Someone's Ancestor Sunday - Susan Ellis (nee Hehir) Photo Album - Part 7

Continuing from last week's Someone's Ancestor Sunday post here is another unidentified photograph taken in Sydney which was found in my Great Great Grandmother's album.

Photograph of an unknown man from Susan Ellis (nee Hehir) Photo Album.
This photograph is a cabinet card, c1880s-1890s. There are no identifying marks on the front or back of the photograph.  The photographic studio's name and address are written at the bottom on the front of the card: 'Carrington./ Galleries:/ 635 George Street, / Haymarket'. 

Haymarket is an inner suburb of Sydney. I did a Google search for the phrase "Carrington Galleries Haymarket" and found an advertisement in an 1886 issue of the Sydney Morning Herald  which referred to the Carrington Galleries, Haymarket. I then searched the Sands Sydney Directory for 1888 to find out more about the 'Carrington Galleries'. Page 479 listed: Carington (sic.) Art Gallery, Channon & Co., photographers, 633 (sic.) George St. There seem to have been several things (halls, sports grounds etc.) named 'Carington' at that time, probably named after governor Charles Robert Carrington. I then searched for 'Channon & Co.'  in the same alphabetical list of the Sands Sydney Directory for 1888. They were listed on page 484 as: Channon & Co. Photographers, 416 George St, and Haymarket Arcade. The Dictionary of Australian Artists Online lists 'Channon & Co. photographers' but confusingly gives their address in 1888 as 613 or 631 George Street! Picture Australia includes this photograph taken by Channon & Co. c1888-1889. The photograph, which is from the collection of the State Library of Victoria has a similar looking photographic studio identification at the bottom of the photograph except that it says 'Channon Co./ Galleries/ 631 George St.' The back of the photograph has a curious handwritten note 'Sydney / Moved to 631 from 416 / in 1888-89 / Then at 633'. Could this be someone's previous research notes about this photographer? The Sydney Morning Herald of 9 May 1889 includes an interesting court case between James Channon, photographer, and George & Eliza Barr from whom Channon was leasing "a certain portion of premises formerly known as the Haymarket Arcade and more recently converted into a music hall". 


Was this photograph by 'Carrington Galleries 365 George St Haymarket' taken by the photographers Channon & Co.  and could it date from the late 1880s?
I will continue next week with several other photographs taken at 'Carrington Galleries' which appear to show brothers or other close relatives of the man in the photograph above.. 

Copyright © 2011 Australian Genealogy Journeys.

Movies - 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Week 12

Week 12: Movies. Did (or do you still) see many movies? Describe your favorites. Where did you see these films? Is the theater still there, or is there something else in its place?

I love movies and I have lots of favourites! I have decided to go back into my memory (and do a bit of research on IMDB and Wikipedia) and try to create a chronological list of movies I remember seeing at the cinemas during my primary school years. This should be fun!


Movies I saw at the cinemas during Primary School

Disney Movies  

When I was young we often went to see a movie or two at the cinemas in our two closest regional 'cities' during the school holidays. Both cinemas still exist, though one has moved location. Both have expanded during my lifetime and now included several more cinema screens.I think probably the first movie I remember seeing at the cinemas was Disney's The Little Mermaid, which was released in Australia in 1990. I still love that movie!  The following are others movies I remember seeing (but not necessarily liking) at the cinemas during my primary school years. I have highlighted my favourites.

• The Never Ending Story II (1990, this one was fairly weak if I remember or at least I know other family members said it was!)
• Home Alone (1990)
• White Fang (1991, I remember being at bit scared by that one!)
• The Rescuers Down Under (1991,  I don't remember liking that one much)
• Beauty and the Beast (1992)
• The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
• Aladdin (1993)
• The Secret Garden (1993)
• Free Willy (1993) 
• Homeward Bound:The Incredible Journey (1993)
• The Silver Brumby (1993, I remember the air conditioning in the cinemas was turned up too high - but it suited a film with snow!) 
• The Lion King (1994)
• Little Women (1994)
• Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994)
• The Flintstones (1994)
• We're back! A Dinosaur's Story (1994, remember finding this one very weak too!)
• Toy Story (1995)
• A Little Princess (1995)
• Free Willy 2 (1995)
• The Never Ending Story III (1995)
• Apollo 13 (1995)
• Casper (1995)
• Babe (1995)
• Pocahontas (1995)
• Sense and Sensibility (1995) I think I saw this at the cinemas, I'm not sure
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
• Homeward Bound 2: Lost in San Francisco (1996)
• Muppet Treasure Island (1996)
• Twister (1996)
• James and the Giant Peach (1996, I know I saw this one but it must have been forgettable as I don't remember anything about it)
• Matilda (1996)
• 101 Dalmations (1996)
• Emma (1996) 
• The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996)

And I am sure I have possibly missed some!

