#52Ancestors - Week 14 - Favourite Photo

Week 14 (April 2-8) – Favorite Photo: Who is in a favorite photo of yours? Or tell the story of the photo itself — where was it taken, what was the event?

I have so many photos I love - my newest favourite photo is one I shared just last week of the Casey family outside their home in Bonners Field Durham England

Cousin Sue, who sent it to me and cousin Fred who sent it to her have put their heads together to make an educated guesstimate as to who the young children are. They think the photo is from about 1901. Man - Thomas Casey.
Baby in arms Eileen Porteous.
Mum with baby - Mary Ann Casey/Porteous
Child in front of mum - Norah Porteous
Other child in white Evangeline Porteous.
Big girl wearing hat - Norah Casey (Render)
Boy in front of her - Thomas Casey Jr. (Son of Thomas and Violet Casey)
Next to him - Agnes May Casey (daughter of Thomas and Violet Casey)
Far right - Maria Casey (Crine)


Another favourite is the one of my mother I used to make her Trading Card during the #FearlessFemales challenge:

The back of the photo says

To Uncle Ted and all over their. Lots of Love. From Pauline xxxx

(That's not my typo by the way - it's what Mum wrote)

I think the photo is from 1953

The greeting on the back says (to me) that Mum sent this photo to her Uncle Ted in Australia either as a pre-cursor to asking for him (or one of the other uncles) to pay her fare so she could come to Australia or perhaps just before she came, so that whoever was meeting her at the port her would recognise her (all of the Uncles who lived in Australia left the UK well before she was born)

I want to add a new old photo to the list:

This photo is brand new - it was emailed to me this week from Barnardos Australia. It is a photo of my Aunty Gert when she arrived in Australia in 1924. It is the earliest photo we've seen of her (though I'm hoping for an earlier one from Barnardos UK in a few months).


The last favourite photo is of Mum from around 1954 when she was in the Army. She was on a camping trip with a group of army friends - it was probably the first camping trip she had ever been on. Possibly the last one she ever went on too. Though she looks pretty happy in this photo, I think, in her heart, Mum was a city girl.

On the trip she went fishing, shooting and cooked over an open fire - all things her children never saw her do as our mother.

And look at those sunglasses!

#FearlessFemales - Day 30 - Words of Wisdom

March 30 — Did you receive any advice or words of wisdom from your mother or another female ancestor?

Mum had lots of wise words about self-worth, valuing your contribution, standing up for your rights and also protecting others, but today I'd thought I'd share some of the more creative things she used to say......

I think this saying was supposed to be designed to teach her children the difference between time and length, but I only recently understood it.

We'd ask: "How long 'til dinner?"

Her response: "How long's a piece of string?"

This one was about manners

We'd say: "I want.......:

Her response: "I want never gets, please may I have"

So then we'd say: "Please may I have....."

Her response: "No!"

Then there were the funny things:

"You know what he thought he did? He thought he wet his pants and when he looked, he hadn't"

- I never understood that one

"You can go swimming, but if you come home drowned, I'll kill you"

And the one I never heard any other family anywhere say:

"You know what happens when you hit your mother? Your hand waggles above your grave when you die!"

We loved that one the best - my sister has passed it on to her sons and my cousin to her daughter (who may well have passed it on to her son by now too)

#FearlessFemales - Day 29 - create a trading card for a female ancestor

March 29 — Create a free Fold3 Memorial Page or a Genealogy Trading Card at Big Huge Labs for a female ancestor. Some of you may have created your own card back in September 2009 following Sheri Fenley’s post over at The Educated Genealogist. This time, the card is for your female ancestor. Tell us about who you've selected and why and then post a link to what you've created.

As this month's posts have had Mum as their focus, it is fairly obvious who I am putting on my trading card. Here is the trading card on the Big Huge Labs website:

#FearlessFemales - Day 28 - Best Friends

March 28 — Do you remember your mother’s best friend? Your grandmother’s? How and where did they meet? How long were they friends? What activities did they share?

