Tracing Henrietta Leroux

(aka Tennant, Forester, Bock, O’Neill)

It has been just wonderful to hear from other Leroux family descendants who have made contact with me through this small blog.

Those of you following Henrietta Leroux’s story may be interested in an article published recently in Ancestor:

Nicholas G., Henrietta, licensee of The Park Hotel, Ancestor Vol 35 Issue 6 June 2021 pp 9 – 11.

This article covers a troubled time in Henrietta Leroux’s life. In 1889, following the death of her father in law, Alfred Bock, she is given the licence to The Park Hotel in Alfredton. Sadly, in her subsequent marriage to Felix O’Neill, Henrietta becomes the victim of violence.

The article is one in a series of articles on female hotel licensees. See Vol 35 Issue 5 2021 for other articles in the series. Ancestor is available online to members of the
Genealogical Society of Victoria, in hard copy at the State Library of Victoria and through subscribing libraries.

Source: Mount Alexander Mail, 25 June 1984 p 2.
Accessed through TROVE https://trove.nla.gov.au/

Congratulations to the Genealogical Society of Victoria’s Ancestry team for winning the 2021 Nick Van Hall Award for the best family history journal in Australia and New Zealand, Category B (over 500 members), for their quarterly journal Ancestor.

A Small Suburban Shop: 1950s & 1960s

Norma Smith in The Park Drapery, 12 Ian Street, Noble Park, Vic.
Image owned by G. Nicholas

There are a lot of little things, bits and pieces, in the photo of the Drapery Shop. Before I look closely at the round rolls of ribbon, the triangles of press studs, the dressmaker patterns and more I look at the woman in the photograph. The woman is my mother and I estimate the 1950s, a time before my memories of the Draper’s shop. My search for memories in the photograph is successful as I look for similarities and differences to the shop I knew in the 1960s.

The horseshoe hanging on the shelf catches is first to catch my eye. My mother used to make horseshoes. She would cut a shape in cardboard and sew white satin ribbon onto the shape, frilling the edge beautifully. She would attach lace and orange blossom or other ornaments and sell the horseshoes in the shop. Sometime after the photograph was taken the back section of the shop was curtained off. My mother would sit behind the curtain, watching for customers to come in, and use her Necchi sewing machine to make the horseshoes. I often wonder if one of her horseshoes is still tucked away in someone’s wedding memory drawer.

Norma’s much loved Necchi sewing machine
Photograph by G. Nicholas 2019

My mother also knitted baby booties and possibly other baby garments to sell in the shop. I remember the bags of Paton’s knitting wool on lay-by. Sometimes, when a customer, who was well know to my mother, came into the shop, I was allowed to find the layby wool: ” four balls of blue Patonyle for Mrs ……”. The cellophane bag would crinkle as the balls were selected for the customer.

My eyes drift back to the photograph and are drawn to the rolls of ribbon. My trademark through childhood was the ribbon my mother tied in my hair. My mother sometimes used ribbon in dressmaking. One story I heard, only a few years ago, was some of the girls’ Mums copying ties my mother put on a dress for me. I hadn’t been aware her dressmaking was locally famous!

My attention drifts from the photograph and I think of the chair my mother used to sit on: pink vinyl with black polka dots! There was the bell that sat on the counter for customers to ring if the shop wasn’t attended, the Christmas tree my mother would decorate for the shop window, my father working in the street with other store holders to put coloured lights up for Christmas, my mother sweeping the footpath outside the shop each morning, and my father with his sleeves rolled up to do the stock take when the shop was closed.

Photographs are a delightful way to bring memories back to enjoy today. A picture can draw back many things including the sounds, smells and feelings that belong to a time past.

