#52ANCESTOR CHALLENGE WEEK 21 - MILITARY

The Week 21 theme is "Military." Memorial Day is coming up in the US, so this makes a perfect time to write about someone in the family tree who served in the military. Another way to approach this would be to write about someone who didn't serve (but should have) or how a war affected an ancestor's life. 

As I am in Australia I am choosing to post this on the Anniversary of one of my Ancestors. 

Private Peter Brandt is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial, along with 54,000 others with no known grave.⁠[1] 

Somewhere on the fields in Belgium, Peter and his fellow soldiers are together, as they fought! 

Peter is my Great Uncle who fought in World War 1.

He was “killed in action” on the 10th June 1917.⁠[2] 

I have written about Peter elsewhere in this blog (Utas Essays). So this post will be a pictorial, in memory of his sacrifice.

Memorial at AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL, CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA.

MEMORIAL AT MENIN GATE

ENTRANCE TO MENIN GATE

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1 Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Cemetery Details-Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery Accessed 20 March 2017

2 Service Record of Peter Brandt, B2455, p. 12, National Archives of Australia

#52 ANCESTORS WEEK 20 - ANOTHER LANGUAGE

The Week 20 theme is "Another Language." You could write about an ancestor who spoke a different language than you do. You could highlight the first time that you had to work with a record in another language. Maybe there's an epitaph on an ancestor's tombstone that's written in a different language. Is there an ancestor who spoke more than one language?


I thought I would have the usual trouble with this prompt and have to ponder hard about what to write. 

But the prompt jumped out at me as soon as I saw it. 

Another Language for me is easy. For me DNA is another language. 

Deoxyribonucleic acid, nucleotides, Mutations, Chromosome, Haplogroup, mitochondrial DNA, autosomal DNA….The list goes on! 

IT IS A CROSSWORD PUZZLE OF A GREAT MAGNITUDE TO SOLVE.  

But it is one that I hope to master with practice. 

????????DNA Crossword??????????

#52 ANCESTORS WEEK 19 - MOTHER'S DAY

Week 19: Mother's Day
Mother's Day was recently celebrated in the US and Australia in May. For this prompt It seemed like a good time to take a look at a mother in the family tree. After all, half of our ancestors were mothers! You could highlight your mother or one of the other mums in your family's history. 

Mother’s Day

Ruby Florence Briggs was born on 18 September 1917, the second daughter to Samuel Stanley and Florence May Briggs.⁠[1] 

Ruby was born in the suburb of Newtown, her eldest brother had died in a car accident two years previous. Her sister Vera was 6 years old and her brother Colin was 5 years old. 

Ruby was my mother, she died on 4th April, 1996.[⁠2] Mum lived with my family for many of her later years before moving into a small unit in the same town until her death.

My Mother was a very private woman. She rarely spoke to me of her past or family. She instilled in me a sense of family though. 

She always seemed to be making something. With four daughters she sewed clothes for us all. I remember overcoats that would have challenged a professional taylor! 

I remember dolls clothes that magically appeared at the mention of wanting a new outfit for one of them. 

Mum made all of her four daughters wedding dresses as well as the bridesmaid dresses of the accompanying sisters. When one of my bridesmaids married a couple of years after me and her wedding dressmaker let her down, Mum remade her wedding dress for her at the last minute. She looked beautiful and had a dress that actually fitted her on the day. 

I have fond memories of outfits being sewn for me to wear on special occasions. One in particular was made for a party where “Pajama” wear was required. As I was seventeen at the time, I wanted something pretty that I could also wear out in public. Mum produced the most beautiful flannelette “evening style” nightie. I remember it to this day, the flounces, the lace, but most of all the orange floral flannelette! I thought I was just the “bees knees”! 

A lot of our soft furnishings and furniture was either made or recovered or upholstered by Mum. She couldn’t leave a window un-curtained or a bed free of bedspread! To this day when I am at my sewing machine or with needle in hand I can feel her presence, guiding my stitches. Unfortunately she doesn't stop me making mistakes, because this is how we learn, but I know she feels my pain when I reach for the seam ripper to unpick a mistake!

Mum loved the act of giving. The more presents at Birthday and Christmas time the better. When in later years she no longer sewed I can remember every Christmas being encouraged to buy a new dress “her shout”! 

Like a lot of people I have many memories of my Mum and I am thankful for all of them.

________

1 Birth Certificate Transcription of Ruby Florence Briggs, 18 September 1917, NSW Birth Registration Transcription, #1917/27569

2 Personal Memory of Marcia Moon

#52 ANCESTORS WEEK 18 - CLOSE UP

The prompt for Week 18 is "Close Up." 

