Trove Tuesday: fire at Barrington

Robert Henry (Bob) Whiteman (1883 – 1957), one of Greg’s great uncles, was a labourer from Parkes in New South Wales, the son of a miner. On 29 March 1911 at the Registrar’s Office, Devonport, Tasmania, he married Esther Irene Milton (1894 – 1976), a farmer’s daughter. He was 28 years old; she was 16.

Their children were:

• Cyril Ernest 1911–1987
• Irene May 1912–1985
• Robert Edward 1914–1914
• Kenneth James (Ken) 1915–1991
• Percival Robert (Bob) 1917–2000
• Iris Emily 1919–1924
• Ivy Jean 1920–1921
• Myrtle Charlotte 1923–1986

The first two children were born in Launceston. About 1913 the Whiteman family moved to Barrington, a small farming settlement fifty miles west. In 1922 Bob Whiteman and Esther Irene were recorded as living there, with his occupation on the electoral roll as ‘labourer’.

Barrington in 1906 photographed by Stephen Spurling. Image retrieved through the National Library of Australia. A coloured postcard was later produced from this photograph.

Mt. Roland from Barrington photographed 1906 by Stephen Spurling. Image retrieved through the National Library of Australia.

Lake Barrington with Mt. Roland in background in 2019. Image by Guido Rudolph retrieved through Wikimedia Commons
Lake Barrington was created in 1969 for hydro-electric power production.

Bob had lived in Moriarty, a small village 15 miles northwest of Barrington before his marriage to Esther, and she had family there, including a sister, Bertha Emily Walker nee Milton (1892 – 1922), who was very sick with pleurisy.

On Sunday 23 July 1922, while the Whitemans, with five children aged between 2 and 11, were away visiting Esther’s ill sister Bertha their cottage in Barrington (rented) burnt down and the contents were destroyed.

From the Burnie Advocate of Tuesday 25 July 1922:

A fire occurred at Barrington on Sunday night, which completely destroyed a "cottage and contents. The building was owned by Mr. D. Mason, of Barrington, and occupied by Mr. B. Whiteman. The latter was away at Moriarty, together with his family, and the house was unoccupied when the fire occurred. The furniture, which was owned by the tenant, was partly covered by insurance. Much sympathy will be extended to Mr. Whiteman over his severe loss. He is a married man with five small children.

After the fire, the family moved to Northcote in Melbourne. On the 1924 electoral roll Robert Henry Whiteman, labourer, is recorded as living there, at 8 Robbs Parade.

RELATED POSTS:

• A boshter and other postcards from Bob Whiteman to Jack Young
• Y is for Young family photographs

Wikitree:

• Robert Henry Whiteman (1883 – 1957) 
• Esther Irene (Milton) Whiteman (1894 – 1976)

The wedding of Rose and Frank Beggs 3 Feb 1876

My great great aunt Helen Rosalie Champion Crespigny, called Rose, was born on 15 October 1858 at Daisy Hill, later known as Amherst, near Talbot, Victoria to Philip Champion Crespigny and Charlotte née Dana, the youngest of their five children.

On 3 February 1876 she married Francis Beggs in Ararat by license, according to the rites of the Church of England. Rose was 17 and her father provided his written consent to the marriage. Rose lived in Ararat, where her father was the Police Magistrate. Francis Beggs was 25, a squatter living at Eurambeen. Eurambeen is about 40 kilometers south-east of Ararat.

Marriage certificate of Francis Beggs and Helen Rosalie Champion Crespigny

From the Melbourne Argus of 9 February 1876:

BEGGS-CRESPIGNY. — On the 3rd inst., at Christ Church, Ararat, by the Rev. Canon Homan, Francis Beggs, eldest son of Francis Beggs, Esq., of Eurambeen, to Helen Rosalie, third daughter of P. C. Crespigny, Esq., P.M., Ararat.

[The marriage notice seems to be in error. The Anglican Church in Ararat was then known as Trinity Church, later Holy Trinity.]

Photographs from the albums of Rose Beggs née Champion Crespigny and Charlotte Champion Crespigny née Dana. The annotations are

The photograph album compiled by Rose Beggs includes photographs of them taken at the time of their wedding. The photographer was Johnstone, O’Shannessy & Co. of 3 Bourke Street, Melbourne. Perhaps they travelled to Melbourne after the wedding and had their photographs taken then as a memento. Or perhaps a photographer from the studio was visiting Ararat at the time.

Frank died in 1921. Rose Beggs died on 28 March 1937 in North Brighton,Victoria. They had no children.

From the Argus 29 March 1937:

DEATHS. 
BEGGS -On the 28th March at her residence St Marnocks, Hampton street, North Brighton, Helen Rosalie, widow of Francis Beggs, of St Marnocks, Beaufort.

From the Argus 6 April 1937:

BEAUFORT.-The death occurred at North Brighton of Mrs. Helen Rosalie Beggs, widow of the late Mr. Francis Beggs, the original owner of St. Marnock's Estate, Beaufort. She lived in the district many years and was closely associated with the local branch of the Australian Women's National League. The burial took place in the family burial ground at Eurambeen Estate.

