It is interesting today to see the new homes being built with the large walk-in robes, some of which are the size of a bedroom ready for the many rows of clothes and shoes! 

A very different comparison to times past!

My Grandmother Myrtle Doris Weeks married her childhood sweetheart William George Busby 11 September 1939.

World War Two interfered with the establishment of their married life and Grandma stayed living with her mother after her marriage while her husband went off to war.

She worked hard to get things together so they could start their married life together when the War allowed.

Grandma looked for furniture,  put an item on lay-by making small regular payments from the marriage allotment paid to her by the Army until the item was paid for and she could bring it home.

Over the time of the war she gradually built her “glory house” rather than just the glory chest you often hear of young girls assembling in previous times. The furniture was stored in her room at her Mother’s home (made it somewhat crowded but worth it she said to be ready for her home when the time came!)

The lay-bys were done through the furniture store, Tritton. Another store that is sadly no longer with us.

Tritton Letterhead 1941

She completed the payments for this wardrobe in 1942. It is not a large wardrobe  three feet wide, 14 inches deep, a total six feet high with a drawer underneath and the hanging section 52 inches high with one central mirrored door.

After her death in 2001 on clearing her home there were three wardrobes in the home. Two in her room, one of which still had Grand-dad’s clothes in it and one for her clothes. The third wardrobe a much smaller one had belonged to my Mother.

You have to wonder whether the large walk-in robes with all bells and whistles make the modern person as happy as Grandma  was when she was getting ready, setting up for her home after the war.

The wardrobe has now gone to a new home, being used to store clothes for a 18 month old child. I believe Grandma would be pleased.

From Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun
1)  Do you know what a “Henry Number” is?  It is a descendant numbering system from a specific person.  The Wikipedia article for Genealogical Numbering Systems describes it as:
“The Henry System is a descending system created by Reginald Buchanan Henry for a genealogy of the families of the presidents of the United States that he wrote in 1935.^[3] It can be organized either by generation or not. The system begins with 1. The oldest child becomes 11, the next child is 12, and so on. The oldest child of 11 is 111, the next 112, and so on. The system allows one to derive an ancestor’s relationship based on their number. For example, 621 is the first child of 62, who is the second child of 6, who is the sixth child of his parents.  In the Henry System, when there are more than nine children, X is used for the 10th child, A is used for the 11th child, B is used for the 12th child, and so on. In the Modified Henry System, when there are more than nine children, numbers greater than nine are placed in parentheses.”
2)  Go to your first known ancestor with your birth surname and calculate your Henry Number from that person.  Show each generation of your line of ancestors with your birth surname with their Henry numbers.
3)  How did you calculate the Henry numbers?  What do these numbers tell you?
4)  Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.

2) So I decided to give Randy’s challenge a go as it sounded interesting, even though the Henry system is not used that much here in Australia.

1                            William Smith (c1781-1834) 53 years
14                          George Smith (1815-1870) 55 years (4th of 10 children)
144                        Alfred Smith (1840-1916) 76 years (4th of 7 children)
1445                      Herbert James Smith (1875-1941) 66 years (5th of 6 children)
14454                    Leslie Smith (1915-1944) 29 years killed in WW2 (4th of 4 children)
144541                  David Smith (1940-2003) 73 years (1 of 1 children)
1445412                Helen Violet Smith (1964 – living) (2 of 3 children)

The Henry system is a useful way of following your family line. I played a bit more and looked at age and total number of children. Longevity is not common on this line! Also interesting to see the change in family sizes over the years.


3) I followed my name back through my database in The Master Genealogist. 

I was notified that I had been accepted to give three presentations at the 14th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry 26-30 March 2015 being held in Canberra.

This is the three yearly major Australian and New Zealand Conference so I was very pleased for my topics to be chosen:

• Friendly Societies and Family Historians
• One Name Studies – what are they, how are they done and what use are they to you?
• Distressed cotton weavers emigration scheme

Then I was accepted to be a speaker on the 5th Unlock the Past cruise. 19-29 July 2014.
This is the British Isles discovery tour and it has a great itinerary as apart from London and Dublin I have not been to any of the other ports.

• day 1 – depart Tilbury, London – 6pm (boarding from 12.30pm)
• day 2 – at sea
• day 3 – Invergordon, Scotland – 7.30am-10pm
• day 4 – Kirkwall, Orkney Islands – 7am-6pm
• day 5 – Stornoway, Outer Hebrides – 7.30am-10pm (transfer to shore by tender)
• day 6 – Tobermory, Isle of Mull – 7.30am-4pm (transfer to shore by tender)
• day 7 – Dublin, Ireland – 8am-5.45pm
• day 8 – St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly – 9am-6pm (transfer to shore by tender)
• day 9 – St Peter Port, Guernsey – 7.30am-6pm (transfer to shore by tender)
• day 10 – Honfleur, France –  9am-5pm
• day 11 – arrive Tilbury, London – 9am

And there is a a great range of speakers Paul Blake (England), Jackie Depelle (England), Marie Dougan (Scotland), Jayne Shrimpton (England) (I’ll have to look out some of those photos I am trying to date!) and Lisa Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems fame from the USA as well as Rosemary Kopittke, Mike Murray, Lesley Silvester and myself from Australia!

And to add the perfect cherry on top of an already fantastic chocolate cake…..

I had a proposal accepted to speak at  Who Do You Think You Are? Live in London 20-22 February 2014

Researching Australian World War 1 Military Personnel
Friday Feb 21 2014
SoG 4 /First World War Ancestors
12.15-13.00
 
So I have had a pretty amazing few days!