During this quiet, socially isolated period in which I haven’t been visited, or visited others, for months at a time, I’ve been visiting and reuniting families virtually, ‘time travelling’. I’ve been photographing documents and photographs found in old albums, shoe boxes, old suitcases and drawers to add to the ‘gallery’ of a multitude of grand, great grand, and even some great, great grand ancestors on ancestry.com. In doing so, I’ve experienced the sense of ‘time travelling’ I’ve often felt when immersed in researching the life of a particular family member, a sense of almost being with them
Over the past few months I've been ‘time travelling’ with my sister, Janette. Janette, with a view to later downsizing, is collating records collected while researching our maternal grandmother's family history thirty years ago and records secreted away by our mother and grandmother in old suitcases and drawers. Large envelopes labelled for particular ‘great grand’ relatives have been brought into action. My grandmother’s siblings, Beatrice, Ada, Minnie, Edie, Alf, Charlie, Ruby, Violet and of course my grandmother Lily, each have an envelope.
With Janette’s new drive to bring order out of chaos, I've been visiting her farm at Molyullah ‘conference’ over photos of uncertain origin to firm up identities and meanings. We’ve been conferring over old scrapbooks and albums containing photographs, many of which I’ve not seen before. I’ve taken photographs of a multitude of photographs, documents such as my grandfather’s passport; ephemera such as a leather collar box containing my ballerina grandmother's grease paint to add to my family history collection.
Over the past few months I've been ‘time travelling’ with my sister, Janette. Janette, with a view to later downsizing, is collating records collected while researching our maternal grandmother's family history thirty years ago and records secreted away by our mother and grandmother in old suitcases and drawers. Large envelopes labelled for particular ‘great grand’ relatives have been brought into action. My grandmother’s siblings, Beatrice, Ada, Minnie, Edie, Alf, Charlie, Ruby, Violet and of course my grandmother Lily, each have an envelope.
With Janette’s new drive to bring order out of chaos, I've been visiting her farm at Molyullah ‘conference’ over photos of uncertain origin to firm up identities and meanings. We’ve been conferring over old scrapbooks and albums containing photographs, many of which I’ve not seen before. I’ve taken photographs of a multitude of photographs, documents such as my grandfather’s passport; ephemera such as a leather collar box containing my ballerina grandmother's grease paint to add to my family history collection.
At least 110 years old - my grandmother's grease paint (stored in a collar box)
There are so many photographs! Where to start? With a goal of adding at least one photo to ancestry.com a day I have found myself immersing myself in the lives of two great aunts, ‘Auntie Beat’ (b 1872) and ‘Auntie Min’ (b 1877).
‘Auntie Beat’, my eldest maternal great aunt, never married, looking after her parents until they died, then living with nieces and nephews’ families until she passed away. My only memory of Aunty Beat is peeping into a bungalow to see her while holidaying with an aunt who was caring for her not long before she died. Recent finds include a beautiful carte de visite taken when Beat was 11 to 13, in the mid 1880's, and a loose photo of Beat on the back of which is written ‘Beatrice Hooper – the eldest’. A dressmaker, Beat is wearing a dark trimmed check dress, standing in front of a rose bush. It was probably taken in the early 1900’s and now sits in her ancestry ‘gallery’ with other gems from her scrapbook which suggest that she may have travelled with a theatre company to New Zealand. While most of her younger sisters were dancers with J C Williamson’s, perhaps, being a dressmaker, she was in the wardrobe department? There is a wonderful photo of Beat playing cards with a group of friends, another in an outfit suggesting she may have been a suffragette!
I now feel quite ‘resolved’ about the representation of Auntie Beat’s page on ancestry which now includes photos across her life span, including some in which she appears to be enjoying time spent travelling with friends.
Do you have a person in public life in your family tree who other relatives all lay claim to? ‘Auntie Min’ is that person in our family. ‘Auntie Min’, my grandmother’s older sister Minnie Hooper, became quite famous as a choreographer and ballet mistress for JC Williamson and is remembered for having taught Robert Helpmann to dance. While I have many photos of Auntie Min, until my visit to the farm last weekend they were almost all quite theatrical, revealing little of her life.
I’d met Auntie Min when visiting Sydney as a child and remember her as a rather serious woman of considerable wealth who lived in a house looking over Sydney Harbour which had a path down to a private boat ramp. I remember her son, John Rose, as being quite eccentric. John was always described by my mother as a change of life baby, born when Auntie Min was 46 and after Min’s husband, Ernest Rose, had had a stroke.
Family research revealed that Min, who had married ‘Uncle Ern’ at 20, had a little boy who only lived for a few months during her twenties, followed by decades working in the theatre, before having John, at aged 46. John was born with a disability which affected his development. Min’s beloved husband died at 59 when John was 8 years old leaving Min to care for John. Janette’s envelope for Auntie Min contains portraits of Uncle Ern pasted on a textured card and a portrait of John in early adulthood.
I’d met Auntie Min when visiting Sydney as a child and remember her as a rather serious woman of considerable wealth who lived in a house looking over Sydney Harbour which had a path down to a private boat ramp. I remember her son, John Rose, as being quite eccentric. John was always described by my mother as a change of life baby, born when Auntie Min was 46 and after Min’s husband, Ernest Rose, had had a stroke.
Family research revealed that Min, who had married ‘Uncle Ern’ at 20, had a little boy who only lived for a few months during her twenties, followed by decades working in the theatre, before having John, at aged 46. John was born with a disability which affected his development. Min’s beloved husband died at 59 when John was 8 years old leaving Min to care for John. Janette’s envelope for Auntie Min contains portraits of Uncle Ern pasted on a textured card and a portrait of John in early adulthood.
The photo in the envelope which somehow provides a deeper glimpse into their lives is a photo of Min and Ern sitting together, reading material in their hands. Ern appears to be convalescing. It is an evocative photo in which Min looks less severe than I remember her in latter years.
Adding this photo, and the portraits of Ern and John, to their profiles on ancestry a day or two ago, somehow ‘rounded off’ my ‘time travels’ with Auntie Min’s family—at least for the moment.
With Covid moving from pandemic to endemic, I’m likely to continue to lead a quiet life. Underlying chronic illnesses have already impacted on my capacity to travel to places in which my ancestors lived to find out more, and now Covid! However, I can always resort to time travelling!
I’m enjoying my current bout of time travelling and have so many more photos to ‘ground’ my research. I sense that I’ll continue to enjoy ‘This ‘time travelling’ Life’, immersing myself in family photographs, documents and other ephemera, well into the future!
Beverley Lee
October 2021
I’m enjoying my current bout of time travelling and have so many more photos to ‘ground’ my research. I sense that I’ll continue to enjoy ‘This ‘time travelling’ Life’, immersing myself in family photographs, documents and other ephemera, well into the future!
Beverley Lee
October 2021
