Where there's a will, there's a way

Well, it looks like life got busy and my poor little blog went unnoticed for a while. A lot has happened in the last 6 months. I left a job that I loved to take the scary and exciting plunge to start my own business with a like-minded, passionate historian. Together, Lee Hooper and I have established ‘Born and Bred Historical Research’, which does just that – historical research. And what a ride it has been thus far. We have helped solve mysteries, broken down brick walls, presented to eager and enthusiastic local history groups, and aided people in their unique and exciting historical research. So, I thought it was only fitting to talk about some of the accessible and valuable records that can be utilised in family history research. And sometimes the juiciest!

Will and probate records can be one of the richest sources of information when it comes to genealogical research. The death of a person can help to paint a picture of the life that was lived. An individuals’ Last Will and Testament can and often is the final ‘say’ from the deceased, and sometimes that final word can be eye-opening, horrifying, illuminating, fascinating and hilarious.

In Victoria we are lucky enough to have access to will and probate files through the Public RecordOffice Victoria (PROV) from 1852 to 2010 (and digitised from 1852-1926), which are easily accessible to the general public. Anything from 2011-present day is still held with the Supreme Court of Victoria.

I have unearthed wills for circus performers, bitter ex-spouses and even a Scottish Knight. I have discovered large land holdings, family heirlooms and family rifts just by reading will and probate records. However, it was only recently when I was undertaking some research for a few friends, who had little interest in their family history (in fact they thought it was a bore and a fairly dry line of work). Always trying to make a convert, I said that I would do a little preliminary research into their families. Wouldn’t you know it, I struck ‘family skeleton’ gold almost immediately.

Mr Watson, Mrs Watson & Mrs Parker

Mrs Watson passed away in the early 1990’s. She was a kind woman, with a strong will that had dealt with much in her 66 years. She and Mr Watson, along with their 3 children had been part of the post-World War 2 Migration Scheme from the UK when they arrived in Melbourne in 1964 to start a new life. Living out their latter years in Geelong the couple overcame the death of a child and welcomed several grandchildren to the fold. When Mrs Watson died in June 1991 she left a will made three years prior. The standard clauses applied with money going to several grandchildren and possessions given to her surviving daughter. However, it was the last few lines of the will that dropped a bombshell and opened up another avenue for researching an already tricky genealogical puzzle. It read:

            “My husband is not entitled to any of this [estate]. If he is still living I will ask my daughter, after this is all settled to grant him $1,000 to return to Burnley and carry on where he left off in Feb-Mar 1986. I’m sure Mrs Parker will be glad to see him even if her husband isn’t.”

Who was Mrs Parker? And what did Mr Parker make of this? We know that Mr Watson did in fact return to the UK after the death of his wife (and the court case to contest her will), however did he meet with Mrs Parker before his own death in 1994? That’s a mystery I will keep trying to solve.

A scandal hits the papers

Spry vs. Spry Divorce, 1916

Research for another friend unearthed a scandal. After beginning the search doing basic births, deaths and marriages, I went on to confirm branches with will and probate files. Searching through her maternal side unearthed a will that didn’t seem to fit. It appeared that her great great grandfather, upon his death, left his entire estate to his wife, which is not unusual. However, this wife did not happen to be the woman he had married in 1892, nor the ancestor of my friend. Not being able to establish a death date that fit with the marriage of another woman, it appeared that there was something fishy going on. Hopefully ruling out bigotry, the next step was the investigate divorce cases. Bingo! It seemed that her great great grandparents, Mr and Mrs Spry had divorced in 1916. What a scandal! Being able to access the divorce records unearthed and few more pieces of the family tree and helped put some more branches into place.

A matriarch's final wishes

Mr & Mrs Russell, with Erica and
friends at Barwon Heads, c. 1938

My own (paternal) great grandmother left a will that unearthed a few skeletons. It wasn’t so much the will that left family members questioning the past, but the court proceedings that followed. When my great grandmother passed away in 1989 she left provisions for her grandchildren, great grandchildren but only one of her two children - her daughter – my grandmother. It had been stated explicitly in her last will and testament that her son was to receive nothing of her estate when she died as he had been fairly well provided for in his adult life. Her son’s children and their children were recipients in the will, however he was not. Yet, Thomas was not happy with the decision his mother had made about the final statements in her will. So he contested on the grounds that he had not been adequately provided for in his life or in his mother’s death (his father had pre-deceased his mother by more than a decade, and their wills reflected one another). In the legal proceedings statements were made by members of the family in favour of the wishes of the deceased, however Thomas, in his greed and battle for money declared that he was not provided for in his father’s will because he had caught him in an adulterous affair, therefore money was being withheld. Whether this is in fact true has never been determined, however Thomas won his battle to gain funds from his deceased mother’s estate.

