K is for Kelvin Grove School

 Gladys Weeks, Kelvin Grove, Rollason, School  7 Responses »
Jul 262012
 
Continuing with Alona’s Family History Through the Alphabet, it is time for K.
Now I must admit, I changed what I was going to write for K when Pauleen of  Family History Across the Seas blog left a comment on my E for Education post that her father also went to Kelvin Grove School.

The school has put online a collection of old school photos They are not named but you may be able to determine your person among the images. Most are listed by year and class name. 

This is a fantastic idea and I hope more schools follow suit, especially as so many people have lost their photos in disasters including the recent floods. 

The school is also hoping that people might be able to provide copies of other photos they might have to go into the archives.


The girl (with the ribbon and light dress) to the right of the lass who is holding the sign, is my mother Violet in 1948 when she first went to Kelvin Grove.

1952 VIB Mr Topping on left Mum is second from left third rowstanding with white collar on what she remembers as a “blue velvet dress”

My mother was the third generation of her family that went to Kelvin Grove. The children of Richard John Rollason (Mary, James, Violet (my great-grandmother), William, Lily, Herbert, Harold and Arthur) all went to Kelvin Grove. 


Then Violet’s two daughters, Gladys and Myrtle went then my mother. My mother was disappointed that I did not follow in the tradition but it was not practicable when I lived on the other side of town.

I have two unknown photos of Kelvin Grove students.

KG III Boys. Guessing around early 1900s Somewhere in there is a Rollason boy!
KG V Unknown year. Possibly Gladys Weeks sixth girl from left second row but we don’t know for sure.

J is for Jelly

 Enfield, Thomas Jelly  3 Responses »
Jul 252012
 
J is for Jelly the maiden name of Elizabeth who married William Evans the subject of my previous post I is for Inquest

Elizabeth was born in Enfield, Middlesex in 1825 and christened 31 Dec 1825 at St Andrews Enfield.  Enfield is now a suburb of London but at this time was a satellite village.
Her father Thomas William Jelly was a baker and his wife Sarah nee Robinson was the daughter of a miller. Thomas’ father was Thomas as well.

Now Elizabeth’s grandfather Thomas got himself into a little bit of trouble as one of his customers complained he had short-weighted the loaf of bread.

I found out about his trouble by doing a search on Access to Archives which is a great resource. It is a combined catalogue of a number of archives. Unfortunately it is no longer being supported but it does contain entries from around 450 archives around England, including some quite unusual ones. 

Some of the entries are very detailed while others will just tell you that the archives has a bundle of papers covering a date range dealing with  a parish etc.

So I found this entry:

With this information I was able to access the file while on a trip to London. The images were taken with my digital camera at the London Metropolitan Archives (after paying  a small fee)


This is 1799 and Thomas  was fined 36 pounds which seems a huge sum of money. As you can imagine Thomas was fairly unhappy about this and he appealed the conviction.

And the following court session the conviction was quashed. The interesting thing was it did not give any evidence as to why the conviction should be quashed.

I looked further through the indexed court sessions and did not find another complaint against Thomas.

Thomas continues working as a baker until his death December 1840 in Enfield. He was buried  December 8 1840 in the St  Andrews Enfield churchyard.



   

I is for Inquest

 Charlotte Chapman, Inquest, Jane Cameron, William Evans, Young Australia  6 Responses »
Jul 232012
 
Thanks to Alona for starting everyone on this journey of Family History through the Alphabet.

William Evans was baptised 29 May 1819 in Rhayder, Radnorshire, Wales. He marries Elizabeth Jelley about 1845, supposedly in Trinidad but I have not been able to find the marriage entry as yet, but am still looking!

Mary Elizabeth is born in 1846 in Enfield the hometown of Elizabeth, followed by  Samuel Jelley in 1849 also in Enfield. William was a coachbuilder/wheelwright by trade and he followed his trade around south-east England with further children:
Llewellyn born in 1851 in Brighton, Sussex, Thomas 1853, Martha 1856 and Lucy 1860 all born in Ashford then John William Evans born in 1862 in London.
Elizabeth was buried April 5 1865 at St Andrews, Enfield, Middlesex.

