Advertising Hogs Back Brewery

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Julie Goucher
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Blogging A-Z – April Challenge – V is for …..

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Julie Goucher

V is for…… Victory
Today is ANZAC Day. The day when Australians and New Zealanders come together in a day of National Remembrance for those Australians and New Zealanders who died during armed conflict. I took part in an ANZAC Day challenge in 2011 and you can read that post HERE and view the 2012 post HERE.
Advertising posters, appealing to the Australian population to become involved in the War effort.

Of course, having joined up nothing prepared the men for the horrors of the trenches. There was no preparation of coping with flashbacks and re-occurrences of shell shock and other medical complaints once they returned home; if indeed they did. Many, many men paid the ultimate sacrifice.
Victory comes, but at a heavy price.
Further posts written for the ANZAC Challenge can be found:
Review of TransTasman ANZAC Blog Challenge 2011 – A great collection of posts and links to explore.
ANZAC Day Blog Challenge 2012 – A great collection of posts for this year and more links.
Post written by Pauline, my A-Z & Geneablogger buddy – HERE
Lest We Forget.
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ANZAC Day Blog Challenge

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Julie Goucher

As luck would have it, this month I have been working on the A-Z challenge and have pursued the theme of Australia. You can read the posts via this tag line. It therefore seems absolutely right that I take part again in the ANZAC Day challenge and you can read last year’s post for ANZAC Day HERE which is about a descendant of the Ellis family who appear in my A-Z challenge!

This year the focus is on another descendant of the same family, Henri Wilhelm Erickson who was the son of Carl Erickson and Wilhelmina nee Ellis. The National Archives of Australia has a copy of Henri’s enlistment papers & military record. You can read the 60 page document HERE.

Up until now, I have done very little research into the descendants of the Ellis pioneer who migrated to Australia in 1854. Reading the document is very sobering and I instantly felt a sense of sympathy for Henri and Winifred, his wife who became his widow.

Henri enlisted on 18th March 1916 and joined the Australian Imperial Force, serving in the 23rd Battalion. He sailed from Melbourne on board HMAT Armadale on 19th July 1916 and arrived in Plymouth Devon on 20th September 1916.

The first page of his Military record reveals his father was born in Finland Russia and was Naturalised in around 1876. I was intrigued by this. Further reading of the file and looking at the Naturalisation records held by National Archives of Australia revealed exactly where Henri’s father came from, and when, in addition to his Naturalisation, but that is another story!

It is clear from almost the beginning Henri was not well and suffered from stomach complaints; probably due to sanitation issues.  In addition he experienced shell shock and concussion. The following two pages are his casualty clearing form. It makes very sad reading. Even before I reached the final line on the second page I knew that Henri had not survived the War. In fact, the sadness is quite overwhelming.

Continued reading of Henri’s military files shows that somehow, in the midst of the chaos of the First World War battlefields, his kit bag was lost. This must have caused some further distress to Winifred,whose letters asking if the bag had been recovered appear in the file. There is no mention if it ever was recovered, I would like to think so, but suspect not.

A search of the Australian War Memorial reveals the Nominal Roll for Henri. The document shows his address, next of kin with details of his rank and pay rates. His name appears on the 99th Panel on the Roll of Honor and on the Ypres Memorial (Menin Gate).

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Advertising Friary Brewery

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Julie Goucher
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Book Pilgrimage 2012

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Julie Goucher

Libby at Libby’s Book Blog has launched the 2012 Book Pilgrimage.

The challenge is:
**Read a book or books
**Visit the location where the book is set or the author’s home town or grave

Inspiration:
**BiblioTravel
**Literary Tours All Over The World

As I have a rather large trip planned for later in the year this is a great challenge. It is also a great cross over opportunity to other reading challenges.
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100 Word Challenge – Week 39

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Julie Goucher
Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following prompt, 

.….I’m exhausted. Shut the door behind you….

She opened the door, so glad to get home. Dumping her handbag and briefcase on the hall floor, she threw her shoes off and tweaked her toes, feeling the soft carpet. Her jacket was unceremoniously hung off the bottom of the bannister. She made her way to the kitchen to make a cup of tea.

Just as she was about to mount the stairs she straightened her jacket; she would need it for tomorrow.

She lovingly kissed her husband who was leaving for a night shift then said “I won’t see you off, I’m exhausted. Shut the door behind you….

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #39
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Plummer Roddis Department Store Circa 1973

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Julie Goucher
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Blogging A-Z – April Challenge – T is for …..

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Julie Goucher

T is for…… Turpin
Josiah Turpin migrated to Geelong in 1855 with his sister Sarah and her husband, John Ellis and their children. You can read their post HERE. Josiah travelled with his young nephew, Josiah Ellis on a separate ship to the rest of the family for reasons that we can only speculate – perhaps illness or lack of funds or not enough room on the vessel.  I get a sense that the two Josiah’s had quite a bond and I was very sad to learn that young Josiah died aged just 5 years. 

Image from the London Illustrated News 1842

Josiah Turpin, had been like his sister born in London and was baptised at St Paul’s Covent Garden on 20 November 1825 the son of Henry and Wilhelmina Turpin. Henry is recorded as working as a lace weaver and living in Hart Street. Josiah at the time of his baptism was just over a month old as his birth date is recorded as 22 October 1825.
Having arrived in Australia, Josiah, like his sister and brother in law settled in Geelong, Victoria. Of his life, not a huge amount is known, as I have not pursued this line of research. I have though managed to locate his will and that provides the answers to some immediate questions.

From the documents obtained from the Public Records Office of Victoria, Josiah died intestate and left his estate to be dealt with by his sister, Sarah Ellis. We can see from the final document that he owned land, 2 horses and an account with the Geelong Savings Bank. 
This does not seem much to show for a new life, but perhaps it is, I feel sure it is more than he would have left behind had he remained in England. Josiah is described on the probate records as being a farmer and it would be interesting to see if I can establish where the farm was. It looks as though Josiah rented the land on which he farmed as the property appears to be land and his house.
Sources:Public Records Office of VictoriaGeelong & District History SocietyGeelong & District; and Bellarine Peninsular
The link for the A-Z Challenge 2011 post is HERE

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What would you choose?

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Julie Goucher

Last week I read via the Prompt-ly site of a website called The Listserve. The site planned to go live at the point of having 10,000 subscribers and at the point I joined the list it had just under 12,000. The site describes itself as an email lottery. Each day a subscriber is given the platform to write whatever they wish and post to everyone who is subscribed. Once your email address has been selected to write the post for a particular day you have three days to respond.

Now, that amount of email freedom can be either used well or completely inappropriately and a whole load of stages in between. This has the potential to be a really good platform for serious, positive and thoughtful discussion. There is also the possibility of reading posts that I find unacceptable – abuse, excessive violence, post  things that are against our individual values. I guess we have to accept that in a virtual world those things happen and if that is the case then remove your email address from the list.

What though, if the post is a suicide note or a note of despair or of abuse? I don’t know what the answer is. A similar debate happened regarding the Post Secret site and a great article is HERE.

A few fellow reader of the Prompt-ly site wrote a post in response, which you can read HERE. From further reading and questions it seems that the site organiser is taking responsibility if thing really do go down the pan. I hope not.

This is an opportunity, not just to write about whatever your passion or worry is, but an opportunity to perhaps influcence others and a great social experiment.

So, given this opportunity, if you could write anything that would be sent to say, a million people what would it be?

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Advertising Savage’s Celebrated Peruvian Balm

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Julie Goucher
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