So, whilst will and probate files are an amazing resource when it comes to your family history research, opening up avenues you may not have dreamed of, putting branches in place and knocking down brick walls, they can also be confronting if there is something unexpected written within it’s sheaths. But, if you’re willing to take that risk, you may just come out the other side with a few family treasures. 

Back to the search!

Phoebe 

References:

PROV, VA 2549 Supreme Court of Victoria, VPRS 283/P0 Divorce Case Files Melbourne, Unit 240, 1916/15, Spry vs. Spry Divorce.

PROV, VA 2620 Registrar of Probates, Supreme Court, VPRS 28/P21 Probate and Administration Files, Unit 284, 1046/946, Watson, E., 1991.

PROV, VPRS 28/P19, Unit 52, 1006/318

Trove digitised newspapers

Lest We Forget

On Friday I will leave the house in darkness to join swarms of people commemorating the landing at Gallipoli of the Australian and New Zealand troops in World War I. Next year will commemorate the centenary of that landing, and no less significant this year makes the ninety-ninth year since that fateful day.

ANZAC Day is not just a day to commiserate the landing on the Turkish peninsula which saw thousands of allied troop’s deaths; it is also a day to commemorate all the other battles that allied troops have participated in since (and even prior) to Federation. From the Boer War in South Africa, to the more recent battles in Afghanistan and Iraq, Australia and New Zealand have a long history of involvement in warfare. However, this is not my place to recount the strategies and death tolls of the battles that we, as a nation were involved in, this is where I will try and personalise some of the participants of the wars; namely some of my ancestors.

I remember observing a minutes’ silence when I was in primary school for ANZAC Day, I would have been 6 or 7 years old. I knew that we were to be silent for one minute and think about the war, the people that fought in the war and the people that didn’t come home. All I could think about during that minute was my Pop. He was the only ‘old’ person I could think of that had died. All my other grandparents were still alive and as far as I knew they had not been involved in the war. As far as I knew my Pop had not been involved in the war either, he was just the first person that came to mind, and repeatedly entered my thoughts during these timed silences. It would take me years, actually, nearly 20 of them to discover the war histories that surround my ancestors.

The War in Europe

It turns out that Hank did participate in battle. However, he was not an ANZAC, and at that time had never stepped onto Australian soil, it would be during his time in the army, where he did get his first taste of Australia.

Hendrik (Hank) Suffridus Wilkens was born in 1920 in the Dutch East Indies; modern day Indonesia. According to his Australian naturalisation records he and his family moved back to the Netherlands for ten years in 1935. Both of Hank’s parents had been born and raised in the Dutch East Indies, sporadically returning to the Netherlands during their lives.



Hank Wilkens (fifth from right in trench coat) in the Netherlands in 1941.
Note the Swastika painted on the wall behind the group.

The Wilkens returned to the Netherlands four years prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The Netherlands hoped to stay neutral in the face of another World War, however in May 1940 Rotterdam was bombed and the Dutch were invaded by Nazi Germany. The Netherlands, including the Wilkens family were staring into the darkness of another war, and wouldn’t see the end of it for another four years. In 1945 Germany surrendered and the Second World War would end, and Hank would return to the Dutch East Indies. Hardly the tropical paradise that the Wilkens family had left in 1935, the Dutch East Indies had been invaded by the Japanese in 1942, bringing violence and unrest to the generally peaceful islands.

In 1945 on Hank’s return to the Dutch East Indies he was conscripted to the KNIL (Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger), the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. What happened next is hard to say, what I do know for sure is that he came to Australia in 1946 with the Army, for how long and where exactly I can’t say. Whilst I do hold copies of Hank’s military records they are all in Dutch, a language I am not proficient in, unless you count Google Translate as proficient. However, by glancing through a short history of the KNIL it appears that the time frame in which Hank was a part of the this faction of the Dutch Army would have been the time in which the Dutch were trying to reestablish control of Indonesia which had both been invaded by the Japanese as well as natives trying to overthrow the Dutch government and reestablish control. The efforts of the Dutch failed and the Netherlands finally conceded defeat and recognised Indonesian sovereignty in 1949. The same year Hank returned to the Netherlands, before immigrating to Australia in 1951.

