Three Postcards

Tonight I want to talk about the Three Postcards. They came in the box of treasure from Linda Grumont that I've mentioned previously, and two of them are perfectly charming pieces of family history. The third is (EDIT: No longer) a head-scratching mystery.

The earliest of the three postcards is from 1921, and was sent from Hobart, Tasmania. Harlettee Louisa Groombridge signed the back of it, wishing her granddaughter Lottie a Happy New Year. Harlettee wouldn't actually see in the New Year, passing away in Kingston Tasmania on the 1st of October, 1921. Perhaps that is why this particular postcard was not thrown away - Lottie may not have even received it until after her Grandmother's death.

To my dear Grand Daughter Lottie wishing you and yours a happy new year from Grannie Rothery. Tasmania, 1921.

There are other letters in the box of treasure from around the same time, and they suggest there was ongoing correspondence between Harlettee and Lottie. Lottie was born Harlettee Margo Rush, daughter of Myrtle Turner and Francis Rush. She married a Mr Denehey. I believe at some point she took her son Alfred, changed their surnames to Turner, and moved to Alice Springs. I would love to hear from Alfred's descendants, or those of Lottie's 5 daughters who remained in Tasmania. Hopefully one day they may stumble across this blog.

The second ever-so-understandable postcard is a lovely thing to have. It is from Myrtle Rush (nee Turner), and she mailed it from Stompertoren, Holland, in 1950. My previous post, A Fortuitous Discovery, has the shipping record that shows her departing London on 6 September 1950 on her way home from that voyage. She had gone to see the final resting place of her only son, Francis William Rush, who was killed during the war. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission record his burial at the Oterleek (Stompertoren) Churchyard cemetery. I came across this wonderful site that gives an account of Francis's final mission and has pictures of his headstone, and of the memorial plaque installed in 1994.

The card says (in grey pencil)

Dear Linda & Hughie
Holland is lovely with all its lovely windmills & waterways.
(in black pen)
Went to Amsterdam yesterday & it was lovely. We are leaving here tomorrow hope we have a good trip across & hope that you & Hughie is much better love Myrtle xxx

I wonder who she was travelling with?

The third card is another of those crazy mysteries that this family love to keep throwing at me. It is a photo of a beautiful and new looking house The postcard has been cut along the left edge, but only a small sliver seems to be missing - less than a centimetre, I'd guess.

The inscription seems to be in Harlettee's handwriting, if you compare it to the first card, and it says

To Linda from her mother.

and then in larger writing

Our new home. 

Linda Grumont has added the words "Harlette" and "Nana's mother's home in Canada".

The address is filled out in Harlettee's handwriting

Mrs Captain Collister
Craigflower
Victoria
British Columbia 

Linda Grumont insisted that Harlettee had lived in Canada for a time with her husband, Captain Collister. That would have been a sixth husband hitherto unknown. It's possible that she married someone else overseas after William Rothery died in 1912, but she was still using the Rothery surname right up until her death in 1921.  Besides, this card looks like it was addressed to Mrs Captain Collister, Craigflower, Victoria, British Columbia - not from. As it is also addressed to "Dear Linda" from "her mother"; that would make Linda the addressee. Linda Collister? Also, is that an "s" next to Collister? Mrs Captain Collister's _what_?

Given that this postcard is in my possession, it either was never mailed to Canada, or it travelled back to Australia with its owner. Unlike the other cards, it hasn't been dated - I can only say that it must be from no later than the 1st of October, 1921, because that's when Harlettee died. Perhaps someday, someone will recognise the house, or will stumble across this entry while researching the Collisters of Craigflower, Victoria, BC, and we'll be able to compare notes to solve this little puzzle once and for all.

UPDATE! (already! it has only been 20 minutes!)
Google turned up this:

02/08/37 Collister, Rich, m, head, m, 12 Dec 1838, 63, ENG, to Can: 1876, Meth, Steam boat inspector.
……Rems: HOW3, p.827: In shipbuilding in Liverpool, ENG & Brisbane, AUS, to Victoria 1875, d.Victoria, 1908.
02/08/38 Collister, Elizabeth, f, wife, m, 12 Aug 1831, 60, ENG, to Can: 1877, CE.
……Rems: Age & yr. born as entered. RBCR: Collister, Elizabeth, 89 y, 26 Jan 1923 at Victoria, b.ENG. DN, Times, 27 Jan 1923, p.9: Mrs Elizabeth Collister, wid of Capt. R. Collister, former inspector of hulls, b.LAN, ENG, 12 Aug 1833, d. at res. Craigflower Rd, leaves sons: John R. Collister (d.A1, p.18, l.41), Victoria & Wm. H.R. Collister (d.17, p.6, l.44), Vancouver; daus: Mrs John Barnsley (d.18, p.10, l.11), Vancouver; Mrs N.G. Douner, Victoria & Mrs H.O. (Harry Oxenborough) Miles, Long Beach, CA, USA.

On a hunch I searched Ancestry.com for "collister" and "rothery", and lo and behold, I found this:

Rothery was the surname of Harlettee's fifth and final husband. Judging by these dates, this could well be his sister. It even says that she died at her home on Craigflower Rd (I guess "Rd" was what was written in that missing centimetre of card). Perhaps Linda Grumont was right about Harlettee going to Canada - but rather than living there, perhaps she just visited her sister in law?

This all makes sense now! Mrs Captain Collister, nee Rothery, the sister in law of Harlettee Rothery, nee Groombridge must have sent the photo of her new house to Harlettee, who then forwarded it on to her daughter Linda and wrote Mrs Collister's address on it. This must be the house in Craigflower Road, Victoria, British Columbia that Mrs Collister lived in until her death in 1923. Case: Closed!