Some possible ways to interpret the prompt:

an ancestor who lived closed to where you live now or where you grew up;

an ancestor that you have a portrait of;

an ancestor who you have more information about and you feel like you know them "close up."

Remember — there's no right or wrong way to approach any of the prompts!




I once again had to ponder hard and long for what to write for this prompt.

I have a couple of photos in my possession of Garvice Galvin Brandt, so I decided that I will pen a few words on him. Although there is a lot that I have found that I don’t know about him, as he is my father I have decided that I would indulge myself with a few personal memories of the man I called Dad.

Garvice was born on 16th April 1914 a son to George and Isabella and a brother to Valma and Lorna.⁠[1]

He was born into the WWI era of uncertainty, in a little town in New South Wales, called Gunnedah. His father was a ganger on the railway.

After the war I have found evidence of this little family in Wyong, New South Wales, in 1923. Why they moved there is uncertain. I found an article online through the wonderful Trove website, reporting on the activities of the children and their mother participating in the local Church fete.⁠[2]  I have posted previously elsewhere on this blog a short creative non-fiction story about this event.(St Cecelia's Bazaar - Flash Story)  

I then tracked my Dad’s family through Ancestry, via the Electoral Rolls, finding they eventually settled in Thornleigh New South Wales.[⁠3]  I presume that Garvice had a relatively uneventful childhood. But alas as was the custom of my family, my parents did not share stories about their life and so I have no stories of their early life. 

It has been passed down that Garvice succumbed to Tuberculosis in his early twenties and spent some time in a sanatorium called Bodington.⁠[4]  

Sometime around this time he met my mother Ruby Florence Briggs and they married in June 1941.[5] 

Four children were welcomed by my parents, my three elder sisters and myself.

I also remember my Dad being sick in my early childhood when I was about nine years of age. I can remember him in hospital in Manly for many months. I was not allowed to visit him, but I was taken to the window outside the hospital where I could wave to him. I remember this time vividly, with a sense of dread as I did not know what was really happening. It wasn’t until much later that I found out that he had been treated for TB again. When he came home he was frail and very thin. 

Dad was a Smallgoods Salesman. He sold smallgoods to various corner stores and butchers. It was through this trade that he acquired his lack of enthusiasm for cheaper cuts of meat! But he sold knobs of devon, strassberg etc. without any hesitation. But I remember there was always a big leg of ham at Christmas time! 

Dad was a man of faith. 

As I was seven years younger than my closest sister, it meant that I was the last one to leave home and I spent most of my teenage years with just my parents. Although we weren’t well off, I never remember wanting for anything or at least anything that I needed! Through all the times of sickness and uncertainty he still managed to provide for his family. How I am not sure, as he would not have had any savings or health insurance! 

I remember he and I leaving early in the mornings for the drive to his work and my school. As we moved regularly with rental accommodation, we often were not close to my school. We would set off in the smallgoods van and talk all the way. I missed these times when it was no longer possible for me to travel with him and I had to use public transport. 

I have fond memories of a teenage birthday sleepover, with about six girlfriends. We were going to the movies in the city in the afternoon. Once dressed in all our finery Dad loaded us into the back of the smallgoods van and drove us to George Street in the middle of Sydney. There were no seats or windows in the back of the van, we just stood up and held on! At least, being the weekend, it had been washed and we didn’t share the journey with knobs of meat, thank heaven! He drove back after the movie and picked us up. It must have been a funny sight for the busy metropolis crowd, to see us pile back into the van, that Saturday afternoon in the 1970’s! 

But I thought he was just wonderful and he was! 

He was my Dad!
______

1 Birth Certificate Transcription of Garvice Galvin Brandt, 16 April 1914, NSW Birth Registration Transcription, #1914/19533

2 Wyong (1923, September 6). Freeman's Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1932), p. 19. Retrieved May 7, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116797727

3 Ancestry.com. Sands Directories: Sydney and New South Wales, Australia, 1858-1933 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.

4 http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=1170826, Bodington Hospital, accessed 4 June 2018.

5 Marriage Certificate Transcription of Garvice Galvin Brandt and Ruby Florence Briggs, 14 June 1941, NSW Marriage Registration Transcription, # 1941/14530

#52 ANCESTORS WEEK 17 - CEMETERY

This week’s prompt is cemetery. Our Co-Ordinator wrote the following….going to a cemetery is one of my favourite things to do. Cemetery visiting has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I was little, we would take a day trip to where different relatives were buried; sometimes, we'd even have a little picnic there. (It wasn't until I was older that I realised that not everyone did that!)