From Australian Shores

On the other branch of the tree, being my maternal side and a World War before Hank’s involvement was the enlistment of four brothers from Kapunda, South Australia.

Lancelot Dudley Hughes was my great grandfather. Born in 1895 to Henry and Penelope Hughes he was the second of four sons and one daughter. Fairly quick off the mark Dudley, as he was more commonly known, enlisted in July 1915 and embarked for battle in November of that year. Corporal L. D. Hughes of the 27^th Battalion served in Egypt and France and was wounded in action in 1916 after a gunshot wound to the chest. Dudley’s two older brothers, also felt the patriotic call of warfare. In February and August of 1915 Roland Harry Hughes and Leonard Headland Hughes, respectively enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). All were enlisted in the 27^th Battalion. This particular Battalion was raised in South Australia in March 1915 and a large number of recruits came from the suburbs of Adelaide. Lieutenant Roland Hughes landed on the shores of Gallipoli in September 1915 before seeing action in Egypt and France. In August 1916 he received a gunshot wound to the leg and was hospitalised.



Private Leonard Headland Hughes. Photo courtesy of Grave Secrets

The eldest of them all was Leonard Headland Hughes. Enlisting in August 1915, Leonard set sail on the seas in January the following year. Initially part of the 8^th Reinforcements of the 27^th Infantry Battalion, he would later join the 10^th Infantry Battalion. About five months after he’d set sail Leonard arrived on solid, hot, and sandy ground in Egypt. However, by early April he had set sail again, this time for Marseille, France. The 10^th Battalions first major action was at Pozières in the Somme Valley in July 1916.[1] They were heavily involved in establishing and defending the front line of the ANZAC position[2]. The Battle of the Somme would lead to almost 23,000 Australian casualties. Sadly, Private Leonard Hughes was one of those. The eldest of the Hughes’ brother’s name adorned the pages of the ‘missing lists’ in the Australian newspapers for months, until he was finally declared ‘killed in action’ in January 1917. His Red Cross papers state that ‘on about the date named [July 23/25 1916] Hughes was killed in the front line trench, the top part of his body being blown away’[3] it is presumably because of the gruesome nature of his death that the war office was not able to locate his body. On the 24th June 1921 the Base Records Office for the AIF had still been ‘unable to obtain any trace of the last resting place of...the late No. 3520 Private L. H. Hughes, 10th Battalion’[4].

Corporal Lancelot Dudley Hughes. Photo courtesy of Grave Secrets.

In 1917 Henry and Penelope Hughes had lost one son in the fields of France and had two more fighting battles on the same soil. It was in November of that same year that Norman Charles Hughes, their youngest son asked and gained permission from his parents to enlist in the AIF. Included in Norman’s attestation papers is a letter written in Henry’s hand giving permission for his 19 year old son to enlist in active service. A presumably patriotic, yet anxious Henry states that Norman ‘is the fourth son to enlist. I have no more!’[5]

Private Norman Charles Hughes of the 3^rd Lighthorse would return home, alongside two of his brother’s Dudley and Roland. Private Leonard Headland Hughes’ remains were reinterred possibly as late as 1929 in the Serre Road Cemetery No. 2, situated near Beaumont Hamel, France. He was posthumously awarded the Victory Medal, the British War Medal and the 1914/15 Star.

So, when I am braving the cold Autumnal morning waiting for the sun to rise and listening to the bugle play the Last Post I will think of my ancestors that fought for freedom that we can call normality. I will think of Hank and his family watching his country crumbling under Nazi invasion. I will think of Henry and Penelope Hughes farewelling four sons off to war. And I will think of Private Leonard Headland Hughes gallantly leaving the comfort of the South Australian shores to stare one of the AIF’s most horrific battles square in the face and not returning home.

Lest we forget.

This is just a small snippet of my ancestors that participated did their bit for their country during the twentieth century. Others were no less important or insignificant having participated in several different factions over both World Wars.

