Family Tree Frog

On the back of this photo is my Grandmother's writing - "My father and brother George, Grandfather standing and great grandfather with beard." Great-grandfather - as in George Henry Charles Carrett 1 who was born 1834 and died 1912. Grandfather as in George Henry Charles Carrett II born 1856 and died 1929. Father as in George Henry Charles Carrett III born 1879 and died 1953. Brother as in George Henry Charles Carrett IV born 1906 and died 1976. My guess is the photo was taken c1907.   The baby was born in November 1906 - a twin to his sister Daisy Minnie. Once again this is a copy of a copy so I have no idea who has the original or who the photographer was although it is obviously a studio portrait.   Gran had a tendency to burn things when people died. My aunt also had a fire at her place in the 60s so we have lost things over the years. The twins Daisy and George This is the last photo in this series. It's certai...

George Henry Charles Carrett III and Charles Arthur Stanley Carrett in France c 1917/1918 Now isn't this dreadful - I'm not sure which is which. I suspect George Henry Charles is the one on the right.   Let's have a look at a close up of his face at Millie's wedding photo again... George Henry Charles Carrett at Millie's wedding 1924 Tricky huh? We might be able to reach better conclusions by looking at their service records on the NAA website. Charles enlisted on 15 May 1916 at the age of 25.  At the time he was 5ft 71/4 inches with fair hair and blue eyes - a bricklayer turned Gunner.   He was wounded in a field in France a year later. George enlisted 8 May 1916 at the age of 37 standing 5 foot 7 and 3/4 inches with brown to grey hair and grey eyes.  A builder turned driver. So...I was wrong....George is on the left.   I'm not sure exactly when this photo was taken 1917 or 1918.   Don't you wish they were a...

Millie's wedding L to R Back row Ethel Carrett, Ted Conner, Millie Andrews nee Carrett, George Henry Carrett III, Front row L to R Frank and Ken Andrews 1924 Ethel Eileen Carrett (my paternal grandmother) and her older sister Dorothy Mildred aka Millie were married in the same year - 1924. The family joke about this photo was that Ethel had to stand on a soap box she was so short in order to balance things out a bit. Ethel would have been 19 or 20 in this photo and Millie would have been 21 or 22. Ethel and Millie's father on the far right would have been 45 years old or thereabouts.   Frank the groom is seated to Millie's left.  His brother Ken is sitting in front of the father of the bride. This photo is a copy I'm afraid.  Not sure where the original is now. Millie's family has probably got it. From a cursory search on Trove I see that Millie and Frank had a son a year later at Nurse Gee's private hospital.   Note to se...

Tom McLoughlin c 1898 Without a doubt, this has to be my all-time favourite family photo. It used to produce howls of derision at family gatherings. My poor grandfather - although I think he could take a joke and found it quite funny too. He really does look a teensy weensy bit like an alien doesn't he? ET certainly wants to phone home. You can imagine all the comments. Anyway, my maternal grandfather was born 7 July 1898 in William Street, Bathurst to John and Margaret McLoughlin.  He was the eldest of nine children. Did the family come down to Sydney for this photo?  They must have. According to this site Eden George had his studios in George Street Sydney. I think this is what is called a carte-de-visite.  It measures 4.5 inches wide and just over 6.5 inches long.  Or 10.7 x 16.7 cm in metric. If you conduct a search on Trove, but take out "society", you get 243 results for "Eden Studios" in the SMH j...

Patrick McLoughlin c. 1899-1901 Look at this fantastic photo.  How lucky am I to have a copy of it? This is the back of the photo. That's my mother's writing in the blue.  I'm not sure who owns the brown writing.  I'm thinking Annie and Mary, John McLoughlin's older sisters.  John McLoughlin was my maternal great-grandfather.  His older brother Patrick was born in 1865. He looks a reasonably young man here so I'm thinking the photo was taken in the 1880s. This source indicates that the studio was active from 1899-1912.  However I understand from checking the indexes to NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages that Patrick died in 1901.  I must order his death certificate.   I have looked for his name on the Nominal Roll of the Sudan and Boer War but without success.  So I'm at a bit of a loss to know what uniform he is wearing and what he is doing. The photos and discussion on the State Archives website was...

Unidentified cousins Today's inspiration comes from Sepia Saturday and I quote: Our theme image for Sepia Saturday 165 comes from the Flickr Commons collection of the Australian National Maritime Museum and is entitled "Group Portrait of an Unknown Family". All lovers of old photographs are familiar with unknown people, unknown families and unknown places, we all have them in our collection, and Sepia Saturday 165 provides an opportunity to give them their moment in the limelight, not because of who they are but because of who they may be.   So here they are - the unknown cousins. This photograph is from my mother's album and underneath it says "Cousins of Mums" I suspect they are Forfars and that the photo was taken in a studio in England. I was going to say "Do enjoy figuring this one out.  I am at a loss." but then I enlarged the photo and found the following in the bottom right hand corner. "E Pannell 75 ...

