#52 Ancestors 2021 Week 29

 #52 Ancestors 2021  Week 29

Fashion

The wedding photographs that I have from my family tell the story of changing fashions in clothing and in style.

This is the earliest photo I have - of Paul's grandparents Charles John McCann and Alma Florence Barrow, who married in Lismore, NSW in 1900.  

My grandparents married in 1911.  This was a time of enormous hats and bouquets, but an example of the formality of the times is that one of the bridesmaids was recruited at the last minute to replace one who was newly pregnant.

In this wedding from 1920, it is the bride who is seated.  This is my great aunt, Mabel May "Sis" White and her husband, Walter Day.

But here in 1922, at the wedding of Paul's aunt and uncle, Grace McCann and Eric Mason, the groom is seated.

These wedding gowns reflect the more streamlined look of the 1930s.  

1. Paul's parents, Pat McCann and Kathleen Keogh in 1936

Paul's Uncle Herb McCann and his bride, Violet Vidler in 1933

In the 1940's most of the grooms are in uniform and many of the brides are in simple day dresses as in this photo of Wes Whitten and Beth Meredith from 1941.

My father's cousin Betty Day managed to find a bridal gown in Lismore in 1941.

There is no photo of my parents' wedding.  In a small country town the combination of wartime restrictions on film and wet weather meant that none were taken, although we have this doubly exposed photo of Mum's niece Sue in her flowergirl outfit.

As rationing eased, 1950s brides became more extravagant with material.  This is Mum's brother Royce and his bride, Jean Lackey in 1951.

Dad's sister Margaret and her husband Bill Stewart on their wedding day in 1952.  Dad, on the right of the photo, gave the bride away in the absence of her father.  This is also the first wedding photo I have that is in colour, from a process which applied colour to an originally black and white print.

All these are such a contrast in style and formality with the most recent family wedding of my son and two nieces.

52 Ancestors 2021 Week 22

 #52 Ancestors 2021 Week 22

Military

I didn’t think we had any interesting military careers in the family.  There are a few undistinguished ones, (Michael Gleeson comes to mind) but recently I found out a little about two great grand uncles, brothers called John and Ernest Black, also known as Rose.

Our 2x great grandmother was called Elizabeth Jane “Eliza” Wilson.  She was born in 1836 in Donegal, Ireland and she married John Black in Greenock, Scotland.  Greenock was a convenient port for the Irish crossing the water.  Eliza and John had two children, Susannah and William, but Susannah died in 1860 and shortly afterwards the family emigrated to Australia.

They arrived in Sydney on the “Hotspur” on 24 February 1861.  Mary Jane (our great grandmother) was born in December of that year, followed by James (1864), Michael (1866), John (1869), Margaret 1872 and George (1876)

There is some doubt about George’s paternity.  Some time around 1876, Eliza took up with Anthony Rose.  Her husband John was still alive until 1899, so it doesn’t seem as if a marriage was contracted.

Two more children were born – Ernest Anthony in 1877 and Mabel Elizabeth In 1882.

Ernest Anthony enlisted in the NSW Lancers under the name Ernest Rose.  He was a Farrier Sergeant.  The photo was taken in 1899 when his regiment stopped over in London for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebrations on their way to the Boer War in South Africa.

                                                                Ernest Anthony Rose

The records show that Ernest was invalided home to Australia on 17 February 1901. Later that year he married, using the name Ernest Black.  I am assuming that this was the name on his birth certificate, which would support the view that his mother remained legally married to John Black.

The bride was Mabel Ermintrude Read and together they had three children – Muriel, Jack and Ermintrude Jean (thankfully, known as Jean)

It appears that Ernest had had enough of war.  He is not listed in the nominal rolls for WWI under either of his surnames.

By 1912, Ernest’s marriage was over and he remarried – as Ernest Rose – to Marion Smith.  It occurs to me that he may not have legally divorced and that a change of name was simpler, but he seems to have maintained contact with his first family who are named in his death notice (in 1951).  There were two children of the second marriage, I think.  Athol was born in 1914, and another child, Lee, is named in the death notice.

John Black (Rose) did enlist in WWI.  He joined the 1st Australian Infantry reinforcements and embarked from Sydney on 11 February 1915.  Three months later he was killed in the third attack by the Turks on the Anzac’s position at Gallipoli (he was at the area known as Quinn’s Post).  There were 3000 Turkish deaths and 700 Anzac casualties in the battle, in which the Anzac’s succeeded in holding their position.

John is buried in the Commonwealth War Grave known as Shrapnel Valley cemetery.  He was 46 years old, and unmarried.

