Memories of a super dragster Christmas and a super Dad

I've really enjoyed reading blogposts lately about different people's memories of Christmas days gone by. One of my own memories keeps coming to the surface and it makes me smile every time. Remember back in the 1970s (that long ago!), it was a very BIG THING to get a bike for Christmas. It was an even BIGGER THING to get a bike that was new from a shop, not a recycled and repainted hand-me-down.

I'm not sure exactly what year it was, but it was the early 70s. Us three kids all received a shiny new bike on Christmas morning - one each! My sister and I were lucky enough to get the most trendy bike of the day - yes, a dragstar with a politically innappropriately-named sissy bar and all! We were impressed. So was my brother ... he was impressed not to receive a dragster because they were seen as girls bikes back then. Even so, I'm sure he was impressed to be a member of a household that included two groovy dragsters.

However, the most impressive thing was still to come. You see, there were quite a few other kids in the neighbourhood who also received bikes that Christmas. We were all keen to try our new bikes in a bigger space besides the suburban streets outside our homes. Can you imagine? About 10 or so kids with new bikes itching to give them a spin, circling the parked cars and the street trees in the narrow streets of suburban Sydney. Instead of sitting around relaxing on Christmas day, our great Dad decided that he'd take us ALL down to the local oval which had some nearby flat ashphalt (a new bike owner's dream!) so that we could test out our new wheels. Yes, not just his three kids but the whole neighbourhood of bike-riding kids. It must have been a strange site, a forty-something year old man walking along at the front of a pack of kids on bikes. He was a king of the kids that day, and a king of the kids-on-bikes as well, not to mention a king especially in his own kids' eyes.

Our Dad did a lot of things like this that I'm only just appreciating now in later years. Picking us up from discos at all hours of the night, dropping us off at friends' places near and far with his voice echoing in our ears, "Remember love, no matter time it is, ring me and I'll pick you up." What a Dad he was.

Thanks Dad for the bike, for the trek to the oval on that Christmas Day way back in the 1970s and most of all for the memories. Wish you were still here with us, especially at Christmas time.

In loving memory of our dear old Dad,

Carew Joseph Trevor NORTHCOTE (1932-2002)

Ripped memories

Quite a few family history researchers I've spoken to have come across torn or damaged photos in their family's collections. Why do these photos get partly destroyed? I suppose there are a few reasons - split marriages, convenience, wear and tear. I've included a few bits of photographs in this blog entry from my own family's collection of ripped memories. Do you have similar photo remnants and do you know why they are not in their full original state?

This is a photo of my father, Carew NORTHCOTE (Junior), when he was about 2 years old. It was taken at the back of the Royal Hotel (now the Ten Dollar Motel) at Gulgong NSW in about 1934. My father is being held by his uncle, Carew NORTHCOTE (Senior), who was the publican of the hotel at the time. My grandmother, Ellen NORTHCOTE (nee Keneally/ Kenelley), is standing next to Carew Senior. We think the woman whose face is partly cut off in the photograph may have been Carew Northcote's wife, Edie, or his daughter, Joyce. We're not sure why the photo has been torn across the bottom - perhaps it was folded at one stage and the bottom section just fell off and was discarded.

The younger of the two flowergirls in the wedding photograph below is my grandmother, Lily Anne (or Ann) KINGSBURY. We think the photo was taken around 1906 when Lily was about 4 years old. The other people in the photograph have yet to be identified. The photograph was more than likely taken in Sydney.

Of all the ripped and damaged photos we have collected so far in our family, this is the most mysterious ... whose feet are these, what period of history do the shoes appear to fit into, where is the upper section of the photograph, why was this torn photograph kept?

Seven colours of a cemetery rainbow

On a trip to Tasmania last week, I was fortunate enough to find a few lovely, old cemeteries on my travels. The classic Tasmanian summer weather of regular sun showers mixed with bouts of sunshine turned out to be the perfect recipe for a good spot of cemetery visiting.

While driving towards Geeveston, a small town in southern Tasmania on the Huon River, I came across the Jackson's Point Historic Roman Catholic Cemetery just outside the small town of Franklin, about 45km south of Hobart.

Franklin

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Although I'm not related to any of the people buried here (well, not that I know of, anyway), I couldn't resist stopping along my journey to visit this little historic Catholic cemetery. The sun came out for a convenient 15 minute period - just in time for me to take a few snaps and appreciate the beauty of this hillside cemetery which looked over the Huon valley and river below.

