Taphophile Tragics #45

I see graves like this frequently, all too frequently. However, that sounds censurious, and who am I to cast stones. Speaking of stones ... Gladys Amy McDonald died in November 1956. She doesn't sound Jewish, nor does she sound 'continental'. So ... why the pebbles? And why the pattern? Although they look recent, have a close look around the base of the pebbles, at the build up of mould and soot. They have been there quite some time. In the Cemetery Index for Point Clare, Gladys is only recorded as having a father (Harry) and a mother (Amelia). The birth records for the state of New South Wales can only be searched up until 1911, and she was not born prior to that, well not in NSW at least. Meaning she was younger than 45. Her father died in 1981, and her mother later than that. Neither of them rest in Point Clare Cemetery. I am guessing that Gladys was much much younger than 45 But why the pebbles, and why the pattern?

Stumbled upon in Point Clare Cemetery, Gosford, whilst looking for something else entirely.

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Welcome to the 45th week of Taphophile Tragics. Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at 9:30 PM Monday, Sydney time (GMT+11), and closes at 9:30 PM on the Friday.

Taphophile Tragcs # 44

Andrew Marvell wrote 'To His Coy Mistress' during which he was trying to convince her to get into the sack with him! He included these lines which resonate even today: But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity.

Fossicked for in the Presbyterian Section, Rookwood Necropolis, Sydney, New South Wales

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Welcome to the 44th week of Taphophile Tragics. Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at Twelve Noon, Sunday, Sydney time (GMT+11), and closes at Twelve Noon on the Friday. I apologise for my lack of activity at the moment, and my failing to visit you all. If you are a member of the City Daily Photo community you will understand, I hope, what is occupying my time.

The push toward respectability

So ... some more relatives. Cousins, for sure. But which cousins? To work it out, one has to go back to the first ancestor in common. The woman buried here, Sarah Puckeridge Drennan, was a younger sister of my great-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Puckeridge Selby. So, counting back to Mary Ann is four generations. But we have to go back one more generation to Amelia Hughes Puckeridge. So five generations. This means, I think, that the descendents of Sarah Drennan are my fourth cousins, however much removed. Confusing, isn't it?

Keep in mind that Mary Ann and Sarah had grandparents who were convicts, and in those days that was a massive stain on the family reputation. Not like today, where it is regarded as a badge of honour! Look at the plot here. It is massive. Well, very big, anyways. But it would need to be! It was purchased upon the death of William Drennan, Sarah's husband, in 1883 at the age of 46. It was, obviously, a mob that knew the value of money. Here is a list of who else is interred in this one plot out at Rookwood, in the Presbyterian Section 3A, in plot 1757 Edwin Bellis, 1896 aged 6 months, Sarah's grandson Reginald Bellis, 1899 aged 7 months, Sarah's grandson Arthur Tumeth, 1900 aged 11 months, Sarah's grandson Sarah, 1928 aged 85 Sarah Atkins, 1939 aged 64 Sarah's 6th child Thomas Drennan, 1942 aged 79, Sarah's oldest child Thomas Drennan, 1943 abed 43, Sarah's grandson Marion Drennan, 1950 aged 80, no idea where she fits in. I feel really chuffed to have found just these three lines of the family, and to have given them a voice.

This is my contribution to the Taphophile Tragics Community

Taphophile Tragics # 43

Many people spend extravagant amounts of money for a proper send-off for their loved-ones. Some can afford it; some cannot. Others spend very little, and yet that is probably felt as keenly.My guess is that Reg and Beryl were battlers. Childless, there was someone who loved them. Beryl died aged 28, and it is tempting to conjecture that it was during childbirth. Reg only lived another ten years. A simple adornment. But still there, after all these years. Discovered in the Church of England Section, Manly Cemetery, Sydney.

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Welcome to the 43rd week of Taphophile Tragics. Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at 9:30pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+11), and closes at 9:30pm on the Friday. When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday. As per usual, we are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

Taphophile Tragics # 42

When I first saw this stone, I thought that something had dropped off, been broken through the years. Then it dawned on me. It is a reference to the Holy Trinity. Fairly rough and ready, thought I. Crude, even. Discovered in the Independent Section, Rookwood Necropolis, Sydney.

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Welcome to the 42nd week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at 9:30pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+11), and closes at 9:30pm on the Friday. When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday. As per usual, we are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

From woolcombs to whitesmithing

The 'Deceased Search' within the Independent Section of Rookwood Necropolis, indicates that there are three plots within this enclosure: OG/774, OG/776, and OG/780. Resting in OG/776 is James Perry, the patriarch (1826-1908). Resting in OG/778 is Ann Perry, the first matriarch (1824 - 1873), as well as James J. Perry (1851 - 1895), their second child. Resting in OG/780 is Charles Perry their third child (1852 - 1905), together with his four day old son, Charles James Perry (August 1878).

Ann Matts married James Perry in Leicester, England in October 1847, and they sailed for Australia in the 'Thetis', aged just 21 and 23, arriving on 27th May, 1848. Although James' father, William, had been a woolcomb maker, James was on his way to becoming a whitesmith. A whitesmith is a person who works with "white" or light-coloured metals such as tin and pewter. Unlike blacksmiths (who work mostly with hot metal), whitesmiths do the majority of their work on cold metal (although they might use a hearth to heat and help shape their raw materials). Whitesmiths fabricate items such as tin or pewter cups, water pitchers, forks, spoons, and candle holders and it was a common occupation in pre-industrial times.

Between 1849 and 1857, James and Ann produced five children, three sons and two daughters. Their first child, Clara, married James Freeman, yet is buried in the adjacent OG/774). They all must have been close, as after Ann's early death, James married Marie Louise and produced three more children. Yet here he is, buried with his first family. The other explanation could be that, during the last years of his working life, there were a number of depressions, and his business in Arncliffe kept on going broke, and his second family had to all muck in and take in whatever work they could find, including Marie Louise. Already owning a substantial plot, with rights to bury more within the self-same plots, would have proved irresistable.

Although Ann died in 1873 aged only 49, James lived until 1908, dying at his premises in Wickham Street, Arncliffe at the age of 82. I was unable to track down photographs of James with his first family which given it was 1847 to 1873, is probably understandable. However, from Ancestry.com I sourced much information uploaded into public trees by a grandson of James' youngest son, Adolf. The individual portrait here is James in 1877 at his wedding to Marie Louise.

Taphophile Tragics # 41

Mary Jane and George have slipped their earthly shackles. Rookwood Necropolis, Sydney, New South Wales

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Welcome to the 41st week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at 9:30pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+10), and closes at 9:30pm on the Friday. When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday. As per usual, we are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

At the moment, there are three posts a week to this blog:

Mon - Research of an individual from the details on their headstone;
Wed - An example of funerary symbolism and its meaning; and
Fri - 'Six-Feet-Down-Under' highlighting an Australian cemetery/graveyard.

Join me if that sounds of interest.