and her mother Elizabeth Neilson nee Bernard were living at 38 Hilton St Clifton Hill. Sylvia was a confectioner and Lilian was a heel finisher. Sylvia married in 1926, but Margaret and Lilian were still there in 1931, and her grandson Robert Featherston, son of oldest son Joseph, remembered catching the train from Geelong to Melbourne as a teenager to visit his grandmother and go to the movies there. Margaret died at 38 Hilton Street in 1935 and is buried in the Ballarat New Cemetery together with her husband Joseph. Here is a present day photograph of 38 Hilton St, a Hawthorn or polychrome brick terrace house which looks to have changed little since 1936, on the outside at least. Lillian remained living there until at least 1954. We live about forty minutes drive away from Clifton Hill, but by total coincidence we walked past #38 when we attended a house concert held in a home just a few doors away last Saturday night.

In the family death notice published for Margaret there is a particular mention of  her friend Mr C. Gridley:

The Age, Wednesday Jan 2, 1935 (snipped from Trove web site)

In Memoriam notices were subsequently placed for Margaret in the Age in 1936, 1937 and 1940 and in each case her 'loved friend' Mr C. Gridley published his own separate notice for her. Here for example are the 1940 notices:

The Age, 1 Jan 1940 (snipped from Trove web site)

So who was this Mr C. Gridley?  According to the Electoral rolls, one Clarence Henry Gridley, boot maker, was residing at 46 George St, Fitzroy together with Henry Gridley, carpenter from 1928 until some time after 1936.  Henry passed away in 1950 and by 1954 Clarence had moved to 29 Victoria Pde, Collingwood. After that date I've so far found no further mention of him, neither on electoral rolls or Victorian death records, nor in Trove.

The fact that Clarence Gridley was a boot maker suggested to me that this must be the connection. Margaret's daughter Lilian was a heel finisher, hence she and Mr Gridley may well have worked together.  Clarence Henry Gridley appears to have been born in Launceston Tasmania in 1900 and would have been the same age as Lilian. Was he perhaps her suitor, who also became friendly with her mother Margaret? Another In Memoriam notice placed in 1950 for Lilian's sister Sylvia adds weight to this theory.

The Age, 12 Sep 1950 (snipped from Trove web site)

It may be no coincidence that in 1928 Sylvia and Lillian's brother Emerson Ralph and wife Dorothy named their second son Clarence Henry. They also named daughters Sylvia, Lily, Margaret and Elizabeth. In about 1950 Bob and his wife Mary went to the wedding of Bob's cousin Betty, daughter of Sylvia and Len. It seems quite likely that Clarrie Gridley would also have been invited to attend. I don't know if my mother-in-law Mary remembers him, but I think she recalled Bob's Aunt Lilian as a lady who had lots of shoes.

In this very small image of Betty Hamilton's marriage to Robert Stephenson, it must be father Len standing between his daughters Betty and her sister Margaret Lillian, but I don't know who the gentleman on the left is. He looks rather older than the groom on the far right. Could he possibly be family friend Clarrie Gridley? Perhaps Mary can enlighten me.

 In 1956 Lillian married her widowed brother-in-law Len Hamilton, and they lived together in his Footscray home until her death in 1977. So what became of Clarrie Gridley after 1954?  Did he perhaps move back to Tasmania after Lillian married Len? It would appear that he was a close friend of Lillian and indeed of the whole Featherston family. So far what I've found about him since 1954 ressembles a doughnut in the tennis sense of the word, but Clarrie may just be 'out to lunch'. To find out more I'll ask Mary if I get a chance over Xmas, but failing that I may just have to wait until more recent newspapers are digitalized or perhaps the Tasmanian death indexes go online.

If you fancy reading other Sepian blogs about doughnuts, mess kits, servicemen or other more substantial fare that may be prompted by this week's image, take a bite out ofSepia Saturday #309.

On the beach

Nothing very profound from me this week, just a small selection of family beach photos that I vaguely compare with the Robinson Crusoe prompt. The subjects range from Mary at Phillip Island in 1947, through her son (c.1972), daughter-in-law and a couple of grandchildren at various beaches in more recent years, down to her great granddaughter Isabelle holidaying at Broadstairs Kent in 2015. Whilst they appear as solitary figures, of course none of them are Robinson Crusoe, as the saying goes, because naturally all the photos would have been taken by their companions. 

For more blogs about solitary figures and sandy scenes, be sure to leave your footprints at Sepia Saturday #308