William decides to emigrate to Queensland. His two eldest children Mary Elizabeth and Samuel Jelley Evans decide to stay in England.

A number of shipping records from the mid-1860s have not survived for Queensland due to the 1893 floods, so I can’t tell you which ship they sailed upon to Queensland or when.

The next we come upon William is when he marries Jane Cameron a widow, 21 April 1868. He is listed as being a storekeeper at Eight Miles Plains, Logan River. Interestingly this is also the last time we hear of Jane, no death was found but two years later, when William dies there is no mention of her except on his death certificate as being his second wife.
A very interesting death certificate as there was a magisterial inquiry.but one wonders why when the cause was listed as apoplexy?

A trip to the Queensland State Archives was in order!

At the time I wasn’t able to get to the Archives as i was working full-time but I could get to the State Library who closed at 8pm to look at the newspapers.You never know what you are going to find!
Courier Mail 2 April 1870

Oh, so that was why there was a magisterial inquiry! Bound over to keep the peace! Threatening a neighbor! Tell me more!
Courier Mail 26 March 1870

Oh the scandal of it all! Did the apoplexy maybe cause him to have a violent temper attack? It was only a week previous? Was this woman he was living with Jane his wife or was it Charlottte?

Finally I got out to the Archives to get a copy of the inquest, not really expecting it to tell me too much more.

April 2 1870

 Enquiry into the death of William Evans of the Logan Road before John Petrie Esq. JP

 William Woods being duly sworn on his oath saith I am a legally qualified medical practitioner residing in Brisbane. Yesterday the 1 April at eleven o’clock am I accompanied the Police Magistrate to a house on the Logan Road kept as an accommodation house by the deceased William Evans. I went into a bedroom in the house and saw a body, the body of the deceased lying on a bed. He had been dead some hours. I saw the remains of vomit about the shirt, on the body, on the bed and upon different parts of the floor. I was shown a glass with white powder adhering to it which I believed was nothing more than cream of tartar which I was informed he had drunk some hours before his death. There were no external marks of violence on the body. I afterwards saw the same body at the dead house in Ann Street. I made a post-mortem examination, first opened the chest and found the organs there all in a healthy condition. I then opened the head and found the vessels of the brain  (? ? )and the membranes and the ventricles of the brain filled with serous fluid which had been the cause of death by producing what is commonly known as serous apoplexy a very ? condition found in persons who have ever even to intemperate habits. I have no reason to believe that the deceased (? )the condition of the brain being quite sufficient to cause death.

Taken and sworn me at Brisbane this 2 April 1870

John Petrie JP

Well that gave a few clues such as William had an accommodation house. What else does the inquest say?

4 April 1870

Charlotte Chapman, being duly sworn on her oath saith I am a single woman I have been living with the deceased William Evans as housekeeper for the last five years. He had been in the colony four years, I had kept his house for a year before I came out. I came out on the Young Australia with him. He was a coach builder by trade. He came from London. Evans had been living on the Logan Road nearly from the time he came out. Last week he had been off since Monday and had only eaten a couple of eggs on Thursday at dusk. Deceased had two cups of tea and then began drinking from the  bottle. At about ½  past eight deceased said that he would have a (?) powder. I knew there were none in the house. I went into the house in about 10 minutes then I saw a tumbler on the table with the white stuff around the edge of it. I put the tumbler away. There was some acid cream of tartar and baking soda in the house. About ½ hour after, two gentlemen came up. Evans appeared as usual only ? from drink. At about 12 o’clock he was taken very sick. He was sick and retching until about 3 o’clock in the morning. At about three o’clock in the morning he got off his bed and drank two bottles of  beer. He asked me for some water and I told him he did not want anything. That were the only time I heard him speak   I heard a noise and found food ushering from Evan’s mouth. I was in the next room to Evans I could hear him if he had turned in his bed. I gave the alarm and saw Mr Chapman and told him that he was dead. He was generally sick after drinking. Evans was always in the habit of drinking once he has been in this colony.

