Saving Graves South Australia

It’s been an exciting and busy time with Saving Graves this week.  As we prepared and researched for a newspaper article we had no idea the media storm it would raise!  I’m lucky to be part of a great team who have taken up the cause with gusto and stepped up when needed. Kirrily Burton has been our spokesperson this week and is carrying on her Mum’s, Catherine Crout-Habel’s, legacy as it was Catherine who started the group. Kirrily didn’t feel that she could handle the interviews but she did a wonderful job! Maybe she was channeling Catherine just a bit.

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Kirrily being interview by Channel Nine News at Centennial Park, Adelaide.

Here are links to the articles and interviews.

The Advertiser story by Miles Kemp
Kirrily Burton’s interview with Chris Smith from 2GB Sydney
Mornings on Channel 9
Sunrise on Channel 7
Channel 9 News this is another news story they did for us, I haven’t got a copy of the interview with Kirrily yet.

We have a petition up on Change.org which we are asking everyone to sign!  http://chn.ge/1CM4blQ

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Leases are expiring on our Diggers’ graves and those graves will be reused if families don’t know about their expiry and/or cannot afford to renew leases. We need urgent action to prevent the graves from being reused. This affects soldiers who survived the war and returned home and later died from injuries unrelated to their military service, all others are protected by the Office of Australian War Graves. All South Australians whose grave or niche has an expired lease which has not been renewed after two years can have their site reused. This involves the ‘lift and deepen’ process whereby the human remains are excavated, placed in an ossuary, reburied deeper in the grave and a new burial is placed on top leaving no record of the earlier burial.

We need the support of as many people as possible to show the Government that we don’t want graves being reused in South Australia. Saving graves in South Australia is saving our heritage, culture and history. Cemeteries are sacred places where families can go to mourn and remember their loved ones as well as researching local and family history. What heritage are we leaving for future generations?

Rowley Park Speedway Reunion 2014

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On Sunday my brother Michael and I went to the Rowley Park Speedway reunion.  Now this might seem like an unlikely place to go for a genealogist however my Dad’s cousin, Don Willison, raced motorbikes there and at other tracks in South Australia and nationally.  We had a wonderful time at the reunion talking to several of Don’s mates and co-riders who were very pleased that we were so interested in Don and his career.

Don was born in 1926 in Gawler, South Australia.  I don’t know exactly when he began racing however I have found newspaper articles dating back to 1948.  He won sidecar championships and also rode solo as well as having a foray into stock cars, winning a Stock Car Title in 1968.  Rowley Park Speedway opened in 1949 so I think it’s safe to say that Don was there from the start.

A replica of Don's JAP bike

A replica of Don’s JAP bike

One of the stories I heard was that Don bought the original of the above bike from Jimmy Davies (USA) later that same night that Jimmy beat him on it.  Apparently it was important to buy a bike and take possession of it straight away so that no changes could be made to it.  Don wanted to own the exact bike which had beaten him.

Built from a bike and collection of parts that have been in a collection for many years, reputed to have belonged to past racing legends Jimmy Davies and Don Willison. From Youtube

In the video the sidecar has been removed for testing.  When the video gets to 1:43 you can see Don and Jimmy’s names on the bike.

It seemed that everyone had a nickname, Sprazza, Chook, Eagle Beak, Tubby and more and Don’s nickname was “Willo”.  Saturday must have been hangover day because there was plenty of drinking after racing on Friday nights and well into Saturday morning at Rowley Park.  Don had several bikes and a number of men who rode them for him – Bruce Kelly, Ron Wakefield, Vin Ryan, Stan Smith, Len Bowes, Mal West, Alain Thain and Morrie McMillan are the ones we were told about.

DonWillison

Don Willison

 

Left to right - unknown, Tommy Davies, Don Willison, Joe "Tubby" Francis, and Malcolm Bunny

Left to right – unknown, Tommy Davies, Don Willison, Joe “Tubby” Francis, and Malcolm Bunny

I’ve had a digital copy of this photo for some time now but never knew who the others in it were until Sunday.  Ian Parrish and Stan Smith were very helpful in identifying them.  There was some discussion as to the location of the photo which was taken either at Park Tce, Bowden or at Port Adelaide.  Mr Parrish told us that he believed this photo was taken the day the motorbike was delivered to Don.  The photo proved a very useful tool in engaging people in conversation and I would recommend it to anyone going to meet new people to take along an item to ask about.

