Lilian's Tree

 My last post for Women's History Month is about my maternal great-grandmothers, Isabella and Maryanne. Both of these ladies were native born and were widowed young. Isabella Mary Ann Vaughan was born on 18 September 1847 at Domain Terrace, Sydney. Today the State Library of New South Wales stand on the spot but in 1847 it was a row of terrace houses. Isabella was the fourth child and second daughter for Henry Vaughan and Charlotte Chasmar. In October 1866 she married William Henry Martin and together they had nine children. William dies sometime between 1878 and her re-marriage in 1884, to August Jasper. It is through this marriage that she becomes my great-grandmother. Isabella and August had four children but only their eldest, Evelyn Maude reaches adulthood. She doesn't appear in the newspapers, other than her first marriage and then her death, on 29 October 1922. Isabella's legacy from her second marriage was 4 children, with three dying very young, 10 grandchildren, 2...

When we research our ancestors, we look at the certificates and see an address but what does it tell us?  Sometimes useful information, sometimes, not.  It doesn't tell us what the buiding was like, how many rooms, how much it was worth or who owned it. Interesting information, that would make that address more 'real' to us. With the advent of Google Street View, we can often see the street or house mentioned and this gives us something tangable, for our research but that is now, not back then. These past couple of weeks, I have been searching the City of Sydney, Rate Assessment Books and finding descriptions of some of the places my ancestors called home. (link to the City of Sydney website  https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/    look under the Learn tab) Now my great-grandmother, Isabella Mary Ann Jasper, nee Vaughan, was born in the Domain Terrace, in 1847. The Domain Terrace is still in use, today, it runs between the Mitchell Library and the State ...

After a day spent, in the garden on Saturday, spreading top dressing on the lawn, we gave ourselves the day off and went into Sydney, for something to do. First stop was the bookstore Dymocks, where I did some shopping for a birthday and Christmas. I also picked up a copy of Rachael Johns' new book, The Greatest Gift. A beautiful story, (I read mine on Kindle), about what makes a family. Read it but have the tissues ready. We wandered around, just window shopping and then stopped for coffee in a little café,  the Chrysler Café Bar, 210 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia. Delicious Danishes, hot coffee and hot chocolate and quiet atmosphere. Lovely. www.chryslercafebar.com/    From there we walked up Martin Place and found a Tesla shop and I got to have a good look at one. While it might be good for city driving I would need one, maybe two charging stops and a trip to Melbourne. Loved the colour, didn't like the LARGE centre console ...

The State Library of NSW holds Scholarly Musings on the first Tuesday of each month and I've decided to book into a couple of them. This month's was Sydney's Early Cemeteries by Dr Lisa Murray. (You might remember my blog about her book, Sydney Cemeteries, A Field Guide. A Useful Book, 20/02/2017.) Lisa gave a very interesting talk that covered a range of topics, from the overcrowding of the first cemeteries, how the churches didn't want to hand over the control of burials, to the setting up of Rookwood Cemetery. I learnt that St John's Cemetery at Parramatta is the oldest undisturbed colonial cemetery in Sydney. When you consider that The Old Sydney Burial Ground, Devonshire Street and several others were removed to make way for buildings, this is good to know. She spoke of how the residents and shop keepers, near the Camperdown Cemetery would complain on the mist and vapours emanating from the cemetery, especially the pauper grave, as it was often left ope...