The Park Drapery stood between the Milk Bar and Hair Dresser in Ian Street, Noble Park. In 2019 the old signs for the neighbouring shops were still hanging. The blue tiles that used to be the front of the pristinely kept Drapery disappeared a long time ago.
Photograph by G. Nicholas 2015

Remembrance: Pieces of yesterday

Tucked safely in the bottom of drawers, or at the back of cupboards, little treasures, pieces of the family’s past, often wait to be brought out when our heart leads us to remembrance. Uncovering the items our touch and smell take us back to the people we knew, or whom we have been told stories about. We know someone, connected to us, had once held the item and found it dear enough to keep. Remembrance Day is a poignant time to resurface the family ephemera and evoke memories of our soldiers and those who supported our soldiers from the home front.

Over the years I have kept items from the First World War (WWI) and Second World War (WWII) that were once the possessions of my grandparents and parents. The items bring a sense of connection to my loved ones more tactile than perusing  photographs.

My mother, Norma Price, enlisted in the Australian Womens Army Service (AWAS) in 1942. I have worn both my parents’ medals on the right side of my chest at an Anzac service.  Only the soldier who was awarded the medals wears the medals over his or her heart i.e., on the left. Sadly, there are many reports of stolen or lost medals, or the medals have been passed down through a different branch of the family.

 

*  Take photos of the medals you have in your possession and send them to others in the family e.g., other grandchildren of the soldier.

 

Fossicking through old family files brought forth some unexpected discoveries. An example is this leaflet from the HMAT Ballarat in WWI. The leaflet lists a program of events for 24 February 1917. It is one of several leaflets demonstrating my grandfather, Corporal Hal Smith, had been involved in organising concerts and sports events for soldiers on board the ship. His sense of fun shows through.
On 25 April 1917 the Ballarat was torpedoed and sank in the English Channel, see: Barrier Miner 29 April 1917 p1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/45413897 No lives were lost.

*  An original document such as this should be well looked after: it may be the only copy. Making a digital copy is a good idea.

 

Some items, such as this pin, require more research. Wikipaedia says ‘Ubique’, latin for ‘everywhere’, was granted to the Royal Regiment of Artillery as a battle honour, see Wikipaedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubique_(poem).  The artwork on this pin is similar to artwork for the British Royal Regiment, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Artillery. Both badges have the crown at the top, the word ‘Ubique’ and the picture of the canon. The Australian pin carries the words, ‘Consensus stabiles’ meaning ‘strong in agreement’. As my father fought in the Australian artillery in WWII my research question is whether this pin is his badge of honour.

* Keep detailed notes of research questions as they arise so you can refer back to or modify them as your research progresses.

 

A plane was brought down in New Guinea, near where my father was stationed in WWII. A member of the artillery began to make items out of the metal from the plane or shells. My father had a bracelet made for my mother.

 

* Details of stories get lost over time. Try to record details as soon as you hear a story and try and get a repeat telling if you can.

 

The question arises as to what happens to your much loved as the years pass by. Is there a family member eagerly waiting to take on the collection? If so, what do you need to do to ensure your collection is passed on? If there is no-one to take over your collection consider approaching museums, libraries, RSLs and historical societies to see if they are interested in your items. Remember archives usually want a story to accompany the item.  You will need to do your research before making a request. Start planning early so your treasures remain for the benefit of future generations.

* A few links to help you start planning:

Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/donations

State Library of Victoria https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/help/donating-items-collection

Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne https://www.shrine.org.au/Exhibitions/Donate-Your-Item

 

Featured Image:

New Testament given to Alfred Ernest Price by St Saviours, Church of England, Collingwood, on the eve of his embarkation to Western Europe.

LINKS

Discovering Anzacs: Alfred Ernest Price
https://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/browse/person/281613

Armistice Day postcards from Belgium

100 years after the Armistice: finding forgotten Diggers

100 years after the Armistice: finding forgotten Diggers

Today, the 11 November, 1918, it seemed appropriate to find the grave of a man, a World War I soldier, I have been researching. My Great Uncle Rolly, Roland Henry Forester, was under age when he signed up for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) so his parents gave their permission for him to join the AIF. His army record records he was  5’2″ tall; a short man. In France he was wounded in July 1916 and took ill several times after this.