Related posts:

• Photograph albums from great great aunt Rose
• Aunt Rose’s teapot
• St Marnocks

Wikitree:

• Helen Rosalie (Champion Crespigny) Beggs (1858 – 1937)
• Francis Beggs (1851 – 1921)

2022 – continuing progress on my family history

Jill Ball, who blogs as GeniAus, encourages us to look back on our family history research each year and Accentuate the Positive. Following some of her prompts, I can report that this year:

• I published 80 posts, not counting this post and any I might fit in before the new year. In 2022 I participated in my ninth A to Z April challenge (2022 A to Z reflections). Each year’s challenge encourages me to expand my family history research; I am already planning and researching for the next A-to-Z in April.
• I am pleased to contribute to Wikitree. (Wikitree – what is it and should I use it?) For a few years now I have been making an effort to transfer my research to WikiTree, a collaborative project intended to produce a single worldwide family tree. I have found that adding my family tree to WikiTree is an excellent way to review and verify my family history research. My family members and distant cousins can make use of what I’ve discovered and review sources to make sure that I didn’t get any of it wrong. In September I looked back on the progress I had made (Tree progress September 2022)

Chart generated from Wikitree of my daughter’s identified ancestors as at September 2022

• A new software package or web application I embraced was Transkribus (Using Transkribus to decipher the death certificate of Gustav Grust 1839-1901)
• My sledge hammer did great work on my Jones and Hughes family brick wall (Tracking down Elizabeth Jones)
• I was pleased to help publish the family history of my grandfather’s second cousin (Pink Hats on Gentle Ladies: second edition by Vida and Daniel Clift)
• A geneasurprise I received was photo albums compiled by my great great aunt Rose and my 3rd great grandmother Charlotte de Crespigny nee Dana. In 2023 I look forward to sharing images from these albums. (Photograph albums from great great aunt Rose)

• In 2022 we finally met M., one of my husband’s Cross cousins. I also connected with some other Cross cousins and received copies of photos.
• Locating the parents of Frederick Harold Plowright gave me great joy. (Finding the parents of Frederick Harold Plowright born 1881)
• I looked for relatives in the newly released 1921 English census records (1921 census return for JG Cavenagh-Mainwaring and family)
• I progressed my DNA research by making an effort to understand the Thrulines tool at ancestry.com. (DNA: Exploring AncestryDNA Thrulines)
• An informative journal or newspaper article I found was an interim report into Australia’s productivity performance: 5-year Productivity Inquiry: The Key to Prosperity. (‘You’ve never had it so good’)
• A DNA discovery I made gave insight into the possible forebears of the Sullivan forebears of my husband Greg. I need some more test results to confirm this connection. (Looking for William Sullivan (1839 – ?))

I look forward to doing—and sharing—more family history research in 2023.

RELATED POSTS

• Past Accentuate the positive reviews:
  • Accentuate the Positive 2013 Geneameme
  • Accentuate the Positive 2016 Geneameme
  • Start 2018 by accentuating the positive
  • 2020 Accentuate the Positive – a year of family history progress

Trove Tuesday: remembering the Fall of Singapore

Today is the 80th anniversary of what came to be known as the Fall of Singapore. On 15 February 1942, 130,000 British-led forces surrendered the island to the Imperial Japanese Army. 15,000 8th Division Australian soldiers were taken prisoner; half of these were killed, starved, abandoned to disease, or worked to death by their captors.

Front page of The Age 17 Feb 1942 from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/19384337

Singapore in its possession, the Japanese Army continued its advance, and a few weeks later, on 9 March, my grandfather’s cousin John de Crespigny (1908-1995) became a prisoner of war with the surrender on 8 March of all Allied forces on Java.

John Chauncy Champion de Crespigny, then 31, had volunteered for military service on 29 February 1940. At the time of his enlistment he was employed as an advertising manager. He lived with his mother in Caulfield. de Crespigny had trained as a cadet and had had the rank of lieutenant in the officer reserve. He was first posted to Syria, where he served as a lieutenant. In May 1941 he was promoted to captain and in February 1942 to temporary major.

photos taken on enlistment from National Archives of Australia B883, VX253 CHAMPION DE CRESPIGNY JOHN CHAUNCY : Service Number – VX253 : Date of birth – 25 Aug 1908 : Place of birth – MELBOURNE VIC : Place of enlistment – SOUTH MELBOURNE VIC : Next of Kin – CHAMPION DE CRESPIGNY BARBARA https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=6231381

On 1 February 1942 John de Crespigny sailed from Suez on the SS Orcades with his unit, a Guard Battalion of the 7th Division, now re-deployed for the defence of Java. They disembarked at Batavia 18 February. A few weeks later the island fell to the Japanese and the battalion was ordered to capitulate. He became one of 2736 2nd AIF prisoners of the Japanese on Java.

He was first interned in the Dutch Army barracks at the No 12 Bandoeng camp, West Java. A fellow prisoner was Lieutenant Colonel Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop of the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps, who later achieved a high reputation for his selfless dedication to the welfare of the suffering troops.