Not knowing my grandmothers, I don't know who their friends were, but I do have some pictures of my grandmothers out with friends at various celebrations:

Annie

Annie

Maureen

Maureen

My mother, had a number of best friends across the years:

Valda T, Kath Whittaker, Theresa O'Donnell, Phil O, May M, June C, Margaret T

- most of these women we grew up calling "Aunty" and  to this day we still talk to our Aunty May and Aunty Marg on a regular basis. Aunty May just sent me down a USB cassette converter so I can transfer Mum's family history cassette recordings to my computer

Valda was Mum's best friend when she first came out of the Army. She introduced Mum to the Rowe Street Musicals

Kath was Mum's best friend when she lived in Kiama - where my sister and I were born. She was my sister's Godmother (for her 1st christening, the one the priest forgot to record). - Edited.... It wasn't Kath who was my sister's Godmother, her husband Noel stood in place of Mum's brother as Godfather - and he baked Kathleen's christening cake.

Theresa the best friend in Maroubra - where my brother was born. I remember she took my sister and I out for lunch for my 9th birthday to Cahill's car themed restaurant (which my favourite place to eat out - though we did it rarely) to help Mum while Mum was busily packing for the big family move to Mt. Druitt.

Phil, May, June and Margaret all became Mum's friends in Mt. Druitt.

Phil lived around the corner - she and Mum met through "us kids" - when we arrived in our new house in Mt. Druitt we started exploring and meeting neighbourhood kids. We took stories home of the family who had 9 CHILDREN!!! Obviously something we had never heard of before. I think Mum met Phil when she had to walk around to her house to collect us after we'd played there one afternoon and forgot to go home for dinner.

May and her family moved in to their house across the road from ours just a few weeks after we moved in. Mum and May spent a lot of time with each other, having cups of tea or coffee, our families shared meals and special family events. Mum was devastated when May and her husband moved to Queensland in the 1990s

Margaret was a friend of May's and joined into Mum's circle of best friends after a few meetings at May's place. Aunty Marg still lives "up the mountains" where my sister and I (my sister more regularly) visit her.

I'm not sure if Mum knew June from church - as they both went to the same Catholic church, but June's eldest daughter and I started at the same high school and became friends. June was the friend who started Mum's diary keeping habit

The "Mt. Druitt Aunties" are all still alive as is Valda, so I can't share too much here. But there are wonderful memories with all the Aunties.

Mum made sure we understood the difference between honorary aunties and real aunties - to us it didn't make a difference, but Mum had some vivid memories of being left out of things when she was growing up because she wasn't a "real" niece of someone she loved and called Aunty. She didn't want us to feel the hurt she had if these Aunties had an event and only "family" was invited. I don't think there were too many things we were excluded from, but it certainly did happen from time to time - mostly because of limits to the number of people who could be catered for than because we weren't family.

#FearlessFemales - Day 27 - Immigration Stories

March 27 — Do you know the immigration story of one or more female ancestors? Do you have any passenger lists, passports, or other documentation? Interesting family stories?

Mum came out from England to Australia on the Oronsay - and there is a passenger list record that confirms that she did:

Source FindmyPast.co.uk

But there is a mystery that I never heard any stories about - A few weeks earlier she is listed on the passenger list, though crossed off, of the ship Majola also bound for Australia. I don't know whether something went wrong getting her fare in time (she'd asked one of her Uncles already in Australia to pay for her to come out) - but I wonder how her life would have changed if she'd arrived that 3 weeks earlier?

Source FindmyPast.co.uk

There is another Fabulous Female who took the journey into the unknown as an 18 year old travelling from Scotland to Australia. She came out to live with a brother who had left home, married and had children before she was even 10 years old.

That Fabulous Female is my aunt Jane Martin (know to family in Australia as Janet) - youngest sister of my father John Martin

Born in Glasgow in 1938, Janet was only 7 when my father married for the first time and 10 when her nephews (and my 1/2 brothers) John and Andrew were born. 

Dad worked "on the ships" and had been in Australia for 4 years on the fateful day when her mother, my grandmother Annie, told her to pack her bags as she was going to Australia to live with her brother.

How scary it would have been! She had to travel from Glasgow to Southampton to board the ship - which would have been a huge thing for someone who'd never really been outside of Glasgow before - then get on a ship that would take over a month to get her to her destination; the other side of the world away from everything she knew.