We also found out about two of Don’s living relatives his younger sisters who we will now be able to contact!!  This may even lead to further contacts! Woohoo I’m doing my genealogy happy dance!

A Lost Photo Album

I found an old photo album at a market today and on looking through it realised that my Mum may know the family pictured therein.  I bought it with the hope of returning it to a family member.

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The album belonged to a Miss Elizabeth Rachel Cornell and Mum and my Grandma both worked for Cornell’s a well known South Australian business.  The album contains a guest list for Elizabeth’s 21st birthday as well as photos, telegrams, letters and newspaper articles.  The party was held on 10 Aug 1945.  Elizabeth’s parents were Frederick William and Marjorie Cornell nee Fox.

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This newspaper article which is in the photo album I also found on Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/130238256

If any Cornell descendants would like this album please leave a comment with your email address and we can make arrangements for its return.  I’ll also be persuing any leads my Mum and Stepfather can give me.

 

The Mystery of Mary’s Mother

There are three daughters of Edward George Clerk for whom I haven’t been able to ascertain the mother.  They are Mary Emily Clerk 1838, Susan Bundarra Clerk 1839 and Anna Maria Clerk 1840. From what I’ve been able to determine they were all born in New South Wales, Australia.

Edward George Clerk was born in Somerset, England in 1813.  He married Anna Maria Stafford on 9 Apr 1835 in Winscombe, Somerset, England.  I found out, in researching this blog post, that Anna and Edward set out for Tasmania, Australia on 19 Jul 1835 but tragically Anna died at sea on 31 Jul 1835.  They had been married for only three months.   I had initially thought that Anna Maria might have been Mary, Susan and Anna’s mother.  Here is a partial timeline of Edward’s life.EdwardGeorgeClerkTimeline

AnnaMariaClerkProbate

I haven’t been able to find birth registrations for any of the three sisters.  In Mary Emily’s marriage notice it states that her father is E.G. Clerk Esq. of Clerkness, Bundarra.  (Clerkness is the name of the family property in New South Wales) but it doesn’t list her mother.   I obtained a transcription of her marriage certificate but her mother’s name wasn’t listed.

HuxhamClerkMarriage

1859 ‘Family Notices.’, The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 – 1893), 24 May, p. 3, viewed 20 August, 2014, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18637746

In two documents I found reference to Mary Clerk visiting or living at Clerkness, Bundarra in 1839/41.  They are Clerkness Station and a memoir by Susan Bundarra Young (formerly Buchanan, nee Clerk).  I bought a copy of Susan’s reminiscences from the Royal Australian Historical Society.

So this leads me back to the date of Edward George Clerk’s marriage to Mary Ann West.  I know plenty of children are born outside marriage but in this case I don’t think it is so with Susan and others stating that Mary Ann Clerk was at Clerkness from around 1839.

My conclusion is that there was an error made in recording the date of Mary Ann West and Edward George Clerk’s marriage or a very early transcription error which has been copied many times over the years.  I now believe that they married in 1837 not 47 and I will be ordering the original marriage certificate to verify this.  I started out this blog post with a question but now I have a possible answer!!  I’ll post the result when I receive the marriage certificate.  Although this is part of a tree I’m working on for someone else I’m enjoying it almost as much as researching my own family as the stories and people are all fascinating to me.

I Am Grateful For An Indoor Dunny

It’s been bitterly cold in Adelaide of late and when I went to the loo the other night I remembered our outdoor dunny at Flaxley where I grew up and thought how grateful I am for an indoor dunny. I haven’t been able to find a photo of just the dunny but here is one of the house.

Our house at Flaxley

Our house at Flaxley, South Australia

I remember my Mum saying if it has to be outside I’m glad it’s a flush toilet and not a ‘long drop’. It wasn’t far from the house but it backed onto the cow paddock and the cows would stand near it and chew their cud or eat grass but all you could hear, whilst enthroned, was their chomp, chomp, chomp which was most disconcerting to us young ones. Possums would sometimes climb on the roof and stomp around too. I remember many a night tearing back into the house scared of some real or imagined creature!

Kylie 7 years old

I was 7 years old here

The front room of our house was the local post office, you can just see the post boxes on the wall in the above photo. I won’t go into more detail about the post office now, I’ll save that for another post.