Some of the sources I have used to research my ancestor's war histories include:

The Australian War Memorial

Grave Secrets

The AIF Project

The National Archives of Australia   

State Records of South Australia

---

[1] 10^th Battalion, http://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_11197.asp, accessed 14 March 2012

[2] Ibid.

[3] Australian Red Cross Society Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau, http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/records/1drl0428/2/138/10/1drl-0428-2-138-10-14.pdf, accessed 14 March 2012

[4] Hughes, L. H., ‘Attestation and Military Service Records’, Service Number 3520, National Archives of Australia, B2455, http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=7031357, accessed 14 March 2012.

[5] Hughes, N. C., ‘Attestation and Military Records’, Service Number 3715, National Archives of Australia, B2455, http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp, accessed 14 March 2012.

Skeletons and scandal

I am extremely lucky to be able to do something that I love; both in a professional work sense and also for pleasure. Recently I was asked to do some genealogical research for two separate friends. One was as a gift for another family member, as something a little different and one, which is still in the works, is purely out of interest. Whilst, my love of genealogy is spurned from my interest in my own family history, it doesn’t take much for me to get ingrained into someone else’s story. To explore and flesh out the stories within a family, and ultimately the path that has led them to be here today.



Family tree as a gift.

 

The first family tree was more ornamental, than a huge research project. Don’t get me wrong, it did involve research, some of which I would not have been able to do without the help of several resources and people. The final piece charted seven generations, any further and I would have had to commission an art work the size of a wall to be able to fit any further ancestors onto the tree. I was extremely proud of the finished product, and am happy to say that the recipient and her family were happy and intrigued with the work I had laboured over.

The second tree will be a slow and steady work in progress. This particular friend had often questioned my intrigue with history, and in particular family history. However, once this project got under way, she quickly became enamoured with her own history. Mind you, hers is quite interesting. While I am still a long way off completing the research, the several generations I have garnered information about have thrown out a few curve balls. One branch of the tree is sending up road blocks left, right and centre, the other is juicy, juicy, juicy. Thus far I have found a divorce in 1916, together with several visits to the Royal Park Hospital for the Insane. And I have only just started.

Making headlines. Trove coming up with the goods

What looked to be straightforward look into a couple in the late 1800s-early 1900s came to a few fuzzy points. The husband in question had (thankfully) left a will, and in it named a woman I was SURE wasn’t his wife. If she had of been, then I had failed dismally in my line of work. It turns out that the woman named in his will was indeed his wife, whom had predeceased him. This was odd; the woman I was looking for had died after her husband. After getting increasingly frustrated that I had made a wrong turn somewhere, I decided that maybe, just maybe there had been some scandal in the family. Could there have been a divorce? They were a rarity in the early twentieth century, however were known to happen. I quickly consulted the digitised divorce causes books from PROV (VPRS 5335/P5)

Voila! I found a case for the couple I was looking for. There it was, the cause of the question mark hanging over the confusing will and the separate living quarters listed on numerous census lists. Over 50 pages detailed that the husband divorced his wife - who was not present at the trial - under the reasoning of ‘desertion’. The husband’s case detailing his ‘desertion’ argument, included the particulars about his wife’s admittance to the Royal Park Hospital for the Insane and her unwillingness to share the marital bed. I eagerly read through the whole case, wishing that there would be an argument from the wife in her defence. Alas, there was not and one can only assume her side of the story.

The research is still underway, and with all other genealogical research, it will never be completed (currently finding ancestors in Switzerland and France). I am sure, like most families, there are plenty more skeletons in the closet.

Thanks to the invaluable records available through PROV, and in particular their digitised records (divorce causes book, wills up until 1925) and their newly digitised wills and probate index, I have been able to begin to flesh out what looks to be an intriguing record of a family.

 

Phoebe

Tragedy strikes

Inquest file held at PROV VPRS 24/P0/1005 1921/390

 

 

 

 

There's always an element of sadness in death. Yes, that may be the most obvious statement one could make. However, hear me out. People often say that they don't want their passing to be mourned, that they would like a celebration worthy of the life they lead.
So, quite a while ago when a story was passed on to me that my great grandfathers twin brother died due to an accident as a child, I didn't think much of it. Yes, it was an incredibly sad thought that a child could die, a twin could be taken away by an accident and the fact that a child had pre-deceased their parents, however it was long ago and really did not affect me in the present.
 