Of course, sunshine in Tasmania is often followed by rain (I guess that's why it's so green on the island) and rain it did soon after my 15 minutes of cemetery traipsing. However, the rain came hand-in-hand with a beautiful rainbow that spanned the valley, it seemed to link the cemetery with the mountains across the valley. What a scene!

What was also interesting about this cemetery was the variety of crosses that marked the graves - all sorts of Celtic crosses on both new and old graves. Most of the crosses were carved from stone, quite grand most of them.

As with many of my cemetery visits, I often find their is one special grave among all the others that really highlights the sadness of losing someone. This tiny, simple wooden cross got to me ... it made me wonder whose grave it marked. Perhaps it was a recent grave, perhaps it was the grave of a child, or a loved partner, or an honoured parent or a cherished friend. It reminded me of the many unmarked graves that I've discovered in my own family's history.

Great-great signatures

One of the aims in my family history research has always been to fill in the gaps between the names and dates of my ancestors. This context of my ancestors' lives is fascinating to me - probably because the details are so obscured by time. Anyway, I love finding out a little bit of info here and there about their personal lives, their personalities, their likes and dislikes, their happy times and not-so-happy times. For me, this process brings them to life and makes me feel a bit closer to them.

In recent years, I've been fortunate enough to get my hands on some original documents with some of my ancestors' signatures - that is, the ancestors of mine who could write, or at least the ones who could sign their name.

Below are a few signatures of my great-great grandparents. What do they really tell us about the person behind the signature? Possibly a lot, possibly not much. Even so, I love looking at these signatures because they were created by the great-greats in our family. In some ways, I think their essence is somehow still visible in these signatures. What do you think?

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The signature of my great-grandmother, Margaret REILY (also spelled RILEY, REILLY, RIELY), on her marriage certificate in 1866.

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The signature of Margaret REILY in 1890, as Margaret NORTHCOTE, on bankruptcy records.

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The signature of Margaret's husband, William Walter NORTHCOTE, also on bankruptcy records in 1886.

At this point in time, he was going by the name, Walter Stafford NORTHCOTE.

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The signature of one of my great-great grandparents, George KINGSBURY, on his marriage certificate in 1865.

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The signature of George KINGSBURY's wife, Mary HOLLOWAY, one of my great-great grandmothers, on her marriage certificate in 1865.

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Mary KINGSBURY's (nee HOLLOWAY) signature on the 1911 UK Census.

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Any handwriting experts out there?

Digging into the records and finding gold diggings

In the convict chapter of my family history, I've been trying to track down where my great-great grandfather, Thomas Riley, and his wife, Harriet Lycett, lived after they were married at St Michel's Catholic Church in Bathurst on 27 November 1841.

By examining records like birth, death and marriage certificates, church baptism records, newspaper articles and convict records, I've managed to work out that they lived in Kelso, Bathurst and Orange. Thomas worked as a publican and a shoemaker over the years, so the family tended to live within the more populated towns of western NSW rather than living on far-reaching properties.

1835 Bathurst (Thomas’ convict records)

1841 Bathurst (Marriage certificate, Thomas and Harriet)

1843 Clear Creek, near Kelso (Daughter, Margaret’s baptism records)

1849 Kelso (Daughter, Fanny’s baptism records)

1849 Kelso (Daughter, Anne Jane’s baptism records)

1850 Kelso (Newspaper articles in the Bathurst Free Press)

1851 Kelso (Source: Newspaper articles in the Bathurst Free Press)

1851 Kelso (Source: Son, Thomas’ baptism records)

1853 Kelso (Source: Son, William’s baptism records)

1856 Kelso (Source: Son, Patrick James’ baptism records)

1859 Kelso, Roxburgh (Source: Son, Joseph’s birth certificate)

1859 Kelso (Source: Son, Joseph’s baptism records)

1861 Kelso, Roxburgh (Source: Daughter, Mary’s birth certificate)

1861 Kelso (Source: Daughter, Mary’s baptism records)

June 1864 Rankin St, Bathurst (Son, Edward’s death certificate)

1867 Lucknow, Orange (Source: Source: Daughter, Catherine's birth certificate)

1868 Orange (Source: Harriet’s death certificate)

However, it wasn't until I recently purchased their son's (Edward Riley's) death certificate from 1864 that I realised the Rileys lived for a time at the Wentworth Diggings, Frederick’s Valley where their son, Edward was born (Source: Son, Edward’s death certificate). Here is the excerpt from Edward's death certificate. Until now, this fact of their location in early 1864 had been hidden, especially since Edward's birth certificate has not yet been found.