  
Young Australia,  They came out on the Young Australia! Who would have thought the inquest would have given me the immigration details! I still don’t have an exact date but it is likely to be somewhere around 1866 as his wife died in 1865, Charlotte was his housekeeper for a year before they left England and he was in teh colony about four years so sometime in 1866 is likely.

So I is for Inquest and Immigration!

H is for Home

 Myrtle Doris Weeks, Trittons, William George Busby  3 Responses »
Jul 222012
 
Due to the Second World War, my Grandmother Myrtle stayed living with her mother, Violet Weeks, in Violet’s house on the corner of Craig and Cochrane Streets, Red Hill even after her marriage to  William George Busby in 1939. 
Corner of Cochrane and Craig Streets, Red Hill

My Grand-Aunt Gladys and her husband Walter Trost also lived in the house so my mother, born in January 1940, had plenty of relatives at home. Walter was in a reserved occupation and did not go away.


While her husband William was away, in Darwin then New Guinea and Borneo, Grandma worked towards the idea of a home of their own with their daughter, Violet, my mother.


You have heard of girls putting together a Glory Box ready for their marriage? 

Well my Grandmother put together a Glory House!

 
While William was away, Myrtle gradually put on lay-by furniture, and utensils ready for their new home. She used a firm, Trittons,  which was well known in Brisbane, but which sadly no longer exists






Among the treasures Mum and I have inherited were lots of lay-by receipts like the one below.

Grandma made regular payments off items for their future: a bedroom suite, a kitchen dresser and table and more.

Ready for time after the war when they could be a family together in their own home.

It took time after the war. Getting yourself back into civilian life was not easy. Granddad was trying to find out if he could take over the payments of the house which had been lost when his father had an accident but that was not successful. (This is a whole other story that I still need to do further research upon.)


In 1949, this deposit was paid on 1 James Street, Fortitude Valley. The house was owned by William’s uncle Edward Courtenay and it was to become William and Myrtle’s family home for the rest of their lives.

G is for Golden Casket

 Golden Casket, maternity, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Royal Childrens Hospital  8 Responses »
Jul 222012
 
Every Queenslander knows the Golden Casket even though Lotto has gained more prominence now.

The Casket started in 1916, when the Queensland Patriotic Fund asked if they could run an Art Union for the Repatriation Fund of the Queensland War Council. The first Casket went on sale in December 1916.

It was successful in raising funds and a second Casket was also run for the Patriotic Fund, then three Caskets were run to fund the building of homes for War Widows by the Anzac Cottage Committee.

The sixth Casket run gave the profits to the Hospital for Sick Children (now known as the Royal Childrens’ Hospital).

The Hospital was in urgent need of funds for repairs and further development at a time when donations from the public were more difficult to obtain.
From  1920 the Government took over the running of the Casket with the profits being used for funding Public Hospitals, Maternity Hospitals and  Baby Clinics. 
The Royal Women’s hospital was funded by the Casket at a  cost of 200 thousand pounds. By 1938, 93 maternity hospitals and 122 baby clinics had been provided by the profits of the Casket.
The money was used to provide free hospitals in Queensland and this was important as previously hospital care was not free. Previously the richer persons provided charitable entry or you paid for the services provided. The hospitals were always trying to gather donations. With the Casket there were many small donations from many people rather than larger donations from the few.

The general public embraced the concept of the Casket, as not only was there a possibility of winning the first prize, which was a number of years of wages for a tradesman for a small investment, it didn’t matter if you didn’t win, as after all “you still got the hospital!”
100 000 tickets were sold in each Casket. You could buy a quarter or half share in a ticket and originally a barrel containing a 100 000 marbles was used to draw the prizes. Then, in 1932, a new machine invented by a Brisbane engineer, John Lund was put into use.


The new machine (shown in the illustration) stood over six foot tall with a rectangular barrel divided into five compartments. Each compartment contained ten discs from 0 to 9. 

The barrel is turned by a handle, three turns of the handle rotated the barrel once, thoroughly mixing the discs. At the end of the revolution a disc in each compartment falls into the slot and a five figured number is shown in a clear window. (For the mathematicians amongst you, the number 100 000 was represented by five zeros showing in the window). This system stayed in place until the introduction of computers.