Read More

The Ladies in the Photos

I wish I knew more about this photo!

It came from Linda Grumont and she's the one who has written (and scribbled out) names on it. Eventually she settled on the left one being Auntie Annie (Marianne Smith, who married Thomas Talbot), and the right one being Auntie Ettie (Henrietta Smith, who married William Gavin). I don't put a lot of stock in that because one of the names she initially wrote (and crossed out) is Auntie Clara. That would be Clarabell Turner, who died at the age of 3, and is therefore absolutely not the subject of the photos.

Someone once told me the outfits are not inconsistent with the 1880s. Ettie died at the age of 20 in that decade, so this wouldn't rule her out.

I think the photos may both be of the same woman, although it could be sisters with a very strong resemblance. It could be one (or two) of Linda Grumont's grandmother's sisters (another daughter of Harlettee Groombridge), as she said, but I don't see how we'll ever know.

Read More

Bonus Post

I grabbed some images to add to my previous post and didn't use them. I thought I'd post them here so it wasn't an entirely wasted effort -grin-.

Melinda Elvina Smith, aka Linda Stapleton Smith was married three times - to William Henry Gavin, then James Patrick Walsh, and finally to Hugh Simmons. She was a half-sister to my great grandfather and lived across the road from him circa the 1930s/1940s. They died just a few weeks apart, though I don't know if they kept in touch with each other.

Linda Smith's son from her first marriage had two daughters. One died young. The other lost her mother at an early age and went to live with Linda. Her name was also Linda, and her married name was Linda Grumont. When I met her in the early 2000s she was close to 90 years old, and as sharp as a tack. She was the person who gifted me the box of letters, and a huge pile of photographs of Linda, and Linda's half sister Myrtle, and of Linda's daughter Doris. It is a treasure trove, and it almost feels bottomless.

These photos from the box are said to be of Linda Stapleton Smith. There are no notations of date or location on any of them.

Read More

A Man of Mystery

Robert David Stapleton, who were you? You are an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in incomplete and/ or inaccurate documentation.

The births of Marianne (Annie), Henrietta (Ettie or Hettie), William, Frederick (Freddie), and Melinda (Linda, or Linnie) Smith were all registered in Tasmania, and all recorded as the children of William Henry Smith and Harlettee Louisa Groombridge. When Harlettee married William Turner in 1883, she was using the surname Smith and she had recorded on the marriage certificate that she had been widowed in July 1882.

Yet somehow, in adulthood, the children of William Smith began leaving his name out and instead listing their father as Robert David Stapleton.

It hadn't started yet when Henrietta died in 1889. On the death certificate for Hettie Gavin, nee Henrietta Smith, her father's name is given as William Smith, and his profession as tailor.

It hadn't started in 1891 when Linda Smith married her first husband, William Henry Gavin. That marriage certificate records that her father was William Henry Smith.

Yet later certificates, including her death certificate, say Robert David Stapleton.

This is her second marriage certificate:

This is the certificate from Linda's third marriage, to Hugh Simmons. Father: Robert David Stapleton, Gentleman (deceased).

Two of Linda's children appear to have been named in memory of Robert Stapleton - her son's middle name was Robert, and her daughter's was Roberta.

When Marianne married Thomas Talbot in 1913, it was as Marianne Stapleton Smith. Her death certificate is another document where the elusive Mr Stapleton is named as father, after she died in Victoria in 1917.

Frederick married Jane Magner and they had a son in 1890 named Frederick Stapleton Smith, yet Fred Snr's death certificate in 1919 says his father was William Smith.

Stapleton didn't entirely appear out of the blue when his children were adults. William Smith is recorded as William Henry Smith's son, but his name in the birth records is William G. Stapleton Smith. There is also a record of the death of a 5 year old boy in Tasmania in 1877 named Robert Stapleton Smith, but no information is given about his parents and I can't find a corresponding birth record.

I was given a box of old documents, and it contains this:

It is a completed application for a birth certificate for Robert David Stapleton, dated 1950, and it has been stamped Paid. The corresponding certificate was not in the box, and I don't know if it was found or not. I can't find a birth record that matches those details in the records that available to me. The really curious thing about this is that the applicant is M. Rush. That is Myrtle Rush, daughter of Harlettee Groombridge... and William Turner. She was born in 1889, long after Harlettee's previous husband died.

Myrtle and I clearly weren't the only ones wanting to find Mr Stapleton. This was also in the box:

It's dated 1973 so it is a response to an application made after Myrtle had passed away. I think perhaps the lady who gave me the documents, Linda Grumont, had been trying to track him down. She was the granddaughter of Melinda Smith, or Linda Stapleton, or Gavin, or Walsh, or Simmons. No record of his death between 1881 and 1885 was found in the Victorian Registry Office as a result of this enquiry. I haven't found it either.

So... was Robert Stapleton a real person? Was it an alias? Was he the real father of Harlettee's children with William Smith? Was he also the father of Myrtle Rush (nee Turner), and is that why she was trying to find his birth record? Was he an invention of someone to serve some purpose? Was he the real father of all the children from Harlettee's relationship with William Turner? After all, William was a man aged in his 70s at the time of their marriage, and around 76 years of age when the youngest child, Myrtle, was born. WHO WAS ROBERT DAVID STAPLETON?

I don't think I'll ever have the answers to these questions. The people who knew have all gone on ahead, and those who are left just have these odd, elusive clues that don't add up to a whole story.

Read More