Treasure Chest Thursday: My grandmother’s autograph book

 

I am lucky enough to have access to a real family history treasure chest.
I will share its contents with you as I rediscover what's inside.

 

It’s been a while since my last “treasure chest” post, but I still have more items coming. This time, the item wasn’t literally in the chest pictured, but is a treasured item – my grandmother’s autograph book.

There aren’t many signatures inside and all have dates in July 1927, so I think the novelty of the book must have worn off fairly quickly for her.

Most interesting for me are two pictures, which appear to have been drawn on lined writing paper, cut out and stuck in the book. I don’t know if they were traced, copied, or are original pictures. At any rate, they are rather sweet.

 

Have a closer look at the signatures:

     

I think the one on the left looks like a stylised AS and the one on the right is DS. I suspect that one picture was contributed by her father, Arthur Stannus, and the other by her sister. Although her father was always described as a painter or builder in the documents I’ve found (so far), the family story about him is that he was more like an interior designer and would paint elaborate murals in the ‘grand houses’. Further, the story goes, he painted my grandmother’s room in such elaborate style.

Finally, a few words from my great-grandmother May Black:

Treasure Chest Thursday: Obituary, Arthur Milne Lee

I am lucky enough to have access to a real family history treasure chest. Over coming weeks I plan on sharing its contents with you as I rediscover what's inside.

I was recently asked if the "treasure chest" pictured above is the actual container that holds the documents I'm describing. Yes, it is. The dimensions of the box are near enough to 25cm x 15cm x 10cm. There is a keyhole on the front, but no key. It's lucky the box wasn't locked when we got it!

The next item I find in my treasure chest is an obituary, from an unknown newspaper. The date is not printed on the item, but it bears the handwritten notation "2/8/56".

The subject of the obituary is Arthur Milne Lee, my great grandfather. Like most of the items in this treasure chest, I noted the family details when I first saw it all those years ago, but did little more than that. This document has quite a bit to follow up on. I have evidence that at least two other Lee family members worked for Arnall & Jackson - a firm of printers and stationers. That is definitely a company I would like to find out more about. There is no mention in the clipping of Arthur's involvement with the Freemasons.

Obituary
ARTHUR MILNE LEE
A resident of Oakleigh for over 70 years, Arthur Milne Lee passed away peacefully at his home, 12 Rugby road, on Thursday, July 19.
Mr Lee was survived by his wife, Jessie, daughter Edna (Mrs F. Orr), sons Leslie, Fred and Jack, and eight grandchildren. He was predeceased by a daughter, Phyllis (Mrs R. Davenport).
Mr Lee was born in Colac and came to live with his parents in Oakleigh 74 years ago. Edu­cated at Oakleigh State School, he was presented with the Mayor's prize for the dux of the school in 1891. (The late Cr. J. Davey was Mayor at the time).
As a youth he played cricket for Oakleigh and won the tro­phies for the best batting and best bowling averages in the one season.
Early in his career Mr Lee worked in Oakleigh with Mr Lucas and Mr T. G. Newton. In 1901 he joined the well-known printing, publishing and station­ery firm of Arnall & Jackson, of Melbourne. As a traveller, his connections were mainly with municipal authorities. He was probably more widely known among Victorian Town Clerks and Shire Secretaries than any other commercial personality. He was still employed by the firm at the time of his death.
Following a service at 12 Rugby road by Rev. Ball, of the South Yarra Church of Christ, the large funeral cortege left for Springvale Crematorium on Friday, July 20.


If you have a connection with this family, then please get in touch with me via comments or use the email address on the "About me" page. I would love to hear from you.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Burial Rights

I am lucky enough to have access to a real family history treasure chest. Over coming weeks I plan on sharing its contents with you as I rediscover what's inside.

It pays to re-examine documents. As I make my way through the treasure chest, I am trying to give each document the time and thought it deserves. This week re-examination of a right of burial has lead to the discovery of new (to me) family members, new information on known family members, and leads to further information.

Here it is. A certificate of right of burial purchased for one pound, dated 17 November 1881 (on reverse of paper shown). A piece of paper that was handled by my great-great grandfather, John Lee (1822-1905), almost 130 years ago!

Melbourne General Cemetery, "Certificate of Right of Burial in the Melbourne General Cemetery",
No. 62, made out to John Lee.

My first reaction was to check my database to see where John Lee had been buried. He was buried in Oakleigh Cemetery, not in Melbourne General Cemetery. I then checked my database for any burials in Melbourne General Cemetery. I was surprised to see that only one family member is known to be buried there, Joseph Lee, one of John Lee's sons. However he passed away in 1905 so was not necessarily buried (or the only one buried) in the plot.

Melbourne General Cemetery doesn't have a searchable database online, so I sent a request to the cemetery for information. I was very pleased when I got a reply just a few days later.

Buried in the plot were:

• Lee, George K aged 21 buried 18.11.1881
• Bowell, Robert aged 82 buried 17.11.1899
• Bowell, Elizabeth aged 84 buried 05.02.1901

George King Lee (1861-1881) was another of John Lee's sons, so that made sense. But who were Robert and Elizabeth Bowell?

