O is for Oakleigh

Marjorie Winifred Sullivan was born on 2 June 1920 in Clapham Road, Oakleigh, Victoria, to Stella Esther Gilbart Dawson, age 25, and Arthur Sullivan, a bootmaker, age 28. Marjorie was the fourth of six children: she had two sisters, Violet and Lillie, born in 1914 and 1915, and an older brother, Arthur, born 24 January 1919 at Chelsea, about 20 kilometres south of Oakleigh. Marjorie was also to have a younger brother, Roy, born in 1926 and sister, Gwendolyn, born in 1933.

(Oakleigh is a residential suburb 15 kilometres south-east of the Melbourne CBD. In 1921 its population was 6,076.)

A street map of Oakleigh from about 1920 currently for sale from Brighton Antique Prints and Maps (click to enlarge)

Excerpt from the above map showing Clapham Road and the business district of Oakleigh.

On the 1917 electoral roll Arthur and Stella were listed as living at Chelsea. Arthur's occupation was bootmaker. On the 1922 roll, Arthur, a bookmaker, and his wife Stella were listed as living at Stanley Avenue, Cheltenham.

In early 1920, Arthur ran a boot shop in Bay Street, Frankston, 35 kilometres south of Oakleigh, an hour and a half away by train.

Advertising (1920, January 16). Mornington Standard (Frankston, Vic. : 1911 - 1920), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65853376

In March 1920 Arthur advertised that ‘on account of health reasons’, he was ‘seeking a change in outdoor employment’ and leaving the business. In the event he was absent for only a few weeks. In April he advertised he had resumed charge of his business. In May 1920 it was sold.

I don't know when the family moved to Oakleigh but perhaps it was the move that prompted the sale of the business. Perhaps it was too far for him to travel every day.

Arthur served on the Western Front in the Australian Army during World War 1. He returned to Australia from France in February 1918, invalided out with 'debility'. Marjorie told me that her father suffered from shell shock after the war. She had to sit with him when he got the horrors.

Advertising (1920, March 12). Mornington Standard (Frankston, Vic. : 1911 - 1920), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65853564

Advertising (1920, April 23). Mornington Standard (Frankston, Vic. : 1911 - 1920), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65853735

Advertising (1920, May 14). Mornington Standard (Frankston, Vic. : 1911 - 1920), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65853815

It appears that Arthur Sullivan set up as a bootmaker in Cheltenham after he sold the Frankston business. In September 1920 Arthur Sullivan of Cheltenham was advertising in situations vacant for a "Boot trade - Smart improver, constant, or repairer, few days". I haven't found any other reference to that business in the 1920 newspapers.

Advertising (1920, September 16). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 11. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203066683

DNA analysis: slow progress

My husband Greg and I had our DNA analysed by ancestry.com in May 2016. The results became available in July. Over the last six months I have spent many hours trying to make sense of the results and contacting DNA cousins.

As a way of learning more about our family history DNA analysis has not been very useful.

At the time of testing I put forward three brick walls the DNA testing might help me get past:

• Henry Sullivan (1862-1943), a great grandfather of my husband, was admitted as a state ward in Geelong in 1866 about the age of four. His parents had deserted him. 
• George Young (1826-1890), from Liverpool, a great great grandfather of my husband, provided no information about his parents. 
• Caroline Clarke (1835-1879), wife of George Young and a great great grandmother of my husband, was not specific about her birth and I have been unable to trace her parents, perhaps John Clark(e) and Hannah Sline. She said she was born about 1835 in Tumut. But she also said she was born in Sydney. 

I have made no progress on the history of George Young or  his wife Caroline Clarke.

DNA testing has provided some evidence that the hypothesis I explored for Henry Sullivan's family in my blog post of May 2016 is correct. It adds to the body of evidence which includes newspaper reports, an inquest, state ward records and birth, marriage and death records, all of which point to a connection.

MBH, a descendant of Henry's probable half-brother, has tested. She matches Greg, his first cousin Barry, and a second cousin of Greg's, LB, also descended from Henry Sullivan. My research suggests that MBH is Greg's third cousin,. They share a common great great grandmother but are descended from children of that great great grandmother by different fathers. AncestryDNA predicted the relationship between MBH and Greg as 4th cousins with 21.4 centimorgans shared across two segments.

chart showing family connections of related DNA tests

Three of the test results have been uploaded to GedMatch so that we can look at how the DNA inheritance aligns. However, the DNA from the three samples does not match on the same segments. 

GedMatch shows the match between Greg and MBH as having only one segment on chromosome 1 of 23.4 centimorgans. It predicts their relationship as having the most recent common ancestor within 4.6 generations. By lowering GedMatch's default thresholds I find that the second segment is a match on chromosome 2 of 5.9 centimorgans, a size regarded as not genealogically significant. Lowering the threshold still did not reveal a matching segment shared by Greg with both MBH and LB.

