Pigeon post works better

Today, it is the computer running at miniscule speed but mostly failing altogether. Yesterday, it was the new mobile phone which drove me insane. Oh for the days when everything was simple. I remember when my Doe grandparents finally moved to an area where they could have a phone. You just picked up the receiver and turned the handle on the phone. The exchange would answer and you would be connected by real people. All down the line, you could hear them passing on your request until finally, the person you had called, would answer. My grandparents number was Wilmot 41. No fancy strings of number that noone would ever remember. When you finished, you simply hung up. At home, we had 4 numbers and unfortunately they were similar to the local taxi company so we had lots of people ringing for taxis. Still, we just dialled a number and it worked. My new phone has a touch screen which just sits there. I touch it and get no reaction, so I try again, and again. The green line moves across and just sits there, then the phone turns off again. I try again and again. I get a call  but 10 seconds later, the call cuts out. This happens time and time again. My messages don't send. This is modern technology. My phone came with an instruction manual, written so small that it is impossible to read comfortably. The page numbers are in the negative, little white numbers in a grey square - impossible to read.
Finally, I went back to the shop and presented the phone. I am told it does not work aand that all these problems are a result of it having too much loaded on it.
 "Do you use all these programs?" I am asked
"No, I don't even know what they all do."
The extra programs are removed and suddenly the phone starts to function reasonably.
Why were all these programs there? I am told that they are automatically on the phone when you buy it. I cannot believe that Mr Samsung is selling a phone which is designed to fail. What is the point of having a phone with all these functions, if it stops the phone from working? And why are they loaded on there? And why is the instruction book so useless?
Bring back the good old days.

The mystery of Amelia

Amelia and Norah

 Amelia and daughter Norah are pictured about 1911. They look content and happy. This is really a very gentle photo. Discovering Amelia's story was not easy. At first I was given a few verbal details: she was born at Paradise, she married young and her husband left her with three tiny children. Fred Elwin was engaged to build a small hut for her and her children on her father's property at Narrawa near Wilmot. She later followed Fred to W A and he possibly married her at some time.
Later I received a written piece from one of her children, which outlined most of this and backed up most of the story. Some of it has turned out to be true, but it is the missing pieces which add mystery and make the family historian's search so interesting. Amelia had a sister Mary Ann also known as Twinnie. She was called Twinnie according to story because (1) she and Amelia looked so alike or (2) they shared one dress, each wearing it on alternate days so that one of them could go to school. It is possible that there were two dresses the same but the basis for these stories can never be truly known.
I discovered through BDM indexes, that Amelia had been married and become a mother at the age of 16, very young by today's standards but quite common at that time.(and earlier than my correspondents had realised).

Amelia and 2 friends

Following up the Chiplin family became my next interest and I found records in BDM indices, newspapers and electoral rolls. They had lived in N W Tasmania and had moved to the West Coast. There were marriage breakups, sad deaths of parents and young children but no more mention of Charles Chiplin, whom, I had been told had gone to W A and had wandered into the desert and (died?) disappeared. The family story was definitely that he had died. Some members of the family were quite sure he had never gone to W A at all. However, electoral rolls from 1910 onwards showed me that Amelia, Charles and some of his relatives had all gone to Western Australia and had lived in close proximity.

Suddenly, in 1910 a newspaper announcement gave news of the separation of Charles and Amelia, shortly after she had given birth to a child to Fred Elwin.(Norah). Fred and Amelia went on to have another 5 children before she divorced Charles on the grounds of desertion many years later. The puzzles which cannot be easily solved are: what happened between the initial separation around 1900 and 1910 when Norah was born and why did she wait so long to divorce him? Why did Amelia and Charles both go to W A if they were separated and did she follow Fred Elwin over there? All we know is that she had arrived before January 1906.

Charles at some time returned to Tasmania and did not die in the desert as I had been told, but in hospital at Latrobe in 1943. Fortunately, his death notice named enough relatives to confirm his identity both in Tasmania and in W A. I thank the person who put the notice together!

Many of the stories historians gather have elements of truth and some creative facts. Amelia's has been one of them.

Norah and Co

Every now and then a picture with real character crops up. For me this is one of them. It is the family of Amelia, daughter of Ephraim the younger and grand daughter of Ephraim the Elder (convict). The trees in the background are so much the essence of the Australian bush. Dressing up in your best clothes and looking good was so important in Australia's past, no matter where you were. I love the little sailor suits too. It is Norah who intrigues me the most. Her black stockings teamed with a white dress, her hat, completely covering her forehead and her stance, arms folded and leaning slightly back, her feet planted slightly apart, give her a certain aura, a bit of mystery.
The brothers at the back look a bit cheeky and confident, Rose seems rather gentle and Gordon and Syd, a couple of imps. These were the second part of Amelia's family; she married twice and had nine children in all. This photo was probably one of several sent back to her family in Tasmania and New Zealand to show how her family was growing.

Bonnet for Eliza

I recently attended a textile workshop where I tried out a few new ideas. One of the items discussed was the use of shellac to seal pens, inks and colours into fabric. This took me back to the days at school when we threw ourselves into the restoration of our desks at the end of the year. The wooden desk top was home to all manner of graffiti. With pen, pencil and ink, designs and pictures were scratched deeply through the varnished surface. Each desk was identifiable by the signature designs of its owner. Come Christmas or sometimes another term end, we were armed with sandpaper and the teacher watched as we obliterated all signs of the boredom which had caused this detriment to the furniture. Dust rose in the air, covered our hands and choked our throats as we sanded deeper and deeper. Finally, we were confronted with a pale smooth, clear and light surface. On went the shellac which soaked into the wood and left a golden and shiny glow. Once dried, we polished till out muscles ached, each student vying with the next to  create the more perfect surface. Finished at last, we knew with satisfaction that there was a clean slate for the new term.


