G'day MARG (and ALL) ...
You provided the perfect in for the next piece of my HELLIER & PEARCE
genie quest:--->
> We have a copy of a diary that mentions visits to Sandridge.
Apart from the clues my lot seemed to have left scattered throughout
TROVE, there have been a few other sources that have now found their way
into my possession in original of facsimile form.
I especially love the treasure hunt through the 'diary-date books' which
really call for a transcription into a spread sheet and then checking
out the birthdays, weddings and deaths against the tree. Then there's
the mention of family friends and finally little entries like this:
"Bessie and Henry left Melbourne for America January 21st, 1892"
[Ann Pearce's diary-date book]
My grandmother was J.T.E. Hellier's daughter, and she had a huge circle
of friends and contacts and wrote letters constantly. Like her father
and many other members of her family, it would seem, she seemed to have
inherited the travel bug and during a prolonged working holiday in 1949
that took her to South Africa, the UK and the US for over four years,
she wrote home often and sent my uncle completed pages from her diary.
He had the diary typed up and bound into four books which my dad gained
access to in his later years and re-typed as typing practice.
Other family members have attempted to put their memories down in
printed form over the years and my library contains a collection of
books that specifically relate to my family and the areas where they
grew up. One author was in the same POW camp where the 'Great Escape'
took place and my dad's cousin flew liberators during the war and wrote
a book about his love for aviation, history and family. Interestingly,
there are only 4 copies of that book as he self-published on his
personal printer and each version is a revision of the earlier versions.
My dad got bitten by the same bug, but left me with a legacy of many
oral history audio files which we recorded while he and mum and his
brother and sister-in-law were still alive. I've gone to the trouble of
transcribing them now, and when all lined up, they look just like
another family history.
Moving back to the entry about Bessie and Henry above, other info I've
gathered explains that Bessie was the younger step-sister of J.T.E.
Hellier's wife Rebecca Frances Pearce and what was more puzzling until
recently, was that Bessie's Henry turned out to be Henry Scott who it
would seem was born in Qmro, Wisconsin, USA on Oct 18, 1858. The same
info said he died on Feb 27, 1908. He married Bessie (Elizabeth Pearce)
on April 21, 1889 and had two daughters. Myrtle Viola Scott was born in
North Fitzroy on July 7, 1890 and Elsie Holly Scott was born on June 21,
1892, 5 months after they left for America.
Now all of this originally appeared in the diary-date book and apart
from the marriage and first birth, are still to be confirmed.
The new sting in this tale came when I remembered that a Henry Scott was
a specialist printer who came out with those original 11 SDA
missionaries in 1885. He was the superintendent of the inaugural
Australian SDA Sabbath School in North Fitzroy and I'm betting he will
be the same chap as Bessie's Henry. Especially since J.T.E Hellier and
Rebecca Frances Pearce were members of the first familes to join the
church in those tent meetings in North Fitzroy at the end of 1885.
Herbert, the San Francisco correspondent and medical missionary nurse
was from that same Hellier family, as were two sisters and another
brother who ended up in South Africa around the turn of the century ...
they'll get an outing next year, I promise!
So as I started out saying, you've gotta love the clues and puzzles
presented by diary-date books ... it's almost as good as the odd cryptic
inscriptions on the back of family photos. The family friend angle often
pans out well, too ... especially when Post Office directories and other
sources reveal that they were neighbours, friends from school or church,
or even work colleagues.
Marg's final tit bit was quite titillating too, wasn't it:---->
> He imported the Rubrics Cube and later the slim cheap specs available
at the chemists.
This social family history stuff really adds some fleshy stuff to our
rellies bones, doesn't it?
Cheers again and not long to go till the silliness descends on us ...
I hope everyone gets a chance to chat over the barbie or the kitchen
sink and get answers to their nagging genie puzzles ...
ROB!! RNelson@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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Genealogy: Tracing yourself back to better people
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