VPRS 24/P0/1005 1921/390

Last week I decided to look further into the Taylor side of my tree and inevitably not far up in the branches came upon my great grandfather. I thought I would look at him more thoroughly, but without a will and not much else to go on except stories and/or myths which have flitted down like leaves, I bypassed and went onto the other members of his family. Here, Arthur Rossmore Taylor re-appeared. Starting from the end of his life I ordered the inquest into his death to view at the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) reading room. Arthur was my great grandfather Henry's twin brother and from what I can gather from his birth registration number, it was likely he was the younger of the two. Henry and Arthur were born in 1908 to George and Eva Taylor, a grazing family who resided in Victoria's Western district, in places such as Bambra and Birregurra.
Being such a long time ago, I assumed I'd be immune to the effects an inquest would have on me. Boy, was I mistaken. 

In 1921, at the age of 12 years and 11 months old Arthur was riding on his pony accompanied by Mr McLaughlin, a partner of his father's on the farm.

Lionel with his grandmother Eva 'Ning' Taylor

Casually riding bareback and with no more than a canter in his stride Arthur fell from the horse, hitting his head. Mr McLaughlin proceeded to carry an injured and dazed Arthur to the house where his mother tended to his injured head and put him to bed. Arthur was restless, fever-some and had a lack of appetite, however by the next day he seemed to have improved and asked for some food. It was shortly after this he lost consciousness and subsequently passed away. Dr Hope was summoned, and regrettably had to pronounce the young boy dead on arrival.
What struck me most about this inquest, was apart from the utter devastation the family must have felt that their son and brother had passed away and the fact that maybe they should have called for the doctor earlier, was the fact that the inquest reports included handwritten reports from Arthur's father George and Mr McLaughlin. George had just lost his son and had to sit down and write out minute by minute in detail the events of the day and the circumstances leading to his death. They would then have to go and bury their son and brother. 

Baby Mandy with Eva Taylor, mother of Arthur & Henry, c. 1961

So when I say that there is always an element of sadness in death, what I am referring to, is that regardless of the time that has passed, and in this case, close to a century, most people would be affected by the death of someone so young and the circumstances surrounding his passing.

Lionel with his father Henry. Henry's twin brother Arthur died of an accident in 1921.

Walking for a cause

Sorry for the hiatus, but life has been busy the last few months. I have returned to study and am neck high in historical matter. Attending the Family History Feast at the State Library of Victoria in conjunction with National Family History Month. I have also started my first real full-time historian job, which I absolutely LOVE! So life is busy.



1920s glamour

I can hear you all asking how the 1920s dinner party went. Well, wonder no more. The soiree went off without a hitch; all guests were gussied up to the nines and looked spectacular. We were suitably fed and watered and danced the Charleston to the wee hours. All in all it was a wonderful night.

 

A worthy cause

Anyway, I am not here to detail the night’s events. However, I am here to share another story with you.



My family. Walking for Parkinson's disease.

Tomorrow will be a special and significant day for my family. Tomorrow is the annual 'A Walk in the Park'; a fundraising event to help raise funds to provide support services for people affected by Parkinson’s disease. The event, which is run by Parkinson's Victoria is a leisurely 4km walk from Federation Square in Melbourne and will hopefully raise much needed funds.

There are hundreds, thousands of charities doing great work around Australia and the world, and it can be an overwhelming thing to be faced with a plethora of different organisations asking for money for the work they do. But Parkinson’s is close to my heart.

Sadly, in May last year my grandfather Lionel passed away. Lionel was a gentle and kind soul. He was also living with Parkinson’s disease. In life and death people have spoken fondly of my grandfather, of his gentle nature and kind heart. It’s a wonder the poor man didn’t go mad, surrounded by women his whole life, three daughters and three granddaughters, who all loved and adored him. Luckily for him, the numbers began to balance with the inclusion of two sons-in-law.

Lionel was born in Winchelsea, western Victoria in 1931. The first child for Laura and Harry Taylor, he was then closely followed by his younger brother Arthur. The two boys were best friends and got up to great amounts of mischief together on the land. Harry was away for long periods of time, working as a shearer throughout parts of Victoria and New South Wales. It was up to Laura to raise the two boys as a single mother through the 1930s and 40s Australia. By about the age of four, Laura moved with her two sons to Bambra to live with her sister and brother-in-law on their property. The boys attended Bambra School and were so close in age that they were in the same class. By 1944 the family had moved back to Winchelsea and then on to Terang where both Lionel and Arthur attended secondary school. It was then on to a tertiary education for both boys, Lionel going on to do a shearing machine course and Arthur to teachers college.

