David Smith – Dragon Genealogy Blog

The Introduction Letter: What Would You Write?

Nov 202015

In the Internet age we take communication for granted. We use email, Facebook, the phone and even at times write a letter to communicate with each other.We share (some people rather too much information) online about what we are doing, put up photos so the concept of not knowing people is not an easy one to consider.

Imagine being in the past, in this case 53 years ago which doesn’t seem that long ago but phone calls were not something you made as a usual thing. People did not always travel much.

Imagine you are a parent whose son is marrying a girl in another state.

You have never met them, only know what your son has told you and the girl’s family also don’t know you.

They have had a short engagement of five months and the wedding is fast approaching. You are attending the wedding.

What would you write to introduce yourself to the girl’s parents?

Below is the letter written by Lillian Smith, my grandmother, introduce herself to her new soon to be in-laws. She did leave it a bit to the last minute as Violet and David married just ten days after this letter was written.

Lady Gowrie Legacy House
12 Jersey Road
Strathfield, NSW
1 March 1961

Dear Mr and Mrs Busby,

I have tried many times to sit down long enough to write to you but as you will realize it isn’t easy, in a position like this. Seeing that the children will soon be married and no longer our responsibilities we will have the chance of meeting and getting acquainted, at the wedding. I had hoped David would not think of marriage for a few years but as they are of age and have prayed about it, and feel it is the real thing, there is no more to be said. I guess you feel the same. It seems strange doesn’t it to think they are old enough, we watch them grow up and think of them as children , then all at once they are adults. I do trust that all will go well for them, and that god will spare them to have many happy years together.

When I come back from England I hope you will come and stay with me at Manly when you come to Sydney.

I don’t know if there is anything you would like to know about us, giving your daughter to a young man is not easy, I guess, especially when you don’t know his family. David’s father was a wonderful man. He broke his neck and back getting ready for the D-Day invasion. His father was a grand man also, he died 6 years before my Husband was killed.

My own Father was a Station Master on the British Railway and served 53 years unbroken service. His father was also on the Railway. We never had any money to spare but we had big home which was open to all, there were six boys and six girls in my family and we all took our friends home, my parents expected it. We had a very happy family life. I was very disappointed at having only one son, however I shall soon have a Daughter. The Lord always supplies our needs if we wait.

I ran a long splinter down my finger yesterday so my writing isn’t all it should be, please excuse it.

I do hope you are feeling better in health, Mr Busby and that you are not too anxious about the choice your girl has made. David has always been a very self-reliant boy, at 3 years old he would collect his teddy and be in the dugout in record time. As the years went by after my Husband’s death he gradually became the man of the house.

At 11 years when we moved into our first Australian home, he laid the lino with me and did repairs, helped with the garden and housework, more like a boy of 18. When he was 15 he started on the Railway and after just a few months asked for country relief, often he would be on level crossing gates 16 -20 miles from anywhere, in a small room out in the bush alone for 12 hour shifts sometimes where there were snakes and things he had never been used to. He did so well they transferred him to Metropolitan relief when I moved from Goulbourn to Manly. He made good progress there also and after getting five certificates and having to mark time for 18 months he decided to join the Military for 3 years.

In some ways this may have been good, but in other ways it wasn’t so good. However it was his life and in June he will finish his 3 years and as far as I know go back to the Railway. I think boys go through a silly stage, and have crazy ideas about cars and making money etc but I believe it happens to most boys. It certainly did with David but I think I can safely say that he will take great care of your girl. He is so like his father in many ways and if I can help them in any way I can , you can rest assured I will do my best, as David will be on the Railway they will travel cheaply or free, so you will not be separated from her altogether.

I had better close, if there is anything you would like to know about us please ask and very soon now we will meet, I trust you are both well and feel happy bout Violet’s future.

God Bless You
Yours Sincerely
Lillian M. Smith

Writing Directed Queries

Archives, David Smith, Query No Responses »

Jul 112015

When requesting any sort of information it is extremely important to write a directed query. You need to provide all relevant information. No, that does not mean reciting your entire family history!

Many archives will do a very limited search and if you ask for “Everything you have on my Smith family” there is nothing they can do to help you. Don’t laugh I have heard it being asked!

However if you have a specific question you have a much better chance of getting a positive response, particularly in these times of staff cutbacks.

For example, this is a recent query I did to determine if an archive held staff files relating to my father:

Dear Sir

I am interested in determining if you hold the service records for the Brisbane City council tramways and also for the Mt Crosby Water Treatment plant. And if you do if I am able to access the service record/s of my father, David who died in 2003. I am happy to pay any required fee.