So Mary Jane lost both a brother, John, and her son Edward Morgan in WWI. 

For few years after the War she placed “In Memoriam” notices in the Sydney Morning Herald for both of them.  Interestingly I had trouble finding the notices about her son until I looked under the name “Ellis”.  Edward was actually the son of Mary Jane’s first husband, George Morgan, and had enlisted and married using that name, but he had grown up believing that George Ellis was his father, so it seems as if his mother was more comfortable with continuing to use that name.

 

                                                                Edward George Morgan

52 Ancestors 2021 Week 23 - Bridge

 #52 Ancestors 2021 - Week 23

Bridge

I have written before about my great grandfather, Robert White, who made a lasting impact on the city of Lismore (NSW) during his many years as an Alderman (Councillor).

Some of this contribution has been forgotten over time.  He was, for example, the strongest and most influential advocate for the establishment of the South Lismore Public School.  He was also the loudest and longest voice pushing for South Lismore to be connected to the town sewerage system.

He also lobbied for a bridge over Leycester Creek to connect North and South Lismore, so when that construction was approved, it was unsurprising that the bridge should be named after him.

It was the South Lismore Progress Association which suggested that the bridge be called The Robert White Bridge and this group also planned the opening ceremony which was scheduled for 26 June 1926.  They held a euchre tournament to raise funds for children’s sports on the day, and everyone was asked to bring a basket picnic.

It rained on 26 June, so the postponed "christening" took place two weeks later in a ceremony attended by hundreds of Lismore citizens.  Alderman White’s 25 years of service to the community was praised by all the speakers , many of whom referred to the fact that he had been born within a few hundred metres of the bridge and lived most of his life in the area. *

The bridge cost 8867 Pounds and was described as a “fine high level structure about 340’ in length with two truss spans and seven approach spans”. 

The devastating flood of 1956 was responsible for the destruction of this first Robert White bridge. The centre span was washed away by the enormous power of the water pouring down Leycester Creek and into the Wilson River.  Eyewitnesses reported that a local farmer had just reached the other side with a herd of jersey cows when the span gave way.

                                                    (Picture from The Northern Star")

Eight years later, in 1963, a new bridge was opened, at the same time as the long awaited bridge at Ballina Street which is now the main crossing of the river into the city.  This new bridge was also named the Robert White Bridge.  Since then, there have been several huge floods, but the bridge has stayed firm above them all.

(the plaque says, "Robert White Bridge officially opened by the Hon P D Hills M.L.A, Minister for Local Government and Highways on 7th September 1963 to replace the original structure built in 1926 and destroyed by flood in 1956")

In 2016, after I moved to live near Lismore, I was sorry to find that the “Robert White Bridge” sign was small and difficult to see on the approach to the bridge, so I asked Lismore City Council if they might replace it.

They were happy to do so, and on the day of the official opening, Robert’s granddaughter Phyllis Mitchell (nee Lehmann) and three of Robert’s great-grandchildren were present.  Lyn McLean (daughter of Robert’s daughter, Sis) brought with her the brass Jardinere that the South Lismore Progress Association had presented to Robert on the day of that first opening in 1926.

                                                Lyn McLean, Phyllis Mitchell, Jill McCann

*

52 Ancestors 2021 Week 21

#52 Ancestors 2021 - Week 21

At the Cemetery

The picturesque cemetery at Alphadale, a farming area between Alstonville and Lismore on the north coast of NSW is the resting place of many generations of Paul’s family.  The cemetery is situated opposite the former St Paul’s Anglican Church – long deconsecrated and most recently a café.  Both the church and the cemetery are on land which belonged to the Roberts family and was given by them to the church.

William and Agnes Roberts were both convicts who served their time in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) then travelled first to the goldfields of Ballarat and then to the “red gold” (cedar) country of the north coast.  Their children and their partners travelled with them and all of them settled in this part of NSW.

We discovered this cemetery several years ago when we went looking for the graves of Paul’s grandparents, Charles and Alma (nee Barrow) McCann.  We found them in a group of graves which are all connected to the family although neither Agnes nor William is here.  We believe that Agnes’ grave is on a nearby private property and think that William might have been buried in the Pioneer cemetery in Ballina. 

The earliest of the ancestors buried here is  John Johnson, (1838 – 1925) who is Paul’s 2 x great grandfather.  John’s first wife was Lavinia Roberts, eldest daughter of William and Agnes, who died in childbirth at the age of 28 and was buried in what is now the Pioneer cemetery in Ballina in 1872.