He returned to Australia on 18 January 1919.  He was an ill man and his condition worsened over the years. He died at 39 years of age, of illness attributed to his war service on 28 October 1936.

We found his grave in the picturesque Bunyip Cemetery in Gippsland, Victoria.

The Grave of Pte Roland Henry Forester at the Bunyip Cemetery, Victoria, Australia. (Photo MPN 11 November 2018.)

Many diggers, like Roland Henry Forester, did not have children and grandchildren so there is a risk they will fade out of family history and stories.

Recently, as I pursued my studies for the SAG Diploma of Family Historical Studies, I came across another distant relative, a digger who had lost his life at Gallipoli, whose stories had faded from family recall. He was my First Cousin twice removed and, prior to my studies, I had no knowledge of his family, much less his war history.

Quarter Master Sergeant Charles William Hector (Chick) Needham embarked from Melbourne on the HMAT Hororata on 19 October 1914. He had enlisted within two weeks of Great Britain, and Australia, declaring war on Germany. He was killed on 7 October 1915 and his body was never found.  Not only did he not have children but his two sisters were spinsters. Who was going to remember such a digger generations later? Family history studies have re-kindled the memory of a family member, who lost his life for his country. His story is once more part of the family tales.

Plaque remembering Charles William Hector Needham at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. (Photo GVN 5 November 2018.)

 

Both the Diggers featuring in this post are descendants of Henrietta Dalton Leroux.

 

 

 

Armistice Day postcards from Belgium

On 11 November 1918, Australian soldier, Alfred Ernest Price wrote from Belgium
to his wife in Melbourne:

The old saying  ____
“Finie Le Guerre”
has been realized
Fondest Love
Alf

World War I had ended. The Armistice had been signed.

Alf trained as a Medic with the Third Australian Clearing Centre (3ACCS) and embarked from Melbourne on the A7 HMAT Medic on 20 May 1916.  Two weeks later his first child was born in Melbourne.

In France and Belgium he worked in Casualty and Operating Theatres. Throughout the war he sent postcards, letters and gifts to his wife, Ethel, in Melbourne. Many of the postcards have survived are now in possession of his grandchildren.

In a second postcard, Alf wrote on Armistice Day, there is a sense of joy and incredulity:

The “Great Finish” has come at last _ ‘Try & Think’ fighting has finished.  Guns are no longer roaring, the sky is not lit up with Vercys, SOS or searchlights …
Over here we are trying to realize we have seen it out.

 

Alf’s postcards contain details of the 3ACCS moving on after Armistice Day.  Late November he was part of an advance party to choose a new camp site. In December the unit moved to Euskirchen in Germany and spent Christmas there.  Alf wanted to go home to his wife and child, but his request was not accepted and he continued to work with the 3ACCS. He arrived home on 2 July 1919 and saw his three year old daughter for the first time.

On Remembrance Day Alfred Ernest Price will be in the thoughts of his descendants, and thoughts will also go the many soldiers he worked hard to save and, to those who never had the chance to be saved.

Lest We Forget.

Featured Image
Poppies of Remembrance at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia.
Photo: GVN, 5 November 2018.

Links

Discovering Anzacs: Alfred Ernest Price
https://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/browse/person/281613

Touched as a book passes by …

A little piece of someone’s history is touching me.  Years ago my brother picked up a book at the local Op Shop.  It’s a book of fairy tales first published by George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. in 1933 in London. Those of us brought up in Anglo society a few decades back know these stories: Puss In Boots, The Ugly Duckling, The Gingerbread Man and so on. Some pages are coming loose and  a stale smell arises as you turn the browning pages. The introduction places the book in a time past stating, ‘You can imagine the small boys of long, long ago listening to [the stories] over and over again, and always ready to listen once more.’