Armed with names, ages and death years, I searched for and found Robert and Elizabeth's death index entries. Elizabeth Bowell was John Lee's elder sister, previously unknown to me. I then looked for a marriage record for Elizabeth Lee and Robert Bowell and was lucky enough to find one, complete with an image of the marriage register, on Ancestry. They had been married in London in 1848.

Aside from the date and place of the marriage, the marriage register entry gave me two useful pieces of information. Firstly, that her father Joseph Lee was dead and secondly that Elizabeth hadn't been born in London, as had the rest of her family (or at least those I knew) but was born in Doncaster, Yorkshire.

I wondered if I might find them in any of the UK censuses.

Success! I found Elizabeth Bowell and it was better than I had hoped as her mother Jane was also in the house. This gave me a birth place and birth year for her mother, which I didn't previously have, and told me that she was still alive in 1851.

After some unsuccessful attempts, I decided to make searching for any Bowell children a bit easier, and I bought Elizabeth's Bowell's death certificate. Australian death certificates can be very informative. This one was no exception - but it showed that Elizabeth and Robert were childless. They arrived in Australia in around 1861.

In summary...
So, this Right of Burial document looked pretty dull when I was a newbie, but now it has lead me to a new sister for my g-g Grandfather, her husband, a new location where the family lived, has narrowed down some dates and filled in some of the blanks on my g-g-g grandparents and given me a lot of leads for the family generally that I have still to follow up on. 

Treasure Chest Thursday: Piano

I am lucky enough to have access to a real family history treasure chest. Over coming weeks I plan on sharing its contents with you as I rediscover what's inside.

I definately under-appreciated this document when I first explored the box. I'm not sure I even remember seeing it before at all. It's a guarantee on my great-grandfather, Arthur Milne Lee's, piano! 

Guarantee on a piano, Allen and Co Pty Ltd, made out to Arthur M Lee, 31 July 1931

The most obvious thing I learned from re-examination of this document is... they had a piano. The Zenker and Schultes Piano No. 3455, to be precise. Another thing that I noticed is that they called their house in Rugby Road, "Yarilla". This is new information for me. Although I've had access to this document for 20+ years, I haven't entered the house name "Yarilla" in my database until now.

The warranty document also tells me that they appreciated a bargain! How do I know this? With a quick search on the National Library of Australia's wonderful Trove website I found this advertisement published earlier in the same month:

The Argus, 8 July 1931, p18
via the National Library of Australia Australian Newspaper website, here.

It certainly looks like the piano was on sale when they bought it!

I wonder whatever became of that piano?

Are you related to this family?  
Sure, you could grab the images and run, but it would be much nicer if you got in touch. Please contact me at the email address on the about page, or leave a comment!

Treasure Chest Thursday: Marriage Certificates

I am lucky enough to have access to a real family history treasure chest. Over coming weeks I plan on sharing its contents with you as I rediscover what's inside.

Although I was not experienced in genealogy when I first explored the box, I could definately appreciate the genealogical value of the original marriage certificates inside. As well as my grandparent's own marriage certificate, the box contained marriage certificates for two sets of my great-grandparents. I'm sure there are plenty of people who wish they could have that sort of head start! Don't worry, information on my other branches was much more sparse!

I think that what I didn't appreciate, until now, is the feeling of holding in your own hands an original document that your long-gone ancestors had held before you. Although I love the ability to download digital images of all sorts of things, it's not quite the same as seeing the documents 'in person'.

I've scanned these before, but at a time when computer storage space was at a premium. Now that storage is a bit cheaper, I'm rescanning them in colour to try to capture some of the feeling of the originals, for any family members who want to see them.

Here is the marriage certificate of Arthur Stannus and May Black, in 1908. 

Marriage certificate of Arthur Stannus and May Black, Victoria, Australia, 1908

And the other for Arthur Milne Lee and Jessie Isabella Couper, a little earlier, in 1904.

Marriage certificate of Arthur Milne Lee and Jessie Isabella Couper, Victoria, Australia, 1904

Are you related to these families?  
Sure, you could grab the images and run, but it would be much nicer if you got in touch. Please contact me at the email address on the about page, or leave a comment!

Treasure Chest Thursday: A Real Treasure Chest

  

Pictured above is my treasure chest. A slightly beaten up metal box. I collected it from my Dad's house today and have to take it back once I'm finished with it, lest I'm accused by my siblings of heirloom snatching!

My four year old son was very interested in my treasure chest... at first. He was not so impressed when I let him look inside and he discovered that it was "just paper". That's not treasure at all in the eyes of a four year old.

I have a slightly different view. 

This box holds my maternal grandparents' family papers. It contains all sorts of odds and ends relating to the family over the last 100 years. It's been many years since I looked in this box, and I am sure I failed to appreciate the value of at least some of the items inside. I intend to share my finds over coming Thursdays as I rediscover the contents of my treasure chest!