Sepia Saturday: Who is in the window?

The theme photo for this week's Sepia Saturday features fans, national costume, hidden meanings.

I've used the perfect photo that matches the theme in a previous post so instead I'm posting a photo of a wedding group. In it there are two ladies with lacy hats, hiding in the background. They are the mothers of the bride and groom.

Wedding group at Balmattum, 1897 - Margaret McKernan and Daniel Phelan

The mothers, Jane Phelan and Christina McKernan

I've already written a more detailed blog about this particular wedding of my husband's great-grandparents here and in it I posted a more formal photo of the wedding party. For the purposes of this week's theme I'll repost that photo now.

William Phelan and Margaret McKernan with her parents (Daniel and Christina)
at left and his parents (Daniel and Jane) at right.

So I'm trying to imagine the sequence of events. Did the photographer first line up the bridal party and parents for a formal photo? And did he then invite other guests to gather round for the more informal photo? If so, why did the two mothers disappear inside the house and look out the window? (The photos were taken at the bride's home.) Did the photographer instruct them to stand there? If so, why didn't he make sure the groom's father was in the photo as well as the bride's father? Were there two different photographers? A little mystery that will never be solved.

Sepia Saturday: A wedding at Balmattum

In 1890 William Robert Phelan was appointed headteacher at Balmattum, a rural area north of Euroa in north-east Victoria. He was 29 years old, the son of an Irish Catholic family in Coburg, a northern suburb of Melbourne. He's my husband's great-grandfather.

Seven years later, in 1897, he married a local girl. Maggie was the daughter of Daniel and Christina McKernan, prominent residents of the area. Daniel was also Irish-born but Protestant, as was his Scottish wife. Maggie was 24 and William was 36. They were married at Maggie's home, the 'Royal Hotel' . The Royal was a combined hotel, post office, general store and residence for about forty-five years. It is now a private residence called 'Hawthorn House' and is owned by a descendant of Daniel and Christina McKernan.

Mixed marriages (as in Catholic-Protestant) were unusual at the time so I'm not sure how it came about and I wonder of what their parents and the community thought of it. William was never a practising Catholic so that may have helped.

William Phelan and Maggie McKernan wedding, Balmattum, Victoria 1897

The wedding party includes four bridesmaids and two groomsmen, all of whom are siblings or cousins of the bride and groom. It also includes the parents of both Daniel and Maggie. And this is why I treasure this photo - it's the only photo I have of Jane and Daniel Phelan. And it's the only photo I have of William's brother, Jack Phelan (top left in the above photo), who died 12 years later at the age of 37.

Jane and Daniel Phelan

Christina McKernan (nee Gordon)

Daniel McKernan

The wedding was reported in great detail. including a list of all the presents. Apparently the wedding was a 'scene of great excitement', there were about 100 guests and the room was beautifully decorated.

Euroa Advertiser, 15 Jan 1897

You can see more delightful wedding photos over at Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday: Glorious hair

The theme photo this week's Sepia Saturday is of a woman with long hair, very long hair. She has been posed so that the full glory of her hair can be seen to best advantage. That particular pose is not unusual in the old photos. It must have been every young girl's dream to have beautiful long hair.

Phil's great grandmother Maggie was a young teenager when this photo was taken. Her waist-length hair is smoothly tied into several bows but I imagine she wore it in plaits most of the time ...

Margaret McKernan

...like my mother when she was young. There she is at left in a school photo. Her older sister, Betty, is second from the right. All five girls have their hair in plaits. And all the boys have dirty knees! (Lawler is a small rural community east of Minyip in Victoria's Wimmera area and this is the entire school.)

Lawler School, 1934

There is a family story that when Betty and Mavis were very young Betty cut Mavis's plaits off for some reason. In this photo Mavis has short hair so maybe the story is true.

Mavis and Betty Smith

And finally, just for fun, here's a photo from the Genealogical Society of Victoria's collection. It was taken in the 1920s and is of a lady using a garden hose to wash her long hair.

Unknown lady washing her hair in a garden. {GSV collection]

Four generations

It's common thing to do, especially with the first great-grandchild - when the four generations are together set up on the front verandah or garden for a photo. And this is what happened when my father-in-law, Neil, was a baby in 1924.