Departure record - Source FindmyPast.co.uk

Arrival Record - Source NSW State Records Authority

But there is still more to this story....

Aunty Janet may not have received the greeting she was expecting from my Dad on her arrival - because it wasn't Janet Dad thought was coming but rather his brother Eddie.

Here's the story as I remember it being told - my cousins may have different recollections:

Once Dad had settled in Australia he sent money back to his mother, Annie, in Scotland and asked her to send Eddie out to him. He thought Eddie, being 19 would be able to "make a go of it" in Australia. Annie, however, thought it would be better for her if Eddie stayed in Glasgow as he had was working and was giving her most of his income as "board". Janet, who was likely earning much less, sadly wasn't as "valuable" (in a financial sense) so Annie used the money Dad had sent over for passage to send Janet to Australia - but didn't tell Dad this was what she had done. She just told Dad the name of the ship and the date of arrival and left the rest to fate.

Sadly Eddie died in 1960 in Glasgow in a dreadful attack by local "thugs".

Janet went on to a long and well-lived life here in Australia - though of course it wasn't always an easy life. She married my mother's brother Andy just over a year after arriving. By the time she passed away in 2010 she had 5 living children, 4 grandchildren and a great grandson.

#FearlessFemales - Day 26 - Schooling

March 26 — What education did your mother receive? Your grandmothers? Great-grandmothers? Note any advanced degrees or special achievements.

My Fearless Females ancestors, as with most of their era, didn't have many years of school. Most of them would have finished school by age 14 if not earlier. It is only in recent years that females in my family have completed high school with some even going on to higher education.

But there is one Fearless Female in my family, who probably didn't have much more education than other females in my family, ended up as her area's "school mistress".

Today I'd like to introduce you to Jane Corney my great-great-great-great-grandmother.

Jane was born about 1795 in Sussex England. 

According to FamilySearch.org, she married Charles Farley on Aug 2, 1819. For the era they were both quite old to be getting married - Jane was about 24 and Charles 28. The International Genealogical Index suggests they had 11 children. Their youngest child, Jack, was born in 1838 when Jane was about 43. (Jack was my g-g-g-grandfather)

We meet some of the family in the 1841 census in East Preston Sussex: Charles and Jane and 5 of their children. Charles is a farmer and at this stage, Jane is not listed with an occupation:

Source FindmyPast.co.uk

Sadly Charles died in 1844. Jane, left with a young family to bring up, would have had to find a source of income and it is in the 1851 census we find her on the East Preston census listed as a School Mistress

Source FindmyPast.co.uk

According to the website sussexhistory.com Jane started working at the school around 1849:

No assistant is noted in the accounts until 1849 when Mrs Farley was evidently engaged, and she retired in January 1860. Jane Farley was the widow of Charles, who had farmed the manor house lands until his decease in 1844 at only 53 years of age. His wife was left with five children at Wisteria Cottage (Farley's Cottage), and as a lady below gentry class she was no doubt eminently qualified to assist at the school. By 1860 she was 64 and her children all grown, at which time she left the village for Shoreham where she died in 1874, being brought back to Preston for burial.

Note - the location where Jane went when she retired in the story above doesn't seem to be accurate, but it is very close:

I think Jane "retired" from teaching at the school due to the fact that her son William, who married Sophia West in 1855, lost his wife in 1860 and had no-one to assist him raise his son William who was only about 2 when his mother died (William and Sophia had already lost their eldest child, Mary Ann in 1857). Jane is found with son and grandson living at Stoatsnest Station, Coulsdon, Surrey where William worked as a Railway Labourer.

Source FindmyPast.co.uk

Jane did eventually "retire" to Shoreham - and we find her there in the 1871 census: 

Source FindmyPast.co.uk

Jane passed away in February 1874.

#FearlessFemales - Day 25 - Soft touch or Disciplinarian?

March 25 — Tell how a female ancestor interacted with her children. Was she loving or supportive? A disciplinarian? A bit of both?

From previous posts this month, you would have a fairly good idea about who my mother was.