John de Crespigny was reported missing and there were reports he had been killed. In September he was reported to be a prisoner of war:

Maj John C. Champion de Crespigny reported missing is believed to be a prisoner of war in Java. He is the younger son of Mrs Champion de Crespigny of Balaclava rd. E St Kilda, and the late Phillp Champion de Crespigny, AIF, killed on active service in 1918. Maj de Crespigny was educated at Camberwell Grammar School. Before enlisting he was advertising manager at Ronaldson Bros and Tippett, Ballarat, and was an officer in the 8th Battalion. He and his elder brother Lieut Philip de Crespigny, embarked for the Middle East early in 1940.
(SERVICE CASUALTIES (1942, September 1). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11993260)

In November 1942, 1000 Australian prisoners, including Dunlop and de Crespigny, were moved to a camp at Makasura, Batavia where they shared quarters with British prisoners.

In the camp John de Crespigny worked with his fellow officers to keep morale up and the inmates busy. John taught art classes and lectured on various aspects of advertising. He helped produce hand-drawn posters advertising camp activities. The camp magazine, ‘Mark Time‘, was produced and illustrated under his guidance.

One of the copies of Mark Time with a cartoon of John de Crespigny from the collection held by the Anzac memorial (NSW). Flight Lieutenant Sid Scales of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, was a gifted caricaturist and illustrated the covers of the camp magazine ‘Mark Time’ with cartoons of the senior officers.

Early in 1943, many Australian prisoners, including Dunlop and de Crespigny, were moved to Singapore and from there to the Konyu-Hintok Area near the Burma-Siam border. Those below officer rank were forced to work on the construction of the infamous 260-mile railway linking Thailand and Burma.

The Hintok-Tampi trestle bridge located ninety kilometres south of Kinsayok. This was one of the bridges built to complete the Thailand-Burma railway for use by Japanese military forces during the Second World War. Construction was carried out by Allied prisoners of war including many Australians under supervision by Japanese engineers. The height of the bridge at this spot was 100 feet and rough scrub timber from the surrounding area was used in the bridge construction. Image from the Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C47450

Following the Japanese surrender in September 1945, John de Crespigny was ‘recovered from the Japanese at Siam.’ He sailed for Melbourne via Singapore on 17 October 1945 and was discharged as an Honorary Major in December. On his return, he provided a sworn statement to the inter-Allied team investigating Japanese war crimes.

In 1997, twenty-four POW camp posters from Bandoeng and Makasura, numerous copies of ‘Mark Time’, John de Crespigny’s wartime diaries, and many pieces that had been penned and drawn for the planned souvenir Memorial Book were donated to the New South Wales Anzac Memorial by one of his step-sons.

Some of the posters in the collection of John de Crespigny now held by the Anzac memorial (NSW)

Further reading:

• Anzac memorial (NSW) The John Chauncy Champion de Crespigny Collection: an online ehibition https://www.anzacmemorial.nsw.gov.au/event/john-chauncy-champion-de-crespigny-collection
  • Biography of John Chauncy Champion de Crespigny https://www.anzacmemorial.nsw.gov.au/major-john-chauncy-champion-de-crespigny-1908-1995

Related posts

• Sepia Saturday 192 : John Chauncy Champion de Crespigny (1908 – 1995)
• Trove Tuesday: Mother’s Day 1943
• E is for Exile

Wikitree: John Chauncy Champion de Crespigny (1908 – 1995)

Climbing our family’s gum tree again

In 2014 I responded to a prompt by a fellow genealogy blogger, Pauleen Cass, to look at my family’s immigration to Australia. In the seven years since, I’ve learned a lot more about our family history so I thought it would be fun to revisit Pauleen’s prompts.

CLIMBING OUR FAMILY’S GUM TREE

My first ancestor to arrive in Australia was…? George Taylor (1758 – 1828) and Mary Taylor née Low (1765 -1850), my fifth great grand parents, were the first of my forebears to emigrate to Australia, arriving in Tasmania on 10 January 1823 with most of their adult children. Their daughter Isabella Hutcheson nee Taylor, my fourth great grandmother, followed ten years later with her children. The property the Taylors and their sons farmed, called ‘Valleyfield‘, near Launceston, was sold in 2005 after more than 180 years in the same family.

About ninety percent, of our immigrant ancestors arrived before 1855, one arrived in 1888, and four arrived in the middle of the twentieth century after World War 2.

Fan chart of my children’s ancestors showing immigrants highlighted in dark green. Those highlighted in purple came to Australia but returned to England. We don’t know anything about the immigration of John Clark and Hannah Clark nee Sline highlighted in olive green. Chart generated using DNAPainter.

• 

  George Young

• 

  Philip Champion Crespigny

• 

  Charlotte Frances Champion Crespigny née Dana

• 

  Philip Chauncy

• 

  Susan Chauncy nee Mitchell

• 

  Henry Dawson

• 

  Charlotte Boltz nee Manock

• 

  Hans Boltz

• 

  Anna Boltz nee Bertz and my mother

Some of our immigrant forebears

Were there any convicts? There are no convicts on my side. My husband Greg’s great great grandmother Caroline Clarke, who married a gold-digger called George Young, was born in New South Wales about 1835. I still haven’t been able to trace her parents, so perhaps they were convicts, though this seems unlikely as convicts are well documented.

Where did our ancestors come from? Twenty-nine were from England, seven from Scotland, two from Wales, eight from Ireland, and four from Germany. One was born in New Zealand and arrived in Tasmania as a baby. One of our English forebears was born in India; two were British subjects born in France. There are also two immigrants, John Clark and his wife Hannah nee Sline, in the list of fifty-three that I know little about.

