Sepia Saturday 148: 20 Oct 2012

 

This photograph suggests to me two American policeman in plain clothes collaborating with two English policeman, passing over secret information!

As I don’t have any policeman or FBI in my family I’ve gone with a similar theme of men standing around together, this is a digital scrapbook layout I did a few years ago and it even has a bicycle in it!

Now that there is a lot more information available online I thought I would see if I can track down the person who wrote the postcard, this is what I found.

 

23/9/1911
Mrs Smart
Caversham
Dear Mother & Dad
In reply to your letter which I received the other day. I have been working overtime so I could not reply to it before. We get a holiday on Monday it is Dominion Day. Mr & Mrs Fox is up here just now and they called in to see me and I was very glad to see them too for it was a surprise to see them. I seen Mrs Porter when she was here but I did not have time to speak to her. I think this is all the news at present hoping mother is better by the time this P. C. reaches you and that dad is quite well for it leaves me the same at present.
I Remain Your Loving Son Austin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my great-grandmothers married an Amon Smart in 1906 but no it wasn’t her, she didn’t have a son named Austin. I had found the postcard in NZ so I presumed it was the Caversham in Dunedin. I found just one birth for an Austin Smart in NZ so that was a bit of luck.

NZ Births
1884/7755    Smart Austin Ernest Albert  Annie William Henry

NZ Marriages
1882/2411    Annie Munro  William Henry Smart
1913/2628    Mary Hammond Wright  Austin Ernest Albert Smart

NZ Deaths
1965/26669 Smart Mary Hammond  74Y
1966/40012 Smart Austin Ernest Albert  82Y

Austin Ernest Albert Smart was born 1884 to William Henry Smart & Annie nee Munro. In 1913 Austin married Mary Hammond Wright. Mary died in 1965 & Austin in the following year.

In 1957 Austin & Mary were living at 260 Rintoul St, Berhampore, Wellington, also living at the same address is Annie Joyce spinster, most probably their daughter. In 1963 they were still at the same address, this time with a possible son, Ernest clerk.

I wonder which one is Austin, if indeed any of them are? So there you have it, if anyone reading this at any time thinks they might be connected to the SMARTs do please leave a comment with your contact email address, I’d be delighted to send the postcard back home. Now pop on over to Sepia Saturday to see what other interesting stuff is on offer this week.

References: ancestry.com; NZ BMDs.

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Sepia Saturday 147: 13 Oct 2012

  

 

This somewhat informal photograph is of the 16th Reinforcements Papakura taken in 1945. My father, Private 272612 Ronald Charles Whitney is the second from left in the first row standing.

His time in the New Zealand Defence Forces lasted only 111 days. Although he was listed in the first ballot for service in 1940 he was a married man with children so he wasn’t called up until 23 May 1945. Within a few months they were getting ready to be shipped out overseas when the war ended, he was discharged on the 10 Sep 1945.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my small tribute to him & his brothers and indeed to all men who fought or lost their lives in the two World Wars.

Now pop on over to Sepia Saturday to see what the rest of the gang have to offer.

Sepia Saturday 146: 6 Oct 2012

 

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt instantly reminded me of this digital scrapbook layout I did a few years ago about a trip ‘home’ to England by my maternal grandparents. At the time all I had to go on was a copy of an old photograph in which I recognised my grandparents, the name of the ship in the photo and this message written on the first page of my mother’s bible:-

Grandma front right and Grandpa standing behind her with the hat on. It wasn’t until quite recently I found that it must have been the Otranto that they came home on as I found them on a passenger list (ancestry.com) arriving in England on 16 May 1929 on board the RMS Mataroa.

It was then I realised I was now able to date a few photographs I had of Grandpa with his family in England that my cousin had given me, this is one of him with his mother Jane who died a few years later in 1931. Jane was buried in St Mary’s Churchyard, Reigate, Surrey which is next door to Redhill, their proposed address on the passenger list.

 

From left: Courtney Parks, his nephew Alexander Black, Jane Parks (nee Skinner) & Alexander’s son.

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Now pop on over to Sepia Saturday to see more blog offerings for this week.

Sepia Saturday 145: 29 Sep 2012 – Errol Hugh Taylor

 

 

 

 

 

 

Antique and second-hand shops can see me coming a mile away, I’m quite sure of it! One day awhile ago we took a day trip to Cambridge and I was pleasantly surprised to find a few antique shops to rummage around in. I was even more surprised to come across an old Crichton d’Ora milestone photograph album exactly the same as one my parent’s had for me when I was growing up. I think most Aucklanders would have one in their home, they were very popular.

What fascinated me about this album is that it was for someone I vaguely remembered going to school with although he was a few years younger than I was, he lived in the street at the end of the street I lived in. Of course I couldn’t resist and so I purchased it, I thought I might be able to find some descendants who would love to have it back, thinking it would be easy if I wrote a small article for my ‘Strangers in a Box’ blog.

It turned out that Errol was born just 18 days before my younger sister, in the same hospital & with the same doctors. It also turned out that the home that Errol grew up in was exactly opposite the end of our street, how co-incidental is that!

However, after a little bit of research in the NZ BMDs I found that Errol had died in 2006 and it seems he may not have been married therefore won’t have any descendants, it also looks like he was an only child. He was still living in the same house his parents were living at when he was born, 25 Warnock St, Grey Lynn, up until 1981 which is where the NZ Electoral Rolls stop on ancestry. Apart from his parents living at the same address until they died he was the only one living at that address in all the rolls, at that stage he was nearly 40. So I need to go for a trip into our main library in the city to have a look at the more recent rolls to see if he married after that. In the meantime one of his photos in his album is the closest I can get to this weeks Sepia Saturday prompt!

Errol aged 8, just joined the Richmond Rovers Rugby League Midget Team, and aged 12 with his club blazer on.

Apart from that little bit of information and the photos from the first 12 years of his life, I know very little else about Errol other than he was a carpenter. If anyone reading this knows a family member who would like to have his photograph album please do contact me at the address in my profile. It seems such a shame for it to have been languishing in an antique shop, but I guess that is the reason it was there, he didn’t have any family left to treasure it. RIP Errol.

Sepia Saturday 144: 22 September 2012

The prompt this week is focused on the man with the missing head in the photo above.

                                   Three sisters, all dressed up for a beheading!

Taken about early 1950, that’s me with the scabby knee on the right. We all knew which photos Dad had taken when they came back from the developers, he usually managed to cut our heads off! I don’t recall what sort of camera we had in those days but I’m guessing it was a Box Brownie, maybe even the one in this photo of me about 10 years later.

Oh the agony of waiting to finish the film, fumbling around in the dark to make sure you didn’t expose any of it when removing it from the camera, then waiting for what seemed liked weeks for them to come back from the developers to see if you actually had any good ones! Today we are so lucky to have the digital camera, view the photos instantly and if you don’t like it delete it and take another one!
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Okay, well that was nothing outstanding! I’ll try to do better next week, I’ll have a bit more time to rummage.

More contributions from other bloggers on this theme may be found on Sepia Saturday