The Tree of Me

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather, Jacob Scheef travelled on holiday to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting remaining members of his family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time away from home. John Elder Port Said the 22 June 1885 Dear Wife As I thought to get this letter away yesterday  and so concluded it I was disappointed as we only left  Ismalia about 2 o’clock on Sunday and we were the  sixth vessel in going so we did not get very far  when the vessel in front of us ran on sand and so we had to  stop till it got off again which was more than 1 hour  consequently we did only go about 10 miles on Sunday  today we will be in Port Said if we have luck as we  can only go very slowly about 4 miles an hour  We haven’t seen and passed the spot where the  accident was which was the consequence  of our delay of 6 days, There are various rumour...

 My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather, Jacob Scheef travelled on holiday to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting remaining members of his family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time away from home. Jacob Frederick Scheef, personal collection I smalie   John Elder the 20 June 1885 My Dear Wife and Children I am going to let you know how we are going on since I wrote  last to you from Aden we left the next morning again  first I must tell you that Aden is in Arabia and a more  desolate country you can have no idea of nothing but high  precipitous hills with not a vestige of vegetation neither trees  grass or bushes could be seen anywhere only either bare  rocky hills sand or black burnt soil it is impossible to  describe it on paper it has to be seen to know what it is  after we left we thought it would become better but it  remained the same ri...