She was loving, encouraging and supportive


BUT




Mum was loving, encouraging and supportive but she also had a fierce temper - "insubordination", too many fights with a sibling or lying were things that could set her that temper off, but she usually brought "us kids" back into line with a growl or a raised voice.

Remember that I grew up in the 60s and 70s, smacking a child was the usual disciplinary method in that era.

I don't actually remember ever being smacked, so I'm sure that it was the exception rather than the rule, at least in our house.

However, I was the "well behaved eldest child", so I can't speak for my sister or brother on this, they were always naughtier than I was.

End of the story? Love, encouragement and support are the most powerful memories of my mother, so I think despite her sometime fierce exterior she was a bit of a soft touch.

#FearlessFemales - Day 24 - Shared Traits

March 24 — Do you share any physical resemblance or personality trait with one of your female ancestors? Who? What is it?

I think there comes a time in most women's lives when they acknowledge the day that they turn into their mother.

I made this cross-stitch when my day came.

Not a lot more I can say than that.

#FearlessFemales - Day 23 - Create a Timeline

March 23 — Create a timeline for a female ancestor using your favorite software program or an online timeline generator such as OurTimelines.Post an image of it or link to it.

I created this timeline in the MyHeritage Family Tree Builder programme and exported it in RTF. I then edited it and saved it in  Word and then resaved it as a PDF. I then copied images from the PDF which I stitched together in Paint and saved as a jpg image for uploading in this blog.

Phew - a lot of steps, but I'm happy with the outcome:

Of course if all I wanted was a PDF, I can save in that format straight from the MyHeritage programme, but because I wanted to edit the information, the RTF version was the first step.

But let's marry this time line to what was happening in the world via www.ourtimelines.com and you'll see what amazing times Mum lived in:

Reign of King George V (Windsor) from before birth until age 1

Great Depression from before birth until age 4

Franklin D Roosevelt president of US from before birth until age 10

Dustbowl at age 0

Abyssinian war from age 0 to 1

Spanish Civil War at age 1

Helicopter at age 1

Reign of King George VI (Windsor) from age 1 to 17

Reign of King Edward VIII (Windsor) at age 1

Chinese-Japanese war (3) from age 2 to 10

Nylon (by DuPont) at age 2

Germany annexes Austria at age 3

World War II from age 4 to 10

Digital Computer at age 4

Aircraft Jet Engine invented (by Ohain) at age 4

Color Television at age 5

1st black general in US army at age 5

Manhattan Project from age 6 to 10

Nuclear Reactor at age 7

Magnetic Recording Tape at age 7

Hypertext at age 10

United Nations formed at age 10

US drops the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at age 10

Harry S Truman president of US from age 10 to 17

The Bikini at age 11

The Cold War from age 11 to 54

Transistor at age 12

India and Pakistan emerge from ex-British India at age 12

UN partitions Palestine to Jewish and Arab sections at age 12

33 1/3 rpm musical recordings at age 13

NATO formed at age 13

Israel inaugurated as state at age 13

Arabs attack Israel on the day it is inaugurated at age 13

Apartheid policy in South Africa at age 14

Soviets detonate first nuclear bomb at age 14

45 rpm musical recordings at age 14

McCarthyism from age 15 to 19

Korean War from age 15 to 18

World pop. est. at 2.4 billion at age 15

Bunche 1st black to win Nobel Peace Prize at age 15

Electricity from Atomic Power at age 16

1st Thermonuclear Device Detonated at age 17

Reign of Queen Elizabeth II (Windsor) from age 17 until after timeline

Dwight D Eisenhower president of US from age 18 to 25

Racial segregation in schools ruled unconstitutional at age 19

Introduction of Salk Polio Vaccine at age 20

Warsaw pact formed at age 20

Invention of Velcro at age 20

Fiber Optics (by Kapany) at age 20

Ocean liner Andrea Doria collides with the Stockholm, sinks at age 21

Sputnik Launched - 1st (artificial) satellite at age 22

Stereo LP recordings come into usage at age 23

FM Stereo Broadcasts at age 23

Integrated Circuit at age 23

US space agency (NASA) established at age 23

1st nuclear powered merchant vessel, Savannah at age 24

Alaska enters the union - 49th at age 24

Hawaii enters the union - 50th at age 24

1st weather satellite (Tiros I) at age 25

Laser at age 25

World subsurface circumnavigation by US sub Triton at age 25

Pantyhose at age 25

1st US manned spaceflight - Alan Shephard at age 26

First human in space - Yuri Gagarin at age 26

John F Kennedy president of US from age 26 to 28

7th Cholera pandemic from age 26 to 35

Vatican II from age 27 to 30

Cuban missile crisis at age 27

Compact Cassette Recordings at age 28

Pres. Kennedy Assassinated at age 28

1st artificial heart at age 28

Lyndon B Johnson president of US from age 28 to 33

Vietnam War from age 29 to 40

US civil rights bill at age 29

Blacks riot in Watts neighborhood, Los Angeles at age 30

1st spacewalks (US, USSR) at age 30

1st soft landings on moon (US, USSR) at age 31

8-track tape players at age 31

Nigerian civil war from age 32 to 35

Six day war: Israel-Arabs at age 32

Physicist John Wheeler coins the term Black Hole at age 32

Marshall 1st black supreme court justice at age 32

1st human heart transplant at age 32

Martin Luther King assassinated at age 33

Robert Kennedy assassinated at age 33

Moon Landing - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin at age 34

Richard M. Nixon president of US from age 34 to 39

Woodstock Music Festival at age 34

Microprocessor at age 35

Nat. Guard murders 4 students at Kent State at age 35

Pakistani civil war at age 36

Intel ships 1st uProcessor: the 4004 at age 36

The Internet at age 38

October war (Israel-Arabic nations) at age 38

Pres. Nixon resigns in disgrace at age 39

Gerald Ford president of US from age 39 to 41

Ebola virus appears - 90 percent lethal at age 40

Byte Magazine, issue #1 - September at age 40

The 1st home computer: The Altair 8800a at age 40

American Bicentennial at age 41

Whites accept principle of black majority rule in S. Africa at age 41

VHS Video Recordings at age 41

Television begins satellite delivery at age 41

James Earl Carter Jr president of US from age 42 to 45

Neutron bomb at age 42

Jonestown religious group mass suicide - 913 people die at age 43

1st test-tube baby at age 43

Laserdisc video recordings at age 43

Three Mile Island nuclear event at age 44

Margaret Thatcher 1st Woman Prime Minister in UK at age 44

Mount St. Helens Erupts at age 45

1st space shuttle flight - Columbia at age 46

1st female supreme court justice at age 46

Ronald Reagan president of US from age 46 to 53

IBM PC ships at age 46

1st genetically engineered product - insulin at age 47

Compact Disks at age 48

Bluford 1st black in space at age 48

Pioneer 10 leaves the solar system at age 48

Apple Macintosh Ships at age 49

HIV determined to be cause of AIDs at age 49

Amiga Computer Ships at age 50

Halley's Comet at age 51

Mir space station deployed at age 51

Shuttle Challenger explodes at age 51

Chernobyl power plant melts down at age 51

2000th satellite launched: USSR's Cosmos at age 52

Turin shroud precisely carbon dated to 1330 AD - shroud is a hoax at age 53

Pons and Fleischmann claim cold fusion at age 54

Breakup of the Soviet Union at age 54

George Bush president of US from age 54 to 57

Powell is 1st black chairmain joint US chiefs of staff at age 54

Fall of Berlin Wall at age 54

US Invades Panama, topples Noriega at age 54

World Wide Web at age 55

Hubble space telescope deployed at age 55

Iraq attacks Kuwait, US Attacks Iraq at age 56

8th Cholera pandemic from age 56 until after timeline

Blacks riot in South Central neighborhood, Los Angeles at age 57

Muslim terrorists bomb World Trade Center at age 58

Catholic Church apologizes for its treatment of Galileo in the 1600's at age 58

William Clinton president of US from age 58 until after timeline

South Africa moves to 1 person, 1 vote system at age 59

American Terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City at age 60

DVD video recordings at age 61