Did any of our ancestors pay their passage? Many paid their own passage, and there were some assisted immigrants. Only one person seems to have worked his way to Australia, Greg’s great great grandfather John Plowright, who on his admission to Maryborough Hospital in 1873 stated that he had arrived in the colony from London on the Speculation about 1853. He gave his occupation was mariner. He wasn’t listed as a deserter. It seems he gave up life as a seaman to try his chance on the goldfields.

How many ancestors came as singles? couples? families? Thirty-two of the fifty-three immigrants – sixty percent – came with their family. Twenty-eight were adults and eight were infants or children accompanying their parents. Thirteen came as single immigrants. There was only one couple without children: John and Sarah Way.

Did one person lead the way and others follow? There are quite a few instances of this.

• The Edwards came probably because Mary’s sister Sarah and her husband Francis Tuckfield were already in Australia.
• The de Crespignys came probably because Charlotte’s brothers had been given jobs by Governor Latrobe.
• Philip Chauncy followed his sisters, who had arrived in Adelaide two years previously.
• The Plaisteds followed Ann’s sister and brother, who had arrived twelve years earlier in Adelaide together with John’s sister Tabitha who married William Green.
• Isabella Hutcheson née Taylor followed her parents and brothers to Tasmania in about 1833 after the death of her husband. She came with five young children.
• My grandfather came first after the war and his wife and daughter joined him ten months later. My grandfather was the only immigrant to arrive by air. His mother joined him in Australia ten years later.

What’s the longest journey they took to get here? Of the voyages I know about, two took 136 days or 4 ½ months:

• the David Clark which arrived on 27 October 1839 with Samuel Proudfoot Hawkins, one of my 3rd great grandfathers
• the Rajah which arrived 12 April 1850 with my 4th great grandparents John and Ann Plaisted and their daughter Sally one of my 3rd great grandmothers

Did anyone make a two-step emigration via another place? Several ancestors came via other places:

• John and Matilda Darby emigrated first to New Zealand and came to Tasmania several years later.
• Gordon Mainwaring, one of my 3rd great grandfathers, came to Australia from Calcutta.
• Wentworth Cavenagh, one of my great great grandfathers, first tried farming in Canada, then coffee planting in Ceylon, then tried for a job in Calcutta, India. He arrived on the Bendigo goldfields in 1852 before making his way to South Australia a year later.

Which state(s)/colony did your ancestors arrive? Twenty arrived in Victoria, fourteen in South Australia, eleven arrived in Tasmania, two in Western Australia, two probably came to New South Wales, and four migrated to the Australian Capital Territory.

Did they settle and remain in one state or colony? They moved between the colonies, especially to and from Victoria and to and from South Australia.

• the Ways moved from South Australia to Victoria and then to New South Wales
• the Darbys moved from Tasmania to Victoria
• the Ralphs moved from Victoria to South Australia
• the Plaisteds and the Hughes moved from South Australia to Victoria
• the Cudmores and Nihills moved from Tasmania to South Australia
• the Hutchesons moved from Tasmania to Victoria
• Philip Chauncy moved from South Australia to Western Australia to Victoria

Did they stay in one town or move around? They tended to move around.

Do you have any First Australians in your tree? No direct forebears .

Were any self-employed? They were mostly self-employed. Many were farmers or miners.

What occupations or industries did your earliest ancestors work in? Most of them took up farming.

Does anyone in the family still follow that occupation? Not in my immediate family.

Did any of our ancestors leave Australia to return “Home”? William Snell Chauncy, one of my 4th great grandfathers, visited his children in South Australia for only twelve months before returning to England. Gordon Mainwaring and his wife Mary née Hickey both died in England, as did their son-in-law, Wentworth Cavenagh-Mainwaring.

Previous posts about immigration

• Australia Day: Climbing our family’s gum tree
• X is for excess exiting England
• 1823 the Taylors arrive in Tasmania V is for Valleyfield in Van Diemen’s Land
• 1833 Isabella Hutcheson nee Taylor arrives with her family
• 1835 Daniel Cudmore and the Nihill family arrive H is for the Cudmore family arrival in Hobart in 1835
• 1838 Mitchell family arrival on the Swan River 1838
• 1839 Philip Chauncy arrives on the Dumfries E is for emigration
• 1839 Samuel Proudfoot Hawkins arrives 180 years since the arrival of the “David Clark”
• 1840 Gordon Mainwaring arrives on the Eamont from Calcutta A Quiet Life: Gordon Mainwaring (1817-1872)
• 1840 Mary Hickey arrives with her sister and her brother’s family on the Birman, her brother died on the voyage Deaths at sea
• 1845 the Darby family arrive from New Zealand John Narroway Darby
• 1849 Edwards family immigration on the Lysander arriving in the Port Phillip District in 1849
• 1849 the Hughes family arrive on the Gunga F is for Flintshire
• 1850 the Plaisted family arrive on the Rajah P is for phthisis (tuberculosis)
• 1852 Australian arrival of the Champion Crespigny family on the ‘Cambodia’ 31 March 1852
• 1852 Wentworth Cavenagh arrived on the Victorian Goldfields mentioned in a newspaper article when he departed 40 years later 1892 journey on the Ballaarat
• 1853 the Morley family arrived on the Ida Arrival of the Morley family in 1853
• 1853 George Young and James Cross probably both arrived about 1853 L is for leaving Liverpool
• 1853 John Plowright arrived on board the Speculation John Plowright (1831 – 1910)
• 1854 John Way and his wife Sarah nee Daw arrived on the Trafalgar Immigration on the Trafalgar in 1854 of John Way and Sarah née Daw
• 1854 the Ralph family arrived on the Bloomer B is for the barque Bloomer arrived 1854
• 1854 the Persian arrived with Ellen Murray and Margaret Smyth M is for Arrival in Melbourne of the Persian in 1854
• 1854 the Dirigo arrived with Margaret Rankin and her her children Margaret Gunn (1819 – 1863)
• 1888 Henry Dawson arrived R is for Railways – triennial listing of railways employees in Victoria
• 1949 my grandfather Hans Boltz arrived Trove Tuesday: Flying the Kangaroo route in 1949
• 1950 my grandmother and mother arrived
• 1960 Anna Boltz, one of my great grandmothers, arrived G is for great grandmother from Germany

