Sepia Saturday: Flowers and crosses

Two men in suits, yarning in the doorway of a coffee lounge. That's the theme photo for this week's Sepia Saturday. So of course I ignored the men and went with some of the signage on the wall.

On the left side of the photo there is a florists's sign that reads 'Wreaths and Crosses' and I'm following that link in this blog. In World War 1 a relative was sent an album of pressed flowers from the Holy Land and Jerusalem.  There are about 12 pages like those below. The album is about A4 size and has a cover made of olive wood. Some of the pages have crosses, some not. The flowers are in remarkably good condition and retain a lot of colour.

Also during the war a family member, David Ray Leed, was killed in France. This photo was sent to his parents.

David Ray Leed's cross, Rue-Du-Bois Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France

Private David Ray Leed, 23 Battalion,  Killed in Action Pozieres, Somme, France 15 Jul 1916;
Buried Rue-Du-Bois Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France.

About 15 years ago friends of ours visited the cemetery and gave us these photos as well as a pressed red poppy they gathered from a field there. As you can see, the cemetery looks much different now. It's under the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Rue-Du-Bois Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France

David Ray Leed's headstone, Rue-Du-Bois Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France

At about the same time, between 1910 and 1920, this postcard was sent to a lady in Melbourne for her birthday. Now why would you put a cannon on a birthday card??? Even if it is covered in flowers.

Sepia Saturday: Togetherness

This week's theme photo for Sepia Saturday is of a bunch of photographers in Washington. I love to photograph the photographer (and have quite a few in my 'stash') but in this case I'm going down a different road. I'm looking at that empty bench seat in the foreground of the theme photo.

Mary and Ralph, 1922

This little photo sits among a whole heap of others in a family album, hardly noticeable and not even labelled. But I love it. It was taken in 1922 in central Victoria and the couple were married several months earlier. It seems that they are sitting apart until you look at their legs tucked up against each other.

Together

And this couple are strangers to me. We were holidaying several years ago at a wonderful place called Kalbarri in Western Australia when I noticed this couple sharing a seat on the foreshore. They have the whole bench to themselves but chose to sit closely together. They've probably been partners for decades and they still like each other.

Trove Tuesday: In which George Taylor is crushed

George Taylor and his sisters Alice and May

It makes me sad to look at photos like the one above because I know what their futures were. George, Alice and May are siblings of my grandmother Dolly. Alice and May lived to old age but George died when he was 23 years old.

George was a country lad, and in 1934 he went to Melbourne to work. He was working as a motor mechanic at O'Gilpin's in East Malvern when he was crushed by a truck against a wall. He had cranked the truck while it was still in gear.

I have found his death reported in two papers, and a report of his inquest a week or so later. All are quite short but vary in in accuracy and detail so I think there's a lesson there. Make sure you look at all published reports, not just the first one you find.

Sunshine Advocate, 6 Jul 1934

The Argus, 4 Jul 1934

The Argus, 12 Jul 1934

George TAYLOR, son of Henry TAYLOR and Martha BROWN was born on 20 Jun 1911 in Camperdown, Victoria, Australia. He died on 03 Jul 1934 in Footscray, Victoria, Australia. 

Sepia Saturday: In which Annie and Roy enjoy holidays

In the 1930s Annie and Roy went to Tasmania for a holiday. They lived in central Victoria so it was a bit of an adventure. First they drove to Melbourne where they put their car on a boat (it was lifted on by crane), then they sailed to Launceston in northern Tasmania. Then they drove around the beautiful island for several weeks before doing the trip across Bass Strait in reverse.

They took quite a few photos, including this one. It's taken from a lookout near New Norfolk in Tasmania and that's the SS Cartela on the River Derwent. As the article below states, she's a famous steamer in her 'patch'. I don't think Roy and Annie went for a ride on the ship. (By the way, those are hop fields by the river.)

SS Cartela on the Derwent River near New Norfolk, 1937.

www.afloat.com.au [Sept 2012]

Also in the 1930s, Roy and Annie went for a holiday on the Gippsland Lakes in eastern Victoria. The steamers that plied the lakes were very popular with tourists, and were often the most convenient way of getting about for the locals as well. This is their photo of the SS Gippsland as she pulls into a jetty.

SS Gippsland, 1930s, Gippsland Lakes.

In 1937 the SS Gippsland left the lakes for good. I don't know what happened to her after that. But I do know what happened to Annie and Roy. WW2 is just around the corner, two of their sons fought in the Pacific, their shop burnt down, they moved to Bendigo and started a completely different phase of their lives...but those stories will have to wait for another day.

Gippsland Times 7 Oct 1937

Why don't you sail on over to Sepia Saturday to see what else is happening on the water.

Trove Tuesday: In which Ephraim breaks a leg

"Well, I never knew that!" I'd be rich if I had a dollar for each time I've said that in the course of my family history research. And here's another instance.

Horsham Times, 28 Nov 1913

Ephraim is my direct ancestor. He and his wife, Elizabeth, came to Victoria from Old Dalby, Leicestershire, England in 1852. They lived in the Warrnambool area for several decades and gradually got a little more established with property. Ephraim worked a variety of jobs - in a lime kiln, as a policeman, as an agricultural labourer - and all the time their family was growing in numbers and getting to the age when they needed work themselves. So the family took advantage of the fact that the government was opening up some more land for selection in the Wimmera, in the 1870s. Ephraim and each of the oldest children selected land at Dunmunkle, east of Minyip, and set about establishing homes, clearing the land for cereal crops, getting schools, churches and sporting clubs started, organising water supplies. It was hard work but on the whole they were successful. I've left a lot out of this story but that's the gist of it.

Ephraim and Elizabeth Smith

Ephraim and Elizabeth celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in 1908 (and there's an article about that in Trove) and they still lived on the farm at Dunmunkle. Several of their children lived nearby. Elizabeth died in December 1912, and Ephraim July 1914. What I didn't know was that seven months before his death Ephraim fell and fractured his leg. Trove came up trumps again.

Ephraim SMITH, son of Joseph SMITH and Mary DACARE was born on 29 Aug 1825 in Old Dalby, LEI, England. He died on 25 Jul 1914 in Minyip, Victoria, Australia. He married Elizabeth DARKER, daughter of John DARKER and Alice PEGG on 17 Dec 1848 in Plumtree, NOTT, England. She was born on 20 Apr 1826 in Clipstone, Nottinghamshire, England. She died on 13 Dec 1912 in Minyip, Victoria, Australia. They had 12 children.

Sepia Saturday: Women in the factories

Box, women in white dresses, factories - all possible ideas to build on from this week's theme photo for Sepia Saturday. I've looked at my own photos and came up with nothing, so I've gone to The Commons and   come up with a couple of photos I think are relevant.

The first is a lady in a white coat, working indoors (but not in a factory). The second is of one of the army of women who worked in factories during WW2 (many of whom had to give up their jobs to returning servicemen after the war).

Woman using microscope, St Lukes Hospital, US Insustrial Alcohol Company. Photographer: Robert Yarnell, 1938 . Source: Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library. The Commons.

Woman welding for the Saint John River Shipbuilding Company, Jacksonville, Florida, c1943. Source: State Library and Archives of Florida. The Commons.