It was possible for the same number to win multiple times in the same drawing.

All drawings were open to the public.

In the first fifty years of the Casket’s operation, it contributed significantly to the sick and needy with $73 million dollars being used for the hospital and health system and $200 million being returned as prizes.

I don’t know precisely when grandma Myrtle Doris Weeks bought this ticket but guess it to be in the early 1950s. At this time the top prize was 15 000 pounds. Each full ticket cost ten shillings. My grandparents never won the top prize but regularly bought tickets, as after all, “you got the hospital!”

F is for Find the Ball

 Football, Grand Final 1967 Ticket, Season pass, William George Busby  3 Responses »
Jul 222012
 

Thanks to Alona for thinking of this Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge  I am continuing, a bit late, with F.
My Grandfather, William George Busby, loved his football. 

He attended all the home games and listened every weekend (in fact most of the weekend, even when he was in the garden with his beloved roses he had the transistor radio blaring the game) to all the other games.

He followed the Fortitude Valley Team known as the Diehards although they were generally just known as Valleys.

I am sure modern supporters would like to pay $1.50 for a Grand Final ticket!
As part of his football fever he played the Courier Mail’s  Find the Ball competition every week.  A photo was published of a moment in a game with the image of the ball removed. You had to guess where the ball was to win a weekly prize. The prize was quite good, as was generally over a thousand pounds. 

Finally in the week 30 October 1954 he hit the jackpot! That week the prize would be

As you can imagine there was lots of excitement in the house with plans being made as to what to buy.

There was only one slight problem:

So his share was only 127 pounds, still a nice windfall but not the jackpot for which he had been hoping!


The dreams had to be reined in a bit but he did use the money to buy Grandma a nice watch!



E isfor Education

 Myrtle Doris Weeks, Rollason, School, Seventh Day Adventist, Sunday School, Violet Busby  3 Responses »
Jul 222012
 
Thanks to Alona who started us on this fabulous Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge.
Education and school days have a strong impact on us and also on our ancestors.
Due to the Second World War my Grandmother Myrtle stayed living with her mother Violet Weeks in the house on the corner of Craig and Cochrane Streets, Red Hill even after her marriage to  William George Busby in 1939. 
My Grand-Aunt Gladys and her husband Walter Trost also lived in the house so my mother born in January 1940 had plenty of relatives at home.

My mother Violet Busby went to the Seventh Day Adventist school, a school close to her home, for her Prep years.

Taken 2 August 1946 Violet is second from the left, front row

People talk a lot today of school fees and Grandma paid a regular fee to send Violet to this school.

From there Mum went to Kelvin Grove State school, the third generation of her family to go to Kelvin Grove, but more about that in another post.

While Mum was going to the Seventh Day Adventist School, she also went to the Seventh Day Adventist Sunday School. The picture below was taken between 1946-1947 at a picnic.

Violet is far right standing in the dress with the embroidery on the chest

D is for Death and Diphtheria

 Death, Diphtheria, Immunisation, Kelvin Grove  3 Responses »
Jul 212012
 
Continuing with Alona’s Family History and the Alphabet theme although a fair bit behind, it is time for D: Death and Diphtheria

In the pre-antibiotic era that so many of our ancestors lived, illness among the children could become deadly very quickly.

How tragic it was for this family. Reported in Ballarat in January 1872 (Trove)

Unfortunately the disease spread quickly in unprotected populations and newspaper reports, like this one from Victoria, were not uncommon. 

While the children were unhappy about the prospect of a needle the parents breathed sighs of relief!

My Grandmother told me of her fears as other families she knew had lost children to diphtheria. 

She remembered her days at Kelvin Grove State School when there had been cases and a number of her schoolmates had fallen ill with some deaths.

Below is my Mother’s vaccination card. 



The jab was such a small price to pay

Illuminating Blogger Award

 Uncategorized  8 Responses »
Jul 142012
 
Well I don’t know what to say.

It has been a horrendous week at work with very uncertain times ahead, Mum has been ill, I have been ill, so all in all a week to forget except….

