Lilian's Tree

Eveline Maud JASPER, born 3 April 1885, died 4 October 1932.  Born at McDonaldtown, in Sydney, Eveline was the first child for Isabella Mary Ann VAUGHAN and August JASPER, her three younger siblings all died very young.  She married Arthur GALBRAITH on 30 December 1908, at St Stephen's, Newtown. They would have 10 children. But what of her childhood? I can assume that she attended Erskinville Public School, as it was the closest to her home. I know she was a dressmaker, Mum told me that. Did she work for a firm or do it from home? Questions that I have no answers for. I do know that she made her own wedding dress. Was much loved and missed by her children.  The photo, above was taken of a family outing to Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Her wedding day. Eveline's legacy; 10 children, who all lived to adulthood and married, 22 grandchildren and 35 great-grandchildren.

I've been playing around on Ancestry and looking at different hints, on side branches to find connections etc.  Well today I was looking for Jessie James, no not the outlaw but my great aunt. Jessie was born Jessie  Elizabeth Grant on 18 Febuary 1868 at Ballarat, Victoria. In 1891, in Sydney she married Charles Frederick James and they had three children, Beatrice, 1893, Victoria May, 1896 and Frederick, 1898. It is the near marriage of Victoria May, that I found. It would appear that on 13 June 1916, John Laver, son of William Robert Laver(s)(dec) and Alice Miller(dec)  and May Victoria James, were to be married. They were both listed as living at 44 Bucknell Street, Newtown. He was said to be 25 and May, 21. What Happened???? The image I have shows CANCELLED written right across both pages, with nothing else written, either on the certificate or in the margins. Just the details, required for the paperwork. Discovering this has sent me off, searching bot...

Lilian, (Mum) was born on 22 October 1911 [1] , at Regent Street Camperdown, to Arthur Galbraith and Evelin Jasper. She was their second child, with Edith being her big sister. Eight more siblings would follow. Aged 12 months. She was baptised at St Stephen’s Newtown on 22 November 1911, confirmed and had her First Communion, at Holy Trinity, Erskineville on 19 September 1926.                                                               St Stephen's Newtown. Snippets Mum talked about were, attending school at Erskineville Public School, where she and some of the other girls, would ask for help with their work and then pass it on to each other, working in Allen’s Cake Shop, at Erskineville, working in a shoe factory, outings with church friends, trips to Katoomba, with her family and walking home during ‘browno...

Last week I had several hours to fill in, while Paul was in RPA, having a big test done. He is fine. BUT what was I going to do? Lucky for me my mother's side were from Newtown, Camperdown and Erskineville and Holy Trinity, Erskineville and St Stephen's, Newtown where their churches. Armed with the details I knew of the two burials, at St Stephen's I went grave searching. It is such a beautiful place to walk around and just look at the different adornments of the graves, read headstones of small children and ache for their parent's loss and try and find the grave you want.  I knew that the chances of finding Henry and Charlotte Vaughan's graves was remote, after all part of the cemetery was turned into a park, but it was worth the time. After about an hour and no luck I got talking to the gardener and he asked if I had been onto the church website and looked to see if the grave was in the area left. NO, I didn't know that there was a website and theref...