Barry, a first cousin of Greg's, also on the Sullivan side, has tested. He has yet to upload to GedMatch. The tools provided by ancestryDNA show that he shares DNA with Greg, MBH and a third person, IB. Barry separately shares DNA with Greg and LB, that is, Barry and Greg inherited different segments that they share with MBH compared to the segments shared by LB and MBH.

Greg, Barry, and MBH share DNA with a fourth man, IB. IB has a private tree on ancestry.com. Unfortunately he has not responded to my several attempts to contact him. As far as I know he is not a descendant of Henry Sullivan. MBH is unaware of his being a cousin. IB is predicted to be a fourth cousin of Greg's. His tree (865 people) does not appear to contain the surnames Hughes or Sullivan. 

Although it is likely that the DNA matching is for the hypothesised Sullivan and Hughes connections, it is not certain. We don't have enough shared matches on a specific segment to be confident that the shared DNA demonstrates shared heredity.  Greg, LB and MBH have family trees that have been researched over considerable time and go back a number of generations. There don't seem to be any other likely connections between the family trees.

Ancestry.com's DNA database continues to expand rapidly with over 3 million participants to date. Future matches may well provide more definite confirmation of inherited DNA from Matilda Sullivan née Hughes, the mother of Eleazer and probable mother of Henry.

Related post

• Poor little chap

Sepia Saturday: street photography

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph is of an itinerant photographer.

ITINERANT PHOTOGRAPHER IN COLUMBUS OHIO (1938) : LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (via FLICKR)

Among my mother in law's photographs is one of her and her sister Violet Buckley in about 1943, probably taken by a street photographer.

Marjorie and Violet about 1943

Stella Violet Sullivan (1914-2005), known as Violet, was the oldest daughter ofArthur Sullivan (1891-1975) and his wife Stella Esther Gilbert Sullivan née Dawson (1894-1975).

Violet had five siblings:

• Lillian Mavis Sullivan (1915-2009)
• Arthur Stanley Sullivan (1919-2014)
• Marjorie Winifred Young née Sullivan (1920-2007)
• Royle Lawrence Sullivan (1926-2009)
• Gwendolyn Phyllis Sullivan (1933-1935).

Violet married John Arthur Buckley (1908-1958) in 1938. In 1960 she married again, to Stanley Norman James Spicer (1909-1990).

In 1942 Violet was living at her parents' house at 9 Bowden Street, Castlemaine. Her occupation on the electoral roll was home duties.  Violet's husband had enlisted in the Australian Army on 27 February 1942. He was discharged in March 1946.

About 1941 Marjorie left home in Castlemaine to live in Melbourne, where she found a job as a weaver. In 1943 she was living at 59 Osborne Street, Williamstown. Marjorie married in 1944.

This photograph of the sisters is from those years when street photographers operated. It was sometimes controversial and banned in some places, for example Newcastle, New South Wales in 1942.

PHOTOS IN STREETS BANNED (1942, December 8). The Newcastle Sun (NSW : 1918 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167573927

Sepia Saturday blogger Scotsue described her experiences of street photographers in the 1950s.

This  week's Sepia Saturday photo prompt awoke my  memories of  seaside holidays and the photographers who plied  their trade along the promenades,  taking snapshots of people strolling by - hence the term  "walkies"  - as opposed to the current trend for   "selfies"!  
You paid money and either collected  the photographs later at  a kiosk, or could arrange for them to be posted home to you - just hoping they would arrive and this wasn't  what we now call a "scam".  We often did our best to dodge the photographersand not get caught by their hard sell.  

I was interested to read how the system worked and amused by the idea of dodging the street photographers. It reminds me of the photographers on cruise ships and in shopping malls taking pictures of children with Santa Claus.

Poor little chap

So far in my family history research I have not used DNA testing. Document-based methods give me more than enough to go on with.

However, today I decided to order Ancestry.com DNA kits to learn about DNA methods.  There are three brick walls in my husband's family tree that perhaps DNA might get me past:

• Henry Sullivan (1862-1943), a great grandfather of my husband, was admitted as a state ward in Geelong in 1866 about the age of four. His parents had deserted him.
• George Young (1826-1890), from Liverpool, a great great grandfather of my husband,  provided no information about his parents.
• Caroline Clarke (1835-1879), wife of George Young and a great great grandmother of my husband,  was not specific about her birth and I have been unable to trace her parents, perhaps John Clark(e) and Hannah Sline. She said she was born about 1835  in Tumut. But she also said she was born in Sydney.  I've got nowhere with this.

Having ordered the kits I thought I might look again at these brick walls. More newspapers and other records have been digitised since I last looked. I thought there might be more material.

I didn't get any further with the Young and Clark puzzles. However, I think I have made some progress with Henry Sullivan. The story I have found seems plausible, and more information may turn up, but a DNA link would be very useful to confirm my guesses.

Henry Sullivan at his house, "Navillus", in Bentleigh, Victoria with his wife Anne Sullivan née Morley (1861-1946) and daughter-in-law Florence Sullivan née Hickson (1898-1983) and grandaughter Elaine Sullivan later Priest (1933-1987). Photo from Elaine's daughter.