I was surprised, but very happy to find that Alona of Lonetester HQ had nominated this blog for the Illuminating Blogger Award, 
If you don’t already have Alona’s blog on your must-read list, it should definitely be there! She is someone who loves her tech toys and has a fresh approach.
Then Fi of DanceSkeletons also nominated me and said some lovely things as well!. Fi  really has shone a beacon on the blogging scene and again, is someone whose blog should be on your must-read list. 
Then tonight, Friday, after I got home late and a bit grumpy from work, I find that Shauna Hicks has also nominated me! 
I don’t have to tell you about Shauna as she is such a well known, eminent genealogist/historian/archivist in Australia! 
Shauna’s website and blogs , her wonderful seminars, books and the way she has for so many years shared her knowledge and encouraged others to use archival records for the treasures within makes her a genealogical treasure!
The Illuminating Blogger Award  was designed to showcase blogs that have provided  illuminating and informative blog content.So it is a huge, unbelievable honour to be given this award by these three people who I greatly respect and to know that they find what I write interesting. Thank you Alona, Fi and Shauna you have turned the week from ***** to a great week!
At times blogging can be a solitary occupation (particularly at 1am which is when I am usually blogging!) so being awarded this is a great boost and it is lovely to that people enjoy what I write.
I blog for a number of reasons: it is a way of sharing my research highs and, at times, lows and sharing some of the wonderful family ephemera I have (especially as I have no children) and a way og highlighting new records, tech toys etc.
I work long hours as a molecular epidemiologist and family history has been a long-time addiction and gotten me through some severe times in my life. Blogging has opened my world even further and  have made some wonderful friends spread around the world! My regret is that i don’t blog as often as I would like but I must admit my day job gets in the way!

Hmm, a random thing about me, I was born in the Year of the Dragon and consider them based on the Chinese idea of a protective spirit rather than the English dragon who only eats young virgins (after all that type should have died out by now!). I have been collecting them for many years and now have a large dragon collection that shares my house with my German Shepherd.

I have so many blogs that I find informative and illuminating and am delighted that I can share some with you:
 Thomas MacEntee well known in the blogging world for starting Geneabloggers and acting as a unifying force for genealogy bloggers, for his courage and willingness to share his professional life with us and for his general all round niceness.
Judy Webster is a well known Queensland professional researcher and a personal friend. Judy is very generous with her knowledge, her website is full of useful information for anyone doing Queensland research. Her latest entries in Alona’s Family History Alphabet Challenge (consider joining in on this challenge it is a lot of fun!) showcases fascinating records.Judy does a number of blogs including one about her Father’s early life. In honour of her Father she started the Genealogists for Families project where people make micro-loans via Kiva enabling other families make a better life for themselves.
Lynn Palermo the Armchair Genealogist for her blog encouraging people to write. Her writing challenges are excellent and also the help she provides for writers.
Audrey Collins of the Family Recorder. Audrey is employed at the UK National Archives and posts items of interest at no particular schedule but each item is worth the read. They show the depth of knowledge Audrey has and the wealth of resources available.
Pauleen Cass for many reasons but her excellent series on Beyond the Internet should be required reading as it highlights a wide range of sources for research.

Alona, Fi and Shauna I have mentioned earlier. All write illuminating blogs and I look forward to their posts..

I thank everyone who writes a blog and is part of this wonderful community!

If you are nominated then you have been awarded the Illuminating Blogger Award. Just follow the steps below:

  1. The nominee should visit the award site and leave a comment indicating that they have been nominated and by whom. (This step is so important because it’s the only way that we can create a blogroll of award winners).
  2. The Nominee should thank the person that nominated them by posting & including a link to their blog.
  3. The Nominee should include a courtesy link back to the official award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/) in their blog post.
  4. Share one random thing about yourself in your blog post.
  5. Select at least five other bloggers that you enjoy reading their illuminating, informative posts and nominate them for the award. Many people indicate that they wish they could nominate more so please feel free to nominate all your favorites.
  6. Notify your nominees by leaving a comment on their blog, including a link to the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/).