Lionel was a car and motor enthusiast. He spent much of his younger years involved with the Western District Car Club in Geelong. Through his passion and talent he started an apprenticeship at Winkler’s Motors in Geelong. It was from Mr Winkler that many years later Lionel took over ‘S. G. Winklers’ in Star Street, Geelong and spent his years realising his passion of fixing and selling anything from Fiat’s to whipper snippers, anything with a motor. Always dressed in his blue greasy overalls, he would appear every morning and afternoon wheeling his motor mowers to and from the workshop for people to peruse.

In retirement, my grandparents Lionel and Judy would travel. Overseas, around Australia and up the highway, the pair would travel far and wide to explore the world and always come back to see their children and grandchildren. As well as travel the pair was involved in a number of groups. Amongst other things Lionel was a committed Masonic Lodge man, as well as volunteering his time and services to the Andrew Love Cancer Centre in Geelong. He was a devoted family (and car) man and will always be remembered fondly for his love of a good whisky, the sounds of Acker Bilk and tinkering with anything that required fixing (or not).

So, tomorrow we will be walking in memory of Pa and hoping to raise awareness and funds for Parkinson's Victoria and the amazing work that they undertake.

If you would like to know more about Parkinson's Victoria or donate to the cause.

Flappers and fellas



Graduating from UNE, April 2013

Wow, I really have been under the radar for the past couple of months. Life has been busy for this genealogist. Finally graduating from the University of New England with my Advanced Diploma in Local, Family & Applied History, I had the urge to expand my knowledge and recently enrolled in the Bachelor of Historical Inquiry and Practice through UNE, which I will begin in a few short weeks. Fruitless job hunting efforts (anyone in need of a genealogist??), helping out at a friend’s cafe, archiving decade’s worth of accounting work, waitressing at the odd wedding and assisting with the overwhelming job of packing up and relocating the Geelong Heritage Centre. All the while trying to organise dinner party with a 1920s theme. It has been busy!!

Amuri's recipe books from
 throughout the 20th century

It’s all about The Great Gatsby. And hey, if Baz Luhrmann can pull it off, surely I can host the 1920s-esque dinner party of the century.  If truth be told, I have neither read, nor seen F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work about just how great Gatsby was, nor was it the pomp and pizzazz of the recent movie release that inspired me to host a dinner centred around this ostentatious decade. It actually came about during another cupboard clean out and the discovery of a couple of notebooks filed with newspaper clippings and handwritten recipes belonging to my great grandmother throughout the twentieth century. It seems that she and a friend, Mrs Shannon constantly exchanged recipes through that archaic form of correspondence – snail mail. These recipes consisted of everything from drop scones (pikelets), potted meats, jellied tongue and even ‘Wurrook Fluff’. It fascinated me. There is a published pamphlet of recipes compiled by Amuri and a Mrs Champ of recipes called ‘Barwon Heads: Favourite Recipes’, which raised and donated funds for the Barwon Heads Branch of the Red Cross Society and the Auxiliary for the Blind, two groups my great grandmother was a fanatical patriot for.



Amuri with Tom & Erica
outside 'Wurrook', c. 1927.

Amuri with Erica in the car, c. 1928.

Along with planning the menu, I have had the fascinating task of researching the fashion of the era, this inevitably started with the requisite Google search and found opulence and glamour in an era coming out of the devastation of the First World War and prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Google search aside, I did a little personal research of my own and discovered some family photos of my great grandparents. Very fashionable in their fox furs, glamorous jewels and chauffeur driven cars, with and without two children in tow, the Russell’s were the epitome of 1920s (and beyond) opulence.

 

So in a few weeks time I will try and replicate my version of the 1920s with cuisine, cocktails and clothing of the decade. I will attempt to make the night as close as possible to the time, even pulling out some of the family silverware (Silvo come at me) for serving and the odd outfit from the archives (yes, items belonging to my great grandmother, possibly with a slight odour of moths).

 

1920s wedding party. Tom Russell at left, Eric & Amuri fifth from right.

I am off to plan the menu, test the Mint Juleps and Gin Rickeys before beginning Dry July and taking-on prohibition and fundraising for Geelong’s Andrew Love Cancer Centre.

