Trip to Paradise

 Long the road we drove and looked up the hill. We could see a saddle between two slight hills. That is where the Doe house was situated at Paradise. Several other blocks of land belonged to the family and were owned at different times by other members of Caroline's family.

After all my excitement, a black and white cow, a car body and a hills hoist marked the spot where Ephraim and Caroline had their house. The bright line along the ground is the remains of the cement foundations. This area would have been solid timber when they first moved in and was seen as ideal farm land. It was surrounded by places named Beulah, The Promised Land and other Biblical names. There is even a place called Ephraim's Gate. Many of the local inhabitants joined the Christian Brethren  and meetings were held in various homes. The forest made the district very prone to bushfires and the condition of the roads made transport very difficult. Many families moved on. This is the house where the Doe family lived. The photo was taked many years after they had left. The shingle roof had been covered with iron but just near the front of the house, a missing piece reveals the original shingles.

Living in Paradise.

FOr about 15 years, Caroline and Ephraim the Younger farmed at Paradise. I was informed that the foundations to their house were still there and with map in hand, family in tow, went off to find the historic ruins. Turn left at the Church was the instruction. We stopped to have a closer look before turning and discovered a little wooden building with an outhouse at the back, an original pit toilet and it certainly smelt like it. With handkerchiefs over our noses, we hopped back in the car and puttered on up the hill. Another left turn and we were almost there. I could feel the spirits in the air. It was a historical moment. Again, something was not quite right. Along the ground were vestiges of cement blocks, my ruins. Also marking the spot was a dead car body, a black and white cow and a broken Hills hoist; not the romantic idea I had had in my head. It was hard to believe that my ancestors had lived there under the shadow of Mount Roland, clearing the forest, fighting the elements and gaining spiritual comfort from their membership of the Christian Brethren Church. Ephraim was one of eight signatories to the deeds when a new church was built and was very involved. Caroline's brother William was also living in the district and was a member. Unfortunately, women in their position left very few records other than the endless registrations as thier many children arrived. Caroline gave birth to most of her 12 children in the district. She would have worried, along with her husband over the floods, the crops, the health of the cattle and the fires which ravaged these forest areas. Caroline was busy raising a family, keeping house and simply providing for all. On their property was another small hut, separate from their house. Here lived Ephraim's father after his release from Port Arthur. It seems that he also farmed some of the land as there are entries in his son's diary which show that he did paid work for E Doe. As he would have not paid himself, this is the most likely answer. In the mid nineties, the family decided that Paradise was not all that they wanted. Ephraim was interested in fossicking for minerals and had ventured wider. Perhaps this was the reason for their move to Wilmot where they were among the early settlers. At first they rented land but then built their own home. Ephraim still farmed and Caroline raised more children. Some of her older ones were already married and had children of their own. In 1903, Caroline was again pregnant, this time with her 13th. There are a couple of stories held by different family members. One is that she was kicked in the stomach by a cow, another that she had "kidney fits". A doctor was sent for but could do nothing. On January 6th, 1903, Caroline passed away. Her official cause of death "toxaemia". Ephraim was left on his own with his children, the youngest, not yet a year old.

Mrs Caroline Doe

A fuzzy photo, an obvious copy from a previous version, tells little of this lady, my great grandmother, Caroline Byron. Her life was short, only 43 years, but it was a hard one. Caroline was born in Launceston, the eldest child of Caroline (nee Walker) and John Byron. One of the big mysteries of my research has been the disappearance of John Byron. Three children were born of this union, then John disappeared, just went ............. I have checked every record imaginable but the difficulty is that the name John Byron was used by a few other people, one of them the poet who seems to have hogged the limelight as far as John Byrons go. One thing seems to crop up when distant relatives are asked for any clues. Everyone associates him with the sea. He was in the Navy (did we have one in 1858?). He was a sea captain. He went away to sea and kept other women in other places. John Byron was obviously educated. He confidently signed his name on his marriage certificate but on the birth records of his three children he is listed as a labourer - no mention of the sea. However, young Caroline began her life living at Robin Hood Wells on the banks of the Don River in Northern Tasmania, where her father worked at Don Sawmills. Possibly he worked on the ships which plied the timber trade along the coast and across Bass Strait. Caroline was not to know him for long. By the time she was three or four years old, he was gone. Caroline gained a new father, Frederick Bishop and a brother Henry, but before she could blink, her new father was dead. Ten years later, father number three, George Smith arrived and three more children were added to the family. By this time, Caroline would have been old enough to be thinking about going out to work. In 1878, she became the wife of Ephraim Doe the younger. Together they made a home at Paradise, but how much paradise was it for her? Caroline shows no more expression than the Mona Lisa. It is hard to tell what she was thinking.

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