Month: November 2015

Trove Tuesday – Fancy Photos

/ Merron Riddiford / Leave a comment

For my Hamilton’s WW1 research, I’ve read many Hamilton Spectators from the war years online at Trove.  With all the doom and gloom the war brought to the newspapers of the time, articles like the following make me smile and remind me why I enjoy reading old newspapers.

"FANCY DRESS BALL." Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 - 1873; 1914 - 1918) 19 Nov 1915: 4. .

“FANCY DRESS BALL.” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1873; 1914 – 1918) 19 Nov 1915: 4. <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120405630&gt;.

The title of the Fancy Dress Ball was “The Girls Who Stayed Home” as advertised in the Hamilton Spectator of 22 November 1915.  All proceeds were for the Local Wounded Soldiers Fund.

"Advertising." Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 - 1873; 1914 - 1918) 22 Nov 1915: .

“Advertising.” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1873; 1914 – 1918) 22 Nov 1915: <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120405855&gt;.

The article, from the Hamilton Spectator of 19 November 1915,  jogged my memory and I was sure I had seen photos of the event while searching for illustrated newspaper articles about Hamilton at Trove.  Newspapers such as The Australasian, Table Talk and the more recent addition to Trove, Punch, had fantastic photos and they often included country social events.

Punch reported on the Ladies Fancy Dress Ball held in the Hamilton Town Hall on 22 November 1915 with great photos.  I’m always impressed with the detail put into fancy dress costumes 100 years ago and before. Once limited to images from books and newspapers, the rise of film in the 1910s, however, brought new inspiration.  That was evident at the Hamilton Fancy Dress Ball with Charlie Chaplin in attendance.

"HAMILTON LADIES' FANCY DRESS BALL." Punch (Melbourne, Vic. : 1900 - 1918; 1925) 23 Dec 1915: .

“HAMILTON LADIES’ FANCY DRESS BALL.” Punch (Melbourne, Vic. : 1900 – 1918; 1925) 23 Dec 1915: <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138703780&gt;.

The portrait style photos are the real treasures and as names were provided, if lucky, you may find a family member.  This mysterious gipsy at the Hamilton fancy dress was Miss Eva Wright.

"HAMILTON LADIES' FANCY DRESS BALL." Punch (Melbourne, Vic. : 1900 - 1918; 1925) 23 Dec 1915: .

“HAMILTON LADIES’ FANCY DRESS BALL.” Punch (Melbourne, Vic. : 1900 – 1918; 1925) 23 Dec 1915: <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138703780&gt;.

As predicted, a number of the ladies went dressed as gentlemen.  The following photos show three of those ladies.  Organisers were particularly vigilant on the night to make sure no cheeky men, pretending to be ladies dressed as men, did not pass through the doors.

"HAMILTON LADIES' FANCY DRESS BALL." Punch (Melbourne, Vic. : 1900 - 1918; 1925) 23 Dec 1915: 24. .

“HAMILTON LADIES’ FANCY DRESS BALL.” Punch (Melbourne, Vic. : 1900 – 1918; 1925) 23 Dec 1915: 24. <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138703780&gt;.

The ladies above were from left: Miss Withers – “Tennis Boy”, Miss Eva Strachan “Middy” and Miss L. Meagher “Half-past two in the Morning”.  To read the full article with all the photos click here

Next time you are visiting Trove,  try a newspaper search for your family names and/or towns, but limit your search to the illustrated articles.  You may find a photo of your great-great-grandmother dressed as a pirate.  Now that would be a treasure.

 

Old Dunkeld Cemetery

/ Merron Riddiford / Leave a comment

My favourite cemeteries have “old” in their title.  Arriving at the Old Dunkeld Cemetery, you soon see it lives up to its name.  Burials occurred here from 1858 through to 1903.

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On a large allotment of ten acres, the remaining headstones stand in three main groups, Catholic, Presbyterian and Anglican, at distant points of the cemetery.  Looking at the Google Map at the bottom of this post you can clearly see the headstone groupings.

Just inside the gate, a welcome sign gives you an understanding that there are far more people buried here than the headstones suggest.  Not a good photo, but you can see the full list of burials at Ian Marr’s Cemeteries of SW Victoria site here.

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Unfortunately, when I visited two weeks ago, I found the cemetery very overgrown.  Being in the middle of a warm spring and considering snakes like a cemetery just as much as I do, I kept to the track leading up to the rear of the cemetery where the Presbyterian section lies.

