Another week gone and I'm back to regale you with some threesomes from my family album - thankfully no triplets in the family!!
Let's start with the Needle family. First my beautiful mother-in-law Mavis and the two eldest boys - Fred and Don. Mavis was born in 1913 at Solomontown - one of two girls born to Ezra and Edith Cosh. She married Ronald Needle in 1937 and had 6 sons in the next 10 years. They purchased a small farm at Williamstown and Mavis raised the boys largely on her own at first as Ron was away at war and then working as a large transport contractor, often away from home for extended periods. She was a beautiful lady in the true sense and I loved her from the start. Sadly she died suddenly at 50, shortly after her first grandchild was born. We bought the baby - then 3 months old - down from Darwin to meet the family and Mavis had the joy of caring for her first granddaughter for a few weeks.
Here is my husband Don with his twin brothers whom you met last week. I'm afraid Don usually opted out of family photos if he could.
I love these multi generation family photos. This is the only one I could find featuring three generations. Hear we have Don's great grandmother Pauline Batis, his grandmother Edith (Cosh nee Batis) and her eldest daughter Jean.
Grandma Batis was another amazing pioneer woman. She was born Pauline Thoman in 1860 and married John Batis in 1877. They lived on a pastoral property at Nackera in the far north of south Australia where Pauline had at least 8 children as well as running the property while her husband was off droving, often for months at a time. A lot of mystery surrounds the life of the Batis family - stories and rumours abounded, secrets kept and as the children have long since gone and little was handed on to the next generation, we will probably never find out about it now. Pauline died in 1959, just short of 100 years.
On to my family. First we have Edouard Hanckel, his wife Johanna (nee Brunot) and their daughter Laura who became my great grandmother. The Hanckels arrived in Australia in 1850 on the ship "Lavinia". This photo was taken several years before they arrived in Adelaide. Johanna looks to be pregnant here and she did have a son, Emil in 1848.
Skipping a couple of generations here is my mother, Laura, with my young brother and me, taken in 1944. My mother was the granddaughter of the little girl in the picture above. Like so many of the women in her family she was a well known and much loved teacher. She married my father - Austin St George Hornblower (has to be an Englishman) in 1939. I will write more about my father another time. His is an interesting story.
This threesome shows two of my great aunts - Tante Ida and Tante Laura - and my cousin Janet. Ida and Laura were the daughters of the little girl in the earlier trio. They were both very well known teachers in Adelaide and with their sister Agnes taught many of the professional people in Adelaide. Laura(right) became the first female to be head of Science, Maths and Latin at Adelaide Boys High School - she also coached her great nieces and nephews (me included) through their public exams. Ida, while profoundly deaf from the age of around 17, was a much loved teacher of German at Girton school for girls. Like many of the women in the family, Janet also became a teacher.
I haven't as many triplet photos as I thought in my old albums - people tended to have larger families, so here are a few later ones. This one is me at about 18, my cousin Jan and my best friend Kate. We were all rather proud of our 'lovely legs' in those days.
Another from the family album. It is titled Olga Ernst. I have no idea which one is Olga, but I do know that Olga Dorothea Agnes Ernst (note the family names)was a very well known writer of Australian fairy tales, publishing her first book "Fairytales from the Land of the Wattle" in 1904 when she was just 16. Olga's mother Johanna Straubel(nee Heyne) was my great great aunt, sister of my great grandfather Ernst Bernhard Heyne. Incidentally Olga also became a teacher.
Finally to finish in the modern(ish) era - two times three. The full six of those little boys you have been seeing over the last few weeks
Liz Needle - linking with "Sepia Saturday"
Raising 6 boys practically on her own - yes, your mother-in-law must have been a saint. You have a most interesting family as well as great photos. I'd love to learn more about those mysteries and secrets, just like I'd like to learn the same in my own family! That's what makes genealogy so fun.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun to see so many of your family in threes! Good take on the prompt. So many teachers too! I would imagine there are many children who remember your family for how they taught.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful photo collection of threes! Your mother was quite glamorous and, at least in that photo, you sure have her eyes!
ReplyDeleteSo many interesting little things to note in your photos! I'm wondering if I have correctly identified the twins in the last photo. I'm intrigued by the dress your husband's grandmother is wearing. Is it crocheted? You certainly favored your mother in that photo. Sad that the much-loved Mavis did not have more time with her growing family. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYeas, the twins are there - first(Peter)and fourth(Paul) from the left. My husband is the beardless one. Tred, the oldest one is far right and the two youngest Mark and Kym in the middle.
DeleteAnd yes, Don's grandma is wearing a crocheted dress. She was a superb crocheter.
DeleteLove the photo of Don with his twin brothers. I had a brother who was camera shy, and we had to play all sorts of distraction tricks so he would not realize he was being photographed. Your ancestor Pauline sounds interesting. I wonder if there might be anything about her and her family on Trove?
ReplyDeleteSuch wonderful collection of family photographs and I especially liked the ones of the children. How sad that Mavis died at such a young age, especially having raised six sons in ten years - a hard life when her husband was away so much.
ReplyDeleteEven with just three, and the previous week's twos and fours, I've completely lost count, but it must add up to a hundred or more. :-}
ReplyDeleteI'm most intrigued by the photo of Edouard Hanckel and his wife and daughter. Their photo looks like a salt print which was a very early photograph technique. If I'm right and your dates for the family are correct, the photo is a very fine example of that kind of photo. Photos made before 1850 with that kind of quality are rare.
And yes, I do have a very large photo and postcard collection. Fortunately it doesn't occupy much physical space. However I don't have any of the earliest kind of photos like daguerreotypes as they offer very few clues for identification. They also command very high prices compared to the latter types of photos like the cabinet cards I featured this weekend.
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ReplyDeleteI have just ferreted out the photo - written on the back in my mother's hand is "Mr and Mrs Eduard Hanckel, their daughter Laura, taken in Germany about 1847". Unfortunately the photo has been trimmed and the photographer's details are missing, except for the top of several very ornate letters.
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