Most intriguing of all is the bookplate in the front of the book.  The Presbyterian Church of Victoria and Tasmania awarded this book as a prize to a primary school aged girl.  There is no date or location, just the name; Jean McCallum. All these clues for further research are, hmm, tempting.  However essential to successful research is sticking to your project plan and that I must do.

So, it’s off to the next Op Shop for The Book of Fairy Stories and onto more research on the Foresters, Lerouxs and Wards for me! I am excited too as my book order for Duyker, E. A Woman on the Goldfields: Recollections of Emily Skinner 1854-1878 has arrived in the mail! I hope to glean insights into the life of Henrietta Leroux/Tennant/Forester through the experiences of Emily Skinner.

Ballarat: a city of gold

The first golden trees of autumn welcomed us as we drove into Bacchus Marsh. We always say a break begins at the first stop out of the city limit and this historic apple growing town was a lovely place to shred the stress of the city. We chose a cafe with historic artifacts displayed throughout and ordered coffee and scones. Our destination was Ballarat and our goal was not only to enjoy the autumn beauty of regional Victoria but to continue Hunting Henrietta and her gold mining husband John Ward Forester.

The Ballarat Archives hold precious booty. I had arranged a meeting with Jenny, the Research Officer from the Ballarat Genealogical Society Inc. Jenny is very skilled and had managed to dig out materials on the Foresters and on Henrietta’s life after John’s death in 1879. Jenny talked about life in Alfredton and I came away with more colour in my vision of my great, great grandparents’ lives in the 1870s to 1890s. Jenny had even uncovered Henrietta’s death date: I had yet another name ‘Netta’ to add to already long list!

8 April 2018 Ballarat New Cemetery

The Ballarat New Cemetery shone with the autumn colour in the sunshine. We had four graves to locate: three for my research and one for a friend. We looked for the grave of Alfred Bock (1), a former publican at The Park Hotel in Sturt Street, Alfredton. There was evidence of a gravestone in days past. We had to imagine the names of Alfred and his wife, Sarah in stone letters.

 

19 May 1873 The Ballarat Star p 2 John Ward Forester and Alfred Bock work together on a charity committee meeting at The Park Hotel

 

The Bocks are not related but they appear to have had a close association with the Foresters who either lived at or next to The Park Hotel from around 1872. Henrietta married Alfred’s son, Charles Bock, in 1880, the year after John’s death. We found Charles’ grave (2) and wondered whether the space at the bottom of the plaque had been intended for Henrietta.

 

The search for John Ward Forester’s grave (3) was easier as we had received a list of names on surrounding graves from the cemetery in a reply to an email query. In 1879 a funeral procession organised by the The Ballarat Licensed Victuallers Association travelled from the Ballarat and District Hospital to the cemetery (4). I expect Arthur Bock played a major role in the organisation of John’s funeral.

8 April 2018 Ballarat New Cemetery Gum leaves mark the approximate location of John Ward Forester’s grave.

There was nothing to mark the grave so I collected some gum leaves to mark the area and left John to rest peacefully miles from other family members. Two of his children who died as infants rest in cemeteries near the goldfields John mined: Eugene died at Mosquito Flat and Eugenia at Majorca.

We sought Craig’s Royal Hotel to seek out a more recent location in our family history. My father had stayed there on business trips for D & W Murray Ltd. After WW2 his previous employer welcomed his return. One of his runs was driving to Ballarat and visit the company’s clients.

8 April 2018 Craig’s Royal Hotel, Ballarat

On our first evening in Ballarat we sat around the BBQ chatting with travellers from Queensland. We talked about how different this mild weather was from previous visits to Ballarat when the weather had been cold and icy.

The Park 2018. The first Park Hotel was a timber building.