 Henry Sullivan (1862 - 1943) was a neglected child and was committed as a State Ward in Geelong on 11 June 1866 for seven years. He was said to be a native of Victoria. He was a neglected child. At the time of his committal, both his parents were said to be living but he had been deserted. His parents' names were not given on the Ward Register. He had lost the sight of his right eye. Family stories say he was struck by a magpie. We have not been able to find a birth certificate.

Sullivan Henry VPRS 4527 OS 1 no 1768.
VPRS 4527 Ward Registers [1864 – c.1890] are records of children in State care. Records held by the Public Records Office Victoria.(click on image to enlarge it)

In 1873, when the first seven year committal period expired, Henry, aged 11, was recommitted. At the time of his recommittal it was again stated that both parents were living and that they had deserted him in June 1866.

Sullivan Henry VPRS 4527 OS 8 no 7003

I had earlier looked, without success, for records of court cases in Geelong in June 1866 to find reports of Henry Sullivan being committed as a State Ward.

Today I reviewed newspaper reports from May 1866.

I found a report on 28 May 1866 of a Mary Sullivan appearing before the Central Police Court in Geelong on Friday 25 May accused of stealing. (CENTRAL POLICE COURT. (1866, May 28). Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 - 1926), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147269389 )

Mary Sullivan was unmarried. She had three children of her own and one left in her care to support. The magistrate took into consideration 'the position of the unfortunate children', and Mary was given a mitigated sentence of 14 days imprisonment.  An old woman told the court that she lived in the same house as Mary Sullivan and was left in charge of the children and the 'little one' who had been abandoned by another woman named Sullivan.  The newspaper stated that 'The decrepit and indiscreet creature walked off with the child clinging to her.'

I think that small child was Henry Sullivan.  Fourteen days after Mary's appearance in court on 25 May was about the 8th of June. I suspect that when Mary Sullivan was released from gaol she decided she could not cope with an extra child not her own.

On the 15th May 1866 there had been another report of a child and a young woman called Sullivan.

The attention of the Bench was again called, yesterday, to the case of the young child left in the care of a woman named Sullivan, who now seeks to shift the responsibility she undertook to Mr Hughes, the stepfather of the mother. Mr Hughes appeared in the Court and refused the charge of the child, who, he said, had been placed collusively by the mother with the woman, with a foregone intent to abandon it. He had undertaken the care and education of an elder child to save his step daughter from shame; but her subsequent career had been of a nature to preclude any further favourable consideration of her conduct. She had been twice married, and her husband had left her, and was supposed to have gone to New Zealand, whence no tidings were heard of him, and she had recently left Geelong with some man with whom she had formed an intimacy, and had deserted her children, leaving the one in question with the woman Sullivan, who had been pre paid for its keep for a fortnight, at the end of which time it was planned that the child should be left with the stepfather, a scheme that was defeated by Constable Collins, who saw the woman depositing the child at the stepfather's premises, and warned her of the consequences of the act. The Bench refused the application of the woman Sullivan, who avows that she will not keep the child any longer.  A warrant will be issued for the apprehension of the mother, who, it will be remembered, was the parent of the infant upon, whom an inquest was held at Ashby some time ago. (CURRENT TOPICS. (1866, May 15). Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 - 1926), , p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147269067 )

I think in the court case this child is the 'little one' and the woman Sullivan is the Mary Sullivan who, less than two weeks later, was found guilty of stealing. There were two clues to follow up. The step-father of the mother was surnamed Hughes and the mother of the child was the parent of the infant upon whom an inquest was held at Ashby some time previously.

I had some trouble finding the inquest. I dashed down to the library to look at the index of inquests. The surname Sullivan produced nothing likely and inquests held at Ashby also didn't seem to produce anything. I returned to searching the newspapers.  Deaths of infants and consequent inquests were unfortunately quite common.

I found an inquest in November 1865 where the grandmother was Mrs Hughes.  I believe this is the inquest to which the Geelong Advertiser of 15 May 1866 referrs.

Margaret Maria Sullivan aged six months starved to death. She was in the care of her grandmother Matilda Priscilla Hughes, the wife of David Hughes. The parents were William Sullivan and Matilda Frances Sullivan.  The Geelong Advertiser of 23 November 1865 reported the surnames as Sutherland but the Mount Alexander Mail of 24 November 1865 gave the surname as Sullivan. The birth and death indexes confirm that the surname was indeed Sullivan.