The people in this photo had all lived in the Euroa area of Victoria, but only the great-grandmother was living there in 1924:

• Great-grandmother Christina, about 75 years old, was born in 1849 in Scotland and came to Victoria with her parents in 1851. The Gordon family were farmers at Balmattum near Euroa. Christina married Daniel McKernan who was from Ireland and settled in the Balmattum area as well. (Daniel died in 1919, several years before this photo was taken.) 
• Grandmother Maggie, about 50 years old, was born in 1873 and married William Phelan who was the head teacher at Balmattum school. Maggie and William lived in the house attached to the school. 
• Roy Phelan, about 26, was born at Balmattum in 1897 and served in France during WW1. He was a storekeeper at Mitiamo when his son, Neil was born in 1923. 

It was the only possible four-generation photo for baby Neil. All of his other great-grandparents had died by the time he was born. The photo could have been taken in Balmattum or Euroa if Roy and Annie Phelan were visiting the great-grandmother, or Mitiamo if Maggie and her mother were visiting the new baby, or maybe at Rochford where William Phelan was teaching.

Four generations, 1924: Neil Phelan is the baby. He is held by his father, Roy.
His grandmother, Maggie Phelan (nee McKernan) is standing left,
 and his great-grandmother, Christina McKernan (nee Gordon) is seated.

A country ball

Margaret (Maggie) McKernan

When she was 23, in 1896, Maggie* attended a Military Ball in the small town of Violet Town in Victoria, and kept the little program card as a memento. It's now in my care.




Military Ball programme (front)

Military Ball program (back)

I chanced upon it today, when I was looking for something else, and decided to do some research following the clues on the card. A couple of hours later and I'd found out quite a lot.

The National Library of Australia (Trove) has put the local newspaper online and I was able to find a very detailed newspaper report about the ball and the associated sporting tournament held the same day.




Euroa Advertiser 1 May 1896

I discovered that V.M.R. stands for Victorian Mounted Rifles and the National Archives of Australia has holdings associated with the various companies that were established.

Mounted Rifles and Victorian Rangers – The Victorian Mounted Rifles (not to be confused with similarly named contingents to the Boer War) were first formed in December 1885, with companies recruited in rural centres. The Victorian Rangers, an infantry equivalent, were raised in 1888. A small allowance only was paid to members, and Mounted Riflemen were required to provide their own mount. Members of country rifle clubs formed significant components of both corps. No service records are held for these units, but information may be found in correspondence records for the period.

I found photos of uniformed men mounted on their horses in Museum Victoria's collection here, Victorian Mounted Rifles, and in uniform here.


And at the ALH (Australian Light Horse Studies Centre) I found this: 

This regiment [8th/16th/8th Australian Light Horse] sprung from the Victorian Mounted Rifles a volunteer unit raised i 1885. Detachments existed at Euroa, Longwood, Violet Town, Benalla, Thoona, Wangaratta, Rutherglen and Beechworth and formed part of the 1st Battalion Victorian Mounted Rifles until 1901. During the Federal organisation of 1903, these detachments were formed into a separate unit style 8th Australian Light Horse Regiment (Victorian Mounted Rifles). The regiment continued under this title until 1912 when four squadrons of the 8th were designated the 16th Light Horse (Victorian Mounted Rifles). In the following year, 1913, it became the 16th (Indi) Light Horse, reverting to the 8th (Indi) Light Horse in 1918, this was later altered to 8th Light Horse Regiment (Indi Light Horse). Extracted from RK Peacock, Evolution of Australian Light Horse Regiments 1841-1935, p. 8. Australian Light Horse Studies Centre http://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog?topic_id=1114026

*MARGARET ANNE (MAGGIE) MCKERNAN was born on 20 Jan 1873 in Balmattum, Victoria, Australia, the daughter of Daniel McKERNAN and Christina GORDON. She died on 24 Nov 1939 in West Preston, Victoria, Australia. She married William Robert PHELAN, son of Daniel PHELAN and Jane WELSH on 05 Jan 1897 in Balmattum, Victoria, Australia. He was born on 01 Jun 1861 (Pentridge, Victoria, Australia). He died on 04 Dec 1946 in West Preston, Victoria, Australia.