Although most of the activity around the Wentworth Diggings in Frederick's Valley, near Lucknown, near Orange NSW occurrred in the 1850s, the following article on page 5 of the Sydney Morning Herald on 18 April 1863 suggests that there was still gold being found there in April 1863, just a few months before Edward was born.

Wentworth Diggings from the Central NSW Museums site:

Dear photograph - Dear me!

I was recently listening to Lisa Louise Cooke's podcast, Genealogy Gems, and she mentioned this nifty idea called "Dear Photograph". If you're interested in the past, change, families or photographs, you've got to have a look at this site. It's a very low tech way of mixing the past and the present in one easy click of your camera. All you need is:

1. an old photograph
2. a camera
3. a place (get yourself to the place where the original photograph was taken)

If it sounds a bit weird, the best way to understand this technique is to see a few examples. Here is one example of my own Dear Photograph attempts. Here are my grandparents on a day out, taken at Central Station Sydney in the 1930s or 1940s, against a background of a recently snapped Central Station in 2011:

(Notice the stylish coats - you're looking at a tailor and a tailoress walking arm-in-arm.)

Here are a couple of my favourites from the Dear Photograph site:

http://dearphotograph.com/post/11243748545/dear-photograph-i-miss-those-days-of-running-free

and

http://dearphotograph.com/post/8311735731/dear-photograph-if-i-could-turn-the-corner-in

and

http://dearphotograph.com/post/8928430180/dear-photograph-those-were-the-days-when-mom

I love this technique and think it would be a great way to get children to think about the real link between the past and present. It's also a great way to link the history of your family with the present. Happy snapping ...

Memorial poetry about a much-missed mother

Margaret Ann NORTHCOTE (nee RILEY)

Margaret Northcote, nee Riley, had nine sons who were born between 1860 and 1887 in the NSW towns of Orange, Bodangora (near Wellington), Dubbo, Warren, Girilambone and Bourke.

Margaret lived to the good age of 84 years old. Here is a photo of her shortly before her death with two of her sons (Alf and Leo) at the front of the home she was living in at Five Dock.

All of her sons adored their mother and were very distraught when she died on 10 May 1927 at the home of her youngest son, Leo, in Five Dock (a suburb of Sydney). Her sons were known to regularly visit and tend her grave after her death. Here is Leo, her youngest son, near his mother's grave soon after her death in 1927. A year or so later, Leo met his future wife at this spot - at the foot of his mother’s grave while visiting the Field of Mars Cemetery one weekend. See the story: Love in the graveyard.

Soon after her death, some of her sons published lamenting poems in memory of their dear mother for three years on the anniversary of her death in 1928, 1929 and 1930.

The first memorial poems were published on page 10 of the Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday 10 May 1928:

In silent prayer and aching heart

I watched you day by day,

Although I loved you dearly, mother,

I could not make you stay.

The silent grief that’s in my heart

No human eye can trace,

For many a broken heart

Lies hidden beneath a smiling face

Inserted by her loving and lonely son, Leo

~ ~ . ~ ~

My heart just aches with sadness

For the face I cannot see.

God alone knows how I miss you,

Oh, why, why must it be.

Inserted by her loving son, Alf

~ ~ . ~ ~

Dearer to memory than words can tell,

Thoughts of a mother we loved so well.

Inserted by her loving son and daughter-in-law, Percy, Mary and grandchildren

~ ~ . ~ ~

Love’s last gift – remembrance.

Inserted by her loving son and daughter-in-law, Carew, Edie and Joyce

~ ~ . ~ ~

A beautiful memory left behind

Of a mother ever so gentle and kind.

We have lost, heaven has gained

The dearest mother God ever gave.

Inserted by her son, daughter-in-law and grandson, Will, Mary and William Northcote

~ ~ . ~ ~

Two years after Margaret's death, her sons were still publishing memorial poems about their mother. These poems appeared on page 10 of the Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 10 May 1929:

In tears I saw you sinking, mother,

And watched you fade away.

It’s God alone knows how I miss you

As it dawns two years today

Inserted by her loving son, Leo

~ ~ . ~ ~

Time may pass and bring its changes,

Fresh with every coming year.

But your loving memory I will cherish, mother.

Is the heart that loved you dear.

Inserted by her loving son, Alf.

~ ~ . ~ ~

One of the best that God could send,

A loving mother right to the end.

Inserted by her loving son, daughter and grandson, W. Northcote

~ ~ . ~ ~

For all of us she did her best,

May God grant her eternal rest.

