Cuppa@Sues

In the early 90s, my mum's cousin Bob Spooner told me when he was a little boy, an important Spooner relative came to visit the family in Mildura, and he wore a dark blue jacket with shiny brass buttons and was called Captain. Couldn't remember when it was or his name. But he just loved the shiny buttons.  Poor Bob now has Alzheimer's disease. Three Spooner boys came to Australia from London in about 1885, but I have never found their immigration records. William Mason Spooner was the eldest, a boiler maker; Richard Mason Spooner, a sailor and my great grandfather Edward Mason Spooner, a box maker and carpenter. I first assumed Richard had progressed to wearing a uniform, and it was him! But no, he left Melbourne in a rush after an argument and went to the USA, where he was a steward on boats that travelled up and down the east coast. He died in San Francisco unmarried. Bob was born in 1940, so the visit would have been the mid to late 40s. You have to love Trove! Although ...

Minnie Burnim 1893 Ballyboley My great-grandmother Mary Ann Burnim, Minnie, lived for 25 years in Tenth Street Mildura in a house built for her by her elder sons. Her younger son Mathew Henry Hamilton lived in it with his family after she died in 1947. An old tin left in the back shed contained two small photo albums and a few loose photos with no names or dates written on them. A cousin pulled them out of the albums (sadly) and thought they were useless as no one recognised the people. Thus began a 20-year journey of searching and learning. Today my 2nd cousin Kaye and I can confidently name the people in most photos and have learnt skills in dating photographs, the history of fashions and hairstyles and about photographers. This photo, taken in the early 1860s, is of James Hamilton and his son William John with his wife, Margaret Ann Gilbert. They married in 1851 at the 2nd Ballyeaston Presbyterian Church. William was a farmer and stone mason, and they had a typical Ulster farm a...