John and Lavinia’s daughter Esther (born 1860) is also buried at Alphadale.  She was married first to her cousin Charles William McCann (Paul’s great grandfather) who drowned crossing a flooded stream at Eureka and is buried in the Pioneer cemetery in North Lismore.  Esther was left pregnant with her fifth child at the age of 29.

The family legend is that John Beale McCann, Charles’ younger brother, proposed to her on the way home from the funeral.  Four months later, after the birth of Ettie, she married him.

Esther and John Beale had three children together but the first two babies died and are buried in unmarked graves in the Alphadale cemetery.  It is logical to assume that they are near their parents’ graves.

Nearby are the graves of three children of Esther and Charles.  First, the grave we originally came to find.  Paul’s grandfather Charles John McCann and his wife Alma Florence (nee Barrow).

Lavina Lofts (nee McCann 1885 -1955

Mary Ellen “Nell” Barrow (nee McCann) 1887 – 1962

Catherine, the surviving child of Esther and John’s marriage is also there., with her husband, Percy Boyce.  

Catherine Agnes Boyce, 1897 – 1972

Some of the next generation are also buried in this group of graves.  They are Ettie’s son, Eric Gordon Clough (1914-1960), and two of Catherine’s children, Eunice (Sally) Crockett (nee Boyce),  1916-1973 and John Kevin Boyce, 1918 – 1982.

Since our first visit we have made many visits to this beautiful and peaceful place, and we have found many other graves of the Roberts family and their descendants.

We have bought two plots amongst the ancestors for ourselves.  We hope that by doing this, the connection to these early families may be maintained a little longer into our grandchildren’s generation.

#52 Ancestors 2021 - Week 13 Music

 #52 Ancestors 2021

Week 13

Music

Music was a big part of my mother’s life, and I believe it was because of the influence of her mother, Josephine Whitten (nee Morgan). 

Josephine married into the Whitten family who adhered to fairly strict Methodist principles. There was no alcohol, no dancing and no cards.  But Josephine and her sister Elsie loved to sing and so at least in their household there were piano lessons and family singing around the piano.

For Mum, the lessons didn’t last long – the teacher was one of those ruler-wielding nuns who sucked all the joy out of playing.  Mum was lucky – she could continue to play by ear.  She believed, like her mother, that music and singing were part of a happy and optimistic outlook on life and she didn’t let the lack of formal training get in the way of her enjoyment.

Dad had come from a different tradition.  There was no formal training and no instruments in his childhood but his father and his grandfather both sang - mainly Irish songs – and he discovered classical music at University.  When he met Mum and her family, he joined in their musical evenings and he and Mum loved to sing together.  They sang at their wedding reception – the song, “My Hero” from a popular musical of the 1940's called “The Chocolate Soldier”

We had no piano when I was growing up but Mum and Dad sang at home and, especially, on the many long car trips we took to visit relatives.  There were no car radios in the 50's and early 60's so this is when we children learnt the songs of Gilbert and Sullivan, and Cole Porter and Irving Berlin and the popular songs of WWII.  Dad loved the songs that his Irish grandfather had sung (“The Rose of Tralee”) and the songs of Richard Tauber and Lawrence Tibbit.  We were encouraged to sing the songs we were singing at school and, as we got older, the folk songs of the 60s. (Peter, Paul and Mary were big.)

The piano arrived in our house after my Grandmother’s death in 1968, and from that time, the Christmas Eve sing-a-long became a tradition.  Mum would begin by playing Christmas carols, but then the older songs would be played – G & S, Vera Lynn, the popular musicals of the 50s and 60s (My Fair Lady, South Pacific, Camelot).  Mum and Dad would always do “The Girl that I Marry” and we all learnt the Whiffenpoof Song.

As the grandchildren grew they added their voices, and then their instruments.  First a couple of guitars, then a few more.  Bec could now play the piano, and Alex and Amanda added the clarinet and saxophone.  New songs came with the guitars – especially The Beatles – and Mum especially loved Patrick’s rendition of “Rawhide”.  

Mum’s last big Christmas Eve sing a long was in 2016, when there were about 20 people – children and grandchildren and in-laws outside under the stars, singing along to 5 guitars.

When she was admitted to a nursing home after a stroke, Mum could no longer watch TV but she could listen to music.  We found recordings of many of the old songs she loved and played them constantly.  We found a recording of “My Hero” and she sang along, remembering all the words.  I have a little recording on my phone of her singing along to “Look for the Silver Lining” just two months before she died.  It’s almost unbearable to watch, but it expresses so much of who she was.

Dubbo Christmas Eve singing 2016.