Movies I remember watching on Video and TV

The six Star Wars movies.
I prefer the older ones, episodes IV, V and VI.

We did not have a VHS player in our house until as late as 1997. Until then, the only movies I saw were either on TV or on someone else's VHS player. I remember watching the first three installments of Star Wars (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi) on TV many times. Since then I have seen the 3 prequels, but still prefer the older movies.

Other movies I saw often on TV and enjoyed were The Sound of Music and The Wizard of Oz. 

There was a VHS player at my Grandmother's house. I remember watching and enjoying the following movies on video while visiting her house: Darby O'Gill and the Little People, The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, The Land Before Time and Anne of Green Gables.

Movies I like to watch now

I like Disney/Pixar computer animations

I don't go to the cinemas as often as I did when I was younger. I feel that there just isn't anything showing at the cinemas that is really worth watching nowadays. I still enjoy many of the childhood favourites I have already mentioned above. I also enjoy many of the newer computer animated movies by Disney/Pixar. 

While not technically a movie, one of my all-time favourites is the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which screened on television in Australia while I was still in primary school. I have the DVDs now and watch them often. I also like some other Jane Austen movie/TV adaptations too.

Some older movies I like include: Lilies of the Field, It's a Wonderful Life, The Court Jester and Fiddler on the Roof. 

I enjoy the movie adaptations of some of my favourite fantasy novels: The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia. I also like many of the other movies created by Walden Media (who created the Narnia films).

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants

Copyright © 2011 Australian Genealogy Journeys. Photographs of movie covers  were taken by me. Copyright for these movie covers belongs to their respective production companies and they are used here only for the purpose of review. 

Someone's Ancestor Sunday - Susan Ellis (nee Hehir) Photo Album - Part 6

Below is another unidentified photograph from my Great Great Grandmother Susan ELLIS' (nee HEHIR) photo album. This is the first of several photographs from Sydney. Many of the subjects of these Sydney photographs appear to be brothers. Two photographs in particular (which I will feature on an upcoming Sunday blog post) show several of the brothers together. Susan's daughter, Susannah COWIN (nee ELLIS), lived in Sydney from the early 1890s. Perhaps she went to Sydney from Heathcote, Victoria, because her mother had some cousins who lived up there? Susannah ELLIS married Isaac COWIN at St David's Church of England in the Sydney suburb of Surrey Hills on 11 February 1892. Susannah's and Isaac's children were as follows: 

• John COWIN b. 9 October 1892, Morehead Street, Redfern, NSW. d. 1892 Redfern.
• Mary A. COWIN b. 1894 Redern, NSW. Married Barff R. TUCKER 1921 Newtown, NSW. Later lived in Parkes.
• William Hampden COWIN b. 1896 Waverley, NSW. Married Marjorie WICKES 1923 Newtown, NSW. d. 1975. 
• Owen Thomas Rawson COWIN b. 1902 Waterloo, NSW. Married Alma WHITE 1934 Redfern NSW. d. 1977. 

Susannah died at the home of her daughter Mary TUCKER (nee COWIN) at Parkes, NSW in 1955. Susannah's death notice in the Sydney Morning Herald stated:

"COWIN, Susan - September 26, 1955, at  her daughter's residence at Parkes, beloved mother of Mary (Mrs. R. Tucker), Vera (Mrs. J. Moore), William, and Tom, aged 90 years."

Who was Vera (Mrs. J. Moore)? I have so far been unable to find any record of her. I would love to contact any descendants of Susannah and Isaac. If you are a descendant of this couple, please send me a note. 

Some preliminary research on the web has shown that there were people named Hehir and O'Hehir living in some of these suburbs of Sydney. I am still trying to work out the different families. Could this unknown man (below) belong to one of these families, or could he be someone else?

Photograph of an unknown man from Susan Ellis (nee Hehir) Photo Album.
This photograph is a Carte de visite, c1890-1897. There are no identifying marks on the front of the photograph. 