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Dunkeld is a picturesque town, at the southern end of the majestic Grampians with endless views to the mountains.  You can’t beat the views at the cemetery either, particularly from the Presbyterian section.

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I didn’t try to get to the Anglican section of the cemetery.  There were thistles everywhere.  I suppose if one weed was going to dominate in a cemetery where Scottish settlers rest, in a town with a Scottish name,  in the shadows of a mountain range also with a Scottish name, thistles are apt.

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When snake season has passed, I hope to get back to the Old Dunkeld Cemetery to get some photos of individual headstones.

Old Dunkeld Cemetery – Victorian Heritage Database

Old Dunkeld Cemetery – Cemeteries of South West Victoria

Hamilton’s WW1 on Facebook

/ Merron Riddiford / 6 Comments

The “Hamilton’s WW1” side of Western District Families is growing all the time, although it mightn’t be obvious if you rely on a subscribers email or your RSS feed to notify you of a new post. As Hamilton’s WW1 and the Pioneer Obituary Index are set up a little differently than the main part of the blog, new content on those pages does not trigger an email or listing on your RSS feed, or show in the timeline you are reading this post from.

Until now, finding new soldier profiles meant you had to keep checking back at the site and then go through the lists of names on the “Hamilton’s WW1” tab at the top of this page.  Nobody wants to have to do that. To overcome the problem, somewhat, I have set up a Hamilton’s WW1 Facebook page to post soldier profiles as I write them.

I did consider posting new profiles to my Facebook group I’ve Lived in Hamilton, Victoria but not all members have an interest in military or family history.  Or I could have posted new profiles to my Western District Families page, but as the name suggest it covers the Western District and I didn’t want to have an overload of Hamilton content.

 

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An added extra for those who “like” the page is a daily “100 years ago in the Hamilton Spectator…” post to give us a feel of how life was in Hamilton and district during the war years.  The Hamilton Spectator was published six days a week during WW1, so on the seventh day I will  post other content relevant to Hamilton’s WW1.

After around three weeks, there is already a lot of content and thirty-eight “likes”, not too bad in a short space of time.  However, with Facebook’s mysterious algorithms used to decide how many people actually see each post, thirty-eight “likes” is not enough to ensure the stories of  Hamilton’s WW1 soldiers are not forgotten.

You can find Hamilton’s WW1 Facebook page here, or look for the link in the right-hand sidebar of this page.

 

In Broad Daylight

/ Merron Riddiford / Leave a comment

A few years ago, I wrote a post about the youngest son of Joseph Harman and Sarah Mulberry of Byaduk and formally of Melbourn, Cambridgeshire. “Alfred Winslow Harman – Stepping out of the Shadows” was so named because research for the post uncovered things about Alfred I hadn’t known.

Finding a photo of Alfred was the next aim and I thought I had just one shot at it…a photo of the Rupanyup Rifle Team c1880-90.  Having seen their great Facebook page, I thought I would contact the Rupanyup Historical Society.  I soon heard back from Helen, the society’s Secretary. The society had a meeting the following evening and the President was an expert on the Sargood Shield.   That was great news as the Rupanyup Rifle Club had great success in the Sargood Shield, a highly prized annual competition between Melbourne and country Victorian teams. Alfred was captain of the team in 1886.

Helen came back to me after the meeting and finally I was able to see Alfred Harman, out of the shadows and in broad daylight.  Helen had emailed me a photo of the 1885 Rupanyup Rifle Club. Alfred is the middle row, first on the left in this photo of the 1885.  To give you some idea about where he was in his life,  he was thirty-three years old, married for seven years and father to a six-year-old son.  His brother-in-law Samuel Miller is in the back row, third from the left.  There are some impressive Hairy Mancestors among them.

Image courtesy of the Rupanyup Historical Society.

Image courtesy of the Rupanyup Historical Society.

Thank you so much to the Rupanyup Historical Society.  Please go and check out their wonderful Facebook page on the link – Rupanyup Historical Society Facebook Page.  It was there I found WW1 photos of Alfred Harman’s great-nephews Robert and George Cruikshank, my 2nd cousins, 3 x removed,  who grew up in Rupanyup.  I also found photos of members of the Loats and Starbuck families who had lived in the Muddy Creek area, near Hamilton, and with whom I have family links.