2020 Accentuate the Positive – a year of family history progress

Jill Ball, who blogs as GeniAus (http://geniaus.blogspot.com), encourages us to look back on our family history research in 2020 and Accentuate the Positive. She gives 20 prompts; here’s my response:

1. An elusive ancestor I found was: I followed my tree further back and found some new Huguenot ancestors: My gunpowder-manufacturing Huguenot forebears. I also made some progress on my husband’s tree through DNA and detective work. I wrote about this at Following the clues.
2. A great collection of newspaper articles I found documented my great grandmother’s social life through the 1919 Spanish flu epidemic. She coached debutantes for their coming-out balls. Although a Victory Ball in Sydney was cancelled because of the pandemic, balls in Adelaide continued. It seems risky behaviour. I think they didn’t wear masks: A masked ball.
3. A geneajourney I planned but didn’t take was : I had hoped to visit Mildura, Wentworth, and Renmark, the district where my Cudmore and Gunn forebears lived. My 3rd great grandmother, for example, died near Renmark and the plaque from her grave seems to be on display at “Olivewood”, the Chaffey Brothers historic homestead-museum, at Renmark.: Margaret Gunn (1819 – 1863).
4. I located an important record with the release of new German records, the civil registration death record for my great grandfather Fritz Hermann Boltz, 1879-1954.
5. A newly found family member shared … I often receive comments about my online research journal from fellow family historians and occasionally connect with new cousins. I enjoy the feedback and it’s always a pleasure to make a new connection.
6. A geneasurprise I received was the digitisation of my 4th great grandfather Rowland Mainwaring’s publications. I have yet to explore these fully but I have started to research his naval career at Midshipman Rowland Mainwaring.
7. My 2020 social media post that I was particularly proud of was completing my write-up of our 2019 trip to the UK: UK trip 2019
8. I made a new genimate who worked with me to solve a paternity mystery for a cousin’s DNA: Using the What Are the Odds Tool version 2.
9. A new piece of technology or skill I mastered was the What Are The Odds tool version 2.
10. I joined two surname related groups: the Clan Gunn and the Clann Caomhánach (Cavenagh).
11. A genealogy education session or event from which I learnt something new was a presentation on Deductive Chromosome Mapping by Blaine Bettinger. I could not wait to try the technique: DNA Technique: Deductive Chromosome Mapping.
12. Blog posts that taught me something new were by Roberta Estes and by Debbie Kennett on small DNA matches; I applied the analysis to my own and my parents’ DNA matches: Small matches in AncestryDNA.
13. A DNA discovery I made was a connection to Greg’s Darby forebears which helped to confirm his great grandfather’s, Henry Sullivan’s, birth mother and her father: Following the Clues.
14. I taught a genimate how to… My most popular posts are those in which I explain DNA techniques. In 2020 my three most popular posts were on using the What Are the Odds Tool, Deductive Chromosome Mapping, and how to use the book-making tool provided by MyCanvas.
15. A brick wall I demolished was the birth mother of Henry Sullivan. I have been working on this since we first started our family history research but DNA has made the difference and confirmed my hypothesis: Poor Little Chap.
16. A great site I visited was the Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland at https://irishdeedsindex.net/ I have yet to write up some of my findings at that site though I used it when researching my Grueber gunpowder-manufacturing Huguenot forebears.
17. A new genealogy/history book I enjoyed was Mark Bostridge’s biography of Florence Nightingale.
18. Zoom gave me an opportunity to watch some interesting presentations, in particular the National Library of Australia’s presentation on the Australian Joint Copying Project: What does the AJCP Mean to YOU!!
19. I am excited for 2021 because – there is always more family history to research. I have so many projects in progress and far too many tabs open in my browser.
20. Another positive I would like to share is: my father and I have been working for some years on a biography of my 3rd great grandmother, Charlotte Frances Champion Crespigny nee Dana. It’s nearly finished and we are just about to publish it.

In 2020 I have published 103 posts so far (I expect it will be 105 by the end of the year: this post and one about the new book).

My family tree at ancestry.com has 11,214 people; 2,338 images; 328 stories; 17,736 records attached. In March, it was 10,481 people.