There is a photographer's stamp on the back of the photograph:
'W. H. VOSPER / Photographer / 694 George St. / SYDNEY'. 

I did a Google search for "W H Vosper"+Photographer and found the following results:

• A photograph taken by W H Vosper c1890
• He worked in partnership with photographer William Henry Schroeder in 1880. 
• He was described as 'a photographer, of this city' when his daughter Florence Vosper married Henry Chater at St. Paul's, Redfern, in 1887. 

I then did a Google search for "694 George St"+Photographer and and found the following results:

• A photograph taken by W. H. Vosper and another photograph. According to the catalogue entries for these photographs on the catalogue of the State Library of Victoria, William H. Vosper was in business at 694 George Street between 1890 and 1897. 

Copyright © 2011 Australian Genealogy Journeys.

Sorting Saturday - Bookmarks - Part 2

This post is a follow-up from my post last Saturday, Sorting Saturday - Bookmarks - Part 1. During this past week I had a look at Delicious, StumbleUpon, Diigo and Springpad.
 
Delicious
I had some difficulty using Delicious with a Yahoo! ID. I kept getting an error whenever I tried to change my Yahoo! account details. I tried to do the same task using Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer - I got the same error. I even tried on a different computer with a completely different Internet Service Provider, but I kept getting the same error. I submitted a report of the error to Yahoo! Yahoo! Customer Care answered my email and said 'The error you received is typically caused by unusual activity from either your computer or your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to Yahoo!.'  They suggested: contact your ISP, check that you are not using third party software to access Yahoo!, scan your computer for spyware/viruses. I have recently scanned my computer for spyware/viruses, I wasn't using any third party software and I have tried two different computers with two different ISPs and got the same error so, unfortunately, I am kind of tired out if now. Should I persevere?

StumbleUpon 
I tried StumbleUpon but I did not really like its interface or features. It wasn't really what I was looking for.

Diigo
I did like the look of Diigo and will be looking at it further during this next week. 
Here is a video which introduces the features of Diigo

Diigo V4: Research ~ annotate, archive, organize from diigobuzz on Vimeo.
You can also watch the tutorial videos about sharing and collaborating with Diigo.
 
Springpad
I really liked my first experiences with Springpad and I am going to continue using it. However, I will not necessarily use it for bookmarking, but I will use it for notetaking, reminders, to-dos, and keeping track of books, movies and music I'm interested in buying etc. I especially like the mobile apps (for iPhone, iPad and Android) and the Google Chrome extension! You can find  introductory videos at Springpad's YouTube channel. 



Here is what some other genealogy bloggers are saying about Springpad:

• Olive Tree Genealogy Blog - Two Thumbs Up for Springpad! (A Review & Tutorial)
• FamHist - Using Springpad for Genealogy Research

So in summary, over the next week I am going to continue playing with the features of Diigo, and also continue reading the help files at Google Bookmarks (where my bookmarks are currently held and they may even stay there - but they will be better organised!). I am also going to continue playing with the features of Springpad for notekeeping.


Happy researching!

Copyright © 2011 Australian Genealogy Journeys. I am in no way associated with any companies, please see my blog's Disclosure Statement.

St. Patrick's Day - My Irish Ancestors

A stained glass window
of St Patrick at the Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

My ancestry is more than 60 per cent Irish. I have ancestors from the all across Ireland, mostly Irish Catholics, but also Presbyterian Scots-Irish from the North. Today I want to remember my Irish ancestor's bravery during centuries they were persecuted for their faith, and think of the suffering of both sides of conflicts (as I have ancestors from both sides), and remember the many people throughout the world who are still persecuted for their faith. I encourage you to read more about the wonderful charity Aid To The Church in Need. I also want to thank my ancestors for making the decision to come to Australia, otherwise I would not be here. The National Museum of Australia have today launched a new exhibition about the Irish in Australia. There is a picture of Archbishop Daniel Mannix on the 'welcoming message' page. He is supposed to have been 'a cousin' of my great great Grandmother, Cathrine (Kate) McCARTHY (nee MANNIX) (1842-1917). I have not figured out the family connection yet and possibly never will (he was born in Cork, Kate was born in Kerry), but Archbishop Mannix definitely had the same facial features as some of my McCARTHY relatives. 


Today I created a surnames page on this blog, showing a list of the surnames I am researching and the locations where my ancestors with that surname lived. Please have a look and let me know if we share any research (surnames or locations) in common. Here is a Wordle Word Cloud showing the known locations where my ancestors lived in Ireland. 