Do you have a favourite tombstone of one of your ancestors? Maybe you could share how you found where an ancestor is buried or a clue that you got from a tombstone or cemetery records.

Cemetery

I can’t ever remember visiting a cemetery when I was young.

I guess I was a deprived child! 

My experience of cemeteries when I grew up, were of places of sadness. I went there to bury a loved one. I didn’t realised until much later that there is a wealth of information to be found in them. 

My Family History journey began later in my life once I was retired. It was then that I felt this great need to know about my ancestors. 

It wasn’t until two years ago that I went on my first cemetery visit, without attending a funeral first. 

I was studying a Diploma of Family History with the Tasmanian University. My husband and I were going on a holiday to see sisters in a different state. I checked my research and low and behold… some of the towns we were travelling through had ancestors buried in them. 

So with my trusty list we stopped on the way and had our first Cemetery Discovery Experience. The first one proved to be a disappointment as the ancestor I was looking for, either never had a headstone or it was long gone.  

The next town cemetery took some finding. But we eventually succeeded and I took photos of four of the headstones we discovered. These were not of anyone I had as yet researched, but were collateral relatives in a line that is on my back burner for now. But when their time comes I will have photos of their graves, if nothing else! 

After the above trip I created a database of “Possible Cemeteries to visit.” As I research and find death certificates, I now add the burial place to my database. So now when travelling I can do a search by town and if I have someone buried there, we can have a Cemetery Experience.

#52 ANCESTORS WEEK 16 - STORMS

This week’s prompt was Storms. We were asked if we have an ancestor who survived a storm (or didn't)? Did they fight a storm, literal or figurative? Is there one with a weather-related name?

My writing this week has a definite twist and very broad interpretation of the prompt. But it was just what I felt like doing at the time!

Elizabeth Selwyn’s Storm

     Sentenced for stealing


               Travelled far from home


                         O’er the seas


                                   Rowley provided her shelter


                                            Motherhood saved her


                                                      Stormy weather no more!

28 DAY CHALLENGE CHAPTER 23 - Guilt and Promotion

Hurrying home after visiting the barracks to obtain their monthly stores allocation, Elizabeth shivered as the bitter wind swept her along.

Why do I feel guilty? Why am I so fortunate? I was just a convict like these other poor souls. Here I am being protected by one of the same as most of me fellow convicts regard as the enemy. The NSW Rum Corps!

If it hadn’t been for the administration of Grose and Paterson in these past couple of years, Thomas and the other soldiers would not have been so lucky with all the land grants. They just think of this place as a penal settlement, not a place for free settlers. The trade of rum has grown during the time of the NSW Rum Corps and they are now firmly set in their ways.⁠[1] But at least Thomas sees that there is a future here, a future for our younguns’.

“Elizabeth, where have you been?” Thomas scowled as she heaved the parcels on the table. “The children have been awake for at least an hour and I think Thomas needs changing.” 

“Well, I guess I had better change him then, sorry I lost track of time and found myself wandering the long way home.” 

“Hrrump! Well I have to go into work, a message just came from the barracks, that weasel Hunter wants to see me.” 

I wish he wouldn’t call the Governor names. He isn’t that bad. He doesn’t have what it takes to control the Corps though. Everyone can see they are just too strong for him and will continue doing things their way. He has a vision though, he knows there is land worth looking for and exploring, if he lasts long enough here though. I don’t think he is going to be getting a very favourable report back in England.[⁠2]

“Well me wee baby Thomas, you do smell awful. No wonder your Papa wanted to get to work so quickly. I wonder what the Governor wants of him, though? Let’s get you changed quickly and go outside to play with Issy, shall we?” 

Later that evening Elizabeth heard Thomas long before he got to their house. Doesn’t sound like anything bad happened today, by the sound of his singing!

Standing in the doorway with his quirky grin splitting his face from ear to ear, she noticed the different embellishment on his shoulders. 

“For Lors sakes Thomas shut the door! It’s cold or hadn’t you noticed? Thomas, what are they?” 

“Well me dear, do you mean these things on me shoulders? You may now call me Captain Thomas Rowley,” sweeping her up into his arms and swinging her around the room, “where’s the rum, we have some celebrating to do.”⁠[3]

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1 The History of Sydney, Early Colonial Sydney 1790-1809, http://www.visitsydneyaustralia.com.au/history-6-early-col.html

2 The History of Sydney, Early Colonial Sydney 1790-1809, http://www.visitsydneyaustralia.com.au/history-6-early-col.html 

3 B. H. Fletcher, 'Rowley, Thomas (1747–1806)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rowley-thomas-2614/text3605, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 3 February 2018.