In her evidence Matilda Frances Sullivan stated

The mother of the child, Matilda Frances Sullivan, who was in service twelve miles from town at the time, was examined, and admitted having had an illegitimate child before marriage, three years ago. Her husband left her six months after marriage, and she had had another child beside the deceased since then. She swore that her husband visited her twice during that period at her mother's house, and that deceased was his child. She paid to have her first child taken care of in the country ; the other two she left with her mother. (CHILD KILLING. (1865, November 24). Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917),p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197091398 )

 The Geelong Advertiser reported the mother's evidence:

Matilda Frances Sutherland, wife of William Sutherland, sworn - I do not know what my husband is. The deceased child is mine. I was married on the 6th October, I think, as near as I can remember, 1862, by the Rev Mr Appleby, at Herne Hill. I cannot tell when my husband left me. I have seen him twice since he went away first. The first time he left was about six month after the marriage. Do not know when I saw him again, or how long we lived together. I do not know how long he was with me on either occasion. On my oath, the child is my husband's. The child is not a love child. I do not know the reason why my husband left me six months ago. I had a child before I was married. He knew before marriage that I had the child. I have two children beside the child. The one born before marriage is four years old. When my husband came back is more than I can tell you. I saw him only on two occasions. My first child was born in July 1862. I have not seen my husband during this year 1865. Saw him last year on the two occasions I allude to. The deceased child was born on June 12th, and is six months old. Made no effort to find my husband I suppose he knows that the child is born. I can't as I do not know where he is, nor anybody that does. He has given me no support whilst he has been away, and I get my living by going out to service. My mother supports one child and I the other, for which I pay L1 a month. Gave nothing toward the support of the deceased child. (CURRENT TOPICS. (1866, May 15). Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 - 1926), p. 2. Retrieved  from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147269067 )

The grandmother's evidence was also detailed in the Geelong Advertiser:

Matilda Priscilla Hughes, wife of David Hughes - I took the deceased child when she was born, in Autumn street, on the 12th June. 'My daughter has three children, one at nurse in the country, for which she pays 5s a week, and the other I keep as well as the deceased child. The elder boy is five years old. The second one is going in two years and the third is six months old. It was delicate from birth, and was fed from the bottle with farinaceous food. I waited on you (the coroner) on Thursday, and said I came to show you the baby. You told me I ought to get a wet-nurse. I did not say to you "I want you to see the child in case any thing should happen afterwards." On Monday I sent the undertaker for a certificate from you of the death of the child. I don't know the father of the child. My daughter's husband has not been seen by either of us for some months before the birth of the boy who is three years old. ... (Geelong Advertiser 15 May 1866 p. 3)

The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against the grandmother, and also against the mother as an accessory to the child's death.

The Victorian birth, marriage and death indexes confirm the evidence given at the inquest.

• birth Eleazar Hughes, no father, mother Matilda Hughes. Registration 1861 / 8434 born CHERHAP (this is probably Gheringhap, a Geelong street name but also a village at the junction of the Geelong-Ballarat (1858-62) and Geelong-Maroona (1913) (to Ararat) railways. There were large numbers of navvies and associated construction workers in the area during both those periods.).
• marriage 1862 William Sullivan and Matilda Frances Hughes. Registration 1862 / 4376.
• birth Ebenezer Henry Sullivan, father William, mother Matilda (Hughes) Registration 1863 / 14440 born GHER (again probably Gheringhap )
• birth Margaret Maria Sullivan, father William, mother Matilda (Hughes). Registration 1865 / 8809 born ASHB, probably Ashby, a locality in Geelong West.
• death Margaret Maria Sullivan, father William, mother Matilda Frances (Hughes). Registration 1865 / 8836. Place of death ASHB.

There seems to be no other record of Ebenezer Henry Sullivan in the Victorian Birth, Death and Marriage indexes..

Eleazar / Eleazer Hughes married in 1881, had children and died in 1949. There are a number of family trees on Ancestry.com which include him.

I believe, based on the coincidence of the court reports and the committal of the small child as a State Ward in 1866, that my husband's great grandfather Henry Sullivan, was Ebenezer Henry Sullivan, the son of William Sullivan and Matilda Frances Hughes.

Should any descendants of Eleazer, Henry's half-brother, be willing to help, DNA testing might be able to confirm this.

M is for Manpower, Mills, Malaria, and Marjorie, my Mother-in-Law from Melbourne

My mother-in-law, Marjorie Young née Sullivan (1920-2007), supported me in my family history research. We would often talk about her family history and when I compared her reminiscences I found that her recollections matched well with the documentation I had found, and often helped to point the way to a more accurate tree.

Besides her relatives, Marjorie would talk about her own life.

She was born in Oakleigh, a suburb of Melbourne, in 1920, the fourth of six children.

In 1926 Marjorie started school in Tatura, a small town near Shepparton in northern Victoria. She recalled that her father would not allow any of his children to begin school before they were six years old nor start work before sixteen. Marjorie did well at school and wanted to become a teacher. But she couldn't. Her family, at that time living in Malmsbury, was too poor to send her off to a teachers' college.

From the age of about thirteen, Marjorie was a junior teacher in the Malmsbury school helping to look  after the kindergarten classes; as a result she was awarded the Merit Certificate without being required to pass the usual examination at the end of Grade 8. She left school at 14.

After leaving school Marjorie helped to look after her youngest sister Gwenny (1933-1935). Sadly Gwenny died of meningitis after a few day's illness when she was only two years old.

Marjorie's first job, at the age of 16, was in Kyneton where she went to be a mother's helper. She enjoyed the work. There was one baby when she started and by the time she left there were two more. She left when she was 19, moving with her family to Castlemaine. She had been happy in the Kyneton job.