Inserted by her loving son and daughter-in-law, Carew, Edie and Joyce

~ ~ . ~ ~

Even three years after her death, memorial poetry by three of her sons were still being published in the newspaper. The following three poems were published on page 13 of the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 10 May 1930.

Till memory fades and life departs,

You will live forever in our hearts.

Inserted by her loving sons, Alf and Leo

~ ~ . ~ ~

Sweetest memories are all that are left,

Of my dear mother, who has gone to rest.

Inserted by her loving son, Will, and family

~ ~ . ~ ~

Ancestors in the movies?

Whether or not you have any ancestors who had links to the movies, you may be interested in Thomas MacEntee's Geneabloggers podcast/radio special being broadcast live next Friday night (18 Nov 2011, Chicago time or 11am, 19 Nov NSW time) about ancestors and their connections to movies.

Most of my ancestors weren't that famous. Some were infamous but that's another story ...

Even so, this topic has got me thinking. You see, my mother's family lived for many years in Beverly Hills, a suburb of Sydney. This suburb was known for its movie theatre. It was especially popular for its Saturday lunchtime movie sessions.

Beverly Hills was originally called Dumbleton, not a particularly attractive sounding name in my opinion. The local residents were of the same opinion and they lobbied to have the name changed to Beverly Hills around 1940. Beverly Hills was known as a suburb in Sydney that boasted one of the first movie theatres. Hence, those who grew up in the suburb during the 1940s and 1950s were frequent movie goers. My mother's family, the WALTERS family, built their home at Beverly Hills in Sydney in 1940:

So, that's one slight connection my ancestors have with the movies.

Here is how downtown Beverly Hills in NSW looks today.

The mystery of Henry NEWTON's death date ... solving one mystery reveals other mysteries

One of my great uncle's was Henry NEWTON. He was one of my great-grandmother's (Margaret Ann RILEY) nine sons. What I know of Henry has been passed down to me through oral family history traditions and the rare bits of information he left behind in a scant document trail that I've tracked down through my family history research over the years.

Born in about 1861 in Orange, NSW, Henry's parents were Henry (aka Harry) NEWTON and Margaret Ann RILEY. Henry Snr and Margaret had two children, Henry and Thomas. Margaret later married William Walter NORTHCOTE and had seven more sons.

Coming from a family of grave visitors, I was accustom to visiting Henry's grave, along with other ancestors' graves, from a very early age. Henry had died even before my father was born, so the only knowledge we had of Henry was from my grandfather, Henry's step-brother. The absolute date of his death wasn't a hot topic of conversation so this oral knowledge about Henry's death was lost to the ages when my grandfather died in 1970.

So, when did Henry die? Well, let's consider the "facts":

His gravestone records his death as 21 May 1936:

His funeral notice on page 9 of The Sydney Morning Herald on 22 May 1930, records his death as 21 May 1930:

So, was he born in 1930 or 1936. I suppose at this stage of solving the mystery, I was tending towards thinking he died in 1930 - it's difficult for a newspaper to predict his death in 1936 but it's not so uncommon to have a mistake on a gravestone through transcription errors.

Another piece of information was tracked down ... the cemetery office records. Despite the date on his gravestone, the cemetery office records (accessed online through the Deceased Search: http://www.catholiccemeteries.org.au/) definitely show his date of death as 21 May 1930.

So, by comparing more than one source of information, the mystery of Henry's death date was solved, long after his close relatives had passed away. As far as we know, Henry didn't have any children so there were only nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews who remained to put the record straight about Henry's death. So, it was triangulation to the rescue. Without it, I would have remained unsure about his death date. Although his grave stone remains incorrectly marked, there are enough records that have survived to show evidence that he died in 1930, not 1936.

Why did this error occur? I can't say for sure but I guess that stonemason may have made the error when interring other family members in Henry's grave, after Henry's death in 1930. The funny thing is that there are two other family members buried with Henry and knowing their death dates puts forward more questions ...

Henry is buried in the same grave as one of his nephews, Leo Percival NORTHCOTE (known as "Little Leo") who died in a tragic car accident at a very young age of 11 on 17 November 1935. So, if Henry NEWTON's gravestone was reconstructed at the time of the death of Little Leo in 1935, how could the year of 1936 be added to the gravestone when this date was in the future. Surely, someone from a family known for being regular grave visitors would have noticed this error.

Another question has also surfaced in the process of solving the mystery of Henry's death date. The cemetery records indicate that one of Henry's step-brothers, Percival Ernest NORTHCOTE (also Little Leo's grandfather) is buried in this grave. However, Perc died in 1958, years after Henry and Little Leo died (in 1930 and 1935, respectively) yet Perc's details are not recorded on the gravestone. The grave must have been opened to bury Perc and then the gravestone must have been replaced, although Perc's details were not added. Why?