#52 Ancestors 2021 - Week 8 - Power

 52 Ancestors 2021 - Week 8

Power

This week’s prompt is "Power" so I am writing what I know about the Power family of my 2 x great grandmother Bridget Power, known as Bedelia.  She was the mother of George Frederick Power Morgan who married Mary Jane Black and fathered our grandmother Josephine before disappearing from her life when she was a small child.

                                                              Bedelia Morgan (nee Power)

Bridget was the 4^th child of Peter Power and Mary Murphy who lived in the small town of Elphin, in county Roscommon, Ireland.  When she was seven years old, her family emigrated to Australia with a large contingent of their countrymen, many of whom were their close family.

AAmongst the 191 Catholics from the Parish of Elphin were:

·         Peter and Mary Power (nee Murphy) and their children, Patrick 12, Catherine 10, Ann 9, Bridget 7 (my 2x great grandmother), Maria 6 and Anthony 4.

 

·         Mary Power’s sister, Bridget, widow of Peter’s brother, John, who had died in 1838 aged only 37 leaving her with 4 children - Peter 13, Patrick 11, Elizabeth 7 and John 3.

 

·         Peter Power’s brother Theophilus (known as Offey) and his wife Winifred.  He was coming to employment as a shoemaker for Mr Smith, of George St, Sydney.

 

·         Michael Power, aged 21, a clerk

 

·         Eleanor Power and her husband Kelly McKeone, who had a job as a carpenter in Sydney at 2pounds 8 shillings per week.  Their children were Eliza 12, Bridget 10, James 7, John 5 and Francis 3.  Their baby Ellen, aged 2, was the first of 13 people to die on the Crusader.*1

      Peter and his family settled in Paddington, which was a very poor part of town in the nineteenth century.  They had two more children.  James was born in 1840 and Ellen the following year.  When Mary died at the age of 55, “after a long and painful illness, which she bore with Christian fortitude”*2 she was living with her daughter Bridget and her husband George Morgan.  Peter then seems to have moved in with their daughter Annie, as he was there when he died of “apoplexy” in 1868.

 Some of the other Power emigrants fared much better.  Peter Power, son of the widow Bridget, became a Councillor and Mayor of Williamstown in Victoria. Peter’s son, Ernest was chief sub-editor of the Age newspaper and his grandson (Ernest’s son) was Kevin Power, a long time member of the Canberra Press gallery.*3

 Michael married and became a successful Auctioneer and General Commission Agent.  He died at 37 but he left his family able to afford to educate his three sons in Ireland.  They all returned to successful careers in Australia- Virgil became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Queensland, John a doctor in Gympie (QLD), and Frank was an MLC and Minister for Justice in Queensland.  One of Frank’s grandsons was Sir Noel Plunkett Power, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong in the years immediately preceding the handover to China.

 

                                                                     Virgil Power

Others did less well.  Francis Glynn Power Morgan, a great grand uncle of mine, was the co-respondent in a particularly scandalous divorce.

 Researching the Power family has been made simpler by the fact that so many descendants were given “Power” as part of their Christian names.  This includes my Great Grandfather (George Frederick Power Morgan).  I have no way of knowing why this should have been the case, but it continues to this day.  Elizabeth Power (daughter of the original Bridget) gave all her children the name and some of the next generation hyphenated it, so there are Power-Malones in Victoria who are descendants.

I have also been struck by the number of Power descendants who were journalists and writers. As well as the aforementioned Ernest and Kevin, there was James Power, a journalist who was killed in action in 1943, Francis Power who wrote several books and pamphlets and Lawrie Power, a sub-editor at the (Melbourne) Herald.  Further back, James Gunning Nelson Plunkett (b 1833) was the newspaper proprietor of the Catholic Northern Press in Liverpool.

My cousin Petera Atkinson (daughter of Lawrie) also cites Roy Neville Connolly, press secretary to Sir Arthur Fadden who is a 3^rd cousin to her, and probably to me too although I haven’t verified that.

And, of course, there are my brother Michael Gleeson, a former ABC correspondent in Washington, niece Josephine Tovey of The Guardian and sister Libby Gleeson, distinguished writer of children’s books.

 

 

*1The Commander of the Crusader was Captain Inglas, an experienced seaman. The Surgeon was Dr Birdcastle. There were 42 crew members and 283 immigrants. On the voyage there were 13 deaths, including 3 from smallpox. The Crusader arrived in Sydney on 15th January, 1840.