In Castlemaine Marjorie learned to be a weaver in the woollen mills there. This was 1939, the year war broke out. The mills were busy making cloth for uniforms and blankets.

In 1941, when she was 21, Marjorie and a girlfriend, one of her workmates, decided to go to Melbourne to work for the Laconia blankets woollen mill.  In 1942 Marjorie met her future husband, Peter, while working there.

Peter and Marjorie in 1942 in the garden of Marjorie's parents' house in Castlemaine

Peter enlisted in the army in 1943. They became engaged and married in 1944 when he was on leave.

In 1990 Marjorie told me about a trip she made to Sydney during the war to see Peter.

When Peter went back to an army camp near Sydney after his leave he became ill with malaria and was admitted to hospital. It was then that Marjorie decided to go to Sydney to be near him.

She applied to Manpower, a Commonwealth wartime employment regulatory authority, for permission to leave her work and travel to Sydney. Manpower deemed the journey to be unnecessary and refused her request.

So Marjorie packed her suitcase and took the train to Albury, on the New South Wales border. Because she had no travel permit, she could not be too open about asking for accommodation, so she got a taxi driver to recommend a hotel. He found one and suggested that she should get up very early the next morning and catch a milk truck going to Culcairn, further up the line. In Culcairn she would be able to catch the Albury to Sydney train without any difficulty. But the hotel didn't give her an early call so she found another taxi to take her to Culcairn where she waited at a hotel. She paid hush money to both taxi drivers, to the hotel keeper in Culcairn, to the hotel rouse-about, who went to the station and bought her ticket, and also to the conductor of the train.

Marjorie stayed in Sydney for three months with Peter's cousin Betty [this was possibly Bessie Bridges, wife of Robert Charles Cross], but then she got a please-explain letter from both Manpower and the travel authorities. Her Melbourne flat mate had dobbed her in.

She felt she had to return to Melbourne - was afraid not to go back - but did not want to repeat her journey through Albury with hotels and taxis, so she bought a ticket from Sydney to Tocumwal, on the New South Wales border further down the river, paid hush money to the ticket-seller at the Tocumwal station, bought a first class ticket (to lessen the chances of being spotted as a border-hopper) to Melbourne. She paid hush money to the conductor of that train too.

Peter Young's military records show he had malaria in 1944. He was first ill with malaria in June and then re-admitted to hospital with malaria in August.

Manpower

In January 1942 the Commonwealth Government established the Manpower Directorate which was responsible for administering 'reserved occupations and industrial priorities'. The Director-General of Manpower was authorised to prevent employees from leaving their employment. In March 1942 the whole of the civilian population of Australia over the age of 16 was required to register with Manpower. Nearly three million people were placed in employment from January 1942 to January 1946. There were 13,500 direction orders. I suppose it was a direction order to return to work that Marjorie received in Sydney.

Marjorie left weaving later in the war. She said she got germs under the nails from the wool. Manpower would not otherwise have let her resign.

The Laconia Woollen Mills building still stands in South Melbourne, refurbished as offices. The present tenant is a travel company.

Further reading

• Reserved occupations, Second World War’, at: https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/homefront/reserved_occupations/
• National Archives of Australia Agency details for CA 533 Directorate of Manpower, Central Office

U is for unwilling or hesitating to obey an order

Henry Sullivan (1894-1969) was my husband's great uncle.

Henry Sullivan enlisted at Broadmeadows on 15 December 1914 aged 20.  He gave his age as 22 on the attestation form, men under the age of 21 needed their parents' permission to enlist. His occupation was labourer. He was five feet eleven inches tall, had hazel eyes and dark brown hair.

Henry sailed on HMAT Runic A54 from Australia in February 1915 with the 3rd reinforcements for the 6th Battalion.

Henry landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 7 May 1915 with the 6th Battalion. While in the Dardanelles he was in hospital several times and on 3 October 1915 was disciplined for hesitating to obey an order.He was awarded 7 days F.P. [Field Punishment] - forfeits pay.

folio 19 of NAA: B2455, SULLIVAN Henry : Service Number - 1587 : Place of Birth - Bentleigh VIC : Place of Enlistment - Broadmeadows VIC : Next of Kin - (Father) SULLIVAN Henry

In June 1916 Henry transferred to the 58th Battalion and relocated to France. He was appointed Lance Corporal on 2 June.

Henry was wounded in action on 23 November 1916. He was admitted to Rouen hospital with a gun shot wound to the head.  The 58th Battalion was at Montauban, about 42 kilometers east of Amiens, on the Somme battlefield.  The battalion was digging a communication trench on the 23rd.

War diaries/AWM4/Class 23/Sub class 75/AWM4 23/75/10 - November 1916. Page 7.

On 23 February 1917 at his own request he reverted to the ranks.

In June 1917 Henry was assigned to the 5th Pioneer Battalion.