And now I'm going to share this great YouTube video (from DiscoverIreland) of a flashmob of Irish dancers at Sydney's Central Station. I learnt Irish dancing for about four years when I was younger and took part in several St Patrick's Day dances, so I just love this!!




Have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day! God bless.

Copyright © 2011 Australian Genealogy Journeys.

Someone's Ancestor Sunday - Susan Ellis (nee Hehir) Photo Album - Part 5

Here is another unidentified photograph from my Great Great Grandmother Susan Ellis' (nee Hehir) photo album. 

Photograph of an unknown man from Susan Ellis (nee Hehir) Photo Album.
This photograph is a Carte de visite, c1880s/1890s. There are no identifying marks on the front of the photograph. 

There is no photographer's stamp on the back of the photograph. Written in pencil on the back of the photograph is what appears to be: 'Hypo Stains'. Hypo (Hyposulphite of soda - or Sodium thiosulphate) is a chemical fixer used in photographic processing. Perhaps the photographer sold this photo at a cheaper price because of the stains?

I think there are definitely resemblances between these photographs of three unknown men from Susan Ellis' Photo Album.L-R. (1) Young man photographed in Narranderra,  (2) Man photographed in Lismore (3) Man whose photo is featured in this blog post. They all have similar noses. (2) and (3) have similar eyes and ears.

Copyright © 2011 Australian Genealogy Journeys.

Sorting Saturday - Bookmarks - Part 1

I need to sort and categorise my bookmarks. I am going to have to spread this Sorting Saturday task over a few Saturdays so it won't be overwhelming. 


I have been using Google Bookmarks for some years now and have a bit of mess on my hands. Yes, I have been labelling each page I bookmark with keywords. However, I have a mess because I have created too many different labels. I have ended up with a huge list of labels with 1 or 2 bookmarks assigned to each. I need to categorise my labelled bookmarks better using lists. I am going to read the Google Bookmarks Help so I can make sure I am taking advantage of all Google Bookmarks capabilities.


But is Google Bookmarks the right tool for me to use? I have recently been reading Carole Riley's book Social Media for Family Historians. In this book Carole mentions social bookmarking and gives the web site Delicious as an example. I have decided I am going to try out a few other social bookmarking web sites to see whether some other bookmarking tool suits me better. I am going to try the following social bookmarking sites: Delicious, Diigo and StumbleUpon. I am also going to have a look at Springpad. 

Copyright © 2011 Australian Genealogy Journeys.

Disasters - 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Week 10

Week 10: Disasters. Did you experience any natural disasters in your lifetime? Tell us about them. If not, then discuss these events that happened to parents, grandparents or others in your family.


I am a little late with my contribution to last week's blogging prompt. With the many disasters we have seen this year: floods, fires, cyclones, earthquakes and now tsunamis, my contribution to this subject seems even more insignificant. My thoughts and prayers are with all in Japan right now, as well as those in other areas of the world who have recently suffered natural disasters. My immediate family and I have not been directly affected by any major natural disasters, for which I am very thankful. Again, my prayers are with those who have suffered recently and in the past. The following are my experiences of natural disasters.


Droughts
Coming from a farming family, I have been affected by drought. Thankfully my family have not ever actually run out of water. We did get very short of water in our farm dam at one stage and had to construct a pipeline from an irrigation channel several kilometres away. Local histories mention that before the irrigation channels were in place (pre-1910s/1920s) the early European settlers had to travel to the nearest river by horse and cart to bring back water. Settlers also dug wells. During droughts in my lifetime we have had to hand feed sheep with grain. As I mentioned in a previous post the natural environment where I live was also very badly affected by the most recent drought. Red Gum trees that were hundreds of years old died. 


Floods
I live on the 'rise' between two rivers (which is a strange thing to say if you knew how flat the plains country is where I live!) so we fortunately have not been affected by riverine floods. Local flooding has occurred though and at one point (only a few days) during the floods of 1993 all the roads around our farm were cut off by water. However, we could get out with a 4-wheel-drive vehicle. During the recent floods in Victoria people and property were affected both to the east and west of where I live. To the east of where I live, the main church in the Catholic parish I attend only narrowly managed to escape damage, but the adjacent Catholic school and nearby houses were damaged by flood waters. Eighty per cent of the town was flooded and people were evacuated for several days. Similarly, serious flooding occurred not very far to the west of where I live. Some farmers lost hundreds of sheep, another business lost thousands of chickens. Some roads were literally washed away. I did not see the flood waters while they were there, but I have seen some of the aftermath and been shown where the water level came to. My thoughts and prayers are with all who are still suffering as a result of this natural disaster. 