*2 Death notice SMH 27 Feb 1863

*3 Fun fact – In the famous photo of Gough Whitlam on the steps of Parliament House after his sacking, Kevin Renton Power is holding the 2UE microphone

52Ancestors 2021 Week 5 - In the Kitchen

 #52 Ancestors 2021 Week 5 - In the Kitchen

My mother was not a good cook.  She often said that Dad taught her to cook on their honeymoon, but his repertoire was limited so I wonder what they ate?  Fish probably, as they were at Brunswick Heads.  He loved fish and she didn’t much like it but would have eaten it anyway.  And apparently her first landlady, at the tiny flat she and Dad lived in during the first year of their marriage, taught her to make custard.

Despite this, she did a few things well.  Roast lamb with all the baked vegetables for Sunday lunch.  Monte Carlo biscuits. Enough to fill an ice-cream container for us to take back to University in our luggage after the holidays.  Pavlova on special occasions like afternoon tea parties for the wives of Dad’s staff members.  If you were very lucky, there might be a spoonful left over to share.

Frankly I’m amazed that she managed to put a meal on the table every night especially during the years when there were three pre-school children plus one at school and a husband and father who came home and expected dinner to be ready.

To be fair, Dad often did Sunday night dinner, which was always a laid-back affair.  He was good at pancakes and scrambled eggs and leftover roast lamb and veg on toast.  And his signature dish was a concoction known as “onion, onion and tomatoes”, which I remember eating a few times when Mum was in hospital having babies.*

Neither of my grandmothers was much of a cook either.  When I think about it, I realise that they had a limited range of ingredients. There was always lots of meat - especially lamb - in Australia, and steak and sausages were staples. They were always served very well done. There wasn't much pork and it was always fatty.  Chickens were for special occasions and came out of the backyard - yours or the neighbour's.  Someone had to chop its head off and pluck it. Rabbit could be shot and fish could be caught and they both needed to be prepared by the cook.

My paternal grandfather had an enviable vegetable garden when I was a child, but that range was limited too.  Tomatoes, carrots, beans, pumpkins, cucumbers.  No zucchini, no broccoli, no garlic, no capsicum, no herbs. Beetroot and asparagus came out of tins.  Lettuce was always iceberg. 

Typically of her generation, my grandmother always managed to destroy these fresh vegetables by cooking them to death.  I remember the beans being boiled for ages and emerging grey and mushy.  I don't remember cauliflower but it would have been cooked to a sludge too.  She was good at jam making, and pastry.

All of us children remember her sago pudding.  We would get a finger-wagging lecture from Mum before we arrived at my grandmother’s house.  We had to eat everything that was put in front of us, and no complaints.  That included sago pudding, which we dreaded! 

Funny, I quite like sago now.

Josie, Mum's mother, prided herself on her damper, which had allegedly won a Blue Ribbon at the local show at some time in the past.  I don't recall ever eating it.

What I do remember of our visits to her house in her later years was Mum’s surreptitious cleaning of her pantry.  “Don’t eat the Vegemite,” she would warn us.  “It’s 6 years past its use-by date.”  (Vegemite is possibly indestructible so that probably didn’t matter.)  Mum and her sister, who was often visiting at the same time, would conspire to get their mother out of the house – their husbands would be enlisted to take her to the cemetery for a visit – and then they would frantically clean everything in sight, throwing out old food from the fridge and pantry and replacing old jars with new ones. 

My generation came of age at a time of abundance and multi-culturalism.  We have access to exotic ingredients from all over the world, and cook books and television cooking shows to teach us how to use them. And if we still don’t feel like cooking, there is always the take-away.

 

 

*I make it myself now as Sunday night comfort food.  Very gently sauteed onion rings in butter with chopped tomato added and then stewed gently until the whole thing is like thick soup.  Delicious on toast, with cracked black pepper.

52Ancestors 2021 - Week 4 - Favourite photo

 52 Ancestors 2021 - Week 4 - Favourite photo

This photo of my mother was taken in 1942 when she was 17.  She is dressed in the costume she wore for a revue put on by the Patriotic Younger Set in Qurindi, a small town in NSW, Australia. 

The local paper said that Gwynn Whitten "sang very prettily".  She could remember most of the song years later when three of her granddaughters reproduced it for "The Pet Lamb Show", a play about her life which was written and performed for her 80th birthday.

Patriotic Younger Sets sprang up all over the country in the first years of World War II.  They gave those at home an opportunity to help the war effort by raising money, but they also served to entertain and boost morale.  The line-up in this cast includes many of Mum's childhood friends and her cousin Beryl. The director is Russell Bell who was a teacher at Quirindi High School, married to Beryl's sister Doris.

Mum married at the end of 1943, and never performed on stage again, but she was a great storyteller. There must have been a strong performance gene as two of her granddaughters are actors, and other members of the family have appeared in both amateur and professional productions.