Henry's brother Arthur also served with the 5th Pioneers and mentions in his war diary that they met briefly in July 1916, a year earlier. In his diary Arthur does not mention his brother serving with in the same unit or meeting his brother again. However for Christmas 1918 Henry sent his brother Arthur a card  decorated with the words A.I.F Greetings from D. Company 5th Pioneer Battn France. It included a poem, transcribed below.

entry for 30 July 1916: transcription of diary kept by Arthur Sullivan during World War 1

In June 1917 Henry was disciplined for talking on parade.

On 22 August 1917 there was again a misdemeanour and he was awarded 3 days F.P. No 2 [Field punishment].

On 29 September 1918 he was wounded in action with a gun shot wound to his right leg. This was during the Battle of St Quentin Canal, France, 29 September - 1 October 1918. Six men from the 5th Pioneers were killed in that battle. The 5th pioneers were at Templeux but the work on 29 September was at Bellicourt fourteen kilometers north of Saint Quentin.

War diaries/AWM4/Class 14/Sub class 17/AWM4 14/17/31 - September 1918 page 8

page 35 of September War Diary for 5th Pioneers - orders dated 28 September 1918

Work report relevant to 29 September from page 45 of September War Diary

Appendix 18 page 48 of September 1918 War Diary of the 5th Pioneers

folio 22 of NAA: B2455, Sullivan Henry

Henry was invalided to England and was discharged in October 1918. He returned to Australia in January 1919.

As mentioned above, Henry sent his brother Arthur a Christmas card  in 1918 with greetings from D. Company 5th Pioneer Battn.  The card included a poem:

They wanted a crowd who could work all night, and carry a camel's load,
And find their way to the same old line, with never a trace of a road,
To do the wiring, and dig the saps, and toil where the big shells fall,
And lay the railways, and make the roads, or fight if they got the call.

So they culled from Australia a thousand men, and later a thousand more;
Men from the cities, and men from the Bush, they rallied from shore to shore;
And some of them guided an office pen, and some of them wielded shears;
But they issued the lot with a soldiers kit, and they christened them Pioneers.

We don't loom large in the paper yap, but talk to the men who know,
From the front line back to the heavy guns, they see when we come and go;
They meet us crowded in half-dug saps, to let the infantry by,
They pass us nightly on duck board tracks, and they know where our dead mates lie.

We've had good times, but they're mostly rough, but its all part of the game,
And no matter which way the cards are dealt, the Pioneers stay the same;
And this Christmas greeting they send along, to show they remember you ---
Here's hoping that long ere the year runs out we'll have shovelled the last sap through.
                                                                                          --- F.H.S.

D is for dog licences

I am very fond of my dog Toby. Perhaps learning about him will help you understand me. Knowing about my family's pets would give me a better understanding of my family history.

This is a picture of my mother-in-law Marjorie with her family's dog at Castlemaine.

Marjorie with Pop's dog

All my Irish ancestors had left Ireland before 1866 and so my own research does not benefit from  the Irish dog licence registers, which can be searched through FindMyPast.  The annual dog licence was first collected in 1866 in Ireland and on average there were 250,000 registrations a year.  If you have Irish forebears in the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries, it could be worth looking whether they had any pets registered.

An example from the Irish dog licence records digitised by FindMyPast - an extract from records for Lowpark Court, County Mayo, 1882.

Closer to Ballarat, local dog licences for Ballan have been indexed for 1871, 1872 and 1873. A link to the indexes can be found at http://vipsinc.wordpress.com/projects/

Extract from the Ballan dog registrations compiled by Dorothy Wickham and Roy Huggins retrieved from http://vipsinc.wordpress.com/projects/

I found it fascinating to see the different breeds. Not a 'Cavoodle' or 'Golden Retriever' can be found.

Some dog licence records for Ballarat are still extant but they are yet to be indexed. Fortunately, though, they haven't been thrown out and so one day some work can be done with the records. They are held by the City of Ballarat council.

You can see why this information would be useful for family historians. The receipt gives the surname, address and a description of the dog.

My dog Toby's licence registration fee is due this month. The City of Ballarat have his name misspelt on the computer. I will have to fix the error. I can't be sure though that in the future the computer records will be available for family historians to find.

Toby on the sofa

Toby was a rescue dog who joined our family in June 2009. These pictures are all from that month.  The last picture is Toby seeing the sea for the first time (we think he hadn't seen the sea before).  He loves romping on the beach but discovered that he can't drink seawater.

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In this picture you can see his dog licence tag hanging from his collar.

Sepia Saturday 196 : Sick Children

This week's Sepia Saturday blog prompt is an illustration of a little boy sick in bed.

I have no pictures of sick children who are related to me, but in my family tree there are many instances of childhood deaths from illness.

During my childhood, I suffered appendicitis and was hospitalised but had no major infection, though I think I remember suffering from chicken pox. I can remember my brother having the mumps and having his tonsils out when he was small.

My parents both spoke of serious illnesses in their childhood. Among these illnesses, my father had scarlet fever and my mother diphtheria.  My father was an only child and my mother has one sister - neither suffered the death of a sibling.