Roses for the Heart, Eliza Downey



At my workshop we explored a couple of different methods of transferring designs onto fabric. It led me to finally finishing off some more bonnets for the Roses from the Heart project. This one is for my great, great grandmother Eliza Downey who married Thomas Smith. Eliza was a nursemaid in Dublin before being transported and was a dressmaker at the time of her marriage to Thomas. The tiny buttons represent the babies she cared for and the clothing her occupation at marriage. The boots represent her children, Thomas and Charles who were shoemakers and the daughters Hannah and Sarah who wore the boots. Thomas was the father of Ivy Smith who became the wife of Roland Doe

On the Road to Matrimony

A hand written note amongst Nan Doe's postcards dated 27 January 1907

"On the Road to Matrimony
12 Nods = 1 smile
12 smiles = 1 meeting
20 meetings= 1 kiss
500 kisses = 1 proposal
2 proposals = 1 engagement
1 engagement = 1 marriage
1 marriage = 30 years misery
30 years misery = 1 funeral
1 funeral = happiest day in a man's life"

Seems to me that it's a long way to the first kiss. Considering that at that time people were married quite young, Ten thousand kisses means that they had to be going at it pretty well to get to the proposal. Just how long does that take? And why is it the happiest day of a man's life? What if she outlives him?
obviously, women's lib was some way in the future.

Arrival in Paradise

“God was their Rock” by Alan Dyer tells the story of the visit by evangelists into Tasmania. Brown and Moyse had come to the Circular Head district in 1872 and in August 1874, they arrived in Sheffield. It was very much a pioneer town. Bullocks with loaded drays would get bogged in the main street. People had to swim to cross rivers. Falling limbs from the many ring barked trees posed a constant threat to safety. The first post office had been built here in 1862 and a general store opened soon after. A school had been established.  Some residents attended the Wesleyan Church but most people lived without the support of any Christian guidance. When Brown (from England) and Moyse (Scotland) began preaching in houses, people listened. Meetings had to be moved to barns and held more often, so great was the interest in the message these preachers were delivering. Whether the message rang true for him, or he was swept up in the general euphoria, on the 7^th July, Ephraim the Younger joined their ranks along with about 90 other people. He had mentioned at his father’s trial several years earlier that he had never been to Church, Chapel or school and did not know what a bible was. The young Ephraim took that book and his formal education began. He learned the stories and at the age of 20, now began to learn to read. The Bible was to be his first “primer.”

Other families also joined the Christian Brethren movement. Among them were members of the Knowles family, including the Walker family. At the age of 23, Ephraim the Younger married Caroline Byron, daughter of Caroline Walker. He was now a farmer, and his address “Paradise.”

Life in the North West

Last time I wrote about Ephraim and Bridget, Ephraim had just been taken off to Port Arthur. Bridget was exonerated, but was she returned to her children or left in Launceston and had to make her way back to them. Ephraim had relinquished his property at Bishopsbourne, so where did they go?
My guess is that they moved further along the coast. Ephraim had been given a 15 year sentence so they would have had to effectively plan a life without him. The most likely jobs for women would have been in housework, laundry or sewing. Unfortunately, houseowners, lessees and men were most likely to leave behind a record of their being, and Bridget was none of these.
Ephraim was released after 7 1/2 years and I have been unable to find any trace of the family for the whole of this time. The place he reappeared after that time was at Sheffield, in the North West, where he purchased a block of land only three months after leaving PA. Had he kept money from the disposal of his Bishopsbourne property? The money earned at Port Arthur was hardly enough. Had he met up with Bridget again? Bridget lived for only eight more years, while Ephraim lived for another nineteen but they left little evidence of their lives.
Three months after the property at Sheffield was purchased, it was transferred into the name of Ephraim the Younger. What was the purpose of this? Did they build a hut or house there/ Did they even live on the property?
The North West Coast was still quite isolated as far as roads were concerned. Transport into the area was mainly by ship and there were wooden ketches travelling all along the area, pulling into wharves built on the numerous rivers. Land was still being cleared for farming and dead forests stood tall, waiting for the timber to die and be felled. Houses were wooden huts, roads mainly just muddy tracks and much of the population ex convicts or their descendants. There were not quite so many sheep in this area, to tempt Ephraim back into his old ways, or perhaps he had learned his lesson. Dairying was more prevalent in this part of the country.
For the next really big influence on the lives of the Doe family it is necessary to look to religion. After all the years of unheeded services while a convict, Ephraim now lived with his son who was swept by the movement of the Christian Brethren.

G J Coles over the fence

I have just returned from a trip to the north of Tasmania where I visited the town of Wilmot yet again. I have had a couple of trips there recently. Although the weather was cool, the day was fine and sunny. Our target was the museum which has been set up in a little church and which proved to be really interesting. Along with displays of rural equipment and household items, there were folders of photos arranged in albums, which made it really easy to search for the ones you might be interested in. I found Auntie Bett in a newspaper article and a school photo which contained May, Roland and Charlie Doe. There was a photo of the original Coles Store with Ephraim the younger just squeezed into the side and a really large photo of Sylvena Carter who married Charlie Doe. There was not nearly enough time for me so I will have to go back again. I will contribute some items to the current stock but it will take a little while.
The Coles Store at Wilmot was the original in Australia. I am not sure how long George J Coles lived in Wilmot but he was Ephraim's next door neighbour and was the witness to his will. I wonder whether the two of them ever sat together and discussed George's vision of budget stores. They certainly would not recognise today's supermarkets and would have little idea how to use the many products.