The Tree of Me

Since purchasing Ernie Dawson's war medals, I have been trying to find out more about his war experiences. A search at the National Archives last night for All Records, not just WW1 turned up a digitised 244 page document of post war information. I will discuss this in more detail in a later post. This post, however, is dedicated to a family story that has not previously been documented. My second cousin Fay asked me earlier this year if I had heard about Bridget's (our great grandmother's) twins - her first born children. Her aunt had told her about them. This was news to me! I only had 16 children born to Bridget Mylan and her husband Harry Dawson. A thorough search of NSW BDMs failed to find the birth or death of twins. A search in Victoria also proved fruitless. However, while going through the document last night I discovered evidence that the twins existed. Ernie had applied for benefits under the Repatriation Act and had to give details of his family's me...

Last week I wrote a post about a photo I had found in amongst a collection from one of my mother's cousins. I had tried to read the writing on the back of the photo but couldn't make out the first word. I had made an assumption that the children may have been orphans but thanks to the Facebook group Australian Genealogy I now have an answer. The first word was crucial. Sharon Brennan Personal Archive. KIDNAPPED! This word quickly came in a reply to my posting a link to the blog post on the Facebook group. I looked carefully at the word and yes it appears to be kidnapped. One of the next comments then gave me a link to a newspaper article from The Straits Times , titled Kidnapping Children dated 24th May 1909, p. 10. It appears that trafficking in children was rife at this time. I have not copied the article as there were various copyright notices before I could access the article but it can be read online and I urge you to do so. Complaints are fairly rife amo...

Yesterday I was checking out some folders in my genealogy cupboard when I came across a bag with some photos that came from my great uncles Peter Dawson's house. There were many that I had previously seen, some that I knew about and ones that were a complete surprise. This photo was one of the latter.   Sharon Brennan collection from Peter and Pauline Dawson. Before I looked at the back of the photo, I wrote down what I could ascertain from the photo. The children in the photo are Chinese. There are 2 westerners in the photo. One of the men has a queue (plait).  According to Wikipedia it was compulsory for the men to wear a queue until the 1910's. I'm unsure about what is in the sack. Initially I thought it may have been food for the children, but I'm not sure. On second thoughts the sack may in fact be part of the clothing of the woman? whose hand is outstretched. Some of the children appear to be wearing a name tag. The writing on the b...

Ernest Lee Dawson (500) (1885 - 1968) This is the second post in  a series of posts over the next few years to remember all the men in my extended family who enlisted in World War 1. So far I have identified 26 soldiers who enlisted between 20 August 1914 and 2 November 1918 and I feel sure I have missed some. Of the twenty six, five were killed overseas or died here in Australia. My aim is to publish these posts on the 100th anniversary of their enlistment. Ernest Lee Dawson (my great uncle) was the eldest child of William Henry Dawson and his wife Bridget Mylan. He was born in the Cooma district of NSW in 1885. On 25th August 1914, less than three weeks after the outbreak of the First World War Ernie, a farmer who lived at Old Bonalbo  enlisted in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment in Lismore. Ernie had previous military experience. In 1906, he answered an advertisement to join the Shanghai Municipal Council Police Force, as a recruit. He ...