My tree completeness to 10 generations (my childrens’ 7th great grandparents) remains at 34%, as I reported in March earlier this year, though I know the names and some other details of 2 more of their fourth great grandparents. I also know about 46 more of their 8th to 13th great grandparents, but that is a small fraction of their forbears that far back. There’s lots more research to do.

Direct ancestors whose names I know are coloured; blanks represent those whose names are unknown to me.
Tree created using DNAPainter.

Related posts

• Past Accentuate the positive reviews:
  • Accentuate the Positive 2013 Geneameme
  • Accentuate the Positive 2016 Geneameme
  • Start 2018 by accentuating the positive
• Tree progress March 2020
• Updating my Ahnentafel index

Remembering my paternal grandfather on his birthday

My paternal grandfather, Richard Geoffrey Champion de Crespigny, oldest son of Constantine Trent Champion De Crespigny (1882-1952) and Beatrix Champion de Crespigny née Hughes (1884 -1943), was born in Glenthompson, Victoria, on 16 June 1907. He died in Adelaide, South Australia, on 12 February 1966. Today is the 113th anniversary of his birthday.

Geoff’s father was in private medical practice in Glenthompson from 1906 having previously worked for several years in Melbourne hospitals after graduation. In 1909 he took up the position of Superintendant of the Adelaide Hospital and the family moved to Adelaide. Geoff’s sister Nancy was born in Adelaide in 1910.

Frank Beggs and Geoff de Crespigny St Marnocks 1908

Geoff de Crespigny , miniature portrait by his aunt Olive A Chatfield

Geoff de Crespigny with his mother Beatrix about 1912

Geoff attended the Queen’s School, North Adelaide where he won prizes in 1918 and in 1919. He later attended Geelong Church of England Grammar School and is listed as a prizewinner there in 1920. In 1921 he won a form prize and a prize for music. He was again a form prize winner in 1923 and also a prize for music.

Geoff went on to study medicine at Melbourne University and in 1927 he was awarded a Full Blue for rowing. He rowed for the University of Melbourne in the inter-varsity boat race in 1927, 28 and 29.

The Trinity College crew in 1929.  Geoff is number 7

We have two trophy oars as mementoes of my grandfather’s rowing career; one from Trinity College and the other from Melbourne University.

In 1933 Geoff married Kathleen Cudmore. They had one son, Rafe.

WEDDING LINKS ADELAIDE MEDICAL FAMILIES (1933, June 10). The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 – 1954), p. 1. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58626507

A copy of the newspaper image

Geoff with Rafe at Rafe’s christening

In 1939 Geoff enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and served in the Middle East and New Guinea rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. His extended period of nine months in Tobruk, earned the nickname of `The old man of Tobruk’.

• 

  For the first

• 

For the first part of the war Geoff kept a diary.

Geoff with Rafe and Antonia (Mrs Tone) the dachshund about 1947

After graduating from Melbourne University in 1930 Geoff was a resident medical officer at the Adelaide Hospital from 1931 and then undertook postgraduate studies in England in 1932. On his return to Adelaide he took up general practice. He specialised in paediatrics and was on the Honorary Staff of the Adelaide Childrens’ Hospital from 1936. He was admitted to the Royal Australian College of Physicians in 1938 and made a Fellow in 1953. He gave up private practice in 1960 to take on the role of Medical Director of the Mothers’ and Babies’ Health Association. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1960 and in that year he was President of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Medical Association.

my grandparents Kathleen and Geoff in 1960

In December 1965 he suddenly became ill and died less than two months later on 12 February 1966 of a brain tumour.

Related posts

• Miniature portrait of Geoff de Crespigny by Olive A Chatfield
• Sepia Saturday 193 : Richard Geoffrey Champion de Crespigny
• T is for Tobruk
• Remembering my grandfather at Tobruk
• Kathleen Cudmore: a Memoir

S is for St George’s Hanover Square

From 1600 to 1700 London’s population trebled, from 200,000 to 585,000, outstripping the supply of what was then almost universally held to be an essential element of the city’s infrastructure, enough churches to accommodate worshippers and would-be worshippers, in particular, those of the Established Church of England.

Population estimate of Inner London (Former London County). Figures from http://demographia.com/dm-lon31.htm which in turn obtained pre-1801 data from The London Encyclopedia, Edited by Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert

Early in the next century, in March 1711, the House of Commons considered a report on the estimated population of the London suburbs and the churches available for worship. In the most populous parishes, there was a total of just forty-six churches and chapels for a population of over half a million. It was estimated that only one person in three could find a place in the pews of the Church of England.

On 1 May 1711 the House of Commons resolved “That a Supply be granted to her Majesty for the Build of fifty new Churches, and for purchasing Sites of Churches and Church-Yards, or Burial-Places, and also Houses for the Habitations of the Ministers of the said Churches, in or about the Cities of London and Westminster, or the Suburbs thereof, and for making such Chapels as are already built and capable thereof, Parish-Churches; and also for finishing the Repairs of the Collegiate-Church of St. Peter’s Westminster, and the Chapels of the same.” This was followed up by legislation in 1712 “An Act for granting to her Majesty several Duties upon Coals, for building fifty new Churches, &c.” A Commission was established to oversee the building of the churches.