On our second and last evening we had a special destination for dinner: The Park (Hotel). The hotel has had several renovations and there is now no hint of the wooden building that stood on the site in the Forester and Bock’s time. The side view reveals an older brick building behind the current facade. It was great to speak briefly with the current owner, Jason, and to hear he was interested in the history of the hotel.

Ballarat Gardens

On our last morning we walked from Alfredton to the Botanic gardens. This was perhaps the walk John & Henrietta’s eldest child, John Ward Midford Forester, took to work. The family stories tell of his job in the gardens. Jenny pointed out the addresses of people associated with the gardens in the Alfredton area. Perhaps they drank at the hotel and Alfred Bock asked if they could give the young man a job. I looked at the big trees and wondered if my great grandfather saw these trees in his time.

We set off for home with a greater sense of the Forester family’s time in Ballarat. My gold was more data and more references to pursue. We had enjoyed this beautiful regional centre as it is today as well as exploring it’s past. There was one more current day task to take care of before returning to Melbourne: find out if the French Bakery in Creswick was open!

(1) CoE B, section 08, Grave 48, Ballarat New Cemetery, Victoria, Australia
(2) CoE C, section 01, Grave 23, Ballarat New Cemetery, Victoria, Australia
(3) CoE A, section 06, Grave 32, Ballarat New Cemetery, Victoria, Australia
(4) Funeral Notices The Ballarat Courier 24 July 1879 p3

Reflections on #Congress2018

#Congress2018

I have just returned from Sydney where hard work by the Society for Australian Genealogists (SAG) and 600 participants contributed to making Bridging the Past & Future a congress to remember. As a new participant I was soon under Jill Ball‘s wing along with 300 other ‘first timers’. Bloggers couldn’t hide in the corner as Jill’s ‘blogging beads’ were a beacon to bloggers seeking a conversation. There was lots of chatting and new friendships as people mixed and mingled with ease.

There were many high quality presentations with Judy G. Russell‘s Plenary Session Just Three Generations standing out as one of the very best for me. If ever a genealogist needed justification for their work this presentation provided it! Judy stated the need to deliberately and accurately pass down our family stories.  She urged participants to look for the truth in family stories, to verify them and pass them on.  I have memories of my grandfather telling stories to a lounge room full of people in Brunswick East.  I now have the Amiens Cathedral made of cards that hung above the fireplace and I can remember Grandad standing there.  I can remember the laughter but I do not remember the stories. I was so very young. No-one has been able to answer my question, ‘What were Grandad’s stories?’  All I know is they were about what the soldiers got up to in France when they were not at the front or about his time as a Scout Master.  Three generations and the stories are lost.

Angela Phippen’s Oops – I wish I’d checked the original! brought home loud and clear the importance of checking references thoroughly.  Using The Letters of Rachel Henning Angela demonstrated the difference that can occur through a published work and an original work.   The results were stunning and we will all be seeking original copies of documents from now on!

Jan Worthington told us to avoid the ‘black holes’ in her Your Story session. I was thinking, “How does she know I am obsessed with ‘just one more bit of research’ i.e. in a black hole?”  The key is to start writing. It’s time to stop Hunting Henrietta; it is time to ‘walk in her footsteps’ and write her story!

‘Old’ friends from Melbourne – thank you for being at #Congress2018!

Our heads spun as we soaked up research know how and How-to tips, trying hard not to miss even a little piece of wisdom.  English and Irish research sessions were popular and, while people seemed to shake their heads at the complexity of DNA research, you could see no-one was going to give up. We travelled from seventeenth century to the modern day and still had the enthusiasm to learn new techniques and take on new ideas.

 

New friends from Sydney and Melbourne – do you know why we are all wearing beads? (answer in paragraph 1)

The Cockle Bay room was almost full for the last session Create a free Google Earth Map Collection for Your Genealogy Research with Lisa Louise Cooke. While many wondered where the time was coming from it was evident others were ready for this new mapping challenge. People dispersed quickly after the closing ceremony: some for a drink, many for a rest and others, like us, headed straight to the airport. Many times I heard the same farewell, ‘See you at the next Congress!