This photograph I recently took shows an ancient lake that has appeared across a road in an area north-west of where I live. Not sure what the sheep were doing on the road!

Fires
Again, I am very thankful that I and my immediate family have not been directly affected by bush fires. I was born since the Ash Wednesday bushfires (16 February 1983) so I have no memory of them. I have very clear memories of the heatwave that led up to Black Saturday (7 February 2009). On that day I was babysitting for my sister who had gone away for a weekend holiday to Lakes Entrance. The weather conditions that day were absolutely awful, a howling and seering hot north wind and extreme record breaking temperatures. I am afraid to say that I had the curtains closed and the air conditioner on and I wasn't listening to the radio. This was a foolish mistake and one I will not make again (for more information see the Country Fire Authority (CFA) Bushfire Survival information). I remember at one stage touching the window and feeling how hot the glass was. Thus I spent the day inside, completely unaware of what was happening across the state. Until 10:00 pm. Then I smelled smoke. I looked outside to see if I could see the fire. I couldn't, so I turned on the radio to find out where the smoke was coming from. By that stage the wind was coming from the south west. The announcer was reading out warnings for many places, nothing seemed to refer to places close by so I realised the smoke had obviously travelled some distance. The size of the disaster became apparent after listening to the radio for a short time. It was when the announcer mentioned a warning for 'residents of ---- lane' that I became extremely worried as that was where a close relative lived. So I prayed. The next day we found out that, by the time we heard that warning on the radio for 'residents of --- lane' the danger had already passed for them. The fire was headed towards their house until the wind changed to be from the south-west! The news for others was not good. The damage caused in different areas across the state was unbelievable and 173 people died. My sister had to come home from Lakes Entrance by a different road because the areas she had travelled through on the Friday (6 February 2009) were among those worst affected by the one of the biggest fires on Black Saturday.


52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants.

Copyright © 2011 Australian Genealogy Journeys.

One Lovely Blog Award

Thanks to Anglers Rest I have been presented with the One Lovely Blog Award. Thank you Anglers Rest for this honour! 

The rules for accepting the award are:

• Accept the ward, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who granted the award and their blog link. 
• Pass the award on to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered.
• Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I follow a lot of blogs with Google Reader, so this has been a very difficult choice. Here are 15 blogs I have decided to nominate for the One Lovely Blog award, some of these are blogs I have only recently discovered, others are long time favourites. I have tried to include several Australian blogs, including some which are quite new to me. My criteria was: genealogy blogs with content I find interesting and useful and blogs which I consider to have a creative design.
Congratulations to these great blogs... 

1. Twigs of Yore
2. GeniMates
3. Family History Research
4. Blog, Blog, Blog
5. Gol Gol Girl
6. Family History Across The Seas
7. The Tree Of Me
8. My Family Puzzles
9. Hunting Ancestors
10. So That's Where I Get It From
11. Have You Seen My Roots?
12. Caro's Family Chronicles
13. Forgotton Old Photos
14. Bayside Blog
15. The Ancestral Archeologist

[10 March 2011 - since I wrote this blog post last Monday I have realised that this award, particularly the requirement to mention and link to the blog of the person who gave it to you, could look a bit like a chain-letter for blogs. I realised the 'rules' for this award don't really reflect my personality - my attitude is to give and expect nothing in return. Therefore, I give this award (and receive it with many thanks!!) and link to these blogs because I find them interesting and useful and want to encourage the bloggers. I do not require any mention or link or anything, the award is yours anyway :-) Thanks to one of my recipients, Kylie at Blog Blog Blog, for helping me to recognise this through her post ]


[I edited this post and accidentally pressed 'save as draft' rather than 'publish post' and then I thought I had saved a duplicate so I deleted it - however I actually deleted the original which include two comments which also disappeared - I am so sorry about the disappearing comments!]

Copyright © 2011 Australian Genealogy Journeys.

Diary/Journal/Letters - Women's History Month - Fearless Females - March 8

In honor of National Women’s History Month in the USA, Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog is presenting Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month. I'm hoping to join in occasionally with this blog series Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month.  I have missed a few days, but I hope I can contribute every so often. Just as a note, I am also making a new resolution to write surnames in CAPITALS in my blog posts so they are easier to see. 