Wish me luck!

 

Please feel free to support my Dry July bid, where proceeds raised will go to Andrew Love Cancer Centre, Geelong. Search for Phoebe Wilkens to directly donate to the cause.

It's a nice day for a white wedding

It seems that I have been on hiatus for a while. But no fear, I have returned!! I can feel the excitement and enthusiasm radiating through your computers right now as you read this (wishful thinking?).

 

The Taylor-Hughes’

Just yesterday my grandparents would have celebrated their 53^rd wedding anniversary. Sadly, my grandfather Lionel passed away in May last year, so he was missed, but remembered by all of his family yesterday. However, he did spend fifty-two married years with my grandmother Judy, plus a few more on top of that ‘courting’.


'Just Married': Lionel & Judy with their wedding party, 1960.

On 27 February 1960 Judith Heather Hughes walked down the aisle of Christ Church in Moorabool Street, Geelong followed by her bridesmaid, Dorothy Barnes. Judy was wearing a magnolia satin gown with a tulip neckline while Miss Barnes was wearing an avocado green satin sheath dress with an interesting back panel and a Dior bow.[1] Waiting at the other end of the aisle was Lionel Taylor accompanied by his best man and brother Arthur Taylor. The men were looking dapper in their black tuxedos and bow ties. After this happy affair and the ‘I do’s’ had been signed, sealed and delived, the couple went on a honeymoon to Sydney. Eventually driving to their final destination, they stopped in at the Savoy in Spencer Street for their first night as a married couple before making their way to New South Wales.

Cutting the cake: Lionel and Judy Taylor.

Once married and returned to reality the couple moved in to their first home in Herne Hill where they started a family and lived for nearly 30 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wilkens-Russells

A few years earlier on 19 October 1957 at St Georges Presbyterian Church, Geelong, Eric Russell walked his only daughter Erica down the aisle to wed Hank Wilkens. Erica wore a gown of magnolia delustred brocade with a cowl neckline and long lily point sleeves. An orange blossom half circlet on the back of her hair held a lovely old Carrick Macross lace veil, which the bride’s mother [Amuri] had worn at her wedding.[2] After the lavish ceremony followed the even more extravagant reception which was held at the brides’ parents home in Barwon Heads in a large marquee adorned with flowers. The guests consisted of friends, family and ‘society’s’ glamorous couples eating and drinking in celebration of Erica and Hank’s marriage.

 

 

 

Above: The new Mr & Mrs Wilkens, 1957.

Left: Hank and Erica signing the registry.

 

However, it wouldn’t be worth talking about if there wasn’t some ‘skeleton’. Not spoken about so freely was the fact that Erica had previously been engaged in somewhat of a ‘society match’ before she met Hank who had emigrated from the Netherlands in the early 1950s. What was also never discussed was the fact that Hank had been married before in his native Netherlands. Ultimately that marriage ended in divorce not long before he left permanently for Australia. Regardless of these previous relationships Hank and Erica were happily married for over thirty years before Hank passed away in the early 1990s.

The next generation

A few decades later on Saturday 19 February 1983 Andrew Wilkens, younger son of Hank and Erica and Amanda Taylor, eldest daughter of Lionel and Judy were married at St Johns’ Church in West Geelong. In all things 80s, especially following the resplendent wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana a few years earlier, the Taylor-Wilkens wedding had undertones of the royals. Flanked with four bridesmaids draped in marshmallow pink chiffon and four groomsmen dressed in tuxedos and bow ties. Their wedding photos were posed in the Geelong Botanic Gardens draped on an empty water fountain surrounded by brown crunchy grass. The wedding date had fallen in the middle of an extremely hot summer and a few days after the devastating Ash Wednesday bushfires which engulfed parts of Victoria. Their wedding reception was held at Kirrewur Court in Geelong, the same place that Lionel and Judy celebrated their wedding. Amanda and Andrew left their reception and boarded a plane to the ultra ‘exotic’ Bali for their honeymoon for two weeks.

Above: Amanda & Andrew and wedding party, 1983.

 

 

Weddings are an exciting time and for my forbearers have been the start of a new chapter, the meshing of families and the beginning to new generations.

 

I could go on, and maybe I will make it a two-parter. Stay tuned for the sequel.

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[1] Geelong Advertiser, 1960.

[2] Ibid., 1957.