 

And yes, I did have a cousin at the conference!!!

Cousins! ‘Not too distant for me’

All these participants at #Congress2018 have blogs for you to read! Can you identify the GSV members in this photograph? There are at least five. Photograph by Murray Nicholas.

 

She wanted her story told: Searching for Lt Nell Gould

I undertook a labour of love in 2017. I wrote a piece telling the stories my mother, Norma Price, told me about her life in the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) during World War II. Enlisting in 1942, a time when Melbourne was preparing for possible invasion, Norma worked at Royal Park.  She was transferred to Sydney to work at the showgrounds and then to Cowra Military Training Camp in rural New South Wales.

As I researched the AWAS at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra I came across an article by Norma’s commanding officer at Cowra, Lt Nell Gould:

Gould N (1984) Personal Reminiscence of Lt Nell Gould CO 42 AWAS Barracks, Cowra Australian War Memorial unpublished accessed March 2015

The article tells Lt Gould’s story of 100 AWAS stationed at Cowra at the time of the only armed face to face combat against an enemy on Australian soil. Reading the article convinces me Lt Gould wanted her story told.  I believe she wanted Australia to know about the women who were not protected and who bravely carried on for their country.

The problem is the article is unpublished. 

Lt Gould never signed a copyright release.

‘The duration of copyright in published materials is generally 70 years from the death of the creator, or (for sound recordings and films) from the date of publication. For unpublished materials, such as the Library’s archival or manuscript collections, the duration may be even longer.’
Source: National Library of Australia website https://www.nla.gov.au/about-copyright

Norma Price at Cowra 1944

 

My choices are now to leave my piece in a folder gathering dust, modify the article leaving out Lt Nell Gould’s story or find the heir of Lt Nell Gould to request signing the copyright release or to give me written permission to publish.

To modify the article will cut out much of its heart.  There is no other source of this material.

In my view Lt Nell Gould’s reminiscences are a valuable contribution to the history of women during the war and the article’s publication would be a valuable addition to the literature on women in war time Australia.

Hal’s story grows

Once again my blog post lead to a generous response from a reader.  I was delighted to have copies of two articles from The Kooweerup Blackfish (Blackfish) arrive in my email. The May 2015 edition article A Short History of Local Picture Theatres was particularly informative. The interesting articles informed me Hal was the first lessee of the Wattle Theatre. This makes me think the photograph of my grandfather outside the theatre (see Imagining, touching, visiting your past) may have been a photograph to celebrate its opening.  Could the man with him be James Mortimer, the man who had the theatre built, or E. Whiteside, the builder?  Previously it has been suggested the man is the Mayor. A visit to the Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society is going on the ‘to do’ list.

Looking across Koo-wee-rup [i.e. Koo Wee Rup] swamp [picture] / J. H. H.
John Henry Harvey 1855-1938, photographer. Between 1900 & 1930  Source: State Library of Victoria

As I discussed this with my elderly father he shared another story from Koo Wee Rup.  His father had been involved in the cycling while there.  The shops would shut at midday on Saturday and the cyclists would line up across the road in the main street for a cross country race, probably across country like that in the picture by Harvey (above). The memory is now a little unclear but Hal may have been involved in managing the race and/or using the starting gun to send the cyclists on their way. Hopefully they all went to the Wattle Theatre on the Saturday evening! Knowing now to search Blackfish 😉 I found out Koo Wee Rup’s 1920s cycling heros included Tour de France competitor Percy Osborn. Sir Hubert Opperman visited the area several times to talk about cycling – perhaps the talks were in the Wattle Theatre!  See Blackfish Aug 2014 p24

It is wonderful how the knowledge of our family’s history grows.  I hadn’t thought of the blog writer as recipient but more as the giver or sharer.  I hope I can help others as I have been helped to build the story of my family.