The father of my husband Greg was an only child, but Greg's mother had several brothers and sisters including one, Gwendolyn Phyllis Sullivan (6 January 1933 - 30 May 1935), who died young.  Marjorie, Greg's mother, had helped to care for Gwendolyn and never forgot her little sister who died of meningitis when only two. Marjorie, who was 13 years older, had left school to help look after Gwenny when she was born. Marjorie recalled the little girl was sick with stomach cramps on Monday and died on Wednesday; 30 May was in fact Thursday but perhaps she died early that morning.  Gwendolyn is buried at Malmsbury cemetery, Methodist Comp. 2 Sect 1 Grave 164.  It seems that she has no headstone. (Judkins, Carol. "Malmsbury Cemetery." Carol's Headstone Photographs. Rootsweb, Apr. 2008. Web. 20 Sept. 2013. <http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ausvsac/Malmsbury.htm>.)

Greg's paternal grandfather Cecil Young had one brother, one sister and three half-siblings.  His sister Caroline Young (June 1895 - 10 July 1895) died 2 1/2 weeks after she was born on 10 July 1895. The cause of death was given as "debility from birth". She is buried in Timor cemetery.

Greg's paternal grandmother Elizabeth Cross was one of ten children.  They all lived to adulthood. Greg's maternal grandfather Arthur Sullivan had four brothers and sisters, a half-sister and a half-brother, William Ernest Dare Morley, who died on 2 February 1880 at East Brighton of "congestion of the brain" aged 15 days. Greg's maternal grandmother, Stella Esther Gilbart Dawson, was one of eight children, all of whom survived until adulthood.

Of my grandparents, only my maternal grandmother had a sibling who died young.  Emil Oswald Manock was born on 17 April 1914 at Steglitz, Berlin and died there on 3 December 1914. My grandmother told me her brother died from "a hole in the heart".

Our great grand parents' generation

John Young, my husband's great grandfather, had 12 siblings, five died young.  The first child of George and Caroline Young was George Young who was born and died in 1854, probably at Beechworth.  His birth and death predate civil registration in Victoria and there is no death certificate. He was remembered on each of his sibling's birth certificates. Annie Young died 16 April 1873 aged 10 months of dysentery at Lamplough. In 1876 the Young family lost three children within a month. On 31 March Laura Young died aged 2 from diphtheria after an illness of 5 days.  On 21 April her brother Edmund Young aged 6 years also died of diphtheria after an illness of 14 days. On 27 April Caroline Young aged 8 1/2 years died of scarletina maligna (acute scarlet fever) after an illness of 1 week.

Sarah Jane Way, the wife of John Young, had nine siblings of whom four died young. William John Way died aged 6 months on 18 January 1858 of "congestion of the brain" at East Collingwood, Melbourne.  Mary Jane Way died age 4 months on 19 June 1859 of "cancer of the eye" also at East Collingwood. Martha Way died aged 13 months on 10 August 1875 of rubella at Parkes, New South Wales. Harriet Elizabeth Way died two days after her ninth birthday on 18 May 1879 of typhoid fever at Parkes.

Frederick James Cross had ten siblings. One died young. Thomas Bailey Cross aged 2 died at Carngham on 28 January 1875.  In the photograph below taken about 1890, Thomas is represented by the dark cloth on the floor in the lower right hand corner of the picture.  On the back of the photo his name was with those of his brother's and sisters. 

Ellen Cross and family about 1890. Picture from Gale Robertson, great grand daughter of Frederick James Cross and great great grand daughter of Ellen.

Ann Jane Plowright, wife of Frederick James Cross, had six siblings. Two died young. John Plowright died on 20 January 1872 aged 4 days old after a premature birth at Homebush near Avoca, Victoria. Frederick Edward Plowright died aged 14 years at Homebush on 24 April 1878.  He was cutting down a tree and it fell on him, breaking his neck. He died instantly.

"TELEGRAPHIC DESPATCHES." The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) 26 Apr 1878: 5. Web. 21 Sep 2013 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5930194>.

Anne Morley had seven siblings. Five died young. William Morley born about 1849 and Peter Morley born about 1851 had both died in England before the family emigrated in 1853. Elizabeth Morley died at Collingwood Flat on 10 March 1854 aged 5 years old of "Tabes Mesenterica":  tuberculosis or swelling of the lymph glands inside the abdomen. Children became ill drinking milk from cows infected with tuberculosis. This is now uncommon as milk is pasteurised. ("Tabes Mesenterica (Meaning Of)." Encyclo Online Encyclopaedia. Encyclo, 2012. Web. 21 Sept. 2013. <http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/tabes mesenterica>.) Harriet Ann Morley died at East Collingwood on 5 January 1858 of atrophy aged 15 months. Mary Jane Morley died age 3 in 1858.

Henry Dawson, the son of Isaac Dawson and Eliza Skerrit was born on 30 Jul 1864 in Corby, near Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. He had a twin brother, Charles, and at least eight other siblings, of whom one, George Dawson (1862 - 1863) died aged less than two years old.