March 8 — Did one of your female ancestors leave a diary, journal, or collection of letters? Share an entry or excerpt.
I have in my possession at the moment a collection of postcards that belonged to my Great Grandmother, Millicent McCARTHY (nee CHAMBERS). I have chosen to show one particularly interesting postcard from Millicent's collection (which fortunately was not glued into the postcard album like most of the others!).

 

Here is a transcript of the message on the postcard:

Princess St
Croydon  SA Feb 2^nd

My dear cousin Millie I was so pleased to get the photo of yourself and Mother I have yours when you was a very little girl with your head resting on your little Brother and also one when you was eleven but I have only one of your dear Mother when she must have been the same age or near it tell Mother I have only the one of your dear old Grandma taken

with your Grandfather and your Mother but I can ____ to Uncle Charles Edsons all day on Monday and I will see what he has got if I cannot get it for her I will get mine taken off for her as soon as I can next week I will send some photos to mother I think I can spare one of Uncle Peter of Cannada [sic] and one of my sisters eldest son now 38 or nine years _ you to look out some time next week are there any postcards of Avoca to be got or any Pictures of any part of it I should so like some love to you all from Lizzie

[Note above on card below photographs:]

King William Road Entrance  North Terrace Entrance  Adelaide Railway Station

[Handwritten note below photographs:]

This is just a fine picture of our town station our son is at a large firm just in front of this part

[Other side of the card:]

Please give my kind love to dear old Uncle Will Haynes tell him I never forget him as I knew him in my childhood days he was so good to me some day I want something belonging to him as a keepsake I do not mind how small or of how little value love to Uncle Ed also and any of my old Avoca friends from your loving cousin Lizzie

Miss M Chambers C/o Mrs G Chambers Faraday Street Avoca Victoria Heathcote

[the other address crossed out and Heathcote written instead]

'Cousin Lizzie' of Croydon, South Australia was Millicent's mother's first cousin, Elizabeth BROOKER (nee BROWN) (1844-1917) the daughter of Charles BROWN (1818-1890) and Mary Ann HIGH (c1812-1871). Elizabeth was born in 1844 at Great Warley, Essex, England. Charles BROWN was a brother of Millicent's grandmother, Mary Ann RANDALL (nee BROWN) (c1816-1886), their parents were Adam BROWN (1786-1839) and Ann PEACOCK (1787-1831) of South Weald, Essex, England. Elizabeth was married to William BROOKER (1848-1931) in 1870 in Hindmarsh, South Australia. It appears that Elizabeth's son, William Charles BROOKER, was a photographer and I found several photographs related to the BROOKER family through Picture Australia including this photograph which is thought to show Mrs Elizabeth BROOKER (nee BROWN). 

The photograph that Lizzie mentions of Millie's 'dear old Grandma taken with [her] Grandfather and [her] Mother' is this photograph of the Randall family, which was a copy Lizzie sent to Millie's mother Margaret CHAMBERS (nee RANDALL) (1855-1917). 


Some of the other people mentioned on Lizzie's postcard were:
'Uncle Charles Edson' - Charles EDSON (1834-1911) husband of Mary Ann RANDALL (1836-1905) who was a half-sister of Millie's mother, Margaret CHAMBERS (nee RANDALL).

'Uncle Peter of Cannada [sic]' -  It is believed that Uncle Peter of Canada was a brother of Mary Ann RANDALL (nee BROWN), Peter or George Peter BROWN. It would be great to be able to see the photograph of 'Uncle Peter' that Lizzie mentions on the postcard as it would possibly give a photographer's stamp. But I have no idea where that photograph could be or if it has survived at all. In the meantime, is anyone researching a Peter/George Peter BROWN b c1820s in Essex, England who immigrated to Canada? 


'Uncle Will Haynes' - William HAYNES (1825-?) was married to Mary Ann BAILEY (1826-1877), a half sister of Millie's mother Margaret CHAMBERS (nee RANDALL). The HAYNES family lived at Avoca, Victoria. 

'Uncle Ed' - Uncle Ed was probably Millie's mother's brother, Edward RANDALL Jnr. (1849-1926). He also spent many years of his life at Avoca, Victoria. 

Copyright © 2011 Australian Genealogy Journeys.