Building fifty new churches would ease the pressure for places where members of the Church of England could gather to worship and, it was hoped, potential Dissenters would have a reduced incentive to separate from the Established Church. (My Plaisted forebears became Dissenters about this time.)

The Commission did not achieve its target. Only twelve new churches were built, and just five existing churches were rebuilt.

One of the new churches was St George’s Hanover Square. The architect was John James, a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren. James’s neoclassical design, with a portico of six Corinthian columns, set a new trend in English church architecture.

“St George’s Hanover Square,” aquatint, by T. Malton. Dated 1787. From the collection of the British Library retrieved through Wikimedia Commons.

 

Its location in Mayfair made St George’s Hanover Square the venue for many fashionable weddings. The first entry in the Marriage Register is dated April 30th, 1725. The most weddings in a single year was 1063, in 1816.

On 20 March 1813 my 4th great grandparents Charles Fox Champion Crespigny and Eliza Julia Trent married at St George’s Hanover Square. Charles Fox was twenty-seven. Eliza was a minor of sixteen, and her mother’s consent had to be provided. Charles’s half-brother Philip C Crespigny and Eliza’s brother John Trent were witnesses.

Bishop’s transcript of the marriage of Charles Fox Champion Crespigny and Eliza Julia Trent 20 March 1813 at St George’s Hanover Square. Image retrieved from ancestry.com London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932

Crespigny Trent marriage announcement in The Suffolk Chronicle; or Weekly General Advertiser & County Express. 8 May 1813 page 4. Retrieved from FindMyPast.

 

In 1813 weddings were not reported in the newspapers. However, in 1903 when Valerie Champion de Crespigny married Captain John Smiley at St George’s Hanover Square, her dress and the dresses of her six bridesmaids were described in detail.

The 26 November 1903 wedding of Captain John Smiley and Valerie Champion de Crespigny from The Queen 5 December 1903 page 58 retrieved from FindMyPast

 

In 1917 when Rose Champion de Crespigny née Gordon, a widow, remarried at St George’s Hanover Square, her photo appeared in The Tatler and a wedding photo appeared in a newspaper.

Rose Champion de Crespigny marries William Morrice. Newspaper clipping was being sold on EBay 2020, no other details available.

Ms William Morrice from The Tatler 21 November 1917 retrieved from FindMyPast

 

The composer George Handel (1685 – 1759) was a parishioner of St George’s from the time it was first built. He was consulted on the organ installation.

It is said that St George’s has changed little since it was first built and that “a parishioner from two centuries ago, if he could return today, would not find much to startle or dismay him.”

St George’s Hanover Square Church is shown with a black cross to the west of the City of London

Sources

• Church website at https://www.stgeorgeshanoversquare.org/
  • https://www.stgeorgeshanoversquare.org/historical-weddings.aspx
  • https://www.stgeorgeshanoversquare.org/history.html
  • https://www.stgeorgeshanoversquare.org/history/the-exterior.html
  • https://www.stgeorgeshanoversquare.org/history/handel-and-st-george.html
• “Introduction.” The Commissions for Building Fifty New Churches: The Minute Books, 1711-27, A Calendar. Ed. M H Port. London: London Record Society, 1986. ix-xxxiii. British History Online. Web. 21 April 2020. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-record-soc/vol23/ix-xxxiii.
• White, Jerry London in the eighteenth century : a great and monstrous thing. London Vintage Books, 2013. Page 19.

A masked ball

In April 1919 the Adelaide weekly ‘Critic‘ claimed that because of the chaos Spanish flu had caused nothing could be planned.

Further down the page there was a discussion of plans for a Victory Ball to be held two months off, on 5 June, with a dance for juveniles on the following night. The proceeds were to be in aid of the Cheer-Up Society, an organisation for the aid and comfort of Australian soldiers passing through Adelaide. My great grandmother Mrs A.M. Cudmore, who was on the executive committee, keenly supported this effort on behalf of returned men.

At the Sign of Four O’ (1919, April 16). Critic (Adelaide, SA : 1897-1924), p. 29. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212480508

At first it was planned to hold the Ball in the Exhibition Building on North Terrace, but this was being used as an isolation hospital for influenza patients.

Though a Peace Ball was cancelled in Sydney because of the influenza outbreak, Adelaide’s Victory Ball went ahead at the Adelaide Town Hall.

On the afternoon of the ball Mrs Cudmore supervised a rehearsal for debutantes.

GENERAL NEWS. (1919, June 4). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1931), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5654323

Frock worn by the Mayoress (Mrs. C. R. J. Glover)  FEMININE VANITIES (1919, June 7). The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 – 1954), p. 9. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63761531

Depicted in the sketch … is the elegant gown worn by the Mayoress at Government House on the occasion of Admiral Viscount Jellicoe’s visit, also at the Victory Ball on Thursday. This frock is composed of supple black satin, with an overdress of tulle, weighted by steel and gold embroidery. The corsage permits a peep of gold tissue between the less diaphonous fabrics with what is at hand. A short length of widish insertion, rather open and bold in design, can be turned to endless account.

In July 1919 there was another ball, the University Ball. This time Mrs Arthur Cudmore had the job of supervising sixty-four debutantes carrying posies tied with ribbons in University colours.