So many questions ... so many dead ancestors who've taken the answers with them.

Australian genealogy podcast launched - Genies Down Under

Readers of this blog may have noticed that there is definitely an Australian theme to most of the articles and pictures that are included. I'm an Australian genealogist who's really interested in Australian genealogy so that's why I've just launched the Genies Down Under podcast for people researching their family history with Australian connections. Here's why ...

I'm also one of those bloggers who love listening to podcasts. Since 2006 when I got my hands on my first iPod, I've been hooked. Listening to podcasts about family history is one of my favourite past times - Lisa Louise Cooke (Genealogy Gems podcast), Michael O'Laughlin (Irish Roots Cafe), Drew and George (the Genealogy Guys podcast), Thomas MacEntee (Geneabloggers podcast), Myrt (Dear Myrtle podcast) and Jon Kay (Artisan Ancestors podcast). These are all podcasts that come out of the US. They're fantastic. Despite the fact they they are produced off the shores of Australia, I've found them to be wonderfully inspiring with loads of practical advice. I wait eagerly for each episode to show up on my iTunes list.

Although I LOVE these podcasts and they've become part of my walking life (literally - I mainly listen to them when I'm walking), I kept wondering when someone was going to produce a podcast that was specifically designed for genealogists with a connection to Australian family history. There are definitely some podcasts related to Australian genealogy, like the National Archives podcast, Ian Kath's Create Your Lifestory podcast and the ABC's Hindsight podcast, but I really wanted a podcast that included lots of practical tips and ideas for Australian family history researchers that were a little more specific to genealogy. Perhaps there is such a podcast and I've not been able to find it. If you know of one, please email me at mariaseddon@gmail.com.

Anyway, after six years of wondering about this and searching high and low for an Australian genealogy podcast, I decided to get off my bottom and create one myself - it's called Genies Down Under. It's is a podcast about genealogy - with an Australian twist - full of tips, tricks, tools and traps to avoid for family history researchers. My aim is to help people find out more about their ancestors than just names and dates. The podcast is full of stories, lots of stories.

Listen to a one minute promo about the podcast:

How to access the podcast ...

Click here to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes and check out the website for Genies Down Under.

So, I’d like to offer you a big warm Aussie invitation to join me for the very first episode of Genies Down Under.

But for now, I’ll say seeya from Maria, a genie down under.

Probates are great, mate

On Monday, I went along to the Kingswood Western Sydney Records Centre (http://www.records.nsw.gov.au) to check out a few probate records of some of my ancestors. The online index helps to locate the existence and numbers of these records (http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/indexes-online/indexes-online#p).

I can thoroughly recommend other NSW researchers to make a visit to this centre if possible. The staff are very helpful to people who haven't visited the centre before. I heard many visitors saying things like "I have no idea what I am doing" and "Can you help me? I don't know where to start." One of the most valuable aspects of the visit was the opportunity to see and touch (with gloves on) some original records.

Back to the probate records ... I was overwhelmed by the detail in these records or "packets" as they are known (see the diagram below for an example).

I accessed about 6 or 7 of these records and was very pleased when I opened each one up. One probate packet even contained a full death certificate. Another visitor I spoke to at the centre told me that she had recently accessed a probate packet that contained 10 various birth, death and marriage certificates. While some probate records were quite short (4 pages long), others contained up to 50 pages. While some of these pages were often repetitive, many pages outlined valuable information about the family's interests and correspondence. Many probate packets contained handwritten information.

While you can take photographs (without the flash) of the records you access at this centre, it is quite difficult to take photographs of the papers found in probate packets because they have been folded three of four times. This can make the papers difficult to flatten out on a table. In these cases, I'd recommend that you request photocopies (45c per sheet).

If you'd like to prepare for your visit to the centre, you can make an online request of up to four probate packets before you get to the centre. See the online forms for pre-ordering records (http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/use-the-archives/getting-started/visit-us/visit-us#pre-order-records).

Three generations visit family tribute mural

Last weekend, three generations of our family visited the mural created by Joanne Saad at Fred Kelly Place at Five Dock. My parents and grandparents are featured at the centre of the mural (black and white photo, sitting on a lounge) and their home is also included in this mural.

It was wonderful to see how our family's history featured in this mural which honoured the history of Five Dock. Although my father, Carew Northcote, and his parents, Leo and Nellie Northcote, have now passed away, their contribution to the history of Five Dock lives on in this mural.