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.