Edith Caroline Edwards, daughter of Francis Gilbart Edwards and Caroline Ralph was born on 16 Sep 1871 in Sunnyside, Ballarat, Victoria. She had nine siblings of whom two died young. Benjamin Gilbart Edwards (1887 - 1888) was born in Ballarat and died aged 10 months at Richmond in Melbourne. Ernest Francis Gilbart Edwards (1891 -1901) died aged 10 in Brighton.

The siblings of my paternal great grandparents all survived to adulthood except one.  Mary Jane Cudmore, one of 13 children, died aged 11 months on 20 November 1884 and is buried at Brighton cemetery, Adelaide.

I know only a little of the siblings of my maternal great grandparents and I have details only of those that survived to adulthood. It may be that they all did survive, but more research is needed to be sure.

I don't have enough details to look back one further generation to the siblings of my and my husband's great great grandparents. While I have details about a few of the families, information on others is missing.  Hence I shall mention only one death from that generation.My great great great grandfather wrote about the death of his son at Heathcote and sketched his grave. The headstone, although damaged, still survives.

Sketch by Philip Lamothe Snell Chauncy of the grave of his son Philip who died at Heathcote aged 3 years. From opposite page 33 of his book Memoirs of Mrs. Poole and Mrs. Chauncy

 Philip Lamothe Chauncy (23 March 1851 - 19 May 1854)  was the first son of Philip Lamothe Snell Chauncy and his wife Susan Mitchell.  He died before my great great grandmother, Annie Frances Chauncy was born. In his memoir about his wife, Philip wrote:

... our first son, named Philip Lamothe, was born on the 23rd March, 1851. I think my dear Susie's maternal instincts were unusually strong, and oh how true she was to them! How devoted she was to that child! He grew up to be a lovely boy, the admiration of all who knew him; but he had too heavenly a look for this world. He was the source of the most inexpressible delight to his mother; her eyes used to feast on his beaming little face; she looked the most un-utterable blessings on him. But alas, he was too exotic a plant to live on this earth, and was taken from us by our all-wise God, at Heathcote, Victoria, on the 19th of May, 1854. To the day of her death, his words and looks and little actions were fresh in her memory. I think she never completely recovered from the shock occasioned by the death of our little Philip; indeed, I now remember she said, shortly before she was taken from us, that she had never got over it, although she was quite resigned to the will of God, and would not have been so selfish as to have wished him back again.  (Chauncy, Philip Lamothe Snell Memoirs of Mrs Poole and Mrs Chauncy. Lowden, Kilmore, Vic, 1976.Pages 37-8)

In May 1854, our darling little Philly caught cold, and Dr Sconce, the Government Assistant Surgeon, was called in to attend him. On the 12th of that month, Dr Robinson happening to be in our parlor-tent, and hearing Philly cough, said, "That child has croup." O what agony the information caused his dear mother. A day or two after this we removed him into the large new stone building which had just been erected for officer's quarters, but he gradually sank, and expired on the 19th May 1854, after a week's illness. (Chauncy Memoirs already cited, page 47)

A recent photo of the grave of  Philip Lamothe Chauncy at Heathcote with thanks to (and permission to reproduce from) Carol Judkins of http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ausvsac/Index.htm

Most of our forebears came from Victoria and we are fortunate in the high quality of vital records which provide a lot of information for family history.  In the summary below, where cause of death is not stated I have not obtained the death certificate.

Summary of our aunt, great aunts and uncles and great great aunts and uncles who died as children :

Aunt :

• Gwendolyn Phillis Sullivan died age 2 in 1935 of meningitis

Great aunt and great uncles :

• Caroline Young died age 2 1/2 weeks in  1895 of "debility from birth"
• William Ernest Dare Morley died age 15 days in 1880 from "congestion of the brain"
• Emil Oswald Manock died age 7 1/2 months in 1914 of a "hole in the heart"

 Great great aunts and great great uncles :

• George Young died as an infant in 1854
• Annie Young died age 10 months in 1873 from dysentery
• Laura Young died age 2 in 1876 from diphtheria
• Edmund Young died age 6 in 1876 from diphtheria
• Caroline Young died age 8 in 1876 from scarletina maligna
• William John Way died age 6 months in 1858 of "congestion of the brain"
• Mary Jane Way died age 4 months in 1859 of "cancer of the eye"
• Martha Way died age 13 months in 1875 of rubella
• Harriet Elizabeth Way died age 9 in 1879 of typhoid
• Thomas Bailey Cross died age 2 in 1875
• John Plowright died age 4 days in 1875 having been born prematurely
• Frederick John Plowright died age 14 years in 1878 from an accident
• William Morley died as an infant or small child before 1853
• Peter Morley died as an infant or small child before 1853
• Elizabeth Morley died age 5 in 1854 from  Tabes Mesenterica
• Harriet Ann Morley died age 15 months in 1858 of atrophy
• Mary Jane Morley died age 3 in 1858
• George Dawson died before he was 2 in 1863
• Benjamin Gilbart Edwards died age 10 months in 1888
• Ernest Francis Gilbart Edwards died age 10 in 1901
• Mary Jane Cudmore died age 11 months in 1884