David Smith born 16 February 1940 address at time 109 Duke Street Annerley was a conductor, then tram driver then bus driver at Ipswich road depot from around 1966 to 1974.

Previously he had worked on the Mt Crosby water supply from around 1963 to 1966, address at that time Mt Crosby

As can be seen from this the first question was: Did they hold these files? If they did not then there was no need for them to read the detailed information about David.

If they did hold the files my query was could I access them and that I was happy to pay any required fee. If at this point there is a time closure period then again they could stop at that point. Then they needed to know that David was dead and there would be no breach of his privacy.

Then the detailed information can begin as this is when the archivist needs to have this information. I also provided detailed contact information if there was a need to contact me for further information.

I am pleased to say that this enquiry bore positive fruit and I received copies of the two staff cards relating to his service at the Mount Crosby pumping station and his service as a tram conductor then driver then bus driver with the Brisbane City Council.

David Smith driving a tram 13 April 1969, the last day of trams in Brisbane

The Introduction Letter: What would you say?

David Smith, Gladys Trost, Introductions, Letters, Lilian Smith, Violet Busby, Walter Trost No Responses »

Aug 232014

In the Internet age we take communication for granted.

We use email, Facebook, the phone and even at times write a letter to communicate with each other.

We share (some people rather too much information) online about what we are doing, and put up photos so the concept of not knowing people is not an easy one to consider.

Imagine you are a parent whose son is marrying a girl in another state or country.

You have never met her or her family, you only know what your son has told you and the girl’s family also don’t know you. They have had a short engagement of five months and the wedding is fast approaching. You will be attending the wedding.

You want to write a letter to her parents introducing yourself.

What would you write to introduce yourself to the girl’s parents?

Imagine being that person in the past, in this case 53 years ago which doesn’t seem that long ago but phone calls were not something you made as a usual thing. People did not always travel much.

Below is the letter written to introduce herself by Lillian Smith, my grandmother.

Lady Gowrie Legacy House
12 Jersey Road
Strathfield, NSW
1 March 1961
Dear Mr and Mrs Busby,
I have tried many times to sit down long enough to write to you but as you will realize it isn’t easy, in a position like this. Seeing that the children will soon be married and no longer our responsibilities we will have the chance of meeting and getting acquainted, at the wedding. I had hoped David would not think of marriage for a few years but as they are of age and have prayed about it, and feel it is the real thing, there is no more to be said. I guess you feel the same. It seems strange doesn’t it to think they are old enough, we watch them grow up and think of them as children, then all at once they are adults. I do trust that all will go well for them, and that God will spare them to have many happy years together.

I don’t know if there is anything you would like to know about us, giving your daughter to a young man is not easy, I guess, especially when you don’t know his family. David’s father was a wonderful man. He broke his neck and back getting ready for the D-Day invasion. His father was a grand man also, he died 6 years before my Husband was killed.

My own Father was a Station Master on the British Railway and served 53 years unbroken service. His father was also on the Railway. We never had any money to spare but we had big home which was open to all, there were six boys and six girls in my family and we all took our friends home, my parents expected it. We had a very happy family life. I was very disappointed at having only one son, however I shall soon have a Daughter. The Lord always supplies our needs if we wait.
I ran a long splinter down my finger yesterday so my writing isn’t all it should be, please excuse it.

I do hope you are feeling better in health Mr Busby and that you are not too anxious about the choice your girl has made. David has always been a very self-reliant boy, at 3 years old he would collect his teddy and be in the dugout in record time. As the years went by after my Husband’s death he gradually became the man of the house.

At 11 years when we moved into our first Australian home, he laid the lino with me and did repairs, helped with the garden and housework, more like a boy of 18. When he was 15 he started on the Railway and after just a few months asked for country relief, often he would be on level crossing gates 16 -20 miles from anywhere, in a small room out in the bush alone for 12 hour shifts sometimes where there were snakes and things he had never been used to. He did so well they transferred him to Metropolitan relief when I moved from Goulbourn to Manley. He made good progress there also and after getting five certificates and having to mark time for 18 months he decided to join the Military for 3 years. In some ways this may have been good, but in other ways it wasn’t so good.

However it was his life and in June he will finish his 3 years and as far as I know go back to the Railway. I think boys go through a silly stage, and have crazy ideas about cars and making money etc but I believe it happens to most boys. It certainly did with David but I think I can safely say that he will take great care of your girl. He is so like his father in many ways and if I can help them in any way I can , you can rest assured I will do my best, as David will be on the Railway they will travel cheaply or free, so you will not be separated from her altogether.