1919 Adelaide: Guests attending a ball (not specified), possibly for debutantes in a hall decorated with garlands of flowers in Adelaide. Image retrieved from the State Library of South Australia PRG-280-1-29-65 and subsequently colorised using the MyHeritage photo colorizing tool.

 

The influenza epidemic, it seems, had little effect on Adelaide social life.

A recent ABC News article recalls the 1919 Adelaide quarantine camp.

15,000 people died in Australia from the 1918-19 pandemic out of a population of 5 million. 40 per cent of Australia’s population was infected by the influenza but its subsequent death rate of 2.7 per cent per 1,000 members of the population was the lowest recorded of any country during the pandemic. Worldwide 50 to 100 million people died. The first Australian case was recorded in January 1919 in Melbourne,
Victoria. The virus spread to New South Wales and South Australia, with these States closing their borders to limit the spread of the virus.

Travellers from South Australia to Melbourne were not allowed to return home to South Australia. Quarantine was offered in association with soldiers who were being quarantined on Kangaroo Island and in two other camps. Eventually several hundred travellers from Adelaide were allowed to travel back to Adelaide on heavily guarded trains having signed declarations that they had taken every precaution not to be exposed. A quarantine camp was set up on Jubilee Oval next to the Torrens River. There were 100 military tents and more accommodation was set up in the adjacent Machinery Hall. About 640 people who had been visiting Victoria and elsewhere were quarantined at the site.

It was said that many people quarantined at Jubilee Oval treated the experience as an extended holiday and, cleared of the infection, were reluctant to leave.

1919 View of the Quarantine Camp, Jubilee Oval, Adelaide Photograph retrieved from State Library of South Australia PRG 1638/2/67

Young men at the Quarantine Camp, Jubilee Oval [PRG 1638/2/68]

Woman at Quarantine Camp [PRG 1638/2/80]

 

Below the well-advertised cheerfulness, however, was an ugly truth. The Spanish flu was extremely dangerous. In South Australia 540 people died of the flu, the equivalent in today’s population of 15,000. No Australians have yet died of COVID-19.

Exhibition Building, North Terrace, Adelaide about 1900. The Jubilee Exhibition Building was just north of the camp and was turned into an isolation hospital.  [State Library South Australia image B 1606] (The building was demolished in 1962)

 

Source

• How Did the 1919 Spanish Flu Isolation Camp Become a Party? Malcolm Sutton- ABC Radio Adelaide – https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-14/when-quarantine-during-the-spanish-flu-pandemic-became-a-party/11958724

1919 influenza epidemic through my grandmother’s eyes

The COVID-19 outbreak of recent months has been more than adequately destructive and frightening, but the influenza epidemic that followed World War 1 was far worse. In South Australia its progress was recorded in an odd way by my grandmother Kathleen Cudmore (1908-2013), the daughter of an Adelaide doctor.

In 1919, just eleven years old, she composed a hand-written newsletter called ‘Stuffed Notes’ [sic. I think because her toys were stuffed animals], about an imaginary hospital which had many cases of Spanish flu. On 14 March 2018 I blogged a transcription of her newsletter. Oddly enough, or perhaps not, the ebb and flow of cases of influenza she recorded in her newsletter follow much the same pattern as South Australian cases as a whole.

Kathleen and her older sister Rosemary about 1919

 

Looking just at the mentions of Influenza (my transcription retains the original spelling and grammar)

February: There has been one case of influenza which was fatal. But we are glad to say no more cases have been proved influenza.

March: No more cases of Enfluenza have accured.

April: There has been one more case of Influenza. But he is recovering.

May: The are 8 cases of Influenza 2 deaths and 3 dangious cases all the rest are getting better.

June: Five cases of Influenza have accured 1 death and 2 dangirus the other two a getting better the outbreak of Influenza is very bad at present.

July: There are 10 cases of Influenza 3 deaths and 5 dangrous cases. Nurse Wagga is ill with Influenza so Nurse Sambo is taking her place. … Nurse Wagga is is not so very dangious but she is fairly bad.

August: Influenza
Cases = 12
Deaths = 4
Dangious = 3
Mild = 5

Nurse Wagga is quite well now and has gone away for a Holiday a Henly Beach.

We are not removing the Influenza cases to the Isolation Hospital at the Exhibition. As we heard the conditions are not very good.

September: There a five cases of Influenza but they are all recovering.

October: There were no deaths lately and most of the dangerous cases are getting better.

November: No more cases of Influenza have accrued.

Here is a graph of the number of influenza cases in Kathleen’s hospital:

Here is a graph of South Australian influenza cases:

Graph of South Australia influenza notifications, January–December 1919 from Kako, M., Steenkamp, M., Rokkas, P.J., Anikeeva, O. and Arbon, P.A. (2015). Spanish influenza of 1918-19: The extent and spread in South Australia. Australasian Epidemiologist, 22(1) pp. 48-54 Retrieved from the Flinders Academic Commons: http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/dspace/

I once thought that Kathleen’s “Stuffed Notes” had their origin in dinner-time conversation among the adults of her household, but recently I noticed that in early 1919 her father Dr Cudmore had not yet returned from the War, so the dinner conversation was not based on hospital information at the beginning of the year. Perhaps Kathleen followed Adelaide newspaper reports of the local outbreak.

1919 South Australian newspaper articles mentioning influenza by month (retrieved from Trove.nla.gov.au)