I'm late ...I'm late...I'm terriby late.  And I'm also forgetful. I don't want to give this photo a caption because I am unsure as to who it is.... I have a memory of my mother's voice telling me that it is Alice Agnes Forfar nee Bourke, the second wife of Walter William Forfar. But I'm not sure ..so please don't take my word for it. I'm going to confer with cousins in the meantime. The photo was in my grandfather's album...so this could be a McLoughlin instead - or a Taylor. The back of the photo looks like this From some cursory research on Trove there are 35 Sydney Morning Herald articles/advertisements featuring the phrase "Leicagraph Co" from 1937 -1959. Alice Agnes Bourke was born in 1872 and died in 1944 at the age of 72 - so, if it is her, I reckon this photo was taken between 1935 and 1944.  But more likely the mid 30s. In March 1937 the Leicagraph Company is advertising for an expe...

Emma Taylor nee Case c 1930s Oops - I'm a day late with this one.   This is one of those frustrating photos.  There's nothing written on the back.   It's a photo of a photo - again. I think it is of Emma Taylor nee Case - my maternal grandfather's maternal grandmother - my 2nd great grandmother. Emma was born 2 January 1855 at Gundaroo, NSW.   Her parents were Thomas Case and Maria Mussel.    At the age of twenty-one she married John Thomas Taylor 7 May 1876 at the Wesleyan Church Yass.  John was described as a labourer on the marriage certificate but a year later on his daughter's certificate he was described as a farmer.   They had I think at least nine children.  Their eldest, Margaret, married John McLoughlin.  Margaret and John were my grandfather's parents. Emma died in 1936 at the age of 81.  My father's papers contain a photocopy of a document I have never seen before which is ...

1912 Tom McLoughlin - Football Team  - Tom is at the end of the back  row on the right Family history is not complete without a football photo is it? Even from 1912. Not quite sure where this is taken - I suspect Bathurst. Back of postcard The back of the postcard reads in my mother's handwriting on the left Circa 1912  Tom 14 years  Football Team  Tom in sub junior I'm not sure whose handwriting is on the right hand side - maybe my grandfather's.   It says  M McLoughlin  4 Lamrock Terrace  E Orange. M McLoughlin could have been Tom's sister Margaret or his sister Mary or his mother Margaret. Thomas, aka Tom, my maternal grandfather was born 7 July 1898 in William Street Bathurst. I would love to know what Grandad's role was on the team. He's wearing a suit and a tie.  And his boots are nicely polished. Is he the manager?  A coach? A fan? What do you think? Was ...

Mother Mrs Conner England c 1922 This is Caroline Cook nee Jefferies - my 2nd great-grandmother. Caroline was born 21 March 1852 Dock Row, Porsea, Portsea Island, Southampton. She married James Vernon Cook 25 October 1871 in Portsea and they had, I think, eleven children. This photo was in my Grandmother's collection, from her husband's side of the family.  This is what is written on the back of the photo: It's such a shame that we don't have the whole postcard anymore with all the writing on the back which might have provided more useful information.  Most frustrating.  But because I can see the date 21 March on it and that is meant to be Caroline's birthday, I wonder if it was taken in honour of her birthday.  A significant birthday perhaps.   Here is a photo of her grave at Wymering courtesy of cousin Geraldine.  She was 76 when she died so maybe it was the occasion of her 70th birthday.  The photo's identificati...

James Vernon Cook This is my 2nd great-grandfather James Vernon Cook, father of Eleanor Eliza Cook who married Edwin Conner.   At least that's what it says on the back of several copies of the photos that I have It doesn't help that Eleanor's brother was called James and her father...and her grandfather.... So, I'm not sure when this was taken.  Let's say c1900. His final rank was Chief Gunner or I think Lieutenant Commander in retirement. Certainly if you look at this ad for a full dress uniform from Christie's it seems very similar.  Here's another great photo of him courtesy of my cousin Geraldine in England. According to Geraldine's photo of his grave, he died 25 January 1928 so I imagine this was taken a bit before then.   What do you think he is standing next to?  Geraldine says it might be a dovecote. I posted pictures of his funeral before here on my other blog. According to the Natio...

Hazel and Ethel Conner nee Carrett near GPO Sydney c1943 Here is my beloved aunt and her mother, my Gran. My Aunty Hazel enlisted in the Australian Army 15 February 1943 at Paddington.  Her next of Kin was my grandmother.  Hazel would have been about 18 or 19 when this photo was taken.  She was discharged 21 September 1944. She worked at the 113 Australian General Hospital and was a Corporal on discharge. I've just ordered her war service record from the National Archives. I found a great series of photos of the Hospital here on the Australian War Memorial website. The 113 Australian General Hospital may be better known to Sydney residents as Concord Hospital. It looked like this: Image Copyright: Copyright expired Public Domain Note AWM Image Number bottom right of frame. According to this Wikipaedia article it was one of the tallest buildings in Sydney at the time.  And it won the Sulman award for architecture in 1946....