Sepia Saturday: A Birthday Book (or two)

The theme this week suggests Family Bibles but I can't do that. Well, I could, if I visited my dad who has several in his cupboard. But in lieu of that I'm highlighting a different type of book that is a keepsake, a birthday book. In fact two birthday books.

The first is called A Shakespeare Birthday Book and it was a birthday present to my husband's great-grandmother, Maggie McKernan, in 1890. It has quotes from Shakespeare on the verso page and spaces under each date on the recto page in which to write the names of friends and family. In this particular book Maggie has entered quite a few names so I have been able to add them to my family tree database.

Cover, Shakespeare Birthday Book

Daily Shakespeare quote and room for birthday names.

On the last page Maggie has written out a poem that must have appealed to her.

A birthday's just an open gate
By which you enter through
To brighter fields of happiness
Where hopes and dreams come true
And as today you pause beside
The gate to your new year
My wish for you the whole year through
Is good luck and good cheer!

In 1903 Maggie started a new birthday book, this time A Longfellow Birthday Book. This time the quotes are from, you guessed it, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. On one of the pages she has written the same poem and there are several other diary-like snippets in the back. ("Dad finished painting the lattice fence at the back 3rd July 1930." "Ina started at Bank of Australasia Friday 13th June 1930"  - 'Dad' was her husband and 'Ina' her daughter.) Under the birth date for her grandson, Allan Roy Phelan (19 December 1926), she has written "passed away at 'Rockville' Mitiamo 27th October 1927 buried at Pine Grove 28th October 1927".

The Longfellow Birthday Book, cover.

Birthdays of family.

Now I suggest you have a look at the Sepia Saturday website to see the keepsakes that other contributors have blogged about.

Old Dalby cricket match

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

Several decades ago a cousin of my mother published a history of Ephraim and Elizabeth Smith who migrated to Victoria in 1852 and lived at Warrnambool and then Dunmunkle near Minyip. In that publication she wrote: Ephraim was a very keen follower of cricket. In those early days, with few means of communication, while the test matches were being played, he would sand out on the main road until someone came along who could tell him the score.
Ephraim and Elizabeth were successful farmers and brought up their family with strong Christian beliefs. They were respected in their community.

Ephraim Smith

Today I was exploring The British Newspapers Archive which is a wonderful (and growing) online resource. You can do a search for free and filter the search results by decade and locality, and usually there is enough detail in the search results to see whether it is worth seeing the original online (each view costs 5 credits). I don't have a subscription but when I saw the combination 'Old Dalby' and 'Ephraim Smith' come up in an 1851 paper I registered and claimed my free 15 credits so I could have a look. Here's the result.

Leicestershire Chronicle, 8 Nov 1851. Accessed via British Newspaper Archive

It appears that Ephraim and his older brother Ornan were involved in a drunken fight after winning a cricket match. The Crown Inn, mentioned in the article, still exists.

The Crown Inn, Old Dalby

Ephraim was a married man at the time, 26 years old with two young sons. I wonder what his wife, Elizabeth, said to him when she heard what he'd been up to. Maybe the Judge's caution worked because I think Ephraim led a sober life in Australia.

Sepia Saturday: Yum Yum

The theme photo this week gives a chance to show a sweet photo from a family album. 

Early 1900s, small town, country Victoria = make your own entertainment. Church socials, sport competitions, card nights and dances were all important ways for a community to relax. The Phelans and the Sims families lived in a town called Mitiamo and were members of the Methodist Church there so it follows that they would participate in church concerts or Pleasant Sunday Afternoons. 

Annie Phelan nee Sims, seen here on the left, and friends have dressed up as the 'Three Little Maids' (Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo and Pitti-Sing) from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, but I can't guarantee that they actually sang the famous song 'Three little maids from school are we'.

Three little maids, Mitiamo, 1920s

You can dance over to Sepia Saturday to see what others have blogged about on the theme.

Public family trees

We're encouraged to upload our family trees to the web and make them open to the public. The idea is that distant relatives will make contact and information can be shared, that images and documents can be easily shared and that information from other trees can be merged into your own.

DON'T DO IT!

On Ancestry (and other similar pages) there are thousands of public family trees and they are chockers with errors. Researchers have made assumptions without checking primary sources, attached spouses and children seemingly at random, merged erroneous data with their own, added places that are totally wrong (as in the wrong country e.g. Brighton, England instead of Brighton, Victoria) and added sources that aren't really sources ( e.g. other online family trees). It's too easy now to download the app to your phone or tablet and start building your tree by adding data from other online trees.

It's not all bad. There are some gems among the dross. I have made contact with relatives to our mutual benefit. I have found some wonderful photos and documents. I have even been able to extend some branches of the tree back a generation or two and add a few twigs. But I've learnt to be very, very wary.

Genealogy is a serious research project based on proof. There is absolutely no point in adding an ancestor to your tree unless you can prove that you have the right person. If that's what you like doing - adding random individuals just to make your tree look leafy - then then this isn't the hobby for you. Could I suggest you wander over to the fiction section of the library?

OK, got that off my chest. Now I'll go and have a coffee and settle down to some Troving to restore my usual equilibrium.