I had better close, if there is anything you would like to know about us please ask and very soon now we will meet, I trust you are both well and feel happy bout Violet’s future.
God Bless You
Yours Sincerely
Lillian M. Smith

L-R Walter and Gladys Trost, Violet Smith nee Busby, David Smith Lilian Smith Alf Garnet?

Wordless Wednesday

David Smith, Philpott, Sumbling, Tonbrisge 2 Responses »

Feb 022012


Behind 42 Baltic Road Tonbridge, Kent, England abt 1949

My Grandmother Lilian grew up in a two up, two down terrace home at 38 Baltic Road Tonbridge Kent. Her father Robert Henry Philpott worked on the South east & Chatham Railway, as did many people in town.

Robert Henry was born 29 March 1877 in Hythe Kent. He married Alice Jane Lewis 23 December 1899 in Erith. They had thirteen children (although I can only find 12 so far) of whom my Grandmother Lilian was the middle child.

Lilian lost her husband in WW2 and she and my father David, the young boy in this photo emigrated to Australian in 1949.

Left to right: Robert Henry Philpott Dulcie Sumbling (Dad’s cousin) Alice Jane Philpott nee Lewis, Mavis Ben (Dad’s cousin) and my father David Smith

Robert and Alice’s eldest daughter Florence married William Sumbling and they moved into 42 Baltic Road which was two doors down and there is still two of the Sumbling family living there today.

In Memory of my Father for Fathers Day

Alice Sarah Philpott, Dartford, David Smith, Leslie Smith, Lilian Smith, Robert Henry Philpott 2 Responses »

Sep 042011

The Proud Parents

I lost my father David Smith nearly eight years ago on the 26th November 2003, so Fathers Day is a day of memory for me and today I’d like to share some of my Dad’s early life and how this shaped him into the man he became.

My Dad was born 16 February 1940 in Dartford, Kent England. He was the first, and due to World War 2, the only child of Leslie and Lilian Maud Smith. Leslie and Lilian were both Salvation Army and both played in the band.

Leslie was a cabinet maker who was part way through an apprenticeship as an antique restorer when the War was declared. He was initially rejected for the Army and went to work at Vickers Armstrong factory in Crayford. This was a reserved occupation and he stayed there until he was accepted into the Army on 10/07/1941.

While Leslie was in the Army, Lilian looked after David and ran a boarding house. She had a vegetable garden and one of the family stories was she had just spent an afternoon planting cabbages and that night the Germans did a bombing raid, a not uncommon thing when you lived on the approach to London. In fact over 200,000 incendiary bombs, 6000 high explosive and 200 oil bombs fell on Dartford with over 13 000 homes damaged.

Lilian was so concerned about her vegetables that she went outside and was shouting at the aircraft until suddenly she was being shot at and she came to her senses and fell flat to the ground then ran for safety. Afterwards it was found that bullet marks were along both sides of where she was laying.

Lilian’s father and mother Robert & Alice Philpott & David

Leslie died 14 December 1944 after a training accident with the Argylle and Sutherland Highlanders.

Life was tough for Lilian and David even with her supportive family.

Leslie’s brother Frank had emigrated to Australia in the 1920s and wrote of better conditions there so Lilian decided to become a Ten Pound Pom

They emigrated in 1949 to Sydney. They stayed with Frank and his family for a while then Lilian worked at the People’s Palace in Sydney while Dad stayed for a while at the Salvation Army Orphanage in Goulburn.

Dad and his dog in Goulburn

Housing was very hard to find at this time but eventually a house became available in Goulburn and then Dad and Lilian were back together again.

Life still wasn’t easy but they worked hard growing vegetables and carnations which they sold to Lilian’s workmates and to restaurants in town. Dad collected bottles around town and returned them and also had a job cleaning the bakery stables which were behind their house.

Lilian was very careful with her money with the dream of buying a home for David and herself and saved every cent she could.

Lilian’s father Robert Henry Philpott died on Christmas Day 1953 and my grandmother decided to go back to England to be with her mother and family at this difficult time.

They spent a year in Tonbridge with the family. Dad had been used to being quite independent in Australia and had some trouble coping with the more restrictive life in England so he was quite happy when they came back to Australia at the end of the year. Lilian used her savings and some money from her father to buy that home for them at Manly.

He joined the New South Railways as a junior ans worked over much of the network for the next few years. Then when he didn’t get called up for National Service he decided to join the Army regardless. While in the Army he was transferred to Enoggera Barracks in Brisbane. He attended the Salvation Army at Mitchelton and one day went on a church picnic and that was how he met my mother. But that is a story for another day.